G.A. Necy took these pictures when she arrived on Thursday evening.  I think they are some of the best candid pictures of Nathan.  Look at those big blue eyes!

We’ve dubbed this the “summer of the potty.” Potty training is in full force and things are going very slowly, but well. We are very fortunate that Nathan is in a potty training room at school and that has given him the start and confidence that he needs. His teachers put him on the potty every hour and he is making great progress. We began this adventure by transitioning from diapers to pull-ups. Nathan was very excited to wear his Buzz Woody and Lightning McQueen pull-ups. A couple weeks ago we started noticing that his report card was indicating he was dry during the day. We had talked about letting Nathan wear underwear to school, but decided to hold off a little longer. Well, one morning early last week Nathan told us that he wanted to wear big boy underwear to school that day. I told him that I wanted to talk to his teachers before he did to make sure they were ok with it, since they were the ones who were going to have to clean up his mess. Miss Rikki and Miss Kathy both told me that they thought he was ready, so the next morning Nathan picked out his favorite pair of big boy underwear (Snot Rod from the movie Cars) and off to school he went. He was try all day long and has only had 1 accident at school in the past week! Not bad for a boy who just seriously started potty training a month and a half ago. We aren’t having quite as much luck at home, mostly because we get a little busy sometimes and don’t put him on the potty as much as they do at school. But, we’re getting there and we’re so proud of our big boy! The goal is to be totally trained and diaper-free (at least during the day) by the end of the summer. The prospect of not having to buy diapers again excites me greatly!!!

Other than potty training, we’re staying busy enjoying a lot of time outside (when the temps aren’t 100+ degrees), going to the farm and the zoo and playing cars almost every night. We’ve had several visitors this summer – Mamma and Papa visited from Oklahoma over the 4th of July, G.A. Necy flew in from Oklahoma City last weekend and Grandma and Grandpa are coming down from Iowa this coming weekend. Nathan loves having visitors!

Since I know better than to write a post without pictures, here is a picture of Nathan playing in his “boat” in the living room. He has developed quite an imagination!

Nathan started preschool at Creative World in Liberty on Monday morning. And, of course, we recorded the occasion. The only difference between this time and the other 90% of the pictures we take is that we remembered to take time to share them with you. Sorry about that.

Nathan was very excited to go meet new friends and explore his new school. He put on his Spider-Man backpack especially for the occasion. He keeps his breakfast in there, which he eats as soon as he gets to his classroom.

The first day, mommy and daddy both went in with Nathan to meet his teacher and make sure he was going to acclimate himself alright. We watched him from the front office for a few minutes and everything went as smooth as could be.

Nathan’s school is really nice.

Nathan gets a card every day that tells us what he had to eat, how long of a nap he had, and whether or not he had dirty diapers or went potty. As you can see, Mr. Sir went potty in the toilet *three times* on the first day! Now if we could only get him to do that at home.

As we close out the first week, we can report that every day has been very good. There was a little whining today when dropping him off, but nothing that didn’t shake off after a couple of minutes. He’s been going potty three times a day every day, and we’re off to a great start!

Is this thing on???? I haven’t been updated in over a month. Seriously, mommy and daddy. Get it together!

Tons and tons of new, cute pictures coming soon. Did I mention that there are a LOT of pictures? Hundreds. Perhaps thousands. Ok, well maybe not thousands, but so many, many pictures. I know better not to promise a day, but just be aware that we are very cognizant of our slacking and will try to remedy as soon as we are able.

Now I must go to bed, because I will bet you $1 a little boy will be visiting our room in the wee hours of the morning. Creepy, yes. There’s nothing worse than being awakened by a small boy in your face, tapping your arm, asking to watch TV. At 4:45 in the morning. Stay tuned for a longer explanation of that exciting story.

Night-night.

We’ve had our fair share of snow up here.  It can really go away at any time and not come back…ever.  I realize that’s not going to happen any time soon, so we might as well take advantage of it.  Nathan asked to play outside one day after we came home from work.

Of course, a trip outside wouldn’t be complete without a little snow snack.

We also took him outside to play this past weekend and got some great video.  Stay tuned for that, once I learn how to edit it.  Hopefully I can get that done before the snow melts.  :)

Last weekend we went to Oklahoma City to visit some friends.  Before Nathan went to spend the weekend with Mamma and Papa we went to meet Mr. Jackson Cole Finley.  Nathan loves babies and was very excited to meet Jackson.  He asked to hold him, so of course we were able to catch a great photo.

Nathan Cole and Jackson Cole.  So very cute!!!

Welcome back, patient blog readers!  I’m not going to make any sad excuses, I’ll just commence with the reason you are all here.  :)

G.A. Necy gave Nathan tickets to Sesame Street Live for his birthday and we went a couple weeks ago.  Nathan had a wonderful time and we had fantastic seats!  We will definitely be going back again next year.  It was so fun to watch him see experience all of the characters and get really excited when each of them came out into the audience.  And he loved, loved, loved the music and was dancing in his seat throughout the entire show.  Here are some highlights:

We let Nathan pick out a souvenir and he chose an Elmo twirly light-up toy.  He excitedly twirled it throughout the show and loved that it lit up in the dark.

Look at how close we were!  3rd Row!!!

Hi Elmo!

Nathan wanted to wear his birthday shirt that Daddy made for him.  He loves his robot shirt!

And if you needed any more evidence of how much fun we had that day, I think this says it all.  Nathan fell asleep in the car on the way home and I had to wake him up for dinner at 6:00.

Now that’s a boy who had a great day!  Thanks, Necy!!!

For Nathan’s 2nd birthday we threw him a robot-themed birthday party.  He absolutely loved it!  Would it surprise anyone to know that robot party supplies and favors are not readily available?  It surprised me.  I had to order the plates, napkins and decorations online, which wasn’t a big deal but we had to get creative when it came to invitations and signs.  Good thing there’s an artist in the family!

Balloon

Jeremy designed an awesome invitation, which we emailed out to everyone to stick with the robot theme.

Of course, Jeremy designed a birthday shirt again this year.  I don’t have a really good picture of it, but you can get the idea from the photo below.  Hopefully Jeremy was able to catch a glimpse of it on video.

We ordered the cake from Hy-Vee again this year and she did a fantastic job once again.  I took them one of the napkins I ordered for a reference and this is what she created.

When it came time to sing “Happy Birthday,” Nathan decided to play shy again.  If you look closely on the chair, you can see his little booty sticking up in the air.

He wanted mommy to help him blow out the candles.

We were very lucky to have most of the family in from Iowa and Oklahoma to celebrate, along with some good friends.

Nathan was very thankful to receive some wonderful presents.  Among them were a Spiderman scooter and helmet from mommy and daddy, an art easel, a t-ball set, tool bench, some great fun shirts and socks, an AquaDoodle, a remote control truck, play-doh and tickets to see Sesame Street Live in a couple weeks.  He loves all of the gifts and will have a lot of fun playing with them.  Good thing he had a lot of help unwrapping everything. 

Nathan decided he needed to ride his scooter immediately after he opened it.  Here is the inaugural run, with Papa’s assistance.

We eventually had to put it away because it became a source of contention and caused a lot of fighting between the older kids.

Brandon helped Grandpa put the tool bench together.

Stay tuned for video, once Jeremy has time to edit everything.

Thank you to everyone who sent birthday wishes, cards and gifts.  Nathan is truly blessed to have such wonderful, thoughtful people in his life.  Now I’m praying that we can get through this year with a minimal amount of temper tantrums and other such 2-year-old issues.  Here’s hoping!