he’s ONE.

 

happy birthday, Ryan! 

We sure do love you.

brain dump.

Random thoughts – here we go:

. I’m finally ready to commit to things in my house, decor wise.  We’ve officially been in our house for ONE entire year.  That’s craziness.  Recently, Wes painted a our family room blue.  [Have I mentioned my current LOVE for the color blue?]  Sam hung my collage wall above my couch.  Our new kitchen table is assembled and in use [now I need four cheap kitchen chairs that I can paint.  keep an eye out for me].  And I finally have curtains thanks to West Elm.

. Speaking of home decor – I am IN LOVE with West Elm at the moment.  I usually can find a thing or two in there that I like – but I could literally buy soooo many things in there right now.  I need to win the lottery to make it happen.

  

. I am also very glad I found these for Ryan.  It’s baby food in this pouch thing and instead of putting it in to a bowl, Ryan just slurps it up like there’s a straw in there – but there’s not.  He loves it and it appears as if they are pretty nutritious.  He won’t eat baby food from a spoon and we’re in that tricky “baby food to real food” transition so feeding him one of these once a day is fabulous.

. Can you tell these family room walls apart?  One is mine and one is Sam’s.  We both now have blue family rooms with a collage wall above our very similar couches and the same West Elm curtains.  Other than me suggesting the color of paint & buying my couch 5 years ago – I pretty much copied her on it all.  Luckily, she doesn’t care.

 

 

. I am in PRINT heaven . . . meaning, prints for my house.  I keep finding more and more that I want!  Most are on etsy and my new found love is a Vintage Poster.  I gave a number of Christmas gifts from there and have created quite a wish list for my house!  Thanks Les for letting me in on that secret.

. Life is a little crazy around here.  But I’m slowly learning that life as a working-stay-at-home-mom with two kids [one being a crazy one year old], a traveling husband & a busy church calling is just gonna be a little crazy.  I’m learning how to balance it all. 

. The technology out there these days is just amazing.  Wes came home with an Apple TV a few days ago and got it all hooked up last night.  I must say that it’s pretty amazing and we don’t even have very many movies loaded yet!

. Ryan turns ONE tomorrow.  I can’t believe it.

That’s all I’ve got.

Nate at the dentist.

I have to give my Naters some credit today.  He was AWESOME.

We made our first trip to the dentist this afternoon.   Nate’s been really scared and hesitant [he’s very uneasy about the unknown] but he was my little rockstar.

There was miscommunication on the appointments . . . come to find out I was having my initial exam with the new dentist [xrays, etc.] at the same time Nate was getting his teeth cleaned and checked. 

This whole time I’ve been reassuring Nate that I’d be right next to him.

SO . . . we’re walking down the hall and the girl says . . . “Lindsay, you’re in here.  Nate you’re in there.”  I looked at her like she had lost all of her marbles.  She obviously didn’t know that Nate is in a “mom phase” and there was no way that was going to fly.

I went with it and told Nate I’d be sitting in this chair and he’d be in the room next door.

That’s when a darling dentist assistant came and charmed him right in to watching Monsters Inc while she looked at his teeth.  He didn’t even hesitate and went right with her & sat in the chair like he’d done it a thousand times.  There wasn’t the scared look back at mom like I’m so used to seeing.

Hooray for a cute girl who eased his fears instantly. I could hear her asking him questions . . . telling him to swish the water around . . . etc.  It was pretty funny to hear his reactions.

And then Dr. Sean came in, finished up the exam, and we were out the door.  Nate not only wasn’t scared but he loved going to the dentist.  [I should throw in a disclaimer that Dr. Sean lives two doors down from me and Nate absolutely loves his son, Travis.  But still.  He was my superstar.]

Nate got a toy out of the bin and a sticker and off we went to pick up Ryan from Aunt Ali’s.

And then I got a cute, quiet knock at the door at 8:30pm tonight.  It was Travis with the toothbrush pack that Nate left in his chair.  It pays to have the dentist next door!

Nate is 3 [and a half]

Sam [my little sister] and I both have June birthdays less than 2 weeks apart.  Which means our half-birthdays are in very close in December.  We always made sure that everyone knew it was our half-birthday and we celebrated together.

So last Sunday, I made sure Nate knew it was his half-birthday.  We made blueberry muffins to celebrate the occasion.  Well, okay – Wes made them.  The half-birthday seemed to confuse the little lad because he now thinks he’s 4-and-a-half.  He just wants to be five like his big cousin Abbie.

NATE @ 3.5 years old:

. He is a bit of an extremist - he rarely does things in the middle.  He’s either really happy or really not.  He’s either a joy to be around making everyone laugh or he’s mean and naughty.  He loves things or hates things.  He’s very obedient or doesn’t listen to a word you have to say.  Which can be great when you get the extremely happy/nice/obedient Nate!

. He has a passion for life.  He loves to explore and learn. 

. He is a _______ big brother.  The word that fills in that blank changes constantly.  He absolutely loves Ryan and a lot of times will do just about anything to make Ryan happy.  But he’s also a typical big brother who gets frustrated with Ryan.  Especially now that Ryan likes to hit and bulldoze Nate!  It’s been interesting to watch Nate because the minute anyone else is involved other than our little family – he goes right in to “big-brother-protector” mode and won’t let anyone harm his little brother.

. He loves his friends & family.  I hear many times a day, “i love my whole fam-ily”. 

. He’s a lot like Wes when Wes was little.  Apparently Wes was Mr. Social, wanting to talk to everyone everywhere they went.  Nate is always asking about people we see as we’re out and about – he wants to know their names and what they’re up to.  But then when Nate’s non-social side kicks in he wants nothing to do with anyone!

. He says some of the funniest stuff.  It’s hilarious.  I love this stage. 

. We always call Ryan our tank.  The other day, Nate says . . “If Ryan is a tank, what am I?”  We sat for a minute and Nate says, “I think I’m more like a carrot.”  VERY true, my friend.  Nate is our string bean.

. He’s a great eater.  He will try just about anything once and 99% of the time he likes it.  At least one meal a day he says, “this is the best dinner ever!”

. He usually sleeps from 6:30/7:00pm to 6:30/7:00am.  We’ve survived six months without Nate sleeping for even a minute during the day!

. He loves to create.  We are constantly painting pictures and making things.  He almost always has a pen and notepad in his hand walking around the house.  He writes notes, makes lists, or draws pictures constantly. 

. He’s developing such a great imagination.  I love watching him create things out of just about anything.  Kids’ minds are just amazing.

. His favorites?  Moses the dog, his blanky, George, Batman, puppy, Piggy Iggy, monster pillow, all books but especially the Bernstein Bears, candy & treats, apple juice, Handy Manny [& just about anything on the Disney Channel or PBS Kids], being outside, the bathtub, fishing, digging in the dirt, bikes, scooters, all sports, & his friends & family.

. I love that he will tell me that he snuck a piece of candy or did something he shouldn’t have. 

. We’re currently struggling with his behavior.  I think a lot of it is pretty normal for a 3-year old boy & we’re working on it but it’s been a hard stage.  It seems like he’s constantly testing boundaries & has started being disrespectful so we’re working on it with our fingers crossed.

. Naters, you may be one crazy little boy but we sure do love you and are so happy you’re ours!

When I asked Nate a few questions – here’s how he responded: 

favorite color?  blue, orange & green.    favorite book?  Book of Mormon.     favorite song?  I am a Child of God.      favorite place to go: Children's Museum.    favorite food?  icecream, donuts & marshmallows. [he’s my kid, for sure].   favorite movie?  Move it. Move it. [Madagascar 2]. 

After 10 minutes of taking pictures, he was done smiling. 

 

BOYS.

Boys really are a breed of their own. These boys in particular LOVE being boys together. They are wild and crazy and they love it. While there are many, many times where I want to pull my hair out over my two crazy boys - I'm really liking having boys. And I love their crazy little friends, too.

dinner table conversation

Nate has been really funny lately with the questions he comes up with to ask or the comments he says.  He’s getting pretty creative and it seems as if he is actually thinking about certain things.

For instance, for the last week or two, every night at the dinner table he says:

Nate: “mom / dad – I have a question.”

Mom/Dad: “what’s your question, Nate?”

Nate: “do _______ sleep?”

The blank has included:

     “do cheetos sleep?”

     “ do lions sleep?”

     “do cups sleep?”

     “do straws sleep?”

     “do tables sleep?”

     “do pineapples sleep?”

 

It’s been pretty funny – he’s pretty serious about these questions.

things are looking up in the griffeth house.

We're doing a little better here, thank goodness.

Nate? Pretty much over it. He's still got an asthma condition going on so he'll be on breathing treatments daily until May . . . but he's healthy. He's still not outside [it's freezing here, anyway] running around but he's healthy.

Ryan? Doing much better. "They say" that RSV is viral and that an antibiotic won't do anything. Well, luckily Ryan had an ear infection so I got some medicine and as soon as he started taking it we noticed a difference. Slowly, but surely, he's getting better. I can actually see his bright blue eyes again! He's still not 100% there but the nose suctioning and wiping is over.

Ryan even decided that he needed to pull his weight and do a little vacuuming around here, today.



On Tuesday, when Ryan was just starting to improve, my mom offered to let him take a nap at her house so I could get Nate out of ours. We had a tiny window to be gone [Moses had to go to the doctor] but we took it and had a great time at the Children's Museum. Nate's been begging to go to the museum for quite a while now so I'm sure we'll head back as soon as Ryan is all better.



It was still rather cold today but I let the boys outside for a few minutes. Our neighbors, the Gublers, happened to be playing outside so Nate and Travis soon began digging in Travis' backyard. They are putting in a pool so their entire backyard is dirt - heaven for two boys. Travis even got Nate up on the big tractor. Nate really looks up to Travis and thinks it's so cool that a 6 year old likes to play with him so he was stoked. I have to say that Travis is fabulous with Nate. He always makes sure he's doing okay!



Today, while Nate was at preschool, I had had enough of Ryan screaming in the car. He hates the car. So I turned his carseat around 15 days early. He still arched his back and kicked and screamed while I was putting him in the seat, but as soon as he realized he could see out the front window, he clapped and babbled all the way home.



We like being healthy, that's for sure. We're almost there. I think we can actually see our friends next week!