The past few weeks we have seen (heard?) Nathan's speech/vocabulary grow in leaps and bounds. He's usually willing to repeat words when asked, and so he is picking up new words all the time. He is easily stringing two words together at a time, and I've also heard three words on occasion. His most commonly said words are "Mandma" (Grandma), "Ahn-ie Tandis" (Auntie Candice), and "Geet-Mandma" (Great-Grandma). After I put him to bed tonight I heard him saying over and over, "Mandma best (Grandma's the best), Ahn-ie Tandis, Geet-Mandma". Seriously...over and over and over. He also says, "Dackdin" (Jackson), "Oh-ya" (Olivia), and "Dan-nin" (Shannon - Kayla's doll)...but can't say neither Kayla (he calls her "Ah") nor Matthew. Silly boy.
(Yes, another boy that LOVES trains!...but he knows that Thomas is Matthew's!)
Nathan loves to eat and drink. He'll tell me he's hungry or thirsty by pointing inside his mouth. Of all my kids, he's really the only one that ever asks for food or a drink. He loves "duice" (juice). He isn't picky with what he eats at snack time...whether it be fruit ("ah-ole" (apple)) or "tan-nies" (candies).
We have nicknamed Nathan "Banana Boy" because he LOVES eating bananas. He has a banana practically every morning, and will quickly point out to me if there are no bananas left "Buy nana."
At the end of July we set up a twin bed in Nathan's room, in preparation for him moving to it. Over the next month and a half he would sometimes choose to sleep in it at night, but he never actually managed to sleep an entire night in it, often waking up during the night asking to put him back in his crib (which we (ahem, I) did). At the end of August we pushed a little harder for him to always go to bed in his "big boy bed". At the beginning of September I took all of the bedding off of the crib and explained that it was now "Baby Olivia's crib." He wasn't necessarily pleased, but he actually transitioned pretty good. We did have to put a bed rail on his bed because he fell out of bed a few times, but he was totally okay with that. I was also finding that without the bed rail I was laying him down closer to the wall, so I kept waking up at night because he was kicking our shared bedroom wall. Now that he has the bed rail I lay him in the centre of the bed so there's less kicking happening. Our only struggle with him being in a big boy bed is that he has the freedom to climb out whenever he wants. Every night he gets out at least once or twice. So frustrating! Especially when he is out during his nap time! I babysat Jackson (my nephew) one day last week and still had the playpen set up in my bedroom so when Nathan climbed out of bed during his nap today and refused to stay in, despite my warning, I put him in the playpen. I let him cry/scream at me for a good 30 minutes before I talked to him about it and then allowed him to nap in his regular bed again, and he fell asleep right away. Again this evening he climbed out within minutes of being put to bed, so I warned him and put him back in bed. Not a minute later he was out again so I put him in the playpen. After a couple minutes of him crying/screaming I warned him again and put him back in his regular bed...and he fell asleep. Sometimes (all the time?) you just have to be 'the bad guy' in order for kids to learn.
Nathan is quite social, and isn't scared to play with other kids, regardless of their age.
He has also started making it through the entire church service without crying in the nursery!
Unfortunately, as sweet as Nathan usually is, he can be quite a bully. He doesn't typically pick on kids younger than him, only those older. Matthew receives the brunt of Nathan's bullying. We tried putting Nathan in timeout as punishment for picking on Matthew, but that wasn't really workng so now we are encouraging Matthew to fight back, not to physically hurt Nathan but to hurt his feelings. This is a new approach and so far, in the few times Matthew has fought back, it's worked, with Nathan coming crying to Jon and I because his feelings were hurt.
If Nathan has unintentionally hurt someone which has resulted in that person crying in pain, he himself becomes very emotional. He also gets very emotional if either Matthew or Kayla are getting in BIG trouble.
Nathan continues to be Jon's little side-kick, always playing hockey with him outside, watching him mow the lawn, or wrestling with him.
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