The last arm picture

Here it is - the 13th and last. All of the others are on the old blog, so I've also included here the ones from 6 months ago and a year ago.

Shots, a haircut, and a visit with friends

It's been an eventful first week of Nathaniel's second year. It started with a well-baby checkup which was all a lot of fun until it came time for the doctor to administer three shots AND draw blood. Nathaniel made it clear that he would rather NOT experience that again any time soon.
We did get the latest reading on height and weight: 23 lbs (50th percentile) and 31 inches (90th percentile).

Much more fun was a vist from Nathaniel's future college roommate, Kenan Reichow, and his parents, Terrell and Brian. The little boys enjoyed bonding over glowing frog toys (a birthday gift from Kenan to Nathaniel) and tiny basketball, and the parents had a good time catching up, too.

At long last, Nathaniel had his first professional haircut this morning (his only prior hair cut being our attempt to shorten his bangs slightly while he was sleeping). The haircut experience went quite well - his patience held out almost as long as the haircut took.

As you can see from the before and after pictures, a good bit of hair had to go. We're not sure exactly how much this will affect the above-reported weight measurement, but we're guessing it could be significant :)

Favorite toy, favorite spot, favorite game:

If you look carefully you'll notice in many pictures that Nathaniel wields a white measuring cup. Turns out they make great toys - just the right size to hold, makes great noise when you bang it on things, and the handle is nice to chew on if teething is giving you trouble.

Nathaniel decided as soon as he could crawl that our brick hearth is the ideal spot to play. After resisting for a few weeks, we finally went along with him. He's learning to climb down feet-first instead of head-first, which at least reduces the number of falls. We have at least managed to keep him from opening the grate and entering the fireplace itself, which he would really like to do.

The hearth is a great place to play the newly-invented "uh-oh" game. Grandma Diana and GrandTeddy started this game a few days ago. The original idea was for Nathaniel to throw his hands up and say "uh-oh" every time he pushed something over the edge of the hearth onto the floor. But Nathaniel quickly trained the adults to say "uh-oh" - he just pushes something off, raises his hands and looks at you expectantly.

So with that long explanation, you can understand why he's having such a good time in the next couple of pictures:

A few last smiles...

Nathaniel had his first birthday this Monday, June 9th. His actual party, where he celebrated with all 4 grandparents, was on Saturday. He seemed a little confused at times by the excitement and the unusual activities, but participated enthusiastically, especially when it was time to eat birthday cake.

Here he is with just a few of the great gifts he received from his generous grandparents, aunts and uncles, etc.:

The birthday cake was the highlight of the party not only for Nathaniel but for the other party-goers. Nathaniel's all-business facial expressions as he demolished a LARGE piece of cake was highly entertaining to all present.

We figured a great way to clean off some cake stickiness, especially on a 100-degree day, would be a quick dip in the baby pool. Nathaniel, however, found the water a little chilly for his liking - not quite what he's used to with his bath.

But he got the hang of it eventually, and a good time was had by all.

Beach-in-May

Dubbed "Beach-in-May" by Nathaniel's cousin Levi, the annual Allen family beach trip is on its 11th year at the Outer Banks. Grandma and Pop instigated and have graciously hosted this event, which just gets better every year. This year, 6 adults and one child took a total of about 500 pictures on 3 cameras. I've narrowed that down a bit, but there should still be enough to give you an idea of why we look forward to this week every year. First and most important of course is just a good long stretch of family time:

Other than general family togetherness ( which of course, as great as it is, can just lead to everyone getting on each other's nerves without a few distractions), here's a few of the regular activities that make Beach-in-May what it is:


Catch a sunrise over the Atlantic (Pop was the only one this year to actually make it up in time for this event)...

...Relax...

...Play...

...Hang out on the deck, especially for breakfast time...

....Go to our regular favorite restaurants (and a couple of new ones)...

After all that, and even in spite of some stormy weather for part of the week, we did find some time to actually get on the beach. Nathaniel liked it almost as much as a bath (i.e. a lot), and cousin Levi enjoyed it as only a four-year-old can.