Welcome, Baby Theo!

 

Theodore Joseph Daley arrived at 6:30am on Feb. 18 a little bit ahead of schedule. We were supposed to be at the hospital for a scheduled C-section at 5:30 am. But at 4am -- just a half-hour before our alarm went off -- my water broke. After that, I started having contractions just two minutes apart. We rushed to the hospital and there we discovered that there was meconium in the amniotic fluid. The same thing happened with Nate, but it was unusual for it to be there for a baby that is early. We decided to go ahead with the C-section and my doctor was called in a little bit early to perform it. As the doctor on call said, "Dr. Barnes didn't want to miss it, but don't be surprised if she didn't have time to put her makeup on."

The surgery went well. I had less discomfort than last time and when they pulled Theo out, it seemed like everything was OK. When they pulled his head out, they suctioned his airway before delivering the rest of his body. Everyone in surgery kept saying how much hair he had -- even before they pulled him out. The first thing Chuck said is, "He looks just like Nate!" I heard him cry and they said his color was good and he was moving well. Chuck cut the umbilical cord, and they cleaned him up and brought him over to me, then Chuck and Theo headed back to our hospital room.

 

 Mommy meeting Theo for the first time.

Daddy holding Theo back in our hospital room.

It took another 20 minutes or so for them to sew me up and bring me back to the room. And by the time I got there, they'd taken Theo away to run some tests in the NICU because he inhaled the meconium. This is exactly what happened with Nate -- he was gone for about five hours after I delivered him and I hated that we didn't get a chance to bond immediately after his birth. With Nate, it was just to run tests and monitor him, but he was fine. With Theo, the x-rays showed that there actually was meconium deep in his lung and his breathing was labored because of it. I expected him back after a few hours, but the nurse practitioner came in and said that he was on oxygen and would be there for at least the next 24 hours and at worst, could be there for 2 weeks. They were monitoring him for infection as well, but since my water broke just a couple hours before delivery, there was  low chance of that.

Theo in the NICU. It's usually a no-no to put a baby on its tummy, but this position helps him cough up the fluid.

Since I was still in recovery and couldn't even move my feet, I couldn't go over there to see him, but Chuck did. I think we were both really sad that he was going to be in the NICU overnight, but we knew he would be OK. It was just frustrating to not be able to see or hold him. But later that night, the nurse asked if I could come over to hold and breastfeed Theo.

Mommy finally getting to hold Theo later that night in the NICU.

I was amazed at how much he looked like Nate, except with a lot more dark hair. And he's so little! He was just four ounces less than Nate was (and as we know, Nate has been in the 80-90th percentile his whole life), but holding a newborn again was just wonderful. He seemed so healthy and strong, so I had a good feeling that he would be discharged the next morning.

Theo came into our room around noon the next day and everything was great. We found out that he had a short frenulum, which is the piece of skin that holds the tongue to the floor of his mouth. It was so close to the tip of his tongue that he couldn't stick his tongue past his bottom teeth, let alone stick it out of his mouth. This could cause problems with breastfeeding and with speech later in life, so they cut it on Saturday. It's a fairly easy procedure and not a lot of pain, and he's been a champion nurser since then. 

We were discharged on Sunday around noon and were able to come home. Mary and Adam brought Nate over soon after and he's still getting used to his little brother. For the most part, he seems excited and wants to hold him and touch his hair and show us where his nose and ears are. But there have been a few bouts of jealousy, where he wants to sit on my lap at the same time I'm nursing Theo or will put a book he wants me to read directly on top of Theo's head. Chuck and I have been crazy busy with the two of them, but it's probably been easier than I thought. I forgot how much newborns sleep!

Toddler transition time

Nate has had to grow up fast in the past couple months. The biggest change is moving from his baby nursery and crib that he's slept in since he was born into a big-boy toddler bed (which is actually quite miniature and we're not even allowed to sit on it). We were dreading the big move because it meant that we could no longer count on his predictable sleep pattern -- which has been 7 pm to 6 am with a 2-3 hour nap at least since he turned 1.

We told him it was his "big boy bed" and his special room with a sheet with puppies, lions, elephants and monkeys on it. And most importantly, we showed him how to run down the hallway yelling at the top of our lungs and then collapse on the bed. OK, he started that but we encouraged it. There have been a couple instances of him simply walking out of his bedroom into the living room at 9pm, and he also tends to move his bed to the middle of the room if he isn't quite tired yet. And of course, he's fallen out of bed a few times, but he's super-tough and learning to sleep like a normal human being with his head at the top of the bed rather than rotating all over the place. Once Chuck actually found him standing at the side of the bed with his head on the pillow, totally asleep. But it's been three weeks, and I must say, it was SOOOO much easier than I expected. He has a new (and preferred, as far as I'm concerned) sleep schedule -- 8:30pm to 7:30am. That means I get to see more of him after I come home from work AND sleep in! And what is so funny is that in the morning, he'll just sit at the bottom of the bed with his legs between the slats and just babble or moan for me. He won't get up or come out of his room. Next item on the list: the paci. We'll wait until after Baby is home for a while, otherwise he'll just pluck the baby's paci right out of his mouth.

Speaking of Baby, he'll be here in just 13 days! In some ways, I feel like this pregnancy has flown by, but I'm also feeling the physical effects of pregnancy more than I did last time. That is what happens when you have to lift a 30 lb toddler at least 25 times a day. I'm pretty sure that this baby will be big like Nate, though he'll be 11 days earlier than Nate was so maybe he'll be more of a normal size. I'm guessing 8 lbs even. I brought down all of Nate's baby clothes last weekend and I can't believe how tiny they are! It makes me excited to have a newborn in the house again ... and also a little nostalgic because my first born is all grown up!

Sickies

Last weekend, we were supposed to finish Nate's room so he could make the big transition to his toddler bed. But that didn't happen. I woke up on Saturday feeling kind of lazy and enjoyed my first (and probably only) prenatal massage, which was a wonderful Christmas present from Chuck. We had dinner that evening and I started feeling uncomfortable so I took a long bath. I figured it was just pregnancy-related, but later that night started throwing up. It's been a long time since I've had a stomach virus -- at least since college. It was so bad, I broke capillaries all over my face and didn't go to bed until 5am. Chuck let me catch up on sleep most of the day on Sunday and other than crackers and Gatorade, I couldn't stand to eat anything. Then Sunday night, Chuck got sick and Monday morning, Nate got sick. Poor little buddy. It was a miserable weekend and needless to say, nothing got done. Luckily, it seems to be a 24-hour bug and we all kicked it by Tuesday. This weekend is a three-day weekend (thanks, MLK), so we're going to try to finish Nate's room by Monday.

I had my 34-week appointment this morning and everything still looks good. My weight gain is on track and my blood pressure is low. The baby is measuring well and she thinks he's in the head-down position, though obviously it doesn't really matter if I'm having another C-section. Five weeks from today!

The Holidays

Nate's been enjoying the past few weeks with lots of family around and Mommy taking some days off to hang with him and Daddy. Mamma and Grampy Daley came down for Christmas along with Uncle Peter and Great-Mamma too. Nate was shy at first and clung to us -- as well as his new favorite person, Auntie Mary -- but after a few days, he was hamming it up and giving kisses to everybody.

New Year's Eve was fairly uneventful for the Daley family. For the second year in a row, Mommy went to bed before midnight, and Daddy was actually mopping the kitchen floor when the clock struck 12. But New Year's Day was a special treat, because Nate got to have a sleepover at Auntie Mary's. He especially likes climbing her stairs, playing with her reeds, and only occasionally eating popcorn out of the trash can. He was a good baby and slept in until 6:30am. Even better, Uncle Adam changed his first diaper! (No poop, of course, but he's taking baby steps.)

Last week, we scheduled the C-section for Baby Daley #2 for February 18, which means only 6 weeks left to go! This week, the baby is already more than 17 inches long and 4.25 lbs. He must be getting pretty cramped in there. I still feel pretty good, as long as he isn't kicking my bladder or ribs. It seems like he's completely transverse (sideways), and when he stretches out, I can feel poking on both sides of my belly. I think that means we're in for another mischievous monkey. :)

Over the weekend, we built Nate's new dresser and toddler bed, which is just about the most adorable thing I've ever seen. Of course, he's completely disinterested in it, and we still need to take down Chuck's desk before it really becomes Nate's room. But it'll come just in time, because last night, I caught Nate with one of his legs over the side of the crib and hoisting the rest of his body over. I'm surprised it took him 21 months to get this far, with all the trouble he gets into.

Thanksgiving!

The Daley family packed up the Mazda and headed down to Charleston for Thanksgiving week to share a condo with Joe and Rachel, who flew in from Minnesota. We stayed right on the Folly River, just a few blocks from downtown Folly Beach. It was rather chilly for Charleston -- about 60 degrees and overcast -- but Thanksgiving at Sue and Charlie's was perfect: sunny and 70+ degrees. Nate was battling a cold during the trip so he wasn't his usual spunky self, and blessed us by getting up at 5am, 4:30am, and 5am while we were there. But we were able to go to the beach a couple days to play in the sand. As you may know, Nate loves dirt, and sand feels a lot like dirt but is much less ... dirty, though Daddy wasn't so pleased when he saw the pile of sand in his new car. We also spent a lot of time at James Island County Park, which has a super awesome playground for little kids 2-5 and lots of walking trails. Of course, the highlight of the trip was Thanksgiving dinner at Sue and Charlie's house. Nate enjoyed some turkey and potatoes, but didn't care for the green beans. He gets that from his mama.

We also discovered a few weeks ago that Nate knows almost all the letters! He's been pointing at individual letters on boxes and on our shirts for a while now, and one day I just asked him, "Where's the O"? And he pointed right to it. I figured it was a fluke until I asked him where all the other letters on my shirt were -- and he got every single one right. Now he loves when we ask him to find letters and is so proud of himself. He also likes a few books we have where we ask him, "Where's the lion?" "Where's the baby?" "Where's the spoon?" and he can point to them.

In fetal baby news, our little buddy is moving around A LOT! I can't say that it's more than Nate, but it's at least the same. Last night, even Chuck could see my belly contorting all over the place. Right now, I'm 28 weeks along, which means the baby is about 2 1/4 lbs and 15 inches long.

Letters

In the past couple months, Nate has become fascinated by letters. Whenever he sees letters on my shirt or on a box, he will point to each of them individually, understanding that they make a word. When he's in his crib after a diaper change, he'll point to his name on the wall with a big smile and I'll say "Nathaniel -- Nate." And then we'll go through each letter individually. He also has this Leapfrog contraption on the fridge that you can put letters in and it'll sing, "B says B. B says B. Every letter makes a sound: B says B." We also have an alphabet puzzle thing where the letters pop out and he can stick them back in. One day a few weeks ago, he picked up the H and made the H sound! Now he does it all the time. I think he just likes how it sounds.

As for talking, Nate has quite a few words, but his pronunciation isn't very good. I'm pretty sure that Chuck and I are the only ones who know what he's saying. He seems most interested in animals sounds -- we'll say, "What does Wylie say?" and he'll make a panting noise (because Wylie doesn't bark). He'll make a "mrrreow" noise for a cat, "moo" or more like "brooo" for a cow, and "baaa" for a sheep. And he definitely knows his body parts. He can point to his head, hair, nose, teeth, tongue, chin, neck, ear, eye, fingers, hand, toes, knees and -- his favorite -- his belly.

I forgot to put Nate's 18 month stats on here last time. He's 28lb. and 33.5 inches tall, making him more than half my height and in the 80th percentile for both. Whenever I see him around other kids his age, I just feel like he's so tall. The kid is going to outgrow me by the time he's 8.

Pumpkin' pickin' and Halloween

A couple weeks ago, the family headed out to Hodges Dairy Farm on the outskirts of Charlotte. Nate mostly wanted to run around all over the farm and play in the dirt. He got to see some pigs, goats and horses, but the highlight was finding the perfect pumpkin.

So strong -- he can almost pick up a pumpkin as big as he is!

Do you need Mommy to help you? No, so stubborn, he wants to do it himself!

Nate, where's your head? There it is!

And where's your belly? There it is!

Happiness is playing in the dirt.

Then, this past weekend was Halloween. Last year, Nate was a lobster, but this year he wanted to be something a little scarier -- a skeleton!

Here he is at the Baby BOO-nanza Spooktacular at his girlfriend Julia's house. He thought the skull hood was really annoying (and didn't want to scare any of the other babies at the party), so he kept it off. This is what happened when we put it on later that night:

Wow, Nate, that's really scary!

But once we let him outside to play in the rain, he thought it was pretty cool. Happy Halloween!

What happened to my baby Nate?

It seems like over the summer, Nate has really grown up. Even when I look at pictures from his 1st birthday, which doesn't seem that long ago, I realize how much he's changed. The little guy is a real comedian who loves to crack us up. Now that he's scaling the furniture -- just yesterday I found that he positioned the chair in order to climb onto the kitchen table -- we're starting to discipline him, something we're still getting used to. No matter how sternly Chuck says, "Nate, SIT!" Nate thinks it's just about the funniest thing he's ever heard ... and frankly, so do I. So all three of us just laugh and I wonder how this is going to work when he's a teenager.

We spent some time at the Harris YMCA, which has an awesome waterpark and pools. Nate was a little apprehensive about getting sprayed, but once he saw the other kids, he wanted to play too.

He also took swimming lessons a few months ago, and Daddy -- former lifeguard and swim team hunk -- has also been teaching him.


Hi, Mom!


Nate, how old are you? One! Also, thanks for helping me unpack.


Playing ball in a cardboard box. Why do we bother spending money on toys?


A black eye.


A few weeks ago, Nate tripped and hit his eye on the corner of a wooden chest. He cried really hard for about five minutes and then was perfectly fine. When I saw the blood oozing out of his eye, I freaked out a little. Now I know how my mom felt about Joe, who had stitches three times before he turned 3 and had his stomach pumped twice for eating Children's Tylenol and drinking rubbing alcohol. Most recently, Nate took a tumble off the jungle gym at the park and had a giant black-and-blue bump in the center of his forehead, which is now fading to green. He's a bruiser!

The other bruiser in our family is Wylie, who strained her ankle about six weeks ago during an amazing maneuver in mid-air while trying to catch a ball. She had to wear a splint for the past six weeks, but her foot got infected and they had to take it off. She's completely restricted for another six weeks, which means no walks, doggie play dates at the park, or even wandering the backyard. The good news is that Nate is keeping her great company, and we're spoiling her by occasionally letting her lounge on the couch.

Big brother Nate

So, we found out today that Nate is going to have a little brother! We told him the news and he didn't seem to care that much, but he has no idea how much it is going to change his world -- all for the better, of course! Hopefully they'll be the kind of brothers who play nicely together, not the kind who beat each other up. :)

In the past month, Nate's definitely started to talk more. I should clarify -- he's always talked a lot, but we've never been able to understand what he's saying. Now he says lots of words: mama, dada, yeah, good, diaper, baaa, meow, Wylie, and Yeats. When we say, "Nate, can you say XX?" he always tries to say the word. Sometimes it sounds similar and sometimes it doesn't, but he always tries. We also realize that he understands a lot more than he says. If you mention the words "eat" or "milk" -- even if I'm just saying it to Chuck, not to Nate -- he heads straight to the kitchen and starts hanging on his high chair. And one day we were in the kitchen and Chuck told me to put Nate's shoes on him and about 15 seconds later, Nate walks up with his shoes. I guess it's time to start watching what we say ...

Last weekend, Nate and Chuck had boys' weekend, as Mommy spent the weekend in Minnesota. Luckily for Chuck, who's never woken up with Nate before, Nate slept in until 7:15 both mornings. They had a terrific time playing at the park and visiting Camille, one of Nate's many girlfriends.

Baby news

So you may have noticed that we haven't been posting as much lately. It's certainly not because Nate hasn't been achieving his milestones -- the kid has already mastered coloring (until he eats the crayons), scaling the couch and end tables, and singing "Elmo's Song." No, the reason no one has posted in the past month is because Mommy hasn't been feeling too well as she's been cooking up a new baby brother or sister for Nate!




If you didn't get it, this is the email Chuck sent out to our friends:

Subject: Wah, Wah!

That's right -- Chuck and Angie are looking forward to the wails of a newborn child when Baby Daley #2 is delivered around Feb 24th by some doctor (who looks vaguely like Steve Carell).

Angie is about 14 weeks along and we're definitely planning on finding out the sex, which will be in about a month. However, this time around we won't keep the name secret. For a boy, we're going with Carlos The Dwarf and if it's a girl, Skull Crusher.

Our families are very excited about the prospect of a second grandchild, but Nate has been silently protesting by pooping his pants on a regular basis. Still, we think he'll come around once he learns that a younger brother or sister can eventually be molded into a faithful minion, ready to do your mischievous bidding at a moment's
notice.

We'll keep you posted on Carlos The Dwarf / Skull Crusher's status! Also, we're accepting applications for an unpaid nanny internship. Either that, or someone can take over Beartrap PR. The hours are great (24/7) and it pays like, five dollars an hour.

Love, Chuck and Angie

Vacation time

The family flew to Minnesota last week for Nate's fourth airplane trip. Luckily, his Baby Einstein DVD entertained him most of the time so he wasn't too squirmy. Still, it was the longest two hours of my life, including being in labor. We spent the first four days up at a cabin in northern Minnesota, near Brainerd. The resort was very nice with a sandy beach, kayaks, paddleboats and a long dock. It stayed shallow - less than three feet deep - for forever, which was great for Nate and his cousin Brody.

Nate discovers the joy of sand.

He examines it with a scientific eye.

And, he eats it.

Gearing up for his first boat ride.

Grandpa Vogel doesn't mean to give Nate the finger - that's just how he tickles.

If you put Nate in a swing, be prepared to push him for a very long time. He doesn't ever want to leave!

Daddy pushes Nate around in his little boat. So much fun!

Our future soccer star - seriously, the kid can already dribble.

From when I was 3 years old until I was 21, my extended family went to a resort in that area until it was sold and eventually closed down. We actually visited the old site and it was surreal -- the cabins, docks and main lodge had all been removed as though they'd never been there.

Hiking through the former resort, right where our cabin used to be.

The beach, almost entirely worn away.

Milestones

Dad and Nate chillaxin' on the couch.

Dirty Nate taking his bath after a long day of playing outside. Note the dead grass on the tile, the mosquito bites on his head, and the mark on his face from falling down. All in a day's work!

Nate has accomplished a lot in the past few weeks. He can say dada, mama (usually only when whining), diaper (di-ga), bat, duck and I'm pretty sure he's said Wylie (ya-ya) and Yeats (yay-ats). He also knows where his nose and mommy's nose is -- he points at it. Actually, he kind of sticks his finger up his own nose, but that still counts, right?

Nate also has been imitating lots of sounds lately -- everything from the cats' meowing to the beep of the car when we lock it to the squeak of the swing at the park. The best is that he started to imitate me singing "So Long, Farewell." I always sing that to him when I change his diaper to keep him still. He thinks it's hilarious when I sing, "Good-bye!" really high and dramatic, and now he does it too -- even before I start singing. What's really funny is that he pretty much hits the same note, but it should be no surprise that my son has perfect pitch. The kid is already a musical genius.

Nate also started swimming lessons at the YMCA this week. Even though Daddy insisted that he could teach his kid how to swim, we thought we needed some expert advice on how to teach a baby. He's been a little hesitant about the water, but he's getting better!

And perhaps the most significant milestone is that Nate ate his own poo this week. That's right. Apparently, his diaper shifted, its contents fell out, and as you know, anything interesting on the floor is bound to end up in Nate's mouth. Luckily, it happened during the day when mommy was at work, so daddy had to deal with it. Perhaps the only consolation is that he made a really disgusted face, so hopefully he learned his lesson. We vow to be more vigilant of diaper shifting from now on!

Mmm ... pickles!

Mamma Daley came to visit Nate this week and spent a lot of time with him so Daddy could get some work done. She let him play in the dirt and with the hose, and though he ended up with a scraped elbow and dog poop on his foot, he thought she was a lot of fun! If he can explore things that are dirty and/or dangerous, he's happy.

Nate also got a chance to enjoy his first pickle at Jason's Deli. He made a lot of funny faces but he ate the whole thing - and probably would have eaten another if we let him.

Growing up

Sorry I haven't written in a while. We spent the first week of June in Minnesota, which means that Nate experienced his third plane trip. The first was at 2 months, the second at 8 months, and this one at 13 months. I must say, it's getting harder and harder each time. Thankfully, he had two parents to entertain him. Still, you can only read the same four books so many times, and we suspect that singing "So Long, Farewell" is probably annoying to the other passengers, but somehow we managed to get through both flights without losing our sanity. It was great to see all the family! Nate got to see his Uncle Joe get his hair cut into a mohawk, which he thought was super rad.



He also got to see his cousin Brody, who is still just about the same size as Nate, just a little taller. Do you see a resemblance?



Nate has also picked up some new tricks. Mommy's friend Megan taught Nate to shake his head, "no," so now when Mommy says, "Nate, can you give me a kiss? Yes?" he smirks and shakes his head no. He thinks it's hilarious. He's also starting to point at everything, and now he knows that when he holds his finger up, it means "one." One day last week, Chuck was brushing Wylie and Nate took the brush and started brushing too! Nate loved brushing Wylie, though Wylie may not have liked it so much.

Also, Nate's hair was getting little long in spots, so we decided to give him his first real haircut. We parked him in his high chair in front of his Baby Einstein video to keep him nice and still, and snipped away - including his little curly rat tail in the back. Now he looks like a cool dude again!

Little dancer

You knew it was only a matter of time. The offspring of the winner of the 1990 St. Stan's Middle School dance contest and an indie-rock junkie was going to have an amazing sense of rhythm. So now that Nate is walking, it was no surprise to us that dancing wasn't far behind. Whether it's the music emanating from his fire truck or a jingle on a commercial, Nate will start bouncing up and down. Of course, his fave is the Michael Jackson "Off the Wall" vinyl Chuck got me for my birthday. And honestly, we haven't even tried to teach him to dance -- it's purely innate (in Nate, get it?).

Walkin' and talkin'

Nate is finally starting to walk! We knew he's been strong enough to walk for months, but just too cautious and stubborn to try. Like his mama, he tends to get easily frustrated when he can't do something. So any time he would try to walk and stumble, he'd just give up because crawling is so much easier and faster. In the past week or so, he started taking one or two steps before falling into our arms. But this morning, he actually walked 6, 7, 8 steps at a time! I think he'll still prefer crawling for now, but he has great balance and I'm sure it won't be long before he's running all over the house!

And we're also starting hear actual words coming out of Nate's mouth. He's been babbling pretty much since he was born. Even before he turned a month old, he started "goo"ing for us, which eventually evolved into the sophisticated babbling we hear today. When he was about 9 months, he seemed to be using "Dada" in reference to Chuck, and a couple months later, I started to hear, "Mamamamamamamamama" only when he was whining (of course). Now he says "duck" and "ball" and I think he also says "yeah." We also know he's linguistically advanced because he enjoys reading the Norton Anthology of Literature:


Even though Chuck never blogs on this site, you have to check out his business website, where he talks about how he tries to "prep Nate for some serious nap time" by subjecting him to punk music.

The terrible 1s?

Whenever we take Nate anywhere, people always say what a HAPPY baby we have, how he must be so photogenic. He's almost always babbling, smiling, waving hi, etc. And it's true -- Nate is easy to entertain. Even if he's crying, we can make him laugh, by tickling him, singing songs, or giving him kisses.

But since his 1st birthday, I've started to notice some interesting behavior. Now, when he's frustrated with something, he'll arch his back and throw his head back, so much that he could smack his head on the floor if we didn't catch it. Luckily for him, we've always been there. And Chuck said he threw his pacifier across the room one day! I'm pretty sure he gets his stubbornness from Chuck. I can say that, because Chuck hasn't written a single blog since Nate was born and so he can't defend himself. Heh heh heh ...

I remember someone telling me when Nate was 3 months old, "Just so you know, the terrible 2s start when they're 1." Of course, 1 seemed so far off, I wasn't concerned - I was worrying about getting him to sleep through the night. But now I think she might be right. He's asserting his independence!

New games we like to play

Race to the toilet
When you hear aggressive crawling that sounds like slap-slap-slap-slap very fast, you can assume that Nate is trying to bust into the bathroom and get his hands in the toilet. It's such a fun game that Nate crawls even faster as you approach and laughs at the prospect of you trying to stop him.

Splishy-splash in the toilet
This is what happens if you lose Race to the toilet.

What happens if I put this food on the floor?
A little experiment that occurs when Nate is no longer hungry or interested in his food. Typically involves Cheerios or peas. Coincidentally, when put on the floor after eating, he will proceed to eat these same items off the floor.

Where's Nate?
Almost always played in the bathtub, Nate will pull the shower curtain in front of his face. You say, "Where's Nate? Where did he go? I miss him!" until he pulls the shower curtain away with a big, toothy grin, and you say, "There you are!" Note that this game never gets old and can go on forever.

You can't find me!
As Nate is driving his car around, you say, "You'll never find me!" and hide in some corner of the house. When he approaches, you jump out and say, "BLAAHHH!!!" really loud. Seriously, the louder the better. And then tickle him.

Scary chase
Also played while Nate is driving his car, you also need to drive your own car at top speed and scream like a crazy person at the top of your lungs. It helps when you spin around really fast like you're totally out of control. You'd think we're terrorizing him, but I've never heard a baby laugh so hard in my whole life.

Tickle zombie
Nate loves to pull on your pant leg until you pick him up. You think that he wants you, but no - he just wants your height. He'll point to something and you're supposed to walk there so he can pull it down and break it. So now when Chuck is holding Nate and he points at something, I'll point at him with one hand, then lift the other, and then come at him like a zombie. A tickle zombie. Again, it sounds like we're torturing him, but this is one of his favorites. For real!

1 big day!

What is this? It tastes good!

I think I like the blue frosting the best ...

Yay! I'm 1 year old today!

When you combine a baby's 1st birthday with his baptism, Easter Sunday, AND a visit from both sets of grandparents and a great-grandma ... it's a big day -- a big weekend, actually. The Vogels and Daleys hadn't seen Nate since Christmas, when he was 8 months, and he's changed a lot! Although he was crawling then, he's gotten much faster, and is now an expert cruiser/bruiser. Nate also had a little bit of separation anxiety this time around - he cried when Mamma Daley went in to get him from his nap, and when Grandpa Vogel surprised him in the kitchen - but once he got used to his grandparents, he was hamming it up like a little social butterfly.

We all got to spend a lot of time together, and Nate enjoyed being the star. He did a great job during the baptism and seemed fascinated by Father. He even smiled and waved at his Grampy, who was taking pictures from the altar. And when he poured water over his head, Nate squirmed a little bit, but didn't cry, even when he got some water in his eyes.

Nate took a LONG 2 1/2 hour nap after his baptism to prep for his big party. It was a good thing too, because he needed a lot of energy to play with all the toys he got as presents! Of course, Nate enjoyed his birthday cake - the first taste of real sugar and lard that he's had in his entire life - and he had a nice sugar buzz for the rest of the night.

And it's official -- Nate is completely weaned off of bottles and is 100% on whole milk in sippy cups. We made the transition right before his 1st birthday and he did great!

Grandma and Grandpa Vogel, please come back to visit again soon!