adventures in daycare: day one.

Nate started daycare today. He's set to go three days per week to a center that's about a mile from our house.  I won't lie. This decision did not come lightly and I'm not 100% sold on it yet, but I am so thankful for a good first day.

Six o'clock in the morning, my alarm goes off. By alarm, I mean my energetic little man announced he was ready for the day. I'm not sure why, but his little inner clock has been waking him up at six sharp every morning. Oh wait, except on Sunday when it was 5:59 a.m.  Yikes! I hope earlier is not a trend -- minute by minute, it adds up!

After getting myself dressed and Nate dressed, I checked and double-checked his 'going to school' bag to make sure that we had everything on the list.  His things are marked with his name in permanent marker and even the Ziploc bags are labeled with their contents. As we drive to the school, Nate gets quiet as he realizes we are going somewhere new. When getting out of the car at the daycare, he murmurs "oh my" and we start this new little journey.

I find his classroom -- it's for toddlers ages one through nearly two. It comforts me just a bit to know that he'll be one of the oldest kids in here. I hope the other kids are nice to him!  After I set him down on the floor, Nate walks away without a backward glance. I got to chit chat with his teacher for a few minutes, trying to boil my little boy down to a few succinct and telling sentences. She of course noticed the painstaking efforts that I went through with his things and jokingly said I was OCD and loved it. Lady, you've got no idea what I can do with a list, some baggies, and a permanent marker. I could organize your entire life! When I got ready to leave, Nate didn't notice and I didn't draw attention to myself -- so I slipped out, no fuss no muss.

But as I get to the car, the sobbing starts...the guilt and fears take over for just a few minutes. I'm sure the people think I am a lunatic now. Fast forwarding through a day of worrying, pick-up went great. GiGi and I picked up a happy boy with a glowing 'report card' for the day.  For my own benefit, things I'd like to remember about his first day:

• Marked as having a cheerful and happy disposition
• TOOK A NAP ON A COT! For a still crib-sleeper, this is an amazing feat 
• Didn't poop at all. No, he saved this for momma 
• Engaged in a ton of activities, ranging from looking at books, to water play, to playing with blocks. One item that did not make the list: clean-up.  Truly genetic predisposition! I think which parent is self-explanatory :) 

I'm sure that tomorrow will be a new adventure as Nate and I both get used to this...but for now, here's my 'before school' picture of Nate before his big day began:

twenty-two months.

We've been waiting for a nasty bug bite to go away so that I could do Nate's twenty-two month pictures.  It looks like he inherited his momma's allergic tendencies to mosquito bites!

Nathan is growing into a very sweet and energetic little boy. I love that he is able to make decisions and actually communicate some of his basic needs now -- he tells me when he wants milk, occasionally alerts me to a poopy diaper, and keeps an ever watchful eye on his dogs to let me know when they get into trouble.

Current Nathan-isms includes:

• Playing parrot and mimicking everything that I say
• Walking down his slide
• Singing his "Mr. Bear" song for animal cookies. He will also take cookies out of his mouth to sing the song again. 
• Trying to help me whenever and however he can. Nate's favorite right now is having me hold him while showing him how I make his scrambled eggs.  I am going to develop some killer muscles in my left arm!
• Dancing.like.crazy.  Actually he does this hop-clap combo that is just too cute and then tops it off with some side-to-side swaying action. 

Here are some pictures from Nate's monthly baby birthday pictures, some cute and some funny:

family photo.

Over the last week or so I have been going through our pictures and I came to the realization that it's slim pickings for family photos of Chris, Nate and I.  I'll chock it up to one of us using the camera while the other baby wrangles. I know I'm especially bad at waiting to get shots of Nate by himself rather than with other people.

I put it on my to do list today to get a family photo, stat. Thank goodness for a tripod and self-timers! Maybe I will invest in a remote, as well. We took well over a hundred pictures in about five minutes. Some are horrible, some are definite action shots while we tried to make Nate laugh, look at the camera, stay in shot, and look relaxed...but we ended a few that are good and one that I love. Here's our little family!

choo choo train.

Our town had the annual Railway Festival yesterday, which came at a perfect time since Nathan is absolutely enamored with 'choo choos'.  We had a great day and luckily I am the only one who got sunburned. We could not have asked for a more beautiful day! Mid-seventies, no humidity. Perfect.

Nate isn't quite old enough to fully appreciate everything at the festival yet. You can buy tickets to ride on the train, which I didn't think he would be up for yet, so we skipped that. We did see lots of train displays, made from typical craft-train sets and some made completely from Legos (these are neat!). There was also a Farmer's Market, moonbounce, lots of booths set up like a fair, and music.

I wish we had gotten someone to take a family shot of us, but here are some of my favorites from yesterday:

memorial day.

I meant to post about our Memorial Day weekend, but I am a bit late to the party on this one.  We had a great weekend, grilled out for our families, and tried to remember those who have and do serve our country. So thankful!

Nate was introduced to outdoor water activities and got to break in his water table and kiddie pool. Why didn't they have slides made into them when I was a kid?!