Weekend in Austin Day 1

Nathan and I took a road trip to Austin to visit Auntie Carrie while she was on Spring Break. Carrie and I had a little shopping to do so we figured we'd get that out of the way in the very beginning and then spend the rest of our time doing fun things with Nathan. We got into town at lunch time and since I was craving a fattening milkshake, we met at Steak N Shake for a bite of lunch before we shopped.

I ordered Nathan a mini burger thinking that was healthier since it was a smaller portion. He did like it, but decided it was better without the bun!

After Carrie and I hit a few stores, Nathan wanted to get out of the stroller and walk. He found this fountain and was so excited!

"Water, Water!!!" is what Nathan kept yelling. Auntie Carrie gave him some pennies to throw into the fountain, and he thought that was the most fun.

"I know she has to have more money in here."

After Nathan pulled out Carrie's makeup bag and dumped it on the ground, she decided to help the impatient little guy get a few more coins.

After shopping, Nathan was worn out. We went home to take a nap and then took Nathan to get a haircut. His last one was before Christmas!

Is that not the sweetest face you've ever seen? Nathan was a really good boy during his haircut. It helped that he was able to watch cartoons and sit in a fire truck!

And because he was so good, he got a lolly pop! Look at this sweet face, you would never believe how he acted right before he got his lolly. Lucky for you I have the video....The title of this video is "Give me my lolly...and I mean NOW!!!"

And now we're back to being Mr. Polite :)

Only Auntie Carrie would let Nathan have a Go Gurt (yogurt in a tube) in the bathtub!

"This definitely makes bath time so much more fun!"

And after our dinner and yogurt bath, Carrie got out the playdoh. Nathan's first instinct was to eat it...story of his life...but he soon got the idea.

"Look Auntie Carrie, this is how you roll it into a ball."

"I made a fish!"

We ended the night with story time. Nathan had so much fun, but was also SO tired!

Kisses to everyone, especially Otis, before bed time.

Addicted to Dumbo

Last week Nathan had a cold, was teething, wasn't eating, and was just in an overall BAD mood. This is so unlike Nathan! If something didn't go his way, he would throw himself down on the ground and have a fit. I tried to ignore him most of the time, tried time out, tried EVERYTHING! The one thing I found that made him happy and made him forget that he wasn't feeling well was Dumbo. I really do try to limit his TV time, but last week was a huge exception. I won't even try to guess how many times we watched it, but at least it gave us both some peace. As long has Nathan had Doggie, Blankie, and "Bumbo," life was good!



"Doggie, I'm thinking your ears are a bit like Bumbo's"



"Look Mommy, this is my favorite part!"



"Why can't Dumbo just be with his Mommy?"

We Have Visitors!

A few days ago, I stepped outside to see what the weather was like, and this is what I found in our pool! Aren't they a cute couple? Nathan was inside finishing his breakfast so I ran in to get him because I knew he'd be so excited to see ducks up close. I took some videos of him to get his reaction...As you will see, he wasn't quite as excited about them as I thought he'd be. For some reason, he thought he needed to take his truck out to see the ducks, but ended up scaring them off

I'll Do Anything for Food!

Not only is Nathan absolutely adorable, he also has nice manners! He says hi and bye to everyone, which is especially cute when we're out in public. He also says "Thank you." His thank you sounds like "tink you." He says it whenever I give him something, or someone else gives him something. He even said thank you through his tears when he got his 18 month shots, and the nurse gave him a band-aid. And when I dropped him off at the church nursery, he was crying so hard because he didn't want me to leave. After handing him over, I stepped to the side of the door to see if he'd calm down. I heard one of the women offer him a cookie, and while trying to catch his breath, he let out a pitiful "Tink You." What's really funny is when he steals a toy from one of his friends (or takes something from my purse) and says "Tink you." I guess he's disguising the fact that he just took something that wasn't his or meant to be his, with his nice manners. So who can be mad at him? Well, his new word is please (peese). I have been trying to get him to say please FOREVER, but he never did it for me. Then one day, Daddy was getting a treat from the pantry. Whenever Daddy goes to the pantry, Nathan stops whatever it is he's doing and races over there in hopes of getting a bite. Daddy usually just gives it to him, but on this day, he held out until Nathan finally said "Peese!" So here is a video from the other day. As you will see, they both got carried away!

A Day at the Park

Last Sunday was another beautiful day (I can't believe I'm a week behind in my blogging!) so after church, we ate lunch at The Original Pancake House, then went home to change clothes and headed to the park. It's so strange to look at these pictures with Nathan wearing shorts, blue skies, and the sun shining. This last week has been: miserable, raining, cold...did I mention MISERABLE?! We've been cooped up all week so we're hoping next week is pretty again. Anyway, sorry for the "Debbie Downer" moment. Here are a few of our pictures:


Nathan with his best friend, "Dog."


"On guard to anyone passing by. I have a big stick!"

Nathan is never interested in the little sticks, only the great big huge ones that are hard to hold, covered with dirt, and very scary to anyone near him.

If I were a responsible mother, I'd probably tell him to throw that stick down, but look how much fun he's having! It's like he's so proud to have found the very best stick at the park.

Plus it seems to help him find his way :)

After we played on the playground for a while, we took a walk on the trails, which is here Nathan found his stick. Of course, when we first pulled into the parking lot, Nathan just HAD to have his dog come with him. Dog did swing and go on the slides with Nathan, but once we started walking and he found this stick, poor Dog was old news.

"Don't worry Dog, you're still my best friend. In fact, I actually picked up this stick thinking you might want to play with it. I did it for you."

Sure Nathan, sure.



Nathan, as soon as it's pretty outside again, the park is the first place we'll go!!!!

Ft. Worth zoo

Last weekend was a weekend packed full of fun! Friday night, Nathan spent the night with Mama and Papa while Mommy and Daddy had a night out. This has gotten to be a weekly tradition, and I hope it stays that way! Nathan loves being with Mama and Papa, they love having him all to themselves, and Wayne and I love our night out. We went to dinner, then to a movie, and slept late the next morning. HEAVEN! What's even better is that my parents pick him up AND bring him back! When Nathan got back the next morning, we loaded up the car and headed to the Ft. Worth zoo. Nathan loves, loves, LOVES animals. Plus Dumbo is his new favorite movie so we thought he'd love seeing the animals up close.


Here are my two men mapping out the day. "Daddy, I'm thinking we go to the monkeys first, THEN the elephants."



The chimps were very entertaining. Nathan kept yelling "nana" at them, which is his shortened word for banana.

Nathan couldn't wait to see his friend "Dumbo." Here he is waving at his elephant friends.

After strolling around for a while, Nathan was ready to get out and run around. We found this sand area that was perfect for him. He even made some new friends!

Nathan loves to put bags, or anything with a strap or handle on his arm (like he's carrying a purse) and say "Bye" as he walks away. This bucket was perfect for him. It's so funny to see how much he copies both of us and since he's with me most of the day, the purse thing is the best way he can copy me. At least he's not putting on lipstick...well...that only happened once :)

Nathan loved the fish so the aquarium will have to be our next big outing. Or we can just go back to the pet store.

At the end of the day, we decided to take the train back to the entrance. Nathan was so excited when he saw the "Choo-Choo." We waited in line, but weren't able to get onto the first train so we had to wait for the next one. Luckily there were some little girls ahead of us that kept Nathan entertained. He was so cute and did all of his tricks for them. His favorite thing is to see how high he can jump. They laughed and laughed at him, and I could tell he loved showing off. When we finally got on the train, we had to wait even longer for the rest of the people to board. Nathan got antsy and threw a fit because he wanted to get down and walk around instead of sitting on our laps. After Daddy had a talk with him, he calmed down :)

Here he is thinking about the bad choice he made.

"I promise I'll try not to throw another fit and be a good boy."

Any kind of snack, especially a box of raisins, is always a good distraction.

Once the train started moving, Nathan got so excited! He kept pointing to every little thing we saw and saying "Oooooh, Ooooooh." He also did this when we were walking around the zoo. But what's funny is that he spent most of the time riding in his stroller or having us carry him. He got excited seeing the animals, but not as excited as he got when we let him get down and walk. He ran up to trees and flowers and trash cans pointing and yelling "Oh wow!" At one point, we found an area that had colorful parrots that were really close. I called Nathan over to see them. He looked for a minute and then ran to something next to it, pointing and screaming like he was so excited. When we went to see what this magnificent thing was he found, we saw it was a tree stump! How easily entertained he is :)

Nathan was totally exhausted afterwards. This is him before we even left the parking lot! Mean Mommy tried to keep him up as long as I could so that he'd take a good nap at home (Wayne and I needed one too!). The only problem was that we were 45 minutes away from home! He stayed up for a while and then it was no use, but he still took a 2 1/2 hour nap and could have gone longer, but I had to wake him up so that he'd be ready for bed that night. Here are two videos from our day. The first is of Nathan jumping and the 2nd is an outtake of Wayne trying to take our picture but doing a video instead :)