We went to see the band 8-9-08

There so much I could say right now about how much fun we're having this summer. It's now 11:45 and I have to get up to start tomorrow in 5 hours. Sleep is winning The argument between sleeping and writing an intelligent post. SO I figure The best way to update is to tell the story with pictures. Here's the story of last Saturday night. I brought Nathaniel & Audrey out to see the band play. We had a great time. Nathaniel got to play drums for a while, he sang with Dan "I Can Fly" and he danced with the crazy locals.

Helping Daddy set up




Marla & Audrey became best of friends

"I Can Fly"

Crazy Dancers, they kept him busy

Certain points in the night, Nathaniel felt more comfortable becoming a statue on the stage

There are those crazy dancer people again

I had to tackle Marla at the end of the night to get her to give the baby back.

You can tell the music really bothered Audrey

we've been a little busy

Late June & July were extremely busy months for us.. I've been quite distracted but now am up & running online again and will soon work on getting the site up to speed as well.

While you wait for that, you can watch this July 2006 video of the band.
It's not a full song, I ran out of memory, but You get the point.

(by the way, it's not nice to make fun of the white people dancing)



FWIW I've since upgraded my memory card to ensure this won't happen again.

4th of July

We decided to skip the parades and fireworks this year and opt for a more mellow day off together. We went for a long walk in the woods around the lake instead with an impromtu cookout at friends house later on.

See how many beaches we can find

Audrey took in all the sights

Another Beach!

The Perfect Rock
Watch it Go

Perfect way to end the day, snoozing together.

He Constantly asks to have Audrey sleep in his bed with him

Just kidding, they weren't sleeping

You don't honestly think we'd trust him like that, do you??

you can go anywhere

Two Mondays, I decided enough was enough and This was the week that we were going to conquer potty training. That day, the timer went off every 20 minutes and Nathaniel & I marched into the bathroom. If he went, which he did every time, we did a funky potty dance and he got to put a sticker on the sticker chart. By the end of the day, we were stretching the timer out to every 40 minutes. He did excellent. The next day wasn't as structured and he still did great. Each day improved. The only time he had an accident, was if I got involved in something (that something is roughly 8.5 pounds and Very cute) and forgot to remind him.

Three days later, we upped the bar & stopped allowing diapers for nap time. In 2 weeks, he's only had 2 nap time accidents. Pretty impressive I think. We're still working on him actually telling us he has to go. The #2 issue is a whole nuther matter.

I'm thrilled that it's been this easy. I'm even more thrilled that I'm not supplying TWO kids with diapers. Big sigh of relief.

The whole reason for this post is all so I had a reason to post the following picture. I think the part of potty training that Nathaniel has enjoyed the most, is being able to drop his pants and go, whenever & whenever. Because he can.

I couldn't resist picking up the camera when I saw this:

he loves her so much

I am often blown away at how well Nathaniel adjusted to having Audrey around. People told me horror stories (not sure if they thought they were helping?) about the older one adjusting with a new one. He's made it so easy - as if he were never alone.

He constantly wants to play with her, hold her, kiss & hug her. I was fortunate to catch one of those moments on film. (or do we now say ~ caught on SD card?)

Here's another one that is a great view of how much she looks like him at this age:

Nathaniel is on the left, Audrey on the right.

a few randoms

I get the feeling she didn't like how he was holding her

Starting to smile

Not sure about this expression

just another day at the zoo

One of the best things I could've ever done to prepare for this summer, was buy an annual pass to a local zoo. Normally admission is $11 per person, this includes anyone OVER 1. Crazy, right? I bought the pass back in April and have already gotten way more than my moneys worth. We probably average once a week, it never gets old for Nathaniel.

We went yesterday and I actually remembered to bring a camera.

I'll see YOU turkeys in November

Apparently this goat needs more fiber

Can I take him home please?

This guy needs a haircut

I think he was trading secrets with Rudolph

And what zoo visit wouldn't be complete with a few scraped knees

He's come a long way since this visit with the goats: