Bedtime Hijinks

Wave a white flag to surrender. Fly your flag at half mast to mourn. Hang your flag upside down when you are in distress. But what does it mean when your 16 month old waves his green striped froggy pajama bottoms over the edge of his crib? Is he declaring war on sleep? Calling a truce? Surrendering?

It's definitely not a sign of surrender. That I know for sure. Last night Nathan was in one of his "I'm completely exhausted but not in the mood to sleep" moods. He was nearly asleep in my arms so I laid him down. This is our normal routine, usually resulting in a tear or two but then sleep generally comes in a couple of minutes or so. Sometimes he cries for a while and I go back in to his room to help him calm down again so sleep can take over. When I went back in to his room last night, he was standing quietly at the edge of his crib (not too strange of sight) but then as I looked more closely I realized that he had taken his pants off and was waving them back in forth in front of the bars on his crib. I've not figured out if this was some form of protest? An act of rebellion? Exploration of his interest in becoming an exhibitionist or nudist??? I guess only time will tell.

The good news is that Nathan fell asleep shortly after I got him back into his pants and slept throughout the night. The bad news, he woke up with a nasty cold and has had a runny nose and eyes and has been sneezing all morning long. Poor little guy.

A Special Day

Today Nathan and I went on an extra special adventure. We drove to Virginia (Nathan's first trip out of North Carolina) to meet some extra special friends for lunch. Nathan fell in love with them right away. He is a pretty easy going kid and warms up to people pretty easy but I've not seen him connect quite this fast. Within just a couple of minutes of meeting, Nathan reached out for Elizabeth as if he had known her his entire life. I guess in a way he has known her all of his life. You see, I began playing her "Be Still" CD to help put Nathan to sleep when he was very young so in a way he's been getting to know her through her music nearly all of his life.

Scott and Elizabeth were a great source of encouragement and support over the years as we were waiting on the Lord for Nathan. It was such a blessing to have them meet the fruit of their prayers, especially since Elizabeth was with me when I found out I was pregnant the first time and she was one of my greatest confidants as I was grieving the loss of that baby(See my posts from July of 2007). What a blessing to watch them enjoy getting to know Nathan today.

Waiting for Scott and Elizabeth to arrive.

New Buddies.






I am so thankful for this opportunity to spend time catching up Scott and Elizabeth and pray we don't have to wait as long to spend time together again next time.

Sharing Some Doggone Fun

On the Fourth of July Nathan got to spend some time with Wally, Uncle Rick and Aunt Marcia's dog. As you can tell he LOVED playing with Wally. I have a feeling as soon as he starts talking Nathan will be asking for a dog of his own.


Over the last couple of months Nathan and his cousin Ivy have been becoming good friends. After dinner on the 4th Nathan and Ivy were sharing some puffs when Nathan decided to feed Ivy some of their snack.

That's How He Rolls!

A couple of days ago we took Nathan to the zoo for the first time. He had a great time. Here's a little video of one of his favorite adventures while we were there.