Nathan turns 3 on Sept 4. We had a big birthday for him since we want to make him special before his baby brother’s arrival. This is the first year we actually organize a birthday party for him since he missed one when he was one year old due to the stomach flu. Then the second year we decided to take him for a mini vacation in Branson instead. This year is different because he could raise his voice of how he wants his party to be. He decided on the theme of the party – of course, Thomas the train theme and the guest list. Daddy and mommy have started cooking for the party before the big day. We made tons of food – mee hoon, satay, peanut sauce and ketupat for the satay, curry, ribs and sausages – wow!!!! What a feast!!! We are thankful that our friends’ moms were able to help us up on Friday. The next day more cooking to do and got up at 6:30am to start cooking more for the lunchtime party. He was so happy to have the birthday party and so many people came to celebrate with him and of course all the presents that he got! By the end of the party, we both were exhausted and we decided to take a little nap while Nathan was playing with all his new toys all by himself!

It’s the first day of Mother’s day out program for Nathan. He got up early in the morning and was ready to go!!! We had our breakfast and got dressed in few minutes. When I looked at the clock, it was still too early to go and Nathan was pulling his backpack around the house and hurried me to the car already. Then I said, why not we rest for a while before we leave. Then he looked me and started asking me to pray for him. I was more than happy to pray for him in this special moment! We left the house about 8:30am and but it was still too early to go in and I decided to pump gas. Nathan asked, “Mom but we have to go to school!” Well, after assuring him that we will go to school, he was happy to be waiting in the car while mommy killed some time at the gas station. Now it’s time to go to school, we reached there and he immediately jumped out of the car without any delay to go to the classroom. But we’re still early..hahha!! We had to wait for a few minutes to check in the kids and after everything is done he rushed to his class without even said good bye to me!!! I was disappointed and kept calling him and finally he heard me and waved good bye to me. Oh well, apparently it was harder for the mommy. My hubby was asking me if I could stay with him for the first day last night. My answer now it’s absolutely NO!!! He was doing just fine without mommy!

Yesterday we went to a friend’s house and stayed there for the whole day. We had lunch and Nathan even took a nap there. We left the place about 5:00pm. We thought we might get home before daddy. But daddy got home didn’t find us there and started calling us because he had not seen us the whole day!! After talking to him, I hung up the phone and turned to Nathan and told him that daddy was worry about us. Nathan pretended to cry and to be sad: “Daddy misses Nathan…sob sob!”
When we got home, he was happy to see daddy. Daddy welcomed us back and Nathan commented: “Daddy cheered and said hurray, hurray! Nate nate is back!”

N: “Mommy, do you know that iPad is like a small computer and iPhone is like a small telephone?”
Me: “So, daddy told you about that?”
N nodded. After that, he ran out of my bedroom and started looking for his “iPhone.”
When Andy got home and I told him about the thing that N told me this morning, he immediately said that he didn’t tell that to N.
So, I started to wonder where did he learn this from?? I wonder things that the kids learn these days… I still remember back in my old days, I don’t even know what is a cell phone or a computer!!!

We got back from church and I asked Nathan what did he do at church? He said he had fun playing with his buddy. Then he told me the following:
Albert asked me if I’m Nation.”
N replied: “No, I’m Nathan!!!”

Apparently, his buddy still couldn’t get his name right. And Nathan as usual likes to correct people mistakes, corrected him that his name is “Nathan.”

Is it the first born thing or what, I find that Nathan likes to give out instruction or to correct people. Aww… I’m so not look forward to all the bickering between the brothers and all the correction and instruction he will be given to his little brother!

I was reading the stories from the “Elmo and friends!” book to Nathan. When i read about the story of Cookie Monster was going to invite his friends over for a meal, then he decided to made a list of things to do around the house. Then we came to this page of Cookies busy cleaning the house. Then my 3 years old pointed at the page and added his comment: “The house is messy like mommy’s!” I turned around and asked, “Really mommy’s house is as messy as Cookies?” Nathan replied: “Yes!” Of course, Andy was busy laughing!!! I guess innocent toddler doesn’t lie and I’ve to improve on my housekeeping skill.

What does a two years old boy ask for when going fabrics shopping with you? oh… of course, his favorite character – Thomas and friends fabric! Nathan picked up this fabric for himself when we go fabrics shopping for Noah’s quilt. He wants me to make a pillow case for him out of the fabric. Well, making a pillow case it’s not that hard and this could be done easilyin an hour or so if your sewing machine would cooperate with you. Unfortunately, my needles broke and it was my last one. I have to delay the project until i get my needles! But i think the pillow case turns out pretty nice with the Thomas fabric and the green.

Happy Father’s Day, from Nathan! Thank  you for being the greatest dad and for spending time with Nathan everyday even when he misbehave and hard to be around with. You’ve been a great dad by providing, guiding and setting a good example. May God continue to give you wisdom to be a good father and fill you up with His joy and grace. We love you! These are the crafts that Nathan made for his daddy this year and of course with the help of mommy! We copied a poem from a site and reads:

“Sometimes you get discouraged because I am so small and always leave my fingerprints on furniture and walls.

But every day I’m growing – I’ll be grown some day, and all those tiny hands will surely fade away.

So here’s a little handprint, just so you can recall, exactly how my fingers looked when I was very small”

June 20, 2010

Love, Nathan

This week Nathan has started his swimming class. The first day he seemed to like it and when asked him whether he would like to go back, then he said:" “YES!” Today we were prepared to go for the class, he started making a fuss. He didn’t want to go back and didn’t want to change to his swim short. He told me that he didn’t like it after all. I had to bribe him in order to get him change and to get into the car! While in the pool, he had a great time with daddy. I think daddy did a wonderful job and that made Nathan liking the swimming class more and more. Special thanks to daddy who doesn’t enjoy a wee bit of swimming – could you imagine this daddy has not been to the pool for 20 years because he hated it! And yet, he could sacrifice and made the exception for his son. I’m sure when Nathan is bigger, he would appreciate his daddy very much for doing that for him!

I really like when Nathan uses his imagination to pretend and play with his existing toys. This afternoon, he kinda remember of the “fire fighter” song that he learned from his music class. Then he realized that he used props which we don’t have them at home. So, he decided to take a lid out of a box and to pretend to be his fire fighter’s helmet. Then got out his old truck and pretended to be his fire truck. Maybe it’s true that we don’t need so many toys at home so that the kids would be more creative in playing. I remember when I was young, didn’t have many toys at home. I would take anything we have in hands like slippers, shoes, rubber band or etc to make games out of them!!