Summertime Walks With Daddy

About 3-4 times a week this summer, Jeremy and Nathan have been taking father/son walks around the block. We live in kind of an interesting neighborhood. All lots are an acre. There are "bridle trails" that run between the lots and therefore a lot of people keep horses on their large lots and ride them around. Jeremy and Nathan like to walk around the bridle trails and back home. They make a block. It's the cutest thing. I decided to go along with them and photograph the steps they take.



The first stop on the walk is feeding carrots to the horses that live behind us. There are 4 of them and Nathan likes to hold out the carrot.


Horses noses are soft!



Next stop is picking boysenberries. Nathan LOVES these. He will double fist them one after the next into his mouth.


Daddy is good at picking the berries and Nathan is good at eating them.


Next, they run up Sunrise Road together. Nathan is still eating boysenberries.


Time to make the turn onto Greenfield Road and head for home!


This little face is covered in boysenberries


Time to wash off our hands in the water


Nathan also enjoys pushing his own stroller


Eventually though, Nathan doesn't want to push so HE ends up getting pushed.


Walking around the neighborhood!

Julie's wedding

Nathan attended his first wedding this last weekend! My cousin Julie and Ragan got married in Wenatchee. It was SO beautiful! The weather was gorgeous and my Aunt did an amazing job. We had a great time. Nathan did very well. It was his first time wearing dress shoes and he wasn't a very big fan. He did get quite a few compliments on how cute he was though! About 9:30 though, Nathan began to kind of fall apart. He usually goes to bed around 8:30 and he was getting so tired. We packed up the car and he was asleep in less then 5 minutes! It was sad to have to leave early, but I guess that's life with a 2 year old.


Laura with Ragan and Julie


Jeremy feeding Nathan dinner out of our cooler. We have to take food everywhere for Nathan. He can't eat food unless we know what's in it.


Laura and I. We didn't mean to dress like twins. It just happened!


Nathan and Grandpa


A family photo


Before the wedding, 3 pairs of black shoes were shined. (Grandpa's, Dada's, and Nathan's). The little shoes were so cute!

Nathan's 2nd Birthday Party

Jeremy is currently in the middle of a week long vacation. My cousin Julie got married in Wenatchee last weekend and we decided it would be a good time to visit my family in Royal City. While there, we had Nathan's 2nd birthday party since the family was all there anyway! Plus, it would be much closer for those family that live in Yakima.

Nathan had a fun time at his party. His favorite part was opening the presents. He didn't seem to care much about what was inside. He just liked ripping the paper off. He'd rip it off one gift and move on to the next! He got lots of new books and clothes from Grandpa and Grandma. He LOVED the plastic fruit Aunt Laura got for him too! He sucked on those things all afternoon. We wondered if there was tasty lead on them or something?

My Mom has perfected an egg-free cake so we had some delicious birthday cake. It's hard to make a fancy cake with all the restrictions, but at least we'll have a home made one that tastes good! Thanks Mom!

Nathan's little buddy KJ lives in Royal. They're about the same age so we like to play when we come to visit. KJ came to the party too! They had a fun time playing with the big sprinkler ball that KJ got Nathan for his birthday.

Grandpa Ray and Kim were able to come up from Yakima for the party so that was great! Grandpa Ray got Nathan a fun little battery powered four-wheeler that we've been trying to show him how to use! We don't have much cement at our house, so Nathan can't go too far.

We got Nathan a fun play kitchen. He likes putting things in his fridge and microwave and cooking like Mommy does. It's adorable. Now that he has fake fruit, he'll fry it up in his little frying pan and then put it in the oven. It's cute.


Nathan hanging out in Royal City with Dad, Aunt Laura, Grandpa, and Grandma



KJ and Nathan playing with a big ball. It makes them look small. Very cute.




Nathan trying to blow out his candles


Nathan loved this plastic fruit and tried to eat it instead of his cake



Nathan gave KJ a hug.




Playing puzzles with Grandpa Ray



The best part was ripping the paper off gifts



Ripping apart the BIG present


Cooking in the kitchen



Boiling potatoes

Nathan is 2 today!

August 15, 2007-Nathan is here! 8 lbs, 5 oz, 21 inches long. It was the beginning of a rough 6 months trying to figure out why he didn't gain weight and cried constantly. Turns out it was severe allergies! He got a little (ok, a lot) beat up coming out after he got stuck and had to be pulled out with forceps.



August 15, 2009-Nathan is 2! He's happy and healthy and we've got everything figured out. He's looking much better than 2 years ago! Not to mention he looks a lot like Daddy (except for this blond hair...we still haven't figured that one out!)



Nathan is 2 years old today! It's hard to believe he got so big so fast. We bought him a little kitchen for his birthday. Jeremy got it put all together last night so it was set up in the living room when Nathan got up this morning. He loves it! We've been pretend playing all day with it. I'll have to do a blog later about it. Here are some fun things Nathan does at 2 years old.

-follows Daddy everywhere
-likes to pretend play with his stuffed animals...feeding them, etc
-likes to look at books that have foods in them and then has his animals eat the foods out of the book. He pretends to eat the foods too.
-likes to pretend play with Mom and Dad. He likes to put us down for naps
-he likes to play outside and water plants
-he's good at eating a lot of different foods. He pretty much eats anything except whole pieces of meat.
-he's good with a fork and decent with a spoon
-he still only has about 10-15 words total. There is no talking going on here!! Definitely no two word phrases.
-he can point out anything you ask for in any book or magazine
-points at everything and uses grunting for communication
-finally getting to the point of liking Storytime at the library. He'll actually listen to some of the story before wanting to run around
-climbs on everything
-never stops moving...EVER! This child has so much energy it is ridiculous. He won't sit still to do anything. He won't even watch any TV for more than 2 minutes. He has to be moving constantly.
-he's good at jumping!
-he likes to dance to music in the car and do thumbs up.
-he likes to listen to people talk to him on the phone. He won't talk back, but he loves to listen
-his favorite word is "Laura." It's the only word he knows that is difficult or out of the ordinary.
-he likes to feed the neighbor horses carrots
-he likes to eat blueberries, tomatoes, and boysenberries off the plants...it's so cute!
-he likes to take walks around the block with Daddy

We know that when February comes around, he's going to make a great big brother!!

Nathan's first time in a real pool!

Yesterday, our friends Nick and Sara were driving through town. They were at the end of a very long road trip! They decided to stay the night in Spokane and chose a hotel with a pool. We wanted to go see them and have dinner and maybe see if Nathan wanted to try swimming.

I was apprehensive that he would not like swimming since he doesn't much like his baby pool. He doesn't like getting his clothes wet, and he doesn't understand that you're SUPPOSED to get swimsuits wet. So he'll usually climb out of his little pool complaining he wants dry shorts.

Well, we got him into the pool with Jeremy and he LOVED it! He did GREAT for his first time swimming. It was a hotel pool and the water was quite cold. Nathan was shivering a little bit, but was still all smiles with Daddy. I couldn't believe it! I'm so glad he likes the water so much. Having Daddy there probably made a big difference as well!



Kick, kick, kick!




I love this one. Nathan has such a BIG smile!






I got everyone in this picture! Jeremy with Nathan. Nick with Claire and Adam.



At the beginning, he was a little apprehensive, and the water was cold. Once he got in, he loved it!

Daddy and Me

Nathan has become obsessed with his Dada. He wants Dada to do everything for him. If Dad's around, I am not allowed to feed Nathan, change his diaper, change his clothes, or play with him. He only wants Dad. It's kind of cute, but poor Jeremy! Every minute he's home, Nathan wants to play. Has he already figured out that Dada is a guy like him and he wants to play guy stuff?


Nathan wanted to wear boots like his Dad. They fit well huh?


He's Daddy's son. Not even 2 and he's working on proper shotgun form.


Nathan trails Jeremy all over. Here they are getting the mail.


Cloud watching. Storm clouds look very cool!