And how was your day?

Nathaniel can be rather chatty (like his daddy). Some of our best conversations are at the changing table. However, today he was telling his mommy about his day while he was in the living room. We thought you might like to hear what he had to say.



Christopher

Christmas Clothes

You can only have one first Christmas, but you can never have enough first Christmas clothes...or can you? Some of these photos suggest that Nathaniel strongly feels you can have too many. What do you think?

I love this photo not only for his cute "semi-smile" but also because it looks like he's taking a self-portrait. :-)

This is actually two outfits put together the hat and booties were separate from the "Ho Ho Ho" romper. While he looks cute and happy here, he's actually building up to a really good fuss.

What I find particularly amusing about this photo is the juxtaposition of the crying baby face with the happy reindeer face. Sorry, no "happy baby" photos in this outfit.

Unfortunately, not even the addition of a "My 1st Christmas" bib could soothe this savage beast.

Christopher

Christmas 2008

We took Nathaniel on a road trip over the holiday break. Our first stop was Chattanooga, TN to meet his great grandmother, great grandfather, and great uncle Wes (my mother's family). Then we joined up with Nathaniel's great aunt Sheri, great uncle Brian, great uncle Ron, and his other great grandparents (my father's family) and headed to Destin, FL. We stayed in Destin for a week, and Nathaniel got to spend a lot of quality time with my family. You can check out pictures from the trip here: Christmas photos

On the way home we stopped in Decatur, AL to see our friends John and Cathy. It was fun catching up and a welcomed stop on our trip back home.

Kristina

Calli

Calli is used to getting a lot of attention- then Nathaniel joined our household. She is starting to warm up to him (she even licked him on the nose this morning), but mainly she just ignores him. Here are some of her attempts to get me to pay attention to her while I'm paying attention to Nathaniel. Poor girl.

Naps

Grandpa likes to take naps with Nathaniel:

Cavalcade of Cooperating Co-habitators Comes to its Conclusion

The first two weeks after Nathaniel was born was a bit of a challenge for us without having our parents and siblings around to help us. Somehow, we muddled through and survived. Then came our willing and able assistants.

First, Kristina's mom, Cynthia, and her boyfriend, Greg, came for a long weekend to give us a hand. Cynthia was also out the week before Nathaniel was born and helped us greatly around the house and making lots of meals for the freezer. Then, the week of Thanksgiving, Christopher's parents, Arnie and Cindy, came to lend a hand. Then we only had to get by for 4 days before Kristina's dad and stepmom, Mike and Karen came out for a week and a half to watch Nathaniel while Kristina started work again. Finally, Christopher's sister, Jennifer came out for a long weekend.

Sadly, that is the end of our help. At the culmination of over 3 weeks of help, we can't help but wonder if we can do this on our own. One thing's for sure, we got lots of helpful advice and a ton of help. We thank you and love you all for your help!

Here's a rogues' gallery of our assistants with Nathaniel:

Grandma Cynthia

Grandma Appelt

Grandpa Appelt

Grandpa Howard

Grandma Howard

Aunt Jennifer

Christopher

What's that?

Nathaniel made a big discovery yesterday. His swing has a fish mobile! And it moves! Here he is discovering the fish: