Two Nathan Stories

1. No, Nathan isn't quite walking yet. Every so often we catch him off-guard, and he proves that this delay in walking is a matter of will and not ability. The other day I was talking on the phone while playing on the floor with him. I put the phone on speaker and held it out, and that was all Nathan needed to take off walking--to catch the phone. Forget a carrot in front of a horse; this kid chases technology. He took probably a dozen steady steps before he realized what he was doing and fell on his bottom again. I think he considers scooting faster and less effort, but this gives me hope that he won't be scooting between his college classes a few years down the line.

2. Last night, we were going through our typical routine putting the boys down. Patrick insists on an ever-increasingly-detailed bedtime routine, one that now includes counting as we put his excessive sheets and blankets on him (don't worry, they never stay there for long). Patrick has been obsessed with numbers lately and counts every chance he gets. He easily counts to twenty and beyond.

Well, Matt was pausing between numbers as he grabbed the next blanket. "One..."

And from the other crib, we hear, "Too! Twee!"

Stunned, we stared at Nathan. He grinned his cheesiest grin for us.

Matt continued. "Four, five..."

"Siss!"

At this point, I was watching the whole thing with my jaw on the floor. Nathan continued to chime in at the correct times with ten, and several of the teens (they all sounded kind of alike, so I can't guarantee they were all the right ones in the right places).

Since then, we have prompted him several times to begin counting by saying, "One..." Sometimes he refuses to bite and grins that silly grin instead, like he's deliberately not doing what he knows we want him to do. Other times, though, he shows off by telling us several numbers in a row, always the next number after the one we've said.

That's right. Our eighteen-month-old can't (won't) walk, but he knows the majority of his numbers up to twenty. I don't see a whole lot of sports in his future, but some math competitions? Quite likely. That's my boy!

Also, new pictures, finally.

A Little Off the Top

Some of you may have noticed my inconsistent blogging lately. I simply have not had the motivation to write much. Do not be concerned, however, because I will still be showing up from time to time to make sure you don't miss out on any important moments, like Nathan finally walking more than a clumsy, hesitant step or two.

That being said, I am here today because of one of those important moments. We decided yesterday that it was long past time to get the boys haircuts. Actually, it was a little soon for Patrick because I could still see eyes and ears behind the mop of hair, but Nathan was starting to look like a wild man. So he had his first ever haircut.

Of course he cried, the whole way through the haircut. Even having his brother right next to him, calmly sitting throughout his own haircut, didn't keep him from being traumatized by the event. Fortunately he calmed easily once he was out of the cute little car chair.

I, however, am not recovering quite as easily. I miss those adorable little baby curls that will soon only exist in his baby book. He's still as cute and charming as ever, but he is certainly more that little boy he's turning into than the baby he was.

Of course I have pictures. You can see the whole group of pictures here, but here are a few before and afters for you.

Patrick before

Patrick after

Nathan from the front, before

Nathan from the back, before

Nathan from the front, after

Nathan from the side/back, after

Sharing

This is a first. Both boys are wearing the same size pajamas. It's laundry day, and somehow we went through all of Nathan's pajamas more quickly than usual. He was left with just really warm flannel footy pajamas, all just a bit too small for him the last time he wore them several months ago. I couldn't do that to him, so I fished through Patrick's drawer for some that might fit. The ones I found fit remarkably well, just a little long (but elastic around the ankles keep them from dragging). It seems that we are only a few months from sharing nearly all their clothes. I wonder if it will be easier or more difficult to have them sharing a wardrobe.

Hopefully it won't be too much of a problem. Patrick is usually really good about sharing. He always willingly offers his brother part of his meals and snacks, sometimes even when he's not supposed to, like when Nathan's mouth is already full. There are the expected problems with taking toys away from each other, but Patrick is trying really hard to learn when that is inappropriate.

It's great that the two are playing together now, too. Sometimes they get a little wound up and play games that are a bit out of my comfort zone for them, like the open/close the door game, but it makes life a little easier when their games are less dangerous. I particularly like the game where Patrick mimics Nathan. It's hilarious to watch both of them scooting around the floor, like a crazy little choo-choo train. Nathan flourishes under the attention of his big brother as well. I can tell already that the two are going to be very close as they get older. It's a good thing, if they're going to grow up sharing a wardrobe.

You'll be interested to know that I finally got around to downloading pictures. I have pictures from Christmas, both places, and a few of Patrick riding his tricycle that Santa left at our house while we were gone, then a few I took of the boys yesterday. You can find them here (can you tell it's a lot easier on me to just link them?). Enjoy.

Slacker

Yup, I've been a huge slacker where this blog is concerned. Anybody remember when I used to post every single day, with pictures? I have proof I used to, but I can barely remember those days myself. Somehow the time just gets away from me with taking care of two VERY active children.

Since I last posted, we have celebrated Christmas and New Year's, and life has been back to normal for a full week again already.

We spent Christmas with my family--the whole family. During the days, there were ten adults, four children (well, four and a half, if you count my niece Anna's future baby brother or sister), three dogs, and the elusive cat. I think everyone was glad when we took two adults and two kids out of the picture in the evenings when we went back to our hotel each night. It was a chaotic few days, but lots of fun and I'm glad we didn't miss out on the festivities.

The kids banked for Christmas. When we got home, we cleaned out all but a few of their pre-Christmas toys to make room for all the new ones, and they haven't missed any of the old ones. They simply got that many new toys. Matt and I were definitely blessed as well, with more than we know what to do with.

The day after Christmas, we went to Big Spring to spend a few days with Matt's family as well. (This is where about half of the kids' toys came from; I told you they banked!) It was a little less chaotic there, until the dogs started running, but also a cherished family time.

I didn't take many pictures of our holiday, unfortunately. (I told you I was slacking.) In Dallas, both my brothers were there with their professional-quality cameras, that I kept mine in its case almost the whole time. I'll have to get some pictures from them. I also didn't take too many in Big Spring, but thankfully a few more than in Dallas. The problem is that they are all still on my camera. Yes, this long after our vacation, I have yet to download any of the pictures from Christmas and before. In fact, I don't know that I've even taken any new pictures since we got back. Remember what I said about slacking? I'll either post the pictures or a link to them when I finally get around to downloading them.

The boys are both growing so much right now. Patrick's language seems to be going through another explosion. He speaks in full sentences most of the time, and some of the things he comes up with crack me up. For example, yesterday when I was changing his diaper, Amber came poking her nose up to see what the fuss was about and sniff out whether it was a dirty diaper. I shooed her away as usual, and Patrick had to comment on it. "Amber eat poop?" he asked. I reassured him that I thought that was unlikely, but I thought it was hilarious that he thought that was the reason I was keeping her nose away from his exposed bottom.

He still loves school and asks every day if he gets to ride the school bus. He loves even more when I tell him he's going to MDO first. He names all of his teachers by name. It's funny, though, that all of a sudden he has started clinging to me when it's time for me to leave him at MDO. Unless one of his teachers is holding him and playing with him, he won't let go of me. I don't think he dislikes being there; he'd just rather I got to stay and play with him.

Nathan's personality is what is most interesting about his developments. He is a total hoot. He makes up silly games to play with each of us, and that mischievious smile will get him out of trouble almost every time he does something he knows he's not supposed to. It's like his goal in life is to make people laugh, and he knows he's good at it. I still get comments all the time when we're out whether he's always that happy. Yes, he usually is (until he gets sleepy, as many of you got to discover over Christmas break).

No, he is still not walking yet. I honestly think he could if he wanted to, but he's a little timid about trying it. Besides, his scoot will get him places almost as fast as walking, so what's the point? I know eventually one day he will decide it's time to walk, and he'll be off. When that happens, we'll never catch him.

Over the last few weeks, Nathan has sprouted just about all the teeth he had left to cut. It made for some frustrating, sleepless nights when he was in the most pain, but we seem to be past that now. He sports a full set of teeth instead. No wonder he's suddenly so eager to try any "real" food we can put in front of him. Like his brother, his favorites currently include waffles and anything with lots of cheese.

Guess what I just realized? I have a group of pictures I downloaded right before Christmas that I never shared with you. Since I am quickly running out of time to write, I will just have to post the link, like I did last time. You can find some cute pictures, including Christmas-y ones of Nathan here.

Growing and Changing

I've been so bad about updating lately. I have lots of pictures to post, but those will have to wait for when I have more time (whenever that will be).

Patrick is thriving at school. He literally runs to the school bus when it gets here and comes home content and tired. He asks--begs--every single day to go to school. In the week or so since he started, his language has started to take off. Almost every single day I notice a new word or some new grammatical change (like calling things "mine"--"my bed"). He will sometimes sing songs now and shows off with how much of the alphabet he knows. We didn't even know he could recite the alphabet, and he basically knows the whole thing!

We are still going to MDO on Tuesday and Thursday mornings, and he seems to be benefitting from the extra socialization. I love that he's staying in that familiar environment as he's adding the new preschool.

Nathan is still growing like crazy too. He has started bravely standing unassisted for a few seconds at a time. I think he could do longer, but he gets scared and grabs something just to be sure he doesn't fall.

He, too, is becoming more social. He says many words and phrases that he hears often and sometimes uses them to communicate his wants to us (like "Dada, see you in a little while" to tell me he wants to see his daddy). He has found all sorts of fun games he likes to play at dinner or in his bed and loves it when we play along.

The two boys are growing more fond of each other each week. They will play together, even if it takes a lot of moderation to keep fussing over toys to a minimum. My favorite sight, though, is watching Patrick give Nathan a hug before bed, something he now insists on. That gentle kiss on the top of Nathan's head proves to me that Patrick is sweet and compassionate underneath all that energy we see all day long.

Cranky Nathan

Last night and today we got to see Cranky Nathan, the very one I wrote about yesterday. I had my suspicions about why he chose now to rear his head, and my suspicions were confirmed a little while ago: one tiny corner of his left molar. The right one is close enough to poking through that it's hard to tell for sure that it hasn't already. Fortunately, this phase should truly be short-lived; as soon as those molars finish cutting through in the next day or so, he should be back to normal.

A Few Things

I'm sorry I've been such a bad blogger lately. I've had lots of things to blog about but haven't had the motivation to actually sit down and write about them, much less download all the pictures I have and upload them to blogger. I'll get there eventually, I promise. In the meantime, here are a few random stories, etc. from the last week or two that I never got around to writing about:

--Nathan had his one-year check-up almost two weeks ago. Obviously we learned nothing monumental, otherwise you would have heard something a little before now. It was mostly a weight and height check. If you're interested, he's right at 19 pounds, which is somewhere around the 5th percentile (a bit of a drop from his birth weight percentile). His height is at 29 1/2 inches, which is about average. Surely this must be a phase, where he is predicted to grow to an average height but is a beanpole. He also got four different shots with several more when we go back for Patrick's three-year check-up. Of course he cried, but he got over it pretty fast too.

--Patrick's been developing his sense of humor, surprising Matt and me with the silly things he does that seem to come out of nowhere. For example, the other day we were eating French fries with dinner and Patrick decided they looked better as toys than actual food. He kept putting one on his head and giggling. When that started to get old, he put one under his nose like a mustache. That one definitely got Matt and me laughing. Where did he come up with that? I don't know that he's seen anyone turn food into a mustache before, so we think that's pretty creative of him.

--Along the same lines, he's had lots of fun playing with his Mr. Potato Head, one of his birthday presents. He likes trading out the body parts, making some pretty silly looking faces (although he usually keeps them relatively normal, with eyes, nose, mouth, etc in their proper places). He's smart enough to recognize the body parts, too, so when he saw his brother wanting to chew on the various body parts, he had the idea to give him a mouth to chew on. I didn't realize what he was doing until he started to laugh. Then I looked up at Nathan and saw Mr. Potato Head's mouth on him. It made a hilarious picture (too bad I wasn't fast enough to snap any). We've since had to talk about what is okay and not okay to give to Nathan to chew on, but I can't fault him on his creativity and sense of humor to come up with the stunt in the first place.

--School is still going well for Patrick. I got to help out with their class's Safety Day last week, which means I got to sit and watch Patrick play with all his school friends for a little while. It was a neat experience. I learned a lot more about Patrick by getting to see him in a different environment, one where I am not usually around. It is clear to see he has lots of fun playing with his friends. But I feel bad for his poor teachers. It was not an easy job wrangling all those two-year-olds, even with four of us (the two teachers and two moms helping). I'll probably help again on Circus Day, their replacement for Halloween.

--Nathan's language has been taking off. Not only does he say "Mama," "Dada," "Gaga," and "Amba",' but he's started saying, "Hi," and "Bye" as well. He says both in this adorable sing-songy voice that makes everyone smile. He knows when to say them too, which I find kind of impressive. Lately he's also been adding his baby version of "See you in a little while" or "See you later" to the end of it: "Seeyawhy" or "Seeyalay." If you remember, Patrick said both phrases pretty early too. My favorite, though, is "Iwuhyuh," his version of "I love you." It's totally adorable.

--Then just yesterday, Nathan started waving for hi and bye. It's a little hard to distinguish from his excited arm wave, but you can tell it's a real wave because he only uses one arm and says, "Bye" or "Hi" with it. So cute!

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.

Dreaded Mobility

I can't believe I haven't informed all of you about the latest news around here: Nathan is mobile.

It started up sometime last week when I noticed he finally found a way to get to his belly from a sitting position. He leans forward really far, flipping his legs around to behind him. Basically, he leans forward far enough that he does the splits and ends up falling onto his belly. I wish I was half that flexible.

Once on his belly, Nathan is great at getting where he wants to go. He isn't officially crawling yet, with his belly off the floor and everything, but he's mastering the army crawl quickly. The only problem? He can only go backwards. Apparently I had the same problem when I was first learning to crawl. One day the dog came up behind me and nudged me with her nose as if to say, "Silly human baby, you're supposed to go the other way." The story goes that from that day on I always crawled normally.

Amber? Time to step up there, girl!

Seriously, though, I'm not worried about it. He'll figure out how to pull forward with his arms, letting his legs propel him as well, instead of just pushing back with his arms.

In the meantime, he has developed another technique for getting where he wants to go if he doesn't want to get there a roundabout way. He'll stay in a sitting position and pull himself forward with his arms, scooting everywhere. Again, he's really quite efficient with this. We're finding that our baby-proofing is definitely going to be tested over the next few weeks as he is already showing interest in things that Patrick always ignored.

Nathan also pulled up completely on his own yesterday. He's been doing it while holding onto our fingers with little assistance from us, but he finally found a good place to try it on his own. He was standing before I even realized what was happening. It's possible he'll get so interested in walking that he may skip real, normal crawling for now.

I think it may be time to reassemble the baby cage and fill it with safe toys.

No Way!

I'm quite certain that Nathan is talking, and not just babbling. We have had more instances where he has fairly clearly said, "Amber," when Amber was around or he was trying to get her attention. I have also heard him repeat, "Gaga," when he was trying to get Patrick's attention. In fact, one day when Patrick was crying near Nathan, I could swear I heard Nathan say, "Gaga. Pah-tree." That one I'm less certain about because, after all, Patrick was crying loudly in my ears.

Nathan also says, "Dada," when he wants his daddy's attention and either "Mama" or "Nana" when he wants me. He's consistent enough about all his different words and when he uses each one that it seems entirely likely that he understands what he's saying, at least to some extent.

But today's new phrase caught me totally off guard. Nathan had done something cute and got me to smile, so I leaned down and gave him a kiss, telling him, "I love you." Then I turned around to do something else. From behind me I hear, "Uh wu-oo."

I swung that head around so fast in shock. How could Patrick have woken up and snuck out of his room without my hearing it? But, no, Nathan and I were alone--and Nathan was grinning from ear to ear.

I know, I know. Nathan was just repeating me and very likely had no idea what he was saying. But that doesn't mean I'm not going to treasure this day forever and ever--the first day BOTH my boys told me they loved me.

Nine Month Check-Up

Today we went to the doctor for Nathan's nine month check-up. It was pretty routine, even if the day didn't start out that way. I was pretty glad that we already had an appointment set up when Nathan promptly threw up all of his breakfast all over both of us as soon as he'd finished eating. Needless to say, that threw off my finely-tuned morning routine.

Fortunately, he seemed to feel better after getting it out of his system, and he's been fine ever since. We also still made it to the doctor with plenty of time to spare. I tend to leave a few extra minutes for traffic, and we were lucky not to need them today.

The doctor was pleased with Nathan's progress. He's a healthy kid. I asked about some of the typical physical milestones that he should be meeting by now and isn't, but the doctor isn't at all worried. Honestly, neither am I. Unlike Patrick at this age, Nathan seems perfectly capable of doing these things (like crawling), and it is merely a matter of motivation--or lack thereof. He'll crawl when he wants to and not a second before. In fact, he may not crawl at all and just get up and walk away one of these days.

I wonder if it's a second-time mom thing to just take all this in stride, knowing that he'll do all of this eventually and that worrying about it isn't going to change that one bit.

Anyway, as expected Nathan has grown less over the last three months than he needed to to keep up with his growth chart. Given his genetics, though, and the fact that his height and weight are perfectly balanced on the chart, this isn't a cause for worry. If he stays at his current percentile, he could still easily be 5'7''. I laughed when the doctor said that: "He'll be practically a giant in our family!"

For those interested in exact numbers, his weight is 18 lbs, 4.5 oz, height at 27 1/2 in, and head circ at 18 cm. For comparison sake, Patrick weighed about that at 15 months and was that height at just under a year. Despite slacking off in his weight gain, Nathan will still likely catch up to his brother before we know it. I can't wait for the first time someone asks me if they're twins!

Some Catching Up

I apologize for my prolonged absence. I just felt unmotivated to blog. I guess those monster vacation posts kind of took it out of me. So here's the short, bulleted version of the last week or so, minus the pictures I've been intending to post for even longer than that:

--I realized a little over a week ago that Nathan's weight hasn't changed in well over a month. He's barely gained anything since his last appointment at six months. Since he has his next check-up in a week, I decided the lack of weight gain was probably worrisome. So I started feeding him until he was at the point of spitting it back at me. It turns out at least part of the weight issues stem from my gross underfeeding of him. He's now eating over three times as much food as he was before. Hopefully he'll be able to make up some of that lost weight before Tuesday's appointment. Do you think his constant movement any time he's awake has anything to do with his need for so much food?

--Patrick finally figured out how to say "I love you" and what it means. He says it mostly before bed or when putting Nathan down for a nap, but he'll also say it to Daddy when he goes back to work after lunch or when he snuggles up to me during the day. My favorite part is that he will also do the "I love you" hand sign with both hands. He has to check each one to make sure it is done right, and then he'll say in the cutest singsongy voice, "I wuv oo!"

--Patrick apparently picked up a little stomach bug over the weekend because he woke up Sunday morning with a particularly icky diaper. He's had several each day since then, although he seems to be getting a bit better today. Fortunately, he didn't seem too bothered by it all. He was fine and happy until he had one of those diapers and was back to normal almost as soon as I could get the diaper changed. He also really enjoyed his "special juice," i.e. Pedialyte. I worried that Nathan was getting it too, but he seems to have escaped it, even though he did have one diaper that made me wonder.

--We didn't do anything special for Father's Day, since I'm sure you're curious. It was mostly just a lazy day at home, thanks in part to Patrick's poopy issues.

I guess that's about it. I'm sure there were more, less interesting stories that happened since I blogged last, but these were definitely the highlights. Stay tuned in the next few days (or weeks, you never know) for those pictures I have yet to get around to posting.

And Five

This morning tooth number five cut through Nathan's gums. It's one of the top teeth just next to the middle two. I think we need just one more top tooth before this round of teething is over. The two bottom teeth that were threatening to cut seem to have receded again. They'll probably show up next time.

...And Four

That's right. Early this morning when he woke me up from the pain, I noticed that the very corner of the other top middle tooth had broken through the gums. Now we only have two more top ones to go and maybe life can return to normal. As long as more don't decide to make an appearance between now and then. Once they get a little farther in, I'll make sure to get a picture to show them off.

Today Brings #3

After many sleepless nights over the last week or so, Nathan finally sprouted tooth #3 this morning, the top middle right one. He still has three more on the top that feel like they will cut at any moment. I suspect we won't actually get a break from the teething until that happens, but maybe he got a little bit of relief this morning when it finally cut.

A Slow Week

It's been a slow week for cute and hilarious stories. The boys have just been normal cute and hilarious without anything spectacular to report.

Nathan has decided to be an early bird, though. I'm not loving this new phase so much. He wakes up with the sun, basically, and doesn't want to take a nap until I've given up and gotten the house up for the day. Then he decides a nap is mandatory, when I can't go back to sleep. That one has a cruel streak, I think.

At least he's still sleeping well at night. And he's just so cute when he's awake that it's hard not to give him what he wants.

Two Things

Patrick: His language has been improving so much. He throws out new sentences at me fairly regularly and works to tell me what he needs with words (sometimes, anyway). His "teacher" from ECI agrees that he's making amazing progress and already thinks he doesn't need to see her every week. We've cut back to every other week, and he may be caught up enough by the time he's three that he won't qualify for their help anymore. Considering how far behind he was a month or so ago, it truly is amazing.

Nathan: He's figured out that he, too, can make sounds with his mouth other than regular crying or fussing. His favorite noise is the m sound, so he babbles "mama" to me all day long. I'd love to call it his first word, but I don't think he understands what he's saying. Either way, I love hearing it. I like to believe that he's calling out for me.

I know I have TONS of pictures I need to post, but I've just been feeling too lazy to go through all the trouble to post them. I'm hoping to get motivated soon, but I'll probably just do all of them when I do, in case it takes me this long next time to find the motivation. So when you see pictures in the top post soon, make sure you scroll through the next few ones down as well, as they are probably going to also be new and chock full of pictures.

And There's the Second

I told you it wouldn't be long, and I was right. This morning I woke up to discover Nathan's second tooth had broken through at last. That's the other middle bottom one if you were wondering.

I should have expected as much when he woke up crying in the middle of the night last night. That is highly unusual; my boys don't give up sleep for just anything.

Despite the middle-of-the-night disturbance, though, he has had minimal fussing with teething so far. I know I've said many times how tough Patrick is, but he put up a much bigger fuss about his teeth than Nathan has. It may turn out that Nathan is the tough one after all.

A Tooth

Well, we woke up this morning to Nathan's first tooth. We knew it wasn't going to be long, as we've felt the bottom two middle ones poking up for over a week now. It just seemed like neither tooth really cared to be the first to actually break through the gums. Then finally this morning the right tooth won.

Nathan's really been a trooper through all the teething pain. His fussy periods with it were better than most babies' fussy periods when they're not teething. Yet this morning there was still a remarkable change to his mood. Who would have thought Nathan could be even happier than he'd been?

I'll keep you posted on when tooth #2 decides to make an appearance. I'm guessing it won't be long and that his days of being a one-toothed baby are short.

Six-Month Check-Up

Really, there's not much to report. Nathan's six-month check-up today was short, sweet, and to the point--actually, three for Nathan. He got three more vaccines, which he wasn't particularly fond of. At least I got to see Patrick comfort his brother again. (He now says, "You're okay," instead of "It's okay." We've never told Patrick, "You're okay," so that shows a good mastery of pronouns, a fact I'm obviously quite proud of.)

Other than the traumatic shots, the appointment was easy. Nathan's fine and still growing well. He weighed less than I expected at only 16 lbs and 13 oz. He's been weighing at 17 1/2 at home, which I think is closer to reality. Either way, the doctor isn't worried. He said one big poop could explain the difference between the two. If you're keeping up with the stats, his height is 25 1/2 in (more accurate than last time) and his head circumference is 17 1/2 in.

I guess that's it. The appointment was very routine. We'll be back in three months, barring any illnesses between now and then.