Happy hour

Yesterday was bittersweet. My dear colleague and friend, Jen, is leaving Kalamazoo College! She has been a wonderful friend and a great admission counselor and co-worker. I am sad to see her go, but she's headed off to graduate school, so she's leaving for a great reason! Yesterday after work we celebrated her with a happy hour in the Bell's beer garden. Todd and Nathan joined us, as well as Bryan, Ellie and Gavin. It's so great to have not only a venue, but a group of co-workers that are very open and friendly and excited to see spouses and children join in the celebration.

Nathan absolutely adores Ellie (and she is so good with him!) so between playing with her, exploring the garden, and eating dirt, he was in heaven!

Me and my dirty-faced boy


Nathan, Ellie and Gavin hanging out in the grass

Evening with Joey

Joey came over on Saturday evening. All four of us went out to dinner at a Mexican restaurant near our house. Mmmm... enchiladas and a margarita... delicious! It was great to catch up with Joey, and awesome to have a relaxed but social evening. After dinner Nathan and I headed home and Todd and Joey headed to Bell's to meet up with Toby and Aaron for a few beers. All in all it was a delightful evening!

Joey and Nathan hanging out on the couch.

Joey explaining aviation science to N. :)

Lunch with Annalee and Miles

I had to make a day trip to East Lansing for work this week, and I made sure to schedule it for Thursday, as that is Annalee's day off of work. After my meeting at the high school I headed over to the Appledorns' house for some lunch, some baby snuggles from Miles and some much-treasured conversation time with Annalee. Miles is such a smart baby--he timed his schedule perfectly so that I got to hang out with him and admire his new drooling, toy-grabbing, squealing and bouncing skills, but he took a nice nap so his mommy could eat lunch with both hands!

Miles loves his jumperoo, as it allows him to bounce up and down while playing with his toys. What a cutie--check out those bright blue eyes and pouty lips. Love it!

Although he has developed many talents, Miles has not yet mastered photography, so I had to make do with a self-portrait of Annalee and I. :)

Spirit Week!

This week at daycare was celebration of "The Week of The Young Child." I really have no idea what that means, except that daycare decided to celebrate it by doing a spirit week in the style of my high school's homecoming week, where every day there was a different theme. It was fun! I decided to document Nathan's looks (shocker) and display them as a week in review:

Monday: Pajama day!

Tuesday: Favorite Sports Team Day--of course we had to support K--Go Hornets!!

Wednesday: Wear Purple or Your Favorite Color Day--none of N's clothes have even a scrap of purple in them, so we went with blue as his favorite color.

Thursday: Costume Day--so, I had a hunch that N wasn't going to be very tolerant of his Halloween lobster costume, so I kind of wimped out and went with "hamburgler." Lame, I know. Todd has already informed me that we are going to do MUCH better with this day next year! :)

Friday: Crazy Hair Day!! Nathan has crazy hair every day, so we decided to go all out. He definitely had the best hair in the Waddler room! :)

Dinner with Grandpa

Last Sunday, Grandpa John came over for dinner, playtime with Nathan, and a tutorial from Todd on the wonders of his new cell phone, the Droid.

John and Todd trading tips about navigation and apps.

Nathan decided to do a little vacuuming while Grandpa and Daddy played with their toys.

Playground!

Yesterday Nathan and I found ourselves with a sunny afternoon and nothing on the agenda--perfect conditions for a trip to the playground! I was super excited to introduce N to the swings, which have always been my favorite part of playing on the playground. For him it was not love at first sight. Let's just say that he started by being underwhelmed at the whole idea, which transitioned into disapproving. Luckily I decided to pull him out before he became thoroughly displeased! :)

His father's son, immediately upon being released from the swing, he made a beeline for the truck!

The gravel was by far the most popular feature! Unfortunately, windy conditions and Nathan's fascination with letting the gravel blow freely in the wind combined to create a high probability of a "gravel-in-the-eye-very-unhappy-baby" situation, so I had to distract him with a tour of the rest of the park's attractions.

Multi-tasker

Not only has Nathan fully embraced walking, but he has also discovered that one of the biggest benefits to walking is that he can multi-task by carrying things while he's buzzing about the house. He is also becoming more and more conversational, regularly looking us right in the eye and telling us a big story or asking us a question. If only he spoke English! :) New words in his vocabulary: wa-wa (water), sky, MINE (this one is the latest favorite)

Bonus Day!

Last Saturday I had a "bonus day" at home with my boys. I was originally supposed to be on a 4-day work trip to Texas. At the last minute I had to cancel that trip, as I was not getting the critical mass of interested students that warranted my time and the College's money. I was disappointed about missing the trip, as it meant not getting to see some good friends and I also had harbored high hopes for that great high that comes from excellent conversations with amazing kids. However, through an on-campus visit program on Friday and two events in Detroit and Ann Arbor on Sunday, I was able to have that kind of conversation with some really great kids, and it meant that I had Saturday to spend with my family!

It was an absolutely gorgeous day (we have been so lucky this spring) so I decided that we should have a picnic in the back yard. Right now Nathan is really digging Teddy Grahams, which he calls crackers ("ca-cas" in Nathan-speak), so that was the main feature! I also strapped Nathan on my back (first time using the Ergo as a back carrier instead of a front carrier) and we took the dog out for a hike in the woods.

I couldn't have asked for a better day!

Teddy Grahams, sippy cup, sunshine and Mommy--Nathan's loving life!

Off to explore the woods.

Deuce sitting guard over the picnic basket.

Nathan exploring the yard with a reserve of crackers in his cheeks!

My super handsome husband!

Father and Son

Videos of Nathan

I think he's destined to streak the Quad at K one day! :)

Discovering mud

No, no, no!

This week Nathan has fully embraced the word "no!" This is now his response to almost every question (except about ice cream, apparently, which is proof that he's my kid). Here's a video from dinner tonight where he's demonstrating his new vocabulary:

Backyard boy

In the midst of our Easter activities, Nathan noticed the overturned wheelbarrow and made a beeline for it. He loves spinning the wheel. It is so fun to see him notice and explore stuff--and there's a whole world out there that he's noticing. Who knew that an upside-down wheelbarrow was so much fun??

Happy Easter!

Nathan's second Easter was a beautiful day! I went to church for the first time in a long while, and it was an absolutely joyful and welcoming service. It felt good. After I got home, and after Nathan woke up from an incredibly long nap (3 1/2 hours!) we gave Nathan his Easter basket and had an Easter egg "hunt" in the back yard. N thought it was awesome that the Easter bunny had left these eggs everywhere, and he had a great time putting them in his basket and dumping them out over and over again.

The Easter bunny "hid" eggs all over our backyard.

Wow, Mommy, who made me this beautiful Easter basket?

Sidewalk chalk! That looks like fun!

Awesome, the eggs pull apart!

Taking the sidewalk chalk for a test drive.

My not-so-successful attempt at a photo shoot with N's Easter quilt.

Check out those pudgy hands and the drool running down his belly! Cutting molars is slobbery work!