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Princesses for a Day

You may be wondering what could have led to this lovely picture.  Let me back up…. Potty training is one of my least favorite parts of parenthood.  As Natalie approached her 4^th birthday last December – more than a year after we started potty training – she had another serious regression of a #2 being in her pants every single day for 3-4 months.  No matter what we tried.  Positive verbal encouragement.  Immediate incentive of gum or a sucker.  A chart with stickers.  A longer-term incentive ((e.g. an Elsa doll after a week of dry and clean undies – which she did with no problem, only to re-start the accidents 1-2 months later and saying “Maybe if you give me an Anna doll, I’ll stop popping in my pants again.). Shaming.  Peer pressure.  You name it, I tried it.

So, after 4 months, I decided to go for a really long-term incentive – 21 days to make a habit, right?  I knew she wanted to see the Cinderella movie, so 3 weeks of dry and clean undies (every day in a row), and we’d get to go.  She made it 5 days the first time, had an accident and we started again.  She made it 3 weeks then, but then had an accident and when I tried to talk to her about it, she refused.  So, I said that if it happens again, we have to talk about it.  And, knock on wood, nothing yet.

I did it!

My mom has wanted to be at Natalie’s first movie theatre movie for more than 3 years now – I think she let her interest be known back when Natalie was 1.  She has very found memories of my first movie – Pinocchio – where I shouted out at the end, “He’s a real boy!” and the whole theatre giggled and/or said “ah”.  Given Natalie’s 5-day setback, we weren’t able to see the movie when my mom visited over Easter.  So, we had to wait until the next visit – Memorial weekend.  (Unfortunately, for us, the movie is no longer showing in Chicago, but luckily, we had the option of Glenview and LaGrange!)

Natalie also invited Nana (who was delighted to come) and Allison (our nanny – who unfortunately couldn’t – she’s 21, so I swear, she is celebrating someone’s birthday every weekend – I could never keep up!)  As an extra treat, Natalie had the idea of doing a girls makeover prior to the movie.

Nails first!

Close your eyes, Grandma

And, Nana – who doesn’t have too many girls around – also shared the idea of dressing up!  Not a problem for Natalie – she already has a Cinderella dress.  Since my mom, Nana and I don’t have adult sized Cinderella dresses, so she made us princess skirts!  As Nana said, “this is the stuff memories are made of!”

Makeover selfie!

Needless to say, we had a wonderful time.  Natalie was, quite literally, on the edge of her seat….

Where in the world is Elliott?  You’ll never guess….

(Funny enough – none of these are due to a game of hide and seek.  It’s all an attempt at avoiding my requests….)

There's no way I'm putting on a diaper!

She'll never know I snatched my O's

Once again, if she cannot find me, she cannot dress me.

There's no way you're putting a shirt on me!

My mom will never know I stole her lip gloss.

I'm just not ready to go to the car yet

Why does my mom always want me to put on clothes after a bath?

I'm not ready to go for a nap

Happy 2^nd Birthday, Elliott!

Stats update after Doctor’s Appointment
Weight: 30 lbs, 3 oz. (75th percentile)
Length: 35.5 inches (75th percentile)
Head Circumference: 20.25 inches (95th+ percentile)

Elliott had a fun birthday!  It started with breakfast waffles, courtesy of Chef Dad.  It was followed by opening up an assortment of truck presents – a mid-size John Deere tractor, a hand-held Fire Engine from the Cars franchise (which results in Elliott’s most syllables ever said – “fire engine truck”), and two truck books, with wheels.  Then, we dropped off Natalie at preschool, where he waited quietly to figure out how he could reach his favorite El trains, given that a little boy was blocking the path.  Then, we accompanied one of his favorite friends Austin (who we just found out is moving to CA soon! :() to the Nature Museum.  I had to go to work after this, so our wonderfully amazing nanny Alison took the kids to the grocery for cake supplies – and Natalie and Alison decorated the house in a truck theme for his Saturday birthday.  Finally, Dad grilled steak for dinner (meat is a fav food of E’s) and they opened up a red scooter!!!  Natalie taught him how to use it.  Upon me getting home, he needed me to sit at the kitchen table and watch them go around.  And, he also brought the scooter up to his room and “tucked” it in by putting a blanket over it.

Drive, drive, drive

Elliott is a super fun 2-year-old who can communicate a lot, despite few words.

Vocabulary.  Mama, Dada, Nat, Ssss, truck, tar (“guitar”), O’s, god (for dog), fire truck, hat, up, no, mine, car, blue, green, one, two… its late, I’m forgetting the others.  He’s supposed to know 80-100 words, with 50% understood by people outside of our immediate family.  It’s still in stark contrast to Natalie’s singing her ABCs and half-sentences, but he seriously is adding words (and combination of words) everyday.

Favorite Toys.  Trucks and Cars lead the way, followed by dogs and princesses.  Nana and Pop got him a Chicago fire engine that plays the theme song from Chicago Fire, a popular TV show that I’ve never seen.  He especially likes vehicles where he can open up the doors, so we just brought him a wooden truck from Aruba with 4 doors that open – and a trunk.  On the same end, he also likes playing with and taking care of Natalie’s princesses and dolls, as well as dressing up in her hats and a tutu.  I suspect that may dissipate over the next year or two.  He also loves throwing balls.

Favorite Books.  Similar to his favorite toys, his favorite books are about cars and dogs.  He loves to read the Disney Car books (we have 2 – one long one, one short one) about Lightening McQueen and seem to particularly like Mater’s wheel.  He also loves Biscuit the dog books – Biscuit goes to the Beach, Biscuit’s Valentine’s Day, Biscuit’s Halloween.  Oh, and Richard Scary’s book about the Pickles family going on a picnic.  He is very good at finding Goldbug!

Favorite Games. His favorite game is a pop-up Princess Castle game, which Natalie got for Christmas.  There are 4 princesses – from the start, his favorite has been Aurora.  When Natalie and I play the game, he gets the two remaining princesses and often hide them in different areas of the castle.  However, he also likes to knock them down, give them a kiss and then start the silly game all over.

Favorite Activities.  He loves to draw.  Marker is his favorite medium.  He likes to swim – he tries really hard at swim class.  He likes to go to the Nature Museum and climb around.  He really likes sitting in trucks or cars – whether it be on Poppy’s lap in a real car or in a toy car that they gave you for your birthday.  He loves to play “Spoonful of Sugar” (the Mary Poppins clean-up song) and run around the living room – but only if Natalie will join him.  He gets so upset when she is in a bad mood and won’t.  He loves playing a guitar, singing a tune, stomping his feet.  Never mind that his guitar is currently his sister’s pink Minnie guitar.  He also loves jumping on the bed and rough housing – I love when he runs from far away, full force into me and I tip back with him in my arms and then we rock back up together.

CHEESE!!!

Favorite Friends.  When I ask if you want to play with Austin (the little brother of one of Natalie’s classmates), his immediate response is “Trucks”.  He plays with Everett, also a little brother, and his cousin Clayton.  But his best friend is Natalie – he wakes up asking about her and goes to bed, asking to jump in her bed.

Can I sleep in Natalie's bed tonight?

Favorite Foods.  He has a morning concoction of O’s, raisins, craisins, oatmeal squares and crackling oat bran (if I’ll indulge you in filling up your little to-go snack cup with all those) is a favorite.  He is a meat lover – steak, chicken, sausage, etc.  He also likes strawberries and bread.  His palate is broader with Alison – she claims he eats red peppers and maybe even zucchini.

Favorite Sleepy Time Items.  It’s really a cadre of bedtime items.  The top of the list is RoRo, his lovey that Natalie gave him when he was less than a day old. He also has a leopard lovey.  He likes to sleep on top of a Lightening McQueen pillow that Grandma gave him, with his left arm wrapped around a rather large Hello Kitty.  There is usually an assortment of other cuddly items in bed, ranging from small Hello Kitties (yes, these are all courtesy of Natalie) to a little boy, which we bought after Elliott took such good care of Natalie’s little girl “Cutie Pie”.

Nicknames: E-Man, Boody, Boody Shaker, El, and Elli-O.

When he was younger, we used to described Elliott as laidback.  We have changed our mind on that – he definitely has strong opinions, often when it comes to something he and his sister both want to play with.  Instead, I would describe Elliott as: loveable (his hugs and kisses are AMAZING), joyful (he finds happiness in so many things), kind (he puts his cup up when he’s done drinking milk and helps me find my shoes, as well as share kisses when someone is hurt), and humorous (he plays tricks and teases, even though he can only 1-2 words at a time!).   Your dad described Elliott as loving, rough and gentle, flirty, mischievous, excitable and helpful.

Almost all of Natalie’s pictures are of her family.

The lollipop looking figures are all her dolls.  Amazingly, she even has more in real life.  She also likes to sign the pictures with each of our first initials – usually arranged in a square pattern, as well as with her name, which is written in the correct order (first N, then A, next T, etc.) but often doesn’t come across from left to right in a straight line.  Its just so fun to see her create and put meaning behind her pictures.

And, here’s a self portrait made at school (looking into a mirror), which reminds me not to read in too much.  Sometimes, lines are just lines.  Decorations are just decorations.

As everyone in the Midwest knows, its been a lovely winter in Chicago (at least lovelier than in Boston).  Natalie’s school has already been canceled 4 times – once for snow, three times for cold.  Here are some pics from just before the snow day three weeks ago.  We got outside before we were 100% inundated (and for the later part of the afternoon, Elliott just stared out the window at the construction truck trying to get another truck unstuck – a dream come true.)

Cheese... okay, Mom, now how do I move?

I'm up to something - I'm not sure what, but it will be good...

What can I get for you? Peanuts? A popsicle?

Um, this is a lot of snow...

Natalie loves to read – and I love when she makes connections between stories, or between something happening in her life and a story.  However, these literary connections are starting to backfire on me.  Case and point:

When I asked Natalie to clean her body while in the shower (instead of just playing around and/or cleaning her brother), she said something along the lines of: “Mom, this is reminding me of Merida (from Brave).  Her mom wanted her to get married but she didn’t want – and didn’t have to because it was her body.  And this is my body – I don’t have to clean my body right now because its my body.”

(And, I promise, this truly was a literary connection – she hasn’t watched the movie.  princess.disney.com has a story you can read for free for every Disney princess).

She proceeded to make another connection to Frozen, which is escaping me at this point.

My rebuttal was something along the lines of princesses still need to have clean bodies.

Here are some fun pictures from Jan & Feb… on my awesome new phone, courtesy of my hubby!  My phone is bigger than I’d like, but the picture and video quality is impossible to compete with (for a phone)!

Despite the frigid weather, Natalie and Elliott often like to give a concert on the little step from the garage to the house:

LAAAA!!!!

Natalie’s first library card. She was so excited. It took her two months to get up the nerve to ask! (The birthday shirt was just a coincidence – no, there’s not a minimum age requirement to getting a card!)

Card carrying member - of the Chicago Public Library!

The Frozen craze continues…. at a recent play date at Natalie’s best friend Finnoula’s house, the girls kindly swapped Elsa dresses.  Never mind the meltdown that ensued at the end of the play date, regarding a miscommunication about swapping dresses for the long weekend.

Hi - I'm Elsa. Have you met my best friend, Elsa?

When Natalie’s at preschool, Elliott and I will occasionally visit Aunt Jira and Clayton.  Elliott is always a little confused as to why Issy, Nana and Pop aren’t there, but he still likes to have full run of Clayton’s toys and the house in general.

Cars, cars, and more cars - Clayton and I definitely share this interest!

Didn't you know all great executives chew on their fingers when they are teething?!?

We live really close to an awesome swimming center so we signed the kids up for lessons.  The best part is that they must keep the water at 95 degrees, so neither Jordan nor I dread jumping in with Elliott.  Here are Natalie and Elliott the first day of class….

Let's go!

Natalie is no longer this smiley on swim class days – she really doesn’t like getting her eyes and head wet (“zooms” under water are the worst, in her opinion), so we’ve taken to a far amount of negotiating.  Even with the carrot of a new Princess Sophia figurine every class that she gets her eyes/head wet 3 times, she still tries to delay, stall, and avoid.  For example, last week, she claimed she had to go to the bathroom, so she hopped out of the pool.  (When the actual visit to the bathroom is lacking action, its easy to detect that stall technique.)  Later, she simply hopped out, and when I went to go ask the teacher what he recommended – I’d even pick her up and toss her back in, she went behind my back, grabbed the towel and just started walking away.  Her teacher caught up to her half way across the pool deck.  It was pretty funny.

Again!

Jordan and I trade off weeks for who goes in the pool with Elliott.  He is pretty eager for the first 15 minutes, but then tires – especially with Jordan, who gives him a tough work out.  Last week, Jordan asked Elliott to show me how he could monkey climb along side the pool and Elliott’s arms were so tired, he hung on as long as he could and then just let go, sinking under the water.  I’m chuckling even as I type this, as his facial expression was priceless.  He didn’t even have an ounce of energy to complain or protest – he was just 110% worn out.  (Obviously, Jordan was 1 inch away and “rescued” our tired son.)

So, $20 to the person who can guess which of our kids graduated to the next level… 🙂  Jordan and I decided to take the next session off though, as Saturday morning battles about going to the swim pool are not our cup of tea.  Maybe a summer session – could the nanny do it?!? 🙂

At bedtime tonight, Natalie asked a series of questions, which ended up in a discussion on homelessness.  I think this was spurred by our awesome nanny Alison, who had the great idea of baking muffins for the firefighters.  They baked yesterday and delivered today.  The firefighters loved the muffins and showed the kids around.  They even sat in a fire truck.  It was Elliott’s dream day.  I’m not totally doing this story justice.  Sorry.  Anyways, back to Natalie’s questions….

Natalie: Why did we leave our old home?

Mom: We needed more space.

Natalie: But I really miss it.

Mom: What do you miss?

Natalie: The long hallway for running.  We only have a short hallway here.

Mom: Yes, that’s true, but we can run around the couch here and throw balls down the stairs.

Natalie: Why don’t some people have houses?

Mom: (Please forgive my imperfect attempt at answering these rather challenging questions to a 4-year-old.)  People need money to have a house and sometimes they don’t have a job or don’t have a job that pays them enough to have a house.  So, we need to help so that people can get good paying jobs.

Natalie: What if we didn’t have a home?

Mom: Don’t worry.  Daddy and Mommy went to college, so we can always get a good paying job.  We are really lucky.  We will always have a home.  And, if we ever didn’t, we could live with Nana and Pop or Grandma and Grandpa.  Isn’t that nice?

Natalie: Yes. What if people didn’t have family or friends to live with?

Mom: Well, sometimes there are shelters that people can live in.  God tries to find many ways to take care of people.  That’s why we need to help by giving money at church or making lunches for homeless people.

Natalie: Yeah, we can make lunches.  Like broccoli, peas, salad.  Sandwiches.  With a little cheese. And a little turkey.

Mom: Yes, I know our church makes lunches for homeless people.  Do you want me to look into us being able to help?

Natalie: Yes, but what if they don’t let us have the food I want.

Mom: Well, let me check the rules.  Sometimes, they might even add an extra thing.  Likea  cookie.

Natalie: Yes, we should give a cookie!

Mom: Okay, I’ll email them.

Natalie: Why don’t people have homes?

“But is Dad going to get lost because its Lost Vegas,” questioned Natalie, very concerned about Jordan’s 36-hour work trip.