about Nathan

I honestly have no idea when the last time was that I actually wrote an update about Nathan. I'm so sorry about that. At least you get to see plenty of pictures! :)

I was thinking last night about words to describe Nathan. Here are some of the ones that I think fit - silly, smart, curious, creative, imaginative, sensitive, bossy, excitable, black and white, accepting. So, I'm gonna take each one and talk about how it applies.

Silly - Nathan loves to be silly. He regularly makes silly sounds and "talks" nonsense. One of the things that is typical Nathan is a sort of dance that he does. He'll stomp his feel alternately and put his hands up at ear level and shake them back and forth. At the same time, he shakes his head back and forth and makes silly sounds. There's no point to it...just silliness. Since he was little, he thought it was the funniest thing to say pretend words. He still does. The favorite is "bobble". He just exclaims it for no reason. Caroline has also picked up on this. Oh my!

Smart - Wow is Nathan smart. I try not to talk about it very often unless I really know who I'm talking to. I never want to come across as bragging. BUT...I'm proud of him and I want to tell everyone...but I don't. Nathan is reading everything these days. You can't give him something that he can't read. Really. It's insane. It's especially baffling when I consider that many kids his age can't read anything at all. He's also incredibly good at remembering things. When we read a Bible story at night, Matt can ask him a question about the smallest detail and he usually knows the answer. I don't even know the answer to some of them. A couple months ago, Nathan expressed interest in playing the piano. I decided to print a couple easy songs from online to show him...just to see how he would really react. I showed him where to put his fingers and how that related to the notes on the page. He quickly got it. I went through one song with him and he taught himself two more. A couple days later, he sat down and played one of them...with no music in front of him. And the other day, he played it again. Amazed. That's what this Mama is. Let me just note, that these were not hard songs at all...three notes is all...but still. Let me just note that Nathan's intelligence comes from his Daddy!

Curious - Nathan is always on a quest to find the detailed answers to things he runs across. What kind of bird was the dead one we found? What are the shadows on the moon? How does an engine use gas? Where is the equator? Why is it hotter at the equator? Why is Sara's poop runny? How far is it from the top of the atmosphere to the moon? Why do some houses have their wires under the ground instead of in the air? These are all questions that he has asked recently. I could go on and on. And one question usually leads to four or five more. He's not satisfied until he thinks he has all the little details down. One of his latest obsessions is with growing things. He wants to plant everything he finds. If it has a seed, he wants to know if he can plant it. Thankfully, Granddad has begun a garden with Nathan. I hope they'll be able to grow lots of things! We also have some seeds to plant here if we ever get our raised beds built.

Creative - Nathan loves to create. He spends his down time most days drawing pictures. I literally end up with a pile about four inches thick of pictures each month. I hate to throw them away, but with so many, I have no choice. Of course, I have to throw them away when he's not around most of the time. He would have us keep everything...and I mean everything. He often keeps cardboard boxes, juice containers, rubber bands, etc. for his "recycling box". Technically, it's probably a "reuse box". He uses these things to make all kinds of contraptions...firetrucks, houses for animals, carriers for animals, rockets, etc. I have to really push to get him to agree to throw things away. For example, he had a foam cooler from VBS last year. It was broken down the side. When we were cleaning out (and paring down) the pile, he wanted to tape it back together and keep it...and very broken foam cooler. I had to convince him that it really wasn't worth using and that tape wouldn't fix it very good. He is also often wanting to make various decorative projects which mostly involve gluing. Ack! I don't let him use the glue too often, but he has gone through at least five rolls of tape in the last couple months and now also has a box of brads. Today, he used the glue stick to put pictures of Spring that he had taken into a book that he made. He regularly makes books. Usually, they are story books with pictures. He makes them by stapling (or occasionally taping) lots of papers together.

Imaginative - Nathan has always had a great imagination. Even when he was very little, we could already see it. Most often lately, his imagination has appeared by playing with Caroline and pretending they are some kind of animal or insect. They build a house out of "soft stuff" (see previous pictures) and lay around in or under them. Several times, he has had me help him make a tent of sorts to use as the house. He and Caroline also often play and pretend they are running from monsters. I have not seen this one in person, but he tells me about playing police at school. He and several of the other kids (mostly boys) play like they are police and others are "bad guys". Apparently, there is one kid in particular who is mean and is often the bad guy that they are after.

Sensitive - Nathan has a tender heart. It's good in a way, but most of the time we aren't big fans. When things don't work out like he wants, he often gets really upset. He cries big ugly cries and buries his head. People who haven't seen this display are not sure if he's really upset or just playing. He's definitely upset, though. We've been working on correcting some of this behavior, but it's hard to know how much to allow.

Bossy - Boy can Nathan be bossy. When he's playing with Caroline, it is very often that I hear "Baby, do this...Baby, do that..." Most of the time, Caroline says ok and hurries about whatever he instructed. We have to remind him at times that he is not her parent. (I know I've heard something like that before in my life...but where...) I'm really surprised that she hasn't stood up to him more than she has. She has a much stronger personality. Nathan is also bossy with his friends. I'm not around him to really get the interaction much, but I do hear it occasionally. I can also tell that he's the ringleader in a lot of his playing at school by his descriptions of what they do.

Excitable - When Nathan likes something that is happening, he can get VERY excited. This generally occurs when somebody comes over to our house to visit - Nana and Granddaddy, Aunt Erin, Mema and Papa, etc. He will run around the house like he's had three cups of sugar to eat. And he doesn't stop until they have left. Oh my! He also has very excited reactions when we're going to do something that he likes - go to Monkey Joe's or McDonald's, for example. I honestly hope that he retains the ability to get excited about things, but I also hope that he'll learn to tone it down just a bit.

Black and White - Nathan sees the world in black and white. He has two parents who do as well, so I know where he gets it from. To him, there is absolutely no grey. If it's right, then everybody should believe that it's right and do it. If it's wrong, there is no excuse for doing it. Unfortunately, this doesn't cause him to always obey...but reason generally shows him where he's wrong when he gets in trouble. As an example of this trait of his, the other day the subject of him being smart came up. I asked him why he thought God made him smart. His response was "so I can correct people when they're wrong." Oh no...we're in trouble! He really does think he should correct people...even adults. This is something that we're having to work on. It is especially hard to explain to him why it is disrespectful to correct an adult. He just doesn't understand why he can't tell them that they've got something wrong...if it's wrong, they need to know. This is a hard line to find even for adults, so I'm sure that he will continue to feel it out for a long time.

Accepting - This is the best word that I could come up with to explain what I wanted to share. Nathan is very accepting of all people. In fact, he tends to befriend those that are a little different. His best little friend at church is the youngest of their group. He is a bit immature and quiet (though I hear that he tends to get in trouble). He's small and definitely not the coolest kid in the bunch. At school, the first friend he really talked about was a little boy in another class. The two classes play together on the playground. This little boy is autistic and doesn't really make friends at all. He and Nathan quickly became buds. In his class at school, the kids that I hear the most about are a little boy who is the smallest of the bunch and a little girl who is the biggest. The little boy seems to me to be a bit shy, but Nathan really likes to play with him. The little girl is very large - unhealthy. She's the kind of kid that will be teased the older she gets. But Nathan likes her. He's talked about her since early on. She's the one girl that I know of that plays with the bunch of boys. She loves Nathan and has a big heart.

Well, there's my book about Nathan. I'm guessing that the other two won't have as much for me to write about, but you never know!

tacky day

This is how Nathan went to school today. He he!



(Look for more posts later today.)

some recent pictures

I have every intention of actually writing an update, but I just haven't gotten to it. In the meantime, here are a few recent pictures. This first one is a regular occurrence around our house. The kids gather up all the "soft stuff" from around the house and then pretend to be ants...or dogs...or whatever other animal Nathan comes up with.


Here, Nathan was watching tv and Caroline decided to sit on his knee (at least that's how she described it).


And here are some of Sara.

poor Caroline

Easter

Here are some Easter pictures finally. :) We tried to get a couple pictures of the kids before going to church (in case one of them didn't make it out of church in their new clothes). It's a challenge to get a good picture of three kids at one time...especially when one of them can't sit or stand and the others aren't big enough to hold her.


This more accurately reflects "normal" around here.


We had three rounds of Easter egg hunting at Grandma and Granddad's house. Here is a picture from round one of Caroline finding "my favorite purple".


Granddad bought the kids "super eggs" that had special toys in them.


Here is how Sara spent her first Easter egg hunt.


Caroline had a good time finding her eggs. They weren't too hard, but she still had to do some looking - and wading through the special tall Easter egg hunt weeds.


Nathan had eggs to find in a different area. His were a little harder...but not too hard.


In round two, we put some money in the eggs (they were empty the first time).


Caroline stored her money in Grandma's pocket.


Nathan had trouble finding this egg (look closely in the bush between the kids) so we sent Caroline over to help.


In round three, Nathan and Caroline hid the eggs and Daddy, Grandma, and Granddad found them. Here is Caroline's version of hiding eggs - just chunk 'em. She actually did very well hiding them in the branches of the bushes as well. Nathan also wanted to chunk the eggs...only into the middle of bushes. I think this round was just as much fun as the other two!

a picnic

Yesterday, we headed out for a supper picnic. We went down to the Bonaire post office and tossed out a tarp on the front lawn. This is a great location for several reasons that you will see in just a moment. We had us some good KFC fried chicken. Yum yum! Here's Mommy and Sara after eating. We were hanging out while Nathan and Caroline were playing. Sara actually slept while we ate and then took her turn to eat just before this picture was taken.


There are lots of semi trucks that come down this road. We have taught Nathan how to try and get them to honk. He had a blast! We had to give him some warnings not to get too upset when some of them didn't honk. If you know Nathan, you know that he doesn't handle disappointment very well. However, when one of them did honk, we would turn around and give us a BIG ol' smile and throw both hands up in the air.


The post office is located just across the street from the train tracks. Fortunately, trains come frequently enough that there's a good chance of getting to see one. Both Nathan and Caroline really enjoyed getting to see the train so close.



That's my girl! The crumbs on her face are from a popcorn egg...weird.


I don't often get into pictures. Since Matt had the camera (he took all these pictures), I took the opportunity to get into a couple. I'm glad to have a picture with all my kiddos!


This is a close up shot of Sara from the picture above. I haven't taken many pictures in the last week or so. I really need to get on the ball!


After our picnic, we headed over to McDonald's for dessert...a milkshake for Nathan and Caroline, apple pies for Daddy, and chocolate chip cookies and tea for Mommy!

pigtails