At the zoo

Nate kept a firm grip on my shirt, making sure I wasn't going anywhere.
(Also, the first views of my growing baby belly)

Poking at the bird.

Yesterday, on December 19th, the high was 73 degrees and it was a beautiful, sunny day here in Fort Worth. We had some free tickets to the zoo (thanks Kari Davis!), so we took advantage of the day by spending it outside with the animals.

Nate's favorite part, or at least my favorite part, was going inside the adult size bird cage. Nate and I had been in it before, but this time I bought a couple sticks with seeds on them to feed the birds. They were landing all over my hands and arms, and Nate didn't know what to think! He was very brave and held the seed stick, but poked at the birds instead and shook them off the stick when they landed on it. Elizabeth got a few good pictures of the event.

Building Towers

Getting started ...

Getting taller ...

It's still standing?

My sister Elizabeth, Nate's Aunt Liza, arrived in Fort Worth on Wednesday. Nate is a different kid when someone else is in the house. He follows her around instead of me and stands outside her door when it's closed waiting for her to come back out. It's quite refreshing actually!

Elizabeth has also managed to teach Nate to help build a tower instead of knock it down. Here they are building towers together.

Close-ups

Some close-ups of Nate's sweet little face.

Nate on the move

Finally, the update you've been longing for ...

Nate is walking all over the place. He started really taking off Thanksgiving week while we were in Kentucky, and he's slowly picking up pace. For some reason he still stays pretty much by my side during the day while Stephen is at work, but when we're all here together he feels more secure or something and wanders around the house quite a bit. He likes to arrange and rearrange anything and everything. The above picture is a good example. It's a picture of how we found the bathtub after he was in bed last night.

Our biggest trial with him has been keeping him from throwing everything in the trash. We finally gave in and moved the trash can to the laundry room, which is very inconvenient for us! But after losing a car key and finding shoes, socks, sippie cups, toys, and many more random things in the trash, we decided it was better to move the can instead of lose more important/expensive items!

Dance Machine

Watch him go ...

Professional Pics

After 15 months of Nate, I finally took him to get some professional pictures made. We were going to do it last Christmas when we were home, but places were booked up for Christmas. Then I planned on it again months ago, but just never did it. So yesterday, after a lot of chasing, a few tears, and several cheerio bribes, we left the portrait studio with some decent pictures. I've posted a few of the best.

iPod Nato

Some of our friends threw a birthday/costume party Saturday night. We were low on creative juices, so we chose our favorite brand as our inspiration - Apple. Stephen and I dressed as the Mac and PC guys from the Apple commercials (I'm missing a picture of us), and I made Nate an iPod costume. He's supposed to be the iPod Nano, but Stephen said he was the iPod Nato. He did great in his costume and didn't even seem to notice it was on. He even won second place in the kids costume competition. I was hoping for some better pictures, but he was on the go all night and this is all we have. Maybe we'll get some more on Halloween.

Runny noses

Nate has had a runny nose for weeks now. Thankfully it hasn't turned into anything more, but I'm constantly wiping away his snot and running to him every time he sneezes, before he goes after it himself. Yesterday morning I had just wiped Nate's nose and the tissue was sitting on the couch for use again soon. Then Stephen sneezed and sweet little Nate picked up his used tissue and offered it up to Stephen to use.

Nate's really changing and becoming more and more aware of the world. He's understanding some words, mostly food words it seems, like "drink", "snack", and "cheerios". He definitely knows what "walk" means and would hold onto our hands and walk the day away if he could. He understands "nap" and many times drops his head to my shoulder when I ask if he's ready for one. So many changes so quickly! My baby is turning into a little boy.

Bathtime Fun

Walking

Nate is getting better and better at walking, but he's still not quite brave enough to take off on his own. Here's some footage:

Kentucky

A couple weeks ago we made the trip to Kentucky. The main reason for going was to attend Stephen's cousin Ryan's wedding, but Nate and I went early to spend the week with my sister and to work some more on Mom's house. The first part of the week was productive, and then I got sick. Sinus/respiratory infection on top of pregnancy symptoms took me out. Thankfully, Stephen picked up my slack when he arrived and it still made for a fairly productive week. Sadly, I only took one picture the entire time I was there. My brother and his family came in for the weekend, so here's a picture of Nate and his cousin Sam "playing" together.

Coming soon ...

Nausea, extreme fatigue, and a clingy, not very independent 14 month old are keeping me from posting some new pictures. Update coming soon ...

Baby Blan #2

We found out this week that I'm pregnant! I had a sonogram on Thursday and it looks like I'm 7 weeks along. My guess was less than that, but I'm very happy to know that the nausea and fatigue will end a little sooner than I thought.

Due Date: I was lying on the table having the sonogram and most of my nervousness (the nervousness that comes with having had a miscarriage - you always wonder if you'll see a heartbeat or be given unwanted news) had passed because the doctor saw the heartbeat and said everything looked great. Then she told me my due date - May 14. A mixture of emotions came rushing to me. First of all, May 14 is my late father's birthday. He was born May 14, 1942. But that date became even more significant last year when we buried my mother on that day - a coincidence she would have been very happy about because she loved those associations.

So now Baby Blan #2 is expected to arrive on that same day. To bring life instead of death, and to bring joy during a time that would have brought more grief and remembrance of the days spent last year sitting next to my mother's deathbed. As you can imagine, I'm overwhelmed with gratefulness to the Lord for this gift. To be reminded that he "heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds."

And of course I know the chances of the baby actually arriving on this day are slim to none, but I'd be lying if I said I didn't expect it. Things like that just seem to happen in our family.

Boy or girl? Right now I think we're both hoping for a boy so Nate will have a playmate, but of course we'll be excited either way.

On the move

Well, my 13-month old son has decided that standing on two feet just isn't getting him anywhere fast enough, so he's giving this thing called crawling, which he's only been hearing about for the past 6 months, a chance. Or maybe he was inspired by his cousin Sam (8 months old) who has also started crawling. We can't believe it! He's really only doing it when prompted, but he's doing it nonetheless. Something we never thought we'd see - at least not before he was walking and very mobile already.

Hangin' with Dad

I couldn't see where Nate was the other day, but when I found him I couldn't resist the picture. The lighting isn't great, but he was so sweet just sitting there next to Stephen!

Nate Goes Swimming

Checkin' out the pool.

Kickin' away ... he couldn't get enough!

Nate finally got to go swimming! Our gym has family swim night every Thursday, so we made it a date and went last Thursday. I tried and tried to upload a video, but for some reason it won't work. He was a bit apprehensive at first, but ended up having a great time and loving the water.

Cheerios

Here's Nate enjoying some Cheerios, his favorite snack.

Favorite Things

Here are some pictures of Nate's favorite things to do these days:

Organize the toy basket. It makes me proud every time he does this.
I think he inherited my love for organizing!

Empty the books off the bookshelf. This doesn't make me as happy, but what can I expect?

And empty some more.

Play with his new musical table.

And cuddle with Mommy. That's my favorite!

First Day of School

We sent Stephen off to school this week. It was a long week for all three of us, but we seem to have made it through. Now we have a three day weekend to enjoy. Here's Stephen's first day of school picture. Isn't he sweet?

First Haircut

We've been in Texas for a few days now. We're moved in but not quite settled. There are still a few boxes left to unpack, but I think it's time to start catching up on the blog.

During our last visit to Lewisport Nate got his fist haircut from Aunt Annie. We didn't want to cut it because it was so cute curled up around his ears, but we thought we'd better do it before his surgery. It's a good thing we did. Aunt Annie is a professional, so she knew just how to distract him. She gets all the credit for his good behavior. Here are the pictures.

That's one satisfied customer!

Recovery

No pictures of the ears yet, but I wanted to post a quick update about the surgery. The doctor said everything went smoothly. Nate is recovering well. He hasn't paid much attention to the stitches and scabs on his ears. It looks kind of like his ears were sewn on! We're so thankful that he doesn't seem to be in any pain, just extra clingy. We're loading up the Uhaul for TX today, but maybe I'll get some pictures on soon. Thanks so much for the thoughts and prayers this week!

Preauricular pits

Some of you know that Nate was born with a mysterious hole in each of his ears. The picture below isn't of his ear, but his looks exactly like it. We asked about them at birth and a couple times after that, but no one ever knew what they were. At his 9 month check-up while we were in the states I asked his doctor about them and he referred me to an ear, nose, and throat doctor. We had our appointment with that doctor last week, and he immediately knew what they were - preauricular pits. You can click on the link to read more about them. They have to be surgically removed. Nate's surgery is set for 2:15 this Friday, August 8 at Children's Hospital in Cincinnati. Nate will have to be put out and the surgery will last 1 to 1 1/2 hours. We're obviously not very excited about it, but it's a relief to finally know what the holes are. If you think of it on Friday around that time, please pray that Nate does well throughout the whole process (he'll have to stop eating several hours before the surgery), and that we do too.

Birthday with the Blans

Since we'll be in the middle of a move to Texas on Nate's real birthday, we decided to have a small birthday celebration during our visit to Lewisport last weekend. My mom was an excellent cake baker and decorator, and there was only one year of my life that she didn't bake and decorate a birthday cake for me. That was the year my father passed away and she became a single working mom, so life was just a little busy for her. To make up for that she baked and decorated 30 wedding cakes (one for each table) for my wedding. Since she's not here to make Nate's cake, I decided I don't have any excuse for not making one myself after watching her for all those years. So here it is - Nate's first birthday cake. I went with a theme he'll appreciate in a few years. Go Bengals and Happy Birthday Nate!

All the Wilton cake pans and decorating supplies at Mom's house made my job easier.

Not sure what to think.

I did something I never dreamed I would. I let Nate eat a piece of cake and make a mess with it. The little football cake was his.

Nate's already trying to keep up with his big cousins Camo and Kate.

Creation Museum

We're having all kinds of fun while Stephen is away this week! Yesterday we went to the creation museum with a couple of my cousins and their families. Besides the very real looking dinosaurs (I didn't get pictures of them), the petting zoo was the best part for Nate. They even had a camel, which I was very excited about. Go Camels!

I tried to get Nate to pet the camel, but he was fine with just looking.

The donkey got some good sniffs of Nate's feet, but he curled them up so he couldn't do it anymore.

I guess Nate's feet smell good!

Chicago

Stephen left for Texas on Friday to attend a week of teacher training, so my sister and I came to Chicago for the weekend to visit my brother and his family. We had an adventurous day yesterday taking the train into the city for some shopping. Sam, Nate's 6 month old cousin, had an allergic reaction and ended up in the emergency room downtown. He's fine now and we're having a much calmer day! Here they are playing together.

They're very curious about each other

Nate spitting at the camera

Sam with his daddy

Pancakes

Lately we can't sit down to eat without Nate whining and fussing and dying to eat something too. Tonight we had breakfast for supper (one of our favorites) and Nate couldn't get enough of the pancakes (whole wheat with wheat germ - yum!), or so we thought. When we took the tray off to clean him up we found a bib full of pancakes.

Back in America

We've been back in America for 2 weeks now, although it seems kind of like it's been months! So far we've had a yard sale, cleaned out a lot, and visited with friends and family. We've also been teased with possibilities of jobs in the Northern Kentucky area, but so far all have fallen through. So, the plan is still Texas in August. Great timing, huh? Texas in August!

Nate turned 11 months old last week! He's still not crawling, but he loves walking around the coffee table. It's become rare for him to sit on the floor and play. I guess this is the beginning of mobility!