Chalk

So since Nathan has been so desirous to color with crayons inside the house I thought you would like to see some pictures of Nathan using chalk to color outside too.

This next picture let me preface with the story. Nathan and I were drawing with the chalk. I sat in one place and drew a few things including an eye (don't ask me why, but I've always been fascinated with drawing them, and have always wished that I could draw a really good one so I tend to doodle them) and Nathan of course is running all over the place stopping every so often to draw a few lines when he sees the need. He really enjoys coloring "with" you, so I draw something first and then he adds his two cents in with a few lines of his own generally right over whatever you just drew (So he made my eye look blood shot with his lines of pink chalk... so funny). So after a while he comes over to help me again and sits right on the eye. You can see both the results of sitting and the actual drawing in the picture.

Nice stamp don't you think?

"Ring around the rosey..."

So we have become Ring Around the Rosey enthusiasts here at the Wagoner Ranch. I've played it a few times with Nathan and the girls that I watch, but this week Nathan has been asking to play it. He goes and collects everyone in the room, tears them from what they are doing, and holds their hands and starts jumping or walking. Even Nana and Grandpa, my parents, who came for a visit this this weekend got to participate. We are still learning the all fall down part, but he's loving playing this game. So now you have all been warned... if you come to my house you may be asked by an 18 month old to play Ring Around the Rosey... and who can say no to those blue eyes? and that smile???

Here's the next thing Nathan has been really into lately...

COLORING

Please notice the concentration on his face in the above and below pictures.

And I think this is his favorite color!!! He uses it all the time!!!

What a cute kid!!!! I know I'm his mom and I'm biased, but please!!!! So cute!!

And finally a blast from the past!!!! I found these pictures from last year...

We start them out young around these parts!!!

Yes, he's seven months old, has four teeth, (he will be growing another four by eight months!!! Yes, we had eight teeth by eight months but lucky for me he was nice about them, or else we probably wouldn't have nursed as long as we did!) and is playing with an iPod!!!

Renaissance Fair

And no I did not eat the whole thing... It was HUGE!!!

Every year Norman has a Renaissance Fair at the park. This is the first time we have attended since we've been here. It was pretty fun. We met up with some friends and had a good time watching the animals and eating fair food. It doesn't get much better than that.

Nathan and I are watching the end of a juggling act. As you can see we were slightly concerned for this poor juggler. I guess it doesn't help that this was the part of his act were he was supposed to be juggling the fire batons, however, we are under a burn ban and they wouldn't let him light them, so we were supposed to imagine the fire. Lets just say it didn't go very well.

This was the best part of the fair for my son. He went up and down and up and down for a good long while. I'm sure he loved the animals and such, but this was a blast!!!!

This is my son's best friend, Owen. He's the first thing I hear about in the morning and the last thing I hear about at night. He wants to know what Owen is doing at all times. It's quite cute.

Here's another one of Nathan's good friends, Guy. He was so excited to play with guy in this field while we were waiting for traffic to clear out so we could leave and go home. They ran all around, Nathan trying to hug poor Guy, pointing at him and squealing in delight, playing peek a boo around a park bench, running back and forth... It was quite fun to watch!!!

HI!!!!!!

So this is how my son says hello to people now days. I don't know how it got started, nor who taught him, but he just does it. It's cute. It's hilarious. What can I do???

When he was a baby we're talking six months more or less. He used to say hello to people by opening his mouth as wide as it would go. Believe me it was wide, he has his father's mouth. But I decided it was because when people would stop us and coo at my baby the first thing they would do is open their mouth and eyes wide, to see if they could get him to smile. So he started repeating the gesture to say hi. It was quite funny, but this, this is his own creation.

Hiking the Wichita Mountains

During Spring Break we had planned to go camping for a few days, but when the temperatures were looking to be below freezing at night and we have a son who doesn't like to have blankets over him, we quickly changed our plans and decided to go hiking instead. So we went back to the Wichita Mountains (yes I know it's hard to believe that Oklahoma has mountains. And maybe we do and maybe we don't. I've heard them described more as speed bumps than mountains, but it's all we've got folks, so take it or leave it. hehe) The last time we went there with my brother, Darren, and my sister, Stacey, we took the hard way to the top and I ended up perched on the side of a mountain nursing my nine month old son and letting him take a nap in the shade of the rocks while they went the rest of the way up, got lost, and then eventually made their way back to me. However, this time was different, thank goodness!!! We stayed on the path and had a really nice hike so here are some pictures:

In this picture I hope you can hear my son go "ra, ra, ra, ra..." Lets just say he learned the word rock on this trip and would point to them or want to touch each one on our way up the mountain. It made going up a little slow.

The other thing he learned about was cactus. I pointed one out to him and showed him the spines and said "owie". So he then took it upon himself to point out all the "owies" on the trail so we wouldn't step on them. So his conversations went something like this "ra, ra, ra, owie..." So cute!!! He has super good eyes and had tons of fun climbing on the rocks and eating yummys.

Yes, I took this picture and I think I did a mighty fine job at it, thank you very much!!! Aren't my men so cute!!!

And last but not least we can't forget about the.....

DIRT!!!!!!

I must say it's my son's favorite toy.

Nathan and the Apple

This is the photo that is in my husband's Flickr account. And I've added some extra photos that are not on the stream just so you can the the extent this apple was played with/eaten.

(Note to all concerned parents who think that my son should not have been eating an apple at such a young age. 1. He was watched very carefully by several adults one of which was not mommy so she couldn't have stopped it [hey I have to get ready for the day sometime right?], however, if chocking would have occurred it would have been taken care of quickly. 2. By 8 months old in these pictures, he had eight teeth! So he had plenty of chompers by which to eat the apple.)
So here is the story behind these pictures. This was in May 2010 while I was staying with my family for a little bit to help with my brother, Andrew, who was passing away from cancer

(Nathan was named after his uncle. He was a very courageous guy! But that is another story for another time).

One weekend Charlie, my husband, came up for a visit and had left an apple in his bag. Well, Nathan saw it and pulled it out and started rolling around my parents' living room. He would roll it away and then crawl after it.

And of course once he had caught up to it he would try out those teeth of his and take a big bight, and then push it away again. I think he played with this apple for like 20-30 minutes chasing the apple all over the room.

The iPad

So my friends have been trying to get me to write on here for a while. Obviously I started this sight a while ago, I just didn't know what to put on it since we put everything on Facebook anyway. So my friends helped me with some ideas and one of the ideas is to write the story behind the pictures that my husband, Charlie, puts on his Flickr account. Anyway, so here is the story behind the iPad.

My husband is a poli-sci techno geek. None of this is bad, I'm just stating the facts here. He got his BA in poli-sci at OU and decided that that was all well and good, but there is only so much politics a man can handle, so he decided to get his Masters in his other love, technology. Every technologist needs to have the latest gadgets on hand and be up to date with what's going on in the world of computers, and my husband is no different. So we have all the latest gadgets, ok, so not all of them, but I'm sure if we had the money to do so we would have the best in new gadgets.

Anyway, that said, our son has also grown up since day one with his hand in technology. Before he was 11 months old he was able to walk and to slide the bar to unlock not only our iPhones but the iPad also. And then shortly after he learned that he can touch the screen and things move and change and he can push the home button and more changes happen. Lately, (he'll be 18 months next week) he has learned that each little square stands for a certain program and he knows what program does what, or at least is learning it. In this picture he is looking for the bright red square that is Netflixs so he can watch Thomas the Train, his other new love. He was introduced to Thomas a few weeks ago when he had a horrible virus and was miserable for a few days and all we did was watch Thomas. We have seen every Thomas and Friends video on Netflixs since and some more than once. This is the first attachment we've had on anything other than mom so it's been fun to see him shout "TA" every time he sees Thomas the Train or wants to watch it on tv. Anyway he knows where to find the icon on my phone and the iPad and pushes it very meticulously as you can see in the picture. And some times the buttons get pushed more than once and always very softly. I need to create an app that just has buttons on it for my son to push and have something pop up. I think he would love it, the little button pusher that he is....