Rice

I know that you are supposed to wait until they are 6 months before you start solids but he started tonight. I think he only got about a ml in him anyway. Quite a funny experience watching the look of total disbelief come over his face with that first mouthful.

Smiley

Starting to perform a bit more for the camera. Side note-this is his first pair of jeans and they have plaid cuffs!! Ha ha!!

Sleepy

This is what I leave behind every morning when I leave for work. This is why I doubt the decision I made to return to work every single morning. Check out thise rosy red cheeks!!

Happy

Oops

I meant to say he is 17 pounds, not 11.

Bad Weed

Just for a little perspective, I dug out the first sleeper he put on in the hospital to show how much he has grown in four months. I was walking through Sears on the weekend and I saw these little tiny 5 lb preemie sleepers and they were so cute!! Nathaniel never came close to fitting in one of those-this sleeper is a ten lb jobbie! He was at the doctor this week for another round of shots and he is officially 11 lbs, 28 1/2 inches long.

Actually Smiling A Bit!!

I can never catch Nate smiling on camera even though he grins and giggles like a silly fool all day long. Every time I dig the camera out, he instantly becomes mesmerized by the light on it and goes into a zombie like trance. Tonight I came up with the semi-smart idea of covering the light up with one hand, making him smile then quickly pulling my hand away. It is a bit difficult to manage all of this and not take a wobbly picture, but this one isn't too bad. Maybe it is the pink soother jammed in his ear that is giving him so much pleasure.

Super Mario Outfit

Can you tell Iain is in charge of dressing him now?

Christmas Babes

Wayne and Suzanne had us over to their beautifully decorated house for an evening of food, drinks, laughs and theatre (of the puppet kind). I forgot my camera, so I stole this picture off of Adrienne's blog without asking her. I laughed my head off all night long at the barely controlled chaos created by 6 kids. They are all so funny and have such strong little personalities-it really is amazing that we have created these little monsters. Can't wait until they are all teenagers-hope we all still have blogs then!

Tuckered Out Time

If you tried to do half the stuff all the baby books tell you to do to ensure that your baby reaches all of his developmental milestones, you would never have time to even pick your nose. I had all of these idyllic fantasies pre-Nathaniel of him enjoying his prescribed minutes of exercise in various positions and states of undress (i.e. tummy and naked) as I gleefully checked off his developmental milestones each month.

Then the reality of having a baby set in.

Iain and I do our best to make sure he is stimulated but sometimes the most exciting part of the day for him is "wipe the shit off of your body time" coupled with "suck on my boob and watch Mommy scrape the top layer of dirt off of the house time". Does anyone else fantasize about having a nanny, a maid, a chef and a wet nurse at their disposal 24 hours a day?

Kinda Sorta Sitting (For About 10 Seconds)

Naked Nate

The Phantom Poop

Nathaniel usually gets me a couple of times a week on this one. He will be sitting on my lap, grinning away, then all of the sudden his face goes blank and a pained look appears. I look at him with concern. I see him hold his breath then I feel the familiar rat-a-tat-tat against my leg. There is usually a 10 second reprieve before the noxious gas escapes the confines of his diaper to completely overwhelm anyone within a 10 foot radius. I am always amazed that for someone whose diet consists solely of milk, how he can produce such rankness.

Sometimes I try to hand him off to Iain, feigning innocence about the explosion down below, but that rarely works. We have a rule that runs roughly along the famous elementary school line of, "You smelt it, you dealt it" to "You're holding, you're changing".

Anyway, since I am a woman, I am apparently genetically predisposed to change diapers so I trudge over to the change table and get prepared with a few fistfuls of wipes. As I am ripping open the tabs on his diaper, I am usually trying to hazard a guess as to the colour, consistency and volume of the explosion. One thing I don't have to guess at is the stink. So I pull the diaper back, waiting to meet the the beast and much to my surprise, there's nothing.

The stink was there, the sound effects, the facial expression but no result hence the phantom poop. I love when this happens and I am always amazed at our little trickster.

Snow Day, Snow Day!!

Ahhh...all those boring university courses I sat through, all those frustrating days with challenging students I have endured, all those late nights marking until I thought my eyes were going to burn out of my head are worth it when those magical words are spoken via the radio, "No school for district 14, 17 and 18".

As I sit here in bed picking away at a leftover cheese ball from the weekend, re-reading Bridget Jones's Diary (which makes me laugh my head off even though I have read it umpteen million times) and pecking away on my laptop while a sweet little baby lays beside me, life is good.

Here are the best things about a snow day as a teacher:

• you still lay in bed with a knot of excited apprehension, waiting for the 6 o'clock news to come on, praying they utter the magical words of school be closed for the day.
• just like when you are a kid, the feeling of not having to go to school is so wonderful, you can't go back to sleep because you are wide awake even though every other day of the week you are exhausted getting up in the morning and run through the list of plausible reasons of calling in sick.
• unlike fake calling in sick, you have the day off and can go shopping, out for a leisurely breakfast, be seen out in public without the fear of your boss or someone from work seeing you.
• you get paid.
• everyone at work is so happy the next day it makes work even more fun than usual.
• you can pick away at shovelling out the driveway.
• you can eat gross things for breakfast (like cheese balls-thanks, Heather A.) and not feel guilty because the huge amounts of snow give off a festive air reminiscent of Christmas, allowing you to consume as many calories as you want. Besides, you burn them all off shovelling.
• calling/emailing other teacher friends and remarking on how we do have the best job in the world (these are the same friends you complain to on a regular basis about how horrible the job can be).

Anyway, just wanted all of you non-teachers out there to know what it feels like! Ha ha!

Update

Update:

• I went back to work on Monday and was enjoying myself until I came home and my baby totally snubbed me. Refused to look at me for an hour and by refusing I mean violently twisting away from me in my arms. It truly broke my heart. Nice to know that 9 months in the womb and 3 1/2 months of my undivided attention were erased in 8 hours.
• Nathaniel learned to roll over-he did it three times in a row. Funny how amazingly exciting this was for Iain and I but when you tell someone else, it seems pretty blah.
• Fact: keeping the attention of 25 fourteen year olds all day while trying to actually teach them something is less exhausting than taking care of one infant.
• Fact: Iain is doing an amazing job taking care of Nathaniel but he is being a stubborn donkey about admitting how tiring it is. The fact he passed out for most of the afternoon at Mom and Dad's may be a small indication.
  

Nearly Naked After Another Poop Mishap

Grammy Snuggles

Cousins On A 1970's Afghan

Kelly, Karson And Some Weird Wheelbarrow Thing

Karson Very Excited About His Dad's New Snowmobile

Daddy And His Little Boy

Snowsuit Baby

Nate Loving The Lights

Emily Thrilled By The Parade