Nate at 2 Years

"Things I Never Want to Forget about Nate at the age of 2"

Nate brings so much joy to our family.  He has a sweetness about him that makes everyone around him happier and he definitely makes everyone in our family better people.  It's amazing that he already has these qualities and just turned 2.

His most famous phrases are: 

 "I Go!"

"I Come!"
"I wanna Come!"

He says them at least 100 times a day and most days that is not an exaggeration.

He loves to go places and if anyone is going anywhere he comes up to you with his sweet puppy dog eyes and says "I come!  I come!  I come!"  It's so hard to say no to him.

"I fall"

"Choo choo!"

"sirsty" (thirsty)

"ecom" (welcome)
"aw done"(all done"

"daa daa" (dad)

"mik" (milk)

"wow"

"owie"

"ah oh"
"two"
"yay"
"wee"
"mmm"
"ee too" (me too)
"tees" (cheese)

"more" (says is without the r sound)

 "gaama" (grandma)
"uhn, too, see" (one, two, three)

He can sign:

milk

please

 thank you

more

all done

He loves people.  He gets so excited when anyone comes over.  He quickly melts anyone's heart.  Even the strangers in the grocery store that he waves to.

Nate Loves to pray.  He always babbles his own prayer whenever anyone is praying.  A couple of sundays ago during the opening prayer in church, Nate said his own prayer.  In the beginning of the man's prayer Nate exclaimed his version of amen really loud, which sounds like "yay".  (As a side note Nate used to say amen, but decided he prefers "yay").  I told him the prayer wasn't over and to fold his arms.  Nate began to pray again and proceeded to end the prayer early again with his even louder amen.  Let's just say the man's prayer was really long and Nate said 6 prayers during the man's prayer with 6 very loud excited amens.

He loves Christmas lights.  Whenever we are driving in the car at night every few seconds or less you hear "wow!"  It is truly the cutest thing!

He loves cars, trains, books, stuffed animals, animal figurines, little people, throwing and kicking balls, throwing anything (food, toys, dishes).  He doesn't throw his food or dishes very much anymore.  Hooray, not as much mess to clean up in the kitchen!

Happily says "tees" for cheese while putting his pointer fingers at the sides of his big smile whenever I ask him to smile at the camera.

Loves to go on walks and push the baby stroller.

He loves to be outdoors so much that you cannot even keep him inside if it's super windy and below freezing.

He loves to look at the snow and thinks it is the most amazing thing he has ever seen.

He loves all animals.  His favorite animal is probably the dolphin.  

 He claps, laughs, and squeals and exclaims "wow" with the most excitement imaginable for the entire show whenever we go to the dolphin show at the zoo.

He gets so excited when he hears the garage door open and immediately runs to the door squealing with so much enthusiasm da, da, da, da, etc.  Then he runs up to John and gives him a big hug and kiss.

Nate loves his big brother and will do pretty much anything Josh tells him to do.  Some nights Josh puts Nate to bed and he'll say "Nate go to bed."  "Lay down Nate and go to sleep."  I've never seen Nate move faster than to Josh's command to lay down.  It makes me laugh just thinking about it.  Nate will do anything for his big brother.

Nate loves his nap time and will still take long naps 2 - 3 1/2 hours.  He also sleeps really well at night anywhere from 12 - 14 hours.  I am so happy that he is such a good sleeper.

He loves to cuddle, give hugs and kisses.

His presence calms me down.  

Up until a month ago, I would go into his room almost every night before I went to bed and would bring him into my room to cuddle.  He was always asleep.  Most of the time he'd wake up and he'd snuggle up to me and we would talk and cuddle and then he'd happily go right back to bed and right back to sleep.  Now I only get him once every week or two.

He is so laid back and goes with the flow.

Nate always says, "mmm" whenever he eats.  It makes me so happy that he likes the food I make him.  He is still a really good eater and will eat almost anything we give him.  He doesn't snack very much and really only eats 3 meals a day.

Nate has gone potty all by himself 3 times.  We are excited, although I am not quite ready to potty train right now!

height: 87th percentile
weight: 25th percentile

He's my little buddy and I love him more than words can express!  We are so blessed to have him in our family!

Happy Birthday Nate!

Nate's 2nd Birthday!

December 23rd, 2010

Nate blew out the candles all by himself.  It was so cute.  It took a few tries.  He was more successful at blowing his hair up off his forehead than blowing out the candles.

He loved blowing out the candles so much that we relit them several times just to watch him blow them out.

He literally dug right into the cake as soon as he was done blowing out the candles.

Nate saying that he is "2" while holding two fingers up.

Nate opening his present from Josh

Grandma and Grandpa were able to be at the party via Skype on the computer.

Nate was so excited about the little gift Josh got him.  It was a miniature "Hot Wheels" motorcycle.  Josh was so excited to give it to him.  He wrapped it all by himself, made Nate a little card, and kept the present safe for a couple of days till Nate's birthday.

Nate saying "shhhhh."  Things got a little crazy, actually a lot crazy, with the boys throwing balls at each other.  Nate thought he should help mommy with getting everybody to calm down.  Such good boy!

Uncle Jacob Comes for a Visit

 This photo of my brother and me is courtesy of Josh and his young budding skills of photography.

My little brother, Jacob, came to visit us the last week in October.  As you can tell by the pictures, the boys loved Jacob.  The boys were constantly smiling, laughing, and having loads of fun while he was here.  I think Jacob must have a gift as a peacemaker because our home was so peaceful and happy while he was here.  This last week he left to go serve a mission in Lubbock, Texas.  It is crazy to me that he is old enough to be a missionary because I practically raised him until I left to college (he was 8 years old when I left to Ricks College).  Jacob sadly was too young to really remember me living at home, but I have so many memories of him as a baby, toddler and small boy.  He was my little buddy.  He was always so cuddly as a baby and toddler and I created a bad habit for him by having him go to bed with me every night instead of him sleeping in his own bed because I loved to snuggle "my baby".  I treated him as if he was my own baby and when he turned two years old, he started calling me "mom" before calling my mom "mom."  Secretly I loved that he called me "mom" first because I couldn't wait to be a real mom one day.  He has grown up so fast and I know that my boys will continue to grow up faster than I want them to and they will soon be out on their missions.  We are so happy with Jacob and know that he will be a great missionary and so pleased that he is such a great example to my boys.  Josh talks about how he is going to be a missionary just like Uncle Jacob and Uncle Scotty.  

This evening Josh came back to my room to ask me question. 

Josh: "Mom, are you going to be sad when I leave?"  

Marie: Of course I'll be sad when you leave, you are my little buddy.  I always love having you around."

"When are you leaving?"

Josh: "Don't be sad when I go on my mission.  I need to be a missionary.  I'll be back soon.  Don't worry."

He is growing up too fast and he already knows, I don't know how he does, but he knows it will be hard for me to not have him around all the time when he is grown and old enough to be a missionary.  But I am sure happy that he is already excited to go serve the Lord when he is old enough.  Josh actually has his whole life planned out.  He told me the other day that when he is 19, he's serving a mission, then he is going to marry Olivia when he is 26, and build homes for a living, and then Olivia is going to have babies.  He is such a silly kid and is literally growing up too fast for me.  I am trying to enjoy the time I am blessed to have with him.

Josh's First Season of Soccer

Josh loved Soccer!  He had the most excitement of anyone on the field.  He never wanted a break or to sit out.  He always wanted to be on the field playing.  At the beginning of the season, when his coach would say go take a break and get a drink; he would run over to the bench, take a quick drink and be out on the field in less than a second.  Josh didn't realize he was to sit out for 4 minutes.  Lucky for him most games many of the kids wanted lots of breaks, so Josh got plenty of playing time.

There was one game early in the season where it was so hot that none of the kids really wanted to play; but Josh had so much excitement and energy that he didn't sit out the entire game and never stopped running.  It was so fun to watch him!  He has so much energy and love for life!

The beginning of the season he made a lot of goals for the other team, he was so excited every time.  It is hilarious to watch 4 year olds play soccer.  He figured it out by the end of the season and scored a "real" goal for his team and had several runs down the field that were so close.  He also started turning the ball around to help out his teammates that were headed in the wrong direction.  It was fun to see him improve so much in such a short time and most of all to see him love the sport.