Head to Toe

As far as Paw-Paw is concerned, Nathan belongs to him and he is just on loan to Steve and me. Which means, we better take extremely good care of him. When Nathan got a black eye I knew who was going to need an explanation.

Here is Nathan with his black eye almost completely healed.
Then, when Nathan was messing around in the kitchen cabinets and dropped a can on his toe, it immediately swelled up and turned black and blue. At that point, I knew Paw-Paw was probably going to be on his way up to South Dakota to rescue his baby.

It was so sad watching as Nathan tried to be so tough and continued to try running and playing. He kept telling Steve and me the entire night, "I hurt my foot." I took him to the doctor the next day because we were afraid it was broken. Luckily, it's not broken and he should be walking normal by the middle of next week. Kind of puts a damper on trick-or-treating considering he can't wear a shoe on his right foot.
Despite his hurt toe, he remained in a good mood.
Playing with his bathtub paint.
I guess this is his scary Halloween look.

Head to Toe

As far as Paw-Paw is concerned, Nathan belongs to him and he is just on loan to Steve and me. Which means, we better take extremely good care of him. When Nathan got a black eye I knew who was going to need an explanation.

Here is Nathan with his black eye almost completely healed.
Then, when Nathan was messing around in the kitchen cabinets and dropped a can on his toe, it immediately swelled up and turned black and blue. At that point, I knew Paw-Paw was probably going to be on his way up to South Dakota to rescue his baby.

It was so sad watching as Nathan tried to be so tough and continued to try running and playing. He kept telling Steve and me the entire night, "I hurt my foot." I took him to the doctor the next day because we were afraid it was broken. Luckily, it's not broken and he should be walking normal by the middle of next week. Kind of puts a damper on trick-or-treating considering he can't wear a shoe on his right foot.
Despite his hurt toe, he remained in a good mood.
Playing with his bathtub paint.
I guess this is his scary Halloween look.

Sweet Home Alabama

It looks like we'll only have to brave one more South Dakota winter. We got word recently that we'll be heading down to Montgomery, Alabama next summer. I'm so excited. I told Steve that I'm well aware of how backwards Alabama is, but at least it is a comfortable backwardness that I'm used to. He responded with, "Like Rapid City is for me."

As soon as the ACSC (the school Steve will be going to) list comes out, houses in Montgomery start getting rented quickly. After studying each and every house in Montgomery for several days, Steve and I decided on this house. I'm glad the process is done because I was seeing houses and floor plans when I closed my eyes at night. The one thing this house doesn't have that our current house has, though, is a long indoor running path for Nathan. I guess you can't have everything.

When we first started looking for houses, Steve found a house that had a pool in the backyard. My first reaction was "absolutely, let's get it." Then my mothering instincts kicked in and I changed my mind. I sure don't want to to have to worry about a kid falling in the pool every time we go outside to play. Our neighborhood has a pool, a splash park and a playground for the kiddos to enjoy. That works out perfectly. The kids and I can work on our tans everyday while Steve goes to school.

Another plus to living in Montgomery (as if just getting to leave South Dakota isn't a big enough plus) is we'll be two and a half hours from Lady and Paw-Paw. Even more importantly, we'll be two and a half hours from Mace and Hank! Just kidding, Mom and Dad. Seriously, though, Steve and I are really looking forward to getting to send our kids away for weekend visits with Lady and Paw-Paw.

And another plus (there are so many) to living in Montgomery is that Joe and Lexi will be moving to Pensacola, Florida around the same time we're moving. That's only three hours away. You know what that means, when Paw-Paw and Lady aren't available for weekend babysitting, we'll just send our kids down to Pensacola. Yeah, right!

Sweet Home Alabama

It looks like we'll only have to brave one more South Dakota winter. We got word recently that we'll be heading down to Montgomery, Alabama next summer. I'm so excited. I told Steve that I'm well aware of how backwards Alabama is, but at least it is a comfortable backwardness that I'm used to. He responded with, "Like Rapid City is for me."

As soon as the ACSC (the school Steve will be going to) list comes out, houses in Montgomery start getting rented quickly. After studying each and every house in Montgomery for several days, Steve and I decided on this house. I'm glad the process is done because I was seeing houses and floor plans when I closed my eyes at night. The one thing this house doesn't have that our current house has, though, is a long indoor running path for Nathan. I guess you can't have everything.

When we first started looking for houses, Steve found a house that had a pool in the backyard. My first reaction was "absolutely, let's get it." Then my mothering instincts kicked in and I changed my mind. I sure don't want to to have to worry about a kid falling in the pool every time we go outside to play. Our neighborhood has a pool, a splash park and a playground for the kiddos to enjoy. That works out perfectly. The kids and I can work on our tans everyday while Steve goes to school.

Another plus to living in Montgomery (as if just getting to leave South Dakota isn't a big enough plus) is we'll be two and a half hours from Lady and Paw-Paw. Even more importantly, we'll be two and a half hours from Mace and Hank! Just kidding, Mom and Dad. Seriously, though, Steve and I are really looking forward to getting to send our kids away for weekend visits with Lady and Paw-Paw.

And another plus (there are so many) to living in Montgomery is that Joe and Lexi will be moving to Pensacola, Florida around the same time we're moving. That's only three hours away. You know what that means, when Paw-Paw and Lady aren't available for weekend babysitting, we'll just send our kids down to Pensacola. Yeah, right!

Welcome to the New Blog!

Nathan's days of the world revolving solely around him have almost come to a close. He's going to have to start sharing the spotlight in a couple of weeks. I decided to retire meissnerman and move over to meissnermania to accommodate Kathryn. I'm guessing that "mania" is probably going to be a pretty accurate description of what life is about to become.

Welcome to the New Blog!

Nathan's days of the world revolving solely around him have almost come to a close. He's going to have to start sharing the spotlight in a couple of weeks. I decided to retire meissnerman and move over to meissnermania to accommodate Kathryn. I'm guessing that "mania" is probably going to be a pretty accurate description of what life is about to become.

Low Key Week

My apologies for leaving Nathan's loyal blog followers without any updates for the past few days. I got the H1N1 vaccine last week and it gave me a sore throat, stuffy nose and cough which left me feeling anything but motivated to do anything. So, we haven't done too much lately to write about, so I'll just post some pictures from the past week.

He thinks he's pouring water on his head. Also, notice his "whisters" on his face. He always seems to have "whisters" after he finishes an Oreo cookie. He loves it, though. He walks around feeling the dried cookie around his mouth and proudly says, "I have whisters!"
Nathan surrounds himself with laundry baskets and toy baskets and lines his airplanes up on them. You should hear him, he verbalizes each move he makes with the planes. "Otay helicopter, you fly beside this airplane."
One day Nathan was supposed to be washing his hands, which always leads to "washing dishes" too. That day, the sprinkles were left too close to the sink so he decided to add water to them. Do you have any idea how big of a mess adding water to a can of sprinkles makes? I knew something was going on when I heard slurping sounds.
I don't know how well you can see it, but he has a black eye in this picture. He pulled his basketball goal down on his face during a slam dunk.
We made another cake, per his request. He even decides the color and design of the frosting.
He's picking out which piece he wants. He wanted blue and purple frosting, but we also had to add chocolate frosting for Daddy's half.

We had one day that wasn't freezing so we went outside for a little while to color. We didn't have any big plans that day, so that is as dressed as Nathan got for the day.
Nick Jr. has really brought attention to the fact that it's fall and the leaves are changing colors and falling off of trees. Nathan explained all of that to me several times while we were outside that day. Here he is playing with leaves and discussing the process of fall with me.

One of Nathan's favorite places for dining these days is Sam's Club. He likes their pizza and hotdogs. When I'm ordering he makes sure to tell me that he wants a hotdog and pizza.
Notice he has his shoes off. This trend has been going on for a couple of months now. He thinks he needs to take his shoes off every time he sits down at a restaurant to eat.
I am almost done with my Christmas shopping. I figured I better get everything done before Kathryn arrives because I think shopping with a newborn baby and a two year old sounds like one of the worst things imaginable. I received a chair for Kathryn in the mail today. I got it out to make sure it was okay. Guess who came along and had to test the chair out. He absolutely loved the little chair. Good thing because he's getting a blue one just like it. After he finished climbing on the chair and telling me how "com-ferble" it was, he moved on to play in the box.

So, that's what you've missed out on this week.

Low Key Week

My apologies for leaving Nathan's loyal blog followers without any updates for the past few days. I got the H1N1 vaccine last week and it gave me a sore throat, stuffy nose and cough which left me feeling anything but motivated to do anything. So, we haven't done too much lately to write about, so I'll just post some pictures from the past week.

He thinks he's pouring water on his head. Also, notice his "whisters" on his face. He always seems to have "whisters" after he finishes an Oreo cookie. He loves it, though. He walks around feeling the dried cookie around his mouth and proudly says, "I have whisters!"
Nathan surrounds himself with laundry baskets and toy baskets and lines his airplanes up on them. You should hear him, he verbalizes each move he makes with the planes. "Otay helicopter, you fly beside this airplane."
One day Nathan was supposed to be washing his hands, which always leads to "washing dishes" too. That day, the sprinkles were left too close to the sink so he decided to add water to them. Do you have any idea how big of a mess adding water to a can of sprinkles makes? I knew something was going on when I heard slurping sounds.
I don't know how well you can see it, but he has a black eye in this picture. He pulled his basketball goal down on his face during a slam dunk.
We made another cake, per his request. He even decides the color and design of the frosting.
He's picking out which piece he wants. He wanted blue and purple frosting, but we also had to add chocolate frosting for Daddy's half.

We had one day that wasn't freezing so we went outside for a little while to color. We didn't have any big plans that day, so that is as dressed as Nathan got for the day.
Nick Jr. has really brought attention to the fact that it's fall and the leaves are changing colors and falling off of trees. Nathan explained all of that to me several times while we were outside that day. Here he is playing with leaves and discussing the process of fall with me.

One of Nathan's favorite places for dining these days is Sam's Club. He likes their pizza and hotdogs. When I'm ordering he makes sure to tell me that he wants a hotdog and pizza.
Notice he has his shoes off. This trend has been going on for a couple of months now. He thinks he needs to take his shoes off every time he sits down at a restaurant to eat.
I am almost done with my Christmas shopping. I figured I better get everything done before Kathryn arrives because I think shopping with a newborn baby and a two year old sounds like one of the worst things imaginable. I received a chair for Kathryn in the mail today. I got it out to make sure it was okay. Guess who came along and had to test the chair out. He absolutely loved the little chair. Good thing because he's getting a blue one just like it. After he finished climbing on the chair and telling me how "com-ferble" it was, he moved on to play in the box.

So, that's what you've missed out on this week.

Clock Work

Nathan spent a couple of days working on the perfect birthday gift for Lady. No doubt, she's going to love it! Probably so much that she'll remove her current mantle clock and replace it with this one.

Look at that concentration.
He never really got the concept of dipping the brush in only one color of paint at a time.
I take that back. He fully understood what I was telling him about dipping the brush in only one color at a time, but he just didn't care.
Creating the perfect card to go with it. It worked out nicely that Lady's birthday falls near Old Navy's birthday because when I bought Nathan a winter coat at Old Navy, they stuck birthday stickers in the bag.

Happy Birthday Lady!

Clock Work

Nathan spent a couple of days working on the perfect birthday gift for Lady. No doubt, she's going to love it! Probably so much that she'll remove her current mantle clock and replace it with this one.

Look at that concentration.
He never really got the concept of dipping the brush in only one color of paint at a time.
I take that back. He fully understood what I was telling him about dipping the brush in only one color at a time, but he just didn't care.
Creating the perfect card to go with it. It worked out nicely that Lady's birthday falls near Old Navy's birthday because when I bought Nathan a winter coat at Old Navy, they stuck birthday stickers in the bag.

Happy Birthday Lady!

Motor Mouth Meissner

I'm glad to see that Nathan hasn't forgotten about his Wyoming trip yet. I know that because I had a check-up this morning and as soon as the nurse came in, Nathan started rambling on and on about his vacation. I don't know where that came from because we were just playing with airplanes before she came in. He told her all about his Aristocats coloring book and how he colored the baby cats. Then he told her about his "movie screen" that he watched. There wasn't a single moment of silence the entire time she was in the room. Then she told him that he sure is talkative. She started laughing and told me that her kids sure didn't talk that much at his age. That is pretty much the norm all day, every day.

Then Dr. Frederickson came in and he couldn't wait to tell her all about his vacation, too. I had to do some translating so that she knew what he was talking about, but once she knew what the topic of conversation was they really chatted up a storm. I was surprised to see that Nathan actually noticed and remembered more about his trip than just the DVD player and coloring book. She asked him if he saw any animals in Yellowstone and he responded with excitement, "Yessss! I saw bisons and deers." Once the visit was over I basically had to drag him out of the room and down the hall to let Dr. Frederickson get to her other patients.

The cable guy came to our house a couple of days ago and Nathan wouldn't leave that poor man alone either. He stood two feet from him and gave me up to the minute updates on what the cable guy was doing. "Mommy, that man is fixing Daddy's TV. Mommy that man has a screwdriver. Mommy that man is still at our house." The cable guy made the mistake of commenting on all of Nathan's airplanes. Nathan took that as an invitation to tell him about each and every airplane. I feel bad in a way because I just let Nathan talk these peoples' ears off because it gives my ears a break, and it's pretty funny to watch. Then before the cable guy left he asked Nathan if he likes cartoons, then found Sponge Bob for him. He asked him if that was okay, or if he would prefer to watch the Military Channel. There is no denying that this kid loves airplanes and everything about them.

I'll share a couple of funny one liners from Nathan while were on our trip, too.

The first morning that we woke up, Steve and I were getting Nathan pumped up about his Wyoming vacation. We asked him if he slept well with Mommy and Daddy and his response was, "Yesss, and Daddy had bad breath." He says this stuff in such a serious way with no intent to be hilarious at all, which makes it hilarious.

Then we were walking around town and there were these fuzzy/prickly plants in planters and Nathan was rubbing them. Steve asked him if they felt like his whiskers and Nathan's response (super serious again) was, "Yesss, and Mommy has whisters on her knees."

Motor Mouth Meissner

I'm glad to see that Nathan hasn't forgotten about his Wyoming trip yet. I know that because I had a check-up this morning and as soon as the nurse came in, Nathan started rambling on and on about his vacation. I don't know where that came from because we were just playing with airplanes before she came in. He told her all about his Aristocats coloring book and how he colored the baby cats. Then he told her about his "movie screen" that he watched. There wasn't a single moment of silence the entire time she was in the room. Then she told him that he sure is talkative. She started laughing and told me that her kids sure didn't talk that much at his age. That is pretty much the norm all day, every day.

Then Dr. Frederickson came in and he couldn't wait to tell her all about his vacation, too. I had to do some translating so that she knew what he was talking about, but once she knew what the topic of conversation was they really chatted up a storm. I was surprised to see that Nathan actually noticed and remembered more about his trip than just the DVD player and coloring book. She asked him if he saw any animals in Yellowstone and he responded with excitement, "Yessss! I saw bisons and deers." Once the visit was over I basically had to drag him out of the room and down the hall to let Dr. Frederickson get to her other patients.

The cable guy came to our house a couple of days ago and Nathan wouldn't leave that poor man alone either. He stood two feet from him and gave me up to the minute updates on what the cable guy was doing. "Mommy, that man is fixing Daddy's TV. Mommy that man has a screwdriver. Mommy that man is still at our house." The cable guy made the mistake of commenting on all of Nathan's airplanes. Nathan took that as an invitation to tell him about each and every airplane. I feel bad in a way because I just let Nathan talk these peoples' ears off because it gives my ears a break, and it's pretty funny to watch. Then before the cable guy left he asked Nathan if he likes cartoons, then found Sponge Bob for him. He asked him if that was okay, or if he would prefer to watch the Military Channel. There is no denying that this kid loves airplanes and everything about them.

I'll share a couple of funny one liners from Nathan while were on our trip, too.

The first morning that we woke up, Steve and I were getting Nathan pumped up about his Wyoming vacation. We asked him if he slept well with Mommy and Daddy and his response was, "Yesss, and Daddy had bad breath." He says this stuff in such a serious way with no intent to be hilarious at all, which makes it hilarious.

Then we were walking around town and there were these fuzzy/prickly plants in planters and Nathan was rubbing them. Steve asked him if they felt like his whiskers and Nathan's response (super serious again) was, "Yesss, and Mommy has whisters on her knees."

Wild, Wild West & Wow! Wow! Wubbzy!

After talking about visiting Yellowstone National Park and Jackson Hole, Wyoming for the past two years, Steve and I finally decided that we just needed to hurry up and get there before we have yet another kid to look after. We knew it was going to be a long drive (yes, even with Steve driving it took a really long time), but we weren't expecting the mountain road to be closed for one hour due to construction at 1:30 a.m. We were only an hour away, too, which made it so much worse. Well, what made it so much worse was that I was contemplating a DIY c-section right there in the backseat to help relieve some of the pain that was running from my ribs down to my feet. Needless to say, I decided against it and we ended up having a really good trip. (I wasn't miserable while I was riding in the front seat. After we stopped and ate, Nathan asked me to sit beside him, so of course, I did. He is so sweet.)

We pulled off the road and waited for the road construction to end. Nathan was anxious to get out of his car seat when he felt us stop. He slept on me for the first half of the wait, until it was just way too uncomfortable.
I slipped out from under him and he continued to sleep on the pile of pillows and blankets in the backseat.
That left absolutely no room for me back there, so I climbed on the floor and tried to cover up with the little bit of blanket that Nathan wasn't using. Tomorrow, I'm trading the Altima in for a giant SUV. Maybe even an RV. That part of the trip sucked.
We got to our hotel around 3:30 a.m. and Nathan was ready to play. We finally fell asleep at 5 a.m. Luckily, the room had awesome curtains that blocked every bit of sunlight from coming in. I bet Steve slept great on 2/3 of the king size bed, while Nathan and I shared the other 1/3. He snuggled right up against my back the entire night.
I love his hair when he first wakes up in the morning.
Nothing like waking up to a brand new coloring book and eating corn chips for breakfast.
We had awesome weather for our day in Jackson Hole.
We spent the day walking around town, shopping, and playing in the town square.
There were these elk antler archways on each corner of the square.
Steve and I both wanted our picture taken with Nathan.
He was going up to give the bison a kiss, but he couldn't reach it.
This trip was Nathan's last hurrah as an only child. It's still Nathan's month, so you can imagine how spoiled he was.
Hopefully our next baby will be as easy and fun to travel with as Nathan is.
You can't take a trip with Steve without visiting the local brewery. Nathan and I just sat and watched as Steve tasted each brew.
The mad brew master.
We woke up the next morning and gave Nathan his coloring book to keep him occupied while we got ready. He always switches back and forth from his right hand to his left hand, but I've never seen him include his feet... until that morning. He cracks me up.
Nathan and I hit the playground while Steve watched as much of the Vikings game as he could before we had to check out.
Then, we had to find a sports bar to have lunch so that Steve could watch more of the Vikings game. While we were there, Nathan ate two hotdog kid's meals. He ate the first one and asked for more, so we ordered him another one. He must have worked up quite an appetite on the playground.
We passed the Grand Tetons on our way to Yellowstone.
After being held up by the Vikings and road construction for half the day, we finally made it to Yellowstone National Park.
That's Old Faithful behind us. Nathan was mad because he didn't want to come out from under the trees.

Before we left, we hid under the trees and played some more.
As we were leaving we saw a herd of bison just hanging out in the parking lot.
Then as we continued driving, we saw about a million more bison roaming around. They were walking down the road right beside our car. Nathan looked over and said, "What are all those cows doing?"
We told Nathan those were bison, so then every time we passed them, he would say, "Look at all those bisons."
Then we saw this. Is it a coyote or a wolf?
Then we stopped at the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone.
It was beautiful there, but I was a nervous wreck. I bet I told Steve to clutch Nathan so tightly and to not let his feet touch the ground at least 500 times. Those rock railings weren't all that high, especially for a toddler who loves to climb.
Another waterfall.
We split up the drive home and spent the night in Greybull, WY. Once we got to our motel, we decided to break out the surprise we were keeping for emergency meltdowns... a Wow! Wow! Wubbzy! DVD. He didn't throw a fit, but we thought that he might like this surprise. He saw the DVD case and was happy just looking at the pictures. Then I pulled out the DVD player and he saw it and yelled with excitement, "A movie screen!!!"
It was so cute watching as Nathan realized that he could watch Wubbzy. He never knew there was such a thing as a portable DVD player. He thinks they are only for vacations, though. That DVD and DVD player bumped this vacation up from a B+ to A in his book!

On the second leg of this trip, we drove through the Big Horn Mountains.
Another waterfall.
Here are some tips for toddler travel... DVD player.
Doritos.
Chocolate milk. And pretty much anything else that is asked for at each gas station.

I'm pretty sure Nathan loved this vacation, considering the fact that as soon as we pulled in our driveway he told us that he wasn't going home. It's so funny that we planned this trip a couple of days before he started asking to go to "Wy-ming." He didn't really know anything about Wyoming other than he was watching the Backyardigans one day and they went to Wyoming. Like I told you before, he asks for everything he sees on TV. So when he said he needed to go to "Wy-ming," I agreed and told him that we would take him. He got his wish, as usual.