Milestones

It's been an milestone week here at our home!  We're down to one kid in diapers again, which has been extremely nice.  I started up potty-training with Aaron again about four weeks ago - this was our third try at it.  On Friday morning, I was just about ready to give up again for a little while, as he just didn't seem to get it.  Yeah, he'd pee on the toilet every time I put him on, but then he'd go again within five minutes without being too concerned about it at all.  Good thing I didn't give up though, because I guess he decided he was ready, and since that day he's been just fantastic!  He's been dry through the day, pretty much dry through the night (we get him up before we go to bed), and he's been wearing one pair of underwear all day successfully since Tuesday.  He's pretty proud of himself, and he's quite excited to be a "big boy"!  Aaron has demonstrated himself to be quite a sensitive kid, which I don't think I've mentioned here lately, or maybe even at all.  During the summer at one point, we had been driving and listening to the soundtrack to the Lion King, which they have never seen.  There is a song where Timon and Pumba are sad about losing their friend Simba, and while this was playing, Mike and I were astonished to see Aaron get all sad and teary eyed about this, as he was genuinely concerned bout the loss of their friend.  A few weeks ago we were in Strathroy and the boys were watching a movie about a polar bear who was rejected by his mother at birth.  Aaron became extremely concerned that this polar bear was lonely and didn't have any friends, and as he watched, his lip started quivering and he just broke down in with heart-wrenching tears.  It is intriguing to watch this emotional development in your child, especially since he is such a goofy, fun-loving kid.     
The other milestone that we reached this week was with Nathaniel - he's been taking steps and walking from one person to another for a while now, but he decided on Monday that he is officially a "walker" and no longer a "crawler".  It has been quite enjoyable to watch him toddle all over the house, still a little unsteady on his feet but gaining confidence every day!  He loves to get right in there with his big brothers, but he knows that he has to be a little careful or he'll get bowled right over by their overflowing enthusiasm at times.  He still doesn't have any regular words, although we've heard him say a few things like "Mommy", "Daddy", and "Amen".  Most of the time, though, he just says "yeah", which can actually be quite funny if you start asking him funny questions.  He gets called a number of interesting things, and most of the time we call him Nato, or Nate-o I suppose.  How do you know how to spell a nickname correctly anyways?  Do you think any other kids in the world who are called Nathaniel are referred to as Nato?  Mike thinks not, but I think there might indeed be some "Nato"s out there.  What I am quite certain about is that there are no other "Nato"s who became "Nato"s in the same way that our Nato did.  It was probably about two or three months ago that Peter and Aaron started calling their younger brother Nato-Bato-Bido-Bu.  He was no longer just Nate or Nathaniel.  This name has progressed through several stages into Nato-Bu, Nato-Bato, and the most recent Nato-Bato-Bido-Butt-Butt-Butt.  I find the shorter Nato to be much more convenient, but the older boys find Nato-Bato-Bido-Butt-Butt-Butt to be quite amusing.  At this point, you are probably thinking that we are all very strange.
Let's talk about Peter.  Peter is doing very well right now, finally settled into the routine of school and enjoying his time there.  He was quite excited to be the "Leader" at school on Friday, and he got to do Show and Tell this week as well.  He had to bring something that started with a P, so he brought a Play Phone with which he could call the Police.  He did go through a stage where he was quite afraid of being left alone, and was quite clingy to me.  There were a few days that the teacher had to peel him off me when I dropped him off, screaming and crying, and those were not good days for anyone.  He was also upset about going to Story Hour on Wednesdays when I go to Bible study, and his JK teacher said he had a hard time with any "transition" like going to the library.  We found that it really helped to talk things through ahead of time, and help him to decide that he wouldn't be upset about going to school or going to the library.  Once he decided that he would be happy and cheerful, it didn't seem to be a problem at all.  Strange how that is!  It seems to help him in other situations as well, that we can avoid meltdowns if we explain how things are going to go and what an appropriate emotional response would be.  Peter also seems to be going through a growth spurt right now - his pants and shirts are quickly becoming too short for him, and he is hungry ALL THE TIME.  Twenty minutes after breakfast is done, he is asking for more food, for a sandwich, for an apple, for anything!  As a result, my kids have been eating a lot of apples lately.  When I measured him at the end of September, he was 41" tall and 37 lbs.  At that time, Aaron was 37.5" tall and 36 lbs, and Nathaniel was 31.5" tall and 22 lbs 15 oz.  Nate's right around the same height now as Peter and Aaron were at a year, but he's 3-5 lbs lighter than either of them were.  I find it interesting to compare their heights and weights at different ages.  I should put it all on a chart sometime...someday when I have some extra time that is!