Our Little Nathan

Just a couple of thoughts on our little 4 year old.

Nathan has definitely been my most challenging child. It is just because he is not passive or easy going. He lets you know what he wants and when he wants it. I remember he was quite a crier when he was a baby. The war in Iraq started about a week after he was born and made Steve work 12 hour days. So, I was home with the two boys in the evening. My darling Steven whom I loved to read stories to and sing songs to when I put him to bed, and my screaming baby boy Nathan. I finally decided that is too bad for Nathan if he wants to cry, I am going to read stories and sing. So, I would put him in his swing and let him cry for the 20 minutes it took me to get Steven ready for bed.

As Nathan has grown he still lets you know without a question what he is happy with and what he doesn't like. Because of his strong personality he is the child that many people enjoy the most. I have learned to love it as well. He has helped us come up with some new ways of discipling though. It is because of Nathans extremely loud screaming when playing or yelling or singing or anything for that matter that we started the hot sauce punishment. If he can't control his volume after being asked about 10 times, then he gets a little Tabasco on his tongue. It works quite well for any of you with the same sort of issues. :)

As far as his lovely qualities, he has many of them. He makes friends very easily because he will be friends with anyone. Even when they can't understand a word he is saying. He will often come up to me with a puppy dog look on his face and a sweet soft voice and say, "I love you Mom" and then give me a hug. Come to find out he has done that to his Nursery leaders too. He loves to do puzzles and is just starting to enjoy computer games, and watching Steven on the X-box. He has also coined some great phrases.
Like.... "I burted" for I burped which was made to sound like farted.
or everytime I tell him he needs to take a nap he says, "Is it for a lawn, lawn, lawn time?" Since he doesn't say his g's correctly yet, that is how he says long.
On occasion he decides that he hates things, that he really shouldn't. Currently he Hates primary, and asks the whole time when he can go. It can be very distracting, especially when I am trying to do Sharing Time and can't whisper to him to be quite. At Christmas time he decided that he Hated the camera right about the time Scott Buchanan was taking a video of him. He screamed at Scott and ran in to a bedroom and slammed the door. Luckily, Scott thought it was hilarious and proceeded to show the video to anyone that would watch.

I could go on and on, but I think you get the picture. We love our Nathan boy and are enjoying watching him grow.