Puff, the Magic Dragon

Nash has been so into dragon's and dinosaurs lately when I ask him what song he wants me to sing to him at night he often says "dragons!" So ummm... how many dragon songs do you know? The only one that came to mind was "Puff the Magic Dragon." Not to far into the song, I realized that I only knew the chorus and so I just made up the rest...I got that from Grandma Willardson, she is always singing cute made up songs to the grandkids.
Today, Nash and I made our weekly trip to the library. The past 2 weeks he has been hanging over my shoulder saying "dragon book mommy, find dragon book!" SO MUCH PRESSURE!!! I am madly looking through the rows of books to find the words dragon and/or dinosaur so I can give him a book to look at while I browse. I seriously think we have read every dinosaur or dragon book in the Parkland Library! Maybe it is time to move on to the Lower Macungie Library. :) Today I found the book "Puff, the Magic Dragon" (the same one illustrated in the above video.) I was so happy, and then it was a bonus when I saw there was a CD in the back!
Of course the second we got home Nash wanted to jump right into the books. Puff was the first he wanted to read so I got out the CD player and we began singing the book with the music. HOLY COW! I don't think I have ever listened to the lyrics (I think I always thought it was about drugs...haha!) Seeing the words with the illustrations was so OVERWHELMING! I was sobbing by the end of the book. I couldn't help but think about how FAST my little boy is growing up. This fighting dragons and dinosaurs is such a short little phase. I wish I had a camera to capture that sweet moment with my little boy, sitting in the corner rocking chair singing to his dragon book. Then after wards he slammed the book shut and ran off with his sword. :) It makes me smile thinking about it.
Later that night we sang it again but with daddy. I still sobbed my eyes out. Hopefully the song will get easier because knowing Nash there will be at least 50 more readings of this book!

Savoring the Moment...

Nash's imagination is coming out more and more each day. Mostly he is dragon hunter saving me from the dragons hiding in the cupboards, trees and blankets. After many of my photo-shoots when I pick up Nash from the babysitters (thank you Codi and Stacia) I will sit outside and snap pictures of him running and playing. He is such a ham sometimes!

This is a cute little hat he got at a birthday party for his friend Riley.

In the above picture he is flying like a dragon.

Anything that is long is a sword or a "snord" as he says it.

Look at the kung-foo moves of the brave dragon hunter!

And a trip to Lockridge Park is a trip into the dragon's lair.

Oh I love our little Nasharoo!

Don't Look Ethel!!!

So when I was putting this post together a song from my childhood came to mind. As redneck as this is it is so my dad! haha. And right now Nash is definitely the streaker in the house as we are in the process of potty training.

I got a ton of ideas and suggestions from friends on how to potty train but I think the best one came from Nash's behavior therapist when she gave me the idea of animals. Nash loves animals! So went through my Pre-school stuff and found pictures of animals. Then I put them all over our downstairs hallway.

Each bathroom had it's own theme and every time Nash needed to use the potty he would choose an animal that he would take home and that was the potty we would use.

Nash's Ark...for the zoo animals.

Old McNash's Farm
This potty was at the top of our stairs to the basement, since that is where we spend most our time and there isn't a toilet down there.

JUNGLE...for the dinosaurs
This bathroom cracked me up as I taught Nash to sing "Welcome to the Jungle" by ACDC...another song from my childhood thanks to my brother Kedrick.

And OF COURSE there needed to be a potty treat for a job well done! Our choice of treat is chocolate chips because that was all we had in the cabinet when I started the training. :)

Most days this is what Nash looks like. We have left peoples houses looking like this after multiple accidents and NO MORE undies to put on. Poor Nash!

His plan in the above picture was to take the chair out to the garage so he could push the garage door opener and ESCAPE!!

But he was caught!

He is doing really well with potty training. We can now go out places with no accidents with #1. He is able to stand up and pee which is so nice when we are at the park. (haha!)
Although, he hasn't grasped the concept of #2 in the potty yet. I think he believes the process is he poops in his pants then we put it in the toilet. Often when he does this he will say "Ah-NO! Poop in potty!" So he hears what I am saying but it isn't registering. Anyone out there have suggestions for the poop training?

Sorry for all the info in this post. Just want to remember the life of Nasharoo! :)

Blue Bell Easter Pictures...

Lockridge Park is probably one of my favorite parks here in the Lehigh Valley, it is beautiful for pictures and is probably the #1 place requested for my photography business. In April there is a field in Lockridge that blooms with beautiful blue bells. It is a huge event and photographers/moms stalk the park waiting for these flowers to make their appearance (me included) because they are only out for about 2 weeks and then they are gone. I did 10 photo-shoots there this year which has made for a VERY busy April! Nash was my final shoot and luckily he cooperated for me. Which was not the case last year as we were working on getting rid of the Binky and right before our shoot he found one of those darn things in the car and I couldn't get it out of his mouth!

Can you tell we are in the stage of saying "CHEEEESSSE" for every picture.

And then he got to the point where he was done smiling!

But nothing that daddy can't fix along with M&M's...(oops!)

Because I do so many shoots at Lockridge, Nash knows the park inside and out. Often he comes with me or I bring along a YW from church to play with him. If he behaves he is usually promised a trip down to the river. He loves throwing rocks, getting muddy and finding sticks. The next two pictures were taken by Darin after our Easter shoot.

You know he had fun if he comes home looking like this!

Family Pictures

This past November when we were in Utah we had my amazingly talented cousin Kara take our family pictures. It was bitter cold that day and Nash held out for 15 minutes before he was a Popsicle. I feel bad I haven't posted these yet, we love them and I am so excited to get them on my wall. For the past year I have had frames on my wall with NO pictures in them. Yes I am weird. In many of the picture frames are the photos that come in the frames. Sometimes I think those people look better then any of us!










Thanks Kara again for your talent and time I can't thank you enough for giving us such beautiful memories!