Nate's First Christmas!

Tada!  Computer problems solved.....xmas pictures uploaded..........here's some of Nate's 1st Christmas.
This is Christmas Eve at Great Grandma Komprood's

Nate..fall fall falling

Nate got a singing Gingerbread man who he was very intrigued by...

Bow on the head

This is one way to open cards...

Shoulda just got him bags this year..

Christmas morning at the Ruf Household.....belly Shirt!

Someones spoiled...

Favorite item out of that stocking was a bottle of shampoo, he couldn't put it down!

This is his "Thanks Grandma" face

Jealous boys wondering who brought that baby that got all the presents..

Grandma Jeanne got Nate a portable DVD player for long car rides to Monroe so Nate can watch his favorite show "Little Einsteins"...he was thrilled!

Aunt Susie and Uncle Jim had Christmas Day at their house and Nate decided he wanted to remove Aunt Susie's lovely decorations from the window....thankfully Aunt Barb was there to nicely put them back in place

Great Grandpa John read Nate some of his new books....Pop up Elmo has now perished as Nate has exuberantly ripped him from the page!

We made it out to dinner one night with Carissa and Lola....oh Mike and Joe were there as well :)

Here is the utilization of Grandma Jeanne's present on the drive home, what a tough life this kid has!  Don't worry, we only used it after we read plenty of books and sang some songs.  I initially told Trisha and my mom I didn't want that as a gift for Nate because he doesn't need to be entertained at all times, and we should do other educational things first, or he can entertain himself....Trisha proceeded to call me a hippie mom :)  I still don't think he needs to watch hours of tv or watch it the whole ride home...which he doesn't, and I have no problems being a "hippie mom" so...  Bite me Trisha!

Last fall fall falling montage....it happens a lot

Well, there was Christmas in a nut shell.  Hopefully, I will be blogging more consistently now that we are technically up and running!

Hi all!  Sorry I'm continuing to be an absentee blogger lately.  Still some technical difficulties at our house so I'm continuing to get the laptop in working condition again.  Unfortunately I don't have any of the new pictures to share but I'm loading a few videos from my phone so you can see the little monster...who just yesterday turned 11 months!
   Our Christmas was great in Monroe and now that the New Year has passed we're back to regular life again.  Nate is obsessed with walking around our coffee table since we've gotten home.  He makes about 100 laps a day around that thing.  He's getting very interested in walking on his own but is not stable enough...that doesn't stop him from launching himself though.
Here's a few seconds of naked drummer boy.  Of course the videos are sideways cause I don't know how to put them upright.  Nate is a HUGE fan of being unclothed.  The minute you take off his pj's he laughs and smiles like crazy.  Might have a streaker on our hands.  Nate loves this wooden spoon in the video and will hit anything in the vicinity with it!

This is the example of crazy laughing baby.  This whole thing started when I got up to go to the fridge and Nate started shriek laughing for no reason.  Then I started to say boo and he thought that was the funniest thing on the planet.  This game in the video below is definitely a Ruf/Olson household favorite.  I may sound terrifying but it's only because the phone is so close to me when I'm barking at him.  After this video, we probably did this for 15 more minutes and it has manifested in to a fun game we play every day.

Funny right?!....once he starts that laugh I can't stop laughing back at him.  He laughs that crazy too when Joe gets home and crawls up the stairs to play "Catch the Baby".  Nate tries to get away but Joe catches him and the laughing continues......my, how our ideas of fun have changed :)

Can't think of any other thrilling news...Nate is continuing to grow and we have his 1 year old checkup in February.  Nate and I went swimming with Aunt Trisha at her apartment this weekend and he was a big fan of the pool.  It was one giant bath to him and he splashed away and loved spinning in circles.  He holds a bottle or sippy cup on his own now which he's been doing for awhile.  He is now permanently standing in his crib every morning I go in to get him.  He has a huge grin every day and starts to bounce up and down to get out.  He says mama and up too!  Trying to teach dada but hasn't gotten the hang of that one yet.  Alright, have a good week and I promise to get the pics up soon!

Monroe bound and Christmas ready!!

Well, we're off to Monroe tomorrow and excited to celebrate Nate's first Christmas!  People keep asking if I got him lots of stuff.....my response...no :)  I did get him one book because he is getting more and more interested in reading.  I don't really see the point in going crazy on toys especially since his favorite toys are empty toilet paper rolls, Christmas paper rolls, spoons, and paper.  We have to be careful whenever we have paper/cardboard/plastic around because he attacks it and tries to eat it instantaneously.  I don't know if he's low on some sort of vitamin or what!
Here's us a few weeks back hunting for our perfect tree...well our affordable tree this year :)

Here's the morning after I did my decorating.  Joe won't help me because it's MY tree since I always want a real one.  I don't mind though because I love real trees and I do all the cleaning up afterwards too, so there Joey.   One year I even took it down myself, threw it over the deck, and drug it to the front to be picked up!

Nate's growing like a weed and fitting in to his 12 month clothes pretty easily.  He's back to eating pretty well now that his first tooth is cut so hopefully he's in a good eatin mood for Christmas.
Here's a few at home photos..

Nate's using a sippy cup pretty regularly now and has a good grip on that.  He says gooooooo a lot but is still mostly a fan of screeching, gurgling, and yelling rather than making any noticeable sounds.  He loves standing and holds on to the coffee table for 20 minutes at a time.  He can walk all the way around the coffee table on his own by holding on to the edges and side stepping around it.  He's fallen quite a few times of course but doesn't usually make a peep and just tries to reach back up and get back standing.  Joe lowered his mattress all the way down because I went in to get him after a nap and he was standing up holding on to the edge of his crib...slight heart attack on my end!  His favorite games are when we sneak up and down the stairs and attack him, play peek a boo, and bark at him....yes bark at him.  He thinks it's a riot! 
Like I said, he likes books and especially loves this book with a mirror in it.  He LOVES looking at himself and kissing/licking himself.  It's pretty gross actually.  A lot of times he lays his face on the mirror and just stares.

Well, that's it for now, I should get back to packing up for the weekend.  Have a wonderful Christmas all and hope to see a lot of you over the next few days!

Yes...we're alive

Ok, sorry for the lack of blogging but we are having some serious technical difficulties at the Ruf/Olson household.  The camera is dead and the charger can't be found....and no it doesn't run off of regular batteries so we can't put in new ones.  Plus, my computer has been hacked and I can't get online and now have to fix my computer....blah.  Anyways, here's a few old photos off of the video camera and a funny video of Nate enjoying the swing at the park back in late fall.
Tipping.....

 Slipping....

 Fallen...

Here's a video from swinging in the park a while ago...I believe Nate enjoys it!  Sorry the video is sideways.

We enjoyed the blizzard this weekend by staying home and doing a whole lot of nothing.  It was way to cold to head out and enjoy the snow, plus I doubt my car would start if we went out.  We got our Christmas tree last week and Nate hasn't been too interested in it or the gifts underneath it so that is nice not having it get attacked! 
He finally finally finally cut his first tooth.  For the past 3-4 days he's been insanely cranky and refused to eat much of anything.  Thankfully, we've had some experience in frustration with this before so we didn't lose our cool with him not eating.  He won't really let you look at the tooth but I can feel the little dagger in there.  He's back to his old eating ways now and wants everything in your hands!
What else has happened...?  We had a great Thanksgiving back in Monroe and plan on heading back for Christmas.  Nate's crawling everywhere and having no problems getting around.  He loves getting in the kitchen now and opening drawers.  I give him pans which he likes to pound on so that ups the noise level.  He laughs hysterically out of nowhere sometimes.  It's kind of odd/funny.  He was in the highchair the other day and I was going to the fridge and making a bottle and he started low growling in to a crazy shrieking laugh.  Trisha came in the door and we were both talking and out of no where he just started laughing again.  Like I said, it's funny but kind of odd!  I'm afraid he's plotting crazy plans. 
  Alrighty, I'll try to fix our tech problems and blog more!!  Happy Holidays

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!

This past weekend we got our first snowfall.  I think our area had about 8 inches or so that came down.  It was that very heavy wet snow so it was good packing snow.  It snowed Friday night and pretty much all day on Saturday.  When Nate and I got up on Saturday I couldn't help but put him in his snowsuit my mom got him and prop him up on the deck!  He was too cute and didn't seem to mind....only when the huge wet snowflakes got in his eyes, he didn't really know what that was!

This is Nate in the window getting his first look at snow!

Hanging out in his bouncy watching the snow fall.

This is a pic from a week ago when there was no snow and just a nice fall day...Nate loves to be outside and is the happiest when we are outside or just anywhere doing something. 

My mom came up this past weekend for a big craft fair that's held every spring and fall.  My friend Mary came along with her son Finn and mom Kathy.  Finn is 3 months old and Nate had been donating his clothes to Finn to wear, but Finn is a champ eater and has caught up to Nate in baby clothes size!  Here's Finn showing Nate how to eat like a man!

The wonderful thing about this giant craft fair is that they also sell beer and wine....this is what originally got me to start going to this craft fair a few years ago, but lo and behold I have become a crafter myself and tend to buy more than my mom and sister do, crazy I know.  Don't worry I still enjoy the beverages and we had a good time with our photos and shocking the crafter ladies with my baby strapped to my chest and beer in hand!

Now that's just what I call classy.  Not to worry we only had one beer....keep in mind we were there for about 5 hours....I'm not kidding, the fair is huge!
Nate and Finn were champs the whole time we were there.  Finn mostly napped and Nate was either carried, hanging out in his stroller, or strapped to my chest.  However, having a baby strapped to your chest at a craft fair with a million women opens yourself up for TONS of random conversations and ladies wanting to touch the baby, ask questions, interact, and tell you how cute he is.  Not my favorite thing but my lovely sister likes to watch me squirm away from strangers. 
Here's a montage of trying to get a picture of the grandmas trying to pose with the boys...didn't go too well!

Yah, we tried.  Nate was too interested in touching Finn or trying to hold his hands.  Soon enough Nate and you'll be good buds!  It was a fun weekend of snow and crafts!

9 months old!

Alright, just kidding that's not really Nate for all you slow folks out there.  I was checking out people.com before I posted this blog, saw this monkey and kept showing it to Nate who would squeal like crazy!  Maybe it's his brother from another mother.  You have to admit the big eyes are similar to Nate :) It's quite the likeness if you ask me.

Nate went to the doctor today for his 9 month check up.  I lied to him and told him it would be shot free but apparently you are supposed to give babies flu shots so he got one today.  The nurse gave him the shot and he didn't make a peep or seem to notice, it was kind of bizarre.  Joe, myself, and the nurse all looked back and forth at each other shocked that he made no noise, but oh well!

As you can tell, Nate has a bit of an obsession with grabbing his diaper.  When the diaper is off he has also found stuff to grab down there and he's quite fascinated...what a boy :)
Nate's weight was 18 pounds 13 ounces------Joe and I continued our betting and I said 19 lbs. 1 ounce. Joe said 22 lbs........obviously I win!
Height- 27.5 inches
Head - 17.5 inches
Everything was around the 25th percentile for 9 month olds so he is now solidly on that chart. 

Nate failed to qualify for any early intervention programs when the ladies came out last week....woo hoo!!  Two ladies came to the house, one was a teacher in the district and the other was a motor skills person.  After she was done evaluating Nate she exclaimed, "well congrats he failed to qualify!"  Confusing I know.  Basically, he is up to par on everything for his age and they don't have major concerns. The only concern was that he isn't so accurate with putting food in his mouth but that's it.  The sitting and crawling is all good stuff!  What he did qualify for was a program called the Follow Along Program.  Basically a public nurse calls every 3 months to see how he's doing and if there are concerns they send people out so we signed up for that one.  It'll be nice to have that resource around.