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The blog site…:) This software I setup has limitations that I’m tired of dealing with, so I created a new blog site on blogspot. I will leave this site up as an archive, but we’ll be posting new things on the new address.

Here’s the new site: http://njec.blogspot.com

Sunday morning, when Natalie walked out into the living room, she saw the room fully decorated.  Nate and I finished up this room Saturday evening.  Natalie stood in the middle of the room, turned in a complete circle, looking at everything.  When she had seen the entire room, her comment was, “Nice!”  She looked at the pictures on the wall and said that they were nice pictures.  Then she told me that she liked all the decorations.  It was so neat watching her!

Last evening, Nate and I did a little decorating. When Natalie woke up, I took her out into the living room. She noticed the stockings right away. While we were laying on the couch, she looked at her feet and then told me that she had 2 feet. Aren’t Christmas decorations confusing for young children? 1 stocking for each person - even when we have 2 feet.

A little while after that conversation, Natalie was wondering who gave Santa his presents. I thought it was a good question.

The next thing we talked about this morning was her Advent calendar that we just put up and started using. Natalie was asking about the numbers on it, and I was explaining again how we use it. She decided that she would like to do all 24 at one time.

A little while later, Natalie was playing with her toys. She found a Christmas stocking that we had not put up. Natalie proceeded to fill it with some of her toys. Then, she sat in a chair and stated that she was Santa and that someone had to sit on her lap. When you “sat” on her lap and told her what you wanted for Christmas, she would pick out a present from her stocking and give it to you. She had fun doing this for quite a while. Natalie told Nate that he had to sit on her lap too.

Later this afternoon, we were going to the store to get her boots and warmer gloves to play in the snow. While we were on our way, she said that she wanted to make snowballs and throw them at our head. What a sweet little girl!

This morning, I woke up to a little girl crying.  When I went into her bedroom, I asked Natalie what was wrong, and she told me and pointed to her bed at which time she also proceeded to get sick again.  After I got her and her bed cleaned up, she seemed wide awake and doing pretty well.  I got her to lie down for a little while longer, but then she was up for the day.  I brought a “puke bucket” upstairs and explained what she was suppose to do with it.  A couple hours after she woke up, I was impressed that she actually used the bucket correctly.  I made the mistake of giving her some juice because I wanted her to drink something and knew that this would not be a battle.  It promptly came back up, and there was no time to make it to the bucket for this one.

Thankfully, this was the extent of the gross part of my day.  I didn’t stray too far from her today…just in case she needed my help.  By the evening, she was almost begging for food.  We did get some liquids into her, and a piece of toast stayed down too.  Hopefully, Nate will have a little girl who is on the mend since he is working from home tomorrow.

Our family enjoyed a very nice Thanksgiving holiday.  We thank God for all of the many blessings He has given us this year.  Natalie, as always, continues to make us smile.

On Thursday morning, while we were watching the end of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, I made a comment about seeing Santa and the reindeer.  Natalie thought for a moment, and then stated, “Uncle Gary and Uncle Mark were looking for reindeer.”  She made the connection that these two uncles were “looking for deer” when they went hunting a couple of weeks ago.

While were were eating our pie for dessert on Thanksgiving, Natalie asked everyone sitting around the table, “Is everyone’s pie okay?”  She sounded like she was the hostess for the evening.

Friday, we had a nice day of traveling as we went to see Nate’s side of the family for Thanksgiving.  Natalie had a fun day in the back of the van with her two cousins Nicholas and Hannah.

Breakfast with Santa was on Saturday.  Natalie wasn’t as willing to sit on Santa’s lap this year - even though she knew what she wanted to ask him to bring her (a baby doll with all the accesories - crib, car seat, high chair, clothes, etc).  Nate finally convinced her to stand with him and talk to Santa…so we still have a picture with her and Nate near Santa.  Natalie had another great few days with her cousins - Zach, Ella, and Caden.  It is so fun to watch all of them interact.  We can only imagine the fun they will continue to have as they get older.

We have been gearing up for the holiday season in our home.  The catalogs and stores have helped to prompt this.  It is also nice to get a jump on the gifts before the huge crowds hit the stores.  With all of this talk around our home, Natalie has been asking to decorate both the inside and the outside.  (About a week ago, she saw some Christmas lights in the basement and Nate hung them down there for her to see.)  Recently, she has been asking to decorate the outside of the house.  Nate thought that sounded like a good idea, and since our gutters on this house are lower and more manageable for putting up lights, he decided to buy some strings of lights the other night.  Tonight, Natalie was Daddy’s little helper as she would bring the clips to him while he was putting up the lights.  It was very cute!

I have a few cute stories from today.  The theme for the first two is watch what you say around 2 year olds.  I have really cleaned up my language over the last 2 years, but sometimes I’ll say something “rude” and Natalie will pick up on it.  Sometimes she’ll scold me and say “that’s not nice”, but today wasn’t one of those times.

I was walking into the bedroom this afternoon to talk to Lynn.  Natalie was right behind me.  I walked around the bed to go sit in my chair and Natalie kept coming right behind me.  I stopped and she ran right into my butt and then bounced off of the bed, giggling the whole time.  I jokingly said to her “you’re a moron”.  She replied back with “you’re a moron”.  Now I know, it’s not a good thing to call your kids dumb or moron, but she knows when I’m goofing with her, even at two.

Next story.  We were getting ready to go to the park and Lynn sent Natalie in the kitchen (where I was) with her coat and hat, presumably with instructions for me to help her put them on.  Natty handed them to me and I proclaimed “I don’t want this crap”.  She immediately bolted down the hallway to the bedroom where Lynn was getting ready and handed the stuff to her saying “Daddy doesn’t want this crap”. 

This morning she told me that she had to go potty, so I took her in the bathroom and sat her on.  I then proceeded to roll up her shirt so it wouldn’t hang down too far hence getting dirty.  She asked what I was doing, and I told her I was rolling up her shirt.  She says to me “rolled it up like ham?” (I gave her some lunch meat rolls for breakfast this morning).  I was laughing very hard at this point.  So later today when she was on the potty, we have our little joke with rolling up her shirt, like ham.

Last story for the evening.  Earlier this afternoon, we were all sitting together in the living room.  Lynn was on the couch and Natalie and I were on the floor wrestling.  Natalie started getting worked up as she is prone to do, and I was laughing at her as I am prone to do.  I stopped harrasing her just as Lynn yells “why do you two get each other going so much”  Natty stops cranking and looks at her and says “Daddy was just being funny!”  I about hit the floor laughing.  The two year old gets it. 

Today, we had a fun afternoon with Natalie’s cousins - Zach, Ella, and Caden.  Since Caden is only 6 months old, he had to do a lot of observing, but soon he will be running around with all of them too.  Zach, Ella, and Natalie had fun playing hide and seek all around the house.  The two girls gave us a wonderful recital on the piano with all of their beautiful songs and singing voices.  Zach did a good job of beating up on Auntie Lynn with his PS2.  What a fun day of playing!

 

Natalie and I also got a chance to hear all about Grandma and Grandpa’s travels to see Uncle David and Auntie Rhoda.  It is always fun to play with the castle at their house!

Thursdays, Natalie and I “stay home”.  This fall, we started attending a play group at church on Thursday mornings.  I guess that I shortened the name of this event to group, and that is just what Natalie has been calling it.  This morning while she was on the changing table, she asked me if we were going to “group”.  I explained that I wanted her to be feeling better and not coughing anymore.  She accepted that answer…I just think it’s kind of funny that she calls her morning at church with other children “group”.

Tonight, Nate and Natalie had some more quality time together.  Nate explained what they’d be doing, and Natalie seemed quite excited.  A special treat for Natalie is when Nate inflates our camping air mattress, sets it up in the middle of the living room, and Natalie gets to go nuts jumping from the couch to the mattress.  She did this fun activity for at least an hour tonight.  I think we started this madness after we came back from our trip to Minnesota this past summer.  She loved the outdoor trampoline that we all had fun jumping on.

Curious George made a showing at Mayfair Mall tonight.  I saw the ad for it this past weekend and decided that it would be a fun night out.   It is  amazing how many other parents thought the same thing!  He made an appearance with the Man in the Yellow hat from 4-6 pm in the Time Warner store.  When I got to the mall a little after 5, the line to see these two was outrageous.  Since we were there, I decided to take my chances and stood in line to wait.  Thankfully, I had a snack and something for Natalie to drink.  After standing in line for about a half an hour, one of the store employees came out to say that we were part of the line that most likely would not have a chance to see Curious George.  I explained to Natalie that we might not see George, and she took it very well.  I decided to take our chances at that point.  We finally made it into the store a few minutes before 6.  We were able to get to see George, and we even got a picture out of the whole deal. :)  The positive note to this long story is that Nate decided not to meet us at the mall.  He would not have been a happy camper in this whole ordeal.

Totally unrelated to the last story, is how Natalie has been wired at about 8pm, the last couple of evenings.  Monday evenings, I tutor until 8pm.  Typically, Natalie has been put to bed and is asleep by the time I get home.  Last evening, I walked in the door, and Nate saw a flash of purple run past him and into the kitchen.  Natalie was excited to hear me come home.  I thought it was pretty cute, so I put her back to bed in a couple of minutes once I got myself settled.  An hour later, after singing and talking and giggling in her room, she finally went to sleep after some stern warnings from both Nate and me.  Tonight was quite similar in her wind up mode once we put her to bed the first time.  She was telling us funny stories from her bedroom, being very goofy, and making us chuckle…even after we told her it was time to settle down and go to sleep.  I believe she may finally be asleep now.  We’ll see…  Hopefully, this wind up mode will not continue to be part of our nightly routine.

Tonight, Nate was leaving to go grocery shopping.  I made a request for the apples that I like, and Natalie piped up, “And milk…”  It was so cute how she chimed in her request too.

Friday night, I put in a new Veggie Tales video for Natalie.  She loved it!  After the short video, Natalie found her second wind.  She stood in the middle of the living room twirling her “nose rag,” otherwise known as a burp cloth.  As she was on center stage, she put both hands in the air like a conductor, and put on a good half an hour show for Nate and me.  Natalie would say things like, “Everybody sing a silly song,”  or “Everybody stand up and dance.”  She went on asking/telling us to do certain things like this while she was dancing and singing around the room.  Nate and I both thought that this entertaining evening was priceless.

Last evening, we met some friends and had a fun night at Chuck E. Cheese.  I had been itching to take Natalie there for the last year.  I knew that she would enjoy it…considering she loves playing video games with her daddy.

Natalie started out the evening dancing.  She looked like she was having so much fun under the disco lights on the stage near Chuck E. Cheese.  She even took a few minutes to eat a little.  After we were finished eating, we took her to the game area.  We all had fun there.  I’m looking forward to our next experience there.  I highly recommend going on a week night.

Today, Natalie got some much needed play time outside! :)  We are definitely taking advantage of every nice day.  Last week, she helped me “rake” the leaves.  Since one of our rakes broke, I gave Natalie her shovel which was more her size.  She had a lot of fun!  I just hope this enthusiasm for helping continues for many years to come.
We had some good friends over for lunch and play time.  Natalie had a good time tearing apart her room as she showed her friends her toys in her room.  I knew I had to go see what the 2 two-year olds were doing when I heard “one, two, three…”  Natalie and Joshua were attempting to open her toy box which is somewhat difficult to open.  What teamwork!

Natalie has kept us laughing this weekend.  The things she says are so cute.  I am leaving this fairly open since Nate has promised to update the blog soon.

Last night, while I was tutoring, Nate and Natalie had a great evening running errands and playing.  I expected her to be in bed by the time I got home, but because of her good mood and the fun the two of them were having, she was up waiting to show me things and tell me about her night.

Today, started out pretty normal.  It was at nap time, when things got a little off base.  Natalie has been complaing about not wanting to take a nap the last few days.  As she was grumbling and following me down the stairs, she slipped and took a tumble down a good portion of the stairs.  I kept her up for another half hour, checked her, and then let her take her nap.  Shortly after she was asleep, I called Nate and the nurse at the clinic to get their advice.  Thankfully, when she woke up from her nap, she seemed to be just fine.

This evening was just the opposite from last night.  While I was on the phone with a good friend, Natalie was desperately trying to get my attention.  We had a short period of a happy girl while she was eating dinner.

Afterwards, I tried to get some success from a potty attempt.  This area is going to need some work and patience on our part.  We had a meltdown from her in my attempts to entice her to go on the potty.  There was another brief period of happiness while I was doing the dishes.

Natalie seemed to want some more attention as she was going in and out of the kitchen.  My next bright idea was to get her to help me with the few remaining dishes.  She was having a blast.  It was so cute!  I should have let her do it all night until we put her in bed.  My next mistake was to drain the sink and bring her into the living room.  Natalie cried because she wanted to do more dishes.  I can’t wait to tell her this story when she is older and complaining about having to do the dishes.

My final mistake was to tell her that she could help me with the laundry.  She seemed like she was doing okay, and I sent her in by Nate.  I thought I could get more done in a timely fashion this way.  As soon as I went downstairs she lost it.  I came back up and couldn’t even understand what she was trying to say for at least 5 minutes.  Finally, I understood that she wanted to help me with the laundry so I tried to make it up to her by showing her what I had just done.

Thank goodness for a smooth transition into bed tonight.  I’m sure she must have been exhausted putting up with all of my mistakes for the evening.  Hopefully, tomorrow night will not be a repeat of tonight since Nate will be gone most of the evening at kickball.

I had to add another story I forgot to have Lynn put on last night.  We were sitting watching baseball last night and I mentioned that I wanted the Mets to win, which surprised Lynn a little.  She asked why and I gave my reasons:  1.  The Cardinals were in it more recently, 2.  I said I can’t root for a divisional rival whether it’s football, baseball or whatever.

at that point Natalie pipes up “I think it’s baseball”    Lynn and I were laughing for quite a while at that one.

a couple of pictures from yesterday

little dora 

Natalie and I in our costumes for the party

This afternoon, we attended a Halloween party.  Natalie was Dora, and Nate decided to shave the little hair he had left so he could be Mr. Clean.  He also painted his eyebrows white and put in his hoop earrings.  When Natalie saw him, she stated over and over and over again, “I like your costume, Daddy!  I like your eyebrows!”

Natalie’s newest protest is when we leave from somewhere that we have been having fun at.  While we are in the car, she tells us repeatedly that she doesn’t want to leave.  We have to be mightly creative to get her mind onto something else.

On Saturday, we enjoyed a trip up to Concordia to take a look around.  We did not make it in time for the Homecoming football game.  When we walked into the chapel, someone was practicing for church on Sunday.  Nate asked if he took requests, and proceeded to ask him to play “Jesus Loves Me.”  Natalie seemed to love it.  We had a picnic before we left, and Natalie had a blast running around and wreaking havoc.

Earlier this fall, Natalie and I walked outside one morning, and I stated something to the effect that it looked like snow clouds and smelled like winter was in the air.  Now, when it is cool out, she says that it smells like winter.  Today, since it was flurrying out, I was again reminded of this.

Natalie seems to be eagerly awaiting the winter season, as she has been getting excited about wearing her winter coat or snow coat as she calls it, getting out the snow shovels, and sledding.  This afternoon she did not want to get out of her snowpants that I had her try on while my mom and I were looking at clothes for her.  She was also overtired at this point.
This evening when Natalie and I got home, she was in her waking up mode when she saw Nate for the first time.  He suggested that they both lay down in the bedroom while she was waking up.  After a few minutes, she was ready to roll so Nate was going to take her in the kitchen to have dinner.  Natalie was sitting on the edge of bed, looking at the floor on Nate’s side of the bed when she stated, “stinky clothes”.  We proceeded to take off her turtleneck, and she asked if she could put her stinky shirt where Nate’s pile of clothes were.  I love the things that she comes up with and puts into her own words.

Nate started a reward system earlier this summer for Natalie.  Basically, it includes putting stars on a chart for many of the positive things that she does.  When Natalie completes a row on the chart, she gets some sort of reward.  Today, we completed a row.  We decided to pull out the jump rope for her.  This summer she had a blast playing with one that we had borrowed.  Nate had her stand in the middle of the floor and close her eyes.  She was so excited when she saw what it was.  Since it was late and cold outside, we let her play with it inside.  After a few minutes of playing with it, she asked Nate to give it to her again.  Natalie insisted on closing her eyes and standing in the middle of the floor as Nate gave it to her the second time.  Her expression as he showed her the second time was just as excited as the first time.  It was so cute.

Today was a gorgeous day. Since we were not able to meet up with Auntie Chris and cousin Ella in Delavan this weekend, Nate and I decided that we would take Natalie after church to pick out her pumpkins. She was so excited before we left that she was singing or chanting, “The pumpkin farm, the pumpkin farm!”
Last weekend, we spent some time up in central Wisconsin for Nate’s 15 year reunion from high school. We had a good time seeing his friends as well as grandparents. Natalie was exhausted by a little after Noon on Sunday. We decided to head back at this time. She slept all the way back home. When we pulled into the driveway, we decided to sit in the car and let her sleep. A few minutes later, she opened her eyes and asked, “Isn’t the car working?” It was very cute!

Here are another couple cute stories from this past week. I have been taking Natalie to a play group at church on Thursday mornings. They play, have a little snack, read a book, make a craft, and then sing some songs with our church’s music director. This week, while the children were singing and doing the actions for the “Wheels on the Bus,” I overheard Natalie saying false start since the actions for that part of the song and the penalty in football are the same motion.

On Thursday night, Nate and Natalie had a special evening together while I went to dinner with some good friends. The two of them were driving in the car and were looking at the moon. Nate was explaining to her how the full moon had a face on it, and Natalie proceeded to ask, “Did the moon eat?” Since the moon was full, that only makes sense to a two-year old that the moon was full from eating. I love the connections she continually seems to make with so many things.

of laughter  ;)   our little girl continues to amuse and amaze us.  We were sitting in the living room.  Lynn was having Natalie try on some clothes to see what still fit (she’s growing like the proverbial weed).  I still hadn’t gotten dressed for the day, lounging on the couch in my normal t-shirt and boxers.  *warning, possible TMI section for some people :D*  As those of you who wear boxers or have a loved one that does know, they don’t always….ahem….cover everything.  So like I said, I was sitting there and Natalie turned to show me some of the clothes she was trying on and she exclaimed “Daddy, cover your po-po.”   Lynn and I started rolling with laughter…then Natalie hit us with the comment that almost killed me.   “I don’t want to see it”   LOL    GOOD GIRL!  Keep that attitude with all po-po’s until you’re married.  

We had a great evening with Natalie’s Godfather - Uncle Josh.  Natalie and I were discussing what we were doing this evening on our ride home from Espinosas.  I told her who we were spending the evening with, and since we know a number of Joshuas, we had to differentiate between them.  She did a good job by stating that he would not be little Josh who we played with last weekend.  I then told her it was not Daddy’s brother Josh.  She was excited in the car, told me that she was going to give him a hug and kiss when saw him, and then she played shy when we walked in the door.  Natalie warmed up very quickly though, and had a great night talking and playing with Uncle Josh.

A follow up for the bedtime routine - the big girl bed has made for peaceful evenings.  She does very well with going to bed.  Natalie knows that if she comes out of her room more than once, her other option is sleeping in her crib.  I hope the novelty of the new bed does not wear off.  As for mornings, she is a very typical child now.  Anywhere between 7 and 8 is when she comes out and says, “I’m awake, just a little bit.” :)  I do miss the 9 to 9 sleep cycle.  I have not adjusted to the earlier mornings yet.  Thank goodness for morning cartoons.

Tonight, we transitioned Natalie into the “big girl bed”.  I originally wanted to wait as long as possible.  Until Natalie decided to get out of her crib on a regular basis or outgrew it, I was willing to let her sleep in there.  The decision was swayed as a result of some irritating nights over the course of the past month.
There are a number of reasons she may have had trouble getting to sleep lately.  It may be because of her molars that have been coming in.  Possibly, because of the summer schedule of inconsistent bedtimes.  Another possibility could be because of nap time when I lay down with her since she has been sleeping on the floor at different homes.  The list could go on from here.
Regardless of these reasons, she has been putting up a fit going down after the bedtime routine that we have had in place since she has been sleeping through the night.  Natalie has been telling us what she knows she should not be doing at night - crying so much that she gets sick and calling for mommy and daddy.  We have tried the cry it out method, and that has frustrated all of us.  She would tantrum for close to an hour in her room.
Tonight, we picked up side rails for the bed we’ve had in her room all summer.  Nate got it ready, went through the bedtime routine, and it only took a couple of calls to us and she went to bed without a meltdown.  Hopefully, this is not a fluke and this will be the start of pleasant evenings for all of us again.

Earlier this week we were at some friends’ house for a cookout.  We were in the backyard in the evening and there were still some bees buzzing around.  Later on, when it got dark and bees went wherever it is bees go when it gets dark, Natalie walked over from some of the other kids she was talking to and asked me where the bees are.  I said “they’re sleeping honey” and then went back to my conversation with some of the adults at the party.  A minute or two later we heard “my daddy says the bees are sleeping…..my daddy says”   I have become the end all be all question answerer now…

We were leaving the party and walked through the house.  Our friends have a trombone hanging in the living room.  Natalie was asking if she could play with it, and I told her no, but she could play with mine sometime at home (I played the trombone 6th grade through college).   The second we got home and were walking into the house, Natalie asked “can I play with your dumbo?”   I didn’t quite get what she was asking for, so I asked her to say it again…”can I play with your dumbo?”   “my dumbo?  I don’t know what you’re asking for honey”   “your dumbo….your instrument”   LOL….I got it then

Thursday night we drove to Madison to spend the evening there, and she was chanting something along the lines of “all of the fort”    We couldn’t figure out exactly what she was saying or where she was getting it from.  Lynn asked her where that saying came from.  Natalie replied in a matter of fact tone “from my mouth”   I laughed so hard I cried.

Friday evening I had to do some shopping for clothes, and fortunately we had the store to ourselves.  Lynn started playing hide and seek with Natalie with Natalie counting and seeking “1, 2, 3, 4….ready or not here I come”  then she’d run around the store until she found Lynn, at which point she’d scream and giggle.  Not sure how the lady running the store felt about it, but hey, we dropped a lot of coin there so I’m sure she didn’t mind too much.

Last story:  we had a little accident on one of the couch cushions so I had to take it off and clean it.  I left it off to dry and there were a few dusty spots on the couch where the cushion was.  Natalie asked what they were and Lynn told her “dust bunnies”  I came in the room and sat down and Natalie told me to watch for the “bunny poop” on the spot where the cushion was missing….Lynn was rolling and I was confused until she explained it to me….at which point I was rolling too…..I never knew having a 2 year old would be so much fun.

Lynn is finally writing an entry.  I thought that anyone interested in this blog site would want to be updated on at least a monthly basis.  Now that Nate showed me again how to access the publishing page, maybe I’ll remember how to do it next time.

Our little girl has been such a joy in our lives.  Her conversations with us keep us on our toes.  I love to listen to her as she asks her numerous questions throughout the day.  When she turned one, I thought her language development was awesome as she started saying real words.  Now, I find it even more fascinating as she is reasoning and explaining herself.

Since it has been over a month from the previous post, there are many things that I would like to write about.  Because it is late, I will not write about all that has taken place in the last month.  Hopefully, sooner than later, I will also figure out how to add the photos with each entry.

Today, I helped my aunt where she works.  I do this on an occasional basis.  These couple of hours left Natalie with some quality Daddy time.  One of the cute stories that I missed seeing was Nate nursing his kickball injury.  He had wrapped his sore ankle with ice, and with Natalie’s inquisitiveness, she also declared that she needed her ankle wrapped just like Daddy’s.

The other part of the day that I missed seeing was Nate touching up Natalie’s haircut.  We got it cut last week.  After, taking a quick shower and combing through her hair, Nate decided that it needed some help so he did a good job with some of the loose ends.

The stories will continue another evening.  Hopefully, time will not slip away and it will not be the end of September by the time I write the next entry.

the town we live in has a little festival every year.  They have a mini golf course they setup on the tennis courts.  Well this year we decided to play with Natalie.  It was hilarious!  She started off trying to whack the ball as hard as she could with the club.  And when that didn’t produce the desired results, she started picking the ball up and throwing it towards the hole  LOL.   She would then take it and place it inches from the hole and try to tap it in from there.  I wasn’t able to keep score because she would also try to throw our balls into the hole as well.  Too funny.

after reading ethan and logan’s blog tonight about them getting “naked” time, I said to Natalie and Lynn, “time to go in the living room to get ready for bed”   Natalie replied with “I’m eating cheerios right now”   which cracked Lynn and I up.  Natalie then said “look at boys now”   which sounded to me like “look at naked boys”   I asked her if that’s what she said, so then it was a funny game “look at naked boys daddy? *giggle*”   ei-yi-yi!!!

it’s been 2 months since I posted last…I was told last night that I had to put this story on the blog:

I was home with Natalie last night and we were sitting on the couch each reading our own book…she then stood up next to me and put her hand on my book and pushed it down and said “put book on table daddy, read Nanny’s book”  It appeared my little girl wanted some attention.    Well, I put my book down and read her several of her books and then we had a snack (she had pancakes)

Natalie has developed a fondness for playing ring around the rosie.  She get’s confused though and calls it “Ashlyn, Alana” (her 2 friends that live closeby) due to the “ashes ashes” part.  :)  It’s really cute watching her plop down on the “all fall down” part.

Tonight she said something extremely funny.  Lynn bought her a new playground ball at Target tonight and when we were playing with it, Natalie grabbed her music roller toy (her “vacuum”) and was rolling it up and down the hallway.  Lynn said “that’s right Natalie, you vacuum the whole house while mommy and daddy play”  so Natalie started chanting, “Nanny….bacoom (vacuum)…..house….mommy play…daddy play”  I’ll try to get a recording of it to post here sometime. 

Lynn was getting ready to take Natalie somewhere on Thursday and had to use the bathroom… Natalie then patted her chest and said “Nanny potty” so Lynn put her on and we got our second deuce in a week…:)

Tonight we had our neighbors from 2 houses down over for dinner. Natalie and Lynn try to get together with Adrienne, Ashlyn and Alanna (I probably butchered the spelling of their names…sorry ladies) once a week to play. Tonight the girls had a great time playing together. Here’s a pic of them sitting on the couch.

here’s a shot of me on the couch with my girl…(her shirt says Daddy’s Girl…and today that was the case :))

After a long hiatus, I’ve got another update…

A month ago we went to St. Louis for a friend’s wedding. As we were driving around downtown trying to find our hotel, we drove past the arch. We pointed it out to Natalie who as soon as she hear arch said “No nah” (Noah) As we drove away from it, she started chanting it with greater and greater urgency eventually crying “No nah, No nah” so if you’re ever in St. Louis, make sure you go see Noah where he lives…the Arch..

While we were in St. Louis, Natalie decided she didn’t want to spend the whole night in her pack and play and would rather sleep with us. Rather than wake up everyone around us with her screaming we brought her into our king sized bed, where she proceed to make the cross piece of the H…..her head HAD to be touching Lynn along with one of her hands…and her feet were kicking me all night…..fun stuff I tell ya. I have a picture later in this post.

I’ve been spending more quality alone time with Natty lately since Lynn started tutoring in the evenings last week. Last night we started our nightly potty trip. We introduced it to her a while ago, and every now and then we’d put her on with sporadic tinklings on her part. I decided that it’s time to get into a pattern with this so hopefully we can have her out of diapers by the time she’s 2 (maybe wishfull thinking, but I can hope right?)
So now every night we go on the potty at least once. Last night she made water and when Lynn got home I announced “everyone who went pee in the potty tonight raise your hand” Natalie shot her hand up in the air and then proceeded to pat her chest saying her name (Nanny Nanny) I got some pics of her on the throne tonight which I’m sure she’ll just LOVE when she graduates from high school or gets married…

on to the pictures:

playing with our friend Wendy in St. Louis

asleep on the king sized bed

sitting with her friend (and God-cousin) Gabe

Gabe kept hugging and trying to kiss her all weekend….I was afraid I was going to have to kick some 2 year old Sommermeyer butt!

showing our colors….

playing with the Mr. Potato head accessories (she’s afraid of the potato part..:))

dressup with the fun stuff I bought for her at a silent auction fundraiser

taking care of business

daddy’s girl

sleepy

not feeling well, sleeping on the couch

playing vids with daddy

piggies in the hair

twister game from Grandma Christy

wearing the crown her cousin Hannah made for her

taking her baby for a walk

striking a pose with her new Dora backpack

playing with our friend Scott

hanging out with our friend Michelle

I know…I’m awful….I haven’t updated in a long long time….but I’ve been sick for the last month…almost missed Thanksgiving dinner, but thankfully started feeling better the day before…..anyway, on to the update.

The last couple of years, Lynn’s parents have been taking the whole family to a breakfast with santa at Lakelawn resort in Delavan. This year I wasn’t sure if Natty would sit on his lap without a fuss…turns out she was fine…her cousin Ella on the other had would have none of it…:)

we went swimming a little while after the breakfast…I had Natty in the pool with me, I put her up on the side to see if she’d jump into my arms…she did!! then I put her up again, and she did it again. She kept doing it and begging for more…even when I’d dunk her under when she jumped in a couple times…she’d come up sputtering a little and giggle and beg “mo mo” it was a fun day…here’s some pics from the morning:

Natty telling Santa what she wants…………………………………………..Natty giving the snowman a big hug

the three cousins

my little angel

I know it’s been almost a week since the last update, but what I lack in quantity, I make up for tonight in quality….I’ve got some older stories to tell, but first the big news…. NATALIE USED THE POTTY FOR THE FIRST TIME TONIGHT!!!!! a few months ago, she started sitting outside of the bathroom while I was in there and making presents in her diaper for Lynn so I figured she knows what the bathroom is for, let’s get her acclimated to the potty. Lynn wanted to wait a while so I let it go, and then decided this weekend that it was time to purchase a potty seat and start….Natalie is starting the “terrible twos” early and I wanted to try to get this started and make it a good experience before they were full blast. Anyway, we got her an insert seat for the toilet last night at toysrus. She got to choose which one she wanted, Dora or Sesame Street….she chose Sesame Street. So tonight after her bottle, I decided to get it out and see if she’d sit on it and then see what happens. I wasn’t going to force her to do anything, but figured we could get her used to the idea. At first she was hesitant to sit down, but then finally came in the bathroom by me and let me take off the diaper and put her on the seat. She gleefully looked at her new surroundings (we don’t normally let her in the bathroom except for bathtime). She checked out the window and pointed at the garbage can, and checked out the characters on her seat. She had already wet her diaper pretty well, so I figured she wouldn’t go at all. I asked her if she had to make a poopy…she strained a bit but nothing. So we just let her sit there. I’d ask every little bit if she was done and she’d reply “nooooo”. After about 3 or 4 minutes, she let out a little tinkle in the bowl. Lynn and I clapped and praised her to the moon. She clapped along with us and begged and signed for more. She didn’t want to get off the seat. Finally I talked her into being all done and we got up and washed hands. Then when we went in to put on her diaper, she melted down….she really wanted more potty…she kept it up for several minutes before getting interested in playing again. Too funny…I was worried about her being opposed to the idea, here she’s begging for more…LOL

Another funny thing she did tonight had me almost to an asthma attack I was laughing so hard. Natalie was playing over by the TV, and Lynn started giving me a hard time about something, so I went over and wrestled Lynn on the couch. Natalie saw what we were doing and started over by us. I saw her coming so I wrapped my arms around Lynn and rocked her a little on the couch. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Natalie wind up her arm and punch me with a closed fist in the back…. :D I’m not sure if she was upset because she thought I was hurting Lynn, or if she was upset I wasn’t letting her get to Lynn, but either way it was hilarious. We had to have the “no hitting” talk again though.

One funny thing that she did last week while she was with Lynn at the boys’ house was related to the outlet plugs. In our house she only has access to one outlet that’s securely covered with the safety plugs. Even so, whenever she would approach it, we’d tell her no, and when she tried to touch it, she got swatted on the hands lightly. Last week, Lynn saw her go up to the plug cover, reach out like she was going to touch it, and tell herself “no no”. She then walked away from the plug swatting her own hands.

That’s about it for tonight. Tomorrow is a daddy-daughter night. I’ll have another update tomorrow or Wednesday. I’ve got vacuuming stories and the Christmas list coming up.

I haven’t updated in way too long and have a bunch of stuff to talk about. I’ll start out with the weekend through last night, then I’ll include tonight with tomorrow night. Everyone clear? Good!

We had a fun weekend. It was my brother Josh’s birthday on Saturday, so we picked up my Grandma and went up for the day. I had gone to Target and got our “family” Christmas present a little early. A portable DVD player. Anyone with kids should get one of these. I’m not an advocate of using movies as a babysitter, but in the car this little baby will buy a few hours of sanity. We got up and had a nice dinner with the family at one of the local restaurants (My mom, Louis, Josh, Kelly, Grandma, Louis Jr and Patty, Lynn and Natalie and me). We then had cake and went back to my mom’s house for a while. Natalie was a very good girl and enjoyed playing the piano at her Grandma Christy’s house. The trip back started with a movie, during which Natalie fell asleep, so I turned it off and took a nap myself. When she woke up closer to home, we put the rest of the movie on for the remainder of the trip.

Sunday we went to church and then later that afternoon went out to my Aunt Barb and Uncle Steve’s house. Natalie got to play with toys that are about 25 years old that were my cousin Sarah’s when she was little.

Sunday night we put her down and I went to bed at 9 pm because I wasn’t feeling well. Natalie woke up at about 10ish crying. (either teething or her cold) Lynn went in there to settle her down and tried rubbing her back while standing next to the crib. Natalie calmed down and then when Lynn thought she was back asleep, stopped. Natalie sat up in her crib and begged for more (sign language for more and “mo mo”). When Lynn told me about this I laughed….Like mother like daughter.

Monday Lynn went in to wake her up to go to the boys’ house and saw her sleeping in the corner of her crib with her blanky (a new security device) pulled over her head. Lynn grabbed the camera and snapped this shot without waking up Natty (she’s a sound sleeper…like father like daughter. )

My cute sleepy girl.

Monday night was a combination of a melt down and a fun new trick.

She has never liked getting her nails cut. We do it now when she has her bedtime bottle. Normally this works, but last night it didn’t. She let Lynn get a hand and a half done before she started fussing. Then she went into full meltdown mode when we held her to get her toenails cut. This hasn’t happened before and I hope it doesn’t become a pattern.

Then after the bottle was done, she started climbing up on the arm of the little couch we have. She’s done this before, and Lynn and I usually have her get down before she falls. Well last night she decided she wasn’t going to get down the way she normally does by coming down onto the couch, then onto the floor. She hefted her other leg over the side and slid down over the edge of the arm onto the floor. She’s getting tall enough so she can do this without too much trouble. Once she figured out she could do this new trick, she kept doing it…..over and over and over. At least a dozen times….

up and over….

perched on top

the kickover and slide down

she was so proud of herself for doing that….too funny.

Tomorrow I’ve got some stories from tonight, as well as whatever tomorrow brings. And I’ll also have her Christmas list up by the end of the week too. Only a few more weeks til Christmas.

Up until now, everything I’ve written about, I’ve been a part of the experience. Lynn had some “fun” stuff happen to her today so I’m going to relate those stories.

Natalie has been fighting a cold for a while and Lynn took her in today to get her checked out to make sure she didn’t get a sinus infection or ear infection. Well, as we figured out at the last doctor’s appointment, Natty doesn’t like her appointments anymore. Up until her last appointment, she was fine, letting the doctors and nurses do the exams without squawking too much. The last appointment she melted. Granted she had a few shots and a blood draw, but she lost it completely. Dr. Khambatta said that this is typical. Generally they hate the doctor at the 15 month and 18 month appointments and then start not minding it again at age 2. Well she still hates the doctor. Lynn had to physically restrain her today in order to let the doctor examine her. What’s funny is, Natalie is my girl and is EXTREMELY strong. So she gives Lynn a run for her money. Everything turned out fine…it’s just a cold so we’re in good shape yet.

After the doctor, it was home to lunch for the girls. This is where Natty decided to do something different for lunch. Instead of eating it, she started flinging it around. She hit Lynn’s hand which held a spoonfull of sweet potatoes which sent them flying and landing on Lynn. Instead of the sweet “uh oh” which we used to get, Natalie started giggling and then the game was on. Everything Lynn gave her ended up flying around the kitchen (even the bread which she normally loves and gobbles down), landing on the window sill behind Natty’s chair and on the floor and table and on Lynn. We’re conciously trying not to react to the “less severe” infractions of the rules so that when we say no or hollar when she’s in danger she’ll be more apt to listen. I guess it took all of Lynn’s effort to not lose it today at lunch.

Tonight we decided to go to the mall for dinner and to look for Natalie’s Christmas shoes. On the way there she started getting squirrelly so I started singing and asked her to sing with me. She started to and would occasionally chime in. It was supremely cute and we praised her so that she will continue singing.

At the mall we walked the length of the mall with her in her stroller (stroller rides are becoming a fixation with her lately). On the way back, I decided to let her walk to burn up some of her energy. She was pretty good. She stopped a couple of times to check out some things that interested her. One thing being moving pictures. The best way I can describe this is a multi layered picture that plugs in and is back lit. it has some moving parts which makes the scene shown come to life. The one she was most interested in was the aquarium picture. She actually sat down on the floor in front of it and watched for a few minutes. On the way out of the mall, there was a fun game we stopped to play. It was a projector mounted to the ceiling with a corresponding mat on the floor. The projector would throw down images of different games and scenes which you played and changed by stepping on the pad on the floor. For instance: one of the games was a soccer game, and the ball started in the middle of the field projected on the pad. If you stepped on the pad near the ball the result was a “kick”. When the ball went into a goal, stars and other shapes flowed out from under the feet of anyone on the pad. It was pretty cool. Natty was hesitant at first, but got into it and was pretty much unstoppable by the time we were ready to leave.

An update on the teeth brushing. Team brushing really works. Tonight Lynn brushed her teeth while I brushed Natty’s. She’s been very good with this method, letting us get her teeth brushed without the need for a huge fight. Three nights in a row so far, I think we have a winner.

Tonight after dinner, Lynn was munching on chocolate chips. Natalie was in her chair yet and started begging for some. Lynn gave her one on her tray. Natalie took one bite and said an emphatic “num num!” She liked it quite a bit. She had a few before she got bored and wanted to get down.

We then went shopping. A new Goodwill store opened up nearby so we went to see if we could find some bargain clothes, toys and books for her, which we did in a big way. We only found a few items of clothing this time, but we loaded up on several toys and 19 books. For kids, where they grow bored and out of stuff so quickly, Goodwill, rummage sales and other resale shops are the way to go. We have many friends with children around Natalie’s age…I’ve wanted to try to start up a “toy exchange ring” to keep toys fresh between the kids….that way by the time they get their old toys back, they’re new again….we’ll see if that ever gets off the ground.

I’m learning lots of things about women having a daughter, even with her at this young age. I’ve learned that the funny stereotype that women like to talk on the phone is TRUE!!!! Natty loves talking on the phone. She will talk to everyone, but it seems she especially likes to talk to my mom, her Grandma Christy. Every time I call my mom (which I did tonight), Natty stand over by me, tries to climb into my lap, points at the phone and say mahmaw (grandma). Even when I let her talk to Grandma, after I take the phone back, she begs for more. I have to get a puzzle or newer toy out if I ever want to talk to my mom.

Tonight we learned that the little shelf we put up behind the end table to keep things away from little hands needs to be re-addressed. I was in the kitchen getting a soda, and it got way too quiet in the living room. I walked back in there and I saw a little girl diving off of the end table back onto the couch with my blog reminder pad and pen in her hands that I had stashed on the little shelf “out of her reach”. Now I have to find a new place for the remotes..

4 nights in a row folks, I think I’m getting in a rhythm here…

we had a riot tonight as a family. It started with Natty deciding she needed a second nap today, and while she was down, Lynn escaped to Kohls to do a little shopping. Natalie went down about 5:30ish and woke up at about 6:45. She is her Papa’s girl in the fact that it takes her a while to wake up from a deep sleep. She sat with me for about 15 minutes (usually it’s hard to get her to sit still for 15 seconds). We sat and watched the Bucks play for a while and then played with her new (rummage sale) Little People doll house. We had a good time and Lynn got home around 7:45. She ended up getting a couple of winter hats, one dress, one for playing with Natalie. Natalie of course had to try them on. After her bottle, she decided a game of chase was in order. Lynn would run down the hallway to Natty’s room and hide and Natty would run after her. Then Lynn would run back into the living room and again, Natty would follow her. I was sitting on the couch, and when Natty would run by me, I’d say “I’m going to get you” which would kick her running and giggling into the next gear. After that game was over, I was writing some things down to share on the blog tonight as a reminder and Lynn asked if I was going to take pictures. I hadn’t planned on it, but after Natty heard picture, she walked over to the closet where the camera is kept and pointed and kept saying “cheese”. How could I resist that?

Here are a couple of shots modeling Lynn’s new hats:

Then it was time to get ready for bed. One of those steps that we have that is usually a nightly fight is brushing her teeth. Yesterday I read online some parents that posted on another site saying that one of the tricks they used to prevent a fight is to let the little one watch you brush your teeth. Another was to have them roar like a lion. I did the animal sounds with Natalie last night as Lynn was brushing her teeth. It worked okay, but then I had Natalie come and watch me brush my teeth last night. I made sure I sounded like I was really really enjoying it and she seemed interested while sitting outside of the bathroom. Tonight we tried it with Lynn sitting in the hall with Natty to brush her teeth while I brushed mine in the bathroom. IT WORKED LIKE A CHARM! Natty didn’t fight the toothbrush and didn’t have to be restrained and actually seemed to enjoy it. We’ll see if this was a fluke or will actually continue to work tomorrow night.

The funniest story of the night occurred after the brushing of the teeth. I was standing in the bathroom cleaning up my toothbrush and Lynn went into the kitchen to put away Natalie’s toothbrush. Natalie walked behind me into the bathroom (we don’t normally allow her in there unless supervised so she decided to sneak behind me). I didn’t really care since I thought she was going after her bath toys which are stored in a cup on the tub. Well….she grabbed the toilet paper and went running for the living room with the roll still on the holder and the tp streaming out behind her like a ribbon dancer. I was so shocked and laughing so hard I couldn’t stop her…..it was too funny. She ended up running into the kitchen by Lynn where Lynn started rolling too. I was able to grab the camera from the cabinet and snap a shot of the little monster still playing with her “streamer”.

that’s it for tonight. I’m impressed with myself that I updated 3 nights in a row now.

we’ll see how long that streak lasts…

well, today was officially her 2nd trick or treat night as we took her last year when she was 4 months old. She enjoyed it more this time We took her to the zoo on Friday night for the trick or treat there, where she decided she didn’t want to ride the carousel about 3 seconds into the ride. Fortunately I had picked a horse very close to the seat section so we were able to sit down for the rest of the ride which she seemed to like. Then she and Lynn went walking around the zoo a little while I stayed up by the entrance. My back was hurting from cleaning the basement the previous 2 nights and still a little sore from falling down the stairs. She saw a few animals and got 2 pieces of candy which was a prep for tonight. Tonight we started by handing candy out at home first. She was interested in the kids coming up until she saw one kid with a black robe and a scary orange mask. That sent her running to Mama scared. But after she calmed down, we put her costume on and went to the houses on our street. She seemed a bit overwhelmed at first and kind of aprehensive the whole time going up to the doors. We got a little candy and returned home to hand out the rest of our candy. She liked dropping the candy into the bags of the trick or treaters that stopped at our house. After a while we decided to go over to our friend’s house (Kim Kurt and little DJ) where we got a few more candy bars. We also visited Tim and Terri, where Terri and her daughter were making Natty take a bazillion candy bars. I made her stop after she got 5
We also stopped by Ethan and Logan’s grandparent’s house where the boys’ grandpa gave Natalie a bunch more candy. I think we scored more in those 3 houses than we did at the 6 or 7 on our street we went to

Here are some pictures from tonight’s fun:

Natalie saying cheese:……………………………………An attempt at a smile but distracted:

Checking out the score:……………………………………..What is this stuff anyway?

Another attempt at a nice smile

After we got back from trick or treating we hung out in the living room and played. I had gotten a pillow off of the couch to support my back when I laid down, and when I got up to move the phones out of the reach of little hands I came back to this face who had stolen my seat:

I had her sit there while I got the camera to take the picture, but that was pretty much the exact look she had on her face when I went back to sit down. “Oh, you were sitting here Papa????”

Well after seeing a face like that I couldn’t make her move so I sat down next to her and Lynn told her to lay down on the pillow so we could take her picture again. After several attempts, here’s the result:

This was kind of a long update, so thanks for reading it. Again, comments are appreciated, so I know you’re out there I have a list of several things to add to the blog for later dates. I email myself things to write about so I don’t forget them.

This Saturday, Lynn went and met my dad’s wife Julie at the Fireside for the Christmas show. My dad was hunting in South Dakota so Julie had an extra ticket. Grandma Julie bought Natalie a very cute hat and mitten set at the Fireside gift shop. Here’s a shot of my little model.

With Lynn gone for the day, that meant a father-daughter day for me and Natalie. We started the day when Natalie woke up at 11 am….that’s right…bed at 9:30 the night before and up at 11….gotta love it… After breakfast, we decided to go outside for a while. I figured she could play while I took a little time and got some yardwork done. I raked some leaves into a pile for her to play in and snapped some pictures.

Here she is when I first put her in the pile:

Standing up to get a better angle on pushing the leaves around:

Waving her arms and sending leaves flying:

“Helping” Papa rake the leaves back into the pile for more play:

I’m going to try to update this blog more often. I realize I haven’t been doing it as much as I intended. Thanks for reading and keep checking back. You can make comments on any of the entries by clicking on the comments button.

Natalie continues to amuse us and amaze us. Last night she brought over her map and wanted to work on states some more. So we learned Idaho and Iowa (still getting them confused because they sound so much alike).

She did something that had Lynn and I literally crying we were laughing so hard. I went to go wash my hands after wiping her nose, and I left the remote in her reach. Lynn just watched her to see what she’d do. I was in the bathroom washing my hands when I heard channels changing. I said “I hear channels changing” as I walked back to the living room….Natalie started running from her position up by the tv back to the couch to replace the remote she had commandeered, giggling like crazy. Lynn told me later that she had grabbed it and was pushing several different buttons. When she hit the channel button she got a huge grin on her face and kept pushing it until she heard me. Then got an “uh oh” look and sprinted back to the couch, which I saw in mid flight back to the couch.

She also has this little pop-up tent type thing that has a couple of short tunnels that can be attached to it. it has holes on 3 sides and the top. She always wants one of us to go in it with her, so last night when I got it out, after playing hello/goodbye with one of the flaps, I laid down on the floor and had my head through one of the side holes. She came in the tent and sat down. I stuck my arm up over the top and reached my hand in through the top hole and grabbed her head. This sent her scurrying to Lynn laughing. I told her to come back in the tent…(which she did) so….”THE ITSY BITSY SPIDER CAN GET YOU” and I would reach my hand up over and tickle her belly or pat her butt. This would send her screaming and giggling back to Lynn. This went on for about 15 minutes or so. Fun stuff.

it’s been over a week since my last update. I figured it was time again. Natalie continues to amuse us. She’s learning her letters now. She can recognize M, N O, P, A, B, G, and Z and we’re working on more. We also continue to work on her states. She has a little book with a map of the US in it, and I printed out a map on my computer for her. If we ask her to point out a state, she can get Wisconsin every time, and is pretty good with: Maine, Florida, Minnesota, California, Texas, Nevada, Alaska, Hawaii, Oklahoma, Idaho, Iowa, Illinios, Michigan, Montana and sometimes Ohio.

She did something really funny the other night. We were watching one of the baseball games on TV, and she was playing around with one of her empty water bottles (one of her favorite toys.. ) she would pretend to drink from it and say “ahhhh” after drinking…..she then went and held it up to the tv by the baseball player and went “num num” and then “ahhh” Lynn and I were rolling.

Natty is also developing a favorite word….NO she repeats it continuously and is starting to use it in context. Just what we need…

We had some friends in town over the weekend and Natalie got to play with their 3 kids: Joshua (8) Abby (3) and Beth (2) We all had a lot of fun.

I will try to update with some pictures later this week.

I will be posting Natalie’s letter to Santa on the site for relatives that may be planning on buying her Christmas gifts. She doesn’t want much….just expressed interest in everything in the Fleet Farm toy catalog…

Some explanations of what I left off with yesterday:

bath time: she LOVES bath time/shower time…I started taking her in the shower as soon as her umbilical cord stump fell off to get her used to it (partially to save water and it’s easier to clean her that way) she’s always loved the water, but the last couple months she’s really grown to love it more. She splashes and shouts and sings and splashes….whenever Lynn gives her a bath, the whole bathroom is pretty much soaked. Sunday night she had her first bubble bath, which she found to be a fun experience.

the pull my finger game: anyone who has a husband/father/brother/son/grandfather/boyfriend/guy friend or is one knows what the “pull my finger game” is…..the funny twist to our game is that after she pulls my finger, and I drop…she gets the look of concentration on her face and most times will work one out herself…and then giggles….that’s my girl!!!

hand holding fiasco: Natalie doesn’t mind when Lynn and I give each other kisses or hugs…and when we do, Natty will come up and have to give each of us a kiss or hug….what she doesn’t like is when Lynn and I hold hands or I have my arm around Lynn, or my hand resting on her leg…if Natalie is nearby and notices it, she’ll take my hand and jerk it away…last night after jerking my hand away she started swinging her arms and chanting “NO NO NO” too funny!!! We’re not quite sure why it bothers her…she doesn’t try to hold either of our hands, but if we persist on holding hands after she’s seperated us, she gets quite angry and will start to cry….:D

some pictures from Sunday night at the park:

we were awaken this morning at about 6 am by the sobs of a little girl…..I went in and she was standing up in her crib….she’s had a cold for the last few days and we think she’s getting some more teeth, usually we just let her cry herself back to sleep, but occasionally we can tell she won’t so that’s when we go in…

I picked her up and wiped off her face from the tears and snot.. and then we rocked in the chair while I patted her back until she calmed down….we were there for about 10 minutes or so….then I asked her “are you okay now?” she let out a little squeek that sounded a little like “yeah”…..then I asked “do you want to go back to bed now?” another squeeky “yeah” so I put her back in bed where she fell back asleep for a couple more hours….

we went to Target this morning where she got some more Mega Bloks to play with….which she did once we got home…..she is starting to wake up from her nap now so I’ll update more later……

here’s a picture of her and I playing a game she loves

we all had an adventure tonight. Lynn and I took Natalie to the Butler Inn to meet the Espinosas for dinner. They are the friends of our with the twin boys who’s blog you can read by clicking on the link at the right. Dinner was fun and pretty uneventful for having a 16 month old and 2 10 month old boys….:D

we did have a couple move from the table next to us to a different table after Natty and Ethan started to squawk at each other from across the table……Logan pretty much stayed out of it though…..we’ve found that tipping can be expensive if you are nice and compensate for the mess made by the kids…;)

after dinner, we watched the Elmo movie that was one of the 2 we rented last night. Natty was glued to the screen….even lost interest in her bottle prompting me to bring her on my lap to make sure she’d finish drinking it….I’ll try to put up more pictures this weekend

tonight was a father-daughter night…..Lynn went to help out Auntie Theresa at her office, while Natty and I hung out. I fixed dinner, and then after we ate, we went to Blockbuster to get a movie or two. Normally I don’t advocate using videos as a babysitter, but with sinuses stuffed to the point it felt like my head was going to explode and a little girl who got up this morning WAYYYY too early, I figured one night of movies won’t be too big of a problem..:D

we got the movies and headed home……Natty and I watched Follow That Bird……a fun Sesame Street film…..I give it 5 stars for holding children’s attention

after the movie, we got ready for bed and hit the hay early….since she’s decided to get up earlier, she get’s to go to bed earlier….we have fun on father-daughter nights…:)

I’m not sure how much I’ll be updating here….it could be as frequent as several times a day or as infrequent as once a week…(I’ll try to do it at least once a week.)

the Natalie’s World title comes from the fact that my daughter is an Elmo addict…..she loves the movies and characters and will be Elmo for Halloween this year…(pictures will be posted)

Last night while Natalie was doing something funny, I thought: we need to start writing these things down…so I got a notebook and started to write and thought…wait a minute…I’m a computer guy…I need to geek this up a little…so I decided to add a blog to my website for Natalie. The main purpose of this will be to keep a track of new things she learns and cute things she does….remember, I’m a computer guy not an English teacher…so if this seems disjointed or full of spelling errors…..deal with it…;) for anyone just finding this, Natalie is 16 months old and is a sweet little girl. She is smart, strong and curious about everything….she started walking at 8 months old and is ahead in cognative development as well…(I’m not a proud dad am I? :D)

here’s what happened last night:

I play in a kickball league in the Milwaukee area and had a game last night that Lynn and Natalie came with me for. We got home about 7:45 pm which is bottle time for Natalie….I said to her “guess what time it is”….Natalie looks at the tv and shouts foobow (football….I love my girls….both are huge sports fans…:D) lynn replies “no honey it’s kickball night…kickball…kick the ball….” so I started saying kick the ball, at which point Natalie proceeds to her toybox and grabs her mini football…puts it on the floor and starts to kick it around the living room… too funny

here’s a fairly recent picture of my girl and me with our “mean football faces” on…:)

here’s one any computer guy dad would be proud of