With Christmas this past month, time has flown by in an incredible blur. The hours were spent sipping hot chocolate in front of the fire, gazing at Christmas lights, decorating (and undecorating) the tree repeatedly, singing carols, spending as little time in the stores as possible but always making sure to look at the Christmas tree section, and most importantly, learning more about the true meaning of Christmas - Christ's birth. We are settling back into our routine and enjoying the winter months as much as we can.
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| on our way to christmas mass |
This past month meant lots of travel as we made our tour of the Midwest. We traveled to Indiana and Minnesota to visit both sides of the family for Christmas. To put it in perspective, it takes 4 hours to drive to Indiana from our house (without stops, we typically stop once to eat and potty break so add an extra half hour) and 8 hours to get from Indiana to Minnesota (without stops, we typically stop twice with one time being an actual meal so add an extra hour). That makes a round trip of around 27 hours in the car.
If you want to feel like you are traveling with us, you can watch the Christmas video that mom made to document our trip.
A Merry Grashorn Christmas
Luckily, Nathaniel travels pretty well as long as snacks are involved. Nathaniel had a blast hanging out with both sides of the family, playing with his cousins, and opening presents. He got to visit the Mall of America, the Minnesota Zoo, and meet some of mom and dad's friends. He also enjoyed his first time playing in Minnesota snow and going sledding.
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| waiting to see santa with the cousins |
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| snuggling with grammy |
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| playing with cousin kaylee |
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| at the zoo with papa |
Since returning home, things have been much more low key. There was a week where the weather hung around 0 deg causing us to mainly stayed indoors. Nathaniel read books. played with trains, colored, painted, helped mom bake, created crafts and science projects, and played with brother.
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| making playdough |
Since the weather has warmed up a bit, Nathaniel has been having a blast playing in the snow with Edmund. He loves being pulled around the yard on the sled and helping mom shovel the driveway. We stay out as long as possible since it takes at least fifteen minutes to get everyone dressed. Even though he loves being outside, Nathaniel is often eager to come indoors since he knows there will be hot chocolate with marshmallows.
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| shoveling |
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| snow is a wondrous thing |
Nathaniel's looks have stayed pretty much the same since last month. Mom trimmed his hair a little since he was starting to get a mullet. All of his teeth have now poke through, although his canines are still making their way in fully.
Nathaniel has started to put more and more words together in two to three word pairings. It's really fun to hear him start to make short sentences. One of his most recent was last night when he said "mama baph pweees!" after dinner. (Translation: Mama bath please, in case you didn't get it.) He also does a great job of mirroring and picking up new words quickly, which is exciting.
Nathaniel is social butterfly. In the evenings while we are watching for dad to come home, he loves to wave hello and bye bye to all of the cars going by. He opens and closes his little fist to wave. He also has to wave goodnight to dad in our family picture at nap time because he wants to make sure he waves goodnight to everyone.
He still is accurately called "little me too" because he wants to do everything anyone else is doing. If mom is eating oatmeal he needs to eat it too, Edmund goes to preschool so he wants to go, Edmund puts on his backpack then Nathaniel has to put his on, Edmund wants to color so Nathaniel wants to color. It is very sweet, but can also be frustrating because Edmund is older and sometimes gets to do things that Nathaniel can't. If that is the case, he can become very upset, jumping up and down and sobbing like the world is coming to an end.
Despite the challenges of raising an energetic child, he is the life of the party and brings so much joy to our family.
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| brothers |
Looking forward to more months with our jellybean.
-eric & anna
