adventures in vermont: bumpa and the tube

Those are two separate events! We tried valiantly to get a good group shot while we were visiting Bumpa and, sadly, this is the best we could get! Nate had a blast on the tube and really loved going over the waves. He would shout, "again!" after the waves subsided and was then annoyed when Thad couldn't magically make them reappear.

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Nate's language skills are improving so quickly these past few weeks. He put three words together for the first time on our drive back from Rochester ("yellow dump truck"), which was just three weeks ago. That triggered combining even more words ("big yellow dump truck") and he's now using verbs to string together more complete ideas.

We just got back from a weekend in Vermont with the Carlsons. We "slept" in the same room with Nate, who spent so very, very many of the evening hours talking. Man, the kid won't shut up these days! I guess he takes after me more than Thad, huh? He'd talk about the usual - plumber trucks, dump trucks, Julia, Didi - but he also started talking coherently about events. "Daddy make pie," "Matt boat ski," and my personal favorite, "uh-oh, Duckie, Nonnie, fall, bed." He spent hours upon hours talking to himself while we attempted to sleep. Seriously. He also sang a lot, which isn't very musical, but is pretty cute. He has quite a wide repertoire, and will often burst into his rendition of the ABCs, Twinkle Twinkle, Elmo's Song, C is for Cookie, and My Kind of Town (Chicago Is). Photos from the weekend to come when I unpack the camera.

happy august

Happy birthday to Anna, (Aunt) Jean, (Uncle) Matt, (Great) Aunt Anne, Jenny, Steph, Courtney and everyone else with an August birthday!

flashback! rochester

We were in Rochester a couple of weeks ago and were able to see a bunch of our old friends and favorite places (not everyone, unfortunately. Which is a great reason for another visit!) We spent a lot of time eating, planning what to eat, and feeding ducks. Nate also spent a considerable part of the trip wearing things around his neck, especially the ladder golf balls and mardi gras beads. We stocked up on some of our Rochester favorites, but miss our old home and the friends who are still there.

the continued adventures of buckethead

future batesies (flashback!)

A few weeks ago we got together with a bunch of Bates friends. I really cannot believe that it's been over ten years since Thad and I graduated. We're no longer "young alumni" (according to the alumni office, that is). Ugh. Anyway, Bates has this weirdly high percentage of Bates graduates who married other Bates graduates, and that's definitely true among our friends. And now those friends are having little Bates offspring, like Nate. Our friend Meredith (a Bates alumna, of course) had a bunch of people over for a barbecue at her new house and there were a bunch of Batesies' kids there, and they had a blast running around the yard, playing in a fancy inflatable pool, and playing together.

eek!

Wow - sorry for the huge gap between posts. Between work, setting up the new house, and our tres-popular social lives, I have clearly neglected my blogging. So, I'm going to make a valiant effort to recap the last few weeks, which were filled with some pretty fun Nate antics and lots of play dates. I'll be back soon!