greats.

Nathan has now met five of his great grandparents! Not too many kids can say that, even if he is too young to remember.  He met his Great-Grammy and Great-Poppy at birth (and has seen them a few times since then!), his Great-Nana two weekends ago and over the last week, he has been able to spend lots of time with his Great-Mimi and Great-PawPaw. 

I got really cute pictures of Nathan with each of them.  Here is Nathan with Mimi:

Here's a picture of Nathan with PawPaw:

And one of all three of them:

While everyone was together, we made sure to get a four generation of Darders picture.  Nathan will  appreciate this when he's older:

We definitely enjoyed getting to see Chris's grandparents.  They don't make it up to VA often, just like we aren't able to get down to TX very much - so we try to make the most of it when we see them!

roanoke trip.

Chris, Nathan, and I went down to Roanoke last weekend to go to a family reunion.  We ended up being fashionably late to the reunion and missed seeing a few people, but we still had a nice time.  I haven't quite got the art of figuring the baby into the timetable down yet.  I think this is the only 'family' photo that got taken out the bunch:

We did get a few cute shots of us and Nathan, though:

Nathan also got to meet a few 'greats' over the weekend.  First, we had a family dinner at Cracker Barrel where he met his Great-Nana for the first time.  I think they liked each other :)

Nathan also met his Great-Great Aunt Virginia, who gave him an adorable 'JMU Baby' blanket.

We had a very nice little trip, overall.  We reconnected with family, showed off our new addition, and enjoyed some beautiful pre-fall weather.  Sometimes it's really nice to get away for a few days!  Finally, we couldn't resist sticking Nathan in this little rocker.  I wish we had a front porch so I would have a justified reason to buy him one! :)

cuteness overload.

Nathan pictures from the last few days :)

 

 

 

 

 

first road trip.

Nathan went on his first road trip yesterday - we went to Carly's bridal shower in Virginia Beach.  Can you tell he had a great time?  He's quite the party animal :)  He did great: slept in the car the whole way down, was well behaved during the shower (read: awake with minimal crying/fussiness), and we only had to stop for him once on the trip back.

It was so nice to get out of the house and see friends. It's always a great time when the former roomies get to see each other!

check up.

Nate had his one month check up yesterday - diagnosis: a healthy baby!  He is now 12 lbs, 5 oz. (!!) and is 23 and a quarter inches long.  His absolute favorite part of the appointment was when the doctor looked at his mouth using the tongue depressor ... he had the biggest grin on his face.   Oh, and my favorite part: he did not cry in the appointment at all!

This is when we were getting ready to leave the doctor's office:

a few things I've learned.

Nathan knowledge:
*he absolutely loves his hands and waves them around constantly....even when he's asleep
*hunger = baby anger.  Always be a step ahead with a fresh bottle within reach
*he loves baths and the sound of water!
*Glee music calms him down when he's fussy
*Nathan sleeps best when in the carseat
*people watching is his current favorite hobby, other than eating

one month.

We decided to take a picture of little Nate every month in the same chair so that we can see how much he grows.  Okay, so this is not quite a one month picture, but we're only four days late.  Oh, and this cute little outfit is from his Great-Mimi :)

Here's a close up - it has little puppies on it!

spoiled.

Our house has turned into a place of all things baby.  I just realized that there are so many places we can put the baby: crib, bassinet, swing, bouncy seat, pack and play .... the list goes on.  Sadly, he doesn't spend so much time in these.  We definitely spoiled him when we first came home from the hospital, so Nathan prefers to be held above all else.

He did really take a liking to this leather chair, though:

and baby makes three.

Our lives changed forever on August 2, 2010 at 1:35 PM when our son, Nathan Charles Darder, was born via c-section.  Nathan was 9 lbs, 11 oz. and 21 inches long...what a big boy! This is a picture of the baby in his 'going home' outfit from the hospital:

Nathan is already a month old, so hard to believe! He has grown so much already and his personality is shining through.  Every day we learn something new about our little guy and we can't wait to see what else he has in store for us.