Nathaniel Day 28 - A Picnic and Ice Cream

With Felicity needing to take a nap and only really sleeping at home lately we have had to make the Nathaniel Day activities pretty small for the past couple of months. This month I asked Abby what she wanted to do for Nathaniel Day. She said "Go to Baby Brother's grave." I didn't want to just go there and hang out so I decided to make a picnic. Dave wasn't going to be home for dinner anyway so we could go whenever Felicity woke up from her nap.

I brought a soccer ball and a frisbee for Abby to play with and we all just hung out in the grass by his grave and enjoyed the nice, sunny day.

While we were there a bunny came over to see us several times and Felicity decided to stand up on her own for the first time.

After our picnic we had a little time before the girls needed to go to bed so we went and got some frozen yogurt for dessert. It was a pretty fun day.

Nathaniel Day 27 - Lunch and Lighthouses

Abby is obsessed with trains. We have found a few restaurants in the area that have trains that bring out the food. She loves them. Usually she doesn't actually eat anything, but she loves going. I found a new one somewhat close to us at the Kenosha Metra station so I thought we would check it out. It was not the best that we have been to. Abby did not like the mac and cheese that she ordered, but drank all of the milkshake that I let her get. She did very much enjoy the trains though.


It was supposed to be a nice, warm day so I thought that while we were there we would also do something that I like and go visit the lighthouses in downtown Kenosha. I haven't been to Kenosha that much and had never been to the lighthouses. It was also the first week that the lighthouse museum was open for the season.

We ate lunch and visited the little museum at the lighthouse on the shore and then decided to go play at the beach and then walk down the pier to the little lighthouse at the end. It was a little cold by the beach but both girls loved it. Felicity crawled all over and tried to eat all the sand. Abby collected all the little things that she could on the beach and used them to decorate a sand castle that she made. We all had a lot of fun and were pretty worn out by the time we left.

On the way home we stopped at Nathaniel's grave to see if the tree above his grave was flowering. We knew it is a cherry tree, but had never seen it in bloom. I'm glad I decided to extend our trip to stop. It was so pretty. If I had waited I might have missed it again this year.

Nathaniel Day 26 - A Little Nature Museum

April's Nathaniel Day is Felicity's birthday. I didn't know how that was going to work. I wanted to do something, but not make the day all about Nathaniel. Last year we were in the hospital so we didn't do anything.

Dave was out of town for the week so we didn't really have anything special planned for her actual birthday. I decided that we would check out one of the local nature museums in a town not far from us. We had never been there before, it was small, and it was close so we would be able to do it in the short window of time between Felicity's naps.

Though the museum was small we managed to spend most of the afternoon there. Abby had to check out all the animals several times and then she found a puzzle of the life cycle of a frog to do. I think she did it at least 10 times before we left. Felicity had fun looking at the turtles and  taking all the stuffed birds out of their pretend nest and throwing them on the floor.

Since it was Felicity's birthday we also had a free kid's meal at Red Robin. I decided to brave going out to eat with both girls by myself. We went pretty early and they both did pretty well. I was too busy eating and getting food to Felicity to get any pictures of that part of the day though.

New Decorations

We got some new decorations for Nathaniel's grave at Feed My Starving Children when we were there to pack meals for his birthday. Abby picked out the giraffe, which she named Giraffy. 

The next day we brought them to the cemetery and put them in place. We have since removed the Christmas lights. Soon we will have to bring some of his other summertime things back.

Nathaniel Day 24 - Birthday Packing Party

We decided for Nathaniel's birthday party this year to volunteer with our family at Feed My Starving Children. We spent the afternoon packing meals to send to starving kids around the world. Grandmas and Grandpa and Dave's sister and brother in law and their kids were able to join us for the afternoon. I signed us up as a birthday party so there was even a sign saying happy birthday to Nathaniel. It was a little awkward when they were looking for the birthday people and we said Nathaniel wasn't there. We got there late so didn't have a chance to tell anyone beforehand. But if we had talked to someone about the situation maybe they wouldn't have announced his name.

I think everyone enjoyed the packing. Abby did all the jobs. She scooped and weighed and labeled and helped box. She was one tired girl after the session was done. 

I have no idea how much our little group of me, Dave, and 5 kids packed. We weren't very good about keeping track of how many boxes we did. The whole big group ended up packing 125 boxes which would be enough to feed 74 kids for a year.

After the session we bought Nathaniel a bird and a giraffe at the FMSC shop to decorate his grave. We have been meaning to get him some new decorations, but hadn't found anything we liked yet. This way we got something fun and provided 140 meals for starving kids.

After the packing we picked up some mexican food. Most of us went over to Grandma's house for some dinner and birthday cake. It turned out to be a really fun day.

Two Years

Happy birthday Nathaniel!

Today you would be two. It's hard to believe that it has been two whole years that you have been gone. It really doesn't feel like it most of the time.

We aren't having a big party this year like we did for your 1st birthday, but we are going to celebrate with family and a couple of friends. Abby is so excited for your birthday. When I got up she ran and excitedly told me "It's baby brother's birthday today!". She's been counting down for days. Today she's been asking all day when it was time to go pack meals for kids for your birthday party. We're not going until after lunch. That's a long time for her to wait. The last couple of days she and I have been working on making you a cake. She decided that you would like a chocolate George cake and that she would blow out your candles for you.

A while ago I signed you up for a birthday club so about two weeks ago you got a birthday card from Geoffrey Giraffe. It will probably be the only card you get each year, but that's ok. I considered bringing it into the store to get you the crown and balloon that are part of the gift, but ran out of time. The cake took longer to make than I was expecting and your baby sister is teething and not sleeping well so we have been having a hard time leaving the house lately. I was going to let Nathaniel bear wear the crown and hold the balloon for the party and then bring the balloon to your grave afterwards.

I miss you so so much.

Mommy

P.S.  - You have a new baby cousin. He was born this week. He was born on Great Grandpa's birthday and is named after you. Not many two year olds have a namesake so that's pretty cool.

Nathaniel Day 23 - Waterpark Fun

You can read about the idea behind Nathaniel Day and the activities of previous months by clicking on the Nathaniel Day Activities tab at the top of the page.

We had Abby's 5th birthday party at an indoor water park near us. She has been asking when we could go again so we decided that we could go there for this month's Nathaniel Day activity. 

Open swim was in the evening so Dave was able to come with us. He came home a little early and we headed right over to the water park. We played in the water for about an hour and then headed to a restaurant close by for some dinner of BBQ (mac n' cheese for Abby of course). It was already past bedtime for the girls when we got there, but they did pretty well for being so tired. 

Nathaniel Day 22 - Continuing Christmas Traditions

You can read about the idea behind Nathaniel Day and the activities of previous months by clicking on the Nathaniel Day Activities tab at the top of the page.

Last year for December's Nathaniel Day we decorated his magnolia tree in the backyard. We decided do that again this year. I think it will be a new tradition for December 6th each year. I took the girls out shopping for ornaments a few days before. Abby chose one for herself and one to be for Felicity. We invited family to join us to help decorate and asked them to bring an ornament for the tree. 

After the tree decorating everyone else left and we got ready to go the the Chicago Botanic Garden for their holiday train exhibit. Abby loved all the trains. There was even a Thomas train and snow falling every once in a while! I think Felicity enjoyed it too. There was so much to look at.

At first Abby ran through the exhibit in about 10 minutes and then wanted to go outside to see the lights. It wasn't dark yet and we had paid to go to the train exhibit so we convinced her to stay and look a little longer. I also wanted to see the cool landmarks and Chicago buildings and hadn't had much of a chance since I had been focused on making sure I knew where Abby was as she darted from train to train.

We ended up staying until the exhibit closed. Then we headed outside to see the lights in the garden before heading home for some dinner.

Nathaniel Day 21 - Packing Food for Kids

You can read about the idea behind Nathaniel Day and the activities of previous months by clicking on the Nathaniel Day Activities tab at the top of the page.

On November 6th Dave's work group was doing a team building day packing meals at Feed My Starving Children. Abby is now old enough to volunteer and there were spots for us so we left Felicity with Grandma and joined them for the afternoon session. 

Abby had so much fun and was exhausted by the end! She helped scoop ingredients for a while until her arms got tired and then she joined Dave in packing the finished meals into a box for shipping. She was in charge of keeping track of how many boxes we packed. I think our team (Dave's work group plus me and Abby) packed 16 or 17 boxes. 

The whole group that session packed a total of 132 boxes which will make 79,200 meals for severely malnurished children. That is enough to feed 72 kids for an entire year!

Abby's Special Box

Today Abby and I went to a ladies tea at our church. Part of the event was decorating boxes to fill with love or joy or gratitude or encouragement etc. When asked Abby said that she was going to use hers as a special baby brother box for her special things to remember her brother that died. I didn't suggest that. It was all her idea, but I love that was what she wanted to do with it.

Nathaniel Day 20 - Children's Museum

You can read about the idea behind Nathaniel Day and the activities of previous months by clicking on the Nathaniel Day Activities tab at the top of the page.

My sister and her two daughters were here in the beginning of October so they got to join us for a Nathaniel Day. Usually we wouldn't go to the children's museum for a Nathaniel Day because we go there all the time, since we can go for free, but with the cousins around and Felicity starting to be able to do some stuff we decided to go.

We had so much fun. We shopped and worked in a restaurant and took care of babies and pets and danced and played music and surfed. It was a beautiful day so we were also able to enjoy the outside part, where we usually can't get Abby to go. Out there we found things to climb on and a maze to run through and a tunnel to go through.

I think the highlight of the day for both big girls was right before we left I gave them both a penny to put in the donation thing by the entrance to the museum. They were both enthralled watching them go down.

1. Abby working in the deli 2. cousin change race 3. prairie maze 4. getting some money at the ATM
before grocery shopping 5. Abby playing with an infrared camera 6. surfing 7. cousin faces 8. grocery
shopping 9. caring for babies 10. Abby being a checkout person 11. playing music 12. sandwich making

Catching Up

I haven't posted here in months. It's been busy around our house with two girls. I haven't had a lot of time to write during the day with one girl who doesn't nap any more and one who will sometimes only nap for an hour a day.

Felicity seems to have been teething for months. She got her first tooth the week of Christmas and has been sleeping better since. Hopefully the sleeping trend will continue and I will be able to catch up here. I have four Nathaniel Day posts to catch up on now. I plan to write those and post them soon. Maybe by his birthday next month I will be all caught up.