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YAY!

So, Nathan has had a bunch of checkups since the last update but we’ll just mention the latest one. His 15 month checkup was a while back (2 weeks ago or so) and he was 29.5 inches tall and 17 pounds. He is not on the weight charts yet but he is on the height chart. I think he’s around the 10th percentile for height but it may be a little bit under that.

We will be talking to a nutritionist hopefully pretty soon to make sure he’s getting everything he needs. When I asked the nurse practitioner at his last appointment how many calories he should be getting she said around 1000 a day, but give him 1200 a day to get him growing. Looking at his calories per meal they seem to hover around 225 to 250 per meal so he is getting what he needs. We have been trying to give him new foods as much as possible, like last night I gave him a whole grain waffle with Black Cherry fruit spread on it. He likes it, but he hasn’t been picky about anything yet so we’ll anticipate that at a later date!

Our trip to Michigan in March for his birthday was good as was the birthday party here in Texas. We’re making another trip to Michigan in 2 weeks and it promises to be exciting. It’s the annual cottage trip and this year Nathan is going in the water! He’ll probably hate it but we have to try. Hopefully being able to splash around will entertain him. We’ll coat him in sunblock to be sure and we’ll buy him his own floaty that may get 30 seconds of use, but I can’t wait!

Nathan isn’t walking on his own yet but he is crawling REALLY quickly and he will walk around as long as he is steadying himself on something like the table or futon. He is feeding himself finger foods (has been for months) and seems to understand the concept of feeding himself with a spoon but we aren’t there yet. He stopped drinking from bottles almost on his first birthday so he has transitioned to sippy cups as if there were no change at all. He likes white grape juice and orange juice quite a bit (watered down of course) but he seems to not like milk so much. He’ll drink milk but mostly he fills his mouth with it and then lets it dribble down his face onto the carpet. I don’t envy the people that have this apartment after us! I’m sure they’ll have to replace this carpet so maybe it is good for the next people. Who knows! Since he doesn’t drink milk all that often we’ve been giving him yogurt (he seems to love it!) I’ve been careful about feeding him things that only have natural ingredients, like organic yogurt or 100% juices or like the fruit spread that is sweetened with fruit juice instead of high fructose corn syrup. I know at some point he’ll have to start eating some processed foods but why start now if we don’t have to? I even go so far as to use real butter in his foods as opposed to the I can’t believe it’s not butter that we use. I just want him to eat better than I do, since both Nikki and I are really poor eaters. I’m trying to build healthy habits now and hopefully they stay with him but we shall see.

Nathan still has 8 teeth. He got 8 teeth like, 8 months ago and then stopped. However, he is now starting to pop out (or at least they are near the surface) 2 big molars but he doesn’t seem to mind all that much.

So that’s our update for now. I’ll try to take a TON of pictures on our trip to Michigan and share them.

Thanks for reading!

I just want to write a quick entry. I know it’s been a while and I’ll be better at this eventually.

I just want to say that when I came home today, I was playing with Nathan and eventually brought him to the bed. I put him down in the middle of Nikki’s body pillow and I put my head down on my side of the bed. I gave him a cloth book and he was playing around but eventually wiggled his way next to me. He put the book down and we cuddled. He put his tiny hand on my chest and we just cuddled. It was amazing and I never want to forget how happy it made me, so I wanted to post it here.

Today Nathan had his 4 month checkup, even though he’s 5 months (Hey, we were travelling!)

So he is doing quite well. Nothing out of the ordinary other than his being a bit small, since he was a preemie.

As of today, 8/15/11, Nathan is 10 pounds 2 ounces and 23.25 inches long! Dude is still at the FAAAAAAAAR end of the percentiles since he’s so tiny for a 5 month old, but the doctor said he is gaining ground quite nicely.

We’re going to finally start giving him some rice cereal in formula as well as switch his acid reflux meds since the old one, Zantac, wasn’t helping him as much as it used to. Now he’s on to Prilosec. Poor little dude.

I had really planned on blogging sooner, but you get what you get and you’ll like it!

Anyway…

Nathan’s meet and greet went awesome. Jenni Pell came and held Nathan for a bit, but he was having none of it! Eventually many many more people came! Nathan got to meet my friends Pat, Donovan, CJ, Donovan and CJ’s daughter Charlotte (so cute!), David, Travis, Denise, Josh, Lindsey (that’s probably spelled wrong, sorry!), Josh and Lindsey’s kiddo Logan (he has the hair of an angel! So curly! So awesome!). He also got to meet my parents friends Ann and Dean although they are really my friends too! On the relative side, he met Sam, Henna, Ghaz and FINALLY MET GRANDPA GEOFF! That’s right, he hadn’t actually seen my dad yet. He also got to see Sara and Erika again and my mom FINALLY got to hold him for the first time. It was so good to be able to finally make all of that happen. There was a funny moment when I asked Nathan if he wanted Pat to hold him, and then immediately shoved Nathan into Pat’s arms. Pat isn’t immediately comfortable with small kids, but you can tell he’ll be a great dad some day.

A few days later, Nathan also met my dad’s mother, so we’re talking GENERATIONS here people.

Also big thanks to Sam and my Aunt Kim for babysitting Nathan so that Nikki and I could go out to dinner with my parents and Sara and Erika! That meant the world to me, you don’t get a whole lot of chances like that, so thank you!

For a 4 month old, Nathan did REALLY well on our super long car trip. For a trip that normally takes between 18 and 20 hours, it wound up taking about 25 total. Having a kid who needs to stop every 2 hours to be changed and fed makes things take a BIT longer, but if he wasn’t hungry he hardly screamed or squirmed at all. I am so so blessed to have such a good kiddo. Big ups to Nikki for mostly staying back there with him and keeping him company. I know that helped him quite a lot!

As for the other reason for the trip, it was the annual cottage trip. This was the year the families were there so it was WAY different for a while. Instead of it being Donovan, Pat and I up at Pat’s cottage it was Nikki, me, Donovan, CJ, Charlotte, David, Pat and Nicole. We left Nathan at my parents to get a little break. What can I say, dude is needy and sometimes you gotta take a step back. After a few days, the womenfolk (and David) left and it was back to normal cottage times with Donovan, Pat and me.  We went kayaking which was fun, I’ll throw some pictures up in the photo album later. After a few days, eventually Nikki and Nathan joined us at the cottage so Nathan could get a little lake breeze. Sadly, a MASSIVE HEAT WAVE was coming through so we wound up getting a hotel room for Nikki and Nathan to stay in since there was no AC and we didn’t want Nathan to have to deal with the 108 degree heat.

We left the cottage on Friday so we could drive back over 3 days which wound up being SO much better. We drove from Oscoda, MI to Swartz Creek, MI. Then from Swartz Creek we drove to Michigan City, IN where we stopped for the night. We stayed at a hotel that wasn’t really anything special, it got the job done. The next morning we left Michigan City and drove all the way to Springfield, MO. We stayed the night at a Days Inn there that was just phenomenal. Nick at the front desk was one of the friendliest people I’ve ever met and the room was SUPER cheap and SUPER spacious compared to where we were the night before. Then, on Sunday we got HOME! It was weird being home after 2 weeks being gone, but comfy too.

My parents said they are going to try to come down in October or so, so that will be nice. It’s hard to travel with a little one, but this time next year he’ll be bigger so we’ll have all new problems and challenges. I can’t WAIT!

So today I booked the hotel that we’ll be staying at on our drive up to Michigan. We’ll leave Amarillo on July 11th (it’s a Monday) and stay overnight in Saint Clair, Missouri at http://www.budgetlodging.com/index.html which seems like a GREAT place to stay based on the reviews.

We’ll be in Michigan on July 12th and there is a party being held at my parents house on July 14th (it’s a Thursday) to let everyone meet Nathan! If you’re in town and need directions, let me know. Bring a swimsuit as the pool will be open!

After that party will be the annual Cottage trip to my friend Pat’s cottage. I look forward to it every year because it’s the one time I get to go back and see all my friends for a solid amount of time. Even though I moved to Texas, I haven’t missed a cottage trip yet and I plan on keeping it that way.  It’ll also be nice to see Donovan since he is the only other friend I have that has a kid! Our kids meeting will be adorable and there will be pictures, I assure you.

Today, being my first Father’s Day as a father, was pretty awesome. I woke up early and hung out with Nathan for a bit. We then went over to Nikki’s mom and dad’s house for a bit. I left Nikki and Nathan there and got a haircut (approximately 3 months after I SHOULD have had one) and then went back. I picked Nikki up and went to have a father’s day lunch with her at Cheddar’s while Nathan spent time with his Grandmother. We came home and now Nikki’s at work. Nathan and I are hanging out and he’s spent 3 of the 4 hours Nikki’s been gone so far asleep.

This has been fantastic. I got a card from Nathan, a card from Nikki AND a card from my niece Erika! Sara left if with Nikki and told her to hide the car til today. I am a VERY lucky man and I just wish there were some way to show everyone how much I appreciate them.

So, last night was the first official Man Night at the Gordon household. I have to say it went very well. I accomplished both dinner and cleaning all while handling Nathan’s needs. It was easy and I hope all future evenings are as simple!

I switch schedules at work next week, so I’ll be working 7 am to 4 pm. Which, for the record, is sweeeeeeeeeet. Getting out earlier will allow Nikki to go to work earlier so we may even see the slightest amount of more money coming in! It’s only potentially 5 hours a week which won’t amount to much but we’re pinching pennies so every bit helps.

Speaking of pinching pennies, do any of you have tips or tricks that you use to be frugal? We’ve cut out the cable, but replaced the $50+/month cable with Netflix ($9/month) + Hulu Plus ($8/month). We also don’t have a home phone. Our cell phone plans wind up being about $70/month each for unlimited texting and data with enough minutes which is high, but not something we are giving up.

Any thoughts?

Sara and Erika are gone back to Michigan. Having my sister here was so amazing it is beyond words. She made the transition home with Nathan so easy. Having Erika here reminded me why I had such a hard time moving to Texas in the first place. I love them and it’s going to be so hard having them gone. My sister took such good care of all of us when she was here. Nikki, Nathan and I were lucky to have her and I just hope she knows how appreciated she is.

So tonight is my first night home alone with the kiddo while Nikki works. I will *hopefully* be able to clean a bit and do laundry maybe but we’ll see how Nathan does tonight. I think we’ll have some good bonding time so yay!

My sister and niece leave next Wednesday. It does NOT seem like they have been here for this long (over a month) but I don’t know how we would have survived without them. Sara has helped Nikki soooooooooo much and she’s helped me even more than she knows. Getting to see Erika react and bond with Nathan even while he’s so little is amazing. She truly loves him and it shows every day. She’ll sing to him to help him sleep, or she’ll kiss his blonde little head.

The transition to Nikki finding a new job and everything has been made so much better by having Sara here. I just wish there was some way we could show her.  The bonding time Sara and Nathan have had will hopefully begin the process of them being as close as Erika and me are now.

We have used Skype to talk to my mom and dad and let them see Nathan, so that’s going to be very very useful in the coming months.

I haven’t update the pictures site in a while but I will try either tonight or this weekend some time. I can’t tell you guys how much I love my family because I just don’t have the words.

Nathan’s appointment went well today! He got 3 vaccinations, 2 of which were shots. He cried for about 30 seconds and then stopped when I started holding him again. The Dr. said he’s developing well and that we can stop the “every 3 hours” feeding schedule and be a bit more common sensical about things which will make life so much easier. If the kids sleeping let him sleep for a bit!

Tonight I go shopping with my sister for a little shindig we’re having on Saturday to grill and have fun. If you’re in Texas, feel free to drop by!