The Only Time My Son Will Be Seen In Burnt Orange (aka Ashley's Graduation)

The weekend that Jimmy was returning from Germany was also Ashley's graduation weekend from that little school up the road from College Station. Because we love Aunt Ashley, Nathan wore a special shirt just for her special day. I was pretty sure it was going to give him some kind of bad rash, but he was okay after all. Her graduation was at 8:30am Saturday morning, so I packed the two of us up and headed to Austin Friday afternoon. Let's just say its a lot harder to go on trips without Jimmy along to help. We stayed with Aunt Kimberley on Friday night and got to play with cousin Breydon and cousin Chance for a while (oh, and we saw Uncle Kevin too). They even got to take a bath together before bedtime. What a cute bunch of boys!

Saturday morning we woke up early and headed to the auditorium where the ceremony was being held. We sat with Lolo, Momo and Popo as well as Aunt Linda and Uncle Pete and Ashley's beau, Miguel. Nathan did really great and even slept for about a half hour or so. The rest of the time he spent lap hopping and we took turns letting him walk up and down the corridor outside our section. Of course the Textiles and Apparel college graduates were the last group to go, so we were there for a good long while. You could tell when that group got up to go primarily because of their shoes. I wish I had a close up picture of the shoes Ashley was wearing. Calves of steel and the balance of a ballerina were required to function in them, but she walked like they were flip flops!  Here's the best I can do:

After graduation we took pictures then all went and met a bunch of her friends and some more family at Russell's Bistro for brunch and had a really yummy meal. While we were waiting for Ashley to arrive, Lolo and Linda did some window shopping at a little boutique right down the sidewalk. Lolo took the next step and bought Nathan the most adorable hat I've ever seen. He wears it now to church sometimes and always gets so many compliments.  Nathan was good for the whole meal but didn't really get that much attention, as usual. 

We left for home right after brunch since Nathan was exhausted at this point and I wanted to be home in time for Jimmy to get home from the airport. Nathan slept almost the whole way back (wonderful). Soon after we got home we quickly changed into our play clothes, which just so happened to be in more appropriate colors (Whoop!). 

It was an exhausting weekend for me traveling with him alone but I had so much help while we were in Austin. I'm so glad we were able to be there even though Jimmy couldn't make it.  We are so proud of our Ashley!!

Germany 2012

 

You may remember back from my Mother's Day post that Jimmy jetted off to Germany for a conference. The event was called the "Mathematical Physics of Complex Networks: From Graph Theory to Biological Physics" conference at the Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems in Dresden. A bit of a mouthful, but I've learned that physicists love them some loooong titles. For example, Jimmy's paper that was published in February was, "Robust Detection of Hierarchical Communities from Escherichia coli Gene Expression Data."  They also like to use made-up words like "betweenness," but that's a post for another day.

Fortunately, Jimmy was able to FaceTime with us from the iPad while he was gone so Nathan and I didn't miss him toooo much. The conference was also structured to allow enough time to do some sight seeing around Dresden, and Jimmy saw some really beautiful buildings and statues. Of course he had no idea what he was seeing (until he googled it from his room) so you are going to have to do the same thing. Oh, and the adorable bear is the button-in-ear Steiff he brought back for Nathan.  I received a beautiful little Meissen porcelain vase. Enjoy this scenic tour of Dresden! 

Inside the Max Planck Institute

Jimmy's cell

Fountain at Albertplatz

View from outside the Institute

Church of Our Lady (Frauenkirche)

Equestrian Statue of King John of Saxonyin

Oh look! He was there!!

And he enjoyed a refreshing German beverage.

The Goldener Reiter (Golden Rider) - Augustus the Strong

The End

Nathan's 16(ish) Month Update!!

 So you probably thought I'd given up on this blogging thing after a 3 month break. We'll just consider that a little quarter break and I'm going to try to get caught up on what has been happening for the last several months. I'll generally go in chronological order except for this first post, which will be an update on Nathan since, let's be honest, that's all you care about anyway.  And, for whatever reason, the website won't let me put these pictures where I want them, so I left them in here wherever they would load.  Maybe I can fix it later.

This is "Nathan's cabinet" that he keeps his plastic bowls, spoon and go-cups in. 

All train conductors wear sailor hats...when their Lolo gets back from Hawaii with presents.

This was one day I stayed home with Nathan when he was sick.  He was pretty snuggly that day.

New favorite hobby...reorganizing the pantry for mommy.  Includes arranging water and soda bottles and stacking cat food cans to his satisfaction.  Also examining the back of the Honey Nut Cheerios box (because there's a girl on there he thinks is his Aunt Ashley).

My precious baby boy isn't such a baby anymore! At 15 months he was 23 lbs 9 oz (37th %ile), 33 inches long (94th  %ile) with a head circumference of 18.3 inches (31st %ile). At a recent visit he was around 25 pounds and I swear he carries rocks in his pockets. He is growing out of his 18 month shirts although he can still fit in some 12 month pants. Mostly he's in size 18 month all around but we've had to buy a few 24 month shirts.  He's in size 4 diapers still and size 5 shoes.  He now has his 4 bottom teeth, 4 on top and is currently cutting all 4 "one year" molars. Fun times had by all. The good thing about that is he is eating a slightly wider variety of foods and can chew them a lot better.

He is still sleeping through the night although we have had a few nights where gas/bad dreams/teething/fill in mystery baby ailment here have kept me out of my own bed for several minutes to several hours. We did recently put him back into one piece footie pajamas because his two-piece jammies were getting too small and the shirt would ride up and expose his belly/back and wake him up cold at night.

Going back to eating, he is still moderately picky and I find myself relying on the Gerber pre-packaged meals both because he eats them and because they are quick. Even when I leave work "on time" I still have a long commute and because he doesn't eat a good lunch at school he's ready to eat pretty soon after we get home. I have some mommy guilt about that but until I find something else other than scrambled eggs (one of his regular dinners) that he will eat they will have to do. Fortunately he loves fruit, string cheese, yogurt, beans and green beans so he does get a little variety but not a ton. He is great about drinking his milk, so that is not a concern and the only other be stage he's allowed to drink is water. We generally don't give him sweets of any kind (other than fruit) although grandma's have been known to slip him popsicles, ice cream and cake on occasion. That's what they are there for after all. Probably about a month ago we started letting him try to feed himself with a spoon and, well, it's been slow progress. But we'll get there eventually.

As for Nathan's "cognitive" skills, he's learning shapes and colors right now. We have a ways to go...currently everything is "purple".  He has figured out how to turn his toys on and off, put the shape blocks in the matching shape on the container and now loves to dance. Dancing consists of moving his feet really fast and maybe swaying back and forth some. Entertaining  nonetheless. His vocabulary is huge and he'll parrot anything you say. We laughed when they asked if Nathan knew 3 words besides mama and dada at his 15 month appointment.  We came up with 30 in the waiting room without working too hard. He probably has at least double that now. Not all of them are clear (you need context clues sometimes) but the fact that he try's the word at all amazes me. I'm not going to know what to do if our next child has a "normal" vocabulary for their age. Before I sound like I am completely bragging I will say he does not link words at all yet, which is not expected until 18 months or later. So while he has a lot of words he will only use them singly.

We are teaching him to say please and thank you, and he is learning that people (and cats) have names. He catches on quick to everything, including the "tricks" his Lolo, Aunt Ashley, and Popo continue to teach him. Most recent is to shrug one shoulder and tilt his head and say "I dunno." of course he doesn't know what it means, so he uses it at funny times. And I guess I shouldn't place all the blame on Jimmy's family since we, like good Aggie parents, are teaching him to whoop (complete with hand motion) and today I got him to say Aggies! There is evidently some confusion on the hand motion though. Today in church we were trying to get him to be quiet during prayer and Jimmy told him to put his hands together to pray. He promptly put his fingers together and started whooping. Sorry, Lord, but I had to laugh.

My sweet boy just continues to amaze me. He is so smart and even tempered and a joy to be with. He is still dependent on a paci to sleep and likes to have it when he's feeling tired or sick, but he is a good natured boy who just loves to laugh and play. Two of his favorite games right now are what he calls "happy" (singing If You're Happy and You Know It") and playing a modified hide-and-seek. The second involves him "hiding" behind one of our wicker chairs that he can see through but he thinks he is hidden. Then we pretend to look for him and call his name. Of course he answers us and laughs. He is so darn cute! He still loves to read his books and point out things he knows to you.  He is also starting recently to explore the joy of climbing...the couch and ottoman so far, and I know that's just the beginning. He is fearless on them and would dive head first off if we didn't stop him. Crazy kid (I find myself saying that a lot these days).

Well that's all for now. Hopefully his 18 month check up will be posted more timely.

Beans are difficult to eat with a spork, but he was trying.

A litle more successful with the yogurt!