The Daley Grind

Letter nerds

2012-01-03T16:46:00.001-05:00

Everyone knows that Nate loves his letters. He has letter puzzles, letter books, letter games, letter cards, magnetic letters, letter beads, letter blocks, letter videos. Last Christmas, his favorite present was a $3 pack of letter flashcards. And what was he most thankful for this Thanksgiving? That's right.

Guess what Nate discovered when we went to Discovery Place (a science museum)?

Meanwhile, I thought that Theo was my little hands-on engineer -- a physical genius who could manipulate high-tech devices with his hands. That was, until he turned 18 months. Suddenly, he had a passion for letters just like his brother and quickly learned them all. Not only that, but he loves Nate's "Meet the Sight Words/Phonics" videos and knows all of those too.

If you've been wondering, Nate's favorite letter is C and Theo's favorite letter is O. But MY favorite letter to hear Theo say is X (which sounds like eckthhhhhhh) and second-favorite is W (dubbuwoo).

Trick or treat!

2011-11-07T21:44:00.001-05:00

Nate was especially excited about Halloween this year - for the first time, he really understood the process of dressing up and getting lots of candy - and we counted down the days. The only problem is that this year, I couldn't just buy him a costume that he would wear. He was EXTREMELY PICKY about his costume - I let him look on Amazon.com and he scrolled through a thousand costumes, and the only thing he wanted to be was "a boy" (Charlie Brown), a giraffe, and an apple. Weird, right? He also wanted to be "a bone" (the skeleton costume that he wore when he was 1 1/2, which Theo wore this year). We ended up just letting him loose in Party City and he picked out "Lil' Frankie."

Lil' Frankie, doing his best Frankenstein impression.

Lil' Bones, looking identical to his big brother, except maybe a little happier.

Ready to dominate the candy scene in Madison Park.

Crawling around like little babies. No reason. But if Nate does it, Theo does it.

A kiss, and a hug, and a lip

2011-10-25T16:52:00.000-04:00

Whenever I leave for work in the morning, the boys go out on the porch to wave goodbye. Lately, Nate has been demanding that I give him "a kiss and a hug and a lip (kiss)." If I forget -- or if I fail to do all three -- he gets very upset. Not only that, but now I must give Theo and Dada a kiss and a hug and a lip. Sometimes I tell him that I don't want to kiss Dada, but he makes me do it anyway.

In the evenings, Chuck leaves to do work at a coffeeshop, and Theo, Nate and I squeeze together on the porch steps and wave goodbye to him. Nate insists that he give each of us a kiss, a hug, and a lip again. Theo will gleefully wave and say, "bye! seeyasoon! missyou!" And then we'll look at the moon and the stars, and I'll corral them inside so we can get ready for bed.

I know there will come a time when the boys won't even look up from their iPhone/laptop/whatever-gadget-exists-then to acknowledge that one of us is leaving, so I cherish the enthusiastic goodbyes and sloppy lips kisses while I have them. They'll be too cool for me soon enough.

Our physical genius and his shoe fetish

2011-10-03T22:52:00.003-04:00

Always trying to keep up with his big brother Nate -- who's been known to chest-bump him as a sign of his superiority -- Theo is advanced when it comes to physical skills. Mamma Daley first coined the phrase "physical genius." Just after his 1st birthday, Theo saw that Nate's t-ball set was turned over. He proceeded to put the t-ball stand upright, place the ball on top of it, pick up the bat, and HIT THE BALL! Some kids can't even walk at a year old, yet Theo can play ball with the preschoolers. Physical genius. Since then, Theo has proven his supreme physical abilities by unscrewing and re-screwing the caps of water bottles, removing batteries from all of our remote controls, and running shoelaces through beads.

Another interesting quality of our youngest is his affinity for shoes. He hates being barefoot, and will bring us his shoes and tell us, "On! On!" Sometimes, even as I'm putting him to bed, he'll see his shoes on the dresser and reaches out to them, begging me to put them over his pajama feet. But even better, Theo LOVES wearing his mommy's high-heeled shoes and boots. He'll bring them to me and ask me to put them on him, zip up the boots and clip-clop down the hallway like a real lady. For some reason, he never wants to wear Chuck's shoes -- and the fancier the women's shoes, the better. Chuck insists that it's only because I wear a size 5 and so my shoes fit better (it's true - I'm pretty sure he'll be wearing my size by second grade), plus they make more noise. And a few weeks ago, when Chuck got his shiny new sneakers, Theo caught sight of them and had to put them on immediately. Of course, they just fell off, so Theo opted to put on my fancy green sandals instead.

Maine was wicked awesome!

2011-08-03T22:29:00.002-04:00

After our 21-hour-long drive to Minnesota, we continued our tour of the "M" states and headed up to Maine to spend time with the Daleys. We decided to break up our trip and stay overnight in Kingston, NY, at Chuck's Mamma's house, but unfortunately, didn't arrive until 6am (yes, we left late, and we got stuck in miserable miles-long traffic in Virginia). So after a short nap in NY, we were on the road again for Maine -- what everyone calls "the camp" on Frye Island, in the middle of Sebago Lake. There are four cabins with no electricity or running water, but also a fabulous bathhouse with a shower, sink, toilet, and refrigerator.

The boys LOVED swimming in the lake and playing with the sand. And we had no idea, but Wylie is an amazing swimmer and spent the majority of her days chasing ducks around the lake.

Playing with Mamma, who Nate deemed the "sand monster."

Wylie in hot pursuit of some ducks.

Shooting hoops with Dad.

Theo wakes up at the crack of dawn and enjoys some Froot Loops on the beach.

Crashing at Great-Mamma's house in the middle of a heat wave. Red and sweaty!

Minnesota!

2011-07-14T22:05:00.001-04:00

At the end of June, we traveled to Minnesota for the Team Vogel vs. Cancer benefit and to visit all of our Vogel/Wissman relatives. The benefit was an amazing success, and we were able to spend a lot of time with family. Nate and Theo especially enjoyed their cousin Brody.

The three Vogel grandsons.

Theo with Cousin Brody.

The deer park.

At the Lakeview Drive-In, just a block from where I grew up.

We went to a park pretty much every day, and Nate and Theo both got to enjoy my parents' swimming pool. The drive wasn't too bad either way -- it was our fourth trek to Minnesota and we made the best time: 20.5 hours.

Next up: we're heading to Maine this weekend!

Beach trip

2011-07-06T22:10:00.001-04:00

We kicked off June with a trip to Charleston - to house sit for Sue and Charlie. Let me tell you, it was hard work, lounging by their pool on the marsh and relaxing on the beach. Actually, there wasn't much relaxing, chasing two boys around, but we had a lot of fun!

Nate builds a sand castle -- more like a pile of sand.

Theo tidies up the beach.

He doesn't like getting dirty.

The boys build a lagoon.

Theo practices his downward dog pose.

Big boys

2011-06-03T11:28:00.003-04:00

Once again, I'm trying to cover two months worth of blogging in a single entry. Sigh. Where does the time go?

The first huge milestone was Nate's 3rd birthday on April 12. It was the first year when he really anticipated his birthday, the cake, and the presents. Of course, in spite of several more expensive presents, his favorite was a $3 pack of letter flashcards.

For the past year or so, Nate has been closer to normal at his pediatrician visits, like 75th percentile. But this past visit, Nate weighed in at 36 lbs. and measured 40 inches long -- putting him in the 97th percentile for height and 93rd for weight. Is that crazy? He looks like a 4-year-old. I can be terribly self-conscious when he throws a fit in public or when his Pull-Up is showing because people think he's older than he really is. I wonder if he will average out or if he will always be big. I told him that he'll be bigger than me someday, which he thinks is pretty awesome.

Theo just had his 15 month appointment, weighing in at 24lb. 10oz and measuring 32.5 inches long. That puts him in the 80th percentile for height (same as last time) and 55th percentile for weight (up from 45th last time). He's become a better eater in the past few months and loves eggs with broccoli and spinach, yogurt, applesauce, grilled cheese, and pancakes. He still doesn't like milk too much, but we try to get him to drink as much as possible, and the yogurt makes up for some of it. And I'm still nursing him, but it doesn't have the calcium he gets from whole milk.

Theo is like a mini-Nate these days, climbing all over the furniture, running around, copying everything his big brother does. His baby days are over (sniff, sniff). Also, we've entered the "terrible 1s," which means stubborn fits and arching his back to protest whenever we say "no." But when he's not throwing a tantrum, he's very mellow and really sweet.

Theo is starting to talk, with words we can actually understand. "Dada" is his favorite, of course. "Mama" sounds more like "Baba," but I'll take it. He's in a destructive phase, which can be a problem because Nate loves to put things in order (letters, colors, shapes, etc.). The two of them play very well together - cars, trains, going through this tunnel we have, jumping on the bed. They'll just giggle at each other. It's pretty adorable.

Potty Time!

2011-03-15T21:56:00.001-04:00

Since Nate turned 2, we've been dreading potty training. He is the most stubborn kid ever born, a cruel punishment for super-stubborn me and painfully stubborn Chuck. So when it comes to being patient, trying and failing but trying again (a theme song from the DVD "Elmo's Potty Time"), and delayed gratification ("if you pee on the potty, you get an M&M!"), Nate's stubbornness just results in a loud, weepy ball of frustration.

We casually tried potty training last year, and our pediatrician said that maybe he just wasn't ready and to hold off until closer to his 3rd birthday. Then my aunt Sue, who's taught a class of 2- and 3-year-olds for 10 years (God help her), said that my pediatrician was a wuss and that I needed to just stop putting diapers on him. We did a little bit of both. On the weekends, I would let him go without a diaper or pants around the house. He usually ended up peeing on the floor. It got so bad that Chuck demanded, "HE'S NOT GOING WITHOUT DIAPERS UNTIL HE'S POTTY TRAINED!" I would put him on the potty and sit there with him. We would go through these alphabet flashcards (his favorite thing ever), and a few times, he got relaxed enough that he started to go. But he never told us he had to go, which actually meant that we (me and Chuck) were potty trained, not him.

But a couple weekends ago, something clicked. "Mommy, I haffa go potty!" I put him on the potty, he pointed his wiener down, and he went! We let him wear his undies (he has a variety of Diego, Sesame Street and Super Why undies) during the day. Sometimes he would start to go in them, but for the most part he would tell us he had to go, we'd put him on the potty AND HE WOULD GO AGAIN! Then, during the week, he would go. And he would even go at school. Now he never wears a diaper during the day -- just Pull-Ups if we're going somewhere and of course at night because he still SOAKS it.

Sounds great, right? Well, I said Nate was potty trained, but he's not poopy trained. Meaning, the first thing the kids get is the sensation of having to pee, but pooping is a different story. So where is he pooping? In those cute Diego/Sesame Street/Super Why undies that are otherwise completely dry. And I can tell you, cleaning poop out of undies is about a bzillion times worse than cleaning Nate's adult-sized poop out of his diaper. I'm hoping he catches on soon ...

Theo's 1-year stats

2011-03-07T16:39:00.000-05:00

Theo had his 12-month pediatrician appointment last week. He weighed in at 22 lb. 2 oz. and measured 30.5 inches long. That's 45th percentile for weight and 75th percentile for height. Not that I ever compare my boys, but Nate was exactly the same length at 1 year, but weighed 24 lb. 9 oz. (both were in 75th percentile). Theo never had Nate's full face and chunky legs -- and he certainly doesn't have his brother's appetite, preferring to play with his food rather than eat it. You can imagine how after raising the "human garbage disposal," this completely blows my mind.

"No, Mommy, you eat it!"

Sad news

2011-02-28T17:00:00.002-05:00

I'm sad to report that our beloved kitty Truman is no longer with us. He had been missing for about a month and we just assumed he had wandered off and would show up eventually -- he's always been a very resourceful outdoor cat. Unfortunately, he was stuck in a neighbor's crawl space and she didn't find him until it was too late. We brought him back home and buried him in our backyard with a kitty toy and a can of his favorite food. He was a birthday gift to Chuck the first year we were dating in 2002, and it's hard to imagine life without him. But we have lots of great memories, from him trying to rape Yeats (not really) to how he always would jump in the shower with Chuck when he was a kitty to his super-loud purring whenever he would snuggle with us. RIP Truman -- you were the best kitty ever!

Happy 1st birthday, Theo!

2011-02-28T16:57:00.002-05:00

Somehow, my little baby Theo is already 1 year old. It doesn't seem like it's been that long since he was a newborn squirming around in our arms, meeting his big brother Nate, smiling for the first time, learning to sit up, to crawl, to walk ... the time goes by much faster with the second child! But compared to a big kid like Nate, Theo still seems like a baby to me.

We celebrated the Big 1 with a little party at our house with Auntie Mary and Uncle Adam, and our friend Sue Ann and her 2-month-old Eric. Theo is just about the pickiest eater I've ever met (in stark contrast to his brother), but surprise -- he loves cake!

A cake with real cars that you can play with when the cake is gone!

(The letters and numbers were Nate's favorite part.)

The Great Cake Massacre.

The Daley crew.

"But Mommy, where are all of MY presents?"

Theo started walking a couple months ago and is now a pro. He's still not that great about getting himself up without pulling up on furniture (or my pant leg), but once he's up and walking, he can make some serious distance in no time. Give him a couple more weeks and he'll be running!

The Holi-daze

2011-01-24T22:43:00.002-05:00

No, I haven't posted anything in two months, and have yet to cover Christmas, which was a month ago. So let's catch up:

After two successful drives to Minnesota over the summer, we made our first wintertime attempt, knowing how miserable flying can be over the holidays. If we got sidetracked by snow, we figured we could just stop at a hotel. Our drive up to Minnesota was the easiest ever -- the roads were perfectly dry, and we bypassed Chicago entirely by taking I-74, which was technically longer but we made it in 20 hours, our best time so far. Unfortunately, on the drive back, we ended up passing through a terrible snowstorm with nowhere to turn off (not that we were eager to pull off in the middle of W.V. anyway ...)

Nate and Theo loved every minute of Minnesota. They got so much attention from the whole family and got to bond with their cousin Brody. Nate kept asking him, "Brody, you wanna play cars?" It was pretty adorable. Nate and Brody also got to sit at their own personal Toy Story kids table, where Brody could see how the human garbage disposal could wolf down as much food as his dad. Also, Nate is as tall as Brody now. But Brody is still the boss.

Santa comes to Grandma and Grandpa Wissman's house every year. Nate refused to look at him.

Best buds. "Bwody, you wanna play cars?"

Where all the cool kids sit.

After getting back from Minnesota, we ramped up for another Christmas with the Daleys. Nate and Theo enjoyed all the attention. If you can believe it, they got even more toys, including a train set from Mamma and Grampy!

Theo loves to destroy the train set, and Nate will tell him, "Stop it, Theo. You're making a mess! You need a time out!"

Christmas with the Daleys was fun at first, but then Theo got the pukes and couldn't keep anything down. He lost a whole pound and still had random puking episodes for a whole week. Even worse, he gave it to Mamma, who was stuck in bed with the sickness for a couple days. :( We hope everyone will be healthy for the next family get-together.

Happy 'ween!

2010-11-16T16:39:00.001-05:00

It's hard to believe it's almost Thanksgiving ... and I haven't even written about Halloween yet! It was the first year that Nate could actually understand what Halloween was. For weeks, we trained him to say, "trick or treat" to get candy. "What do you say, Nate?" "Happy 'ween!" Good enough.

A very scary dinosaur!

Our crawling baby lobster.

We loaded our T-Rex and baby lobster into the double stroller and found a well-lit street in our neighborhood where the houses are all decked out for Halloween. Within five minutes, our baby lobster was asleep. At the very first house we went to, we said, "trick or treat!" (And by "we," I mean me and Chuck. Nate stood silent.) Behind the door, we heard some scary breathing, then the door opened up with a lady in a mask that even scared me, let alone a 2-year-old. Already a little apprehensive about the dark and his scary costume, Nate looked like he was about to cry. When she realized how little he was, she took the mask right off and offered him some candy. We went to about 10 houses, then headed back home. Baby lobster slept through it all, but looked adorable nonetheless!

Earlier in October, we went to Hodges Farm to pick pumpkins and see all the animals. We went last year when Nate was 1 1/2 and I was prego with Theo. You can read about it here: Pumpkin' pickin' and Halloween. It's crazy how much Nate has changed. This farm has about a million pumpkins in at least 10 different fields. And Nate would walk from pumpkin to pumpkin, exclaiming, "Punkin!" "Another punkin!" as though it was the most exciting thing ever. He picked out a few to bring home, but he wanted nothing to do with the carving process or pulling out its guts. (Surprising, for a child who loves to play in the dirt.) Nate also got to meet a few goats, horses, cows, chickens, and he still tells me all about them and the different noises they make.

A punkin, Mommy! A PUNKIN!!!!!

Theo just wanted to cruise.

Theo is almost 9 months old already. With two bottom teeth, he is just starting to eat Cheerios and mashed up apples and bananas. He started crawling about a month ago and is an expert cruiser. He can even stand on his own for about 15 seconds, and he can balance really well while he's kneeling. He especially likes to crawl to the glass door, get on his knees and pound on the door at the cats. He is fascinated with Wylie and Yeats -- Truman steers clear of babies these days -- and tends to abuse them if he can get his hands (and teeth) on them.

Theo loves swinging in the backyard!

The boys snuggling in bed with Dada.

Watching their favorite show together -- "Super Why." Can you tell they're brothers?

Cruisin' for trouble

2010-10-22T15:50:00.003-04:00

Overnight, my innocent 8-month-old has turned into a troublemaker. For the past few months, he was content to sit and quietly play with his toys for long periods of time. It's been a while since we really had to worry about him toppling over. Now, he's no longer content sitting and is constantly cruising along the coffee table, his crib, even the bathtub. He started crawling last weekend, but it seems like he only wants to crawl to a place where he can cruise and get into mischief. Nate was the same way.

Theo's newest fascination is with paper products: napkins, magazines, books, etc. He tears them to shreds and will stuff them in his mouth if you're not watching. It's even harder with a second kid because not only do we have to watch out for dangerous items we might leave lying around, we also have to make sure Nate doesn't give him anything he could choke on. He gave Theo a nickel the other day -- very generous, I know. It's hard to explain to a 2-year-old what he can't give his brother.

As you saw in the previous post, Nate's awesome sleeping habits are over. For a good year, he slept soundly from 7pm to 6am. It was early, but it also gave me a few hours to myself every night. Now, if he takes a nap during the day, he's up until 11pm. He usually sleeps in until 8 or 9, but still. If he doesn't take a nap, he gets SUPER CRANKY around 6-7pm and cries a lot.

Remember when Nate barely talked? Those days are over. He seriously never shuts up. Here's a conversation from this morning:

"Mama. Cinnamon Toast Crunch. Cinnamon Toast Crunch. Cinnamon Toast Crunch. Cinnamon Toast Crunch"
"Nate, we don't have Cinnamon Toast Crunch. Do you want Life?"
"Mama. Life. Life. Life. Life. Life. Life. Life. Life."
I put some dry Life Cereal on the table for him.
He grabs my leg. "Mama. I wanna bowl. I wanna bowl. I wanna bowl. I wanna bowl. I wanna bowl."

You get the picture. By being really annoying, he gets what he wants much faster.

Serious nap resistance

2010-10-17T07:56:00.000-04:00

About every other day, Nate will avoid taking his nap. This is how it's going:

Another rockin' road trip

2010-09-24T12:09:00.000-04:00

The Daley Family

This post is coming about two weeks too late, but we have to mention our trip to lovely Cumberland, Maryland, over Labor Day weekend to visit the Daley family. After our 20-hour trips to Minnesota, the 7-hour drive to Cumberland was a breeze. Well, it would have been if we hadn't left at 3pm on the Friday before Labor Day. But that's OK -- we took an "alternate route" through some of Charlotte's suburbs' historic downtowns. It didn't seem to save us any time, but at least it was pretty!

The whole way up, we kept telling Nate that he would see Mary and "A'um," Mamma and "Beepsby," and Pete and "Nanoo" (that's what he calls Jess. Not sure why.) He was a little shy at first, but all a strange relative needs to do is to take him outside and you've instantly become his favorite. Peter and Jess got to meet Theo for the first time -- and Mamma and Grampy hadn't seen him since he was just 6 weeks old. He showed them his amazing acrobatic skills, his superb sitting capabilities, his penchant for smiling, and his out-of-this-world hair volume.

Speaking of hair volume, Theo got his fifth haircut last week after he was mistaken for a girl three times in as many days. I'm not going to say who accidentally said, "How old is she?" but he is the author of "Banktown: The Rise and Struggles of Charlotte's Big Banks." And it may not just be Theo's hair; I suspect his rosy cheeks and pouty lips may add to his feminine mystique. But that's OK because like his brother, the kid is all boy. He likes roughhousing, jumping in his exersaucer like a maniac, slamming objects together, being really noisy and making lots of messes.

Nate is LOVING preschool. There is only one other boy in his class and five girls, so he has his choice of the ladies. He's currently looking for one who shares his passion for the alphabet. He likes to do art projects and sing in music class, and of course he also loves the park there. Chuck got Nate some Hot Wheels and a car ramp a few weeks ago, and it is his new favorite thing to do. He's also been bringing his comforter out into the living room and lying on the couch with a pillow -- or, better yet, covering up his Elmos (he has three) or Theo (who doesn't really dig it). He knows how to relax!

The end of summer

2010-09-02T13:32:00.000-04:00

It's been a while since we've updated the blog. We've spent a good chunk of the summer in Minnesota to spend time with Joe and the rest of the family. The past few months have been really, really tough, but the blessing is that we were able to spend so much time together. The Vogels have seen Theo pretty much every month since he was born, and Nate is no longer shy around his relatives. In fact, we've heard "Grrrama and Bumpa!" constantly since we came back to Charlotte. He's eager to have them visit soon!

Theo with Grandma and Grandpa at the Loggers game.

Nate and his Grandpa. Still a little shy. :)

Nate and Grandma enjoy a dip in the pool, his new favorite activity!

Theo is enamored with big cousin Brody.

Grandpa and Theo.

Theo is already 6 months old and has quickly become the Rolling-Over Champion of the World. Seriously, you can't put the kid down for five seconds before he flips -- and then flips again. He's also beginning to master squirming around on his belly. It's not quite a crawl, but he can make some serious traction in no time at all. We started him on solids a little bit after he turned 5 months, and it took a while before he got the hang of it, or even seemed to like it. That was strange after our experience with Nate, who was an eating champ the second we started him on cereal at 4 months. But now Theo is doing really well. He's had rice cereal, oatmeal, barley, peas, green beans, sweet potatoes, carrots, bananas, apples, peaches, pears, and prunes. He had his 6-month appointment last week and weighed 18 lb., 8 oz. and measured 27.5 inches long. That's 75th percentile for weight and 85th percentile for height.

Who could resist that sweet face?

Drool from teething ... and yet no teeth. :(

Getting ready to crawl!

Nate has become obsessed with letters and numbers. He mumbles the alphabet or counts to 20 as he's playing, and he sometimes says the entire alphabet backwards -- just as fast as I could. He recognizes letters and numbers in random, everyday things, like a bitten-off pretzel ("9!"), a mark on the wall ("L!"), or his ketchup after he swipes into it ("C!"). I guess the child of two English majors is bound to have a love of letters.

The obsession.

Two nerds working hard.

After a long day of work and play, the kid knows how to relax.

Theo's Four-Month Photos

2010-07-18T09:42:00.000-04:00

These were taken last month -- Theo actually turns 5 months today! He is rolling over, sitting up pretty well, and passing his toys back and forth between his hands. We're thinking about starting him on solids sometime before he turns 6 months (Nate started at 4 months, but that's because he was always ravenous). Until then, we'll enjoy his relatively sweet-smelling diapers. :)

Mommy or Daddy?

2010-07-16T10:00:00.001-04:00

Before I had Nate, I wondered if he would prefer Chuck because he stays home. Would he resent me for leaving him every day to go to work? Would Chuck be the one he would run to when he skinned his knee or needed to snuggle before bed? Well, no. Nate knows very well the difference between Mommy and Daddy. And now that he can talk so much, he likes to express his preference.

When we take Nate outside, he almost always runs straight to his swing and says, "Swing! Swing! Swing!" But when Mommy tries to put him in his swing, he says, "Dada!" If Mommy continues to act like she's going to swing him, he starts whining, "Dada! Dada! Dada!" Why? Because when Daddy pushes him, he goes so high that he catches some air and is within inches of wrapping himself around the tree branch. Even when Mommy pushes her hardest, she physically can't make the swing into a dangerous carnival ride. So Daddy wins.

But in the evenings when he's winding down for bed, Nate will bring his books into the living room and bring them directly to me. Sometimes I'm nursing or otherwise occupied. I'll say, "Daddy can read you that book." Daddy tries, but he just doesn't have Mommy's talent for vocal inflection or animated storytelling. So Nate always insists on having Mommy read him his bedtime stories. Mommy wins.

Flying solo with a 4-month-old

2010-07-02T15:38:00.003-04:00

Last weekend, Theo and I flew together without Chuck and Nate. I knew it would be tough hauling our gear through the airport and having no other set of hands to take the baby when a). I go through security or b). I have to go to the bathroom. But we managed the parking, the shuttle, the security, the boarding, and the nearly 3-hour flight just fine. The hardest part was the pure boredom -- for both of us. There is only so much you can do to entertain a 4-month-old and I had to squint my eyes to read a fellow passenger's Wall Street Journal as a way to pass the time.

We had a great time at the Team Vogel vs. Cancer Benefit and Theo was a trooper, staying there from 7am-6pm, enduring a 1-mile walk in the Baby Bjorn (thanks, Goldbergs), being passed around among many relatives, and napping in his car seat.

Aunt Sue, Angie, Theo and Nisa just before the race.

The ladies (and gentleman) of the bake sale.

Theo's godfather, Joe, loves to make babies laugh!

I forgot how delightful 4-month-old babies can be. Theo is so happy all the time (when he isn't super hungry or tired, of course) and is so easy to entertain. We started putting him in his exersaucer a few weeks ago and he loves to jump and play with all the toys. He also rolled over from back to front, can sit up by himself for almost a minute, and is bearing weight on his legs (standing up when we hold his hands). He giggles too! It's the cutest sound, usually really low and breath-y and when he really gets going, he'll even squeal. And he ADORES his big brother Nate. He'll watch Nate and smile with his mouth wide open and giggle at him -- especially when Nate jumps on the bed (his favorite new activity). Nate really loves Theo too, giving him kisses, hugging him, and trying to carry him. He never seems to be jealous of him either. Maybe they're all this way when they're babies, but I really think that Nate and Theo are going to be the best of friends. :)

Another big boy

2010-06-24T21:16:00.000-04:00

Theo had his 4-month appointment today. Of course, the doctor raved about how adorable he was with "all that hair." He weighed in at 16 lb. 10 oz. and measured 26 inches long -- the 90th percentile for both! Nate was a little over 17 lb and 26.5 inches at 4 months, so Theo is still a little smaller than Nate was. Still, it looks like we're raising a couple of bruisers! The Vogel/Daley football team is coming along quite well ...

EXTREME Road Trip!

2010-06-21T22:12:00.002-04:00

Forgive us for not updating the site in many weeks -- we've been resting after a very long drive to Minnesota. 18+ hours in a car with a 2-year-old, a 3-month-old and a dog? Are we crazy? Yes, yes we are. But it would be nearly as insane to try to take them on an airplane. At least in a car, when there's screaming, we're the only ones bothered by it. And actually, it wasn't so bad! I had extremely low expectations, assuming that it would be one of the most tortuous days of my life, so when there was just a little bit of crying, some toll booth issues (no cash), and a massive case of sleep deprivation, I was pleasantly surprised. We will definitely do it again.

We left on a Saturday afternoon at 3pm and the kids slept for nearly three hours before we stopped to eat and walk around somewhere in West Virginia. Then, we drove through the night, reaching Chicago around sunrise. I'm pretty sure that when we put Nate in the car and told him we were driving to Grandma and Grandpa's, he assumed that it would be about 20 minutes. But he was so excited -- every time we stopped and he woke up and started crying, I'd say, "Nate, we're almost there!" and he would say, "Grrrrma and Bampa" and smile and go right back to sleep. The last five hours were a little rough -- Chuck couldn't stay awake, the kids were cranky, and I had to drive through the beautiful-but-boring farmland of Wisconsin. When we arrived at my parents' house, we handed off the kids and took a little nap. Nate and Theo slept like champs the whole trip, so they were plenty rested to play with Grandma and Grandpa. Cousin Brody came over to play too, which Nate loved. And Wylie enjoyed her first vacation in Minnesota!

Best buds.

Hot and sweaty after a long day at the park.

We also were able to baptize Theo while we were in Minnesota, with Joe and Rachel as his godparents!

Vogel family picture.

The Vogel grandsons.

The monkeys

2010-05-27T09:39:00.001-04:00

As the days are getting warmer, the boys are spending lots of time in the backyard. Chuck will try to get some work done, Theo snoozes in his bouncy seat or just looks around at the trees and birds, and Nate chases Wylie or soaks himself with the hose. The kid goes through at least three outfits a day, and inevitably is covered in mud and grass. It amazes me how he can be completely covered in dirt and be totally fine with it, but if he accidentally spills one drop of milk, he points at it and says, "Uh oh" over and over again.

Theo is holding his head up really well now. We've put him in Nate's old Bebe Pod (a baby seat with a tray) and he loves it! He's also starting to study his hands and grasp at things, so we can put a rattle and other baby toys on the tray for him to play with. His coordination still needs some work -- I think he's only accidentally picking things up or moving them around -- but he gets better every day. Last night when I put him to bed, he kept pulling his pacifier out of his mouth and would start crying. I suppose it'll be a while before he can start putting it back in.

Now that Nate's 2 and has adjusted to having a new little brother, we realize it's time to start potty training. I feel like every transition that we've had with Nate -- crying it out, going from bottle to sippy cup, moving to a toddler bed -- has been really easy. But potty training is a whole different ball game. They say we're supposed to start when he can pull his pants up and down, when he has the language to talk about it, and when he feels uncomfortable with a dirty diaper. Just in the past couple weeks, Nate has started talking about "goap" (poop). Sometimes it's to tell us that he just pooped; other times it's to tell us that he's about to poop. And you can tell that he's getting very uncomfortable with a poopy or just pee-soaked diaper: yesterday morning, he walked into our bedroom with his legs spread wide announcing "goap, goap, goap!" It's a start.

I think I put in the last post that Nate hasn't put two words together yet. Just in the past week, that's changed. But of course, the words that he's putting together involve "more" and "gimme," as in "More. Cereal." "Gimme. Milk." He says them like two separate words. Another phrase I heard at least 50 times this morning was "Dada. Y." (wants dad to take him to the YMCA).

We're gearing up for our LOOOOOOOOOONG road trip to Minnesota -- just over a week away!

Road trip

2010-05-18T09:48:00.003-04:00

The Daleys were ambitious last weekend and took our first road trip as a foursome to a wedding in Charlottesville, Virginia, nearly five hours away. We've taken Nate to Charleston before, but that's only a three-hour drive. Mommy and Daddy were a little concerned that there would be a lot of screaming, but we coordinated both drives with their afternoon naps and it worked out perfectly! Of course, there were a couple meltdowns when Theo wanted to look at someone rather than the car seat and when Nate declared that he was "DONE! DONE! DONE!" with the road trip, but then Mommy would climb in between their car seats and entertain them with gooing, singing, counting, and kisses. Nate had lots of fun at the wedding chasing other kids around and even discovered a kids room that had crayons and Play-doh! And at night, he got to sleep with his daddy, who said he didn't sleep as well because of Nate's "razor toes."

Sleeping peacefully on the hotel bed.

Still sleepy (and a little grumpy) after his nap.

Chuck uses his adorable baby to promote his newest release.

"Nose. Nose. Nose. Nose."

So happy!

No, we don't put product in his hair. He was born with incredible volume.

Do you see modeling in Theo's future?

My baby can read!

2010-05-12T12:48:00.002-04:00

Not really, but he acts like he can. And the only word he seems to be able to read -- in everything -- is "Nate." For instance, I took his sidewalk chalk and wrote "Wylie." So Nate points at each letter and says, "W-Y-L-I-E: Nate!" And he found one of Chuck's boxes from the post office and spelled out "P-O-S-T-A-L-S-E-R-V-I-C-E: Nate!" And when I wrote out the names from our family, he spelled out "D-A-D-A-M-A-M-A-T-H-E-O-N-A-T-E: Nate! Nate! Nate! Nate!" Between this and him telling us that everything is "mine," I'm wondering if we have an egomaniac on our hands. That, or just a perfectly normal 2-year-old.

Tomorrow, Theo turns 12 weeks old, which means he's no longer a newborn. Now, he's officially an "infant." He's been such a good baby for so long that I feel like the newborn phase has been over for a long time -- he only cries when he's hungry/tired/gassy and he sleeps like a champ. All I have to do is put him down in the crib between 8 and 8:30 with a pacifier and he goes right to sleep. Nate was pretty good at this too; he just woke up a lot more during the night because he was perpetually hungry. Theo is still getting up around 4am for a feeding, but goes right back to sleep until 7:30 or so. Of course, this does me no good because Nate is still waking up at 6am. But then Nate and I get our special time with just us two, when he helps me unload the dishwasher and we eat "ceeweeal" together.

Easter and birthdays

2010-04-27T11:53:00.002-04:00

I know it's been a while since we've updated the site, but we've been very BUSY! April was an exciting month. Mamma and Grampy Daley came to visit for Easter along with Great-Mamma Haltermann. Nate was a little shy in the beginning, but as soon as they took him outside to push him in his swing, he was smitten. Since then, he can't stop saying "Mamma" and "Beepsby" (Grampy). He also loves to say "Marmie" (Mary) and his favorite, "A-um!" (Adam)

Even though it was a week early, we celebrated Nate's 2nd birthday on Easter with the whole family. He loved his Elmo cake, his new remote control car, and his very own baseball chair, where he can put his feet up and relax. Now, when we ask Nate how old he is, instead of "a-one!" he says, "goo."

Nate can't wait to take a giant bite of Elmo's face.

Speaking of "goo," Nate likes to count to ten all the time now. It goes something like this: a-one, goo, bee, boar, bive, si, sebin, eee, nigh, ten, YAY! And then he claps for himself.

Nate had his 2-year pediatrician appointment this week and measured 35 3/4 inches tall and weighs 32 lbs., putting him in the 80th percentile for both. The doctor says his brain is measuring in the >97th percentile, but we already knew that.

And Theo celebrated a big birthday too -- 2 months! He has grown up so much since I posted last. He smiles all the time now, especially at his daddy, who loves to make funny sounds. He is an amazing sleeper too -- he sleeps from 8pm until 3 or 4am, nurses, and goes back down right away until 6 or 7. I don't think Nate did that until he was closer to 5 months. Theo had his 2-month pediatrician appointment last week and weighed in a 12lb., 12oz and measured 22 inches long. He's in the 25th percentile for height and the 75th percentile for weight (Nate was in the 90th percentile for both at the same age). It's amazing that he's so big already because it seems like just yesterday I was taking him in to the doctor to make sure that he was gaining weight. It doesn't seem to be a problem anymore!

What a happy baby!

April was also a big month because Mommy had to go back to work. As the big day approached, I was a little anxious, trying to figure out how I could fit any more activities into my day. Even more nerve-wracking was imagining how Chuck would manage a whole day alone with two monkeys and still try to get work done. But everything is going well so far. I've been able to run home over my lunch hour to nurse so I don't miss them so much, and every day when I come home, all three boys are smiling.

Florida

2010-03-30T20:13:00.001-04:00

Last week, we packed up and flew to Fort Myers with two lap babies for the last time before Nate turns 2. We were lucky enough to get an extra seat for Nate for both flights -- but still, flying with a toddler is no fun at all. Nate loved seeing all of his Vogel relatives, especially his cousin Brody, who is just a little bit taller than Nate. The two were best friends all week, chasing each other, giggling, swimming and bonding over Baby Einstein and Elmo.

Chillin' out after a long day at the pool.

Discovering the chip and dip table at the party together = nasty diapers later.

Flashing lights and classical music: crack for babies (and toddlers who are way too old for this).

On Thursday, we rented a car so we could take the kids to the park and to the beach, which was very windy. It was tough dragging Theo around in his car seat while chasing Nate, who wants to get into EVERYTHING (including strangers' toys), but we still had fun.

Nate and Dad at Fort Myers Beach

Exploring ... and about to steal that bucket.

Dad and Nate at the park.

Theo will be 6 weeks on Thursday, if you can believe it. From what I hear, a newborn's crying is supposed to peak at 6 weeks, so we're almost over the hump. :) He is growing every day and is smiling a lot now. He also seems to be fascinated with his big brother Nate -- at least until he pokes his eye or pulls his hair. Speaking of Theo's hair, it doesn't seem to be falling out like Nate's did and is beginning to have a personality of its own.

My, my, my

2010-03-16T11:45:00.000-04:00

Like lots of little boys, Nate has been slow to start talking, preferring instead to run around or examine/destroy things. He's always been a babbler, but his pronunciation was terrible and we could never understand what he was saying. In the past month, though, he's had a language explosion. It seems like he's picking up a few new words every day and now we can actually understand what he's saying! The newest word that is being used A LOT is "my." I suppose this comes from no longer being the only child and the need to constantly clarify what is HIS. So it's "my paci," "my Mommy," even "my baby." I find that cute, though, that he takes pride in having HIS own baby brother.

We've had a few rough nights lately, with Theo being reluctant to go back to sleep after getting up. Chuck and I have been trying to tag team so I can get a little sleep (it's been a months since I've had a stretch of sleep longer than four hours), but it's leaving both of us exhausted. Overall, he's been pretty good -- when he finally gets to sleep, he'll sleep for 3-4 hours.

It's hard to believe that in just two days, our little baby Theo will be a month old already. February is a short month, but still. Where did the time go? He's been smiling a lot while sleeping pretty much since birth, but just yesterday I caught him smiling while completely awake. We weren't making eye contact -- he was looking at something behind my head (I'm thinking the purple couch, which fascinated Nate too) -- so I can't consider it a *real* smile, but we're getting close!

Visitors

2010-03-11T10:35:00.005-05:00

Theo and Nate both enjoyed having their Grandma and Grandpa Vogel come to visit over the weekend. Nate especially thought his Grandpa was super hilarious and loved that Grandma took him outside in the backyard every day to play fetch with Wylie. Theo still seems to be quite attached to his Mommy and can be fussy if someone else holds him, though he eventually warmed up to Grandma, especially when she rocked him. Theo appears to be a tad repulsed by his own father and tends to spit up on him every time he holds him. This might also be because Daddy is less gentle and likes to roughhouse 3-week-old babies. Theo's Great-Auntie Susie came up to visit from Charleston on Monday and he loved being held by her. She has the magic touch.

Grandpa Vogel and Theo

Nate and Grandpa Vogel at the park.

Theo had his 1-month checkup this morning, even though he's only 3 weeks old (something to do with insurance). So his stats are probably a little off of what he'll be at 1 month old next week. But he weighs 9 lbs and is 20 3/4 inches long -- both in the 25th percentile. I'm assuming that if his stats were taken on time, he'd be closer to 50%. But just to compare, Nate was 11lb, 2oz, and 22 inches at his 1-month appointment, which was on his actual 1-month birthday (see Our Big Boy). Theo definitely seems to be less hungry than his big brother was, and Nate also had pumped milk from a bottle, which Theo hasn't had yet. Babies tend to eat more from a bottle than the breast, especially in the early months. So, we'll see if little Theo will catch up to Nate or if he'll end up a runt like his Mommy was. :)

Nate tries to give Theo some of his milk.

Little Mister Diva

Nate and Theo are getting along really well. Most of Nate's jealousy seems to have gone away and I'm less concerned about him actually hurting Theo. However, this morning Theo was in his swing and Nate likes to point at all his body parts (ears, nose, lips, etc.). When he pointed at Theo's eye, I told him, "No, that hurts Theo," but Nate doesn't like to hear the word "no." So he kept poking at Theo's eye, which of course made him cry. But these episodes are happening less and less lately. The cutest is when Nate comes in our room in the morning, he'll peek his head over the bassinet and say, "Hi" to Theo in his most adorable little E.T. voice. It makes getting up at 5:30am totally worth it.

The Pacifier Wars

2010-03-01T21:11:00.001-05:00

As you might imagine, Theo's homecoming has totally rocked Nate's world -- for good and bad. He loves to push him in the swing (too fast), rock him in his carrier (too hard), and help with changing diapers (throwing them on Theo's face). But the biggest source of controversy is the pacifier, just as I predicted (see Toddler Transition Time). We figured we'd wait until after he moved to the toddler bed and after Theo came home to help him give it up. Now, Theo has his own paci, which is a different color and texture than Nate's. But even if Nate has two of his own blue pacifiers, he still plucks Theo's right out of his mouth.

Theo already knows how to hold in his own paci.

Other things we've learned over the past week with 2 kids under 2:

We're going through diapers like crazy. I changed a total of 6 poopy diapers before 10am yesterday.
Newborns poop A LOT. And pee themselves when being changed.
Just when you get one baby to sleep -- and you think you might have time to squeeze a nap in -- the other wakes up.
Nate is extremely sensitive when I'm nursing Theo. I don't know how he learned that it's a private thing, but he always pulls down my shirt to cover me up.

Welcome, Baby Theo!

2010-02-23T11:06:00.001-05:00

Theodore Joseph Daley arrived at 6:30am on Feb. 18 a little bit ahead of schedule. We were supposed to be at the hospital for a scheduled C-section at 5:30 am. But at 4am -- just a half-hour before our alarm went off -- my water broke. After that, I started having contractions just two minutes apart. We rushed to the hospital and there we discovered that there was meconium in the amniotic fluid. The same thing happened with Nate, but it was unusual for it to be there for a baby that is early. We decided to go ahead with the C-section and my doctor was called in a little bit early to perform it. As the doctor on call said, "Dr. Barnes didn't want to miss it, but don't be surprised if she didn't have time to put her makeup on."

The surgery went well. I had less discomfort than last time and when they pulled Theo out, it seemed like everything was OK. When they pulled his head out, they suctioned his airway before delivering the rest of his body. Everyone in surgery kept saying how much hair he had -- even before they pulled him out. The first thing Chuck said is, "He looks just like Nate!" I heard him cry and they said his color was good and he was moving well. Chuck cut the umbilical cord, and they cleaned him up and brought him over to me, then Chuck and Theo headed back to our hospital room.

Mommy meeting Theo for the first time.

Daddy holding Theo back in our hospital room.

It took another 20 minutes or so for them to sew me up and bring me back to the room. And by the time I got there, they'd taken Theo away to run some tests in the NICU because he inhaled the meconium. This is exactly what happened with Nate -- he was gone for about five hours after I delivered him and I hated that we didn't get a chance to bond immediately after his birth. With Nate, it was just to run tests and monitor him, but he was fine. With Theo, the x-rays showed that there actually was meconium deep in his lung and his breathing was labored because of it. I expected him back after a few hours, but the nurse practitioner came in and said that he was on oxygen and would be there for at least the next 24 hours and at worst, could be there for 2 weeks. They were monitoring him for infection as well, but since my water broke just a couple hours before delivery, there was low chance of that.

Theo in the NICU. It's usually a no-no to put a baby on its tummy, but this position helps him cough up the fluid.

Since I was still in recovery and couldn't even move my feet, I couldn't go over there to see him, but Chuck did. I think we were both really sad that he was going to be in the NICU overnight, but we knew he would be OK. It was just frustrating to not be able to see or hold him. But later that night, the nurse asked if I could come over to hold and breastfeed Theo.

Mommy finally getting to hold Theo later that night in the NICU.

I was amazed at how much he looked like Nate, except with a lot more dark hair. And he's so little! He was just four ounces less than Nate was (and as we know, Nate has been in the 80-90th percentile his whole life), but holding a newborn again was just wonderful. He seemed so healthy and strong, so I had a good feeling that he would be discharged the next morning.

Theo came into our room around noon the next day and everything was great. We found out that he had a short frenulum, which is the piece of skin that holds the tongue to the floor of his mouth. It was so close to the tip of his tongue that he couldn't stick his tongue past his bottom teeth, let alone stick it out of his mouth. This could cause problems with breastfeeding and with speech later in life, so they cut it on Saturday. It's a fairly easy procedure and not a lot of pain, and he's been a champion nurser since then.

We were discharged on Sunday around noon and were able to come home. Mary and Adam brought Nate over soon after and he's still getting used to his little brother. For the most part, he seems excited and wants to hold him and touch his hair and show us where his nose and ears are. But there have been a few bouts of jealousy, where he wants to sit on my lap at the same time I'm nursing Theo or will put a book he wants me to read directly on top of Theo's head. Chuck and I have been crazy busy with the two of them, but it's probably been easier than I thought. I forgot how much newborns sleep!

Toddler transition time

2010-02-05T13:56:00.000-05:00

Nate has had to grow up fast in the past couple months. The biggest change is moving from his baby nursery and crib that he's slept in since he was born into a big-boy toddler bed (which is actually quite miniature and we're not even allowed to sit on it). We were dreading the big move because it meant that we could no longer count on his predictable sleep pattern -- which has been 7 pm to 6 am with a 2-3 hour nap at least since he turned 1.

We told him it was his "big boy bed" and his special room with a sheet with puppies, lions, elephants and monkeys on it. And most importantly, we showed him how to run down the hallway yelling at the top of our lungs and then collapse on the bed. OK, he started that but we encouraged it. There have been a couple instances of him simply walking out of his bedroom into the living room at 9pm, and he also tends to move his bed to the middle of the room if he isn't quite tired yet. And of course, he's fallen out of bed a few times, but he's super-tough and learning to sleep like a normal human being with his head at the top of the bed rather than rotating all over the place. Once Chuck actually found him standing at the side of the bed with his head on the pillow, totally asleep. But it's been three weeks, and I must say, it was SOOOO much easier than I expected. He has a new (and preferred, as far as I'm concerned) sleep schedule -- 8:30pm to 7:30am. That means I get to see more of him after I come home from work AND sleep in! And what is so funny is that in the morning, he'll just sit at the bottom of the bed with his legs between the slats and just babble or moan for me. He won't get up or come out of his room. Next item on the list: the paci. We'll wait until after Baby is home for a while, otherwise he'll just pluck the baby's paci right out of his mouth.

Speaking of Baby, he'll be here in just 13 days! In some ways, I feel like this pregnancy has flown by, but I'm also feeling the physical effects of pregnancy more than I did last time. That is what happens when you have to lift a 30 lb toddler at least 25 times a day. I'm pretty sure that this baby will be big like Nate, though he'll be 11 days earlier than Nate was so maybe he'll be more of a normal size. I'm guessing 8 lbs even. I brought down all of Nate's baby clothes last weekend and I can't believe how tiny they are! It makes me excited to have a newborn in the house again ... and also a little nostalgic because my first born is all grown up!

Sickies

2010-01-14T13:47:00.000-05:00

Last weekend, we were supposed to finish Nate's room so he could make the big transition to his toddler bed. But that didn't happen. I woke up on Saturday feeling kind of lazy and enjoyed my first (and probably only) prenatal massage, which was a wonderful Christmas present from Chuck. We had dinner that evening and I started feeling uncomfortable so I took a long bath. I figured it was just pregnancy-related, but later that night started throwing up. It's been a long time since I've had a stomach virus -- at least since college. It was so bad, I broke capillaries all over my face and didn't go to bed until 5am. Chuck let me catch up on sleep most of the day on Sunday and other than crackers and Gatorade, I couldn't stand to eat anything. Then Sunday night, Chuck got sick and Monday morning, Nate got sick. Poor little buddy. It was a miserable weekend and needless to say, nothing got done. Luckily, it seems to be a 24-hour bug and we all kicked it by Tuesday. This weekend is a three-day weekend (thanks, MLK), so we're going to try to finish Nate's room by Monday.

I had my 34-week appointment this morning and everything still looks good. My weight gain is on track and my blood pressure is low. The baby is measuring well and she thinks he's in the head-down position, though obviously it doesn't really matter if I'm having another C-section. Five weeks from today!

The Holidays

2010-01-05T13:31:00.002-05:00

Nate's been enjoying the past few weeks with lots of family around and Mommy taking some days off to hang with him and Daddy. Mamma and Grampy Daley came down for Christmas along with Uncle Peter and Great-Mamma too. Nate was shy at first and clung to us -- as well as his new favorite person, Auntie Mary -- but after a few days, he was hamming it up and giving kisses to everybody.

New Year's Eve was fairly uneventful for the Daley family. For the second year in a row, Mommy went to bed before midnight, and Daddy was actually mopping the kitchen floor when the clock struck 12. But New Year's Day was a special treat, because Nate got to have a sleepover at Auntie Mary's. He especially likes climbing her stairs, playing with her reeds, and only occasionally eating popcorn out of the trash can. He was a good baby and slept in until 6:30am. Even better, Uncle Adam changed his first diaper! (No poop, of course, but he's taking baby steps.)

Last week, we scheduled the C-section for Baby Daley #2 for February 18, which means only 6 weeks left to go! This week, the baby is already more than 17 inches long and 4.25 lbs. He must be getting pretty cramped in there. I still feel pretty good, as long as he isn't kicking my bladder or ribs. It seems like he's completely transverse (sideways), and when he stretches out, I can feel poking on both sides of my belly. I think that means we're in for another mischievous monkey. :)

Over the weekend, we built Nate's new dresser and toddler bed, which is just about the most adorable thing I've ever seen. Of course, he's completely disinterested in it, and we still need to take down Chuck's desk before it really becomes Nate's room. But it'll come just in time, because last night, I caught Nate with one of his legs over the side of the crib and hoisting the rest of his body over. I'm surprised it took him 21 months to get this far, with all the trouble he gets into.

Thanksgiving!

2009-12-03T12:52:00.002-05:00

The Daley family packed up the Mazda and headed down to Charleston for Thanksgiving week to share a condo with Joe and Rachel, who flew in from Minnesota. We stayed right on the Folly River, just a few blocks from downtown Folly Beach. It was rather chilly for Charleston -- about 60 degrees and overcast -- but Thanksgiving at Sue and Charlie's was perfect: sunny and 70+ degrees. Nate was battling a cold during the trip so he wasn't his usual spunky self, and blessed us by getting up at 5am, 4:30am, and 5am while we were there. But we were able to go to the beach a couple days to play in the sand. As you may know, Nate loves dirt, and sand feels a lot like dirt but is much less ... dirty, though Daddy wasn't so pleased when he saw the pile of sand in his new car. We also spent a lot of time at James Island County Park, which has a super awesome playground for little kids 2-5 and lots of walking trails. Of course, the highlight of the trip was Thanksgiving dinner at Sue and Charlie's house. Nate enjoyed some turkey and potatoes, but didn't care for the green beans. He gets that from his mama.

We also discovered a few weeks ago that Nate knows almost all the letters! He's been pointing at individual letters on boxes and on our shirts for a while now, and one day I just asked him, "Where's the O"? And he pointed right to it. I figured it was a fluke until I asked him where all the other letters on my shirt were -- and he got every single one right. Now he loves when we ask him to find letters and is so proud of himself. He also likes a few books we have where we ask him, "Where's the lion?" "Where's the baby?" "Where's the spoon?" and he can point to them.

In fetal baby news, our little buddy is moving around A LOT! I can't say that it's more than Nate, but it's at least the same. Last night, even Chuck could see my belly contorting all over the place. Right now, I'm 28 weeks along, which means the baby is about 2 1/4 lbs and 15 inches long.

Letters

2009-11-09T14:51:00.000-05:00

In the past couple months, Nate has become fascinated by letters. Whenever he sees letters on my shirt or on a box, he will point to each of them individually, understanding that they make a word. When he's in his crib after a diaper change, he'll point to his name on the wall with a big smile and I'll say "Nathaniel -- Nate." And then we'll go through each letter individually. He also has this Leapfrog contraption on the fridge that you can put letters in and it'll sing, "B says B. B says B. Every letter makes a sound: B says B." We also have an alphabet puzzle thing where the letters pop out and he can stick them back in. One day a few weeks ago, he picked up the H and made the H sound! Now he does it all the time. I think he just likes how it sounds.

As for talking, Nate has quite a few words, but his pronunciation isn't very good. I'm pretty sure that Chuck and I are the only ones who know what he's saying. He seems most interested in animals sounds -- we'll say, "What does Wylie say?" and he'll make a panting noise (because Wylie doesn't bark). He'll make a "mrrreow" noise for a cat, "moo" or more like "brooo" for a cow, and "baaa" for a sheep. And he definitely knows his body parts. He can point to his head, hair, nose, teeth, tongue, chin, neck, ear, eye, fingers, hand, toes, knees and -- his favorite -- his belly.

I forgot to put Nate's 18 month stats on here last time. He's 28lb. and 33.5 inches tall, making him more than half my height and in the 80th percentile for both. Whenever I see him around other kids his age, I just feel like he's so tall. The kid is going to outgrow me by the time he's 8.

Pumpkin' pickin' and Halloween

2009-11-03T12:49:00.003-05:00

A couple weeks ago, the family headed out to Hodges Dairy Farm on the outskirts of Charlotte. Nate mostly wanted to run around all over the farm and play in the dirt. He got to see some pigs, goats and horses, but the highlight was finding the perfect pumpkin.

So strong -- he can almost pick up a pumpkin as big as he is!

Do you need Mommy to help you? No, so stubborn, he wants to do it himself!

Nate, where's your head? There it is!

And where's your belly? There it is!

Happiness is playing in the dirt.

Then, this past weekend was Halloween. Last year, Nate was a lobster, but this year he wanted to be something a little scarier -- a skeleton!

Here he is at the Baby BOO-nanza Spooktacular at his girlfriend Julia's house. He thought the skull hood was really annoying (and didn't want to scare any of the other babies at the party), so he kept it off. This is what happened when we put it on later that night:

Wow, Nate, that's really scary!

But once we let him outside to play in the rain, he thought it was pretty cool. Happy Halloween!

What happened to my baby Nate?

2009-10-07T09:36:00.019-04:00

It seems like over the summer, Nate has really grown up. Even when I look at pictures from his 1st birthday, which doesn't seem that long ago, I realize how much he's changed. The little guy is a real comedian who loves to crack us up. Now that he's scaling the furniture -- just yesterday I found that he positioned the chair in order to climb onto the kitchen table -- we're starting to discipline him, something we're still getting used to. No matter how sternly Chuck says, "Nate, SIT!" Nate thinks it's just about the funniest thing he's ever heard ... and frankly, so do I. So all three of us just laugh and I wonder how this is going to work when he's a teenager.

We spent some time at the Harris YMCA, which has an awesome waterpark and pools. Nate was a little apprehensive about getting sprayed, but once he saw the other kids, he wanted to play too.

He also took swimming lessons a few months ago, and Daddy -- former lifeguard and swim team hunk -- has also been teaching him.

Hi, Mom!

Nate, how old are you? One! Also, thanks for helping me unpack.

Playing ball in a cardboard box. Why do we bother spending money on toys?

A black eye.

A few weeks ago, Nate tripped and hit his eye on the corner of a wooden chest. He cried really hard for about five minutes and then was perfectly fine. When I saw the blood oozing out of his eye, I freaked out a little. Now I know how my mom felt about Joe, who had stitches three times before he turned 3 and had his stomach pumped twice for eating Children's Tylenol and drinking rubbing alcohol. Most recently, Nate took a tumble off the jungle gym at the park and had a giant black-and-blue bump in the center of his forehead, which is now fading to green. He's a bruiser!

The other bruiser in our family is Wylie, who strained her ankle about six weeks ago during an amazing maneuver in mid-air while trying to catch a ball. She had to wear a splint for the past six weeks, but her foot got infected and they had to take it off. She's completely restricted for another six weeks, which means no walks, doggie play dates at the park, or even wandering the backyard. The good news is that Nate is keeping her great company, and we're spoiling her by occasionally letting her lounge on the couch.

Big brother Nate

2009-09-22T15:20:00.004-04:00

So, we found out today that Nate is going to have a little brother! We told him the news and he didn't seem to care that much, but he has no idea how much it is going to change his world -- all for the better, of course! Hopefully they'll be the kind of brothers who play nicely together, not the kind who beat each other up. :)

In the past month, Nate's definitely started to talk more. I should clarify -- he's always talked a lot, but we've never been able to understand what he's saying. Now he says lots of words: mama, dada, yeah, good, diaper, baaa, meow, Wylie, and Yeats. When we say, "Nate, can you say XX?" he always tries to say the word. Sometimes it sounds similar and sometimes it doesn't, but he always tries. We also realize that he understands a lot more than he says. If you mention the words "eat" or "milk" -- even if I'm just saying it to Chuck, not to Nate -- he heads straight to the kitchen and starts hanging on his high chair. And one day we were in the kitchen and Chuck told me to put Nate's shoes on him and about 15 seconds later, Nate walks up with his shoes. I guess it's time to start watching what we say ...

Last weekend, Nate and Chuck had boys' weekend, as Mommy spent the weekend in Minnesota. Luckily for Chuck, who's never woken up with Nate before, Nate slept in until 7:15 both mornings. They had a terrific time playing at the park and visiting Camille, one of Nate's many girlfriends.

Baby news

2009-08-22T19:20:00.007-04:00

So you may have noticed that we haven't been posting as much lately. It's certainly not because Nate hasn't been achieving his milestones -- the kid has already mastered coloring (until he eats the crayons), scaling the couch and end tables, and singing "Elmo's Song." No, the reason no one has posted in the past month is because Mommy hasn't been feeling too well as she's been cooking up a new baby brother or sister for Nate!

If you didn't get it, this is the email Chuck sent out to our friends:

Subject: Wah, Wah!

That's right -- Chuck and Angie are looking forward to the wails of a newborn child when Baby Daley #2 is delivered around Feb 24th by some doctor (who looks vaguely like Steve Carell).

Angie is about 14 weeks along and we're definitely planning on finding out the sex, which will be in about a month. However, this time around we won't keep the name secret. For a boy, we're going with Carlos The Dwarf and if it's a girl, Skull Crusher.

Our families are very excited about the prospect of a second grandchild, but Nate has been silently protesting by pooping his pants on a regular basis. Still, we think he'll come around once he learns that a younger brother or sister can eventually be molded into a faithful minion, ready to do your mischievous bidding at a moment's
notice.

We'll keep you posted on Carlos The Dwarf / Skull Crusher's status! Also, we're accepting applications for an unpaid nanny internship. Either that, or someone can take over Beartrap PR. The hours are great (24/7) and it pays like, five dollars an hour.

Love, Chuck and Angie

Vacation time

2009-07-29T19:15:00.014-04:00

The family flew to Minnesota last week for Nate's fourth airplane trip. Luckily, his Baby Einstein DVD entertained him most of the time so he wasn't too squirmy. Still, it was the longest two hours of my life, including being in labor. We spent the first four days up at a cabin in northern Minnesota, near Brainerd. The resort was very nice with a sandy beach, kayaks, paddleboats and a long dock. It stayed shallow - less than three feet deep - for forever, which was great for Nate and his cousin Brody.

Nate discovers the joy of sand.

He examines it with a scientific eye.

And, he eats it.

Gearing up for his first boat ride.

Grandpa Vogel doesn't mean to give Nate the finger - that's just how he tickles.

If you put Nate in a swing, be prepared to push him for a very long time. He doesn't ever want to leave!

Daddy pushes Nate around in his little boat. So much fun!

Our future soccer star - seriously, the kid can already dribble.

From when I was 3 years old until I was 21, my extended family went to a resort in that area until it was sold and eventually closed down. We actually visited the old site and it was surreal -- the cabins, docks and main lodge had all been removed as though they'd never been there.

Hiking through the former resort, right where our cabin used to be.

The beach, almost entirely worn away.

Milestones

2009-07-09T07:29:00.012-04:00

Dad and Nate chillaxin' on the couch.

Dirty Nate taking his bath after a long day of playing outside. Note the dead grass on the tile, the mosquito bites on his head, and the mark on his face from falling down. All in a day's work!

Nate has accomplished a lot in the past few weeks. He can say dada, mama (usually only when whining), diaper (di-ga), bat, duck and I'm pretty sure he's said Wylie (ya-ya) and Yeats (yay-ats). He also knows where his nose and mommy's nose is -- he points at it. Actually, he kind of sticks his finger up his own nose, but that still counts, right?

Nate also has been imitating lots of sounds lately -- everything from the cats' meowing to the beep of the car when we lock it to the squeak of the swing at the park. The best is that he started to imitate me singing "So Long, Farewell." I always sing that to him when I change his diaper to keep him still. He thinks it's hilarious when I sing, "Good-bye!" really high and dramatic, and now he does it too -- even before I start singing. What's really funny is that he pretty much hits the same note, but it should be no surprise that my son has perfect pitch. The kid is already a musical genius.

Nate also started swimming lessons at the YMCA this week. Even though Daddy insisted that he could teach his kid how to swim, we thought we needed some expert advice on how to teach a baby. He's been a little hesitant about the water, but he's getting better!

And perhaps the most significant milestone is that Nate ate his own poo this week. That's right. Apparently, his diaper shifted, its contents fell out, and as you know, anything interesting on the floor is bound to end up in Nate's mouth. Luckily, it happened during the day when mommy was at work, so daddy had to deal with it. Perhaps the only consolation is that he made a really disgusted face, so hopefully he learned his lesson. We vow to be more vigilant of diaper shifting from now on!

Mmm ... pickles!

2009-06-26T13:32:00.005-04:00

Mamma Daley came to visit Nate this week and spent a lot of time with him so Daddy could get some work done. She let him play in the dirt and with the hose, and though he ended up with a scraped elbow and dog poop on his foot, he thought she was a lot of fun! If he can explore things that are dirty and/or dangerous, he's happy.

Nate also got a chance to enjoy his first pickle at Jason's Deli. He made a lot of funny faces but he ate the whole thing - and probably would have eaten another if we let him.

Growing up

2009-06-14T21:11:00.011-04:00

Sorry I haven't written in a while. We spent the first week of June in Minnesota, which means that Nate experienced his third plane trip. The first was at 2 months, the second at 8 months, and this one at 13 months. I must say, it's getting harder and harder each time. Thankfully, he had two parents to entertain him. Still, you can only read the same four books so many times, and we suspect that singing "So Long, Farewell" is probably annoying to the other passengers, but somehow we managed to get through both flights without losing our sanity. It was great to see all the family! Nate got to see his Uncle Joe get his hair cut into a mohawk, which he thought was super rad.

He also got to see his cousin Brody, who is still just about the same size as Nate, just a little taller. Do you see a resemblance?

Nate has also picked up some new tricks. Mommy's friend Megan taught Nate to shake his head, "no," so now when Mommy says, "Nate, can you give me a kiss? Yes?" he smirks and shakes his head no. He thinks it's hilarious. He's also starting to point at everything, and now he knows that when he holds his finger up, it means "one." One day last week, Chuck was brushing Wylie and Nate took the brush and started brushing too! Nate loved brushing Wylie, though Wylie may not have liked it so much.

Also, Nate's hair was getting little long in spots, so we decided to give him his first real haircut. We parked him in his high chair in front of his Baby Einstein video to keep him nice and still, and snipped away - including his little curly rat tail in the back. Now he looks like a cool dude again!

Little dancer

2009-05-23T06:42:00.003-04:00

You knew it was only a matter of time. The offspring of the winner of the 1990 St. Stan's Middle School dance contest and an indie-rock junkie was going to have an amazing sense of rhythm. So now that Nate is walking, it was no surprise to us that dancing wasn't far behind. Whether it's the music emanating from his fire truck or a jingle on a commercial, Nate will start bouncing up and down. Of course, his fave is the Michael Jackson "Off the Wall" vinyl Chuck got me for my birthday. And honestly, we haven't even tried to teach him to dance -- it's purely innate (in Nate, get it?).

Walkin' and talkin'

2009-05-14T20:51:00.002-04:00

Nate is finally starting to walk! We knew he's been strong enough to walk for months, but just too cautious and stubborn to try. Like his mama, he tends to get easily frustrated when he can't do something. So any time he would try to walk and stumble, he'd just give up because crawling is so much easier and faster. In the past week or so, he started taking one or two steps before falling into our arms. But this morning, he actually walked 6, 7, 8 steps at a time! I think he'll still prefer crawling for now, but he has great balance and I'm sure it won't be long before he's running all over the house!

And we're also starting hear actual words coming out of Nate's mouth. He's been babbling pretty much since he was born. Even before he turned a month old, he started "goo"ing for us, which eventually evolved into the sophisticated babbling we hear today. When he was about 9 months, he seemed to be using "Dada" in reference to Chuck, and a couple months later, I started to hear, "Mamamamamamamamama" only when he was whining (of course). Now he says "duck" and "ball" and I think he also says "yeah." We also know he's linguistically advanced because he enjoys reading the Norton Anthology of Literature:

Even though Chuck never blogs on this site, you have to check out his business website, where he talks about how he tries to "prep Nate for some serious nap time" by subjecting him to punk music.

The terrible 1s?

2009-04-30T12:17:00.003-04:00

Whenever we take Nate anywhere, people always say what a HAPPY baby we have, how he must be so photogenic. He's almost always babbling, smiling, waving hi, etc. And it's true -- Nate is easy to entertain. Even if he's crying, we can make him laugh, by tickling him, singing songs, or giving him kisses.

But since his 1st birthday, I've started to notice some interesting behavior. Now, when he's frustrated with something, he'll arch his back and throw his head back, so much that he could smack his head on the floor if we didn't catch it. Luckily for him, we've always been there. And Chuck said he threw his pacifier across the room one day! I'm pretty sure he gets his stubbornness from Chuck. I can say that, because Chuck hasn't written a single blog since Nate was born and so he can't defend himself. Heh heh heh ...

I remember someone telling me when Nate was 3 months old, "Just so you know, the terrible 2s start when they're 1." Of course, 1 seemed so far off, I wasn't concerned - I was worrying about getting him to sleep through the night. But now I think she might be right. He's asserting his independence!

New games we like to play

2009-04-21T08:13:00.008-04:00

Race to the toilet
When you hear aggressive crawling that sounds like slap-slap-slap-slap very fast, you can assume that Nate is trying to bust into the bathroom and get his hands in the toilet. It's such a fun game that Nate crawls even faster as you approach and laughs at the prospect of you trying to stop him.

Splishy-splash in the toilet
This is what happens if you lose Race to the toilet.

What happens if I put this food on the floor?
A little experiment that occurs when Nate is no longer hungry or interested in his food. Typically involves Cheerios or peas. Coincidentally, when put on the floor after eating, he will proceed to eat these same items off the floor.

Where's Nate?
Almost always played in the bathtub, Nate will pull the shower curtain in front of his face. You say, "Where's Nate? Where did he go? I miss him!" until he pulls the shower curtain away with a big, toothy grin, and you say, "There you are!" Note that this game never gets old and can go on forever.

You can't find me!
As Nate is driving his car around, you say, "You'll never find me!" and hide in some corner of the house. When he approaches, you jump out and say, "BLAAHHH!!!" really loud. Seriously, the louder the better. And then tickle him.

Scary chase
Also played while Nate is driving his car, you also need to drive your own car at top speed and scream like a crazy person at the top of your lungs. It helps when you spin around really fast like you're totally out of control. You'd think we're terrorizing him, but I've never heard a baby laugh so hard in my whole life.

Tickle zombie
Nate loves to pull on your pant leg until you pick him up. You think that he wants you, but no - he just wants your height. He'll point to something and you're supposed to walk there so he can pull it down and break it. So now when Chuck is holding Nate and he points at something, I'll point at him with one hand, then lift the other, and then come at him like a zombie. A tickle zombie. Again, it sounds like we're torturing him, but this is one of his favorites. For real!

1 big day!

2009-04-14T18:24:00.011-04:00

What is this? It tastes good!

I think I like the blue frosting the best ...

Yay! I'm 1 year old today!

When you combine a baby's 1st birthday with his baptism, Easter Sunday, AND a visit from both sets of grandparents and a great-grandma ... it's a big day -- a big weekend, actually. The Vogels and Daleys hadn't seen Nate since Christmas, when he was 8 months, and he's changed a lot! Although he was crawling then, he's gotten much faster, and is now an expert cruiser/bruiser. Nate also had a little bit of separation anxiety this time around - he cried when Mamma Daley went in to get him from his nap, and when Grandpa Vogel surprised him in the kitchen - but once he got used to his grandparents, he was hamming it up like a little social butterfly.

We all got to spend a lot of time together, and Nate enjoyed being the star. He did a great job during the baptism and seemed fascinated by Father. He even smiled and waved at his Grampy, who was taking pictures from the altar. And when he poured water over his head, Nate squirmed a little bit, but didn't cry, even when he got some water in his eyes.

Nate took a LONG 2 1/2 hour nap after his baptism to prep for his big party. It was a good thing too, because he needed a lot of energy to play with all the toys he got as presents! Of course, Nate enjoyed his birthday cake - the first taste of real sugar and lard that he's had in his entire life - and he had a nice sugar buzz for the rest of the night.

And it's official -- Nate is completely weaned off of bottles and is 100% on whole milk in sippy cups. We made the transition right before his 1st birthday and he did great!

Grandma and Grandpa Vogel, please come back to visit again soon!

Almost 1!

2009-04-06T18:01:00.006-04:00

Welcoming Nate one year ago.

Nate had his one-year pediatrician appointment today. He weighed in at 24lb. 9oz. (only gaining less than a pound since his nine-month appointment) and measured 30.5 inches long -- in the 75th percentile for both and still perfectly proportioned. His head is still measuring on the big side. I think it was 19.5 inches and in the 97th percentile, but the doctor said that's a good thing because it's starting to curve back to the normal range.

It's hard to believe that in just five more days, my little baby will be a year old! I know every mom says it, but they're right - the year just flew by. And when I look at Nate now, I don't see a baby anymore but a little boy with a big personality. :)

A year ago, it was my due date ... and I wasn't surprised to know that I was going to deliver late. My mom was two weeks late with me (her first), and I suspected that the same would happen for me. Luckily, I only went five days past my due date, but unluckily, my length of labor was about the same: 23 hours. A year ago, I was so apprehensive about childbirth and taking care of a newborn. Would I know when to feed him, how to calm him? Would I ever sleep? I felt so unprepared for motherhood, but when the time came, I was ready. It's amazing to think of how much can change in a year.

The grandparents are all coming in on Thursday to celebrate Nate's birthday weekend. Nate has no idea what is in store for him. So much attention!

The boy's got skills ...

2009-03-16T20:00:00.005-04:00

A few things Nate has learned in the past few weeks:
* turn the lights on and off
* play the piano
* zip my jacket up and down
* open and close the bathtub drain
* feed Wylie a biscuit AND throw her a toy (instead of putting them in his mouth)
* point at things he wants
* drive his truck and bug all over the house
* play "You Can't Find Me!" (hide and seek) with mommy and daddy
* drink well from a sippy cup (he only takes his one nighttime bottle now)
* press the button to turn his train on and off
* push a ball back and forth with his mommy and daddy
* stacking rings on his little elephant ring-stacker pull-around car. Seriously, this is the song it plays: "Stack up the rings and you can make a friend, and pull him all around with you. He has ears so big and a trunk so long, oh please, oh please come and play!"

BLAAHHH!!!

2009-03-09T16:19:00.006-04:00

Nate's new favorite thing to do is stick out his tongue and say, "Blah!" He likes it even more than waving or giving us kisses -- probably because we reinforce it by laughing. But even when he's super cranky, all we have to do is go, "Blah!" and he smiles and sticks out his tongue for us.

After Nate's last pediatrician appointment (when he was sick), the doctor noticed that he wasn't using one of his arms very much. Babies shouldn't show a preference for being left- or right-handed until they're 2, so they were a little concerned. And of course, he was fine. It drives us a little nuts because we have no doubt that Nate is a perfectly healthy baby who's developing normally, but I suppose it's good that they are so cautious.

In other news, the Daley family sold its bachelor-friendly pickup truck in order to buy a family-friendly SUV. You might think we're sad that our truck is gone, but we actually sold it to our neighbor, Elizabeth, so we still get to see it every day! Nate was just so cramped in both of our cars, we had to make the change, and we were able to get a great deal on the new car.

Also, we attended a baptism preparation class over the weekend to get ready for Nate's baptism on April 12, his 1st birthday. We're excited for all the relatives to come and see how much Nate has changed in the past few months!

Sick ... yuck!

2009-02-21T18:49:00.006-05:00

It's amazing that Nate has managed to live 10 months with only one illness - a minor cold. Since he's not in daycare, he isn't exposed to many germs, and he's always been very healthy. However, last week we got a big wake-up call when Nate was spewing out of both ends. That's right. It started with puking that evolved into diarrhea, and a whole lot of misery in between.

But even though he felt so bad, Nate kept his sense of humor, sticking out his tongue and saying, "Blahhhh!" with a little smirk on his face. We took him to the doctor, who told us it was just a virus and to feed him B.R.A.T. - bananas, rice, applesauce, and toast. We were a little concerned about him getting dehydrated, but since he only threw up twice, our doctor told us he should be OK.

On Thursday morning, I went to change his diaper, which felt like it had a lot of pee in it. But then this crystallized gel-like stuff fell out of his diaper. It was like tiny bits of clear Jello, and there was a lot of it. I had no idea what it was, but I knew it couldn't be good. I really thought there was something seriously wrong, that it must be worse than a virus. But luckily, it is relatively normal - just a symptom of dehydration. So we loaded him up on Pedialyte and haven't seen the crystallized pee since then. He's much better now and we're glad to have our happy baby back again!

Cruisin' for a Bruisin'

2009-02-04T21:49:00.017-05:00

OK, OK. So I've heard plenty of complaints about how the blog hasn't been updated in a month, blah, blah, blah. We didn't realize we had so many fans!

So, Nate has become an expert cruiser, going from standing to squatting to sitting and back up again with no problem -- usually one-handed. We've noticed that if he's tired, however, he tends to lose his balance and may end up bonking his head on the floor. We've seen him stand on his own for just a second, but it's entirely accidental, and now that he's so fast at crawling, he seems reluctant to try walking. But we know that a lot can change in a month, and we think he will be walking by his 1st birthday if he wants to. He's also been quite the babbler with a vocabulary all his own. He says "dad" a lot, and we've also heard "mama mama mama" endless times over too but we're not sure if he really knows that it means anything. One thing is for sure, though: he can understand us. He knows who Wylie, Yeats, and Truman are, and he definitely knows what his ba-ba is. About a month ago, he started waving hi and bye, and this week started giving us high-fives.

Hmmm ... what's in here? Anything dangerous?

Delicious! (Contrary to what it looks like, this is not dog food.)

We decided to take Nate in for an ultrasound of his head, since it's been so large (>97th percentile). It was just precautionary. Because babies' soft spots close generally between 12-18 months, we could do an ultrasound, but after the soft spot closes, we would have to do a CAT scan, which involves radiation. So we decided to just get the ultrasound so we could put our minds at ease and not have to discuss this every time we go into the pediatrician's office. But, surprise, surprise, Nate's soft spot already closed and the techs couldn't see anything. It was frustrating, but they did tell us that the tiny bit they could see looked perfectly fine and that we shouldn't be concerned about his head size at the 97th percentile when his body is in the 90-95th percentile. We'll just continue to monitor him and see how he measures at his next appointment in April.

It's hard to believe he'll be 10 months old this week -- and his 1st birthday is right around the corner. Coincidentally, Nate's birthday will be on Easter Sunday this year, and since both sets of grandparents will be down to celebrate, we've decided to also have him baptized that weekend and we've asked Mary and Adam to be his godparents. It will be an exciting weekend!

The Holidays

2009-01-08T08:30:00.012-05:00

So, as you may have noticed, the Daley family has been VERY busy jet-setting across the country (OK, just Minnesota) to celebrate our first Christmas as a three-some. Although Nate was much squirmier on this plane ride than he was when he was two months, we managed to keep him entertained with toys, singing, making funny faces, the Baby Mozart video and -- as a last resort -- stuffing his face with Graduate Puffs, his favorite food. I was stuck with the unfortunate duty of changing Nate's poopy diaper in the airplane bathroom ... something I hope to never experience again.

Nate had a blast in Minnesota, in spite of the cold weather. We even took him sledding outside and although his face was frozen (literally) into a blank stare, we think he enjoyed every minute of it. He made out like a bandit with all the new toys, but the most fun was all the attention! Nate loved being rocked and snuggled by his Grandma, and he thought Grandpa was the funniest man in the world (besides his daddy, of course). But his favorite of all was his 22-month-old cousin Brody, who was so cool that he didn't even mind that he kept plucking the pacifier out of Nate's mouth. Grandma even bought them matching outfits and everyone said they look like brothers.

After spending eight days in Minnesota, it was time to fly back to Charlotte for the Daley family Christmas over New Year's. We all stayed over at Auntie Mary's house on New Year's Eve, but after all the day's traveling, Nate and Mommy couldn't hang and didn't even make it until midnight. Times have certainly changed. Nate loved having more attention from his Mamma and Grampy Daley, who gave him the opportunity to expand his culinary acumen by giving him tastes of molasses cookies, pickles, and soft garlic cheeses.

Now, we're getting back to the daily grind (ha!) and Nate has become a master crawler and cruiser. Some of his favorite targets: the dog dish, toilet, power cords, the Roomba, and pretty much any other dangerous object in the house. He'll be 9 months old on Monday. Our little baby is growing up!

It's official ...

2008-12-07T19:18:00.006-05:00

Nate started crawling on Thursday morning. His incentive: a truck. No more creeping, scooting, or sliding across the floor - it was a real crawl that went from one end of our rug to the other. And since then, he's crawled all over our living and dining rooms. He's discovering just how powerful this new little skill can be. In fact, his favorite new target is our fireplace, which has earned him the nickname "Danger Daley."

On the verge

2008-12-01T11:07:00.005-05:00

I feel that we are days away from having a mobile Nate. He is getting quite agile going from sitting to all fours and back again, and he managed to crawl up our coffee table yesterday in order to destroy the magazines lying on top of it. Which makes me very happy that we chose a leather coffee table because I foresee many falls.

We've also been getting the sloppiest yet sweetest kisses ever from Nate. About a month ago, I started making a smoochie sound with my mouth. Nate would play coy for a while, looking from side to side, but he eventually smiled and pulled my hair and face toward his open mouth. I showed Chuck and he was jealous and tried to get Nate to kiss him, but Nate didn't seem to like his daddy's scruffy beard and avoided it altogether. Then, about a week ago, he started to reluctantly yank on Chuck's beard to get a scratchy kiss. It is so cute - you can tell he doesn't like how it feels, but he loves his daddy so much, it's totally worth it.

We spent Thanksgiving in Charleston with Charlie, Sue and the boys, which was a blast. Nate even had some potatoes, peas and carrots -- real ones, not pureed -- just like the Pilgrims did!

Chuck's version of an invoice ...

2008-11-25T22:30:00.002-05:00

Fall in Carolina

2008-11-12T18:15:00.005-05:00

The weather is getting cooler and the leaves are falling -- making it a perfect time for Nate to get out and play in the backyard with his favorite buddy, Wylie.

After spending the first seven months of his life without a single illness, Nate came down with a cold over the weekend. Actually, the whole family got sick, so we were all miserable together. But Nate got over it pretty quickly. Our happy baby is back and healthy again.

It only took a couple nights of crying it out before Nate learned that he can just sleep through the night. Of course, when he got sick, he woke up several times during the night, but we just picked him up and helped him cough, wiped his nose, and put him back to sleep. But for the long term, he is sleeping through the night without a feeding from about 7pm to 6am.

Happy Halloween!

2008-11-01T15:07:00.011-04:00

Nate enjoyed his first Halloween and dressed up as a lobster, in honor of his Maine roots. Rather than going trick-or-treating, we went over to our friends Mike and Holly's, whose 18-month-old daughter Camille was dressed up as a butterfly. Nate was a trooper and wore his costume for a good hour, munching on his tentacles before getting completely annoyed with it. He loved playing with Camille, even though she is a much older woman.

Last night we finally let Nate cry it out, as our pediatrician told us to do. After six months, babies no longer need a middle-of-the-night feeding. If they still wake up, it's out of habit. Nate has slept through the night a handful of times, but he's still waking up sometime between 3-5 am to eat. He always went back to sleep, so it never really bothered us, but we realize it's time for him to break the habit. He's such a great baby going to bed at night. We put him down around 7:30 and he never cries or fusses - if anything, he'll just babble himself to sleep. I think this is because months ago, we let him cry for a while (never longer than five minutes) before going in to comfort him. So he learned to soothe himself. Now it's time for him to soothe himself during the night. Over the past several nights, we've been giving him less and less milk (from six ounces to four, then to two), and started just feeding him in his crib rather than taking him out to feed him.

One of the problems in doing this now is that his tooth is still coming in, and it seems to irritate him sometimes. So, he woke up at midnight. I popped his paci back in and he went to sleep. Then, he woke up at 2am. Again, gave him the paci and he went to sleep, only to wake up a half-hour later. This time, we let him cry. We shut our door, popped in earplugs, turned on the fan, and tried to sleep. I don't know how long it went on, but I remember looking at the clock at 3:15 and thinking that it's been 45 minutes. I'm pretty sure he fell asleep soon after that because I slept soundly until 4:45, when it started again. This time, it only lasted 15 minutes or so, and then Nate slept until 7:30, like usual. He was hungry when he woke up, but he was just as smiley and sweet as he always is - it was nice to know that he still loves me. We'll see how tonight goes ...

Pacifier tricks

2008-10-22T21:02:00.005-04:00

Nate had his six-month pediatrician appointment this week and weighed in at 21 lbs. and is 27.5 inches long -- still in the 90-95th percentile and perfectly healthy. He also had his opthamologist appointment today and the doctor said that the spot on Nate's iris is completely harmless. In fact, it's genetic -- Mamma and Chuck also have a spot on their irises (which was news to Chuck). I think it'll just contribute to Nate's bad-ass look.

Last weekend, Nate spent the night at his Auntie Mary and Uncle Adam's house so we could co-host a baby shower. We were a little nervous that he might keep them up all night, but he was totally on schedule and had a great time. I thought I would really love having a night I could sleep through for the first time in more than six months -- and I definitely enjoyed sleeping in -- but we really missed our baby and were happy to have him home.

We have a tooth!

2008-10-13T14:40:00.007-04:00

FINALLY, after three months of fist-gnawing and pools of drool, a tooth popped through Nate's lower gums. I don't know how long it will take to fully come in (please not another three months!) but it's nice to see some progress after months of pain and crankiness. You can barely see it, but you can definitely feel it -- like a razor when he chomps down on your finger. I'm hoping it will come in time to compliment his Halloween costume -- a lobster!

Mamma and Grampy Daley came to visit last weekend and Nate got lots of attention. He showed them how he can sit up by himself, eat yummy vegetables, and creep a little bit.

Blabawabaoyoywabadabamamablabladad

2008-09-28T15:18:00.003-04:00

So, Nate officially said both "Mama" and "Dad" during his extensive babbling yesterday. Of course, he had no idea that those words had any connection to me or Chuck, but we think that if we praise him enough, he'll figure it out. When babbling, he looks much like a toothless, gummy old man -- it's pretty entertaining.

Raging with Joe and Rachel

2008-09-26T14:43:00.006-04:00

Nate enjoyed having his Uncle Joe and Aunt Rachel in town last weekend. They came with us to the Great Grill Off VI, where Chuck tied for third place with his Anazasi "We're All Human Beans" Burgers. Yet again, Nate played the role of social butterfly, flirting with the ladies and giggling with his daddy. He seemed to adore Joe while he was visiting, which was really cute because I think that Nate looks a lot like Joe did as a baby.

At his five-month doctor's appointment, Nate's head is still in the 97th percentile, which is OK because it remained stable. Just as I suspected: giant brain = giant head, duh. However, we've been noticing a dark spot in Nate's iris since he was about a month old. We always assumed that it was simply because his eyes were turning from blue to brown, and that is likely the case, but our pediatrician said we should see a pediatric opthamologist just to confirm. His appointment isn't until the end of October, and we're not too concerned because as his eyes get browner, the spot is less noticeable.

Nate can pretty much sit up on his own now, though we have to watch him closely because he has no qualms about falling over. In fact, he thinks it's funny ... until he bonks his head.

My own personal comedian

2008-09-11T15:28:00.008-04:00

Nate has really taken to his father's humor. In fact, all he has to do is look at Chuck and he starts to laugh. I suspect they just entertain each other all day long while I'm at work. Nate especially likes the songs we make up for him, and for some reason, he thinks that "So Long, Farewell" from The Sound of Music is the funniest thing he's ever heard. One day in the car I had to sing that eight times in a row to keep him from crying.

In the past few weeks, Nate has become a pro at solids. He's had rice cereal, oatmeal, peas, green beans, carrots, sweet potatoes, squash and bananas. We're trying to hold him off on fruit until he has a good variety of veggies so he doesn't get a sweet tooth. He likes everything except the carrots -- which prompted lots of funny faces and even a little bit of gagging -- but we'll keep trying! As fun as it's been, solids have begun to yield some pretty stinky poos.

We weighed Nate today and he is almost 20 lbs! That makes him the size of an average eight month old. It is amazing to think that he was just 8lb. 11oz. and 20.5 inches when he was born -- so tiny. Now I understand when mothers say they miss their little newborn babies when they grow up. But I must say, this little personality that is developing is so much fun. And I don't miss waking up every two hours. In fact, Nate has been a great sleeper over the past week, sleeping 7-8 hours for the first stretch almost every night.

He loves to stand up holding onto something and he can sit unsupported for a minute or more. And he's starting to creep -- he can squirm around enough to spin himself in a circle ... though there's been little forward progress. I heard they tend to go backwards before they go forwards, and I'm a little nervous to have my bold little man on the move anyway.

The happiest baby on the block

2008-08-26T22:42:00.002-04:00

Me hungry!

2008-08-23T14:14:00.008-04:00

Nate's four-month appointment was on Tuesday and he weighed in at 17lb. 12oz. and measured 26.5 inches long, again putting him in the 90th percentile for height and weight. However, his head measured in the 97th percentile, so our doctor wants us to come back in a month so that she can check it again and make sure everything is OK. We just think it's his giant brain that's growing so fast.

Because he's been taking in 40oz./day and has doubled his birth weight, our doctor said he was ready to start solid foods. Here is a video of Nate's first experience with rice cereal:

Nate's hair has grown back mostly along the center of his head, so he is now sporting a mohawk, making him the coolest baby on the block. This week, we bought him the Rainforest Jumperoo, an exersaucer that makes jungle noises every time he jumps.

Stand up! Stand up!

2008-08-15T22:12:00.006-04:00

Nate turned four months on Tuesday and he's definitely starting to be a little boy more than a baby. He can sit up unsupported for almost a minute and can stand up very easily when we're holding his hands. When he does that, we sing, "Stand up, stand up, stand up and tell us you're Nate, you're Nate!" Just like Grandpa would sing.

His new favorite thing to do is to take his pacifier out of his mouth and chew on it. He thinks he's hilarious. That is, until he can't quite get it back in. He's still waking up twice in the middle of the night -- around 1 and then around 5:30 -- and we're exhausted. He's always very hungry when he awakes, so I guess we need to start feeding him more during the day. We'll see what the doctor says on Tuesday.

Swimming and rolling over!

2008-08-05T21:25:00.003-04:00

At 3.5 months, Nate rolled over for the first time. It was a huge surprise because he didn't seem to be close at all, but I had him propped on his tummy and I could just tell by the way he was moving his legs that he was getting ready to roll onto his back. Since then, he hasn't done a true roll, but if he has one arm tucked, he can roll from his tummy to his back pretty easily. He also had his first swim last weekend when we went to the Harris YMCA. He really seemed to like it, though he really hates the sun in his eyes. I think we'll try the indoor pool next time.

Nate's sleep patterns are no longer rocking my world. We're not sure if it's due to teething, or just the fact that he's always hungry, but he's back to waking up every three hours during the night. Of course, he always goes back to sleep, but I really thought we were all set on sleeping through the night.

His four-month doctor's appointment is in two weeks. I weighed him this morning and he was 17lb. even. I think he'll still be in the 75-90th percentile for height and weight and I really think he's ready for solids. I wanted to wait until closer to six months but I don't think breastmilk is satisfying his appetite anymore. We'll see what they say. He'll also have his second round of shots, ugh!

My little virtuoso

2008-07-21T21:25:00.015-04:00

In the past few weeks, when Nate would get really cranky, I would sit him on my lap and play piano for him. In the beginning, it was hard because he would squirm around and practically slam his head on the keys, but he was always fascinated with the sound. He could be screaming mad, but once we start playing, it's like a switch goes off and he starts kicking his feet and smiling and squealing. He really likes musicals, but his favorite is Ben Folds. About a week ago, he started singing. I think he recognized the song and all of a sudden we hear a long, drawn-out "Aaahhh..." So precious.

Nate's holding his head up really well now, though he doesn't seem to be close to rolling over. And that tooth I mentioned a couple weeks ago? It's definitely there, just waiting to pop through the skin. I started giving him Tylenol before bed and he is sleeping SOOOOO much better -- 7.5 hours Saturday night and 8.5 hours last night. It is rocking my world.

Nate and Herman

Almost three months!

2008-07-08T21:08:00.005-04:00

After the two-week whirlwind of traveling, weddings, and a barrage of new faces, Nate is getting back to his old routine ... which, unfortunately, still involves getting up for a feeding in the middle of the night. But just in the past few weeks, he's changed so much -- he's smiling all the time and has even started grasping a rattle and the toys in his gym. He's lifting his head really well during tummy time, and it's only a matter of time before he'll be crawling all over.

Now that he's so interactive, we've been giving him "lessons" like a school day, but much, much shorter. He has Music (playing piano with mommy), P.E. (lifts, practice rolling over), Literature (reading "Goodnight Moon" and "Is Your Mama a Llama?") and Recess (playing in his activity gym). Now that he can see so well, he's also picked up a bad habit -- watching TV. It's weird because it seems like he couldn't see much past a foot or so for a while, and now he can see clear across the room. I also swear I feel the bud of a tooth, but that couldn't possibly be, could it? I must say, he is drooling a lot ...

Party time

2008-06-28T09:09:00.004-04:00

Last week, Nate took his first plane trip to Minnesota to meet all his Vogel/Wissman relatives, including his big cousin Brody.

Brody greeted Nate by grabbing him by the collar and sitting on him in his bouncy seat, but Nate didn't mind at all. In fact, he seemed fascinated by this older boy who looks a lot like him. It won't be long before Brody starts teaching Nate how to find all the dangerous objects in the house.

Nate also attended his first party -- Sarah Hively-Johnson's rehearsal dinner -- and met all his mommy's friends. We weren't sure how long his good mood would last, but he was smiling and alert for a good two hours.

This weekend, Nate got to meet all his Daley/Haltermann relatives at his Auntie Mary's rehearsal dinner and wedding. The consensus seems to be that Nate is looking like his mommy and maybe a little like his daddy. Also, because he's larger than most three-month-olds (and almost as big as this puny eight-month-old we met last night), he's acquired a new nickname -- Tank. It's amazing that this little man has grown so much almost entirely from mommy's milk!

Nate really likes taking showers with his daddy.

SuperNate!

All the Wissman great-grandkids -- Nate, Brody and Laura.

Nate scores a 90%!

2008-06-16T10:52:00.000-04:00

Indeed, he broke 13 lbs and weighed in at a whopping 13lb. 8oz. on Friday, measuring 24 inches long, and his head circumference was 41.5cm. This puts him in the 90th percentile across the board - perfectly proportioned and very healthy. He also had his first round of shots, which made me well up a bit, but Nate is amazingly resistant to pain (much like his daddy, who hasn't cried since the third grade) and just slept the day away with nary a tear.

Happy 2-month birthday, Nate!

2008-06-12T18:02:00.000-04:00

Somehow, two months have passed since Nate came into our lives and he celebrated by partying all night -- waking up at 1am and not going back to sleep until nearly 3am, then waking up again at 6am. Maybe that's why I feel hungover ... But overall, he's been a good sleeper, going 5-6 hours most nights and cluster feeding (eating every two hours) before and after.

You may have noticed that the thick mane that Nate was born with has receded since then, but it is starting to come back, just in time for wedding season. We're off to Minnesota next week, then will return for Auntie Mary's wedding at the end of the month.

Nate has definitely become a social butterfly, smiling at us when he's in a good mood, for his puppy Wylie, and even for the ladies at the park. And he certainly likes to talk (where does he get that from?) His babbling has evolved from "goo" to now include "boo," "broo," and "gee" -- a true linguistic genius. I also often hear "OK" and I think he even told me "I love you" today.

He has his first round of shots tomorrow, and stay tuned for his two-month stats. I suspect he may break 13 lbs....

Nate's first month

2008-05-22T22:30:00.000-04:00

Our big boy

2008-05-12T12:54:00.000-04:00

Nate's one-month appointment was this morning. I predicted that he would weigh in at 11 lb 2 oz and I was right! That makes him in the 90th percentile for his weight. He measured 22 inches long, which is the 75th percentile. He enjoyed having Mamma and Grampy Daley in town over the weekend and likes to smile and coo for us. He still hasn't slept more than four hours at a time, but we're looking forward to the morning we wake up and realize he slept the whole night through!

Nate likes to bounce

2008-05-10T15:56:00.000-04:00

No matter how grumpy he is, Nate always enjoys bouncing on his daddy's knee ... and he is seriously two weeks old in this video.

Welcome, Nate!

2008-04-23T12:12:00.001-04:00

Nathaniel Henry Daley was born at 2:16 a.m. on Saturday, April 12, 2008, weighing 8 lb. 11 oz. and measuring 20.5 inches long. This video was taken later that morning.