2nd Tooth

Well, the one tooth wonder is gaining quickly (enlarge picture to see it)! After one rather fussy night his second tooth came in. He is changing so much these days. He loves standing up and side stepping around furniture, crawling in impossibly tight places, and chewing on everything (seriously everything, tonight a piece of dog food was the object of his affection). He is beginning to have stranger anxiety and does not want to leave mom's side. Although I always imagined it would be fun to have someone worship the ground I walk on, it is a bit time consuming :) I really can't complain though, I hope to always be someone he wants to be around. It is unbelievable how much I love this crazy kid.

Shenanigans

No, Nathaniel, you cannot pet the fish!

Nathaniel (like his father) LOVES fish. I do not know what we would have done without our fish tanks for him to stare at. Even in the earliest days, often the only thing that would calm him down would be to sit him in front of our large tank and allow him to watch the fish. As of late, he has taken to screaming (delightedly) at them and trying to "pet" them. Tonight he even tried to kiss them - well, actually he licked the fish tank - who knows what he was really trying to do or what this says about his intelligence level.

Additionally, he has become quite the little bibliophile. He loves books; he loves to look at them, chew on them, inspect them, and one of his favorite activities now is to pull mass quantities off the bookshelves as fast as he can before mom and dad catch him. We thought we out-smarted him by placing a baby gate in front of our small bookshelf....as you can see it did not stop him.

Last night Ted tied bungee cords around the bookshelf to lock it in place. No baby book mentioned this in the baby proofing section :)

I actually love to watch him explore his world! It is fun to see him figure out a way to get what he wants, although not always via the safest method. He is so inquisitive and now that he is mobile, nothing is really safe. I know this is just the beginning.....(gulp).

1st Tooth

I should have posted this awhile back but could not seem to get a good picture. If you enlarge this, you should be able to see Nater-Bug's first tooth. Oddly enough, mom has thought he was teething since about 4 months, turns out they were all ear-infections. So his first tooth was pretty uneventful (yeah!)- he just began drooling a lot.

I am happy to say he has successfully slept though the night 4 nights in a row! We finally began the Ferber technique now that he feels better and it has worked like a charm....ahhh....life is getting better for us all.

1st Haircut

As you can see, our son was beginning to get a bit "shaggy".
With the flannels on he really looked like a lumber-jack.
In-fact, when his ENT saw him before his tubes were placed his first words to us were "he needs a haircut". So, since the doctor diagnosed it, we finally caved in and did it. Mom was wanting to hold out until his first birthday, but is now really glad we got it done.

We were expecting this to be a huge ordeal, but it turned out to be a really fun experience for everyone. We went to a local children's salon called Cool Cuts 4 Kids. They had adorable little cars for kids to sit in and while the stylist cuts their hair, the kids have a choice to play games or watch a movie. Nathaniel was thrilled just to be able to play with the steering wheel on the car! Nellie was our stylist and she did a fantastic, pain-free job! At the end they also set us up with a baby's first hair cut package, including a picture and a lock of hair for us to keep. We were in and out in 10 minutes and Nathaniel had a blast! I highly recommend Cool Cuts 4 Kids!

Look at this handsome kid now

Dreaming, Zyrtec and Fish

As the sun fades on the horizon, Mommy tucks baby into bed...and they all slept happily ever after. That is the way evenings were supposed to end after tube placement. Right? Well, not so much in the Yancy castle. Apparently Nathaniel has not yet been introduced to Mommy's fairy-tale ending. He still wants to party all night, sometimes waking up every hour. He is so congested that he has trouble breathing and thus, trouble sleeping.

So we went back to his ENT and he gave him a prescription for Zyrtec - of all things. We have tried so many antibiotics to no avail and one dose of Zyrtec and Nater-Bug slept 6 hours in a row last night for the first time in a looooong time. So here is to still holding out hope for Mommy's sleeping-happily-ever-after ending.

Additionally Daddy has begun stocking the saltwater tank that Bill and Debbie Fuqua gave him. Here is a picture of Mommy's favorite crazy fish (although the picture does not do it justice) and some of the others in the tank as well.

Sweet dreams to all!

Great-Granny

There are few people in life who have the ability to make you feel loved and important no matter where you are or what you have done. Great-Granny was one of those people. She was able to over come adversity,despite all odds (had polio as a kid, was one of the first premature babies to use an incubator) - and did it with a loving smile. She loved life, Jesus, and her family. After 91 years of living life to the fullest, Great-Granny passed away this morning at 1:30 am. We are so thankful that Nathaniel was able to meet her, although he may not remember. She will be forever missed, yet her legacy will live on for generations to come.

Please pray for her husband, Carl and the rest of the family. This will be a deeply felt loss. Also please pray for her daughter (Ted's mom/Nathaniel's Granny), Melinda, who is in ICU right now. We found out this morning that she has pneumonia on top of everything else that she has been battling this year (Guillan-Barre and many other complications).

We are once again reminded how precious life is. Thank you for being part of ours.

Bar Hoppin' with Grandma D

Since Grandma D was still in town, we decided to take her out to a bar! Of course, it was the Chocolate Bar, I am not sure she would ever go into an actual bar with us :) So, here is Grandma and Grandson overindulging in one of life's finer pleasures....and the happy after-effects of too much chocolate.

Zoo

In celebration of tube placement, we decided to take Nathaniel to the zoo today. The weather was picture-perfect so it was a great day to be outdoors. The petting zoo, which Mom thought would be a huge hit, was a little disappointing since the only thing to pet were non-active goats. Nathaniel was excited to see the monkeys (he clapped a lot for them) and the meerkats. Nothing else really seemed to phase him. He appeared to be more interested in the Obert girls who, along with our friend Cindy, were able to join us for the outing as well.

He also had his first train ride today around the park. And at the end of the day he got to experience his first flat tire and his first fender bender from a crazy lady who bumped into us (in the Obert's van). It really was quite a day!

Tubes At Last

DR VISIT CO-PAYS.....$300
SURGERY CO-PAY.......$815
FULL NIGHT'S SLEEP......PRICELESS

Let's hope that is the end result anyway :)

We took Nater-Bug in for ear tube placement this morning at 5:30. Which in and of itself is not fun, but he was not allowed to eat or drink after midnight, so it was worth it to go in early. Since he was the youngest child, he was able to be first. The procedure took about as long as it took me to half-heartedly flip through a magazine. I could not believe how quick it was. Prior to surgery the anastesiologist told us that about half of the kids come out from gas (thankfully that was all he had to have for this procedure) like nothing happened at all and the other half come out acting as if they had been abused....guess which one Nathaniel was. Yes, the fussy one. It has been a few hours since tube placement and his mood is getting better in spurts - we have intermittent laughing follwed by crying. My mom is currently walking around with the fuss-pot right now. I am so thankful she was able to come down.

All in all he has had 15 doctor visits, 10 Rocephin shots, and 9 different types of antibiotics. Here is to hoping that this is the end of this chapter in his life story. I will be sure to keep you all posted.

Lift-Off!

That is right, we have lift-off. Our ever-so-increasingly mobile baby has figured out how to pull himself up on furniture and has begun "cruising" around it. He loves his new found freedom!

It was a little scary when we found him standing up in his crib....

we have since, lowered the mattress and now have our own version of "Kilroy was here" to look at every morning :)

Our Swing

Our first project on New Year's Day was to construct a porch swing that Ted's parents were generous enough to give us for Christmas (Thanks Doug and Helen!). It turned out to be quite the undertaking for us non-mechanically inclined folks. But we are proud to say we got the job done and have been enjoying it!

Nate and Daddy

Daddy, Nate, and our neighbor Noah