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I’m pretty sure Jillian was just born yesterday, but the calendar says she’s two months old! She is a precious little thing; she is now a ready smiler, which just makes me melt. She also smiles for her brothers, which is one of the cutest things ever!
We don’t have a set schedule at the moment, though she has somewhat consistent patterns. However, since she is currently exclusively breastfed (!!!!!), I don’t mind the variations in routine. And sometimes I need to force changes in the routine based on what time she woke up and what we need to do that day. For example, some days I need her to eat earlier because of preschool drop off. Sometimes she has to eat later because of a well-check, Because of our schedule, hers needs to be flexible. Thankfully she hasn’t had a problem with that yet!
Overall, my impression of her is that she is sweet, even-keeled, but happy to make her displeasure known. We laugh at her because she has already developed an excellent stink eye. If she cried and you fail to pick her up in an appropriate time, when you do, she will stop crying but look at with disdain and seem to say, “you have failed me, You are dead to me.”
Nathan is 13 months old! I really do feel like he is a tiny baby, but toddler-hood is fast approaching!
Like his father, Nathan is not a man of many words. He says: dada, mama, bye-bye, and uh-oh. He sometimes just uses mama for all people he likes (who give him food), which includes his dada. He signs eat and can also sign more, but usually just uses eat.
I’m shocked that Nathan isn’t walking yet. He has taken has many as three steps at a time on multiple occasions over the past month, but it just too uncertain to take more, and isn’t interested enough or confident enough to try walking consistently. He will walk holding onto someone’s hand, so I’m trying to be more conscious about walking with him. He does cruise quite a bit, so I feel like we’re on the right track for walking and that it will happen soon.
While he doesn’t walk, he loves to climb! He has climbed our stairs, climbed into the train table drawer, climbs onto Colton’s bed, climbs in and out of his rocking chair, and can climb onto the bottom rung of our dining chairs and stand there. He also loves to jump on the sofa or in his bed, and will “jump” from sitting to my arms in the pool. He is our family’s little daredevil!
Nathan is down to two bottles a day: one in the morning and one at night. He’s only really interested in his morning bottle, so we will probably drop the night time bottle soon. Dropping his two day-time bottles was super easy. Finding solids for him to eat is not as easy. With only two teeth, there’s not much he can eat, and he already has some opinions about what he’d like to eat. Generally he eats any bread item, cheese – but only if its melted onto a bread item, banana, any crackers, one to two peanut butter crackers, yogurt, thinly sliced apple, and occasionally strawberries. He’s not a fan of pieces of cheese, any meat, or raw veggies. I end up giving him lots of baby food pouches, though I do try to only give them after I’ve offered at least some table foods. He does also love cake and ice cream!
He is still so sweet and loves to be with people. And he loves to play! He has such a good time in our church nursery that he frequently has little interest in eating while there, and a nap is out of the question. When we get him home he’s exhausted and starving and is a mess!
I have written this post in my head countless times and nothing seems right. But, I’m going to try anyway.
Nathan’s first year has been wonderful; he is a complete and total joy. But so many other things have happened this year and I sometimes feel they do or will overshadow him.
But, I remember:
Anxiously awaiting his arrival. How thrilled I was that, Memorial Day weekend with a Tuesday morning induction meant my husband would not go back to work until we had two children.
How I laughed when my water broke just as I was going to bed for my “last night” of sleep before I was induced.
Seeing him for the first time. There are no words to describe how wonderful and joyous those first moments were.
Rubbing his fuzzy head the weekend his Dad and older brother went camping and it was just the two of us.
His first “flirt” face.
Our first trip with two kids to see my grandparents and my great aunt having a good day when we visited so she was able to hold him.
Hearing him laugh watching his brother run in circles.
Seeing my boys beginning to enjoy spending time with one another.
His first cold and how he cried and cried and would only sleep when I held him.
Discovering how much he loves water when he took his first bath in the big tub. He loved splashing and sticking his head under the spigot, even more so when he bathed with Colton.
Seeing him light up in a swing, and hearing him scream with displeasure when we took him out.
All the times I wondered if he would ever get teeth (still wondering!).
The countless times I caught him flinging himself off the sofa…and the few time I didn’t.
Watching him crawl like a little crab, dragging one leg underneath him.
Seeing him laugh and crawl further into the waves when he first visited the ocean.
The very first time I saw him stand by himself; those 2 seconds were pure joy and excitement.
No words could accurately sum up the past year. There have been sleepless nights, days that seemed endless, and unexpected stresses. But none of those are the most important thing. The most important thing is love. At two months, we took Nathan to meet my grandparents; my grandfather said, “bless him, he doesn’t know who half these people are or what’s going on, but he knows who loves him.”
And that is most important. We love him and he knows it.
Happy birthday sweet boy.
Another month has flown by! Nathan’s new skills include: perfecting his crawling (like his brother, he doesn’t crawl on his hands and knees, but swings one leg around. C dragged a leg underneath him, so they crawl similarly, but not quite identically), pulling up on everything, cruising, climbing stairs, waving, and clapping all of one time.
He very rarely will sign “all done” and sometimes says “adada” to mean Daddy, but in general he is not terribly interested in communicating in any way other than crying.
Some of his favorite things include: ice cream, peek-a-boo, yogurt melts, ripping paper, putting his toys into baskets, pulling everything out of the diaper bag, bath time (including water in his face!), and throwing himself off the couch. Things Nathan does not enjoy so much: not eating if anyone else is, being put down in the evenings, not being as big as his brother, and whacking his head when he falls off the couch.
Totter,
You are ten months old, my big boy! And my, the changes the past month have brought! You began trying to figure out how to crawl, rather than scoot on your bottom, and now you get around very well. So well that sometimes I loose you and have to ask your brother where you are. You also learned how to get yourself into a sitting position this month, and the day after that, pulled up on the sofa. There are still only a few things that are the right height for you to pull up on, but you are working on perfecting this skill.
You love to eat! You now have four, six ounce bottles a day, and three meals a day most days (some days are too jam-packed with taking your brother places, naps, etc to fit your lunch in there, but we try). You love all baby food and can do self-feeding with puffs, yogurt melts and mum-mums. I haven’t really given you any table foods because you don’t have teeth! It took you until last month to eat puffs, which dissolve, without gagging and throwing up, so I would like to hold off on other foods until you have one or two teeth. You have had a small sampling of ice cream, which you really enjoyed!
Daddy has been commuting this month, so you don’t see him much. But when he comes home you are so happy to see him! You also get excited to see me first thing in the morning (Daddy gives you your morning bottle), which I of course love.
This month also brought your first official sickness. You got a cold and were so congested you would wake up in the night, sleep on me for an hour, sleep in your bed for an hour, rinse and repeat all night long. You also coughed and cried in your sleep and I was so, so sad for you. It was just a virus, but you took an antibiotic because all your congestion caused an ear infection.
Totter, you are the happiest baby! You discovered you can get into some of our cabinets and will pull things out and just grin and grin as you do your “baby work.” You are pretty much bald and toothless! I can’t wait for you to get hair so I can tell what color it is (your new hairs seem to be blonde or light brown, but you still have some of your super dark/black baby hairs, so there’s no telling what color your hair really is), but I love your precious bald head. I know you are dying for teeth so you can dive into some real food! You still wear a few 9 month sized things, but pretty much wear 12 month or 6-12 month clothes now. You still wear a size 3 diaper.
You are such a precious, sweet boy! Your family loves you TaterTots.
The day before he turned nine months, Nathan had his nine month well visit. I had to fill out a little developmental survey that was then “scored.” My sweet boy scored slightly delayed in his fine and gross motor skills. However, his pediatrician said not to worry; his fine motor delays were most likely due to me simply not observing the behaviors asked about (like, if you show baby food, hide it under a cup, will baby find it?), while the gross motor delays were chalked up to his big head. 
And boy is his head big! Nathan is in the 25th percentile for height, a little under the 25th for weight, but in about the 80th for head size. Despite not being able to crawl, thanks to said giant head, Nathan is getting around better scooting on his bottom. He can now scoot, with his legs sort of folded under him, several feet. He isn’t fast, but he’s effective. He does still fall while sitting, which I asked about. He doesn’t fall a lot, but more than what I would think is usual for a baby his age. Again, this ascribed to his larger-than-proportionate head size.
Nathan loves to swing. You honestly might not be able to tell if you saw him after the first five seconds he got in the swing, but you’d know if you stopped the swing, or, heaven forbid, take him out and he started screaming. He also loves pears, and has begun to tolerate puffs. He can even feed them to himself, despite not having any teeth.
Sweet boy babbles frequently, and tries so hard to play with his brother’s toys. Sadly, his brother does not usually enjoy having his toys played with or chewed on, and quickly snatches them away. Interestingly, his bed his currently filled with Colton’s forks and spoons, which he apparently decided his brother needed. Kids are strange.
Nathan is nine months old! Still wearing all his 6-9 month and 6-12 month clothes, though some 12 month things are starting to fit. He also still wears a size three diaper. He doesn’t wear shoes, but he wears 6-12 month socks, which he always pulls off and chews on until they’re soaking wet.
He is a sweet, sweet boy!
Nathan,
Every mother says this at each of her baby’s milestones, but I cannot believe you are eight months old! I frequently feel like you are still my new little baby, until I try to lay with you on my chest or see an actual little baby that is! Then I am forced to accept that you really are closer to being a year old than being a new baby.
You are still the sweetest, easy-going, most content thing. You recently went through a three to four day period where you just cried about everything, wouldn’t eat, and were so unhappy. I was worried because that is the total opposite of your personality and took you to the doctor – they couldn’t find anything wrong! A few days later, you were back to your normal, happy self.
Eating continues to be one of your favorite activities. I was helping Colton eat ice cream one night, and you started fussing. Turns out you were mad he was eating and not you! Even though you had just finished eating, we had to feed you too.
Like your brother at this age, you don’t crawl and you don’t have any teeth. Unlike your brother, you are trying to butt-scoot. You will scoot across our kitchen, pushing a chair out in-front of you, then pulling yourself up to it. Push, scoot, push, scoot until you knock into something, can’t push the chair any further and cry. You try to do this on other surfaces without a chair without much success. This morning you were trying to scoot yourself into my lap on the sofa. Such a sweet boy! 
Your hair color is still undetermined, but your sweet, people-loving personality is not. We love you and are so thankful you are part of our family!
Nathan just turned seven months old, and I’m resolving to back on top of blogging, and not just for monthly updates.
At seven months, Nathan is much like he was at six months. He still has no teeth, shows no signs of crawling, and eats well. I just recently decided he could eat a solid food “lunch,” but only fixed a small amount of food as he seemed content and not hungry when he didn’t have lunch. He ate everything quickly, and I went to put his bowl in the sink. When I returned, Nathan was waiting with his mouth open, ready for more!
I think Nathan will be a later crawler, like his brother. He’s not really a fan of being on his stomach, and while he will roll to get things he wants, once he has them, he’ll play on his back or cry until you put him in a sitting position. He has started to occasionally purposefully move from sitting to his stomach to retrieve some coveted item, but he does not do so with any amount of grace.
Since Christmas, coveted items include wrapping paper (the cheaper and easier to tear the better), bows, and best of all, tissue paper. Besides all the paper, Nathan’s favorite Christmas gifts were all the baby food pears Santa brought him and the stacking cups (reminiscent of bowls, another favorite) from his aunt and uncle.
So, Nathan is now almost seven months old, but when I took his picture he had just turned six months, so I’m not THAT late.
Nathan answers to a variety of names, including: Natter, Nattey, Tater Tot, Tots, and what he’s called the most, Totty. When he was a little smaller, he was rounder than he currently is, and with his bald head, he reminded me of a tater tot. I called him this occasionally, and Colton started calling him Tots or Totty frequently. I started referring to Nathan by one of those when talking to Colton, and the name has just kind of stuck. We’ll see if sticks around as he gets older, since we only call Colton by his given name at this point.
Because he seemed interested, I started feeding Nathan “solids” at 5.5 months. While his brother cried for his milestone, Nathan was happy to eat. At six months, I usually feed him two solid meals a day. He eats between a half and a whole baby food container at each meal; weighing in at 16 lbs 4 oz, he has a healthy appetite and is the size his brother was at 9 months.
One of the things I think is so fun about Nathan’s personality is that he truly loves to be around other people, particularly kids. If any child pays attention to him, he starts excitedly rocking back and forth, making a “hu-hu” noise. He is still laid back and easy going, though you do have trouble sleeping if you don’t get good naps in. Sadly, getting naps in is a challenge as both come during pick up and drop of for Colton’s school. You’re still happy when you miss naps, you just wake up at 1 am, happy as a clam and ready to play.
At six months Nathan is a sturdy sitter, will roll to get toys he really wants, loves to jump in his doorway jumper or on someone’s lap, and shows no signs of crawling or teeth. He wears 6-9 month or 6-12 month clothes, a size 3 diaper, and is, in my totally unbiased opinion, the sweetest baby that ever lived.
While we were on vacation, Nathan turned five months old! This was a very busy month of us; Nathan went to his first wedding at the beginning of the month, and of course we had our week-long Williamsburg vacation.
All of our traveling just solidified what an easy-going baby you are. You did great in the car, really enjoyed the music at the wedding reception, and slept equally well in the stroller and ergo in Willimasburg.
Nathan lights up when he sees Colton. I love seeing them enjoy each other and love each other. Colton loves to play with Nathan when he’s in his jumper, helping him jump and swinging him back and forth. Nathan loves his jumper, with or without his brother, and also loves his play saucer.
He is working on sitting up, and can sit for a few seconds unassisted, but he is not at all to be trusted to stay in the sitting position. We say he’s going to be a football player, simply because he seems to have a desire to get a concussion. He will suddenly throw himself backward, hard, if he’s sitting, being held, etc. and will then cry when you refuse to let him injure himself.
At five months, he weighs close to 16 pounds, wears a mixture of 3-6 and 6-9 month clothing, and wears a size two diaper. Love this sweet boy!
Longbrake Living 
