Finally Settled

After being home for a few months now I feel safe in saying that Nathan is settled. Yesterday was such a great day. He woke up smiling, played with us, behaved when we went out for lunch,took his nap on time, played some more, ate and ate, and slept on time. For the past 3 weeks, Nathan has been sleeping through the night with the occasional getting up for milk once during the night and back to sleep. He is going to sleep on time. It took us many months to get to this point. Happy happy family we are.

For the past month we have been trying to provide a steady environment for Nathan so that he does not feel anxiety. We stopped going out to unknown places unless we were accompanied by known companions, like Nathan's Uncle Gary and Aunt Katherine. We made sure we were home in time for bedtime and we took no road trips. All of this helped him settle down.

Nathan is starting to speak more. His vocabulary has increased but he is not yet speaking fluently or consistently. The few things he is saying are in English but I think only Keyoor and I can understand them. He says daddy, mom, look, light, bathroom, more, and a few sentences like "I want to go", "It's not dirty (re: diaper)", "How are you."

Funny incident which occurred the day after he learned to say "mom." Nathan was talking on his toy cell phone, yelling into it. He sounded like a teenager yelling on the phone, sorta like she did this and she said that. I asked him, "Nathan, who are you complaining about, who are you mad at?" He turned around and gave his stink eye look and yelled "MOM,MOM, MOM". I laughed so hard. Needless to say he didn't appreciate the laughter.

Let me share the Walgreens story. I found out how impressive Nathan's motor skills were when we went to Walgreens. Nathan did not want to sit in the cart and insisted on pushing it by himself. I of course had to hold him up so he could reach the cart but I was not allowed to touch the cart unless I wanted to be subject to screaming. Enter the terrible twos six months earlier. Anyway, he pushed the cart down the aisle, rounded the corners to next aisle, maneuvered around people and boxes. I was amazed at his motor skills. 18 month old and can push a shopping cart in a straight line.

Nathan's food tastes are changing. He now likes foods he previously didn't. He now drinks lemonade and eats carrots. Homemade Indian food remains his favorite but hot dogs, french fries, and chicken nuggets are close favorites. Grapes are his favorite snack. We buy 2 boxes of red grapes at Trader Joes every week and Nathan devours them. The other day I was drinking tea with honey and Nathan wanted to try it. I thought whats the harm, he won't like it. Well he gulped it down. Note to myself, don't let him try beer.

New activities learned recently: climbing. Nathan now knows how to climb stairs, play on the slide by himself,climb onto the coffee table and climb onto the dining chairs. He attempts to climb everything and doesn't realize that not everything is climbable.

Nathan loves to give hugs and kisses. He is stingy with his hugs and kisses and they are usually just reserved for mommy and daddy. He feels left out if Keyoor and I hug so we started the family hug. It's where the three of us huddle together. Nathan loves it and insists we do a family hug a few times a day. How can I resist, hugging my two favorite boys at the same time.