wysereeser + 2

So with all that has been going on, I thought it time to blog again. Ok so I thought this awhile ago, but just now am finding the time. Mitchell is down for a nap and Nate and Scott are on a bike ride.

Where do I start? I think we will start with Nate’s birthday.  On May 25th (yes over a month ago) Nate turned 5. He chose the theme of a bug party so we had a butterfly pinata, plastic bug hunting, stick the stinger to the bee etc for his party. He had a lot of fun and really enjoyed getting bug things as well as many other presents for his party.

It is hard to believe he is already 5. When I look at photos of him when Mitchell was born which was just 15 months ago, I can’t believe how much he has grown in so many ways.  He is such a big boy. Of course he has moments when I wonder if he can hear me or is just ignoring me, but as a whole he continues to add so much to our lives. He is excited about so many things like the bat house that he helped dad make, the slide that he helped dad build in the back yard, the bees of course etc.  He also seems to enjoy being the big brother. Of course there are moments when he instigates something, but he loves to hug and wrestle with his brother, help him when he can etc. He keeps a good eye out for him.  He loves to pick flowers for me and purchase flowers for me (with my money of course)  He continues to love to cuddle. I let him do it as much as he wants even if it means going to bed a little later when there is nothing going on the next morning because I know cuddling won’t be on the top of his list forever.  For his birthday we gave him a bycicle. He loves it! He wants to ride it when he can. I think today is going to be one of his biggest rides yet. We are just sad that we don’t take him out for bike rides more often, but my excuse is that since I am so front heavy this summer, I am not going for rides.  Poor guy.

Nate is heading to Ohio tomorrow morning for  a week. We sure will miss him, but I know he will have an awesome time with Grandma and Grandpa and Connor and Quinn and Keegan and family. He will be joining us on the 5th or 6th of July.  What a big boy he is…..

On to Mitchell… He is talking up a storm and every day we are understanding more and more.  He now says things like “get down” “sit down” “thank you” “go” “shoes” “ball” (his favorite word, anything that is round is a ball) He also says “Uppy” and “apple” apple currently means apples an most other foods. He does know a few food names like banana. He also says NeNe for Nate. “Mommy” is another favorite. He also says “mama” which I think sometimes is referring to me and other times just referring to wanting something. He calls daddy “dada” but he also says mama to him which is why I think he means it as a general term as well.  Scott is trying hard however to get him to say “daddy”  This morning I asked Bailey if she wanted to go outside. I did not make any movements to get her to go outside or even walk to the door myself. Mitchell on the other hand stood up and started walking to the playroom. He said “Bailey” and motioned for her to come. Since she doesn’t understand him, I helped pursuade her his way. He continued to walk towards the back door and call her name and motion for her to come.  It was obvious that he was trying to help out and let Bailey out this morning.  He understands so much of what we say or ask of him. When he gets up in the morning, the first thing he likes to do is to put his shoes on and our shoes if he can. He likes to get ready to go for the day.  He is a man of many smiles and he is quite the character. He loves to see his brother first thing in the morning and hug and wrestle with him.  He loves to do whatever his brother is doing. It is fun to see him look up to his brother so  much.

Since Nate’s birthday Grandma Reeser came up to help watch the boys for a few days,  which they purely enjoyed. We also went to our friend’s cabin on Sugar Lake in Minnesota for an extended weekend this month. The whole family enjoys the trip including Bailey who likes to swim constantly for the 2 plus full days we are there.   This past week and next week childcare arrangments have been different since the Wenger’s have been out of town. Scott and I have been covering the 4 mornings and we have hired Reade to watch the kids 4 afternoons.  This has worked great because she is able to take the kids to the pool every afternoon. They love it!  We joined the pool down the street. They had a huge discount this year and since Nate is so into swimming it is hard to not. We have done a good job getting down there regularly and Nate is taking swimming lessons 2-3 times per week.

On to me. I continue to get bigger and multiple times a day am told how big I am or how suprised someone is that I have 6 weeks to go etc.  It gets a bit old. Yes I carry big and yes I have big babies and yes it can be miserable on the hot days but to have it all pointed out multiple times a day…. ughh. I know people who carry on the smaller end feel the same way about comments that happen on a regular basis. As usual, in some ways it would be nice to be holding the little girl, but in other ways, I have a lot to do work-wise etc to be ready for her arrival.  As far as names, Scott has a name picked out, I can either go along with it or continue to find another name. All of my attempts have failed. I think in the end the name is fine and I would be happy with it so needless to say I probably haven’t tried to hard to find an alternative.

We had some family friends that are professional photographers come visit to take some pictures of the boy. They just sent us a quick video snapshot of a few of the more notable pictures. That kid is so damn cute!

Yes this is the 3rd post in one day, but since I was behind and each post has its own topic, I thought I would separate them. I am sitting in my office contemplating work and thought I would type about bees. Honey bees that is. Downstairs Scott and the boys are building the top box of our beehive. After someone at church mentioned that we can have bees in the city of Madison, we decided that maybe this is something we should and could do. Living in the city after being farm raised we do sometimes miss out on those things that the country allows. We are taking this opportunity to think about those things we can do. I guess for me it comes down to bee population. In recent years I have heard that bee populations are on a decline. This is concerning since the world relies so heavily on bees. How best can we help but to have our own bees. We are also thinking about hosting a bat house on our property but that means building a bat house. We have the plans so it just means taking the time. What better way to work on the mosquito population than to have bats. Just this past Friday we ate supper outside and already there were mosquitoes!! Nate’s legs were eaten alive. He had about 20 bites on them. Poor guy. If anyone has other ideas of things we could have in the city (other than chickens, not sure we are into those) we would love to know.

Yesterday (April 21st)  I asked Micah and Nate to pick out some books for me to read to them. Mitchell said “book” and I said “yes, book”. He then proceeded to also bring me a book. Mitchell has brought things to us on command before but it is usually things he already has. This was a new thing. This morning after he brought a book to me, I started to say the words in the book. Mitchell was repeating all the words I was saying. He doesn’t quite have the end sounds yet but he is getting there. He definitely likes “b” words like book, ball, bailey, bottle etc. He also has been heard saying kittie and other words. Again, he isn’t quite clear on them and you have to know what he is saying to understand him but he is getting there. He is trying and I believe will soon just start throwing out words. He has become very strong minded about his opinion. He likes to take the toys his brother is playing with and gets upset when he is told he can’t have them. He also likes to play with the “big boys” he gets very excited when he is included in their play. We are starting to wein him from a bottle. He only gets bottles now before naps and before bed. I foresee that soon we will wein the before nap bottle and just have the bedtime bottle. My goal is to have Mitchell comfortably bottle wiened before the next one arrives. Mitchell still only has 4 teeth. The 5th did pop through just the other week, but I am not sure it can be called a tooth yet, it is barely rearing its head. Mitchell has gone this whole week with not getting upset thus far when I put him in his car seat. Habit for him is that while putting him in, he throws a fit, but as soon as he is buckled he is fine. Recently he has been fine with the entire process. He also gets upset less often while we change him. Just yesterday I was putting his pajamas on and he actually gave me one foot at a time to aid in putting his pajama pants on. Usually as mentioned earlier he has fought this process.

For spring break we met my brothers, Jason and Barnaby and their families in Florida. We rented a house on Marco Island. Nathan would say the highlights were the pool in the backyard, the beach and being with his cousins all week. Despite having the opportunity to sleep in a room with his cousins, Nate took the overnights as an opportunity to have some time to himself. I think he liked the idea of sleeping in and his cousins, Connor, Quinn and Keegan like the idea of getting up at the crack of dawn or earlier. So needless to say we spent the week in the pool, the beach a farmer’s market, a large park just 4 blocks from our house with an huge playground and went for a hike. Nate took the opportunity to really get comfortable in the pool. One of Nate’s cousins brought water wings. Nate spent the week wearing them and decided that he was perfectly comfortable to jump in the pool on his own without anyone needing to be there to catch him. He would then doggy paddle out of the pool and do it all over again. He was proud of the fact that he could doggy paddle with his head under the water. Everyone agreed that Nate won the award for spending the most time in the pool. Mitchell wasn’t far behind Nate in pool time. He also enjoyed the pool and blew bubbles often. Nate and Mitchell enjoyed the beach as well but didn’t enjoy the salt water splashing in their faces, so sand play was their choice of beach activity as well as hunting for shells. Nate was set on finding a sand dollar while we were in Florida. Luckily a random woman gave Nate a sand dollar that she had just found. We were not able to find one on our own. Nate, Keegan, Michelle and I went off one afternoon on our own to a different beach that was more of a lagoon due to the fact that there was a barrier island between the beach and the ocean. The lagoon smelled a bit but Nate and Keegan seemed to really enjoy the fact that there weren’t waves and that there were squirt boats to rent. They both spent time on the squirt boats. You could cross the lagoon at one central point where it was more shallow to then cross the barrier island to get the ocean experience. We didn’t spent much time on the barrier island other than to walk the beach a bit. On Friday Nate wanted to go back to this beach, so we showed the rest of the family what it was all about. Needless to say that other than the plane trip back (Mitchell was not into sleeping or sitting still) the trip was perfect and relaxing. Just what we all needed. Nate was not ready to leave (nor were the rest of us).

So yes, I just blogged, but I thought this morning’s events needed their own separate blog.   I will go chronologically.  This morning Mitchell woke up at 6 ready for the day. Despite being really tired, Scott and I couldn’t help but enjoy the entertainment. Thankfully Mitchell didn’t mind staying in our bed and playing with us there. He just thought being under the blankets was hilarious. He was in the best mood. Finally at 7 he decided it was time to go back to bed. I have to say that I too fell asleep and didn’t wake up until 8!  Needless to say a late start for me. Mitchell slept until 8:30. While I was in the shower and getting dressed Nate woke up. He usually comes to me to say good morning. This morning, however, he decided to go downstairs and let Bailey out for her morning bathroom run and then he proceeded to do what he could to prepare for breakfast. He set the table with cups, spoons and bowls and then got out the granola.  He didn’t get out the milk and OJ yet, because he can’t reach them. So to summarize he did everything within his abilities to prep for breakfast. After that, he then let Bailey back in. He excitedly came upstairs to let me know that breakfast was ready for him, myself and Scott. I told him that daddy already went to work.  He was disappointed and wanted us to call daddy to let him know about the morning. He then put away the extra spoon, bowl and cup.  The most uncharacteristic part of this was that I didn’t ask Nate to do any of the above. When asked (depending on the morning) he is more than willing to help. There was no asking. Bravo Nate!  You are awesome!

I have so many thoughts I am not sure where to start.  I will start with Nate.  We registered for kindergarten earlier this month. I can’t believe he is old enough to go to kindergarten!  I have to say though, I do think he is ready. I am sure I mentioned that before.  This past week I was at a Borders and on a whim was looking through the workbooks in the children’s section.  I picked out a book about numbers, rhyming words, and a maize book.  The first night I brought them home, I asked Nate if he would like to work on them while I made supper. He seemed excited to do so. After about 5 or 10 minutes of working on them, Scott asked Nate if he would like to go for a walk. His response was “I have to finish my homework dad, I can’t go on a walk right now”  This was hilarious given that I had given not Nate any instructions about what he needed or didn’t need to do.  He has worked on the books a little each day and really seems to enjoy learning.

"Hey Nate, look at me for the photo" Nate's response "but I have to concentrate, mom!"

This past weekend we spent a lot of time outside just soaking in the gorgeous weather.  Scott asked Nate if he wanted to go on a bike ride. The thought of a bike ride just made Nate’s day. Scott hooked up the tag along and they went on what Scott thought was a short bike ride, but Nate thought quite long.

Nate still has his moments with how rough he is with Mitchell, but as a whole he has really been a great big brother. They are really starting to play more and more together each day. Sure Nate gets frustrated when Mitchell tears down what he is playing with but I think he also understands that Mitchell is just interested in what Nate is doing.

On a random note, we found out recently that Mitchell is possibly “tongue tied”. We were informed of this by a church friend who is also a lactation consultant. She could tell by his heart shaped tongue when he stuck it out.  This diagnosis makes sense, since I was born with the same issue.  Mine was cut however before I even left the hospital. I have since found that one of my aunt was “tongue tied” as well as a cousin’s son.  My biggest concern is that it will effect his language development. I don’t believe it to be severe since he can stick his tongue out of his mouth and he can say da da. I guess this is an important sound because one needs to touch there tongue to the top of their mouth to make this sound.  I have not yet decided if I should call the doctor about it or wait until Mitchell’s next appt. at 18 months.

Mitchell is quite a chatterbug. He is asking for a bottle independently of us initiating by saying ba ba and making the milk sign, he is also saying mine, bailey (ba), meows for the cat, yeah, shakes his head profusely to say no,  points at everything he wants and lets you know if you have it wrong. I am sure there are a few more things that he is saying in all his babble, but I can’t think of it right now.

Mitchell is doing a lot of copying. If you talk to anyone like the dog in a stern way with your finger pointing, Mitchell will then do the same.  This past week Mitchell saw me use a q-tip to get some eyeliner off. He then proceeded to find a q-tip to wipe off his face as well. Last night I was cleaning the bathroom and wiping off the sink. Mitchell acted like he wanted to do the same, so I gave him a rag. He proceeded to sing and wipe the counter.  There are many more examples of him mimicking what we are doing.  It is fun to see how much he is observing.

Another example of Mitchell wanting to be like his brother and dad

Mitchell sleeps through the night about 50% of the time, the other times he wakes up a couple times throughout the night and needs consoling. He is much more willing to go back down if Scott does the consoling. I have left this job up to Scott for that reason and also because I guess I did a lot of “consoling” the first 10 months of Mitchell’s life.  Thanks Scott.

Music… Mitchell loves music. When we turn the music on at home we end up having a dance party because both Mitchell and Nate love to dance and Scott and I can’t help but join in.  Just this past Sunday Mitchell decided to dance to the prelude at church. He got quite a few complements after church.

I shan’t forget swimming. Mitchell took a mommy and baby swimming class with me and right afterwards Nate took his own swimming class. Both boys were stars. One of Mitchell’s instructors told Mitchell that he was her favorite kid in the class. Mitchell loved going under the water and just generally being in the pool. Nate was outstanding in his own. He was able to overcome some of his fears from the last time he took the class. He is feeling ready to swim on is own, I have to say, he has yet to try swimming without a float belt or a noodle, so I am anxious to see what he does when we go to Florida in a few weeks. I look forward to swimming more with the boys this summer.

We found that Mitchell really loves spagetti!

A content boy after much spagetti eating and playing.

We celebrated Mitchell’s first unbirthday (that’s what I’m calling it) with a smattering of friends and family. As all should know by now he was born on February 29, 2008 (leap year). So technically he won’t have his first *official* birthday until he’s 4. We had a good time yesterday. Angie and I have struck on a popular chord with birthday cakes. She bakes ‘em, I decorate ‘em. Either way we both have a little fun (and I like not having to buy a cake for the event).

We upheld the tradition for Year-One birthdays that we’ve gleaned from my sister-in-law’s (Michelle) extended family (I think). See video for a good chuckle. I didn’t think until afterwards that it would have been fun to try out something like Ustream for those folks who couldn’t attend (either way you were with us in spirit).

Thinking ahead, this coming year is going to be even MORE changes for us as we get used to the idea of having ANOTHER little one around the house. Angie went to a short orientation session on Kindergarten (for Nate) recently. One item they mentioned was to avoid any big changes at the home when kids start to make the transition to school. Um…I think we kinda failed that one. We’ve been talking to Nate a lot about it, so far he seems okay with it. But much like me (Scott) I think its only going to be fully realized when he/she (we find out the sex on 3/30) arrives.

Happy First unBirthday, little buddy.

UPDATE: I learned that the idea of an unbirthday is not as original as I might have earlier thought. Turns out that in Alice in Wonderland when Alice stumbles upon the Mad Hatter and their tea party, the party is an unbirthday for the Hatter.

At least one person mentioned they were having trouble viewing the video…Angie’s concerned about my posting on YouTube–so I might embed it as something else. YT is so darn easy.

Yes, I just blogged and I don’t have any new photos to add at this time. I just wanted to update  you on Mitchell, yet again, he continues to change.  He just yesterday decided he wanted to say Uh-oh. He was saying it a lot this morning as well. He has clapped in the past, but this weekend, he decided he really liked clapping so he is doing it all the time now. He is really starting to mimic what we do, when he can (even a few sounds).  He is sometimes waving hi and bye.  Not all the time. It seems to be a when he feels like it, thing. He also enjoys picking up the phone and saying “hi” over and over.  He gets really into it when someone is actually on the other end.  He continues to want to eat things he shouldn’t but it isn’t as bad as it used to be.  He is coming prolific in his walking but still needs to learn how to stand up on his own without needing something to pull himself up with.

So a friend recently reminded me that we had a blog. Thanks Marnie!  I guess that was a hint that it was time to add to our blog.  Well, with Christmas and the goings on, I guess time has gotten away from us (or me).  So where shall I begin. We had a nice time in December celebrating the holidays with family and friends.

Nate and Quinn being superheroes.  At the beginning of the month, Barnaby and his family came for the weekend. Almost no one got sick. The boys enjoyed sledding, mini golfing, cookie making etc.  The next weekend we hosted an open house. It was just a time for neighbors and friends to come over and socialize and eat. I spent the week before making many different kinds of cookies. I do so enjoy baking.  On the 19th we started our holiday travels. During our visit with the Reeser’s we got to meet Grant. He decided to enter this world during what was supposed to be our Christmas Celebration.    It was great to meet him.  After a few days with the Wyse’s we all, minus my dad, went to Chicago for the weekend. We enjoyed the Children’s Museum. It is really nice if you haven’t been there. We also enjoyed the Shed Acquarium. Jason and his family then came up to Madison for a few days before they headed back to Miami.  After watching a PBS show about hotdogs, Nate decided he wanted a hotdog, so Scott grilled some outside. Nate then decided he wanted to eat them outside. After about 3 bites, they headed in to the warm. It was just too cold.

That brings us to the after  holiday slowdown, where our weekends are a bit freer and boy it feels nice.

Due to the length of time, things have changed a lot around here.  Mitchell is a very happy, smiley little guy. He is 10.5 months old. Just this past week he decided he wanted to start walking. He can’t get up to a standing position without pulling himself up on something, but as I type this I see him trying to stand without help. Once he is up though, he walks until he falls. Usually 6 plus steps.  He also can say he wants a bottle both by making the milk sign and by saying “ba-ba” He is pretty consistent and is starting to initiate asking first without us asking him first. He also likes to say “hi” to everyone. The other night at church we had to leave the sanctuary because Mitchell was wanting to talk. We were out in the foyer. Every time someone walked through, he would greet them with his “hi”.  He now also seems to have acquired the taste for food.  About 2 out of 3 meals per day he seems to eat a decent amount. We will see what continues to develop as far as what he seems to like and not like.    Mitchell is now sleeping in his crib at night. Sometimes he will join us after 6am, but not before. We often have to help settle him about twice per night. Sometimes more, sometimes less.   He continues to love his brother and loves laughing with him. He loves hugging, patting and kissing the dog, though I am now sure he enjoys the dog hair in his mouth that comes from open mouth kisses.

Nate on the other hand is really getting a handle on his numbers, letters, coloring, writing etc.  He seems to color fairly well in the lines, when he is trying. Sometimes he likes to just color the entire page.  He likes to try to think about 2+2 and 4+4 kind of addition.  He says that his favorite colors are red, dark green, orange, light blue and yellow.  He continues to enjoy preschool and misses being there when he isn’t there.Nate has enjoyed ice skating. We got a new pair for him this year and are on the hunt for a nice hockey stick. Scott made him a makeshift one for the time being. He seems to love being outside skating, sledding and just playing in the snow. That is, when it is warm enough.

Scott has decided to take a class this semester. It is on Droople. I  don’t know what that is but that is ok. The class is every Tues and Thurs from 4:30-6:30. So on those days he is gone from 6:30am to about 7pm. Long days for him and me.  Hopefully his new knowledge will help him move in the direction he desires.

Next month we will already be celebrating Mitchell’s first birthday. We are looking forward to spring break plans in Florida with my (Angie’s) brothers and their families.  Ah the beach sounds wonderful. We have officially had 12 more inches of snow than what we had at this time last year and last year was record breaking. I think we have had over 55 inches.