Eating his toes

Zzzzzzz

Our little man has been a sleeping champion this week! Even with the HOT weather he has slept 7-8 hours at a time. He is getting so good at falling asleep on his own too. Most of the time we are able to lay him in his bed and he will smile at us, turn his head and fall asleep. Sometimes there is a 30 second protest, but generally he knows it's time to sleep. I'm so thankful for a reprieve from the every 2-3 hour wake up schedule! Amazing what a full night of sleep can do for you.

Too HOT!

It's been too hot to blog this week. We are not used to temps above 100 (well even near 100 for that matter!). In some ways we feel like we are in Israel with this heat.... but there we could rely on AC almost everywhere. Our house is only cooling off to the mid 80's at night! And it's 91 downstairs in the evening which means even hotter upstairs. We have a little portable AC unit in our bedroom so Nathaniel and I have been camping up there... even that room seems a little warm. On a positive note our garden is growing like crazy!!! Tons of tomatoes!

Tickle Tickle

Daddy loves to tickle Nathaniel. Its so cute to listen to his laugh!

Going for a walk

This was taken before the heat wave... we haven't been walking all week!

Fun at the zoo

It's been a hot week, but that did not deter us from the zoo yesterday. We just got a zoo pass and were anxious to use it. We went with another new mom whose kiddo is just a week older than Nathaniel. They took turns sleeping throughout the visit but after their naps they were excited to interact with each other.

Finished with the Antibiotics

Nathaniel sounds so much better now that he has taken the antibiotics for his cough. At first he seemed to like the taste of it (how much syrup did they add to this medicine?) but by the end of the week he seemed a little less interested in mom or dad shooting liquid into his mouth. It took a while but we quickly became experts on getting it in his mouth and not all down his chin/neck.

5 Month Picture

He's my "little hunk". Steph this outfit is way too cute.... so sad he's growing out of it.

Making Friends in Moms Group

Last week a few of us got together for a walk in a nearby park... trying to get in shape... It was hot out that day so we didn't go for very long.


Afterwards Nathaniel and Ava both showed off their new skill...finding their toes.


They were both so impressed with each other they decided to hold hands :-)

Things are looking up

Tuesday was the best day for us in a really really really long time. I felt on top of the world! Nathaniel slept well the night before only waking up at 4am and then again at 7am. He was up for about an hour before showing signs he was getting sleepy. I put him in his bed and he went straight to sleep. Hooray for being able to recognize his tired signs early! He slept for a good 2 hours before waking so I was able to get a good rest myself. We played for a while once he woke up then he started showing sleepy signs again so I put him down again (with no fussing!). During his nap I was able to get the kitchen cleaned, laundry washed/dried/folded, floor swept and vaccumed, make dinner, shoot I even had time to read my book! I felt like queen of my world... which is only 1700 square feet, but still felt good to get so much done :-)

Are we making progress???

For about a week now we have been putting Nathaniel in his bed while he is still awake and trying to get him to fall asleep on his own. This is not easy! We let him cry for a few minutes (15)and then go in calm him down before we lay him down again on his own. I've read about this in books and heard other people say it works but that first night is really really tough. I kept sending Ken to go check on him since he wouldn't let me go upstairs. Throughout the week we've slowly worked our way down from 15 to about 5 minutes of crying. Last night Ken put him down and he cried on the way up the stairs but once he was in his bed he went right to sleep! This morning I had a similar thing happen with both his 8:30 and 12:30 naps! He was rubbing his eyes a little so I put him in his bed and he just went right to sleep. Could we be making progress???

56 cents!

We went to the Doctor today to check out Nathaniel's cough. It isn't a bad cough so I've been deliberating on whether to go in or not. However it's been over 4 weeks and doesn't seem to be getting any better and it's terrible to hear him gasping for breath and then cough like he has a hairball in his throat. So we went in. The doctor looked at the back of his throat (much to Nathaniel's dismay) and determined that he did have a sinus issue requiring Antibiotics. Bummer. Seems like he's so little to have Antibiotics... but we did make a trip to the Doctor and we do want him to stop coughing... so I went to the pharmacy to pick up the prescription. How much is this going to cost I thought as we were walking in.... $0.56!!!!! Can you believe it! Anybody else want me to pick them up some Antibiotics????? Seems like a steal to me.

Expats are home!!!!

HOORAY! I can't tell you how excited we are to have them home!!!! These were our friends in Israel who were also on assignment for the last year. Today Nathaniel and I waited for them at the airport not totally sure if they were coming in at noon but sure enough they were there!!! HOORAY!

All aboard...Train to Seattle

Tuesday my sis-in-law said she was going to take her girls on the train to see Nana. She was going to drop them off for the weekend and then ride the train back down by herself. Nathaniel and I decided to join them. I've never been on the train and thought Nathaniel would love it so we woke up at 5:30am and got ready for the day. We caught the MAX train at 7am from the Sunset Transit Center and headed downtown to the train station. I was hoping Nathaniel would be sleepy and go back to sleep but he was wide eyed with all the new things to look at. He loved the MAX train and all the lights in the tunnel. And of course he loved smiling at all the other passengers. Once we made it downtown we looked for a bus to catch down to the train station and found the #9 took us straight there. We were early for our departure time, but I had no idea how much time it would take us and I wasn't about to run with a baby to catch the train like I would if I were on my own. Anyway, we got our seat assignments and waited for the conductor to say "All Aboard!"


The first train stop was in Vancouver where Norine and the girls joined us. The 3.5 hour train ride was fun. Nathaniel slept a bit and his cousins had fun holding him (Keely is 8 and Lilli is 3). In Seattle Nana was waiting for us. We walked a few blocks to a concert in the park and found some sandwiches to eat at a local cafe. Nathaniel got a little snuggle time in with Nana before they had to take off.


Norine and I had another hour or so before boarding the train again so we found a coffee shop. The train ride home felt longer, probably because we were tired. How can we be tired we just sat all day? We made it back to Vancouver and said goodbye to Aunt Norine and then continued on to Portland. Getting home was a bit more challenging. I didn't find any buses from the train station back to the MAX train so we walked. Oh my back was tired! We made it though by 7:15 we were back at home. Now what's for dinner?

Not all days are happy days

What a sour face!

Buddies

After the parade we went to our friends house for a BBQ. Their little boy Andrew is just a few months ahead of Nathaniel. It looks like they are starting to notice each other and will be playing together soon!

4th of July

We loved being in the US for the Fourth of July this year! We met up with our friends and went to the Hillsboro Parade. The parade is a lot of fun and feels like the ones we went to when we were little (they throw candy!) Maddie and Garrett ran and picked up the candy so the only chore I had was to eat it :-) They had a huge plastic grocery sack full by the end of the parade. I personally loved the small pack of blueberries some local farmer was handing out.



Nathaniel was too exhausted to last till the end. He was such a good sleeper that day!

Like father like son

Making friends

At our new moms group on Monday Nathaniel and I sat next to a little boy "Max" and his mom. The boys are close in age... I think Max was born the day after Nathaniel. Anyway, both of them were laying on the floor in front of us and Max extended a hand out towards Nathaniel. It was so precious to see my little guy grab his hand... it's cute to watch him make new friends.

Growing fast!

Our little guy is growing/changing every day! He is really exploring everything with his hands and watching closely when we talk. He seems mesmerized by our lips when we are talking. When I feed him he has started reaching up and holding my chin and or lips. He also gets very distracted when he's eating and wants to see what every little noise is... makes for a longer feeding :-( He's been playing with his ball (similiar to a big wiffle ball which has easy finger access for gripping) moving it from one hand to the other... picking it up by himself when it's within arms distance. It's hard to believe!

Our biggest accomplishment this week was TAKING A BOTTLE!!!! He has not done this since about 8 weeks old...always refusing it when we offer it. However, the other day I had an ounce of milk in the fridge so I put it in the bottle thinking maybe if I had him just hold the bottle and get used to it he would be more agreeable to it. I think since he is teething the cold top felt good on his gums. Anyway, I could hardly believe it when he started guzzling the milk...holding the bottle all by himself! I tried to take the bottle from him to see how much he ate and he was desparately reaching for it when I had it in my hands. Hopefully this is not a one time occurence. We are going to keep at it this week.