Spring time - blog update

Happy Spring everyone! We are really enjoying this time of year, especially in our new house with its bigger garden. The previous owner's of our house were avid gardeners and now that Spring is here we are reaping the benefits of all their effort. 

It has been great for us all to spend time in the garden and of course the dogs are loving it too. 

Now that Nate is a proper walking toddler, we are also extremely pleased to be living close to woodland, parks, family and friends. We regularly throw on our wellies and coats, leash up the dogs, and just start walking. It's amazing how many things we find on our little mini-hikes. 

I am still working 4 days a week. I enjoy the mixture of working hard for 4 days, but still having a long 3-day weekend with Nate.

Fridays are my day off work and the day that Nate and I get to spend together, just the two of us. We usually have a lazy morning, watch the children go to school from our window, still in our pajamas, then we get dressed and go to a local toddler play group in the village hall. We meet up with friends at the group if possible and sometimes we visit Nate's great-grandmother who lives next door to the village hall.

On Fridays there is also library story time (which is a big hit with Nate) and a toddler free play session at the gymnastics center.

Nate is starting to become a goof-ball, I love it! He is still quite sensitive and shy in big groups and takes a while to warm up. But once he does, he is hilarious. 

His favourite thing at moment is running as fast as he can towards me, jumping into my arms, then arching his back, attempting (I think) to do some sort of backwards hand stand. I have no idea where that came from but it is funny - I just have to be careful he doesn't hurt himself.

It's only 3 months until Nate turns 2. I have been thinking of what to get him for his birthday and I'm leaning towards a balance bike, but haven't completely made up my mind. 

And here are some more cute photos from the past 3 months:

Taking a selfie

In the kitchen

A postcard from Nana & Grandad

Trying to block his eyes from the sun

Nate at 15 months

Nate at 15 months is a babbling, exploring, enthusiastic ball of energy! 

He runs back and forth around the house transporting items from one area to another then back again and he is discovering so many new interests each day. At the moment he is loving drawing, "talking" on the phone, jumping onto bean bags, being pushed on swings, and attempting to copy every.single.thing that we do. 

It's cute to see him try and emulate us, but it also means he wants to help with tasks which really aren't too safe - like emptying the dishwasher and cooking dinner. 

And why is it that all of a sudden he looks so much older?! Sometimes I look at him and think - okay wow, he looks like a teenager right now.  Where did my baby go?

nathan update - 12 months old!

Ahhhh, it's been so long since I've been able to get onto my blog and write a post. But here I am and I cannot believe I'm about to do Nathan's 12 month update. That's a whole year old folks - four seasons of having Nathan in my life and it's been incredible!

There is a lot to update and not a lot of time, so as usual here are the highlights:

• Nate's crawling has gained speed and he is a super cruiser too! He loves his little walker and spends time walking up and down our house on it. He isn't walking independently yet, but I don't think it will be long.
• He has a lot more teeth! The total is now eight, yep eight, so he cut four teeth in the last month! He is taking it all in his stride, and has a cute toothy grin now. 
• Nate had 2 birthday parties to celebrate turning 1. The first was very low key with only a few family members on the actual day. And yesterday we had a birthday party with all his little buddies who turned 1 within a few weeks of each other. We had a picnic at a farm and it was perfect.
• Nate's hair is so long now, we nearly got it cut the other day but chickened out! We might have to cut it soon.
• Nate still likes to babble and I swear a few days ago he said "Sasha" and then 10 minutes later said "Ducky". I'm sure of it! He hasn't repeated any words since. 
• His favourite activity at the moment is putting stuff into containers or holes or slots.  I bought him a little wooden mailbox with wooden letters and he really loves putting the letters through the slot. He likes his plastic golf set too and waving the clubs around. 
• His current favourite food has got to be a cheese omelette. He loooooves Daddy's omelettes. He also likes strawberries and toast. And he now likes trying to feed himself with a spoon , but he is not very good at it. 

And now for the photos.

 

 

nathan - 10 months old

Nathan is now 10 months and this month flew by! We were away in France and Spain for 2 weeks and now I am back at work 2 days a week, so the weeks really have sped along at a rapid pace. 

Nathan's tenth month has been tons of fun. He is now properly pulling himself up to standing and does it with ease. He prefers to be standing above all other positions and can walk along holding onto the edge of the sofa. He hasn't mastered crawling yet but can now get onto his hands and knees. He also somehow manages to maneuver his way around the room by shuffling and wiggling his body. I have to be extra careful not to take my eyes off him for even a second because of how much he gets around. He has fallen down a lot these past weeks as he learns how to balance on his feet, but the falls don't seem to bother him too much.

Nate now raises his hands into the air when we ask him "how big are you!?" and he is starting to point at random things from time to time. He loves to put things inside containers and then dump them out again. He also has started putting objects into people's hands. His middle top tooth on the right has popped through his gum this month and I think the left one is close behind. He has been in some discomfort from the teething but nothing too bad.

I think the most exciting thing (for me) this month is that Nate has started sleeping through the night on the odd occasion. He first slept through the night (from 9pm to 7am) when we were in Spain and my husband and I were shocked; we figured it was just a one time thing. But then he did it again a couple nights later! Since we have been back from our holiday, he has slept through the night at least 5 more times. I have no idea why he started sleeping all night; I did nothing differently and I am still nursing him to sleep. Maybe he was just ready?  In any case, I'm extremely happy that we never had to do any sleep training, despite the pressure to do so from Health Visitors. 

Today Nathan had his first settling in session at nursery. I met his key person and she discussed with me all the details about how nursery will work. I feel much happier about nursery in general now that I have met his key person. She is experienced and friendly and seemed to really bond with Nathan even after just an hour. I take him back on Friday to drop him off with her and the other children for an hour without me there! I'm nervous, but feel confident that he will be in goods hands. 

And now for some obligatory photos of Nathan's tenth month :)