The Belly Button Boys (Nate calls them bebo's)

Nate loves a book by Sandra Boynton called the "Belly Button Book". In this book, belly buttons are called bebo's and this is what Nate calls his belly button (and Eli's too). 

Nate loves showing off his belly button and exploring under shirts for other peoples belly buttons! Check this out! 

Twinkle Twinkle Little Star: As Performed by Song Bird Eli

Happy 18 Months Nate!!!

Sweet!
Crazy!

Nate will be 18 months tomorrow and he had a great checkup today (minus the MMR shot which was hard on everyone... poor baby). Our chunk is slimming down and his height and weight are finally equivalent on the growth chart (this makes our doctor happy, he was getting a bit worried about Nate's man thighs). Nate weighed in at nearly 30.5 pounds and was almost 34 inches (though it was hard to get an accurate height measurement as he was throwing a fit about being naked in a strange place. Nate saves his nudity for home people). His height is at or above 95% and his weight is 92%. Clearly we are not feeding him enough. 

Nate is a sunshine boy! Full of laughter and love! How is our baby already 1.5 years old! 

Apple picking (and other fun weekend adventures)

A line of big strong king men! 

So serious as we start to look for apples!
Running like a wild man through the rows of apple trees! look at that happy grin!

We had such a fun Sunday (saturdays are for house stuff, the little gym, grocery shopping, etc... still fun but less dramatic!). In the morning we headed to a gorgeous nature preserver (Lake of the woods). It has wide nature paths cut into the meadows and fields (complete with butterflies, creeks, and a mind-blowing number of crickets). We pretty much just unleashed the men on one of the paths and they ran up and down hills, hid behind bushes, chased butterflies. We got a bit stuck when Nate found a half-dried mud hole. The boy was so content in the  mud he was practically like a hippo! 

After nap-time we headed to the a local apple orchard/pumpkin patch for apple picking. The boys were unimpressed with apple picking. But Eli was totally into pulling the wagon and running wild, and Nate was fascinated by EVERY SINGLE APPLE on the ground! It was so fun to be out and about after being cooped up for so long! 

Crush On You Natty-Bear

Eli's Crush: Natalie Kenagy

Eli has a crush on Natty Kenagy! She is fiesty like her Mommy and a whole lot of fun! Natalie is also as sweet-as-can-be because she sent Eli a great get well soon book called " how do dinosaurs get well soon" ! We have read it 8 times already and Eli always tell us that he is brave like the dino's in the book! Until we meet again sweet Natty-bear! 

Meet our Creature

Trying to hide behind the crib for his favorite game of hide-and-seek! He loves to be "caught"
Playing his first favorite game "peek-a-boo"!
Taking off his diaper and about to make a break for it!

Meet the Creature! Yesterday while we were all playing in the backyard Nate was running from bush to bush trying to play hide-and-seek while squealing like a maniac! Eli looks at us and asks " Daddy, What is that CREATURE doing?" 

Where does Eli come up with this stuff! Such a joker!

Painting fun

Eli loves to mix up his colors
Happy boy with a paintbrush!
Nate's first masterpiece!
What else! Nate eating paint!

So the boys and I are pretty much stuck at home for the next week (while Eli finished up his NEW antibiotics). This means that all of our favorite kid friendly hangouts are off limits (playgrounds, preschool, book stores, library, etc...). So we have been getting even craftier than usual! I have finally resigned myself to the fact that Nate is going to eat stuff and non-toxic art supplies wont hurt his iron tummy! So we can paint to our hearts content! The boys loved it! After we painted we went on a LONG neighborhood nature walk and collected leaves, twigs, tree bark, flowers, dirt, etc... Tomorrow we will glue our nature treasures to some colored paper and make art! 

P.S. Eli has a nasty antibiotic resistant pneumoccocal bacteria infection and we had to switch antibiotics... again! So this new antibiotic is our last great at-home hope. If it doesnt work we have to go back into the hospital! I think it is working because Eli has been extra NAUGHTY today, which means he feels well enough to act like an almost 3 year old! Is it 5:30 yet?