Just melts my heart...

So, the little Boodle-Bear has been amazing me daily and I felt that it was time to write a blog about my amazing son. I think I had forgotten how sweet and fun 17 months old can be, but every single day Nathan does something new that is very sweet, perceptive or just downright clever if I do say so myself! This week we have had 2 days of him just bring so caring and sweet to Cooper and watching them together just melts my heart! (I start to get a southern drawl when I say this, just so you can picture it in your head!)

Over the past 2 weeks we have been working on letting Nathan make more choices. He is revelling in his new-found freedom! He now is willing to have his diaper changed without a major fit most of the time, since he chooses where he will lay down. On Monday, he grabbed a diaper and brought it to me when he had a dirty diaper, then laid down on the floor and stuck his legs up in the air! About an hour later, he grabbed a diaper again, unfolded it, pulled the tabs out and stood up to look at it. He bent down, rearranged it, then with his little tounge stuck out to one side and his face very serious, walked over to me. I said "Oh, do you need me to change your diaper again?" and he shook his head. He walked around to stand in front of me, then crouched down so he was looking at Cooper, who was sitting on my lap. He reached out with both hands and tried to lift him up! He wanted to change Cooper's diaper! I laughed so loudly and suddenly that I scared him, but I was very impressed with him.

The next day we were right at the end of our lunchtime rush. (I feed 3 children, try to do the dishes, change the boys diapers, we pick up toys, get Meredith's school stuff on and head out the door to drop her off at 12:15 each day, so it is a hectic time!) Cooper was sitting in the exersaucer as I was finishing up the dishes and he started to scream. Nathan ran over, grabbed Coop's bottle and ran to the exersaucer. He gently moved Coop's head back and tried to put the bottle in his mouth, then made pretend eating noises! I was astonished at his ability to figure out so many steps and even make the pretend noises for the bottle.

I am loving the fact that Nathan is learning how to be sweet and gentle with babies too, because I feel like that was a tremendous advantage Meredith had since I was doing daycare when she was little. I think it is so good for them to learn to take care of other people and take turns, and I am thrilled that Nathan is picking up on those lessons at such an early age! He also is very gentle with baby dolls, and right after we started watching Cooper, in July, would pretend to burp them and kiss their heads before laying them down in the cradle. From a developmental standpoint, I am going to be one of "those" moms for a minute, so bear with me! He is really advanced for his age, the ability to understand the concept of imaginary play generally doesn't start to form until around 22 months, and he has been taking leaps and bounds into the world of imaginary play from about 14 months old. Okay, there, I am finished bragging about how smart my child is!

Bearsie is also saying lots of things these days, my current favorites are "Boo. Aaah!" always said together, and the way he cracks up when I say the words "Ew!" or "Blankie". I would love to know what makes these 2 especially funny to him! My other random Bear thought for the day is that I adore how he immediately scoots over to the very edge of his crib when you put him down to sleep, he curls up and sticks a little hand out through the bars and waves his fingers, then drifts to sleep with his face pressed up against the bars...I will try to get a picture, he is so stinkin' cute!