Bath time

Nathan and Chad take baths just about every evening before bed. Nathan loves his bathtime. He loves to play with his beloved Da-da, bubbles, water, toys, and everything else associated with bathtime. He has even mastered putting his face in the water and blowing bubbles - Day 1 of swimming lessons accomplished. He loves a good bath.

One morning last week, as Nathan was finishing up his breakfast, he started saying "Ba! Ba!" I wasn't quite sure what he meant, but I figured that when he got down, he'd crawl over to whatever "Ba!" was and all would be made clear. So, once he got down, he beelined it straight to our bathroom, where the beloved bathtub is. The "Ba! Ba!" grew in volume as he approached the tub - apparently it means bath. Then he tried to turn on the water and climb in. At 10:30 in the morning. I guess when you're fifteen months old, the word later means nothing.

Tomatoes

Chad and I both love fresh produce from the garden. Tomatoes in particular taste so much yummier when they've been picked recently, as compared to our Chilean tomatoes at Wal-Mart. One day, we'll have a nice, large garden to grow lots of tasty fruits and vegetables. As renters, though, it's hard to put all the time and effort into making a garden, especially given the poor soil here on the coast and the upcoming arrival of Reese baby #2. So, for the time-being, we are container gardeners. Last weekend, I planted our first tomatoes in their new homes, and the flowers are beginning to bud. I'm already dreaming of tomato sandwiches and salads...

Nathan's trip

So, Nathan is still a non-walker. He scoots along furniture fabulously, can pull himself up onto almost any piece of furniture we own, and even occasionally will stand up all by himself for brief periods of time with a very proud of himself look on his face. Nathan can walk when using your fingers for stabilization and support. But, no solo walking yet. He turned 15 months this past weekend. At this stage, I'm just hoping he figures it out by the time New Baby, as we affectionately call her, comes in September.

Last week, Chad went home teaching before Nathan had finished his dinner. When he got down from his high chair, he made it clearly known that it was not yet bedtime and that he wanted to go play outside. He was right - it wasn't bedtime yet, so we went outside. After paying a visit to the dogs next door and pulling flowers off the azalea bush, we started "walking" around the driveway, with Nathan using my fingers for help. Then, Nathan decided it was time to go find Da-da.

So, we went for a walk. We walked down our driveway and out into the street (we live on a cul-de-sac with no traffic - he was perfectly safe with me). Every few feet, he would excitedly squeal "Da-da!" fully expecting to see Chad any second. When we got to the end of our street, without hesitating, he turned onto the next road, making all the correct turns to, in fact, go find Da-da. We almost made it to the next intersecting street before he ran out of gas. He really thought that if we kept walking, we'd be able to find Da-da and all would be well with his little world. Ah, the innocent determination of the young...

The Big Announcement

No, we're not moving (yet). And when we do, it will just be to buy a home years from now. We're staying in Jacksonville. I finally live less than half an hour from the beach - do you really think I'd leave that???

No, Chad is keeping his job. He loves it and the people with whom he works. The patients, well, somedays he likes them and somedays he doesn't. But there are usually good stories out of it either way, at a bare minimum. Plus, for the first time in our married life, we are NOT living off of loans but off of his paycheck. It's a milestone in a young couple's life. Most people hit it before 30. Not us...

But yes, we are expecting a baby :) Baby Reese #2 will be making her debut in early/mid September. And yes, we are having a girl. We are all excited, though poor Nathan has no idea of the massive changes that are about to rock his sweet little world. I'm not so looking forward to being truly pregnant all summer long here in the South. And Chad's not so looking forward to having to deal with a teenage daughter. But we really are excited for our upcoming arrival and all that she will bring with her. And there will finally be pink at our house, not just blue and doggies!

Nathan's second favorite thing to do

Nathan's favorite thing to do is go outside. Even when he was little, he loved taking walks and hanging out in our tiny front yard in Brookline. On rainy days, he would look longingly towards the windows and door with this "why aren't we outside???" look on his face. And part of the awesomeness of Brookline was that I could also get things done on our walks - the grocery store, library, post office, bank, bookstores, dry cleaners, amazingly yummy bakeries and restaurants, baby goods stores, paper stores, even clothes shopping. I miss Brookline and all its urban coolness.

Now we just walk around our neighborhood and crawl around in the yard. We do have Spanish moss and alligators, but still not as cool as Brookline. Nathan is also now more vocal about letting me know when he wants to go outside, often hitting complete meltdown if we can't go outside *right then.* Rain, cold, hot, bugs - the conditions are always right to go play outside for Nathan.

One of Nathan's other favorite things to do now is read books. He has some board books he likes to read, but his favorite three books are Noisy Nora, Knuffle Bunny, and There's an Alligator Under My Bed. He loves to read them over and over and over again. Multiple times a day. Morning, mid-day, before bed, or pretty much anytime is a good time to read a book. I already had Noisy Nora memorized from my childhood, and I'm quickly learning the other two books. The former teacher in me loves that he loves to read, and the mommy in me loves snuggling with him in our glider while reading. It's a good new favorite thing to do :)

Reading with daddy before bed last night

Good grief!

I knew that the weather had been getting warmer in Jacksonville - 70+ degree days are happening more regularly, and Nathan and I have even been sporting some shorts of late. The tulips and wisteria are almost done, leaving the dogwoods and azaleas to continue their spring showcase. So, I decided to get the official word from a semi-reliable weather website. The average high today in Jacksonville is 76. 76! It's time to buy swimsuits and start hitting the beach! Woohoo!!! I knew there was a good reason we moved from Boston (average high today - 55)...

Nathan continues to make progress towards walking. He is a rock star at walking along furniture, walls, and with parental fingers. He can even climb up and down stairs without incident. He'd been good at going up stairs for a few weeks, but it took another weekend at Grandma and Grandpa Henderson's for him to master going down. Until this past weekend, he had still been determined that he could successfully crawl down head-first. He is also starting to be able to stand up all by himself. This morning, he stood up from a sitting position for the first time ever. We'll have a walker on our hands soon enough. It's about time - later this week he'll be fifteen months old.

We are still enjoying Jacksonville, and Chad's work is still going really well. Within the next month or so, he'll be running two chairs, which will keep him busy. Our callings are also keeping us busy - we had the Young Men over for dinner yesterday immediately after church and Chad will go on his first campout as Scoutmaster with his boys next month. But life is good, and we're excited for the upcoming months :)

Nathan, sporting his new summer sandals while playing outside :)

Catching up...

Nathan continues to make progress towards becoming a big boy. He still only has his two bottom teeth, but he is making other progress. He got a walker for Christmas, and he has finally figured out walking with it. Now, he can't make any turns on his own and so runs into walls and furniture and gives up unless you're there to redirect him, but it's still more than he could do two weeks ago. Here he is cruising the front room (I love that he figured out how to bring his puppy along for the ride).

Nathan's other current favorite game is to empty out his toy bin (which I have, of course, just filled with his previously-strewn toys) and climb in to play. I'm not quite sure why I even bother cleaning up since he's just going to make a mess of everything in fifteen minutes.


Nathan also continues to idolize his daddy. All day long, he asks, "Dada? Dada?" As in, where is daddy? When is he coming home? He found Chad's fleece the other day, and he would not be pacified until I'd put it on him so he could be just like Dada.

Nathan also feels that we should live in a pants-optional world. He hates to wear pants, and if he can figure out how to do so, takes his pants off at any given opportunity. It's a good thing we live in the South.