Nathaniel

Think this would be good for Nathaniel?

Hooked on French

teaches 4 to 6 year olds basic French words and other useful expressions and phrases. Using a CD-ROM for independent instruction and practice, the program also includes a colorful workbook filled with games and activities that offer kids an opportunity to introduce French to their family and friends. Hosted by a cast of loveable characters, kids will have a blast learning to speak French!

What You Learn:
*    Hello and goodbye
*    Numbers
*    Saying your age
*    Colors
*    Shapes

What’s Included:

*    Interactive CD-ROM
*    Colorful workbook filled with lessons, games, and activities
*    Library of 3 books
*    Flash cards
*    Progress poster and stickers to track learning success
*    Parent’s guide

The day every dad dreams of: Nathaniel just got his first credit card offer: Jet Blue American Express. They grow up so fast…

Trixie Tracker Baby Tracking Software

Pretty cool use of “Web 2.0″–we might try this out then everybody can track Sophia day by day…

What they need is how to track the parents’ sleep quantity and hours worked also…

Nathaniel has become attached to Band-Aid(tm)s. He’s learned to say “Spiderman” because of them, and now “Dora” (for Dora the Explorer). Maggie just got him some Batman ones. He knows the Spiderman and Batman theme songs… If you do the Spiderman song he’ll say …”Out! …Pider-mannn…”

Problem is, he’s had these Spiderman Band-Aids on for week now, and the injury has healed. Today, Sophie said we are out or Spiderman Band-Aids but he replied “Mommy [will] buy more”.

Nathaniel had a check-up and is officially:
Height: 36 1/2 in., 90th percentile
Weight: 30 lbs., 75th percentile
And his hair is way too long. Overdue for a haircut!

We got a Little Devil costume for Nathaniel. It just came today and we put it on him. The costume is a red velvety sleeper, separate cap with black horns, and a separate black cape. Very cute. We need to get him a pitchfork. Surprisingly he wasn’t taking off the cap, like he used to do with any headgear. Maybe he’s getting used to it because of his other jacket with a hood. We’ll take pics at halloween…

We will probably go to our acquaintance Francie’s house for a halloween event. She has 2 kids, the younger (Aidan) is 1 week older than N.

Liz thoughtfully picked up a Batman costume for us, but I think on Halloween one should dress like a ‘bad guy.’ It’s supposed to be the night when all the bad creatures run amok. So dressing as a princess or superhero? Doesn’t add up for me. I’m a purist. We also saw a nice dragon costume, one that could be used as a sleeper or clothing almost, made by a nice brand LeTop. The devil was cute though, I preferred it, and it was also a third of the price for something worn once. Actually, it’s pretty big, maybe he could wear it next year… The other thing that’s good is that you can put regular clothes under it. It’s cold at night.

Nathaniel just came back from his 15-month checkup. He is still long and lean: 24 lbs, 13 oz (less than 50th percentile) and 33 inches long (75th-90th percentile).

He had 4 shots in his legs, so he may be grumpy for the next couple of days. One of them was a flu shot, one of the last two in the place. Seems they’re hard to come by, as has been in the news. He should have a follow-up shot in a month, but the doctor said they may not have any available.

He is starting to have occasional ‘meltdowns’ as we’ve heard kids do at this stage. Anything small could upset him, like someone leaving or getting frustrated. They haven’t been a big deal though, just a few minutes of crying.

I couldn’t stand another oddity being at the top of the page so here’s a quick Nathaniel update.

• He likes tomatoes at least as much as bananas now.
• He is cutting a molar, top left, so he compains or cries easily these days.
• A couple days ago he walked across the room by himself, and almost every day does about 10 steps. He can stop and keep his balance and keep going. He still needs encouragement and sometimes he just won’t.
• The doctor says to say as many words in as many languages as you can because he is soaking it all up right now. The more languages he hears the better, but children who hear a lot of languages may take longer to speak. I assume it’s because they have to sort it all out.
• On the changing table he was playing with a bottle with a nipple on it, with just water in it. He squirted himself with it and laughed out loud. So of course he did it over and over again and we all laughed for quite a while. Then changed his soaking outfit.

Nathaniel took his first solo steps yesterday afternoon! He and Aunt Liz were on the back deck and he would walk toward her. He was so excited he was laughing out loud and started to get hiccups. He could even stop and stand. Maybe his new, very flat, Teva sandals helped. I got some footage with the video camera so now my duty as a father is done. I no longer need to be in constant alert mode can put the camera away until his high school graduation. What a relief.

That evening, I got out the still digital camera, and caught him on a couple of small videos. So until I get a fresh DVD done and sent out, here are a couple of mini-videos of Nathaniel walking:

• Nathaniel’s first steps July 26, 2004 - Video 1 (MPG 112 kb)
• Nathaniel’s first steps July 26, 2004 - Video 2 (MPG 184 kb)

Note to amateur videographers: Keep your mouth shut when you’re the one behind the camera.