Two dogs

A couple weeks ago, Bob took Colin and Nathan to Omaha for a boys trip while I went on a scrapbooking retreat -- I know, I really know how to live on the edge!

At Grandma and Grandpa GG's house, they have a little dog, Gigi (what a coincidence, huh?). Side note, GG stands for Godberson and Godberson, which is where the dog's name comes from, even though the dog is a poodle and Gigi is a perfect poodle name. And "my" Grandma and Grandpa (my Dad's parents) were called Grandma and Grandpa G. So GG is good for me, because G was already taken. I digress though.

So at Grandma and Grandpa GG's house, there is usually only one dog, Gigi; however, when my sister comes to visit, she brings her little dog, Frankie. When Nathan came in the house and saw two dogs, he said "Two dogs!". This just impressed the heck out of the grandparents because the previous day there was only one dog and Nathan didn't say anything about the dog.

Nathan also does this little hand gesture where he holds up one finger on each hand and moves his hands back and forth. It's Nathan's trademark for two, whatever he is counting.

Of course if there are three dogs, Nathan still says "two dogs". Hasn't quite grasp the concept of three yet.

No more pacifiers

Bob did it! I'm so happy. While Bob was in Omaha last weekend for their "boys trip", he managed to wean Nathan off of the pacifier. I guess Nathan didn't even ask for it. So Bob never gave it to him! So when they returned home, I put Nathan to bed that first night, Nathan pointed to where we kept the pacifiers and asked for it (by saying "tee tee" or whatever it is that he says), and I calmly told him no and that he was a big boy and didn't need pacifiers anymore. Also that if he didn't need it in Omaha, that he didn't need it here as well. Thankfully Nathan didn't put up too much of a fight and went to bed without the pacifier! I don't think he has asked for it since either.

Now all that's left is potty training. Bob and I are thinking sometime this summer.

Goodbye crib

It's official, the baby factory is closed. I just sold the crib on craigslist and am a little sad about it. It was a gorgeous crib. My mom found it at a garage sale in Omaha and trucked it all the way down to Georgia to us. At the time I was a little put off that I didn't get to pick out the crib but after putting it together ... it's a beautiful, four-poster, canopy crib with dark wood, I managed to forgive her. And I did get to pick out the bedding, a soft, neutral, multi-textured cream/ecru color that would go with boy or girl. I used the bed skirt for the canopy and got another simple bedskirt to go on the bottom.

So a little walk down memory lane. Colin used the crib first. However, he was four months old before we put him in it. I broke my ankle when he was two months old and still in the bassinet. It took me two months to heal enough to do the stairs up to the baby's room, so Colin stayed in the bassinet a little longer than he should have! Colin loved the crib. The transition to the big boy bed from the crib was a little rocky and took some time. And Colin never climbed out of the crib.

Nathan on the other hand, started climbing out of the crib after this past Christmas. First Nathan climbed out of the pack-n-play in Omaha, then when we returned to Atlanta he climbed out of the crib twice. That was enough to convince us that he preferred to sleep in the big boy bed, and we stopped putting him in the crib.

So the crib sat in Nathan's room for the last three months before I finally decided to list it on craiglist. I sold it with all the bedding and mattress too. The person that bought it lives in Florida, and her daughter in Atlanta is having a baby. So the crib is going to be used at Grandma's house.

As a side note, when the woman came to buy the crib, she brought a big trailer, so the crib could be transported intact and not have to be taken apart. This meant getting it down stairs with just her and me. It's a good thing that I've been going to bootcamp, because we got that crib down the stairs all by ourselves! I took the down hill end (and heavy end) and really used those new muscles of mine to do it.

Nathan didn't even notice. Well, he noticed something was different in his room because now he has all this space. Colin and Nathan love all the space to run around. But I don't think they realized what was missing.

So goodbye crib, I'm glad it's going to a good home and being used. It's just too pretty to be put into storage until it could be used again in our family.

Dip, dip, dip

Nathan is on the fast-track to becoming a condiment junkie like his dad. Always has to dip his food into something. Although when Nathan wants to dip, he says "dip, dip, dip" while pantomiming the action.

At Moe's we get this vinaigrette that I pour on my taco (I guess I'm a little of a condiment junkie too) and we all use it on our chips. The kids get chocolate chip cookies with their meals, and recently Nathan has started dipping his chocolate chip cookie into the vinaigrette!! Yuck! He really seems to like it. I just can't even image ...

Thinking outside the box

Twice today Colin did a really good job of coming up with alternate solutions to a problem. I'm so proud!

This morning, Bob did a 9-mile run so the rule in our house is that the person who runs the most gets to pick where we go eat. Colin wanted to go to Moe's, and fortunately that was okay with Bob. But Colin wanted to walk to Moe's. Bob's no slouch but after 9 miles, he really didn't feel like walking almost a mile to Moe's. We tried to explain that to Colin. And you know what Colin came up with ... Mom and him could walk, and Dad and Nathan could drive! I thought that was brilliant! So Colin and I walked to Moe's.

Switch gears to dinner time ... Nathan has this thing like most little brothers, that anything that big brother has, he has to have. At dinner, Colin wanted a glass of water, so I got him a glass. Then Nathan wanted a glass. Well, we were out of glasses so I gave him a plastic sippy cup with water. He wasn't happy with this and was causing quite a scene. I was explaining to Nathan that all the glasses were dirty. Then Colin says that he will drink his water out of a plastic sippy cup so Nathan will be happy. I didn't even think of this solution. Again I was so proud of Colin's ability to think outside the box to solve a problem.

"Move bed"

Nathan has really done a great job of using his words and talking more and more (no speech therapy needed here - thank you very much!) He was in the master bedroom with a motorized truck that goes when you push a button. Nathan makes it go under our bed and it stops in the middle of the bed at one of the supports. He looks up, pulls on the bed and says "move bed"! Our bed is a king with a super huge headboard, and very heavy. I didn't move the bed, but just crawled under to get the truck.

Sleeping with his eyes open

Last week, the nanny was putting Colin to bed while Bob and I were out. Colin wanted to stay up until we got home, but decided that he was going to sleep with his eyes open so that he would know when we got home.