VACATION!!!!!

 We recently had our first family vacation! The family that I nannied for in Connecticut decided to take their summer vacation in Montana this year and were generous enough to invite us to come along. We stayed at the most amazing ranch just outside of Missoula. It certainly was far from any of our camping experiences but it was perfect for Nate and the rest of the kids. 

I haven't seen the kids in a few years and that was, by far, the longest I had gone without seeing them.  They have grown up so much and it made me sad to know I have missed out on so much of their lives. They loved getting to know Nate and Nate loved being doted on for a week. I think he's been bored just having me around since we have been home :)

We were able to do some super fun activities while we were there. Todd was able to do horse riding, rafting,  a cattle drive, paintball, fly fishing, and canoeing. I got to do hiking, horse riding, shooting, rafting, and a hot air balloon ride. Nate's favorite activities were swimming at the lake, riding on the paddle boat, swimming in the hot tub at the house, and (surprise surprise) swimming in the huge bath tub. We had a great time!

Chloe and I took Nate down to see the horses one afternoon while the others were rafting. He loved the horses! The riding trail went right behind the house that we stayed in so Nate and I would sit on the porch and watch the people ride by several times a day.

This is the only horse riding Nate did but he still loved it :)

He liked the swings even more!

One of the nights we went to a dutch oven dinner down by the river. We were taken there in a horse drawn wagon. Of course, Nate loved that part.

Luca (11) at the dutch oven dinner

Todd and Nate playing near the river

Chloe (9) 

Here we are at the lake. Nate didn't love the lifejacket. It was as big as he is!

On the paddle boat. We rode around on this boat for about 20 minutes and Nate loved it.

Playing in the lake (don't mind my farmer's tan!)

This was the best part of the whole vacation! 

My favorite picture of our shadow on the side of the mountain.

A view of the ranch

Me and Luca

Chloe got a little nervous when we went up so high so she spent most of the ride down in the basket.

The view from 8600 feet!

The whole gang + Nate Bug.
Chloe, Me, Nate Bug, Luca, Ewan, and Big Nate. We miss you already!!!!

15.5 Months

Nate is almost 16 months old. The babies' due date was July 19 so he is 1 year adjusted age today!

Doctor Visit
Nate Bug had his 15 month visit last week. Here are some of the things we talked about.

Eating: We were hoping to get the ok from the doctor this time to switch him from formula to whole milk. Unfortunately, we didn't. She still wasn't happy with his size or the amount of real food he is eating so she wanted to start him on PediaSure instead of milk. I wasn't sure that I wanted to go that route just yet so we made a compromise. We have always given Nate a bottle of formula before his food since we knew the formula was more important for his growth. So I wanted to try giving him food first at each meal to give him a chance to learn to eat better before we start on the PediaSure. I just didn't feel good about it yet. It seems really really sweet and it has 30 calories per ounce. Regular baby formula has 20 calories per ounce and his preemie formula has 22. It just didn't make sense to me to feed him something that tastes really yummy and that is super filling and then expect him to increase his food intake. I'm hoping we'll see some improvements so we can stick to learning to eat as normally as possible.

Height and Weight: The bug is growing! He weighed 19 pounds 14 ounces (14%), was 28.5 inches tall (19%), and his head was 17.5 inches (16%). The percentages are for a baby 12 months old so he is on the small side of normal for his adjusted age. For his actual age of almost 16 months...he's still not even close to the chart. Ideally, they catch up to their actual age by 2 so he's got a lot of growing to do in the next 8 months :)

Speech and Communication: The doctor showed some concerns about Nate's lack of verbal communication. At 12 months, he should be saying "mama", "dada", and at least one other word. He is saying "baba" but there doesn't seem to be any real meaning behind it still. She referred us to a speech therapist for some help. There isn't much they can start working on with a baby so young but she wants to get a good evaluation done so we can see if there are any major things we can start working with now. We should start that at the end of this month.

Sleeping
Sleeping was a bit rough the past couple of weeks. Nate decided that bed time was his least favorite thing in the world and he wanted to make sure we knew it. He's always been so good going down to sleep but for the past 3 weeks he has started screaming when we put him down at night. He doesn't do it during the day for naps so we didn't really know what his deal was. The worst part was, he would scream to the point of throwing up...every single night. So every night, we would have to go in 30 seconds later and change his pjs, his blanket, and his sheets. After 2 weeks of that, we finally realized that if we eliminated his bedtime bottle, he wouldn't throw up. He still cries when we put him down but I'm hoping that it's just a phase that will pass. Now he gets a little milk right after dinner and nothing else later. I worried he'd wake up earlier in the morning hungry but apparently he's a big enough boy that it hasn't made a difference.

Favorite Foods
The foods of the month were strawberries, watermelon, cherries, and broccoli. He LOVES them all! Here's a little video of him eating his strawberries. They are a bit too slippery for him to pick up so we feed him with a fork. He gets VERY impatient :)

Favorite Things
We have quite a list this month of Nate's favorite toys and activities. He sure is growing up.

His very favorite game this month is chase. It is so cute! If we growl at him or say "I'm going to get you" he'll take off screaming and running in the opposite direction. Since he still needs some help walking, we need two people to play so it's his favorite game when dad gets home. It also means that there is never anyone extra to take a video :(

 He LOVES playing in the water! We got this little slip and slide out the other day and filled up the end of it like a little pool. It was the perfect size for Nate. Even filed with cold hose water, he splashed in it for about 15 minutes before I finally made him get out. 

His favorite toys this month are his little toy car and this string of beads. Random, I know, but he loves them both. 

Nate also has a favorite word this month. It's funny because it seems like he'll find a certain word hilarious for a few days. Every time we say it he cracks up. It will last a few days and then another word will be funny. The past week or so the word has been banana. Crazy kid!

New Tricks
Nate has made some great improvements in his physical skills this month! He is an official walker, almost an official crawler, and he has finally mastered getting into a sitting position from laying down!

Here's his first official walking video. I look like an overprotective mother in it but the only way he would keep going was if he could see my hands out in front of him. I promise we don't hover over him like that all the time :)

Here is the best video we have at crawling attempts. He is so so close!!! As you can see, he is getting extremely frustrated with his lack of mobility. Mentally, he is ready to get around but physically, he just isn't quite ready.

Painting

Nate's physical therapist suggested that we start coloring and painting with Nate. I was very hesitant because Nate puts EVERYTHING in his mouth. I had tried crayons and colored pencils but he is still just too little to understand what to do with them. I found this idea for edible paint on Pinterest and had to try it out. I bought plain yogurt and added the little flavor packets that they make for frosting. I think we had orange, cotton candy, and mint chocolate. He's actually never been a fan of yogurt but he ate quite a bit that day :) He got very very messy but loved every second of it!

Twin Falls

A couple of weeks ago, Todd was out of town for scout camp so Nate and I decided to take a little trip to Twin Falls. We had a fantastic time! The awesome office I worked for there has been dying to do a baby shower for me. They always throw great parties for people that are having babies but, because of our obvious circumstances, we weren't able to do one before I had the babies and then we moved shortly after Nate Bug came home from the hospital. They are so wonderful and had still been trying to set up a date to do one even though Nate is already a year old :) We finally made it work and had a great time. Nate got totally spoiled!! He got a ton of new "big boy" toys and loads of cute new clothes. I don't have any pictures (yet) but when I get them, I'll be sure and post some. We got some super cute ones!

After the shower, we went to uncle Brian and Aunt Katherine's house for Nate's first sleepover. I wish I could say Nate slept well (he actually screamed for an hour before he fell asleep and then was up at 5:30am!) but he had a fun time anyway.

Nate with Anna, Abby, Tyler, and Alyssa

This is Tyler's pedal go-cart with the trailer that he made for it. He was dying to take Nate for a ride in it! 

 

The day we went was 100 degrees so the kids wanted to take Nate through the "kid wash".  

Nate doesn't mind getting wet so I knew he'd love it but poor Abby got soaked taking him through it. He would get startled as soon as the cold water touched him and stop in the middle. Sweet Abby blocked the water for him so he wouldn't get too wet.