Happy Halloween!

Hope everyone had a great Halloween weekend!  Here's a few photos of that crazy lion with our friends Jake and Jamie's daughter Jacqueline.  Nate was very interested in petting her face for some reason :)

I gathered some of my old 80's gear to head out on the town a little bit on Saturday night...

Nate also poses well as a lovely M&M!

Head tickle game!

Nate's bear hat modeling.

Latest news....Nate's swing has been retired to the basement.  He has not been a fan of it for a few months now so we made room for his standing/bouncer thing----I obviously can't think of the name for it :)  This coming Friday a nurse and a teacher from the district are coming to the house.  They are with an Early Intervention Program that a woman at the county told me would come out for free to check his progress as a preemie.  I don't really feel like it's necessary since he's doing well but they follow up regularly so if anything comes up it's nice to have the contact.  His 9 month appointment is coming up in a few weeks on the 11th of November so we'll see how he's growing.  Haven't been since his 6 month and thankfully we don't have to do shots this time around.  He's continuing to crawl/drag himself all around so he's getting quite mobile!

Fall Adventures

Here are some pictures from our trip to the zoo a few weekends ago.  Nate was not in a bad mood even though he will not look at the camera and generally looks annoyed.  I don't believe he smiled in any photo...he was just a curious, quiet observer of everything.  He also had a nap that was cut short so that may have had something to do with it as well along with a ton of people, the sun was bright, and he's also easily distracted. :)  He definitely enjoys being outside though.  Eatin lunch...

 Inside the zoo watching the gorillas.  Nate was a big fan of watching the spider monkeys run around.... again it would not be known by that face.

 Attempts at getting Nate to look at the camera and smile.....not gonna happen!

This is just funny

 Since Nate is obsessed with lions we had to stop and see him.  There was a mouse in there as well so of course Joe had a panic attack :)

 There were lions everywhere!

 This is also the pretty park where Joe and I had our engagement pictures taken a few winters ago.  Weird to be back with a baby!

 Nate sits up on his own now quite well and here he is showing off those skills.

W

e got Nate's lion costume at Macy's at the Mall.  Here we went to surprise Aunt Trisha at work...he's an intense lion

 Much less scary lion here!

Here's a pre-lion video at the mall...I just think it's funny.  I was there with my friend Andrew and we were feeding Nate applesauce when he decided to attack the stroller for no apparent reason....apparently it's delicious!

 

Here's some attempts at crawling/booty shuffling!  He gets closer and closer every day to full on crawling.

We'll end the blog with a little future Chippendales shot....we're aiming high!

Happy early Halloween!

Traveler

Alright, here are a few photos from our friend Maria.  I have a bunch of pictures that I've wanted to post on the camera but Joe has it this weekend hunting in North Dakota....AND I can't find the cord to plug it in to the computer :) Go figure.  So here are just a few from Maria's phone.  Maria is watching Nate on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays while Joe and I work.  Mondays Trisha has him and I have him Fridays.  Joe has been back to work recently so we needed to find some day care.  I try to get paper work done on Fridays but that's hard with the little man wanting to play and roll around!

I love pictures of him in his car seat because I can still picture his little 4 pound butt so tiny in there and now he takes up so much room and is extremely heavy to carry!  When I was home for the Badger/Gopher game Nate got on the scale with my dad and he's around 18 pounds!  Crazy.  He is a little over 8 months old and fills up his 9 month outfits, so he's doing great.  They are a little short lenghtwise but definitely not in girth :)
Nate is active as can be now a days.  I was at Trisha's apartment recently and Nate crawled twice!  Like truly crawled!  Up until now he does the booty shuffle where he lifts his tush and army crawls but these were legitimate kick the legs and pull the arms forward!  He still prefers to roll places though and is an expert stop, drop, and roller.  He moves all over the room.
  Random people like to comment on his eyes and his eyebrow expressions which he is very dramatic with!

Nate is eating pretty well for the most part.  We've reintroduced him to solid foods after he finally started eating his bottle again.  For awhile he was refusing the bottle because he was bored and waaaay more interested in spoon feeding. 
 Looking forward to Halloween next weekend.  Nate is going to be a lion because he is obsessed with all things lion!  He has this same lion character on like 4 of his toys and he goes crazy for it every time!
  Joe has been hunting a lot lately so Nate and I have had a lot of weekend time together.  It's all been great except for him waking up in the middle of the night and then wanting to be up around 5:30.  I usually leave him on his own in the night but he can fuss for up to 30/40 minutes which is noooot fun.  Other than that we go out to eat, shop, hang out with friends.  Nate tends to be much better when we are out and about doing things.  He doesn't get too cranky when he's interested in things going on around him.  He's much like myself and and observes things for quite a while before he's comfortable but once he warms up he's a smile fool!

Baptized boo

Nate was baptized back on the 25th of September.  Thankfully, his grandparents, Uncle Jon, girlfriend Kayla, and Aunt Trisha could make it.  Nate was great throughout the service until about the last 10 to 15 minutes where he wanted to have a conversation with me.  He wasn't upset, he was just quite chatty....quite loudly!  Other than that he did great!!
Apparently Nate did not want Uncle Jonny to take away his attention by looking fancier than him and tried to de-tie him!

 Nate had a full outfit with bow tie, suspenders, hat, and shoes, but throughout the service he had wiggled wormed his way out of plenty of his attachments!  Joe thought he would hold him like Simba in the Lion King.

 Here Uncle Jon and Aunt Trish are showing how seriously they take their godparent duties.

 Uncle Jon, Kayla, and Nate

 Who knows what kind of "words of wisdom" are flowing in this conversation below :)

 The next day, the 26th was Grandpa Jimbo's birthday......just his 40th or so :)  We convinced him and mom to join us at the Renaissance Festival to spend it with us.

 Here are Nate and I outside a house where they were playing instruments...Nate was very in to it!

 This is most definitely my favorite picture of the day.  That classy lady in front is Mary who just had a little baby boy Finn back in August.  Her husband Dan is behind her (doing what I don't know).  They also have a little girl so had to make sure and get all their fun in.  Andrew is proudly displaying his beer and Jimbo is trying to find where we are on a map and plan a route with no one listening....what a day!

 Snotty nosed Nate with Grams.

 Jimbo was grasping at his youth and challenged himself to "dunk a wench".  Unfortunately age has caught up with him and he did not in fact dunk her.

 Here's Nate and Claire.  Claire was a bit intent on touching Nate and he was maybe not so thrilled.  Instead he chose to act with good manners and stick out his tongue!  What a gentleman!

 Nate wouldn't cooperate with us.

 Happy Birthday Jimbo!  I'm not going to lie...I was nervous to associate with dad at the festival because there are some very interesting characters there who take their Ren Festivities very seriously.  He's a bit like a 4 year old who says whatever enters his mind and then cackles like a crazy!  Plus, he tends not to know or realize how loud he might be saying things!  Thankfully, no wenches, fairies, or knights beat us up by the end of the day so it was a success!

 Here's Nate at Aunt Trisha's getting much more comfortable and interested in Henry...mostly his tail.

 Aunt Trisha took these photos when they went on a walk this week....it was a little chilly but this may be a bit excessive!  If you can find the eyeballs that's Nate!

 Nate and I are headed to Monroe for the Gopher/Badger football game this weekend.  I'm a little embarrassed to wear my gopher gear...due to how horrible we are....but I'll still rock it!