Growing Up

Hard to believe my baby is growing up so quickly! Nate is 20 months now and has had a very busy last couple of months. He has learned to walk and climb and is getting around anywhere he wants. He has been a pretty good eater and is even beginning to use a fork to eat, even though he opted not to in the picture! With all of his great eating, he is still having trouble gaining weight. We are still bordering 18 pounds, and have gone 3 months now with no significant gain in weight. He is getting taller, so his height/weight ratio is decreasing. Not a great thing, but we are trying some new things and are monitoring his growth closely with the help of the dietition.

He is scheduled to get tubes put in his ears on October 1, which we are looking forward to. I think he has had around 12-14 ear infections already. The antibiotics do not work anymore, and we are choosing not to try them any longer. I am hopeful that once he has the surgery, he will be so much happier. He has been the most easy-going baby, but he last month or so, he has been cranky. I think he doesn't feel good most of the time. He is also cutting teeth, which doesn't make things any better. Speaking of teeth, he already has 12, and is cutting #13.

He has been impressing me with some of his developmental skills. He has learned to nest toys together, stacking them as well. He is also able to drop the shapes into the shape sorter toys, or put a ball into a round hole. He uses his finger to point to everything. He will now come to us and put his arms up wanting to be held. He will use the drum sticks to play the drum. He is also getting more and more verbal. He now can make the "B" sound and we like to think that his vocabulary is quite large. Ball, bus, bye-bye, bite, bug, boat, boy, just to name a few. Of course the sound he makes for all of these is "bah", so we just pretend that he is saying whatever is relevant to that situation! He is waving his hands bye-bye all the time, which is very cute. He has learned to climb onto the step stools just like big sister and brother and he thinks he is hot stuff. It was really cute the other day, Sam was teaching him how to wash his hands in the bathroom.

Time passes so quickly. I am sad to say that he no longer looks like a baby and is starting to look and act more like a little toddler. He is still my snuggle bug and I don't miss a chance to snuggle with him.