Party Boy

This weekend we celebrated four of Nate's friends' birthdays, jam packing our weekend with a series of 2nd birthday parties.

We missed Charlie and Cooper's birthday party last weekend so we spent Saturday with the Teals in Annapolis.  We has this conversation about a million times Saturday morning:

Maura - We're going to play with Cooper and Charlie!
Nate - Cha-wie!
Me - And Cooper.
Nate - No.
Me - No Cooper?
Nate - Cha-wie.
Me - What about Cooper?
Nate - No.

I have no idea why he was refusing Cooper.  But the good news is once we were there, he played beautifully with both boys.  C and C have a lot of cool toys, we got some great ideas for Nate's second birthday.

Hmmm, how does this Thomas work?

Sunday was a double-header starting with Declan's second birthday party, a Thomas the Tank Engine theme.  We're sad that Declan and his family are moving to Texas this summer so he's leaving daycare.  Nate and Declan are buddies, they're the closest in age and Tania says they tend to pair up for play.  It was nice to have a celebration with Declan before he leaves.

Nate and Sam with their train conductor hats

Then we headed to the Stanyard's house for Ramsey's pizza birthday party.  The day was gorgeous and we were able to play outside for a while before enjoying pizza and cupcakes.

The only thing better than cupcakes, are truck-themed cupcakes.

Ca-Cago

Last weekend we took a family trip to Chicago (nate = ca-cago) to visit Dara and Brendan.  Little did we know when we were planning the trip back in January that we would be their last Chicago house guests.  Next week, the Beer family is packing up and moving to California.  We are excited for them but sad that our little niece or nephew will be so far away.  Plans for a spring visit to LA are in the works.

Chicago is one of our favorite cities and we were glad for the opportunity to see the Beers' new house and explore their neighborhood.  We even got to meet their new renters!  Dara and I took Nate out for a walk and when we walked past the fire station Nate was invited inside to sit in the truck.  The firemen were very nice and although Nate was totally overwhelmed, it was an exciting afternoon.

I would say the firetruck was the highlight of the trip except that Aaron would absolutly disagree.  Saturday night we had dinner at Gibson's, one of Aaron's favorite restaurants.  Nate wasn't terribly impressed (several bites of steak were spit back into my hand) but the rest of us were very happy and enjoyed a great meal with a toast to Dara and Brendan's 2nd anniversary, their move and Baby Beer's impending arrival.

Nate with Aunt Day-ya and Uncle Brendan

I really need to figure out how to work my new camera.  Aren't point-and-shoots supposed to be easier than the digital SLR I'm used to?

Names

I caught Nate sitting still for once and used it as an opportunity to capture the names he's getting better at pronouncing.  Here's a list of the people Nate loves.  (not all inclusive)  He gets sick of preforming near the end so Uncles Will and Brendan shouldn't take it personally.

I started with the easy ones, people he sees everyday.  And then his beloved muppets (forgot Grover and Oscar, oops!) and finally on to family.  If you want to fast forward to family, it starts around 1.05.  Especially the way he says Cullen makes me smile.

Smiley Nate

Last week my parents visited and attended Nate's Little Gym class on Saturday morning.  They were sitting in the lobby area watching us in the gym when the owner started chatting with my Mom.  She asked who she was with and my Mom pointed me out and described what we were wearing.  The Little Gym woman's face lit up and she said, "Oh, Smiley Nate!  He always has a smile on his face."

Smiley Nate indeed.

Aunt Meghan

Instead of daycare, Nate stayed home yesterday and today with his Aunt Meghan.  All day Megh has been sending me pictures like the one below.  Can't wait to get out of the office and join in the fun!

"My Godmother Loves Me"

He's All Boy

When my brothers were little they absolutely loved trucks.  I'm sure most little kids do.  And this morning our little boy joined the ranks of millions of kids who love to watch the garbage truck.  According to Tania, "camion" was one of the first clear words Nate said at daycare.  And I noticed a fascination with trucks ("cucks") earlier this week when he spotted a construction truck and stared at it like he'd been hypnotized.

This morning he heard the garbage truck outside and wanted to see.  So Aaron took him to the window in our office to watch the truck do its job.  Then Nate spent the rest of the morning getting away from us to try and spot the truck again.  I thought about grabbing the camera but watching him on his tiptoes, peering out the window was too sweet, I couldn't look away.

Prince Charming

Happy Valentine's Day!  To celebrate, Nate wore his most dapper outfit (thank you Grandma and Gap Kids) and took in some Valentine's treats for his daycare friends - Goldfish and Dora the Explorer cards.  And of course, a big chocolate filled heart for Miss Tania.

Mom, whatever you're saying is not nearly as interesting as what's on TV.

We are very lucky to have a number of family visits this month.  Things started this past weekend with a brief visit from Nate's Bubbie and Zayde, then his Aunt Meghan is coming tomorrow and finally his Grandma and Grandpa arrive on the 23rd.

Nate's language continues to explode.  We're amazed every day at the new things he is saying.  I wish I could get all his words on camera because his inflection is adorable.  My favorites right now are "Bert" (pronounced Buh-rt) and "mano" (as in, "hold my hand please.")

And his smile.  We are quickly learning that God gave him that adorable smile to compensate for the immense amount of mischief he is going to get into.  Almost daily we're getting stories from daycare of his careful plans to get out of trouble.  One example - Nate was playing with the toy kitchen and standing on the oven door. Raul told him to close the door.  Instead, Nate took a few steps away and started at Raul as if to say, "I'm not doing what you told me to do. Ha!"  Raul took a few steps towards the toy kitchen (and Nate) and suddenly, thinking he was about to get in trouble, Nate looks at Tania and yells "Poo Poo", meaning he has a dirty diaper.  So Tania picks him up and takes him to the changing room and surprise, surprise, no dirty diaper.

Amazing that his brain has developed the reasoning and planning skills to get himself out of trouble.  Scary that he's already outsmarting us all.

Mr. Mischief