Weekend in Keystone

Our small group went to Keystone for the weekend again this year. Kyle and Jen were nice enough to invite us up again! Only 3 of the couples made it this time, but we had a fun relaxing weekend!

Here we are on a short hike


Kyle carrying Jamin


A tee-pee in the midst of a lot of trees that were cut down


Quite a view


Almost looks fake, doesn't it?


Heading up to the tee-pee


Kyle, adding our own tree to the tee-pee


Another group shot!


Jamin :)


Nathan :)


They boys enamored with Matt's card shuffler (thanks, Pap & Gram for making him think we needed one!) ha ha.


Deciding where to eat in Keystone


Chow time! Mexican, yum.


These boys are just too cute


Jen and I are happy that they are getting closer to being buddies :)




Another walk...Jamin loves it!


The VanHorns :) So glad they are a part of our lives.


Oops! There went Jamin's hat...right over his face!


Construction area. So we do the limbo.




Jen decides to have Jamin do the limbo :)


Good time with friends.

New Skills

Matt called it...every time we go to Pennsylvania he says Nathan reaches new milestones. Well, Grandma Liz showed Nathan that he could crawl up on all fours instead of dragging himself, and he also worked on standing and pulling himself up. But in the last week or so since we have been back to Colorado, he has learned to do these things on his own...and is now exploring our home in a new way.

The Tuesday after we got home, I heard him grunting in his room. I walked into to check out the scene and this is what I found...


He pulled himself up in his crib...to his knees. Grandma Liz was trying to get him to do this in her crib but he would always reach for her to pull up instead of grabbing the crib. I think the grunting was him trying to stand up.


He was pretty pleased with himself.


Surveying the scene..."is it worth it to try to stand?"


"Are you watching me, Mama?"


"Did it!"


Now, for the prize...can he get it?


Got it!


Yep, you guessed it. We had to move the ipod, his monitor cord and camera (he got to that as well), and lower his crib. Just making sure Daddy is doing it right.


He's pulling up on absolutely EVERYTHING now. Coffee table, end tables, tv stand (we're putting and end to that), walls, pack 'n play, us! He'll try anything.


He likes the new world to discover at this height.


And sometimes doesn't like it when he can't have everything in this new world!

I put these flowers away now too :)

He's done this a few time too


He can pull these bins out from his crib. It's great fun for him. Twice I found his Colorado onesie that was laying on top IN his crib! And sometimes the bin of clothes is laying of the floor when he pulls it all of the way out :) This is a fun stage.


Like I said, he is crawling on all fours now instead of dragging himself around in the "Scooter crawl" (that's what the doctor called it at his 9 month appt). Matt has a video of this that I will try to get him to post soon so you can see him in action!

Nathan's Band

The week after we got back from Pennsylvania, Nathan got fitted for a new accessory! He is now wearing a cranial band to round out his head as he has a flat spot on the back. Thankfully, he adjusted to it much better than I expected. The orthotist gave us a schedule for the first week were he gradually wore it more and more each day. By the end of the week he was wearing it for 23 hours and of course, sleeping through the night with it on!

This is the day he came home wearing it. He only had to wear it for a total of 3 hours that day. 1 hour on, 1 hour off. A few different angles for you to see it:




He didn't seem to mind it at all when laying on it


He learned to pull himself up on his own when we got back from PA. More on that later. The band has been nice to cushion his extra “spills” as he is exploring his new skills and toppling over in the process :)






I think it was day 4 that he started wearing it for naps


On day 5, we went back in for a follow up appointment to see how things were going and to make adjustments as needed. Improvement was all ready noted in his measurements! This was encouraging and reassuring that we were doing the right thing, as well as the fact that he did not seem to mind wearing it.

This was from tonight, after 10 days of wearing it.


By the way, he got 2 more teeth in, totaling 7. I'm glad because I have been wondering, and giving him Tylenol in the meantime! He now has a 4th one on the bottom and a 3rd one on the top. I noticed the top one this morning while trying to put him in the car seat when we were leaving the gym. He protested and I was able to see his top teeth when he threw his head back in an effort to shimmy out of the seat. I have to rely on his displeasure and pictures to see his teeth! He doesn’t like me to check in his mouth very much. I noticed the bottom one when I zoomed in on this next picture. I think this is the one that he has been working on this past week.


I feel like this explains some things…like the Friday night before we left to fly home to CO when he was up all night with Grandma Liz (the top tooth). That just didn’t make sense at the time. Guess I can’t blame it on the strawberries she fed him :)




Walking with his daddy again