Fun

Announcement

I've been meaning to post the news for a few days but haven't had the time... We are expecting our second little Varela! :) I'm due April 10, and we're very excited!

New video

Nate is getting closer and closer to walking. He still will take a few steps toward outstretched arms. Here he is using a unique walker.

Missouri

We got back this past Tuesday from a quick trip to Missouri, where Jon's mom's side of the family lives. Jon grew up going there at least once a year to visit his grandparents and aunts and uncles (there are lots--Colleen has six siblings). He has lots of fond memories of playing with his cousins and making trouble at his grandparents' house in the tiny town of Eldon.

We flew out of Orange County on Thursday (yes, Thursday, the day the authories foiled the terror plot in London... We had a very long day and arrived in St. Louis over seven hours later than scheduled). We stayed at Jon's aunt Mary's house in Jefferson City. Friday was kind of a recovery day--I don't remember doing much on this day except going to get coffee at the Starbucks in the new Target store there. On Saturday, we drove about two hours back in the direction of St. Louis to attend Jon's cousin Jessica's wedding in Mexico, Missouri. On Sunday, we went to church at Fellowship Bible Church, where Jon's grandfather was the pastor before he died about 12 years ago. It was a little country church with a big, long basement floor where Jon says he used to run around and play games. After church, we went to the White family reunion, where I met some of Jon's grandmother's siblings and aunts and other relatives. (Weird side note: the reunion was held in the lower level of a Masonic temple!....) On Monday, we visited Jon's grandparents' house, where Jon pointed out the tree he used to love to climb, the fields and stream where he and his cousins used to run and play, the room he used to sleep in that used to be so big to him (it was tiny), etc. Monday evening, we went back to Aunt Mary's house and ate Colleen's tacos. Then we had to pack up to leave! Our flight was Tuesday afternoon out of St. Louis, and the security hassles were much more manageable.

This wasn't an extremely kid-friendly trip with all the driving, flying, and sitting, but Nate did well. He was very happy to be home on Tuesday, though. We got in the house, and he crawled excitedly to each of his toys and played with it for a minute before going on to the next one.

Oh, and while on the trip, Nate took his first steps! He still doesn't really walk on his own, but if you stand him on his feet, then move a foot or two away from him with your arms out, he'll walk three or four steps before planting his feet and leaning/falling toward you. :)

Too cool

6:30 p.m.

I took this video about a month ago. It shows Nate's favorite time of day: when Jon gets home from work. I am looking forward to when Nate feels good enough again to laugh like this.

P.S. I'm feeling a lot better than yesterday.

Double sick

Nate and I are both sick now. He seems to be past the worst of it, as he woke up today without much of a fever (it was 102 on Friday night) but still had a very melancholy day... I guess I got this virus from him, but it is definitely affecting me differently (no cold or cough). I was up a lot last night and have felt achey and icky all day. Jon still went to church and to beach night tonight, since he did sound this morning and then spoke tonight at beach night (I am really disappointed to be missing it). So after a day of taking care of my sick boy and being sick myself, I am exhausted. I guess that's part of what being a mother is about.

Sick

Nate had his second physical therapy appointment today, but we didn't do very much because he is feeling really sick. I think it isn't just that his molars are coming in (ouch!), but he has a fever, a cough/runny nose, and that glossed-over eye look too. He didn't want to leave my arms while the physical therapist was here, so we did some cognitive things, and he did put his blocks back into a container and even put the lid on the container, which is a step forward.

My poor boy is definitely sick, though: he laid his head on my shoulder and rested there for an hour tonight, which is very unlike him.

Here is poor Nate sick last year (October 2005):

PT udpate

The physical therapist came this past Thursday, and I liked her. She watched Nate play for a bit and got down on the floor with him. We played mostly in his room. She saw that he pulls up and cruises along furniture and will even let go with both hands for a second. He doesn't like to take steps while you hold onto his hands. She also had him play with some of his toys that involve taking blocks out of a holder and putting them back in (he doesn't put them back in). All in all, she said he's doing wonderfully but still has some areas we will work on (like walking with me holding onto his hands and the putting objects back into a bucket, etc.). She is nice and I'm looking forward to doing the PT!

PT

I heard from the physical therapist who was assigned to Nate today, and she is coming to the house Thursday for the first appointment. I'm interested to see if she comes and decides to cancel the PT, since Nate is pulling up and cruising along furniture on his own, and those were the main goals listed in his evaluation. I would still like him to get the PT, though, since we have gone to all the trouble of getting the paperwork and evaluation done and since I think his fine motor skills are still behind. Last week, the caseworker told me we are approved for 4 months of therapy, one hour per week, and then Nate would be reevaluated. We'll see!

Video attempt

I don't know exactly how this works, but if you can view this video, it's very cute. :)

Playing in the fountain

:)

Happy Fourth of July!

My parents have a picture of my brother doing this exact same thing at this age. It must be a boy thing...

Nate (what else?)

Nate started pulling up to standing on his own this week. That means a lot more bumps and bruises!

(Look at all those teeth...and a haircut!)

Words

Starting yesterday, Nate's response to "What does a horsey say?"...

"Nnnnneh!"

Physical therapy

At Nate's 12-month doctor's visit, his pediatrician recommended I take him to a pediatric physical therapist to have him evaluated, because Nate was such a late crawler and is still lagging in his gross motor skills. Because our insurance wouldn't approve a PT visit, we went through the state-run program. I took him to a pediatric physical therapy center yesterday for his "evaluation." Basically, the physical therapist observed Nate and was going to decide through the evaluation whether he was behind enough to be taken into the state-run program. If he is 30% or more behind normal, then he is eligible for the program.

The doctor watched Nate do some fine motor skills things (picking up small objects) and cognitive-type things (seeing if he knew an object was still there even if you covered it up with something), then she watched him crawl and tried to see if he would pull himself up to standing, stay standing, etc. After 45 minutes or so, she said that he would in fact qualify to enter the program, which means he has enough of a delay. "Entering the program" means that he will now go to a physical therapist (maybe once a week or something) to work on helping him develop his leg muscles and some of his fine motor skills.

I was feeling a little guilty about all of this being free, but then I figured that we pay our taxes, and this is one of the things those go for, so I guess we technically are paying for it.

I'm not feeling sad that Nate is so behind, because he is a happy, healthy boy. I just want to do what's best for him, and if that means taking him to PT, then I'll do it!

Virginia

Nate and I arrived back home Wednesday night from Virginia. We had a great trip! I went out first with Nate for a few days, then Jon came. Neil and Casey came too, and we all stayed at Hanshill (pronounced "honz hill") for three nights. It was cold in the mornings! On Wednesday, Neil, Casey, Jon, and I drove to DC (stopping at Mount Vernon first), and Nate stayed with my parents.

The DC portion of our trip was fun, interesting, tiring, and wonderful! In the span of two-and-a-half days (Wednesday mid-day through end of Friday), we saw Mount Vernon, all the war memorials (including the new WWII memorial), the Lincoln Memorial, the Jefferson Memorial, the Holocaust Museum, the Supreme Court building (with lecture inside the court room), the Library of Congress (would have liked to have spent more time in here), Georgetown, the National Archives, the National Museum of American History (which houses the Star Spangled Banner, Lincoln's top hat, and has an exhibit with the dresses worn by many first ladies to presidential inauguration balls), Union Station, and the Washington Monument (we got to go to the top!). I might be forgetting something, but I think that's it! We also ate at a bunch of fun restaurants. The highlight of the trip, though, was the White House. On Friday morning, Jon's cousin, James, and his wife gave us a tour inside the White House. It was the same tour one would have been able to take pre-September 11, but now no one can go inside unless by special appointment. Then, later on Friday, we returned to the White House grounds for an HMX departure (even James didn't know what that acronym stands for): we stood on the White House lawn, saw the Marine One helicopter land 20 yards from us, and watched as President Bush, Condoleezza Rice, and Laura Bush exited the White House, waved (well, Condi didn't wave), and got on the helicopter. President Bush and Condi left from the Oval Office, which was a little farther away from us, but Mrs. Bush walked right in front of us. It was very neat!

Neil and Casey left on a flight out of DC early Saturday morning. Jon and I visited Arlington Cemetery on our way back to Lynchburg. It was very crowded since it was the Saturday before Memorial Day, but it was cool seeing all of the veterans (and hundreds and hundreds of motorcycles).

While we were gone, Nate did great. He didn't fuss one time while we were gone; he was content finding new things to play with in my parents' house (slamming doors, playing with drawer handles, trying to catch Jack's tail) and did really, really well for them. When Jon and I got back on Saturday afternoon, Nate was playing by himself with some blocks in the dining room. Jon and I walked in, he looked up, his eyes got wide, and he got a huge smile on his face. Then he started giggling. He reached for me and I picked him up, and he laughed and kicked his legs. Then he reached for Jon, who held him while he laughed. Then he reached for my mom and did the same thing. Then he reached for me again. He kept going around the circle like that for a couple of minutes.

Jon went home the next day, and Nate and I stayed at my parents' house for three more days. It was a great trip, and it's also great to be home!

Nate's birthday

I can't believe I have a one year old. I think that technically makes him a toddler, even though he can't toddle yet. I just can't believe it has gone by so quickly but that so much has happened.

We had a get-together for Nate's birthday on Saturday. My friend Casey made cowboy invitations (using the cowboy picture I took of Nate several weeks ago), so I made a cowboy boot cake, though that ended up being the only "decoration."


Family and close friends came over, ate snacks, and hung out. All of the kids enjoyed playing with Nate's new toys, including a bunch of sand toys, a dump truck, balls, and a combination basketball/football/baseball toy.

The highlight of the party (as at most one-year birthdays) was Nate eating cake for the first time:


I carried Nate straight to the bathtub after this meal for a quick clean-up before he joined the party again. :)

Then, Jon fired up the grill and made hot dogs for everyone. It was a great time!

Wonder of wonders

Nate started crawling this week! He's still getting the hang of it, so he isn't a speedster yet or anything. In fact, he doesn't yet realize that he can get anywhere. He is so used to being able to reach things within only a few feet that he often doesn't go after a toy if it is across the room, and he still cries if I leave the room, not realizing he could follow me. It's funny!

Trip

We are going to Virginia next month. I leave with Nate May 17, and Jon arrives May 20. Then our friends Neil and Casey arrive the next day! I am so excited they are coming. I was so thrilled and a bit surprised when they booked their tickets and it was true they were actually coming; so often, you talk about these kinds of things with friends, saying, "We should get together for dinner some time," or "We should all go to such-and-such one weekend," but it never happens. It is actually happening with Neil and Casey! They are definitely follow-through friends, and it is one of the reasons I love them. :)

The five of us will probably stay at Hanshill, the house in the country (15 minutes away from my parents' house). My parents will probably stay at their house at night. It will be so nice to relax, enjoy the not-too-hot-or-humid-yet weather, go on walks, explore, read, eat together, etc.

Then on Wednesday, May 24, we will leave Nate with my parents, and the four of us will drive the three hours to Washington, D.C. and spend three nights there. Neil, Jon, and I have never been to D.C. except for driving/flying through. We're going to stay in one room at the Washington Marriott. And it looks like we are going to be able to get a private tour of the White House, as Jon's cousin is in the Secret Service! We are all very excited about that. We haven't scheduled any other activities, but I'm sure we will eat good food, visit a museum or two, see some monuments (Mount Vernon is on the list), and have a wonderful time. Jon and I are going to consider this trip our fourth anniversary gift to each other.

Neil and Casey fly out of D.C. on the 27th, and Jon and I will drive back to Lynchburg, where he flies out late that afternoon. Nate and I will stay with my parents for several more days before flying home on May 31.

Although I'm really looking forward to a refreshing few days with Jon, I'm pretty nervous about leaving Nate with my parents while we go to D.C. The nervousness has nothing to do with my parents' ability to take care of him; it's more because he has spent nearly every moment of every day with me for the past year (more if you count the pregnancy). I'm sure the separation will be harder on me than on Nate, but I still have a worried feeling in the recesses of my heart that he will somehow be emotionally damaged. I know, I know, it sounds crazy. If he could understand language, I would already be preparing him and talking every day about the fun time he is going to have with Granny and Papa (those are not the official names yet, as my mom keeps wavering on what she wants to be called and my dad hasn't said one word about a name for him) while Daddy and Mama go on a trip. Since I can't do that with him yet, I'm left with this nervous feeling and know that I just need to pray! :)