Nate's Journal

Nate has changed SO much in just few months. We went from having a moody preschooler for 6 months straight to having a delightful little man with a killer sense of humor and a happy disposition (with the occasional naughty behavior throw in -- nobody's perfect). I relish the time we get to spend together when he's awake and I'm home from work. We play all sorts of games together and he's using his imagination more than ever. I think his vocabulary is fairly advanced for his age but as his mom I think I'm suppose to say that. He's still bashful around other people and I wish with all my heart that others could see how personable he is when he feels at ease. 

I started a journal one year ago where I wanted to record all of the different things Nate says. My mom did that for me and I wanted to continue that tradition with Nate. Here is the journal I create and purchased via papercoterie.com:

I am soooo behind in writing in this book. My last entry was February!! I have random slips of paper stuck in it from things he's said recently. Now I just need to find the time and energy to transfer said paper into the journal. I know I've let some real *gems* slip by...

Numero Uno Dad

We've been playing a lot of this lately:

That's Uno.

We play a lot. 

Like 4-5 times a day (modified rules for a preschooler). We also play Sesame Street Crazy Eights and Memory Match. Nate is seriously a card game junkie. If he wasn't only (nearly) 4 years old I'd be concerned that I was raising a card shark. 

So with Father's Day this weekend, I got to thinking and came up with this:

That'll be the card that goes with Lee's Father's Day gift.

Getting this photo was no easy task. I got a lot of shots like this one:

Nothing's easy when it comes to kids, right??

Happy Father's Day!

Big Boy Room

Nate, my curious but extremely cautious boy, never attempted to climb out of his crib. Because of this, we kept him in his crib until he was over 3 years old. At the start of this year, we began talking  to him about his moving into a "big boy" bed (skipping the toddler bed step). He was all for it and, as we began shopping for a twin bed, I began envisioning what his room would evolve into. I wanted something simple, colorful, and fun. That's it. I think we succeeded.

I knew I wanted our college pennants somewhere in Nate's room (UCLA is mine; OBU and Princeton are for Lee) and they were suppose to be all the same size. I was originally mad at myself for accidentally ordering a small size of the OBU one but now I like the  mismatched look of everything. The framed #4 is a wooden 4 attached to this frame via velcro so I can change the number at every birthday. I'm most proud of the vintage football illustration because I pulled it out of Lee's ESPN magazine....gotta love free artwork! "Everyday I love you more" was also free from papercoterie.com

Reading and puzzle corner -- nothing new here. Already had the bookcases and the chair is from here. 

I thought I was so clever buying a few shirts from the Salvation Army to create my pennant banner. Honestly, it would have been cheaper to buy a couple fat quarters of fabric. Clothing, even used, isn't cheaper. Lesson learned. Little sewing on this one -- I cut out the triangles and left the edges raw.

Nate demonstrates how he can fit inside one of the Ikea boxes under his bed. Reminds me of Flat Stanley!