Happy Halloween! (from our garden to yours)

What kind of parents would Matt and I be if we didn't take advantage of the opportunity to dress up our child for Halloween? I mean we only have a few Halloweens to dress him as we choose before he has a say in the matter! Nate was going to be Jack Skellington for Halloween, but that costume didn't really pan out. So, we decided on something much, much better! Our darling little Nate is going to be a garden gnome for his first Halloween! Yesterday we dressed him up in his costume and attempted to take a few pictures. We took the pictures indoors because it had rained earlier in the morning and it was all wet outside. Nate didn't have many smiles for us, but he sure does make one cute gnome! Upon the advice of our friend Andrea, I have been looking for a gnome to put next to Nate for some photo ops. I have not successfully found a little statue just yet, but I have not stopped looking! I am hoping to get him outside tomorrow and take a few pictures of him in the grass (where you would find a real gnome), but until then here are a few shots of our little Halloween gnome! I think he'll thank us for this costume later in life! ;-)

He was all smiles before I got the costume on him! 

He's a happy baby! 

 He is also obsessed with the pumpkins!

I call this the "Why?" look. 

We're getting closer to a smile! 

 He's pretty much over it by this point and has decided to play with the pumpkins.

Definitely over it by now! Thanks to the magic of Photo Shop you don't see Matt's hand holding him up!

Maybe we will have more pictures to follow of Nate the gnome outside! Happy Halloween everyone!!

Happy Fall!

I got creative today and took some pictures of Mr. Nate posing with some pumpkins. Some turned out absolutely adorable and I thought I would share!

I'm going to eventually figure out photo shop and learn how to clean them up a little! For now I'll just practice getting him to smile! :-)

Pumpkin Patch!

On Saturday Matt and I took Nate to the pumpkin patch. Matt convinced me that a hayride was not necessary this year because Nate couldn't care less. So, we went to a lovely church pumpkin patch. There were a ton of pumpkins to choose from and we were able to get a few pictures of Nate. Not great pictures, but pictures. He was not horribly cooperative on this trip, but we managed to get a few snapshots of him near the pumpkins!

Not sure about the grass... 

Family photo 

Attempting to get him to smile! He did great standing/leaning against the pumpkins for several minutes!

He absolutely refused to look at the camera. On another note, some of the pumpkins they had were huge!! 

I love this kid! He finally decided to look at the camera and humor us! We decided this picture was as good as it was going to get so we packed up and grabbed lunch!

Crazy busy!

There is no good way to describe the past month other than crazy busy. Matt has been busy at work. I have been busy at work. Nate has been busy playing and growing. Life has not left a lot of time for blogging. Matt is back on nights for the month of October (boo!) and we don't get to see much of him during the week. In fact, I've been leaving work right on time in order to rush to day care, pick up Nate, and run home so we can visit with Matt for a few minutes before he has to leave. It's nuts. In fact, last week we saw him Monday and didn't see him again until Friday. Go figure. This week has been a little better. I bring my work home and try to do it while Nate is napping or after he goes to bed. It's not fun, but whatever. It's life right now. 


Nate had his six month appointment a few weeks ago and everything is going very well. The doctor wants him to eat more food and drink less milk. He eats between 4-6 jars of baby food daily in addition to his oatmeal and bottles. He also loves the Gerber puffs. He is definitely in to the self-feeding. The doctor also wants him to have juice in a sippy cup. We're working on it, but I can't say that we've made much progress. He uses the cup more of a teething ring than a cup.

Happy 7 months!

Nate looooves to watch football! Roll Tide!

Nate has also developed object permanence. He realizes that when something goes away it is not gone for good. When he drops something he now looks for it. Also, he will scream at you if you take away something he is actively playing with. I learned this in Publix last week when I tried to take my wallet from him. Fun times. 


He has also learned that when Matt and I walk away we are still alive elsewhere. This sometimes upsets him when he thinks about it. I walked out of the room the other day to do laundry and he started screaming and crying. Matt reassured him I was coming back, but nothing calmed him until I turned the corner. Then, he grinned and smiled and life was good again. He did the same thing with Matt the other day. Matt was playing with him and then got up to go to work. Nate was not thrilled. When Matt walked away, Nate began to cry. Matt turned around and picked him up and all was great again. This will be fun to overcome. While putting him down Sunday night I experienced the same thing. If I was in the room, Nate was great. When I left, he screamed. Enter -- smiles. Leave -- screams. Yeah, he cried it out that night. Thankfully, he has not made a habit of this!


Our goal for this weekend is to take Nate to a pumpkin patch. Matt and I went to one last year. It was not a pumpkin patch. It was a church selling pumpkins. I have to find a real pumpkin patch this year complete with a hayride. Maybe I'll remember the camera and get some cute pictures!


Speaking of cameras, I am planning on putting a new one on my Christmas list. I am still borrowing Chanlee's old one and would like to return it before it meets the fate of my old camera! (Chanlee, I promise I'm taking care of it!!!) I have considered taking some photography classes at the local community college. We'll see how that pans out!


For those of you wondering about Moose, he is doing well. Nate love, love, loves him! If Nate sees Moose he gets a HUGE smile on his face and starts jumping up and down. Moose has finally figured out that if he goes near Nate his fur will be pulled. I put Nate close to Moose the other day and Moose got up and walked away. This is a huge step for Moose to turn away attention!


Sadly, I noticed a trap outside the other day. They are trying to catch the nutria (aka muskrats) and take them to another location. They breed like rabbits and eat the grass from the banks of the pond. Apparently, this does not bode well for their future here at the apartments. The office managers sent out a memo saying that they are sending them away. So sad.


Oh, well. That's the latest from our neck of the woods! Have a happy weekend!

More milestones!

Seriously? Where has time gone? Where is my teeny, tiny little baby?? He's huge! Nate recently celebrated his six month birthday. He decided to do it with a bang. He got his first tooth last Saturday. He followed it up with tooth number two on Sunday. You can now see the teeth as they are making their way up and out! Crazy! 

 Nate at five months. I don't think I ever got around to posting this one!

 Six months with Mr. Potato Head!

I chopped off his feet, but I thought his smile was cute in this one!

He has been sitting up for awhile now and he has also been rolling over from back to belly. Well, he finally decided it was time to roll from belly to back. This is great for him considering how much he hates tummy time! 


Also, the child goes through 3-4 jars of baby food each day and is growing like a weed! I'm anxious to take him to his six month appointment just so I can see how much he has grown! We got a notice Friday telling us that Nate is about to be moved out of the Infant A room into Infant B with the bigger kiddos. What!?!?! I'm not sure I'm ready for that!!!


We also had Nate's six month photo shoot this past week. He is a huge ham. He laughed and grinned the entire time. His mood was so much better than the three month pictures! She got a ton of great pictures as Nate hammed it up. Below are some of my favorites from the shoot!

Nate has taken a great liking to Moose. So much so that he was in the "Johnny Jump Up" the other day and decided to take a few steps to get to the cat. Moose needs to be on the watch. There is a bulls-eye on his back and as soon as Nate is mobile he will be gunning for the kitty!

Nate was reaching for Moose in this picture. Moose moved right as I was taking the picture. He was on Nate's mat tempting the child!

Matt and I are truly blessed with this little booger! I still look at him sometimes and wonder why the hospital allowed me to take him home given our lack of qualifications, but I think Nate has trained us well so far!! Here's to another great six months!

Water, water everywhere!

This has been somewhat of a crazy week. It started off great. Nate had his six month pictures made on Monday as we enjoyed a long weekend. Tuesday was rolling along wonderfully. Matt got off work early, he cooked, chores were being done, and then chaos ensued. We had a pipe burst in our bathroom and it flooded the bathroom, master closet, master bedroom, and the hallway. Can you say ugh? The carpet people arrived to start the water removal process around 7:15. It was a mess. The carpet was literally floating above the carpet padding in our bedroom. We had to move all of our furniture into Nate's room. Thankfully his room and the living room were spared. All of the furniture wouldn't fit so they had to put some of it up on little styrofoam blocks to keep it off of the soggy carpet. They pulled up the carpet and removed all of the padding. They set up fans to blow under the carpets and said they would return on Wednesday. So, Matt, Nate, and I packed up and headed to a hotel. Fun times. Nate was so tired, but wide awake due to the commotion. Bless his sweet little heart. He ended up sleeping in a chair Tuesday night because the hotel did not have cribs. Please don't be outraged. He was actually comfy in the chair. It had tall sides and a high back. I pushed it against the bed and he slept soundly.


I left work a little early on Wednesday to return home and try to sort through some of the wet mess while Nate was still at daycare. Matt was on call Wednesday night so I had to do it quickly. I got the shoes sorted out, wet clothes out of the closet, and cleared a path to Nate's crib. He and I were going to brave the fans Wednesday night. He slept in his crib, I slept on the couch, and Matt slept at Shands. The carpet was still damp when they came to check it during the day so we weren't getting life back to normal until Thursday.

The dryers were insanely loud. 

Our bedroom. 

The dehumidifier they brought in to remove moisture. 

Where it all started.

I was hoping they would come Thursday while I was at work and check the carpet. No luck. They came instead at 5pm. Those guys knew what they were doing because within 2 hours they had the new padding down, carpet restretched, and furniture back in place. Good deal. Matt and I decided to put things in Nate's room and deal with it over the weekend.

Houston, we have a tooth!

Poor Nate has been teething for quite sometime now. Actually, a few months. Well, yesterday all of his hard work and drooling paid off. He has a tooth!! It is not completely in yet, but you can definitely feel the little dagger points poking out of his gums. In fact, it looks like he might have another coming in close behind this first one! We noticed on Friday that he was being abnormally fussy and somewhat inconsolable. Friday night I had to put him down while he was still screaming and fussing. He woke up Saturday morning in somewhat of a foul mood and around lunchtime Matt noticed that there was something sharp in his mouth! He was pretty fussy yesterday afternoon and gave Matt fits. Finally, around 8pm Nate decided he wanted to cuddle. So, we settled in and watched Just Go With It with Adam Sandler and Jennifer Aniston. It was pretty funny! Matt, Nate, and I laughed a lot. Nate crashed out around 9pm and slept until about 8am. He has been a sweet baby all day today and I'm hoping the worst of the teething is over for now. Maybe cutting through the gums is the worst part?? I'm hoping! 

Nate wore himself out jumping and crying. 

It's hard being a baby!