Atlanta Visit for Father's Day

Ryan had business meetings in Atlanta, conveniently enough, right after Father's Day so we drove up for the weekend to spend time with the family. We enjoyed a lovely dinner at St. Ives on Friday night and Nathan worked his meal off crawling up the stairs over and over again while the men chatted and finished their wine. He is such a busy boy!

We got to watch Kel and Linc play tennis on Saturday morning while hanging out on the playground. The weather was heavenly compared to sticky, hot Orlando and it was nice just to be out in the sun without sweating to death.

The boys hit the golf course on Sunday for Father's Day and my dear friend Stef and her daughter, Nora, came to swim with us at my parents' pool. It was chilly but we still had fun! The Trottas joined us for dinner that night and we had a great evening celebrating the wonderful dads in our lives.

On our final day, we joined Kelly and Carter at their playdate and got to swim at the coolest neighborhood pool/water park! It had an entire area of shallow water with slides, fountains and water features in addition to a ginormous pool.

The drive home was rough and we didn't arrive until late but the trip was worth it and I'm so glad we went! I can't wait for the next visit already!

Science Center

Between rainy days and extreme heat, it's been hard to play outside this summer. With Tropical Storm Debbie bearing down on us, we went through a pretty rough couple of weeks that were driving us stir crazy. What better way to get out of the house than to explore the Orlando Science Center?

We made our first visit with our buddies, Lindsay and Parker. I wasn't sure there would be enough for the boys at such a young age but they were very entertained and seemed to have a blast checking out the interactive exhibits.

We went back again with Alicia and Ben on another rainy day. This time we found a new exhibit that let us do a mock weather forecast. Perfect given the current conditions! It was a lot of fun!

I ended up buying an annual pass so we could go back again and again. I think it was worth it already!

Happy Father's Day! (a little belated)

I am blessed to have been raised by a wonderful father who taught me so much and has been a personal adviser on so many levels. He works so hard for our family and makes me feel loved and important.

I am also blessed to be married to a man developing into an outstanding father. I've been watching Ryan grow and change since Nathan was born and I am so proud of the man he is and the role model he plays for his son. He, too, works tirelessly for our family and I can see how Nathan already looks up to him.

To all the dads out there, Happy Father's Day! You mean so much to us!

Thirteen Months

Nathan, you are thirteen months old!

You are a busy, busy boy! Always on the go, I often find you in a different place than where I left you if I happen to turn my head. You crawl so fast and climb up on everything! Such a little monkey. You love to walk holding our hands but are pretty timid to try just one and heaven forbid we force you to try it you immediately sit and throw a fit. We've caught you standing on your own a few times and I cheer each time so you know it's encouraged but for now you are pretty content crawling or cruising with a firm grip on something steady.

You light up when your Daddy comes home from work and the two of you are becoming even closer. You like to wrestle and spend silly time on the couch, rolling around and flopping on the pillows. I know you love me but you definitely need your Daddy time and often prefer him to me.

You LOVE books and we spend so much of our day reading. You pull all the books off your shelves and find the perfect one before crawling over and climbing into my lap. It's pretty adorable and I am so glad you have such a fondness for reading (and that you like to snuggle up).

You point at everything and say a few things that probably only I understand. "Mama" can mean me or more, "baba" can be your pacifier or a bottle, "dada" is basically anything fun, especially electronics, and your dad, of course. You also say "book", "fish", "up" and "keys" (sometimes). You also point and raise your voice really high when you see balloons - it's pretty cute!

You're such a little helper and are so proud when you hand me things or can partake in what I'm doing. You like to push the vacuum around from behind and your latest obsession is crawling up into the dishwasher while we're loading or unloading.

We had a rough health month, which led to many days stuck at home trying to find creative ways to play. We took a break from swim lessons because of it and I think you were happy about that! You got a bad cold with high fevers and the worst diaper rash I hope to ever see. I've never seen you in such pain and it completely broke my heart! The upside, I suppose, was that you really enjoyed the nakie play time the few times we tried to air you out.

We're still working on transitioning from a bottle to all sippy cups and we're pretty much just off of formula as of this week. We spent three weeks with you waking in the 5 or 6 o'clock hours, crying hysterically, much to the dismay of your tired parents, but suddenly you are back to 7-7:30 and your mom is very thankful. It's still a mystery why that was happening! You take two solid naps and go to bed around 8:30.

You seem like such a little boy to me now and I just want time to stop so we can remember this fun age. You keep me busy and I just love being your mama so much!

xoxo

Thirteen Month Stats:

Weight: probably 24 pounds

Diapers: size 4

Clothes: mostly 18-24 months, but you still fit in some 12m