From the Mouth of My Babe

3/4 of our children at the park the other day, thrilled with their ice cream truck purchases. Davis wants to wear his superman jammies everywhere and I pretty much let him...one less step at bedtime, baby.

Today as we were pulling up to the church parking lot the following conversation took place as we saw Isaac's primary teacher walking into the building:

Me: "Remember to wish your primary teachers a happy mothers' day, ok?"

Isaac: "I don't think my teacher is a mom."

Maddie: "Oh yeah, she's probably a grandma since she looks really old."

Isaac: "Just because you are old it doesn't make you a grandma, Maddie."

Maddie: "You are right. Mom looks really old and she's not a grandma."

Happy Mothers' Day to all the moms out there, young and old!

This paper-plate hat was Maddie's Mother's Day gift to me and it is pretty awesome.

Nater @ 11 Months

Devin and Krystal came to visit last weekend! It didn't take Nater too long to warm up to Aunt Krystal, but he made Uncle Devin work quite a bit harder. After a couple of days, Devin could look at him and even hold him without Nathan bursting into tears. And then they had to go home :(. We loved having them here and look forward to being a day's drive from them instead of a 3,000 mile airplane ride. 

• Nathan is cruising all over the place these days. Walking is surely in his not-so-distant future.
• He is crawling faster every day and still loves the bathroom, the kitchen, and anywhere the other kids can be found. I carelessly left the bathroom door open the other day and walked in on him with a bar of soap in his mouth ("Christmas Story" anyone?). 
• Barks "Mas! Mas! Mas!" as he eats everything in sight.
• His favorites include clementines, eggs, and crackers, but he will still eat anything but cucumbers.
• He is starting to do little tricks that lead us to think that he is a genius. Clapping, high-fives, and besos are all part of his show. 
• He has four teeth on top and four on the bottom and drools like it's going out of style. Even as a slobbery mess, he's everyone's favorite baby in this house. Even his sad face is pretty irresistible.

April in Connecticut

I love these mugs!

• It has been an eventful month in our neck of the woods, with the most exciting news being that Ryan signed a contract with a multi-specialty group in the Phoenix area, so it looks like we are moving to the desert! In July! Hello sunscreen! I think it might take me awhile to get used to the heat, but come January I am going to be loving sunny AZ! We are really looking forward to this next chapter of our lives. 
• Isaac got glasses and the excitement of his new look hasn't worn off quite yet. Hopefully it never does. 
• Nater is scooting all over the place and eating everything in sight and waving bye-bye and generally charming all of us. He even started saying his first word this past week---"mas" (more) No one is the least bit surprised at his choice of first words. It suits him perfectly. He squawks, "mas! mas! mas!" over and over as he eats. I'm not going to lie, it's hard for me to deny his constant requests. 
• The very first blooms of the season are starting to pop up around here and I love it. It means afternoons at the park, dinner outside, and beautiful Connecticut rainstorms. I hope Spring lasts a really long time this year. It's kind of embarrassing to admit just how much my mood improves with the rising temperatures and melting snow. 
• Devin and Krystal (Ryan's brother and sister-in-law) are coming to visit this weekend and everyone is excited as we anticipate their arrival. I realized that they might be our last family visitors to the east coast before we head west in a couple of months. How can that be? Where did the last 3 years go? It is definitely bittersweet to think of our last spring here in CT. I hope we make the most of it. 

He really wanted round Harry Potter glasses but these ones fit his face better. I think the red frames suit him well. 

Nater @ 10 Months

• Crawls everywhere! He hasn't figured out the stairs yet and when I walked in on Maddie "teaching" him how to climb up them the other day I quickly put the kibosh on that idea and informed her that I DO NOT want him learning how to climb stairs yet. 
• Has quite a bit of natural curl coming out in his hair which has been intensified by the warmer days and humidity. It's pretty adorable.
• Is the center of attention at dinnertime. All the kids fight over who gets to sit by Nathan. They laugh at everything he does. I keep waiting for his charm to wear off with his older siblings (especially now that he can destroy their stuff) but it hasn't happened...yet. 
• He still has a really hearty appetite. I love this stage where they will eat just about anything. 
• The other night, Maddie put her plastic princess earrings on him and adorned him with her matching crown. She was in heaven and he loved the attention too. Who says Maddie needs a little sister? 
• He is still a Mama's Boy, particularly when he's tired or hungry. He's almost always hungry, BTW. 
• He's getting so big and pulling himself up on everything and looking less and less like a baby everyday.
•  The first year of a child's life is so demanding and exhausting for parents (and frankly, it's a ton of work), but it has been full of so much happiness for all of us. Our family really wasn't complete without Nater. We love him so so much.

From the Mouth of My Babe

Nater's first time on a  park swing.

This past month Isaac worked on an invention for a project at school. I was explaining to him that he would have to present his invention and possibly answer some questions from the judges (which happened to be students from a nearby college).
"Okay," he said, unconcerned.
Then, after a few moments of silence, he responded seriously, "Mom, do you think President Obama will be one of the judges? Because I want to be really prepared if he is."