NathanRising
life with a new baby
life with a new baby
Jan 16th
Posted by Jen in Oh the things Nathan does
I walked into the bathroom and this is what I saw. Apparently, Nathan thought Elmo needed to use the potty. I have a feeling Elmo was not pleased with Nathan’s idea… but at least I keep the potty clean!
I can’t stop laughing…
Jan 11th
Posted by Jen in Daily Life
Nathan loves learning how to read. He doesn’t know how to read per se, but he recognizes many words by sight. He knows the alphabet, uppercase and lowercase, so we are working on what each letter sounds like and which words start with that letter.
When we learn about the letter “B,” for example, I’ll ask him what sound(s) that particular letter makes and then we’ll talk about different words that start with that letter. I turn it into a fun game and make it something exciting and interesting. Whenever I ask Nathan if he would like to talk about a new letter, he gets so excited, claps his hands, and will even do a little dance. So, after I drew on the board and we talked about the letter “B,” Nathan walked around the house saying, “B is for book! Book starts with the letter B! B says buh… buh… buh!”
I’m so glad he likes learning and loves to read. As long as he keeps up a love of learning and reading, the sky is the limit for him.
Jan 7th
Posted by Jen in Oh the things Nathan does
Nathan has suddenly started talking in sentences. It started a week or so ago – after a two-month-long episode of Nathan being an complete and total pill. Don’t get me wrong, he’s a super sweet, loving little boy. But when he’s about to hit a major milestone, his behavior goes down the crapper. The past couple of months have been hard. Tantrums, fighting, screaming, and constant misbehaving and testing have been the highlight of our days. My normally sweet little boy was doing things he’d never done before- like throwing tantrums in restaurants and blatantly disobeying me at every single opportunity.
Fortunately, he’s calmed down a lot over the past week or so.
We anticipated once that phase was over, he would probably start talking more. But we had no idea it would be like unleashing a dam! It happened so suddenly. I blinked and *POOF!* he started talking more and more like a big boy.
The other day, he found his missing cape. When I heard the triumphant sound of dancing feet, I peeked into his room and saw he had already put it on.
“I found my cape!” he exclaimed. I stared, speechless.
“What?” I asked, not really sure if I had really just heard him correctly use a sentence.
“I found my cape! I found it!” he said.
Wow. Just… wow. A couple of weeks ago, he would have said something like, “Look! Cape!” but this time, he used a whole sentence. And I was super impressed that he used his pronouns correctly. Just like a big boy! And now that he’s transitioning past this epic Misbehaving Phase, he’s becoming so dang sweet. He wraps his little arms around my neck and says, “I love you so much, Mommy” as he plants little kisses on my cheeks.
My favorite sentence he’s said this far was when he was sitting on his potty, reading a book as he tried to go. He opened one of his favorite books, The Little Engine That Could, ran his hands up and down the front page, and said, “I love books soooooooooooo much.”
Another new development… He’s minding me better when I explain things to him.
For example, my mom, Nathan, and I went to eat at Red Lobster the other day. Nathan was sitting beside me in the booth, and he repeatedly attempted to slide under the table, stand in the booth, talk to the people behind us, etc. I finally had enough, and I plopped him back down beside me and told him that was enough. He needed to sit still and stop trying to slide under the table. He did NOT like that one bit, and he threw a hideous temper tantrum which involved banshee-like shrieking and ripping out one of my earrings and hurling it onto the table. I picked his angry butt up out of the booth and marched him outside for a time out and a harsh scolding. After he completed his timeout, I told him his behavior was unacceptable and that if he chooses to continue to behave like a brat, I would take away his books. I told him when we went back inside, I expected him to mind like a big boy and not throw any more tantrums.
Well, he did pretty good when we went back in to finish our lunch.
But then when it was time to leave, he spied the lobster tank they keep out in the lobby.
Uh oh.
He ran towards the tank and stood inches from the glass. “Hi, fish!” he said, waving his hand. “Lots of fish in the fishtank,” he mused as he stood there, watching intently. I dreaded telling him it was time to go. We needed to leave, but when I tried to steer Nathan away from the tank, he resisted. A could feel a tantrum brewing. But I had a plan.
“Nathan,” I said. “We need to leave. If you’re good and don’t throw a temper tantrum, then I will let you look at the lobsters next time we come back. But, if you’re NOT good and you decide to throw a tantrum, then no more lobsters. I will NOT let you look at them the next time we come back. Do you understand?”
“Yes.”
“Okay, let’s go then.”
“Okay.”
Okay? Really? And then he turned around, grabbed my hand, and walked out of the restaurant like a big boy. It’s the little things like this that make me feel like I am doing something right.
Jan 6th
Posted by Jen in Oh the things Nathan says
Nathan looked up at the sky and said, “Hi, God! I love you! How are you?” as he waved his hand.
“You talking to God?” I asked.
“Yeah, God’s in the clouds,” he replied. Then he put both hands on my face, tilted my head up towards the sky and said, “Say hi God!”
I’m not sure if he wanted me to say hi to God, or if he was asking God to say hi to me.
You see, I’ve been talking to Nathan a lot about God. To explain God in terms that his little mind can understand, I told him that God lives really, really far away… further than the sky. He lives so far away that we can’t see him, but he has really good eyesight so he can see us. And good hearing, too, so he can hear us. I tell Nathan that God loves him so very much, to which Nathan always replies, “I love God too!”
My sweet, sweet baby. The look on his face says it all; he really does love God. Even though he’s never seen God, he loves him nonetheless. To me, that is pure preciousness.
You see, my religion is extremely important to me. I want to bring Nathan up to know God and to love him, but not to the point that I’m shoving the Bible down his throat. I want him to love God because he WANTS to love God. The best I can do, I think, is to talk to him about God and guide him in the right direction, and pray God does the rest.
So far, God seems to be doing just that.
Recent Comments
Aww thanks, Tina, it was good to see you too! I wish I could have talked to you more... I ...
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