Saturday, August 30, 2014

Glasses!


Here's my first photo of Nathan in his new glasses. 

We found out he has a type of "lazy" eye. His right eye sees perfectly at 20/20. However, for whatever reason, this eye has decided to take over and do all the work. His left eye has gotten "lazy"  and doesn't do much of the work. 
We are so happy we caught it now in hopes this can be corrected and his left eye can be forced to work harder. He may never be 20/20 in that eye but the doctor told us if not corrected he could eventually lose the vision in that eye. 
At first, he did not want to wear his glasses. However, once he realized how much better he could see, he was amazed and has been wearing them ever since. 
When he first put them on, he looked at a Where's Waldo puzzle and said, "Oh my gosh, I can see all these little things!! I guess they really were blurry and I didn't know!" 

Thursday, August 28, 2014

Summer Downpour

The weirdest thing happened the other day. We were having a perfectly normal hot, sunny day. All of a sudden, we saw a big black storm moving in. For about 5 minutes, it absolutely DOWNPOURED. It was crazy for August. Water was just rushing down the street. The kids didn't want to go out when it was raining (even though it was nice and warm with big fat drops). 

Elizabeth pulled on her rainboots and was ready to splash around in puddles. 

Soon enough, the clouds rolled out and the blue sky took over once again. So crazy! 

Stomping around in all the water rushing down the street. 



Giving orders to somebody...


We did some hulahooping. Both kids are getting quite good! 


Wednesday, August 27, 2014

Beautiful Flowers


Look Grandma Pam! We planted the flowers you gave us. Here are a few Elizabeth picked. She does love picking flowers. 

Tuesday, August 26, 2014

First day of 1st Grade!!!



We have a 1st grader! Somehow we all managed to get out the door at 8:15. After today, just Nathan will walk down to the bus by himself and we won't have to have Elizabeth and myself ready too!








The bus should arrive back home at 3:33. This year, we aren't required to be at the bus stop to meet him so he's going to run home! 


Monday, August 25, 2014

Nathan at 7


Here are a few things about Nathan at 7. 

He starts 1st grade TOMORROW. It's going to be so strange to have him gone from 8:15 to 3:30 every day. Last year, the half days didn't seem like he was gone for too long. Our neighborhood kids get to ride on the "rainbow" bus this year. He is quite excited about that. Last year, he was on "brown" bus. 

Nathan is getting glasses! At his 7 year checkup, the pediatrician's nurse checked his eyes and said his right eye is 20/20 but his left eye is 20/100. I had him into the eye doctor the next day. Sure enough, his right eye is dominating and not giving his left a chance. The poor little guy! Somehow he's managed to adjust with bad eyesight. We never would have known since his grades have been excellent and he reads just fine! His glasses should arrive this week. 

He's down 3 teeth now. The upper one is a bit wiggly. He'll be needing his 2 front teeth for Christmas! 

He's still an excellent sleeper and usually sleeps from about 9 to 7. This is the perfect time to wake up for school so I don't anticipate any problems at this point getting him off to the bus on time. 

For the first time in 7 years, one of Nathan's food allergies improved! His milk IgE level dropped from a "very high" to a "high." We were quite excited. The number is actually close to "moderate!!" Perhaps someday, he will outgrow the milk allergy!  His egg and peanut levels did not change and remain at "very high." This year, he will be eating lunch at  school so I'm going to be quite nervous the first few days. He'll have an epi-pen in his backpack and another in his lunch box and another in the office. If something happens, we just have to hope someone will recognize the problem and give him the medicine! 

He weighs about 54 pounds and is 4 feet tall. He's perfectly average in both categories. We must be doing something to feed him right even with all his allergies. 

Last year, he just loved kindergarten. He did very well. He says he loves reading and he writes very imaginative stories. I hope he will continue to love school and do well in first grade. They added another 1st grade this year so there will be 5 classes. At this point, there will only be 20-21 kids in a class so that will be wonderful! New houses are being built all the time around us though so I'm sure they'll get a few more kids as the year progresses. 

When he and Elizabeth aren't fighting, they like playing imaginative games together. They like to play My Little Ponies where they pretend they're ponies. They still like to play house too. 

He loves gardening and composting. He's started a compost bin of his own. He says we need better soil in our garden so he'll take care of that. He adds compost every day and mixes it around. There does appear to be some "dirt" in there now! Currently, he says he wants to be a farmer when he grows up. 

Pippa is still an obsession. He still pretends he's Pippa all time time (although not as much as last year). 

Friday, August 22, 2014

Nathan's 7th birthday party

We had a pool party for Nathan's birthday. He had several friends from school who were able to make it over. 

The pool got a bit crowded, but it was still fun!



The kids all had little water guns. The turtle was the fill up station. 


Nathan getting squirted with water. 


Papa Norm and Gram were able to come. 


Kim and Auntie Laura were also there! No Pippa though...



More fun in the pool. That silly Papa Ray was shooting water at everyone. 





Getting his cupcakes ready. 


Everyone eating cupcakes. 


Nathan opened all his presents. 


Uncle Brian arrived and brought Mickey mouse hands!


Balloon games with Uncle Brian. 



Thursday, August 21, 2014

A visit to Papa Ray and Kim's



The kids played in the hot tub as usual!!



Look, Nathan made it around all cones!


This time, he knocked them all down on purpose. 

Drawing some beautiful pictures for Kim. 



Nathan got some really cool presents! He got a car ramp toy, a bug sucker upper (what he calls it), and a cool sidewalk chalk kit. 


Elizabeth created her shapes with play dough. 


The completed sidewalk pictures! Nathan actually measured how long his shirt and shorts were so that he could make a perfect Nathan. 


Since it was Nathan's birthday, we came  home and opened presents. Grandma Pam got Nathan this really cool set of books! 


He opened some other presents from us. 


There had been a HUGE windstorm come through while we were gone. Our back deck looked like this. We had all kinds of weird stuff in our yard too. 

Wednesday, August 20, 2014

Explorer Academy



Every year, Explorer Academy falls on Nathan's birthday. This year, we went down for a short visit. We ate lunch with Jeremy. The explorers served us! They all sang Happy Birthday to Nathan. Also, Nathan got to give them orders! (Pictured above). Jeremy whispered the orders and Nathan yelled them. He thought it was great and said it was the best birthday ever. 

Tuesday, August 19, 2014

Playing at Papa and Gram's


Jeremy left for a week to go to Explorer's Academy. It's hard to be without him for all of us. We went and spent a few days in Royal. 

Nathan wore his Pippa costume to play with Pippa. Pippa actually thought he was another dog!!


She wears 4 crowns at once. The queen of 4 places...not surprised. 


Pippa love tummy rubs. 

A cute kitty


Snuggles with Auntie Laura


Silly faces


The pop says "Share with Brian." 


Pippa got a party dress and crown! She didn't complain!

20 nails and 20 colors. Auntie Laura worked hard!!!


We had a playdate with friends and Elizabeth turned into Merida. 


Nathan dressed as a shark watching Shark Week. Also, sharks like to play tug of war with dogs. 

Nathan turned 7 the Friday we were there!! 


7 candles and blowing just air. 

She can fit a lot of cupcake in her mouth. 


Pippa got to go to the waterpark!!


Nathan opened up a few presents on his birthday. Here is his cool bow and arrow set! 

Bonfire

 Jeremy and Nathan went up to Ellensburg for a bonfire. Elizabeth was really sick and I stayed home with her. Jeremy took a few photos. Nath...