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.
