Tumbling into a Routine

Hello Family and Friends!

Our month has been fairly simple, all things assessed, but I am amazed at how quickly things get busy, and how fast time flies.

Shortly after our company dispersed, Nathan entered a dark garage on his way to work and missed a stair, crumbling to the bottom with an awkward landing on his right foot. Two days later, he did it again. After hobbling around for two weeks he decided to go see a podiatrist to make sure nothing was broken. The podiatrist took one look at his foot/ankle and said, “Geez, what did you do?” He took 5 or 6 x-rays, and we’re still waiting to hear his diagnosis.

I enrolled David in gymnastics at The Little Gym once a week. He loves going into a brightly colored, padded room and running, jumping, somersaulting, swinging, and climbing to his heart’s content. I’m glad for the hour-long energy outlet that doesn’t require my undivided attention! We also have taken to going to the ward playgroup at the mall once a week. That’s another somewhat contained, padded environment that lets him work off some energy, and I get the benefit of making friends with the other moms.

On September 12 I took both boys in for routine exams (1-month and 3-year). Daniel measures very long (>97%) and rather chubby (85%), while David is still pretty average. I did express some concern about David’s apparent speech delay. It seemed to me that a lot of his peers, and even younger children, have larger vocabularies and clearer speech than David. His hearing checked out fine, but an evaluation by a speech specialist indicated that he would definitely benefit from speech therapy. We start that this week. I’m interested to see how quickly he improves.

At church they wasted little time in extending us callings. Nathan was called as Ward Mission Leader, and I was called as a Ward Missionary. Neither of us have any experience in that field, so it will be interesting for us to learn and grow.

As we prepared to move to Raleigh, I wondered how David would take to all the changes that were pending. New apartment, new house, new brother, new nursery. That was a lot to absorb in a few months’ time, and I was amazed at how smoothly he took everything in stride. It was not long before he referred to the apartment as “home” and when we got the house, the “new house.” A girl in the ward watched David for me several times for doctor appointments or house stuff, and he would talk about playing at Anthon’s house. Recently however he has started to ask about people back in Washington. Are we going to so-and-so’s house; where did they go? He tells me about once a week that he wants to go to Grandma’s house with the kitty. It is hard for me to explain to him that the people he’s asking about are very far away and we can’t go see them like we used to.

David continues to be a wonderful brother to Daniel. He is very attentive to Daniel’s needs, giving him blankets, binky, toys, turning on his swing, tightening his seat belt, patting his head and tummy, and his absolute favorite thing—holding Daniel’s hand. It’s so cute! David also likes to help me put laundry in the washing machine, and fold and put it away afterwards. He’s also very good at reorganizing the cans in the pantry, and putting away his toys when asked. One of my favorite things he does at this age and stage: when we tell him he needs to hold someone’s hand (i.e. in the parking lot) he quickly clasps both his hands together and says he’s “holding David’s hand.”

Daniel is as charming as ever, and even more so since he started smiling. He definitely prefers smiling at Nathan. At first he would beam and Nathan, but give me what my siblings have dubbed “The Brow Furrow” that looks pretty much like a scowl. While I would have loved a few grins in my direction, I was delighted for Nathan to get some favoritism since David is such a Mommy’s Boy. Daniel has since warmed up to smiling at me, and prefers to do it when he should be nursing. I’ll switch sides, and rather than latching on, he’ll often sit and grin for 5 minutes or so before getting back to business. It’s darling, and I have to remind myself not to wish it away even though I’d like him to eat a little more efficiently. Daniel’s well-earned nickname of “Little Squirt” has been joined by “Little Windy,” which he earned after keeping Nathan awake for several hours early one morning. Ah the joys of living in a house full of boys.

Well, such is our lives at the moment. We’re having fun, but we miss you all.

Lots of love,
Natalie & boys