Growing Up

Nathan and Charlotte are growing and changing so fast! They are both at the cutest ages right now and are so much fun to watch and listen too. The other day, I had the thought, "I wish time could stop right here." But then I realized that since they were babies, I always thought each "stage" was so sweet, and how could it get any better? But then it does! So I thought the best thing for me to do is to try writing down some of my favorite things going on right now with each of them.

NATHAN:

From the time you were little, you had such an outgoing personality! That is one thing that has not changed about you. I remember going to visit Grandma when you were 3 and you would march right through the dining room while everyone was eating lunch and wave with each hand and give hugs and kisses and be so sweet and happy! Mama and I used to joke that you were acting like a little politician. And that is what makes me laugh about your personality now. You are such a thinker, especially when it comes to getting out of trouble (yes, you can be very mischievous at times!)

In the past few months, whenever Mommy or Daddy get on to you about something, we have noticed you saying, "I'm sorry, it's all my fault. I shouldn't have done that." and you say it with such a sad voice while hanging your head. It broke my heart when I first heard you say it, and I quickly said, "Oh baby, no, it's ok, it was an accident. It's not your fault." Well, you kept saying that for a while off and on. And the other day, I got mad at you because you were swinging a stuffed animal around and throwing it at Charlotte. Even though I kept telling you to stop, you didn't. You ended up hitting her with it and giving her a fat lip. I was so irritated at you for not listening to me, and then you did your "I'm sorry Mommy, it was my fault" speech. And I said, "Yes, Nathan, it was your fault because I told you not to do that." Nathan was so confused and said, "Mommy, if someone says it's their fault, you have to say no it's not your fault and not be mad at them" My little politician.

As you get older, you are also getting more independent. I used to always pick out your clothes, dress you, wash you, and brush your teeth. Now you do it all! It is nice, but it is such a reminder of how you are growing up. Because you love to get yourself dressed now, there will be times that it isn't even close to being time for bed, but you will disappear to your room and come down in your pajamas and pull-up on! Yesterday, you came down in fleece Thomas pj's that you wore when you were 3! I guess I need to clean some stuff out. Now I've put all of your shorts and t-shirts in your bottom 2 drawers so that it's easy for you to pick something out that matches pretty well. And when it comes to taking a bath...actually you are liking the shower nowadays, all I have to do is hand you the soap and you do the rest!

Before our beach trip, you begged me to get you some "big boy" flip flops, not the kind that have the strap in the back. This was one time that you LOVED going from shop to shop in the mall looking for these big boy flip-flops. You ended up getting two pairs, one from Gymboree with surf boards on them and one from Old Navy with skulls! I guess those were the most "grown up" ones. It was so cute to see how proud of them you were. You wore them all day and only took them off as you climbed into bed. You left them right next to your bed and put them on again as soon as you woke up.

But even though you are getting bigger in many ways, you are still so cute about being a little scared to be in a room by yourself. You always ask Mommy or Daddy to go with you to turn the light on upstairs if you want to play or to go with  you to go to the bathroom. At first we did, but then we started telling you to be brave and do it on your own. Well, now you just get Charlotte to go with you! Problem solved! It's so funny that you don't care who goes with you: Mommy or a 2 year old! And the sweetest thing is that you don't always like to sleep in your room by yourself. A few weeks ago, you were so easy to put to bed...which was strange. Charlotte was already asleep, and you told us you were ready to go to sleep too. You gave us each kisses and didn't whine about wanting to stay up or ask me to sit with you while you fell asleep. I knew something was up but didn't say anything. I tucked you in, and you cheerfully said "Good night Mommy!" What in the world is going on here? So I closed the door, confused, waited a few minutes, heard some moving around, and then opened the door to check on you. You weren't in your bed, but the bathroom door and door to Charlotte's room was open. I found that you had taken your nap mat, blanket, and pillow to Charlotte's room, and there you were all cuddled up on her floor. It was so funny to me that you must have planned this earlier in the night and that's why you were so eager to go to bed. As of now, you still sneak in there every once in a while for naps and sleeping.

The last thing that is really a reminder of you getting bigger is the way you talk. You started talking very early and were always learning new words. And as you got older, your baby words became big boy words, but there is one baby word that you still had (until just a few weeks ago). Instead of saying REMEMBER, you always said LIMBER: "Mommy, limber that time I fell off my bike and scraped my hand?" or "Limber when we went to Disney World?" I secretly loved that you still had this "baby" word. In the last two weeks, you have realized  that you are not saying it the right way. You practiced and practiced saying re-mem-ber. And you kept wanting to use it in sentences as much as you could so that you could practice. We have been reminiscing about every little thing lately! And now, you say it the right way. Daddy was proud of you. I'm proud too, but it does make me a little sad. But then I noticed that you still have one more baby word: WISS which stands for WITH: "Charlotte, will you come wiss me to go upstairs?" That makes me happy :)

My little Nay-Nay is growing up! The one thing we are working on right now is being able to go to bed without a pull-up on. His pull-up is still wet in the morning about half the time. I never really thought it was that big of a deal and he didn't either until we were at the family reunion, and we were sharing a condo with Uncle Stuart and his family. Nathan and his cousins, Logan and Landon, slept together in the living room on the pull out couch. They slept in just their underwear and after the second night, Nathan begged us to let him sleep in just his undies. He was so sad because he didn't want to be different. I ended up compromising with him and got him to be ok with sleeping just his pajama shorts, no shirt, but have a pull-up on underneath. It made me sad for him, because that is one thing he really wants to be able to do. So that's our goal this month...we'll see how it goes! He will be 5 in just a few weeks, and I can't believe it! He is such a special little boy and although he can be naughty at times, he is such a sweet, sweet boy. He even tells us that we can go to college with him when he's older...he said he'd sneak us in there in his suitcase! We just love him so much.