Catching Up

I really have no good excuse for going a month in between blog posts while I am on summer vacation. My not so good excuse is pure laziness. I can't get myself to stay up late to blog and I seem to find plenty of other things to do during Nate's naps everyday.

Here's what's been happening for the last month:

Nate finished his swimming lessons, which I have to admit I did not look forward to. Nate cried during a good portion of the first lesson, was better during the 2nd, horrendous during the third and okay at the last one. Between getting molars and the cold water I never knew what kind of lesson it was going to be. Luckily despite all that I feel like we learned some things. He doesn't cry when I put him underwater for a few seconds, but we need to work on actually learning to hold his breath. He kicks pretty well and loves to climb out and jump into my arms. He likes the water. He just doesn't like being in cold water. Swimming is over now, but I'm sure we'll go swimming at least a few more times this summer.

We took Nate to see his first movie in a theater a few weeks ago. Our 2 choices were Brave and Madagascar 3. We would have rather seen Brave, but thought there wouldn't be enough to keep him interested. So we saw Madagascar 3, which was just as obnoxious as I expected but Nate did really well through the entire movie. He was upset when we left so apparently he liked it. Eddie and I both thought it was a little too much for him so we probably won't do it too often. Not to mention how expensive it is to take all 3 of us to a matinee.

Nate and I have been spending our days running errands, playing at the park and going to the Lied Discovery Museum. We usually spend the time between dinner and bed at the park so Nate and Phantom can play when it's not quite as hot.

Nate is still changing and growing at lightening speed. Here are some of his interests and little quirks that I probably don't share often enough:

• Nate has become obsessed with trains, specifically those from a Disney show called Chuggington. We have a DVD with a few episodes and he has 4 of the trains now. He loves any kind of train he can find.
• He generally doesn't like to eat dinner so dinnertime is always interesting. However, when he does decide to eat he will eat salmon, veggie chips, Indian butternut squash soup, and spicy yogurt dip. He likes some strange things you'd never think a 2 year old would eat.
• He loves nursery rhymes all of a sudden. He's been asking us to read 2 nursery rhyme books he got from his Great Grandma Edith. Sometimes I'll hear hear saying lines from different nursery rhymes and he'll request that I say certain ones especially while we are in the car. He likes Hey Diddle Diddle, Hickory Dickory Dock and a bunch of other ones.
• Nate has been requesting that I turn on or turn up music in the car that he likes. He's going to have an  interesting taste in music when he gets older because I don't listen to the popular stuff on the radio very often. He really likes Loreena McKinnet a folk singer that I like.  
• He can count from 1-10, but he only recognizes the number 0 right now.
• He knows the letters H, M, N, O and T.
• He loves to read books with cats and mice in them.
• We did the summer reading program through the library where Nate earned a rubber ducky and a board book that he picked out himself. We just had to read or sing 12 books or songs with him for the program. That took us all of 2 days because Nate still insist that we read him 3-5 books before his nap and bedtime.
• He has a sense of humor and will say something silly on purpose and laugh about it. It's like he's telling a joke in his 2 year old way.
• Grandma Blubaugh taugh Nate how to catch a large ball or stuff animal.
• He loves and has a knack for jigsaw puzzles. I bought 2 sets of 24 piece puzzles at Costco a little while ago thinking they would come in handy down the road. They have shapes, numbers, ABCs and a few with pictures of animals and cars. I started by showing him how to put the puzzle together and matching colors and he picked it up right away. He can complete a puzzle by himself with the exception of connecting 2 large sections of the puzzle together. He has an eye for putting pieces together. We just bought him a harder puzzle with 35 pieces that quite a bit smaller and he's already doing most of it on his own. Crazy kid. He impresses me. I just catch believe he has the attention span to do a puzzle from start to finish in one sitting sometimes. Usually he's bouncing off the walls.

Nate did this puzzle while I was in the other room making breakfast. All he needed help with was connecting 2 large sections together.

At this point anything Nate learns is because he wants to. If he's interested in something we do more of it. He has plenty of time to learn all his letters and numbers. If he learns something while he plays then fantastic. We are definitely not into doing any real structured learning yet at this age. There will be plenty of time for that later.