Nate donned his new Santa towel tonight after his bath. What a cute little elf! (and the scratches on his head were caused by a sharp edge on Ben's nails as he vigorously tickled his brother a few nights ago!! Poor little Natey...)
Can you believe that Nate is already 9 months old? We can't. Today we went to the pediatrician for his 9-month check-up. Nate is doing very well and is right where he should be in terms of development and growth. He is not crawling yet but the doctor said that as long as he shows some signs of trying to move - and he does by doing a commando crawl on his tummy and also by trying to take steps - then that is fine. Some children do not crawl so we're eager to see if Nate is one of them or if he will just be a late crawler. He charmed the doctor the entire visit with his smiles and giggles! :) Poor little man received one shot, but he did great.
Here are his stats:
length: 29" (75th percentile)
weight: 19lbs. 4oz. (25th percentile)
HC: 18-1/4" (50th percentile)
So despite Nate eating everything in sight, to which those of you who have eaten with his can attest, he remains our little man in only the 25th percentile for weight. You would never guess this if you saw his belly and thighs though :)
With traveling to Florida for Christmas on the 19th for a week and moving on the 28th, the day after we come back from the trip (code word for insane! :)), we opted not to decorate the house this year for Christmas or even to get a tree. And this morning we actually decided to do our own personal makeshift Christmas celebration for our immediate family since we wanted to do something relaxing on a weekend and this is the last one before we leave for FL on Friday. So, Merry Christmas from the Martins...11 days early.
As I was thinking about getting out all of the gifts last night to place in our empty, box-ridden family room, I had a sudden brainstorm: we have a decorative tree in our living room that we keep lights on at all times to add some elegance when we have a party. So, voila! - our Charlie Brown Christmas Ficus was born! :) Here's our place all decked out for the day last night after Santa stopped in early:
The reaction to my makeshift Christmas celebration? Well, the boys were amazed by the lights even if we do not have a true Christmas evergreen this year...and they had a fun time opening their gifts and spending time with Mommy and Daddy even if we were surrounded by boxes on all sides. Here they are with some of their favorite gifts:
Daddy picked out this new Leap Frog toy for Nate. He loves to spin things so this giant wheel was a big hit (with the big brother as well!).
Nate got the Fisher-Price Laugh and Learn Home, which is so much fun. Ben always loved it whenever we'd go to people's houses who have it and Nate is the perfect age for it now. He actually sat there and played with it for about 20 minutes before noticing that I was not right next to him (a recent dilemma in his 9-month-old world of Separation Anxiety).
We wish everyone a Merry Christmas and look forward to seeing both sides of our family, one over the actual holiday and the other immediately afterwards. We'll take lots more photos, but I had to post these - what other kids get to request a special early stop from Santa? :) Andrew and I had our babysitter come for much of the day today so that we could run some errands and do some final work on the house. It's my last workday before we live there - yikes!! Since I have so much of our house in North Wales packed up already, we decided to bring a truckload of boxes for the kitchen to Telford so that I could start unpacking. We decided to get some professional movers to do the job...
Just kidding! :) Andrew was busy loading the truck when we noticed that Ben had decided he would help bring out some boxes as well. Wow, what an easy job for him at first...when he took out all of my empty boxes and placed them next to the full ones!
Here ya go, Daddy...
Phew, that was tough work. When we did actually give him one filled with some light Rubbermaids, he was grunting as he moved it (as Andrew was also doing when he moved the large boxes of appliances and stoneware) and then asked for a glass of water afterwards since apparently that's the thing to do when you do work like this. It's tough work moving to a new house!
Just a quick update that Barney had his second surgery yesterday and is on his way home from the hospital as I am typing this. We spoke with the oncological surgeon yesterday and he is fairly confident that he got all of the tumor out. So, we will continue to pray for Barney's healing and that his tumor will not return. Thanks again for all of your prayers and kind words about our beloved companion!
Next week is Elaina Saunders' 4th birthday so we celebrated today at her Finding Nemo party. What a fun time we had and cute themed food and decor that her mom planned!
Here's the birthday girl blowing out all four of her candles.
...And here she's enjoying her fish-shaped cookie she decorated herself.
Ben, Tyler and Samantha had a fun time decorating their own cookies as well. I think Ben may have had more sprinkles on his than anyone by the time he was finished with it!!
All of the kids had fun playing. Here's Nate "singing." He enjoys babbling a lot lately and has recently started to say Mamama (*big grin* from Mommy) :)
Jonathan always has fun with his Jumperoo - what a smile!
Amy with Brianna and Tyler.
And last but not least, Nate is all ready for one of his three favorite times of day - LUNCH! (breakfast and dinner being those other times!)
Today was Barney's appointment at Penn Veterinary Hospital in Philadelphia. Andrew took him this morning and they had a simialr consensus as our vet - it looks like most of the tumor was removed with the first surgery but the margin, or area of clean cells surrounding the tumor, was slim in a few areas, meaning the chance of spreading is elevated. So, the oncologist has suggested we do a second surgery where they will take out even more of the margin than before. He feels that the chances of the tumor not returning are 80-90% if we opt to take this path. So, we have decided to do this. It is being performed by one of the top surgeons in the area. Barney was admitted this morning and we will pick him up either tomorrow or Thursday. We will keep you posted and thank you for all of your prayers so far.
Jonathan and Nate: Our two little old men in their button-down shirts. :)
Here's Samantha acting like a snake for one of the party games.
Nate loves this Leapfrog Table and always migrates to it at home and at people's houses!
Present time! Ben was VERY excited to give Tyler his gifts: a vehicle stamp set that he also has (and loves) and a wooden army tank to build and paint with his daddy.
Tyler blowing out his candles.
And the whole gang. Happy birthday, Tyler!
Thanksgiving this year was spent in New Jersey with my parents and brother. My future sister-in-law Chang, unfortunately had to take a trip to China to mourn the loss of her father so she was not able to be with us and we kept her in our thoughts and prayers all weekend.
We have so much to be thankful for this year: a great marriage, two beautiful children, our families and friends, our dog Barney, our new house we have been renovating and will soon move to, and most importantly for God's love and presence in our lives. We are abundantly blessed!
We grew up with the tradition of Tom Turkey visiting us on Thanksgiving morning so Nana and Pop have carried that tradition on for our boys. It works out well since the boys love the excitement and...Pop loves to buy chocolates for the kids :). Here are the boys in their matching truck pj's with Tom the Turkey himself! :)
Whoa! Tom the Turkey brought Ben the latest Hess truck this year. He received last year's model for Christmas and loves it so this was a pleasant surprise. Our entire ride home, Ben proceeded to point out all of the Hess gas stations we passed and exclaim, "Look! It's a Hess station! Truck comes from there!"
Nate getting a feel for his chocolate turkey. Our little "turkey" doesn't know that under the shiny foil is a real chocolate turkey. If he did, he wouldn't be wasting time smiling for the camera (being the chow-hound he is!).
Playing together after breakfast with Nate's snap beads. Note that they are Nate's gift but someone else is playing with them... Again, the sharing dilemma comes into play :).
The men watching football. Uncle Mike sums up how I feel about that activity :).
Nate cheers as a touchdown is made!
And let the eating begin! Nate ate more than his brother for sure at dinnertime but Ben's eating habits weren't too shabby when dessert came around. He had helped Mommy make a pumpkin and an apple crumb pie and was SOO proud of them!
Ugh! Here's Andrew post-feast...and before loosening his belt! Boy, was the meal good...but so filling!
Nana and her littlest man Nate. What a big smiley guy he is, the little charmer! :) 
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