Fifteen toys around him and Nathan would rather plan with the unopened bottle of Mylicon.

Before, this would have worried me. I would have pushed those little keys on him so he could be surrounded by his primary colors and learning his gross motor skills. But to quote Elizabeth Bennett, “My feelings…my feelings are so different now.” Now, I like to think that maybe he’s on his way to becoming a pharmacist.

(And just know that there were a few more toys on the floor too. Not just the two on his highchair. Though, there is a good reason I went into creative writing and not math.)

Since we were out of town, I waited to introduce any other solid foods until we got back, just so if there were any tummy issues, they happened at home instead of in the middle of Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin. Because as much as I like diaper explosions in public places, I just thought Disney World would be so much fun without it and I didn’t want us going into Fun Overload Mode.

So, last night, we gave Nathan squash and applesauce. He chowed down on the squash. He loves squash and loves his rice cereal. And here were his thoughts on the applesauce:

Ha! We’ll try again tonight!

~~

This last week, we went to Disney World with my family! My parents gave everyone the trip for Christmas and it was SO FUN! Nathan did so much better than I ever could have imagined – thank you, Lord! He took his naps in the stroller, he rarely fussed and he LOVED the Disney characters.

My grandmother met us in Orlando from St. Louis and it was SO good to see her! The last time she saw Nathan, he was only two weeks old – he’s changed just a little bit since then. 🙂 Disney World is one of my family’s favorite vacation spots and it was a blast doing it with Nathan – though, a totally different kind of “vacation” than we used to have! Ha! Jon and I were talking about it and this vacation also included a lot of work – but it was WELL worth it.

Such a wonderful vacation! We got home yesterday and all three of us were in bed by 8:30 last night – ha! We were exhausted!

Half a year has gone by since my little Nater Tot was born!

I feel like I say this every month but…

HOLY COW.

This month has been SO fun! He is developing quite the little personality and I have a feeling that in a few years, I’ll be getting calls from Nathan’s principal about all of his antics in class. Ha! 🙂 He is SO animated and such the entertainer – my boy is NOT shy or withdrawn (or even boring!) by ANY means.

He has learned that he can make us laugh by making faces or squealing or “talking” at the top of his voice, so he does all of the above almost all day long. My house is no longer quiet unless he is down for a nap or in bed for the night.

He is also quite content being the center of attention and if, for whatever reason, he doesn’t feel like he is, he will often just get even louder – whether that’s yelling louder or throwing a fit. Oy! Y’all can pray for me! Ha!

BUT – Nathan is the sweetest, happiest, funniest little guy and I just cannot imagine a better life than the one I have now!

He’s now eating cereal and squash and tonight, to celebrate his half-birthday, we’re going to try applesauce. He LOVES to eat and as soon as I pull a bib out, he starts getting so excited and flaps his arms up and down and kicks his little legs!

He’s getting better at naptimes. We have a whole routine down now. I get him in his little sleep sack and then we rock and read from his Jesus Story Bible (highly, highly, highly, HIGHLY recommended!) and then I lay him down and he’s out in a couple of minutes.

He’s discovered he can make his fingers move when he wants them to. And he is also sitting up by himself for a couple of minutes now. At least until he gets distracted and falls over. 🙂 He’s still a little snuggle bug – even though he is CONSTANT energy, he always, always, always wants to be held. He’s also learned to shake his head side to side like he’s saying “no”. TOO funny! At least for now… I have a feeling that will cease to be so cute one of these days!

As you can see, we had a GREAT time in Disney World! I hope you all have had a wonderful week! 🙂

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When I get to heaven, I’m going to walk right up to the Baby Whisperer and give her a huge hug.

She is not be the first in line for that hug, but trust me. She’ll definitely get one. Because as of tonight, Nathan has gone down for every nap in the last two days with little to no complaining and last night he slept ten and a half hours.

STRAIGHT.

I was so happy, I nearly cried this morning. After my last post, he was again up in the middle of the night for two hours and I decided I was losing my mind. He slept better when he was first home from the hospital than he was the last couple of weeks. In desperation, I started reading the Baby Whisperer books my friend Krista loaned me at 3AM one night.

And I think a combination of that and a TON of prayer has helped a lot!!!

So, I’m a bit more rested (thank you, Lord!!) and Nathan is quite a bit happier. We had a good day today – a super sweet woman, DJ, came over for a little bit this morning and we worked on our friend Leigh Ann’s baby shower (YAY!). Then, Nathan and I headed out to Kohls for some new jeans and we ran by Babies R Us for some squash.

Because, y’all, Nathan loves himself some squash. He’s the Squash Boy of this household. I gave him about a tablespoon of it the other day and he liked it okay, yesterday he had about half a jar and today, he ate the WHOLE jar.

Probably would have licked it clean if he had a cool mom who would let him do that. But he doesn’t, so he didn’t.

I have to show you his first impression on the squash. We tried it at my parents’ house two nights ago. Hilarious!

We also have a new member of the family:

Yep. Jon finally got his truck – and it’s got TONS of room for Nathan’s car seat in the back. And the best part is we were able to get such a great deal on it – it ended up being very close to what we got when we sold the Mustang. What a huge blessing! 🙂

What did you guys do today?

~~

We have had a rough couple of nights here. Nathan has woken up at least once and usually twice or three times in the middle of the night for the last few nights and he’s been all congested during the day too.

It’s so sad. So, yesterday, we finally went on the offensive. I bought almost every product available at Wal-Mart for sick babies and last night, we rubbed his chest with the Vicks BabyRub, sprayed saline in his nose and suctioned him out (which, as you can imagine, he just loves. Or not), and I found a little plug-in vaporizer thing that was recommended for babies.

And even with all of that, he was STILL up at 3 AM last night. And was up for at least an hour and a half – I finally just put him in his swing and fell asleep on the couch because nothing I did was helping. And then he slept until nine this morning. I kind of wonder if it’s because of the rice cereal – he has been SO gassy lately. Like painfully gassy. Moms out there – did your kids ever deal with stomach issues after starting solids?

Today, though, he’s been a little better. I’ve been suctioning him out every hour and spraying his nose with saline. And he’s even taken two decent naps today. Today was Jon’s first day back at work after Christmas break, so it was weird to be home without him but nice to be back in a routine.

I’m a girl who likes my routines. 🙂 I know, I know. Boring, boring, boring.

Even though he didn’t feel so good, he still was making faces at the dinner table. So, I had to share the less than flattering video of me which is also the super cute video of him. Notice the soaking burp cloth on the table. We like to keep things appetizing at my house.

Side note: As I was writing this, Jon was half playing with Nathan on the floor and half watching the Orange Bowl. He looked down and Nathan had rolled over from his back to his stomach for the first time and NEITHER OF US SAW IT.

Great timing there, kid. And then Jon and I got so excited about it that we scared him and he burst into tears.

Poor baby.

~~

So, I’ve never been one to make New Year’s resolutions. If I do, I usually make ones like this: “I resolve to pay for everything with pennies today.”

This year, though, I want to try and write more on this blog. That and I want to take at least one picture of Nathan every day. He changes SO much SO quickly – I just want to freeze time and capture every second of his little life.

And I’m finally putting up pictures of his dedication and first Christmas! There are probably going to be a zillion pictures in this post, and it’s more for me to remember than anything else, so be forewarned – long, long post ahead!

We dedicated him a few weeks ago at church and it was such a sweet service! Just in the first service alone, I think there was about 10 babies being dedicated – so wonderful! I always cry through baptisms and baby dedications – I think there’s something SO special about publicly declaring that you belong to Christ.

We had to read a verse that we chose for Nathan and we picked the verses I read right before I found out I was pregnant – 1 Samuel 1:27-28. “For this boy I prayed, and the Lord has given me my petition which I asked of Him. So I have also dedicated him to the Lord; as long as he lives he is dedicated to the Lord.”

I love how the whole time he was being dedicated Nathan was checking out the girl next to him. Maybe we should have picked a different verse. There’s got to be one in there that goes something like this: “And sons, you may only love your mother and grandmothers and that is it as far as females go forever.”

Apparently being dedicated is hard work. This was how he looked when we got to my parents’ house for lunch afterward. So we said, “Hey, Nathan!” And he did this:

Ha!

We spent Christmas Day in California with Jon’s family so we celebrated with my family the Wednesday before. And let me tell you – Nathan got spoiled ROTTEN over that week. Not only did he make out with some serious loot but he seriously spent maybe five whole minutes without being held.

Maybe five minutes. Probably more like four.

He got the hang of opening up presents after about thirty seconds. Then he was ripping through everything around him!

He got TONS of stuff from my family! Including his new best friend Pluto from Gammy and Pops – yay! Nathan LOVES him. It’s so adorable!

This was such a neat present from his great-grandma, Nama. The book can record someone reading it! So Nama recorded herself reading the book to Nathan – SO COOL!!

He got a walker from me and Jon and he just loves it! After celebrating Christmas with the Mangums, we packed up everything and headed to California on Christmas Eve to celebrate with the O’Briens. And I do mean everything:

Nathan also went on his first plane ride! The flight attendants were so sweet – they gave us a little certificate that said it was his first flight and he got his first set of wings. He did SO good on the plane! I was so worried we were going to be that family that everyone else hated. But he did awesome!

We had such a wonderful time with the California clan! Nathan got to meet his aunts and uncles and Great-Grandparents O’Brien for the first time. He did so well! He was fighting a cold the whole time we were there and he still managed to stay pretty happy for the most part!

I got lots of pictures of him meeting the Great O’Briens for the first time and I thought I’d gotten some of him seeing Great-Grandparents Hunt as well as all the aunts and uncles … BUT there were three of the exact same cameras there this last week and I think I picked up the wrong camera by mistake for one of those days. 🙁 SAD. I need to get my copies from the other girls!

Nonnie and Papa O took us to the airport and I thought this was just the cutest picture of the three of them!

Christmas – as always! – went by waaaay too fast! I can’t believe our little Nater-Tot’s first Christmas has been here and passed. And now we’re in 2011!

Where does the time go?

Finally, I had to post this video of Nathan. He is laughing SO much now and it just cracks us up because his laugh is so deep compared to his high little voice!

If you stuck with me this far (ha!), thanks! I hope you have a wonderful weekend!

~~

1 box of rice cereal = $2.14

1 package of rubber-tipped spoons = $3.99

1 set of blue truck bowls = $4.39

First time eating real food?

Priceless. 🙂

P.S. I’ll be posting about Nathan’s dedication and first Christmas hopefully tomorrow! I just had to share what happened tonight!

~~

We have so much to be thankful for this year!!

O Lord, You are my God; I will exalt You, I will give thanks to Your name; for You have worked wonders, plans formed long ago with perfect faithfulness…
Isaiah 25:1

Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, a virgin will be with child and bear a Son, and she will call His name Immanuel…
Isaiah 7:14

~~

I apologize for the lack of posts lately. Y’all know how I am around Christmas – pretty much, I turn into a nutcase and this year has been especially bad since I’ve now got a great reason to go crazy. BUT, unlike most years where I’m totally done shopping by two weeks before Christmas, I barely even started shopping this year until then. So, I’ve been running around like an insane person trying to get everything done before Christmas and this is really the only time I’ve had to write a quick post.

Note the word quick. 🙂 Hopefully, though, I’ll get a chance after Christmas to catch up on things! I have like a zillion pictures that I’ve taken over the last few days that I want to post. Our church did a Baby Dedication service where we dedicated Nathan and it was just SO special. So, prepare for TONS of pictures very soon!

I hope that you have a FABULOUS Christmas and that even in the midst of the craziness that you get a few minutes by yourself to just remember that Christ came as a baby boy… This is so real to me this year with our little Nater Tot here! I have been thinking a lot about how God gave us His Son… His Son. I can’t even imagine. I have a hard time letting people even hold Nathan – I can’t imagine giving him over to people who I knew would abuse and kill him.

It’s not even fathomable.

This year, I hope you are able to find time to be alone with Him.

It’s almost Christmas!!!

~~

I have no idea where the time is going. Even on days like yesterday where he was being absolutely awful, the days STILL fly by.

MOST of the time, he is a happy, happy boy. He squeals and talks and shrieks and yells all day long. Nathan wakes up around 6 to 6:30AM, nurses and then goes right back down until around 9 or so. However, today he slept until 7:20 and then slept again until about 10.

Yesterday must have worn us both out!

He still, by the grace of God, is being exclusively nursed. I am so so so thankful that the nursing is going so well! We’ve decided to start cereal and then changed our minds about six times by this point. 🙂 I think we might wait until after all of our Christmas festivities. One less new thing to adjust to for him!

He can roll easily from his tummy to his back now. Actually, most of the time I put him on his tummy he’s only on it for about two and a half seconds because then he flips over. He tries very hard to roll over from his back to his tummy, but that shoulder just gets in the way. 🙂 He’ll get there! He can also sit unsupported for a few seconds – we’re working on that.

Nathan LOVES to read! I hope that he will always appreciate reading. He’s a snuggler, so we are both very content to cuddle up on the couch with a few books and just read and read. He loves to grab for the pages now too, so those cardboard books are a great invention! 🙂

His other new favorite thing is to make this silly face:

Ha! He started doing it in the bath and Jon and I just rolled. So, now he does it all the time. He’s also discovered that coughing gets him attention (I think we have his best friend Noah to blame for that one!). 🙂 And he LOVES to blow raspberries. I wake up to him talking and blowing raspberries into the monitor.

He is SO ticklish! We can laugh forever tickling him because he has the funniest laugh! His little voice is so high, but his laugh is so deep – it just is the cutest thing. Jon caught it on video the other day (something of a miracle because everything stops when Nathan sees the video camera), so I’m going to try and upload that this week. So cute!

He grabs for everything!! It is almost impossible to drink something while holding him now because he is always reaching for it. No more hot drinks while snuggling in the morning! Jammie time has become one of my all-time favorite parts of the day – after we both wake up and he finishes nursing, he’ll just sit and snuggle for a long time and I just love it.

He is such a silly little guy. Even on cranky days like yesterday, we just love our little Nater Tot!

He met Santa and Mrs. Claus this past weekend, so I had to show the progression through pictures:

Ha! Such a silly boy! It went SO much better than I was envisioning – I was counting on tears and screaming, but he loved Santa! And he loved Santa’s beard! Ha!

We even got a decent family picture in – this isn’t the same one I’m using for our Christmas cards, but I thought it was cute too!

Have a great night!

~~

Well guys.

I had grand plans about posting Nathan’s five month post today filled with facts and cutesy pictures. But MY WORD has it been a Monday today. For whatever reason, Nathan decided that he didn’t need a nap today and decided to scream at the top of his lungs the whole day instead.

The top of his lungs. He got hoarse at one point but then he mustered up some more vocal cords from deep down and continued on.

I finally gave up hope of getting anything done around my house, packed the screaming boy into the car and went to the place that would most likely succeed in sucking all the rest of the Christmas spirit out of me – the post office.

Where the Nater-Tot and I stood in line for about 30-45 minutes. He, thank goodness, didn’t scream while we were there but decided to try and grab for everything that was within about ten feet of him. The diaper bag. The pen I was using. The labels I was adhering. The books I was mailing. The guy working the mail counter. The brochures about how easy moving is. The poor people behind me who just came back from a baby shower/funeral (I kid not).

Needless to say, there was a lot of twisting and I kept having to adjust my hold on him because, silly thoughtless girl that I am, I imagined it was going to be a quick wait and I didn’t bother to get the stroller out. We got back in the car and the screaming started up again.

So, I headed to the mall to get some Christmas gifts and maybe see another human being who would look at me as more than their next meal and a waiting eardrum to pop. And THANK GOODNESS my mother happened to be just going to the mall at the same time because I was seriously about to burst into tears (and did a little bit actually in Old Navy).

Y’all know that I love being a mom. Love it, love it. I cannot imagine a better life than the one I have right now. And I love Nathan more than I could ever imagine loving a child.

But that doesn’t mean that I don’t sometimes get very lonely at the house, or on days like today where he just screams and cries for no reason at all and nothing I do makes any difference that I don’t get frustrated. Sometimes I do wish that I could just sit and write in the mornings with no distractions again. There are days where I have to pray many times over for patience with my son.

So, my mom today at the mall was a HUGE help. I got intelligent conversation and she even got Nathan to stop screaming! It’s helpful even to be told feeling like this is very normal. I’m not just losing my mind! Ha! 🙂 And then Jon met us there and drove Nathan (who was back to screaming) home so I could drive the quiet car back. I love Mom and Jon so much! Thank you guys!

We got home and Nathan took, miraculously, a short nap before dinner. And I am now in my jammies and Jon took care of him all night. I’m so thankful for such a good husband. While I can usually find a smile for Nathan, Jon is the one to get all the flack. And I’m sorry for that. 🙁 And even on days like today where Nathan has been such a pill, all it takes it one adorable little smile while his daddy gives him a bath and I’m all back to loving being a mom.

So, all this to say that Nathan’s five month post will hopefully be up tomorrow!

Also, I’ve gotten a few fun things that I just have to share especially since the rest of this post has been such a bummer!

This is a book trailer that Jewell Kirkendoll, a 7th grade student at Moore MST Magnet School in Texas made for Miss Match. Isn’t it great? I loved seeing this! Thanks so much, Jewell!

And this is a picture of my uncle David Terry, aunt Dolly, my two cousins, Marissa and Rachel and my grandma, Nama (or as she’s known in her real life, Eloise Terry), with Michael W. Smith and David Hamilton (who works with Michael). TOO FUN. I’m having serious envy of my book right here, which I didn’t even know could be possible. Miss Match has met Michael W. Smith!

SO cool! Thank you so much, guys, for taking my books there!! 🙂 Love you all!

Well. The Nater Tot is now in bed and I’m about to make a pan of gingerbread cookies, courtesy of Pillsbury. It is definitely a good time for cookies. Hope all of us have a restful night!

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