Summer Colds...

I haven't done much blogging lately, mainly due to the fact we have all three been under the weather and/or teething over the past week or so. Nate has had one bottom tooth and two of his top molars coming in for at least a week now (they all seem to have stalled right after they started poking through) which has not made him happy. And we have all had colds of different varieties. So, not much fun at our house lately!

But Nate and I did venture out of the house today and travelled to AL for lunch. My dad was in town visiting his parents, so we headed west and had lunch with Nate's Great-Grandparents and Great Aunts and Uncles. We had a nice afternoon with everyone....Nate even got a really fun noise-making Maraca from his Great Aunt Danni....thanks Aunt Danni for making sure that came home with us!!!! :) You will notice, by the pics below, that it did not leave his hands.

Nate and his Great Grandmother Odom

Taking a stroll with his new Maraca

Nate's word of the week is "Up"...I think I need to work on being more specific since he now points to and calls anything over his head "up"....

Now, I am off to take care of my sick hubby...here are some parting shots of Nate doing some baby modeling for the camera...

The Cox Family Vacation

We spent all of last week in Hilton Head with the Cox Family and had a great time. There were 13 of us and we stayed in nice big house right on the water in Sea Pines and just vegged out. We went to the beach, golfed (well, the golfers did), played tennis, took a boat ride, went bike riding....but Nate and I spent most of our time in the pool that was in the back yard. It really was nice and relaxing to have a week to do nothing unless you wanted to. Nate had a ball playing with his second cousins, Piper and Sydney. We had such a nice week it was hard to come back home! Some pics from the week:

Nate getting used to wearing his sunglasses - he would only keep them on if they were over his hat.

The dolphin that followed us on our boat ride.

Drinking some juice on the beach

Sydney, Piper, and Nate

I was hoping Nate would start walking while we were there since he had gotten so close before we left. But, no such luck. HOWEVER, today was finally the day he decided to start moving. He is transitioning in to Room 2 at school this week so I think he is realizing he has to keep up - no more babies around. So, I picked him up from school and decided to practice today...and, lo and behold, he decided he would just start walking! Woo hoo! I was able to get a few laps on video so I will figure out how to post that soon. Walking still isn't his primary mode of tranportation (of course he decided he was too tired to show off once Michael got home) but now he (and I) knows he can do it so it is only a matter of time before he is toddling around the house!

Nate has picked up a couple of other new "tricks"...he likes to show you where your eyes are by pointing to them and saying "eyes eyes", he blows kisses, and he puts the phone up to his ear like he is talking to someone. Somehow, the other day he managed to push the right combination of buttons on the home phone to dial my sister...must be a pretty smart kid!

Allergy Update...and more

So, we took Nate for his allergy test on Friday and....he does have an egg allergy. The "good" news is that 60-70% of kids outgrow an egg allergy at some point, so he will get retested every year. The bad news is, we obviously have to be really careful with what we give him, especially now that he eats only table foods - and I have to trust that his daycare is really careful too. But we will have our epi-pen always on hand in case of emergency! The other piece of good news is that Nate isn't allergic to nuts (or the other 4 common food allergens) so he had his first bites of Peanut Butter!

Goofy kid on the swings

Nate is making some progress in the standing and walking categories. Last week, he amazed us by going from sitting on the ground to standing up on his own (not pulling up) like it was no big deal. (It is funny how amazing something so seemingly simple is when it is your child doing it.) He did it 5 or 6 times....then decided that was enough showing off, and really hasn't done it much since. But he has figured out it is much easier to pull himself up and just let go...and I can stand him up and he stays there. So he's got his balance down...now we are working on walking. Since it was raining this weekend we spent some quality time indoors practicing. He can take one step forward then falls forward. We are getting there...babysteps! It isn't easy to take pics and keep him focused so I don't have good pics/footage yet, but here are a couple:

This is the best shot I got of him in action - Picture him going from this position to standing.

Testing out the waters...and letting go

We also spent a lot of time playing catch this weekend (it is difficult to keep a 13 month old entertained while indoors all day). I bought a rubber ball from the $1 bins at Target on Saturday and it was a wise investment. He likes to play catch so we sit and throw the ball back and forth. He has good hands! His new favorite thing to say is "uh oh"...so, he sometimes he throws it in a different direction just so he can say "uh oh uh oh".