Nate in the Raw
July 30, 2010
My poor children and their undocumented lives. It has been awhile. Since we are stuck at home today (Scott has 101 and I am not feeling awesome) and by stuck at home, I mean the Sesame Street is blaring, everyone is still in pjs, and Nate is sitting on the floor crushing saltine crackers into the carpet, I feel the need to seize the moment and update. While I obviously don’t like having sick kids, sometimes it is nice to be forced to stay at home and have a TV day.
Little Nate… where to even start. He just turned two and gets funnier by the day and his hair is getting whiter by the minute. For the last month, he has slept on his floor in front of his door. I have no idea why. And yes, I put him back in his bed when he is asleep and 30 seconds later I hear him get out and resume his floor position. I fought it for a while (I even told him that spiders might bite him if he wasn’t in his bed, not my proudest mom moment, but it was at 4:30 in the morning AFTER he had been awake for an hour) and now I have given up. If he wants to sleep on his carpet, so be it.
He still loves reading. His new thing is to point at the pictures and say, “What is that?” The problem with this is that he knows the answer in his head and he will put his little finger on a girls face and say, “What is that?”
Me: A girl.
Nate: Noooo
Me: A girls face.
Nate: (getting mad) NOOOO MAMA!
Me: Her hair?
Nate: NOOOOOOOO MAAMMAMAMAMA!!!
Me: HER EYES????
Nate: NOOOOOOOO
Me: HER LIPS??
Nate: NOOOOO MAMAMAMA… GIRLS CHEEKS!!!! GIRLS CHEEKS MAMA!
Me: (not having fun) Oh, girls cheeks. Cooool.
Nate: (sweating out of frustration) Yea, girls cheeks mama. Girls cheeks. (nodding at me like, good job lady, you finally got it, I have now taught you what cheeks are.)
This continues until we are finished reading. The GOOD thing is, once we have read the book and gotten through it, if we read it again, he wants the same answers, so next time he points to that girls head, I will know….. GIRLS CHEEKS! 10 books down 500000 to go. (Oh, and I have tried to turn it around and say, “I don’t know Nate, what is it?” to which he replies, “Nooo, mama do it.”)
He has also started this thing where he talks like the “I see dead people” kid and follows me around and whispers…
“Hooole Jew, Hole jew…” (translation: hold you.) And when I turn around he is standing there looking at me with a huge smile and crazy white hair.
He is adorable. He is talking up a storm. He knows some of his shapes, some colors, and how to sing part of Happy Birthday. He is scared of fireworks and candles. He is obsessed with his big brother and is going to have major separation anxiety when Scott goes back to school. He follows him around and literally does everything he does and repeats everything he says. Scott is training him to like him (really, that is what Scott said). His favorite things are bubbles and pizza. Pizza is his answer all of lifes hard questions. Whats for dinner? Pizza! Who are you talking to on the phone? Pizza! Knock Knock, who’s there? Pizza! Nate, I love you. Pizza and Boop (soup)!
Nate lights up a room and our lives.
Tell me you don't want to kiss that nose!
Seriously, his hair is WHITE!
Birthday Tunnel!
My 3 favorite people.
Now for the stuff only I care about….
At 2 yrs old:
Height: 33 1/2 inches
Weight: 23 1/2 lbs
Perfect in every way.
PS I know my pictures are not as good as this girls, I try.
Stay tuned for Scott Uncut…
Thump Thump
July 22, 2010
I wasn’t going to talk about this on my blog because when it comes to serious “stuff” I am a pretty private person. I don’t necessarily mind people knowing, but I am more of a deal with it as it comes and move on type person and constant questions are only reminders. Now that I have scared you out of ever asking me a private question again…
I would like to give a shout out to all the mommas (and dads and grandparents and siblings) who have children with health problems. It has to be one of those things that you can never in a million years explain to someone who has never gone through it. A few of you know about Scott’s heart murmur and the testing and MRIs and ECHOs and chest xrays and drama that we dealt with surrounding that a couple of years ago. Now it is little Nate’s turn. Basically, he has always had a faint murmur, but at his 2 year check up, the pediatrician said it was much more prominent and wants to have the pediatric cardiologist check him out. My stomach turned to knots when she said this. Honestly, not because I think anything is majorly wrong with Nate, but because the testing and the waiting and the testing and the waiting is horrible and I don’t want to go through it all again.
I went into the ECHO (basically a heart ultrasound) appointment both kids in tow feeling fine until I had to lay Nate down and keep him still. He was just looking up at me with his tan cheeks and white hair being so patient and saying, “All done now Mama. All done.” His tiny heart was beating on a huge screen in front of my face and I had to choke back tears. It was like looking at little Scott all over again.
Is there anything worse than feeling helpless when it comes to your kids? Is there any thing worse than not being able to fix it?
Scott was fine. Nate will be fine. But it still keeps me up at night. And my problems are teeny tiny compared to so many others.
So to the parents of kids with autism and cystic fibrosis and cancer and severe food allergies… You are amazing. We (myself very much included) will never be able to understand the day to day wondering if your child will be okay. I am sure the constant worry about every decision is more than we can even begin to imagine. I hope you are able to ask for help when you need it and I hope that as fellow parents we are supporting you. From one mom to another, you are super mom’s in my book.
Simply Stuff 