Cottage 2013

We had the most fabulous vacation at the cottage this past week. We left a little after 9:00 am on Thursday morning and Nathan was GREAT on the drive. The GPS said it would take us 6.5 hours, and we made it in 7.5! That's a great time even without a baby. We only stopped twice, and he was in pretty good spirits the whole ride. We have found that if one of us is in the backseat and either reading to him or otherwise engaging (or at least giving him new toys when the other ones get old) he's pretty much content. With that and naps, we were in good shape. We got up there around 5 and Mom and Dad had dinner waiting for us. The ride back was just about as great. We had a little more traffic at the bridge coming back into the States which slowed us down a bit at the end of the drive, but we were still home by 6 and felt pretty lucky about the whole thing.

Mom was with us the whole time, and I have to say, it made it possible for us both to feel like we got a real vacation. She took on a lot of the baby care, even if it was staying in the cottage while he napped so Brian and I could kayak together, and just generally made everything SO MUCH EASIER on us. I can't remember feeling this refreshed. She can't be praised enough.

Nathan grew in leaps and bounds while we were there. He went from using a combination of crawling, walking, and cruising to straight up walking. He's officially a toddler. He also gained a few more words, his favorite being "boat." He can't stop saying it and it breaks our hearts to have to tell him that there aren't any boats at home. Another favorite is something Nonnie taught him. If you say "1-2-3" or "Ready, Set..." he'll yell "Go!" and expect you to begin on your way. It's delightful.

The newest thing happening up there is talk of building an additional cottage. Dad created the most amazing model of the tentative plan. I can't wait to see what ends up happening!

Mom took more and better pictures, but I haven't gotten them from her yet. I'll have to do another post later. In the meantime, here's a taste.

The boy likes peaches

Dearth of Photos

Nathan is in a gloriously fun phase right now, and I have so few photos to prove it! The major obstacle is that the moment I bring out the camera to video or photograph what he's doing that I find so endearing, he wants to play with the camera or phone so much that he starts crying because he isn't getting his way. All of this means that instead of getting adorable photos of him, I have ones like this instead.

Trust me, this is not what I intended to capture when I grabbed the camera. 

As a result, I now try to be super stealth in my documentation. 

Until I get caught. 

He's been understanding more and more of what we say, following instructions (when he's so inclined) giving kisses, blowing kisses, doing a thing where he puts his hands palms up like "I don't know" or "what happened?" when he's trying to get out of something, being super playful, teething on his first year molars LIKE CRAZY (that part is a whole lot less fun, 3 out of 4 have show themselves), and just generally being a hoot. He's also been working out what gets him his way so there has been an increase in whining and shrieking (not my fav) to see if that will work. Usually, if we ignore it or say, "none of that, please" he'll usually cut it out (just not while the camera is out).