Christmas!

Nate was so much fun during Christmas this year! It was so fun to see him start to get excited about all the Christmas activities.

Here he is showing off all of his Christmas excitement. I'm not sure what happened with the sound but if you turn up the volume all the way, you can barely hear it.   

After a month of practicing his "Ho, Ho, Ho", he got to meet the real Santa...he didn't really like him.

I wish I could say that our whole Christmas week was wonderful but unfortunately we had a pretty terrible Christmas Eve. Our main drain in our laundry/storage room backed up and flooded part of our basement. Since there were no plumbers open on Christmas Eve, Todd and his dad tried to fix the drain on their own. Something went wrong and we had an explosion of sewer waste. Every surface of this room was covered in nasty...stuff. It took me 2 solid days of sanitizing EVERYTHING to feel like I didn't want to move. 

That's right - every can of food and box of cereal got bleached at least twice. It took FOREVER!

Since our house was kind of a nightmare and smelled terrible, we stayed up at Todd's parents' house on Christmas Eve. 

Here is Nate opening presents on Christmas morning! Nate got totally spoiled (as usual) with lots of toys, books, and clothes. These pictures are of the only 2 presents Nate opened on his own. I opened all the others :)

My family came down later in the morning and we enjoyed more great presents and a yummy lunch. It was a great way to spend Christmas!

Todd's been dying to take Nate sledding for weeks now. He finally got his wish on Christmas afternoon and they both had a blast :)

Trouble Maker

With the newness of mobility wearing off, Nate is starting to use his skills to cause a bit of trouble. Here are some of the things he's been up to...

1. About a week ago, Nate and I were playing downstairs in the family room. He sometimes wanders into the storage room and plays with the vacuum but doesn't usually cause any other trouble. A few minutes later, he came back into the family room dragging my OPENED bag of powdered sugar behind him. He was covered in powdered sugar and I spent the next half hour trying to vacuum the trail of mess.

2. Nate has recently learned how to climb. I have never had any experience with climbers but I've heard  plenty of stories and hoped I would never have to deal with one. No such luck! The problem is, he hasn't yet figured out how to get down from where he climbs so he has to cry for help. One evening, I walked into the kitchen and found this... 

He was totally happy playing in there with his toys :)

3. He has been super interested in playing with his shoes lately. This just means that I can NEVER find his shoes because he stashes them somewhere after he's done playing with them. The other morning, I had just finished getting him dressed after his bath and was cleaning up his room when I heard a little splash come from the bathroom. When I walked into the bathroom, there were 2 little shoes floating in the water. 

4. We put up our Christmas tree last Saturday. And this is what happened less than 5 minutes after we had it up...

                                      

Now only the top half of our tree is decorated 

5. This one isn't really catching Nate in any trouble...I just thought it was cute. This is the box from the little slide my parents got Nate. As you can see, he loves playing in it because it is still sitting in the middle of my living room 2 weeks later. This is where I usually find everyone's shoes, most of his toys, and him :)

Favorite Things

Nate has quite a list of new favorite things right now. He has really started acting more like a big boy lately. Some days it makes me so excited to see what is coming next and other days it makes me miss my little baby that used to snuggle with me.

Nate's most favorite thing lately is watching me cook.We are pretty convinced that he is going to be a chef.  Todd comes home from work and is excited to play and wrestle with him while I get dinner ready. Instead, he ends up standing right next to me holding Nate so he can watch what I'm doing. It's one of the rare activities that actually holds his attention for more than about 2 minutes :)

My mom and dad bought Nate this little house for Christmas. They brought it down early since we are getting close to the start of RSV season and have been staying home a lot more. He's still not quite big enough to climb on everything himself but he loves going down the slide and sending all of his toys down it.

This isn't exactly one of Nate's favorite things but Todd sure thinks it's fun...

It's no secret that Nate is very ticklish. Todd got one of these head massagers from work a couple of weeks ago and we tried it out on him. Apparently, his head is his most ticklish spot :) 

Nate's last favorite thing is taking out the garbage. We take out the diaper pail several times a day and he gets so excited every time. He mostly just loves to go outside for 2 minutes but it really is the highlight of his day. Every time he hears a garbage bag he runs to the front door screaming "Yeah! Yeah!".  

Speech and Feeding Therapy

Nate started speech therapy this week. He has improved quite a bit in the last several weeks but he's still  behind so they are going to start coming out once a month just to keep an eye on his progress. Nate officially says 5 words now even though some are only understood by Todd and I. He can say...
Dad - "Da"
dog - "dah"
apple - "Daaaa da" (this one is a stretch but he consistently says this when he sees an apple so we count it :)
yeah - this one he does pretty well
I love you - I posted a video of his version of this a few weeks ago. I wouldn't have counted it but the speech therapist said it was close enough.

Nate also started clapping last week! We have been waiting for this skill for a long time. It's the first step to other non verbal communication (like waving, pointing, and sign language) so it is very important for him to learn. Plus, it's just so darn cute!

The speech therapist is also a feeding specialist so she is going to try and help us out with feeding as well. Nate is much much better at eating these days but he still has some definite issues with certain textures. He eats a lot but his diet consists mostly of fruit, bread, cheese, milk, peanut butter, and of course chocolate. I'm hoping that with her help we can lengthen that list just a little bit :)

Here's a look at Nate's first Kit Kat. He's decided that chocolate is pretty delicious!

In other eating news, we are officially done with bottles! I don't know why I thought I could "encourage" him to drink from the sippy cup since I haven't been able to force him into anything else he didn't want to do. One day, he just decided he was done and that was that. I hope potty training comes as easily :)

Halloween

We had a great Halloween this year! Our fun started the day before when we went to the special Halloween story time at the library. Nate went as Whinnie the Pooh since we had a slight mishap with his regular costume (The size was mislabeled so we had to exchange it...so annoying).

Here is Nate at the library.

 Story time is kinda pointless for Nate because he never sits to listen to the story. He is always wandering around and causing trouble. Hopefully soon he'll get the purpose of the library and start to enjoy it more.

On Halloween, Nate and I went over to Todd's office for lunch on our way over to an audiology appointment. He ran around in his dragon costume showing everyone his new trick...roaring. I didn't get a video of this trick so you're going to have to trust me when I say it's the cutest thing ever!

Side note: The audiology appointment went well. They are finally convinced that Nate can hear so we don't have to go back for anymore follow-ups. Yay!

After his nap, I took him down to the church to do a trunk-or-treat in the parking lot. We went down with Nate's buddy Curtis. Curtis is 4 and Nate absolutely LOVES him! He is so good with Nate and they play really well together. Curtis is really into knights right now and wanted to be a knight for Halloween. When I told him Nate was going to be a dragon, he was very excited. Here are the 2 crazy little monkeys all dressed up.

Picture Overload!

Out for a walk on a cold fall morning. Nate absolutely LOVES his stroller and would ride around in it all day if we'd let him. Good thing his sock monkey hat still fits him this year. He looks so cute in it!

We went to a corn maze with some friends last weekend. It took longer than we thought and it got dark before we made it out. It was pretty cold but we had a great time.

Nate tried to find his own way out!

I bought some balloons for Todd's birthday last week and Nate loved playing with them.

He's never played with a toy for more than 5 minutes before but he played with this balloon for a half hour!

Love this laugh!!

I've been loving messing with his hair lately. It's so long but still practically invisible. 

He thinks it's really funny when I tell him how "awesome" he looks :)

Bath time is his favorite time of day lately. He loves "swimming" around and plays until the water is freezing. And, no surprise, he likes eating the bubbles.

Another Boise Trip & 18 Month Appointment

Boise
Nate recently had an appointment with a developmental specialist in Boise. The NICU likes to keep track of their super tiny babies by having them see these specialists over the course of their lives to track development and help us find help for any concerns that they may find. The lady we saw was the same occupational therapist that saw Nate every day while he was in the NICU. It was really fun to see her again and she was very surprised with how big and healthy Nate is. We didn't learn anything that we didn't already know - he's behind on speech and a few minor physical things. It was mostly just to have someone else take a look at him.

Todd wasn't able to come along this time so it was just me and Nate Bug. We visited lots of friends and, of course, went to the NICU as well. It is always so much fun to visit all of Nate's nurses and doctors. They are always so excited to see him and totally spoil him with hugs and cuddles. He loves showing off his tricks and being the center of attention. He showed off his walking skills and told everyone how much he "loved them" :)

We were able to stay at the Ronald McDonald House again. I haven't mentioned too much about the RMH but I can't say enough good things about it! They have been one of the biggest blessings to our family over the past 18 months.

We were able to stay at RMH for 130 days while Nate was in the NICU and have stayed every time Nate has had to return for appointments. It is located right across the street from the hospital so I was able to walk over every single day. They have 19 rooms that are set up like hotel rooms with 2 community kitchens, a living room, and 2 laundry facilities. The kitchen is fully stocked with food that can be used anytime. They also have volunteers come in several times per week to make dinner or treats for the guests. They provide all of this and only ask for $10 per day. You can find more information about the RMH on their website (rmhidaho.org). If you are able, please please please visit their website and find out how you can help this wonderful charity! There are many ways to volunteer or donate and the website has list of things they are in need of right now. 

This last stay was the first time Nate was big enough to play in the huge playroom that they have there. He absolutely LOVED it! I'm sure he could have lived there and been completely happy :)

18 Month Appointment

Nate also had his 18 month appointment at the begining of this month and it went really well. We saw a new doctor this time since our regular doctor just had a baby and was on maternity leave. He was super impressed with how great Nate was doing. He said he would have never guessed he was a micro preemie without seeing his typical "preemie scars". He was happy with his weight and his eating and didn't seem super concerned with anything. We did talk about this winter and what the plan is for RSV season. We are waiting to hear if our insurance is going to cover the Synagis shots this year and I'm super nervous that they won't. We certainly can't afford to pay for them on our own (they are $1500 each and he has 1 per month for 5 months!) so if they won't cover them, Nate will have to prove that he can stay healthy on his own. His doctor was great and helped me realize that it has been a miracle that Nate hasn't been sick yet and WHEN he does get sick, he'll help us get through it. I'm hoping this is how Nate's appointments go from now on! It's so nice to leave feeling confident instead of worried about ANOTHER thing.