Date Night

Rarely do I take time to have someone take pictures of Ben and I.  I need to start using the self timer more or teach Nathan to hold the camera!  We went out the on a rare date to go out to dinner and see Tim Hawkins.  He was HILARIOUS!  

I love this man so much and can hardly believe we have been married 9 years!  It just keeps getting better!

Baking with Grandma

So many of my childhood memories involve the kitchen and baking!  Excited the tradition is continuing on with Nathan.  He helped Grandma make a new muffin recipe!  

Pool Noodle Fine Motor Fun

The crab pool is back this summer!  I had Ben cut up some pool noodles for Nathan to play with.  I gave him a piece of rope and taped the ends so he could string them and work on his fine motor skills.

He is still figuring out how it all works.

Later on we found Nathan using his airport runway to launch his cars into the crab pool!

Surgery

Nathan had his first ever (and hopefully last!!) surgery today to remove an obstruction in his urethra.  We are pleased to announce the surgery was a success.  He was a trooper through the entire thing! 

We had to hang out in pre-op for quite awhile.  (Do surgeries ever start on time?!) Although Nathan had not eaten in over 8 hours AND it was his nap time everyone was surprised by his demeanor and behavior.  He stayed busy putting on the charm and flirting with the nurses.  

They even let him play with the special forehead thermometer. (I'm sure there is a more technical term for this instrument.  My apologies to those in the medical profession!)

Good thing I brought toys with us!  It felt like surgery would NEVER start!

After Nathan took some medicine to make him a little loopy the nurse took him back to the operating room.  He was out of it and stared into space as he was taken into surgery.

After surgery we met up with Nathan in the recovery room.  He was not a happy boy as he came out of anesthesia.  A small dose of pain medication helped him settle down.

Once Nathan was stable we moved into a room in the Pediatric wing of the hospital.  Nathan was not excited about having an IV in and being attached to a pole.  We are pretty sure he will be a lefty so not having his dominant hand fully available made him very mad!

Food was a good distraction.  As soon as he saw the tray come in he frantically started signing and saying "EAT!"  At this point it had been over 12 hours since his last meal! 

Eating his pudding and checking out the peaches.

Daddy brought him one of his favorite foods: french fries!  He gobbled them down in no time and enjoyed laying back and relaxing while eating!  

Being in the Pediatric wing has its perks!  Our room was directly across from the Playroom.  We headed there in the morning to check out the toys.

All in all our hospital stay proved to be not that bad.  We only ended up staying one night and were able to leave the Hospital by 11:00 AM.  Nathan will have some follow up care with the Pediatric Urologist that conducted his surgery but it's our hope there will be no more surgeries in his future!

Mommy & Me Swim Lessons

I've been looking forward to doing swim lessons with Nathan all summer!  Because of his age the only ones available were Mommy and Me ones.  But we had a lot of fun and still have one more week.

Warning:  The following pictures contain a woman who obviously has no time to perfect a tan.  Please excuse her awful tan lines (I blame Recess Duty) and feel free to put on sunglasses so as not to blind yourself.

Nathan got to pick out a few toys each day before heading out to the area of the pool designated for our lessons.

The "Island" where kids can stand and splash around while being in the middle of the pool.  He finally got brave enough to not hold onto me and stand on it by himself after the 5th day of using it!

Practicing our strokes.  If he had his way he would just hold onto me the whole time and play with the toys!  Most of the time he would be screaming, "No!".  Although he did it with a smile on his face!  Stubborn Stinker!

Hanging onto the edge checking out the toys.

Maybe he's decided strokes aren't so bad?!

He did not like floating on his back and would stick his arms and feet out so he didn't have to do it!

Swimming towards his toys.  (I usually had to pry them out of his death grip hold on them!)

Practicing kicking while holding onto the island.

We would usually circle up a few times and sing songs together as a group.  Our repertoire included:  5 Little Speckled Frogs, Ring Around the Rosie, and Slippery Fish.  

Jumping into the water!  Nathan's friend Dane is the one who motivated Nathan to want to do this!

Practicing climbing out of the pool.  (No, I am sadly NOT wearing a white tank top although it appears that way!)

Getting Dunked!

One more song!

Playing with the toys before cleaning up!

Cheap Fine Motor Fun

I saw this idea on Pinterest awhile back and have been meaning to try it with Nathan.  All you need is a colander (Thank you Target Dollar Spot!) and some pipe cleaners (Thank you Dollar Tree!)

This activity kept him busy for 20 minutes.  It was right after snack so he was still in his high chair.  I'm hoping it will still keep him occupied even when he's not strapped in...

He had a little trouble figuring out that you needed to hold the pipe cleaner near the bottom, not the top, to put it correctly through the hole.  He got better at it as time went on.

What a mess! :)

Putting them through the other side...and pulling them out!

The dogs figured out pipe cleaners are not edible, thank goodness!

Airport

I think I--I mean Nathan--may be in LOVE with Little People Toys from Fisher Price!  My sister got this airport for him the other day and he is in heaven!  

He loves making the plane fly down the ramp!

Taking the baggage to the plane.  He loves that the cars link together!

The first morning after Nathan got this toy he said my sister's name as soon as I came in to get him.  He wanted to play with the toy she gave him and was not interested in even eating breakfast!

Thank you Aunt Ashley!

Choo Choo

Our son is in love with anything and everything in the transportation category.  This includes trains!  My Mom and I found a train set at IKEA and knew we had to snatch it up.  Grandpa is showing him how it works.

He loved to sit in the middle of the track and make the train go around and around!

He understands that the track pieces have to click together but still needs a lot of help to make it work just right.

Choo-Choo!