Up to a foot of snow is supposed to fall between 6am and 6pm today. We were among the first ones out in the neighborhood!
And now the kids are at the neighbors playing and watching Storks.
And a neighborhood boy is plowing our driveway!!!
Best street ever.
Background: Many times a day, Elliott says “I’m not in a good mood.” Today/tonight was one of those days where he especially wasn’t in a good mood. There are things that Natalie does to provoke him – e.g. getting way too close to his face or kissing on him or “parenting him”. We often try to ask her to give him space. Sometimes she is as sweet as can be, other times totally inflexible.
Tonight: After dinner, we played freeze tag – one person is “it,” another is the “unfreezer,” and another is just regular. Natalie let Elliott go first. He was “it” for a long time – and didn’t get to tag Natalie as many times as he would probably like. Then I was “it” for a short time, before Elliott wanted to be “it” again. Natalie’s unfairness radar went up immediately – she wanted to be “it”. A lot of argument around this – she got a short turn, then Elliott wanted to play superheros, then he got a short turn, then Natalie agreed to play superhero freeze tag. However, she tagged him 3x very close to each other, so he was frustrated and wanted to quit. And that made her frustrated. E has a tantrum. N has a mean face, says he’s acting like a baby, etc. Fast forward to Natalie time out.
In Natalie’s time-out, she is feverishly working on writing him a message on this super cute stationary that she got from a rummage sale in Chicago. Meanwhile, Elliott is picking out a book – Mo Willems’ “I’m invited to a party!” (with Piggie and Gerald the Elephant).
I tell Natalie she can come out of her room whenever she wants – she insists on finishing up the letter to Elliott. She simultaneously tries to convince me not to read to them together – I explain that I have to read to them together, there’s only one grown here; Dad is all the way in Europe! She responds: “What?!? Europe? I thought he was in London!”
She hands the envelope to Elliott. The front mini envelope says: “To Elliott”. The inside says something along the lines of You need to lrn you lesin (“You need to learn your lesson). She gives Elliott the envelope. He is THRILLED! He exclaims: “I’m invite to a party!” This infuriates Natalie… “It’s not a party. It’s a note about learning your lesson (insert mean face).” Elliott is coveting this piece of paper and jumping on the bed. He is excited about the stamps on it, which gets Natalie a little excited and she decides she does want to kindly share the stamps.
Now we’re reading books and Natalie continues to work on her messages. (She is just writing constantly nowadays – I swear she writes through every meal.) She decides to write another message where she does invite Elliott to a party. Although Elliott likes this, he is very bothered by the fact that Natalie got this stationary kit from a rummage sale in Chicago.
E: Where was I when this was happening?
M: Sleeping
E: Why was I sleeping?
M: B/c you were one year old and slept 2x a day
E: What did you pick out for me?
M: A lamp with trains that’s in your room now! (Thinking very much so this answer was a strong one)
E: It’s not trains – its trucks. And lamps aren’t fun!
{back to reading}
E: But I still sad about not having what Natalie has. Its way too long til my birthday! (WAH)
A few minutes later, Natalie starts to talk about having a club…. a home club, where we can have parties. (It’s a snow day tomorrow so we decide that the home club can have a PJ breakfast party.)
<Background – The kids love the idea of clubs. It sounds like there’s a couple clubs going on at Natalie’s school and/or through playdates. Our 5th and 8th grade neighbor also started an outdoor club, which the kids were THRILLED to be invited to. We haven’t had an activity yet.>
Somehow, Elliott knows that clubs have leaders. He wonders if he can be a leader. Natalie decides she has to take a bathroom break and she will consider his request while in the bathroom. He is jumping on the bed, eagerly waiting her “permission” to be a leader. She emerges triumphantly – she has made her decision: “You can be a leader in the home club!” Elliott is ecstatic: “I a leader! I a leader!” He jumps over to give her a kiss and a hug. Now Natalie is ecstatic! “He’s never given me that big of a kiss ever!”
Natalie seems to feel bad for me and offers me a leader spot too. I say that’s so nice but that I’ve been a leader of a lot of things so I am happy to just be a member and follow along with their rules. Natalie agrees with this; Elliott is skeptical. Then I tell him, “Remember you say kids rule, moms drool so kids really should be the leaders.” This sound rationale works for him.
The kids are so excited about being leaders in the home club – Natalie alternates between talking non-stop and quietly working on a membership card for him. By the time the story ends, she has finished a membership card: “You are ficily a ldr.” (You are officially a leader.”) Elliott gazes at the card, starts jumping again, with the coveted messages in hand. Then Natalie finds ANOTHER bigger envelope to put them all in. Elliott thinks this is all great.
At bedtime, Natalie wants to cuddle with Elliott while I sing to him. (He NEVER allows this and did tonight.) She offers to sing him Paw Patrol – or a leader song. He obviously chooses a leader song. It goes something like this:
Elliott’s a leader. We follow our leader. We follow our leader everywhere. He plans stuff for us to do. He’s a leader, leader, leader. We follow our leader everywhere. (x3 – I’m forgetting the rest of the words.)
And then she throws in Paw Patrol for bonus – finishing with a little jazz of leader at the end again.
So much emotion, sibling rivalry and cuteness wrapped up into 90 minutes. I never have time to write a story this long, but I’m lucky that my work has a snow day tomorrow too, so I don’t need to work tonight! I can save that for the snow day – after the pancake breakfast party and likely some science experiments, of course!
Jordan is in England so just one grown up the first night. Clever way for Natalie to get extra time with me without her brother catching on…
And night 2, we were lucky enough to have Daniele and Baby Boy Daveline (who Natalie thinks should be named Daniel and Elliott recommended Farty Face) read to the kids before bed…
And night 3, we played freeze tag and read Lyle the Crocodile. We love and miss our Dad but so far, so good!
Elliott asked me why I don’t sing two songs at night like his Dad. I explained that singing creative (customized) songs is a talent of his but not mine. So he has been talking about talents the last few nights. Elliott’s self-described talents:
Running really fast
Running with a punch at the end
Eating dinner really quickly
Scribbling
Making super hero poses
Finding a show on the iPad
Tearing open presents fast
Super hearing
Playing basketball and soccer
Doing gymnastics
And he is proud because probably has the most talents in the family.
He also told me that he sinks in the water and is working on talking and breathing underwater like Aquaman.
Before bed tonight… “Mom why I don’t get to sleep with you very much oftenly. I wish I was Daddy” – Elliott
So sweet even after many nights of waking us up with night terrors or climbing up my back when I did let him (Jordan was gone for a week). May he always want to spend that much time with me!!!!
We went to Green Bay for Christmas. Some of the highlights below:
Blue Moon once cream as requested by Elliott and only available in the Midwest
4 generations of girls
Some reading time with Uncle Mike (and expectant father!)
Cuddle time at the Children’s Museum with our amazing cousins. (Kids are ages, from left to right: 1, 6, 5, 3.5, 2.5)
Can crushing with Grandpa
A very merry Christmas indeed!
(And super excitedly, I was able to upload these pictures from my phone – yay! This feature was missing on wordpress for the past 2 years or so and I’m thrilled its back!)
I am Loving these photos – she just seems so much older this past year! (Okay, 0 to 1 was a big jump too!)
Newborn – everyone’s favorite Christmas present in 2010!
Yummy! 1st time cupcake eater!
Why is the cupcake so small for age 2?
I’ll take 3 for my 3rd, please!
4 is better than every before – celebrating with a pool vaca in FL!
Now I’m 5 – time for my pre-bday pedi!
I’m S-I-X!
Happy 6th Birthday, Natalie!
Height / Weight: For some reason, I’m thinking 48 inches and 48 lbs. so I must be wrong with one of those. She might only weight 44 lbs.
Personality
Even just thinking about how to describe Natalie makes me smile. She is joyful and fun. She is strong-willed. She is an independent thinker and wants her ideas to be heard, yet does a really good job incorporating others’ into her play. She wants to “do well” and she tries hard. (That is where she is probably most like me.) She is very silly and loves bathroom humor (that is where she is most like her Dad…. Although there are many other finer qualities she has taken from him as well.)
Key Milestones
Natalie’s Favorite Activities
Natalie likes ballet a lot. (She hasn’t been interested in trying a sport with a ball.) Especially when she needs some downtown, she likes to play independently with set-ups, dolls, shopkins, in her bedroom. She will sometimes go along with Elliott’s wishes and play things like superheros, forts, etc. She enjoys imaginative play like babies and “hot lava” too. She also loves “wrestling” with her dad and dancing to “Under the Sea”. (Even that has changed a lot over this year – Natalie as Ariel used to “run” away from Daddy Triton to the shore and taunt him, whereas now she just does her own graceful moves without paying much attention to anyone else.) She likes to play games, especially Uno. I have definitely learned a lot of “sneaky” strategies from her (like holding onto the Draw 4 closer to the end of the game, especially when your opponents calls “Uno”). She likes to go to the library or bookstore, read books, BounceTown, Children’s Museum, and play dates. She likes to write, do crafts and loves to draw. Her drawing skills have really developed – and surpassed my stick figures. She’s more into Barbies and that size of dolls vs. other dolls. She likes dressing those dolls and her American Girls dolls too. You should also see her set a table. She has beautiful design and is very diligent. She also likes fashions.
Natalie’s Favorite Books
Natalie really enjoys listening to chapter books like Missy’s Super Royal Deluxe series and Magic Treehouse Series. She still likes more traditional pictures books like Elephant and Piggy (by Mo Willems) and Fancy Nancy.
My Favorite Activity with Natalie
I love some of the “structure” of playing with Natalie vs. the totally open play. I love playing games like Uno or Trouble or Sneaky Squirrel with her. I love reading stories with her – we definitely have similar interests in books (I’m excited for her to get old enough to read things like Matilda). And I love going on “dates” with her! She’s too fun to be with to just choose one activity.
Favorite Memory
Hiking with Natalie is a lot of fun. I especially liked hiking with her in Maine; she was climbing on rocks and continued wanting to explore further.
Monday, December 19th was Natalie’s 6th birthday! The celebration weekend kicked off with a party at BounceTown with about 17 school friends and neighbors. I don’t have the best pictures on my phone, but here is one of Natalie being silly with her friend Sophie… and Elliott was quick to join in. The next is a little neighbor girl who just turned 3 and was following Elliott around for half of the party (to his dismay). She is such a cutie though – he would regret that decision if he was 10 years older!
On Saturday, our house was practically freezing – the heat went out (for the 2nd time in two weeks) so it was down to 52 degrees. Elliott, Natalie and I huddled in her bedroom with the space heater and many layers of clothes while opening her presents from the night before. We also had a “big” snowstorm that morning so the streets weren’t plowed and the library closed, so it was hard to find an interesting place to get out of the house. We ended up at the town toy store! (Not what we needed after this loot!)
On Sunday, Natalie and I joined friends for a shortened performance of the Nutcracker at a historic house in Holyoke. The dancers were primarily children. I thought Natalie would want to be part of it in the future but she was content to watch. Her own ballet is really progressing though and she tries so hard.
Then, on Monday, Jordan and I were the “Royal Readers” in Natalie’s classroom. Natalie and a classmate greeted us outside the classroom and we walked into a royal line-up of kindergarteners bowing to us. Then, we each shared a favorite memory of Natalie when she was little. Jordan’s centered around her chubbiness and how she was so chubby that people would either chuckle or ask to squeeze her 5 fat rolls when we were walking around town. I shared memories of Natalie being super social from the start – we used to call her a church flirt as she would make friends everywhere and anywhere. She even was planning playdates before she could really talk. Then we read a Pippi Longstocking book, had cookies and accompanied Natalie to the office for a sparkly purple birthday pencil.
The Monday night celebration included awesome decorations (courtesy of Alison, Elliott and Natalie) and pizza (Natalie’s choice) with salad (parents’ choice) with our good friend Daniele too!
Here the kids the morning of Natalie’s birthday – could you ask for a cuter winter bundle!?!
