Nathan's birthday present!

We went on a walk this morning after breakfast and before naptime, and apparently sitting in a stroller and yelling at ducks is quite draining!
But here's what I really wanted to post about. We went to Babies R Us yesterday because I wanted a few things I haven't found anywhere else (mainly stick sunscreen because Nathan wipes the lotion in his eyes, causes swollen eyes, rash, etc.), and we decided to get his birthday present. It took us a while to decide on something and meanwhile Nathan was getting irritated that we weren't buying it all. We finally decided on a firetruck ride-on toy that has buttons and lights and all that exciting stuff, and that he can also walk behind and push. We decided that since (1) he doesn't know when his birthday is anyway, (2) we'll be flying to VA on his birthday, (3) we'd like to take it to his party Sunday, and (4) we're impatient, we'd give it to him today. He likes it, definitely, and I think will like it more once he figures how to get from point A to point B by either walking it or once he can push it and keep up without falling. Oh, and in honor of his birthday present, he's wearing his firetruck onesie. :)

not a lot going on...

Sorry this hasn't been updated more often. I haven't been taking many picutres lately. In fact, I don't think I'd taken any since our last trip to the beach. We went again yesterday. We have been asked to lead a college Bible study for our church so we met at the beach to decide when to meet, what to study, and what kind of fun things to do. We had quite a number of people for the size of our church, which was really encouraging.

Here are some pictures of Nathan. :) He decided to get a bit more friendly with the sand this time, including rolling around in it (that's why his face is covered). I think he tried to put some in his mouth when it was on his hand, but he didn't actively try to eat it. I guess the nasty gritty taste is quite the deterrent. At the bottom is Jimmy trying to convince him to come back to the group and eventually he just had to pick up the little guy who wouldn't follow the leader.

My Men

The other day Nathan spent at least 30 minutes, perhaps even 45 just cruising from one end of the coffee table to the other. Right now it's cleared off because if we don't clear it, he will (which is not so useful to a mom who has enough junk to pick up off the floor) and is acting as a barrier to the balcony. I like to have the sliding glass door open and the screen door closed so we get some breeze, but I don't like the thought of Nathan either opening the screen door (we can't lock it) or pushing through the screen. So, the coffee table, which is quite large and heavy, is the barrier to the outside. We thought about putting it in one of the closets because we like the open space in the living room area for Nathan to have plenty of floor area to play on, but it's the perfect height for him to pull to standing and guard the balcony. I didn't realize how entertaining cruising from one end of a 4-foot table to the other could be, but there are pretty flowers on the balcony to see! I don't know what he's pointing here, but I think when he was pointing he was probably screaming (which he does when he's excited about anything). Oh, and you're seeing correctly; he always points with his middle finger. I will probably try to curb that behavior when he's starting school but for now, it's pretty cute.

Here's Jimmy on his first father's day with a baby. We celebrated last year, but it's different this year with almost a full year of fathering under his belt. The card that Nathan got him had a sticker which he proudly displayed. :)

What?

I turned on the TV today to the local news. The first two stories were quite disturbing. In the first story, a child (pre-schooler, I'm assuming) brought little baggies of heroin to school and passed them to his classmates saying they were candy. The children are all fine; the teachers called the paramedics once they figured out what was going on. The second story was about how a neighborhood Applebee's served a margarita (instead of apple juice) to a 2-year-old in a sippy cup. The restaurant said that they keep the apple juice and the pre-mixed margarita in identical plastic containers behind the counter. Yeah, because no one could have seen that that would be a problem someday. In light of these two stories, I hope you have enjoyed your time with Nathan until now. He will not be leaving the apartment until he's 30. You are welcome to visit.

Beach Pictures

We took Nathan to the beach for the first time today with the purpose of doing the "beach thing." We've taken him before but just walked a little, mostly in the pier. Today he got to wear his bathing suit and matching hat (which he actually kept on! I was quite impressed), play in the sand, and get in the water. At first he really didn't know what to do about the sand. Here he is thinking about it and what his next move should be. At first, when we put him down on the sheet, he crawled right for it because that's what he does now. But as soon as he touched it he had to think twice about it.
After a little thinking, though (and getting placed on the sand by our friend Katie) he decided that it was alright.
Then we took him down to the water. It was a little chilly. He's not upset in this picture--I'm pretty sure he's smiling.
But it was a little chilly so he was a little serious (and though he was only in the water for a grand total of maybe 2 minutes, he was shivering a little when he got out, so we put his shirt back on him).
Here he is going for someone else's yellow ball. Nathan LOVES balls. We've got several and though they've lost their initial charm, he does enjoy grabbing them with both hands and doing a baby version of double dribbling, which mainly just means throwing it down as hard as possible, watching it roll away, and crawling after it to do it again.
The best of all was making a drum out of the cooler. Banging on things, anything, is always a winner.
Now he's fast asleep, and since his noise machine makes the sound of waves, he's probably dreaming about the ocean. :)

Some pictures from the week

Sorry the pictures have such bad red eye. I didn't want to spend all morning figuring out how to get rid of it now that my computer automatically uses Adobe to edit pictures instead of whatever it was using before. I was familiar with it before and now I'm not and, interesting enough, I actually have better things to do on a Saturday (you know, exciting things like laundry and dishes) than playing with my photo program all day.

ANYWAY, here are some pictures from the week. The first one, I think, is funny because it looks like Nathan is an inmate in his crib. :) The second one is just a random picture of him with shorts on his head. (For those of you familiar with my relationship to my cats growing up, the fact that I put shorts on Nathan's head and then took a picture shouldn't be surprising....remember the socks on Boots' head? :))


Here he is at the tail end of making a really funny squished-up nose face, this is not him disliking the food.
At Jimmy's birthday party he was given a number of gifts (which actually came as a surprise to both of us but we were grateful just the same) and one of them was a Target gift card. He decided to buy a basketball with it which has quickly become Nathan's favorite toy.
Hope you enjoyed them! We're getting about 5 ripe tomatoes tomorrow or Monday. You should come enjoy them with us!

GROSS

I'm currently reading Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser. This book is very interesting and has made me consider a number of things, like whether I'll ever come within 1,000 feet of ground beef ever again. (Granted, the book was written 6 years ago so I hold out hope that bringing all of this to light has caused a great deal of change in the meatpacking plants, slaughterhouses, and fast food restaurants.) Of course it's also made me think about eating fast food. Here's an excerpt from the chapter What's in the Meat, page 222:

"Dr. Griffin has good reason to worry. A 1997 undercover investigation by KCBS-TV Los Angeles videotaped local restaurant workers sneezing into their hands while preparing food, licking salad dressing off their fingers, picking their noses, and flicking their cigarettes into meals about to be served. In May of 2000, three teenage employees at a Burger King in Scottsville, NY, were arrested for putting spit, urine, and cleaning products such as Easy-Off Oven Cleaner and Comet with Bleach into the food. They had allegedly tampered with the Burger King food for eight months, and it was served to thousands of customers, until a fellow employee informed the management.

"The teenage fast food workers I met in Colorado Springs, CO, told me other horror stories. The safety of the food seemed to be determined more by the personality of the manager on duty than by the written policies of the chain. Many workers would not eat anything at their restaurant unless they'd made it themselves. A Taco Bell employee said that food dropped on the floor was often picked up and served. An Arby's employee told me that one kitchen worker never washed his hands at work after doing engine repairs on his car. And several employees at the same McDonald's restaurant in CO Springs independently provided details about a cockroach infestation in the milk-shake machine and about armies of mice that urinated and defecated on hamburger rolls left out to thaw in the kitchen every night."

Gross, right? That stuff may or may not make you sick. The following is another excerpt from the same chapter, pg. 197, and to me seems much more serious:

"A nationwide study published by the USDA in 1996 found that 7.5% of the ground beef samples taken at processing plants were contaminated with Salmonella, 11.7% were contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes, 30% were contaminated with Staphylococcus aureus, and 53.3% were contaminated with Clostridium prefringens. All of these pathogens can make people sick; food posoning caused by Listeria generally requires hospitalization and proves fatal in about one of every five cases. In the USDA study 78.6% of the ground beef contained microbes that are spread primarily by fecal material."

Really, you should read the book...unless you like fast food (and hamburgers!) too much to give it up. :)

Jimmy's Birthday Party

Here are some pictures that I stole from Andrea's facebook of Nathan at Jimmy's surprise birthday party. There are some pictures of Jimmy too, but, well, they just weren't as exciting as Nathan's. :) In the first one he's playing with a flower and in the last two he's SO excited about the little dog that our pastor's family brought (not as a gift; he's their pet). I really wish that we could get a pet for Nathan to grow up with but not until we move out of this apartment (they don't allow any pets here, except maybe fish...how exciting...). Anyway, Jimmy's party was great. We had about 35 people from college and church and, of course, our Iowa friends who don't fit in either category. I think Jimmy was surprised, even though I imagine he had some idea that it was going to happen since I had previously declared I would be handling all of the proofreading checks we cash and he wasn't to even think about spending the money. :) Enjoy the pics of Nathan!

Not such a little baby anymore :(

Update: All quiet on the western front since last Sunday's episode with the downstairs neighbors. If they weren't still slamming the door every time they enter and leave, I wouldn't think they were still living there! Anyway, here are some pictures from the week. I really think Nathan prefers the straw cups to regular sippy cups because he hasn't yet mastered tipping it up and his head back to get it out of the bottom, so the sippy cups work best for a mommy who doesn't want to refill every 3 minutes. Oh, and Nathan has certainly embraced his Brockness. On Friday I was feeding him his afternoon snack (hard-boiled egg yolks with milk--sounds gross but he used to really like it) and he was acting like he was choking. I got up to get him a sippy cup of water and as I turned around I saw lots of yellow projectile vomit coming from my child. I had heard tell of babies who literally shot it out of their mouths, but I'd never seen it so I thought it was made up. It's not. It almost got on me. Gross. (I hope he's not having an issue with dairy--he loves cheese and yogurt...)


Right before this picture Nathan had been making a squinched-up face in reply to mine and when I brought my face close he'd grab my cheeks and it was really cute, but then he decided he wanted to play with the hair that didn't quite make it into the ponytail.
Yes, Jimmy does look a little dreary-eyed, but he had just gotten home from work on Friday, so give him a break ;)