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” Â Â 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.
