mmmmmm....sushi

Nate the great

has taken his first steps.

Actually, he took a couple a while ago but I wanted to make sure that they weren't total flukes before bragging about it. Now he is up to as many as four before he falls on his ass. Personally I believe that he could take more steps if he actually believed he could walk. We think it rocks, but Nate is convinced, I think, that crawling is still the fastest mode of conveying himself from one place to another.

Every night, after Justin gives him a bath, I give Nate a bottle and sing to him before he goes to sleep. I have discovered that I know very few children's songs...or lullabies...or songs I know all the words to. So sometimes I just make them up. Or sometimes they are very innapropriate. Or sometimes while I'm trying to think of something, songs will just pop into my head. Since he was born Justin and I have sung the wagon wheel song from the Old Crow Medicine Show, and Barrett's Privateers, that old Stan Rogers favorite. More recently the list has included:

The hockey night in Canada theme

Rio (Duran Duran)

Hotel California (The Eagles)

General Taylor (folk tune made popular by Great Big Sea)

I Wanna be Sedated (Ramones)

anything I can remember by Sinead O'Connor (how's that for setting the bar high)

Farewell to Nova Scotia

numerous songs by The Cure

He seems to like just about anything if you sing it while rocking him, and it keeps me from getting bored. I do realise though that I will have to try to learn better songs for the future. I have made a start with Raffi, but those songs I only seem to remember when I'm in the middle of a meeting at work, or singing to myself in my cubicle.

Nice one, Tirade.

Weekend Happy Dance!!!

So Justin had a dream last night that we had two Nathanials. I think he viewed it more as a nightmare, and I can see what he means. Nate has boundless amounts of energy. It is a cheerful and fun energy, but the kid is like the frickin energizer bunny (sans drum), and his poor tired old parents find it hard to keep up with him. He's been climbing the stairs a lot lately, and has figured out how to climb other objects as well. We are absolutely proud and totally dismayed by this at the same time. I'm also going to yank on my proud mommy hat and tell you another thing that my child has started doing lately. He puts himself to sleep!!!!! Yes indeedy, they told us this day would come but I didn't believe it! At bedtime we give him a bottle and cuddle him when he finishes it for a little bit. Then we put him into his crib and cover him up. Nate usually grabs his sucky, puts his head down and closes his eyes!!!!!!! That's it y'all! he just goes to sleep. It may not last, but who the hell cares. It is fracking fabulous for as long as it lasts.

I read a whole book last night after I put Nate to bed. This is a luxury that I have not had for a very long time (or so it seems). I remember the good old days of reading far into the night. It wasn't a particularly literary book, but I thoroughly enjoyed it. I left the house in a shambles, totally ignored the phone, laundry etc and just read. It was heaven.

Unfortunately all that stuff still needs to be done.

Merry Christmas Mr. Nate!

Nate with some of his booty from under the tree. He is still a little snotty from his cold. These fabulous little bath toys are courtesy of his aunt Heather, Uncle Juan and Cousin Erica. They have to be the cutest toys I've seen in a long time and Nate adores them (so doews Snoopy, he keeps snapping them up and trying to run away).

A day for boxing?

Boxing up the gifts? Boxing up the tree? Forget it--I'm keeping the damn tree for as long as it looks good (and it still does). I'm against boxing stuff, and really just boxing in general (so there!). We had a lovely day yesterday. It was purty mellow and all. Nate has a nasty cold that made him a little crankster sometimes, but mostly he was a dimmer version of his normally happy self. He really liked opening his first gift, but was kind of done after that. We unwrapped the gifts for him and he played with them the rest of the day. Our phone was doing really really wonky things yesterday for more than half the day, so if you tried to get in touch with us or were waiting for us to get in touch with you, we apologise (you can say you tried even if you didn't- one of those make Tirade feel good lies). I was thinking I'd try to go shopping today but I think I'll stay home, it just seems too stressful. Also making of the traditional post Christmas turkey soup, turkey pot pies etc will commence. And I feel like I haven't made nearly enough cookies yet. Justin got me a little book with 40 cookie recipes for my stocking and there are some very yummy looking prospects.

Santa

A will of steel

So Nateski has some serious attitude. I mean I kind of expected it, but not for a little while longer. He has decided that no food will pass his lips that has not been stuffed in his mouth with his own little hands. This leaves me scurrying to find things he can eat (he has rejected diced carrots and squash so far). Today he ate little bits of broccoli for lunch with his mac and cheese and then later tonight managed some diced yams. If you try to feed him he goes from cheerful little dude to pisssy little so-and-so before you can but blink your pretty eyes. For pureed fruit he will sometimes make concessions. I am starting to realise that there may be some all out freaky battles in our house in the years to come. Today I found out that he like pizza crust a lot and that he is capable of spitting out pureed food quite some distance.

Tomorrow we are taking him to see Santa at the local mall. I'm kind of curious to see how he takes it. Did that just sound like some kind of social experiment? My little brother was terrified of Santa from the get go and never, NEVER liked him. Ever. All the pictures we have show me grinning my ass off while my brother, well, not so smiley. Anyhow, Nate is pretty laid back and I think he's gonna like Santa.

We shall see.