Nathan's 1st Airshow (9 photos), by Amy Shuppy

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1 1/2 years old ~

Nathan is 1 1/2 now. It seems like such a grown-up number. This has been a busy couple of months...

Nathan got to celebrate his Great-Grandpa J's 90th Birthday with him. Not many kids can say that, I don't think. He was pretty lucky when he was born, he had 6 Great-Grandparents.

March 23 he started going to daycare (we call it school). We are starting to have "no tear" drop-offs in the mornings. He will get a little weepy if there are other kids crying, but otherwise it is getting a lot better. It was always so hard to leave him when he would cry so hard, but his teachers would reassure me that he would stop within a few minutes after he couldn't see me anymore. I think he has a lot of fun playing with the other 10 or so kids his own age and has brought home some great artwork. Today they made Smores and had them with the homemade lemonade they made yesterday.

The week after Easter he got to spend a lot of time with his Papa Steve from South Carolina, he was here for Great-Grandpa Shuppy's funeral. He stayed with us which gave them time to bond. He recognizes Papa's voice on the phone now. He will get to see Papa again in about a week and his MeMa and 2 Aunts.

Nathan was home sick 3 1/2 days that week from school with some sort of virus and then would have a low-grade fever once a week until the beginning of May when it just spiked. We found out that he had a double ear infection. That explained a lot. This was the first time he had ever had one. So, he took an antibiotic for 10 days and he seemed great until about a week ago. I got him right back into the doctor and found out that his ear infection didn't go completely away. Now he is on a stronger antibiotic, which he has a time frame where he can't have anything but water. That is a struggle sometimes when he decides he is hungry and you can't give him anything.

He talks a lot now. Most of the words you can't understand, but he's pretty serious about it sometimes. He does sign Please, Thank you and More. He is finally saying Mama again...Jared would say he says it too much when it's just the two of them. He has started dancing more and learning animal sounds and nursery rhymes. It's fun to watch him do hand movements to "The Itsy Bitsy Spider" and "Patty Cake". He knows cracker, ball, book, hat, coat, shoe and most of the Thomas the Train characters and Elmo, Cookie Monster and Big Bird. Those are the words he can say that you would be able to understand the most, there are others. He is putting some words together too. I can't believe how fast he is growing.

The last picture is the new Jump n' Slide that he got. He loves it, it was really hot out the first day we put it up. I like it too, it's a safe way for him to play, you just have to watch them coming out the non-slide side.

At his appointment last week he weighed 29lbs 5oz. He has his check-up next week, so we will see what it says then and check his height. I am going to say he will be about 34 inches tall.

**Check-up 6/4/09**
Nathan weighed in at 29.2 lbs and 34 1/4 inches tall (90th percentile on both). Everything checked out good and his doctor said he passed the developmental questionnaire. He wasn't very happy with everyone touching him and he had to get a shot, but we are hopefully done going to the doctor until December. I won't hold my breathe though.

Our basement is on it's way to being done. We have everything drywalled except the back room, then we can finish the walls, get a ceiling, carpet and we're done. Wow, I wish it was that simple. It will be really nice when it's finished. Cross our fingers that it will be done before the Midwest Summer really hits.

15 Months Old ~

I know it's been a while...3 months to be exact. Our little guy has changed so much. As you can see by the picture, he likes to wear Daddy's hat. He officially started walking on January 23 and just keeps getting better. He does have to catch himself a few times when he goes from the family room to the tile in the kitchen in his socks.

He has learned to put together his shape puzzle and loves to play with his trains. Thomas is #1 in our house. Everything seems to stop when he comes on.

He has parts of words down and you can a least understand what he is saying for the most part...light, cat, hat, bye-bye, hi, Daddy, Apple (calls them App), cracker, ball, Bom-pa (grandpa). I'm sure I missed a few. He says Mama here and there, but I get called Daddy a lot. It's more fun to say.

He loves apples, corn and hot dogs. He is not a fan of pasta. He doesn't like the feel of it. He just tried dried blueberries for the first time yesterday. He seems to like them.

He is going to be starting day-care in a couple of weeks. Grandma is taking a break. I know that he has enjoyed his time there and it is really great that he has been able to spend the last year every day with his Grandma and Grandpa B. and his Great-Grandpa J. And we have really appreciated it.


He went to the doctor yesterday and she said everything looks good and he is healthy. He weighs 28.6 lbs and 33 inches tall. The average size of a 19-month old.

We are doing well and are in the process of finishing our basement. It is really starting to look like rooms. Our friend's dad is doing all of the work for us. He's such a nice guy. We have also decided to put a bathroom down there. I think we will be happy with that.

HAPPY 1ST BIRTHDAY!! ~

Nathan turned 1 yesterday! Wow, I can't believe it. Where did the time go? And for those who were worried, I held it together just fine. I think Nathan might have been a little overwhelmed by all of the people, but someday he will understand what it's all about.

He had a Thomas the Train theme with a Thomas candle on top of his cake. He wasn't sure about the cake at first, but as you can see he finally got in to it. He almost shoved it on the floor, but Daddy caught it. We then had a big cookie instead of cake for everyone else.

Thank you to everyone for coming and the gifts you brought. Nathan has enjoyed all of them. He went to bed at 8 last night and decided at 10 that he just wasn't go back to sleep (not sure if he might have had a tummy ache from the frosting), so he played with some things last night and went back to bed at 11.

I think he is about 27lbs. and 31-32 in. He goes for his 1-year checkup tomorrow, so I will update after that.

11 Months Old ~

Nathan is now around 27 lbs and 31 in tall. He is ready to walk (or really close). He cruises around couches and tables and is getting pretty good at standing by himself.

Tooth #10 came in a couple of weeks ago. It's a dangerous place to go when we try and see if there are any new ones. He went to the dentist during Daddy's appointment this month. Dr. Benoit looked in his mouth and said everything looked good and to prepare for a lot of drooling and chewing on things with his molars coming in. He had to lay on his back and the dentist tickled him to get him to open his mouth. They said to come back in a year.

We made our first trip to the zoo this month too. We went with our friend and her son and nephew (who is 2 days older than Nathan). It was really cute when they both started to make noises and looked at each other like, "you do that too"?

He isn't sure about table foods very much. He does like toast, little bites of chicken, cheese and all of the Gerber bite size foods. He thinks the yogurt bites are funny. Not sure why. He doesn't want much to do with pieces of fruit, they are a little slimy.

He has become more vocal, we just don't know what he is saying. He is working on Bye-Bye (he has the wave down), Hi and Ozzy (one of our kittys).

We did dress him up last night for Halloween. We took him to a few houses of people we know, but didn't get any candy. He doesn't need to know what that is yet. He was Winnie the Pooh dressed as a bee.

10 Months Old ~

Nathan is quite the "mover" these days. He has discovered there are other rooms on the main floor other than the family room. As you can see by the picture, he likes to be in the kitchen. He has magnets that he plays with and can put in his little refrigerator and it will talk to him. Although his favorite thing to do is just open and close the door on it. He is pulling himself up everywhere and walking along things, also working on standing by himself.


He is a chatter box too. Ma-Ma was his first word, his doctor was surprised because she said that is harder than Da-Da. We worked on Da-Da last weekend and surprised Daddy when he came home from the Iowa Football game. He said Da-Da. Now we are just working on other words. Sometimes he will say, "Uh-Oh" and "Out".
Nathan is no longer the baby of the family (on my side anyway). He has a new little cousin, Muireann, who was born 09/07. He wasn't too sure about her yet because she doesn't do much. But she is a cutie. It's hard to believe that he was once her size.

9 Months Old ~

Nathan is crawling and pulling himself up now. Just about every time we go in to get him out of bed he is already standing in his bed. Jared moved his mattress to the lowest level today. Nathan is having so much fun, he is keeping Mommy and Daddy very busy trying to keep him out of trouble. Two weeks ago tonight he had his first big boo-boo. He was trying to stand up at the end table and lost his balance with the hand he was leaning and hit his head on the shelf of the end table. I grabbed him really quick to comfort him and didn't realize right away he had actually cut the skin open. We were lucky, it was right above his eyebrow. Jared and I were very nervous about it being so close to his eye and it didn't seem to stop bleeding, so we went to convenient care and they put some derma-bond on it. He was a really big boy while we were there, he didn't cry once. He will have a little scar, but nothing too bad. Everyone reminds me it will be the first of many.

He hasn't tried too many new foods lately. We have tried to give him bread/toast, but he doesn't want anything to do with it. We did give him some of a Kraft cheese slice and he seemed to like it. Cottage cheese he does not like, I think it's the texture.

He weighed in at home at 25 lbs. and measured 31 in. We'll see what the Doctor says in a week at his check-up.

**Doctor update 09/08/08**

Nathan weighed 25.6 lbs. and 29 1/2 in. long. His doctor said he is developing ahead of schedule and is starting to get his molars.