Last weekend we decided to trek to our annual church retreat for the day despite it being a bit out of range (the distance we are allotted to travel at this stage in pregnancy) Nate had a nice time playing and sledding. During the annual hootenany, Nate got excited about others getting up, so he decided he wanted to get up. He got up to the mic and started to sing his ABC’s. He got to D before he hid his face in his daddy’s arm. He did a great job making the effort. Afterwards he said it was scary up there.  He also told me he would do it again when he was older.

Have I mentioned that Nate has ice skated on a few occasions this winter. Not often enough according to his father. Non the less Nate is excited about it. He has also been taking swimming lessons. Some weeks he is more willing to try things than other weeks. He now is willing to put his ears under the water, but doesn’t like to dunk his face in. With assistance he is fine, but won’t do it independently. He has a few more sessions left to do it.  As a whole he seems to enjoying the class and likes his teacher.  The 2nd session of soccer on the other hand has not gone so well. Quite frankly the teachers are not good, so Nate has not been interested and has chosen not to go. We have not pushed him to go either since the teachers aren’t doing a good job and we don’t want Nate to dislike soccer because of it. He does want us to sign him up for another session at some point in hopes that the teachers will be better. He asked if it could be with the last teachers. I told him that we don’t have a say in the teachers, we just choose the class.

It is so fun to communicate with Nate. He is at the age where we can have fun and very detailed conversations.

Nate also has been into playing video games at Nickjr.com.  Once you get Nate on the site he is able to navigate it pretty well on his own. He has been able to use the mouse independently for some time now.

Yesterday I asked Nate to feed Bailey. This is one of his daily chores.  He told me he doesn’t have enough air. I think he meant to say he ran out of steam. It was a very cute response. It is hard not to smile at such responses.

Today Nate had some time alone with his 1 year old friend, Reuben. Usually, Reuben’s brother is here as well. I was very proud of how polite Nate was with Reuben and how gentle he was. Even when Reuben did things to Nate’s toys that he didn’t like, Nate was easy to redirect or he would respond to Reuben by giving him something else to play with. I think he will be a great big brother.

As for baby “broccoli”; I am not sure when he will come but we have 3 weeks to go and I feel he could come early, but ya never know. He is moving around a lot, like usual, so I think he will be a very active little one. I am feeling ready to meet him. I am curious if he will look like Nate or look totally different. Who knows, he could even have red hair.  Now that would be funny if out of my siblings (who both have reddish hair) that I would be the one to produce a red head. We have a name picked out and have for about 5 months.  We both have taken our turn second guessing it, not because we don’t like it but because it will be so permanent.

Nate seemed to have a rough week during and after Christmas with his behavior and attitude. We resorted to a sticker system, where he would get a sticker for a good morning and one for a good evening and one for doing something good that day. While it only lasted about 5 days (Nate has lost interest) I feel we haven’t had to resort to time outs like we had for a few weeks there. He seems to be a much happier camper and it is easier to focus on the positive, because he has been so much more positive. Let’s just hope it sticks around.

During the first half of the older sibling class (the parents only part) we found that some of his behavior may have been due to the upcoming baby. We aren’t sure if it is that or just some of the changes. Nate seems a bit more clinging at bed time stating he doesn’t want to be alone and has been calling for me more in the night. This week however, there is evidence that he for the first time went to the bathroom by himself in the middle of the night. This is a first. Today Nate wanted to get in the crib and play baby. I let him do it without much attention and he did it for awhile and was done.

Nate has been going upfront by himself lately for children’s time in church. He has also decided that it is ok to answer questions during chidren’s time. I am always anxious as to what he is going to say. This past Sunday a question was asked about God. While this wasn’t the correct answer, we were proud of Nate none the less. He said “God is with us so we are not alone.”

On to the baby. I have felt hiccups on a few occasions and it definitely feels like the boy (Nate wants to name him Broccoli) is starting to be a bit cramped. With less than 7 weeks to go, I am starting to really anticipate knowing this guy. I have no major complaints to state pregnancy-wise. I will have energy one day and ware myself out, so the next day I am exhausted. I have had a bit of pubic bone pain, but I seem to be able to lay on my back more this time and that has helped alleviate it along with a down bed pad. “Broccoli” is moving quite alot and seems to be causing me to move a bit more. He will have some fairly huge movements that if I am sitting still, may cause my entire body to move a bit. Scott has been able to see one of these movements and tries to explain it in a sci-fi manner. Surprisingly, I think we have a name picked out that didn’t cause too much strife. It was actually scary how quickly we agreed on the name. It seemed much more challenging with Nate.

I am sure there is alot more to blog that I am missing, but overall parenting is great and I coudn’t imagine having it any other way.

Each day is amazing!!!

I have had a challenging time trying to figure out what to call this child.  With Nate, if you all remember, we referred to him as “the boy”.  Well, now that we know we are having a 2nd boy, I don’t feel I can use Nate’s in utero nickname again, so if anyone has any suggestions for a nickname, let me know.

So yes, the genders are evening out in our household.  With Indah and Bailey included we will be 3 females to 3 males. Not sure this is quite equal.  Nate is VERY excited to have a baby brother.  On several occasions he will get something and want to get a 2nd something for his baby brother.  He already seems to interact well with babies and always wants to help out if the baby doesn’t seem happy. I hope this continues when “___” arrives (see nickname needed).
Last week Nate had his first airplane trip. We all went to Florida to meet Jonas. This is Jason’s 2nd child.  Nate had a blast playing with his cousin Tea, swimming, going to the zoo, the beach etc.  We just had a pleasant time visiting with Jason and Pato and the family. It isn’t often that we actually get to spend time with just their family. Usually we see them with the rest of my family over the holidays.  The 80 degree weather was so nice. Now it is in the 40’s and cold and rainy. Nate again proved his flexibility during this trip. He is used to taking 2-3 hour afternoon naps.  Several of the days, Nate went without a nap.  He still did considerably well, despite the exhaustion.

Nate has been sleeping in the crib, turned daybed.  Since baby #2 is coming, we are on the hunt for a new bed for Nate. I am thinking a bunk bed so that the kids can eventually sleep in the same room.  Nate is very exited about getting a new bed and giving up his for “_____”.  He has asked for dinosaur bedding for Christmas.  I look forward to rearranging his room and I am starting to feel the pregnancy nesting desires to kick in.  I am feeling ready to set up the baby room (which will also continue to be the guest room) and making Nate’s room a “big boy” room.

A couple weeks ago, Nate had his friend Leah over for a sleep over. Nate often says that his friends weren’t here long enough and wants them to spend the night. So we took the plunge.  Both Nate and Leah were so excited about this endeavor.  They woke up early on Saturday.  For over 30 minutes they were just cracking each other up. Nate would make a face or a gesture and Leah would laugh soooo hard. Then Nate would laugh at her laughing.   It was a pleasant way to wake up. I can’t believe how big he is getting.

So the baby a comin’. I should not neglect this wee one (maybe that should be the nickname). There is not much to say other than that he is very active. I am 25 weeks now and definitely showing.  Whenever Scott tries to feel him kick he stops moving. Hopefully he will catch him kicking one of these days soon.  Tomorrow morning we have another midwife appt.  We will see if they have any new insight.  Since I feel him now, I am not as anxious to hear the heartbeat, because I can feel him and now he is doing ok.

We have asked a friend to be our doula during the birth. Lonna Stoltzfus has agreed to do what she can to be there. Lonna is a friend from church and a guaranteed distant relative since all Stoltzfus’ are related.  They all go back to Nicolas Stoltzfus.  My Stoltzfus heritage comes from my mother’s side.  We chose Lonna since she has gone thru 3 births herself and also used the same nurse midwives that we see.  I feel like she will really be in touch with my needs and know what to do and to suggest to ease the labor.  Thanks Lonna for making such a big commitment.

I guess that should end my blog for now. Keep on me if you aren’t getting enough information through this blog. I will try to do better.

Nate has had a fun summer and busy summer.

We purchased a family pass at the city pool and we were able to go about once a week. Nate is not big into dunking his head under water, but he doesn’t seem to mind that it goes under when he jumps off the side of the pool. He seemed to really enjoy our trips to the pool.

Nate has had several opportunities to go camping (with our church campout yet to come). The first trip was a nice week split between Madelaine Island and Black River Falls State Forest. Barnaby, Michelle, Connor, Quinn and Keegan joined us for the trip. Everyone seemed to have a nice time despite the black flies and mosquitos. The weather was perfect the entire time and all the boys got along really well. To this day, Nate can not get Connor and Quinn off his mind. He brings them up to people all the time. Our next camping trip was to a campground not far from Madison. It was on Labor Day weekend with a bunch of friends. It was again mosquito filled, but I think Nate truelly enjoyed being the only kid there. He got alot of attention for Keith and Bruce especially.

Nate also had a chance to visit with Grandma and Grandpa Wyse for an extended weekend and was able to play with Connor, Quinn, Keegan and Tea. Nate truelly does enjoy his cousin’s and seems to really look up to Connor.

This summer was also filled with the usual house guests, trips to the Farmer’s Market, and other summery things. Nate enjoyed the company of our house guest Justin. Justin was an intern here for 11 weeks. Nate really took to him and they had a good time playing and dancing. Nate liked dancing to Justin’s guitar. Nate also refused to hug Justin goodbye. I don’t think he was ready to see him leave.

The last update of the summer is that Nate was informed that he is going to get a brother or a sister. Nate said he wants a brother, however he thinks I am having a girl. So that is the news and we will have to start blogging about the new little one in addition to Nate’s, less than frequent these days, updates.

A few weeks ago Grandma and Grandpa Reeser visited. They bought Nate a Beta Fish. Nate has since named it Foops the Cooker. We have no idea where this name came from, but have found it quite fun and cute. I asked Nate if we could shorten it to just Foops and he said very clearly that it is FOOPS THE COOKER. Foops is a part of everyday life. He sits on the kitchen table so we feed him together and watch him swim.

Nate has really become Bailey’s buddy. Nate will lay on the floor with Bailey and pet her and he is ever so concerned about if she is coming for a ride, if she has eaten etc. Nate continues to try to acquire Indah’s love, but that is impossible. Indah wants to have nothing to do with Nate.

Nate has quite the imagination. He is starting to turn regular objects into something else in his mind. He will at times pretend he is a cat, dog, dinosaur, tiger, etc. He likes to play with his friends and really play with them. Nate is looking forward to swimming this summer. We pulled him in the burley last night while we went for a bike ride and he was very excited about going for a bike ride. I think we all have spring fever.

Nate is still taking 2-3 hours naps in the afternoon and he likes to go to bed around 9pm at night and sleep until 7:30 or 8 in the morning. Last night after Scott read to Nate, Nate said he wanted to go upstairs to bed on his own. He did go up all by himself.

Nate has started to give us some attitude lately. I was hoping it was because of his 2 week cold. I do think it made it worse, because in the past few days, Nate’s tantrums have significantly decreased, however he is still trying to get his way via tantrums. Luckily we can nip the tantrums in the bud pretty quickly. We are needing to really start setting boundaries.

Nate is really looking forward to Easter at Grandma Wyse’s. He especially is looking forward to an Easter Egg Hunt at Grandma’s house with his cousins, Connor and Quinn.
Nate is wanting to play a game on the computer now, so I must end this blog.

Nate’s been doing well. As I type he and his buddy Micah are running around the house chasing after balls pretending to be outside….they’re also making mention of a hockey game that they’re playing. … I consider that a good sign. Speaking of hockey, Nate asked the other day that when he got bigger if I would play hockey with him. I, of course, said that I would love to. As you can tell the overall quality of his language is getting significantly better (I think, at least). The last while it seems like he’s trying to understand things more, and offer explanations (which can be entertaining).

Update: After I posted I just noticed that the right title didn’t get emailed out. I’m not sure why that happened at the moment.

The title of this blog is a comment that Nate made the other night in reference to some cheerleaders. Nate went to his first College Basketball Game on Tuesday night. We saw UW play Ohio St. supposedly it was the biggest game of the year and somehow I was able to score tickets. Of course UW won! Nate was intrigued by all the action during the game. On several occasions, he looked down at the Cheerleaders and stated “Those mommies don’t have any clothes on”. We are looking forward to Nate’s first hockey game of this season that we are going to tomorrow night. We went last year, but I wonder how much of it that Nate will remember.

Nate has become very expressive verbally. He often says Thank You. If he does a good job with something he will say “good job Nate” If he thinks I did a good job he will say “good job mommy”. Nate also notices when we are sad. On one occassion Nate noticed I was sad and he said  “Mommy are you sad?”"I make you feel better mommy” (slight pause and with the correct voice intonation of a question) “you feel better now mommy?” This past Sunday Nate had a fever. I told him he couldn’t go to church tonight. He responded by saying “mommy, I took the sick off, I took the sick off”

Nate was very excited about Christmas this past December. He really enjoyed playing with all his cousins. Every time he opened a gift he wooo whoood. Nate spent almost 2 weeks with both families in one way or another. He seems to really understand what “grandma and grandpa and family means” It doesn’t take him long to be comfortable with those he is familiar with.  His Wyse cousin’s taught him a new prayer that he has to say at every meal. We call it “hands”
Nate continues to enjoy helping out and fixing things. He likes to stir things when we cook and he likes to have his own screwdriver when daddy is fixing something. He also doesn’t mind picking things up. (I should enjoy it now right?). In December, I heard Nate dump legos all over the floor. I thought great, he has Thomas stuff AND legos all over. After I finished showering, I went downstairs to Nate. As soon as I got there he said “Mommy I picked up Thomas, so I could play with Legos”. I was shocked, b/c I can’t recall being consistent about that. Ever since I have noticed more times than not how conscious he is to pick up one mess before making another.

Nate still enjoys books and has really gotten into videos. I guess the fact that he didn’t watch any videos the first two years didn’t seem to curb his interest in them. We try to only let him watch one video a day. Once in awhile he will watch 2 short ones and sometimes he won’t even ask. We have gotten to the point (as a whole) that we wait for him to ask us. Nate loves to play with his trains, tractors, dinosaurs, cars etc. He has a few stuffed animals that he likes to cover up and wrap in blankets. He seems to have a nurturing side. Nate likes to sing. He is often caught in church holding a hymnal and singing whatever sounds come to him while we sing songs. He now seems to understand when it is ok to sing and when we listen.

Nate is also getting good at remembering his day and bringing things up on his own. Over Christmas he spoke about his friends in Madison that he hadn’t seen for a few weeks. The other day he said “mommy, Micah said I was mean today.” “I am not mean”. You could tell he was concerned by this comment. He will also talk about things he did that day or last week or that he wants to do. He will ask if he can go to his friend Lisa’s house or Joanne’s house etc.

Nate has really gotten into taking care of his dog. Nate likes to feed Bailey and give her treats and he tries to let her out to pee.  It isn’t so easy for him to open the door however.  Nate also doesn’t fail to forget to give the cat treats even though she continues to run when he gets close to her.

That is what I have for now, I hope to not let it go so long the next time, for I miss so many things by not typing them immediately. So many cute phrases and gestures. Nate sure has a fun, caring, joking, giggly personality and is almost always alot of fun.

Oh and just for my record, Nate still takes nice long naps everyday. A 2 hour nap is a shorter one. Lately his naps are usually 2.5 to 3 hours.