SUMMERy of the season!

As we have reached the unofficial end of summer I thought I would give a summary of the things Nathan has done this summer. He has of course grown by leaps and bounds. (I'll update tomorrow with the beginning of summer height (June 1, 17 months) and the end of summer height (Sept 1, 20 months). Nathan's language has just taken off. If I had to guess he's easily got over 200 words. I can't even keep track of everything he can say now, it's crazy. And to think, at the beginning of the summer I thought he was behind in language development. We have a climber on our hands. Nathan learned how to climb both of our gates in the house. We removed one of them and the other we find that as long as we aren't in the kitchen he doesn't try to climb over the gate (and if we are in the kitchen we just leave it open now). We recently fenced in our yard (the one side has never had a fence) and put in a gate and Nathan quickly discovered that he could climb the gate! As far as other skills, opening doors, drinking from drinking fountains (can't walk past one without him wanting some "wa-wa"), and getting over his fear of the community pool top the list of his newest skills. Nathan loves to "swim" and yesterday woke up from a nap saying "swim, swim, swim" so of course we had to take him swimming.

Nathan went camping 5 times this summer, starting with the annual church father-son camp out. This was when we discovered the pack-n-play was useless because Nathan could climb out of it. It must have been an interesting night (of course, I, mommy, wasn't there). Of course what would an all boy camp out be with out rain, and rain it did. According to daddy though they were one of the few that stuck it out in the tent all night. The next camping trip was with our neighbors. This was a 3 nighter out in Brighton.




After that we ventured out on our own up to Pontiac Lake for a 2 night trip. We spent a day at Uncle Tom's and had a blast. Our next camping adventure was up in Oscoda with a large group of people. It was another 2 nighter (which we have discovered is the perfect length for us). We were able to take Nathan canoing for the first time. I don't have many pictures from that trip because I couldn't find the camera until the last day. Here is a picture of Nathan trying to drive.


Our final camping trip was just an over night at the ward camp out.

Nathan also had fun just playing in the backyard at home. He loves to be outdoors. You would never in a million years guess that a child lives in our house by looking at the backyard, lol. With the swings, slides, teeter totter, sandbox, kiddie pool, trucks, balls, bats, and ride on cars we have our on little park right outside our back door. We also have fun inside when it's too hot or too wet to be outside.








We had a few outings to Metro Beach and some other activities with our MOMS Club. We also went on family outings as often as possible.



When Nathan turned 18 months on July 1 he was able to start going to nursery at church. At first he was not happy about it but now he's enjoying it more. We get him very excited to go to "nursee"and now he only cries for about a minute. Then he plays with his friends and the toys.

If I can think of anything else to add I will be sure to add it, but I think that pretty much sums up the summer. We are already looking ahead to the fall. Nathan is hoping to become a big brother this fall (although you just never know how long the wait is going to be for an adoption). He is going to become a big cousin this fall. Baby Tyler is scheduled to arrive in mid-October. In preparation for both a cousin and sibling Nathan has two "babies" that he sleeps with and takes care of. He wakes up in the morning and gives his babies a bottle, it's so cute! Nathan is going to continue going to story time at the library where he will get to see "Lucky" (the little dog puppet that comes out at the beginning and end of story time). We can't go to the community center (the library is in the same building) without Nathan asking for "Lucky". We are also going to take a mommy and me gymnastics class.