Nathan is *finally* becoming a big boy

For quite some time now, I've felt like I have a little baby stuck in a big baby's body. Nathan only spoke jibberish, had no teeth, showed no interest in walking or even standing upright, and was generally behind developmentally. He's still quite big (90th percentile for height), but the height was the only indication he was getting older. He's my crazy little monkey.

In the past few weeks, though, we've finally started making progress. The first helpful step was getting the boy a haircut. We hadn't been able to figure out any place in town to take him, so Chad and I decided to try and cut his hair ourselves. We figured that even if we butchered the haircut, we could always just buzz it off and he and Chad would have matching haircuts until it got long enough to try again.

Nathan pre-haircut (While I was changing his diaper at church, he peed all over his pants, so he had to lose the pants. A friend of mine had him during Relief Society, and apparently she thought he looked cold, because she put his shoes and socks on. Without his pants. It's a classic look) You can just see the Farrah Fawcett flip-out going on in the back and the way-too long bangs in the front. He's a beach baby.

Nathan post-haircut - Much better. The haircut was made possible by popping chocolate chips in his mouth anytime he started to look upset.

Nathan's next step towards becoming a big boy occurred with the acquisition of his second word. Now not only can he talk about "Da-da" all day long, he can say "this" and point to the desired object. It's a fairly useful second word, since between the "this" and the pointing, I can usually figure out what it is that he wants and is preventing him from being blissfully happy. He'll even point at the radio in the car when he gets tired of NPR and wants to start dancing to the music. And this boy can dance.

Our last recent step came yesterday. Nathan is 13 1/2 months old, and until yesterday had no teeth. No top teeth, no bottom teeth, no molars, no nothing. He still eats mostly pureed foods since his chewing is so limited. Last night, though, we discovered the reason for the miserable day at church - Nathan's first teeth finally came! His two bottom teeth came yesterday, and his two top teeth feel like they'll be making their appearance in the coming weeks as well. Yea! He will soon be able to feed himself big-boy food, and we can finish off the baby food! Let's hear it for our big boy! FINALLY!!!