Speaking of Nathan, he is learning so many new skills lately! Around the holidays, he mastered the art of sitting up on his own, which is often his preferred position now. Unfortunately, he cannot get up without our help still. I keep hoping that he will figure out how to get from his belly to a sitting position, but like most new skills, I have reasons to be thankful he cannot. Also, Nate has spent the last three or four weeks getting himself up on all fours, but is not quite crawling. Instead, he rocks back and forth and then usually ends up scooting backwards across the room. Each time he gets into crawling position, we clap our hands and get excited. Nathan loves watching people clap hands, so he then gets excited and laughs as he rocks some more. In anticipation of his impending mobility, we took advantage of a sale and some coupons to buy a couple safety gates which will be installed when he really starts moving. As we await the crawling phase, Nathan is also learning how to stand, nearly on his own. He loves to stand on our laps or the ground with our hands nearby for support. I can hardly believe that we are not too far from walking!
Nathan has a hearty appetite, which is not surprising, I'm sure. In addition to nursing or bottles, he has a lunch and dinner everyday. These meals are both 4 ounces of fruit or vegetables which he eats quickly. He can become impatient if we take too long to prepare the next bite, banging his hands on the tray or even reaching for our hands and pulling the spoon closer to his mouth. Sometimes, he is still not satisfied and wants oatmeal as well. I was just commenting to Jeff that I'm not sure if I've ever seen Nathan turn down food that's been offered. Is he ever full? We end each meal with a couple of puffs, snacks that dissolve in his mouth and help him practice putting food into his own mouth. 
In addition to purchasing baby gates, we bought a new car seat for Nathan. Carrying him around in the infant seat is just becoming too difficult for me and he is nearly too big for the old seat. After some of my own research, and some research on the part of my Uncle Dennis, Jeff and I decided on the Graco My Ride 65. This popular car seat enables Nathan to sit "rear-facing" until 40 pounds, a higher weight limit than similar seats. Government safety regulations recommend children sit rear-facing for as long as possible and we hope that high weight limit will allow that. Once the seat is turned to "forward-facing", it's usable until he reaches 65 pounds. We hope that we can use this seat for many years to come. Given that the new car seat is much larger and doesn't transport easily, we will need to purchase a second one for Jeff's car in the near distant future. In the mean time, Jeff will continue to use the infant car seat. Buying the car seat yesterday really highlighted a bigger problem of which Jeff has blogged about previously: we need a bigger car. It is our hope and prayer that Jeff's job will continue next year (and maybe even be full time) so that we can finally make that purchase. The new seat fits in my car about the same as the old one, which means the front passenger seat is still not comfortable for long trips. 
Last, but not least, I noticed yesterday that Nathan is finally getting his first tooth! Like all milestones, I am both excited and nostalgic for him. My sweet boy is growing up so fast and I will truly miss his gummy baby smiles!
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