Nathan's Birthday Celebrations

I'm only a week overdue on this post. I hope you'll forgive me for losing track of time over the last week.

We actually ended up having two celebrations for Nathan's first birthday. The first happened when we were in Dallas fleeing the aftermath of Ike. It was definitely impromptu, since we had no idea we were even going to be there a week before Nathan turned one. Please keep that in mind--how last-minute all of this was--when you see pictures where I'm not wearing make-up and the fact that all of our nicer clothes were dirty.

Despite the circumstances, though, it was great getting to celebrate with family. Of course my parents (Nana and Grandpa) were there, and Matt's grandparents also happened to be in town and came as well. It made the idea to have a cake for him turn into a real party, thrown together or not.
Nathan was thrilled with all his presents, but especially this card. Or maybe just getting to stand up next to the coffee table.
Patrick loves cameras, so he was doing everything he could to help Grammy fix hers.

This was Nathan's big toy at the party, a ride-on toy that makes all sorts of crazy sounds. Both boys love the toy.
I think that's a grin for the camera (thanks Mom for playing photographer for most of our party!).
And here we are as a family helping Nathan open one of his presents. Patrick had so much fun "helping" Nathan open gifts. Boy is his birthday going to be fun this year!
Again with the card. Who knew a card would be so fascinating?
His first taste of both chocolate and cake. He mostly picked at it but seemed to like the taste of the frosting pretty well and did manage to make quite a mess out of it...eventually.

See? His hair was coated in chocolate too. You can bet he had a birthday bath in store for him immediately after the party.
Nana, Grandpa, and the birthday boy
Grammy, Gramps, and the birthday boy
Mommy, Daddy, and the birthday boy
I look awful in the picture, but you can see how excited Nathan was by all the attention.

A few days later Patrick found the hat I'd taken out for Nathan's official first year pictures and insisted on wearing it. By the way, how do you think he knew this was a hat? He hadn't seen his brother wearing it at this point. Either way, it was cute and funny enough that I had to get a picture.

I decided to do something a little different for Nathan's cake this time around and made cupcakes instead. I also made a single layer round cake for something different if the cupcake thing didn't work out with the boys (it did). When I put it all together, i realized it looked kind of like a spider. I guess I should have put a face on it and make it look planned.

Here's Nathan waiting on his cake--or cupcake--trying to figure out why we're all singing off-key to him.
Patrick obviously enjoyed his taste of birthday cake. He's asked for it every single day since. Sometimes he'll find the birthday hat and put it on before asking, as though you have to be wearing the birthday hat to get birthday cake, like Nathan was on his birthday.
Nathan actually ate more of the cake this time, now that he knew what it was, but he managed to not make as big of a mess. He still ended up with another birthday bath, though.
Since he'd already opened half or more of his birthday gifts the week before, his loot pile wasn't as big this time, but we compensated by giving him bigger gifts.
Fortunately he could care less how many there were. He loved them all, and both boys play with his new toys all day every day. They are going to love getting to do this all over again in another week when Patrick turns three.

Looking Back

Since I don't have birthday photos downloaded yet, I hope this will tide you over until that happens. Here's a slide show looking back over Nathan's first year, to save you having to go back and look at pictures over the last year's worth of posts.

One Year

Dear Nathan,

Happy birthday! I know I've said it to you in person many times already today, but it can always be said one more time. I've spent all day so far remembering what I was doing right now a year ago. I even looked at the clock right at 10:43 and smiled to myself remembering how wonderful that moment was last year.

I've found your birthday to be kind of bittersweet. This past year has been so perfect that I'm not ready for it to end. I'm not ready for you to move on past being my sweet baby. I want to take you in my arms, hold you close, and keep you there forever and ever. I'll even gladly cling to the sleepless nights from your early days (months) if it meant I could keep you little just a little longer.
But I'm making a point to look forward instead of behind me. The awesome little boy you're already becoming will only get sweeter and more fun as time goes on. It will be neat to watch you continue to grow, to watch your hilarious personality develop.
Right now, you are still such a happy boy, content with your surroundings--as long as Mommy is around. That's right, you are still a Mommy's boy. I love how much you cling to me, even when my arms get tired sometimes from all the carrying you still get. In fact, you scream every time we take Patrick to school or pick him up; you're afraid I'm going to leave you behind too. I've had to start carrying you on those short trips in and out of school, as well as Patrick's backpack (which is clearly too large for his tiny back), his lunch, his nap mat, and his hand. Your clinginess is forcing me into becoming SuperMom, which I guess isn't a bad thing, although a bit trying sometimes.
I'm thrilled that you are becoming increasingly excited about Daddy too, though. You chase after him (as fast as you can scoot anyways) sometimes, calling out, "Da Da Da Da" as you go. You ask for him every morning and don't seem to like when he's at work when you can't see him right away. You may still prefer that I carry you around more often, but he's an acceptable alternative. Regardless, though, you adore your daddy and think he hung the moon. I don't blame you for the adoration; he is definitely somebody special. I'm glad you take after him as much as you do.

Now that you are able to play with toys more, your relationship with Patrick is beginning to change. You admire him still, but I wonder how you can some days when he is particularly mean to you. He'll push you over, making you cry and earning him a time-out, and all you can do is look longingly at Patrick until he can come play again, even knowing that he will likely just try to push you over again or take a toy away from you. I guess it's those times when the two of you play happily together that you focus on, and honestly I love them as much as you do. I can tell the two of you are going to be best buds when you catch up a little in size and can hold your own against him.
The other day we tried to get pictures for your official one-year photos, and I didn't realize we hadn't tried a mini-session like this since you've become so mobile. It was difficult and a bit frustrating, and I was a little disappointed that I didn't get the same kinds of sweet pictures I got of your brother when he turned a year old. Of course, he couldn't crawl yet at the time, so naturally that session was easier. When I downloaded the pictures and started flipping through them, however, I was stunned at how much personality came through even the bad pictures. While most of the pictures I got may not be the kind you see in an art studio, they are YOU. I'll be much happier years from now to browse through pictures where you are crawling off, sticking your tongue out, and scrunching up your face than I would have been with those generic baby pictures.
You are growing into such a beautiful child, too. I no longer have fears that I might have one of those rare ugly babies and not know it thanks to my mother's bias. Nope, you are indeed an adorable child. The only problem with your beautiful face and soft blonde curls is that you are being mistaken for a girl more and more often. It doesn't matter how boyishly I dress you; people just get drawn in by those beautiful blue eyes and curls and look past your clothes, unable to decide whether you're a gorgeous boy or an adorable girl. I can't say I blame them. But that doesn't mean I'm cutting your hair anytime soon, just so you look more like a boy. I'm as taken by the curls as the next person, so they're sticking around for a while.
I knew how special you were before you ever made your appearance a year ago, on the first day of fall (actually exactly a minute before fall officially starts). I knew you would enrich all of our lives and how much my heart would grow to make room for you. I just had no idea exactly how much that would happen. I have gotten to the point where I could never imagine life without you in it, without that bright smile and chuckly laugh, your silly games of peek-a-boo and imitation of Patrick or me or Daddy. Thank you for this past year. I'm looking forward to the next one and the one after that and the one after that and all the joy you will continue to bring to our lives throughout your entire life. Happy birthday, my precious son. I love you to the ends of the earth.

Mommy

Nearly Normal

We made it back home today. The house has power, gas, water, all the amenities. Matt even found things like milk and cheese at our local grocery store. Apparently not very many stores in the area have perishable items like that. We're really living it up, I guess. (Oh, and we have Internet; did you figure that out?) From here we should get back to normal slowly but surely. Matt will be back at work tomorrow, and the day should feel pretty normal. Too bad Patrick can't go back to school on Thursday, though. I'm looking forward to that one thing going back to normal.

And now that I have a few seconds, here are a few pictures I've been saving up. I took these one afternoon when Patrick was at school and the day was beautiful outside. Nathan and I couldn't resist enjoying the pretty day.

Ike Update...The Last...I Hope

I apologize for the silence for the last few days, but as expected, the power went out. It happened sometime during the night Friday night, when Ike was blowing his hardest. The wind was quite scary. I spent a fairly sleepless night listening for noises out of the ordinary that could signal problems. Then I was awake because of the heat in the house after power went out.

On the bright side, we woke up to much calmer weather Saturday morning. The worst had passed, and by late morning the rain was a mere drizzle and we were able to assess the damage. It was minimal, thank goodness. Our area and neighborhood fared quite well, much better than the scenes you have been seeing on the news.

Personally, we have some roof damage from the winds, but nothing that will leak during rains (this morning's thunderstorm tested that already). I am sure that our roof issues are very low on the priority list for repairs. We also had one small section of fence blow over and some minor damage to our air conditioner. Considering how bad things seem to have gone all over the area, we were very lucky. Even one of our neighbors had a huge section of their roof down to just plywood and already have six different leaks in the roof as a result. Another house in our neighborhood in the progress of being built, just a frame and plumbing, blew over entirely onto the (uninhabited) house next door.

This morning our power attempted to come back on. When Matt went outside to inform our neighbors who were enjoying a breakfast in the relative cool of their porch, he watched as a nearby transformer blew up, shooting sparks and bursting into flames. Coincidentally--or not--our power immediately went down again. That's when we made the decision to try a post-hurricane evacuation. We were tired of living like refugees on peanut butter and jelly and bottled water, unable to even shower and wilting in the heat.

We are now with my parents in Dallas, among many other refugees who got out before the hurricane. We have air conditioning here, as well as cold food and ways to heat food again. It's amazing how much you appreciate such simple comforts after living without them for a few days. Naturally we found out when we were nearly here that power had returned to our neighborhood sometime this afternoon, but we decided we would be better off staying put here until things had returned to a semblance of normal down there, when we could get things like milk at the grocery store again.

The boys are doing about as well as could be expected after the uncertainty of the past few days. They both slept like...well, babies through the hurricane but have had troubles napping every since because of the heat. Any little change from his normal routine, like not turning on his fan at naptime, has thrown Patrick into hysterics. The last hour of the drive today had both boys reaching their melting point, and all Matt and I could do was laugh at the simultaneous tantrums thrown by inconsolable boys in our backseat. What else was there to do?

And now we are just planning to sit tight for a few days. You can be sure we'll be watching the news carefully and talking to people from back home to find out when things in our area are back to normal. It will probably only be a few days for us, not the weeks or months like people who live farther south. I'm sure you will find out shortly after we get home and what we see when we get back there. Hopefully things will seem a little more normal then than they did when we left.

Ike Update 4

We're still not getting rain yet, but the wind seems to be picking up some. Matt and I will probably head to bed soon, and we're praying the weather lets us sleep. The worst will probably hit here in the few hours before dawn. As it is, nothing is too bad here yet. The worst so far are the noisy neighbors who are taking the opportunity to have a hurricane party, complete with copious amounts of alcohol. I'm more worried about them waking up the boys than the weather.

This will probably be the last update tonight. If we have Internet tomorrow, I will update. Most likely we will not, though, so I'll get word to the parents as soon as we have cell service (if it even goes down).

Ike Update 3

There's still nothing exciting to report, but I figured that was a report in itself. It's finally getting pretty cloudy, but it doesn't look like rain yet. The only indications that anything is happening are the constant hurricane updates on the news, the abandoned air of the neighborhood (since everyone is already taking shelter in their houses), and the gusty wind. According to the news, it's about to start raining pretty far south, and the storm surge is already flooding many areas to the south. Fortunately we are out of the storm surge area by a long shot, so any flooding will have to come from rain, which is apparently still several hours out. There's a good chance the worst weather will happen overnight for us. We're in play-it-by-ear mode, so we'll see what ends up happening this evening and tonight. I hope I'll get to update again soon.

Ike Update 2

As of almost 1:00 here, there is still little action. It's getting a little breezy outside, but nothing more than a typical west Texas day. This morning Matt and I made our final preparations for Ike, pulling in everything from our yard. We even had time to take the boys down to the playground for a few minutes to let them run out some energy before being cooped up for the next few days. On our way down there, we saw several of our neighbors also preparing for the storm. It looks like most of our neighborhood has chosen to stick around as well.

We've done just about everything we can to prepare, so all that's left is to wait and pray. I'm still not terribly worried. I'll try to update again in a few hours after it's started raining as long as we still have power and wireless. I fully expect to lose both sometime this evening, and we will probably also lose cell service. Please don't worry if you try to call and can't get through. As soon as we can get on our phones again after an outage, we will call both sets of parents. Depending on how difficult it is to get through, we may task them with passing on the word of how things have gone (I hope you guys are okay with that!).

And now the excitement starts--at least in the next few hours.

Hurricane Update

Okay, so I'm assuming that most of you have heard about Hurricane Ike. Yes, he looks to be headed straight towards Houston. No, we are not running.

As long as we have power and wireless Internet, I plan to update as often as possible to let you know what is going on here. Right now, it's beautiful, sunny, and hot. There is also an aura of busyness in the area. Everyone is stocking up on water and food, filling up their cars with gas, and beating a path out of town for many. Pretty much everyone on the south and southeast sections of town are taking refuge wherever they can. I've heard from several of my friends over there, and they have found places to stay already.

We are on the far west/northwest side of town, so we are not even in a voluntary evacuation area. It appears that most people around here are staying put and are planning to just weather the storm. Because of the increased traffic from all the evacuees that NEED to get out of here, the roads are pretty much packed already. That's one of the main reasons that Matt and I decided to try our luck here instead of picking our way across Texas to somewhere safer.

We've taken most of the preparations we're going to. Around lunchtime tomorrow we should see the beginnings of the storm, and at that point we'll see just how well we prepared. We're expecting lots of rain and some fairly high winds (although I doubt they're that bad, considering both of our experiences in west Texas). Power will probably go out at least for a little while and possibly for a long while.

At least we know what we're getting into. And it's sad, but part of me is actually excited to go through my first hurricane. I wouldn't feel that way if we were closer to the coast, but this far inland, it may actually be a fun adventure.

And of course, if anything changes and it looks like things will end up worse here, we are ready to leave at a moment's notice, traffic and all. But then, just like Rita three years ago, the hurricane could just be psyching us out and hit somewhere else altogether after all.

Either way, we'd appreciate some prayers sent down this way, for us and for everyone else who is about to be affected by Ike.

More Tidbits

In no particular order...

--Nathan has another tooth. It's another bottom one to complete the set of four on the bottom. This brings the total to eight. He's also working on those molars--still--and is teething badly enough some days to keep him awake at night and cause a small fever (at least that's what I hope has caused the fever in the last week). I think we'll all celebrate when those finally cut. Here's a picture of the next-to-the-last tooth to cut:
--He's also still not quite crawling yet and doesn't seem the least bit motivated to learn the proper way to do it. He gets everywhere he wants to go with the bear crawl/scoot, so why bother learning the real way? I finally got some pictures of this scoot move.

You can see he's trying to stand up and will push that cute booty way in the air sometimes. He doesn't have the balance in his hips and torso yet, though, so he can't stand all the way up. Instead he'll just fall back down on the bottom and scoot a little farther.

He obviously loves being mobile either way. Don't you love the new way he's smiling too? It looks like a cross between a smile and a grimace because of how he scrunches up his nose. I love it!

--Patrick has named his dinosaur with a real name at last: Joshua. My theory behind the name is that he's finally figured out who else we're talking to when we scold him with his full name, Patrick Joshua. He's Patrick, so whoever else is with him when he gets in trouble must be Joshua. Well, the dinosaur is always with him, so therefore he must be Joshua. Matt's theory is funnier, though. He thinks Patrick named the dinosaur Joshua so that when we scold him with both names he can blame the dinosaur instead. "It wasn't Patrick this time, it was Joshua!"

--Nathan has started pulling up entirely on his own. Before he loved to pull up on our fingers, but I know I was giving him some support and helping him balance. Now he can do it on his own given the right environment. I suspected the enclosed play area might just provide that for him.

This was the very first time it happened. We had just dropped Patrick off at school for his first day and I set Nathan in his pen to play for a few minutes. I looked away for a minute, and this is what I saw when I looked back. The way he's kind of clinging to the side makes me think of the Spiderman song for some reason. You can tell he's pleased with himself. He does this regularly now. The funniest was this morning when Patrick was in "real time-out" (versus "play time-out," what Patrick calls the play area) right next to Nathan in the play area, and Nathan pulled up right next to where Patrick was standing. They were just inches apart with only the gate thing in between them, both of them hanging onto it.

--Patrick is learning so much at school. He's been trying to tell me some about it, but his limited vocabulary leaves me confused most of the time. So far I have figured out that they color at least some days, he "sleeps tight" during the day, and he likes his peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwich at lunch. He always makes sure to tell me all about what he ate for lunch, as though I hadn't packed it for him myself.

In the meantime, Nathan and I have been having fun on our own during school days. Yesterday we headed to Target to pick up a few birthday presents to hide away until the boys' birthdays in a few weeks. That is an outing I wouldn't dare try to do alone with both boys, so it is fun to get to do things like that when only Nathan is around. It will be interesting to see what we can find to do with ourselves tomorrow when Patrick is back at school.

Thirty-Five Months

Dear Patrick,

On Sunday you turned thirty-five months old, a milestone that is far overshadowed by the one looming in a month. In fact your upcoming birthday is partly why I'm a bit late posting your letter this month. When it dawned on me how quickly your birthday was approaching, I realized your brother's was a full two weeks sooner. We are not prepared, physically or emotionally, for either. That means we spent some time this weekend looking for birthday presents for you guys. You definitely enjoyed looking, and your obvious interest in certain toys helped us immensely. Now we just need to order them or go buy them at a time when you won't know so that you won't bug us about those awesome toys endlessly for the next month.
Of course, the other big event of this month was your first day of school. Really, it's just Mother's Day Out, not even officially preschool yet, but you don't know that. To you, it's school, where you go to "see teacher." You absolutely love it. In fact, on your first day of school, you just marched on into the classroom without a backwards glance at me. You barely looked up from your Magnadoodle when I gave you a hug and told you good-bye. That classroom looks an awful lot like heaven to you, I'm thinking.

In a way, I was proud to watch you walk so confidently off to your first day of school without the clinging that I've heard can make a first day so difficult. As you are the oldest in your class, it's good to see you acting so maturely. Even if your size or communication skills can't prove you're the oldest, at least you know how to act like it from time to time. But to be honest, I was a little glad today when you stopped me before I left your classroom to tell me you wanted me to hold your hand so you could show me around your classroom. You told me you wanted me to "see teacher" too. You weren't terribly disappointed when I told you that you needed to stay at school without me, but I like knowing that you would rather I stayed with you too.

At the same time that we are transitioning into school mode, you are going through another transition--out of the ECI program and into the school district's special ed program. You had your first initial screening with them yesterday. While you enjoyed some of the games they played with you, that wasn't the case for all of them. You showed your stubborn nature any time you didn't like a game and refused to play. Unfortunately, by not playing along they were unable to prove whether or not you could do certain skills. As a result, we will be going back before long to play more games for what they call a full evaluation. That decides whether you get to go into their program. Since you still need the help, it's a good thing that you qualify for the next step to get into the program, but it was frustrating to watch you refuse to do things that I know you know how to do.

But Patrick, that's you. From the very start you have insisted on doing things your way, even deciding to show up two months before we expected you. You see no reason to do anything that anybody asks you to unless you want to do it. That will be great when you're encountering peer pressure a few years down the line, but your daddy and I and all your future teachers (and probably your current ones) are going to struggle with this aspect of your personality. I'm hoping your impending reasoning skills will make it easier for us to be able to explain why we need you to do things so that this power struggle can stop.

On the other hand, you are still one of the sweetest and most thoughtful kids I know, especially for your age. We had a whole discussion of how thoughtful you are over breakfast this morning, although you called it "awful," not thoughtful. I had stubbed my toe while retrieving a hidden sippy for you and you repeatedly asked about my toe, insisting I get a "boo-boo" for it and asking if I was okay. You showed genuine concern about my foot. I know part of it was the excitement of possibly going to get a Band-aid, but you still worried about me after you understood I didn't need a Band-aid this time. Then a few minutes later you asked me if Nathan could share your banana with you, something that we used to do but haven't done much lately. You've been a little selfish about your banana lately, so offering it to your brother was incredibly sweet of you. It made me so happy to think that you were concerned with Nathan's happiness.

As is the case with most two-almost-three-year-olds, you vary from hour to hour, from minute to minute, between being totally sweet and lovable and whiny and frustrated. The unpredictability can take a lot out of me some days, especially when you're leaning on the whiny side. But then out of nowhere you'll clamber up into my lap and put your arms around me and just rest your head on me for a few seconds. That's when I remember my job as mommy isn't just to tell you no repeatedly and enforce time-outs and keep you from hurting yourself and your brother. I also get to be one of the two people you look up to and go to for comfort and love without fail the way only a two-almost-three-year-old can. And that is why you are so easy to love right back.

Love,

Mommy

Patrick-isms and Other Stories

We've had a busy few days around here, so I've been collecting stories to tell. Here are as many as I can remember at the moment:

1. Patrick started saying a new fun phrase on Thursday: "Dang it." We are just so proud. I feel so bad for letting it slip that one time in front of him. He says it all the time, too, any time he's frustrated about anything. In a way, I'm glad he has a way to express frustration other than a tantrum, but I wish he had found a better phrase to use. I wonder how that's going to go over at MDO this week.

2. He is also saying, "Doss-oo-uh," every time he's upset at someone. This one totally cracks me up. When his daddy gets really upset with him, he calls him by his full name: Patrick Joshua. Since he doesn't understand the concept of middle names yet, he just thinks "Joshua" is a way to really tell someone off. For example, the other day Amber was bugging him, so he told her, "Ah-buh...Doss-oo-uh!" I guess that might just be the dog's new middle name.

3. Nathan has a new tooth. I've been checking his incoming molars every day, but they're still taking their time cutting through the gums. Because I was distracted by the molars, though, I missed a more normal tooth cutting. I noticed the left bottom tooth (next to the middle one he already has) was cut almost all the way through already just a few days ago. That puts him at seven teeth now with about three more imminent. At this rate he'll have a full mouth of teeth by his first birthday.

4. The other day someone mistook Nathan for a little girl. He was dressed in a dark blue baseball outfit. I know he has pretty blonde curls and adorable blue eyes, but you'd think the outfit would tip people off. That and the fact that the guy had heard me call him Nathan numerous times before saying anything. Maybe I should change his name to Natalie and buy him some frilly dresses and just make it easier for everyone (except Nathan of course).

5. Patrick had the open house for his MDO on Thursday. He had a blast and has been talking about his teachers ever since. Oh, and the cookies that he got to eat while he was there. I will have more about his first day of school (today!) probably tomorrow once he's made it back home and I have pictures to show off.

6. Patrick also has his last few visits with ECI scheduled already. He officially graduates from the program the day before his third birthday, when he's automatically discharged. At that point he will move onto a program through the school district. We go for his first screening there next Monday, so I'll know more about it after that.

7. Nathan is growing more and more eager to be mobile but won't crawl traditionally. I truly think he'll end up walking first at the rate he's going. He's already trying to balance on his own when I help him stand up. He also bear crawls as much as scooting, using his legs instead of his knees. He's clearly trying to stand up and could care less about learning to crawl the "proper" way.

8. This weekend we set up the enclosed play area for Nathan, and Patrick is enthralled with it. He thinks it's so neat that Nathan also has his time-out, only his has toys in it. (The play area is made out of the same gate things that his time-out is.) He keeps asking if he can play in time-out and begs Matt and me to get in and play with the two boys. I have a feeling we are going to make all sorts of fun family memories packed in tight in that little play area.