My big boy

I've written a post about Daniel, so I thought I'd write a few things about Nathan. He's still a really easy child. Of course, we have to train and discipline, but he's usually pretty responsive (for a three year old). He's got a strong grasp of language, but he's still working through some of the more obscure wordings and pronunciation. He says "yogret" instead of "yogurt," and "mans" instead of "men." He also misunderstands what we say sometimes, although he's always listening. The other day we dropped by Publix and were looking for apple fritters for Papa, and he kept saying, "Where's the apple critters?" Today I was talking to Stephen and I asked if he wanted to go today to get Nathan's C-A-R-S-E-A-T, and Nathan heard me spelling and said, "Mommie, I want a C-G-A!"

I'm afraid Nathan has inherited my wicked sweet tooth. Today we went to Truett's for ice cream, and he ate a cookie and drank a third of my milk shake (and would have drunk more, had there been any left). He loves marshmallows and cookies. However, he also eats many healthy foods. He LOVES creamed corn and corn on the cob. He also likes roasted zucchini, pan sauteed green beans, and grape tomatoes straight from the plant. Another favorite is cheese (something else I think he probably inherited from me).

As far as toys are concerned, Nathan has two favorite things--balls and cars. He loves kicking balls, throwing balls, hitting balls with a baseball bat, and sleeping with them in his bed at night. He plays with his cars like they're little people. "Hi Percy, what are you doing?" The cars go to the grocery store, they play at the play ground, they go to the Mexican restaurant.

When it comes to going places, Nathan is his father's son. Stephen just about goes stir-crazy if he has to stay at the house all day. I, on the other hand, could stay home for days on end, and find myself getting stressed out if I have to run errands on too many consecutive days. Just about every day, Nathan wakes up and one of the first things he asks is "Where are we going today?" On the days when I have to tell him we're not going anywhere, he's always so disappointed.

Now that I have two kids, I see even more clearly that each child is very much an individual. My two children are already very different, but I love them both with such overwhelming love. A couple of nights ago, I was putting Nathan to bed in his crib. I tucked him in, looked over the side and said, "I love you, Nathan." He looked straight up in my eyes and said, "I love you, Mommie!" Now those are the moments a mommy lives for!