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A pic from back in June of Aunt Jira with the kids. Excited to get one with Clayton soon! He might be able to leave the hospital next week. Natalie and Elliott cannot visit him in the NICU so they haven’t met yet. Natalie prays for her cousin every night though!

I love hearing Natalie talk and see how her language develops. She has a lot to say – and a lot of funny expressions to go along with her stories. Here are a few of my favorite Nat-isms…

“So me”… as in “I like bananas…” “So me!” (“I do too” or “Me too.”)

“Next by to me”…. as in “Sit next by to me” instead of “Sit next to me” or “Sit by me”

And, the rest of these aren’t as much about how her language is developing, but patterns and mannerisms she is developing.

Whenever we read stories now, she adamantly calls out “STOP!” I always need to wait for her to – one-by-one – put each Mousey behind her neck “so I can see better”

When Elliott cries, she runs as fast as she can to attend to him and says “It’s okay buddy.”

Her insistence on being the “line leader” (Clearly, a special privilege learned from preschool).

I’m the line leader!  Where should I take you, Jack?

Her increasingly effective negotiation skills. Last night…

• Mom: “Natalie, only 2 more minutes.”
• Natalie: “No 5!”
• Mom: “How about a compromise…. 3 minutes”.
• Natalie: “4!”
• (Insert Daddy chuckle)
• Mom: “Okay – 4 minutes” (The grand thing about this is she really doesn’t know how long 4 minutes is so it was actually much less than that.)

She’s also developing a better sense of past and future…. anything that happened in the past is “yesterday” and anything coming up is “tomorrow”. However, tonight, when she was eating some chicken that Jordan actually made for tomorrow, I asked her if she would like to have that chicken again tomorrow. She got very upset, as she thinks I would take it away from her right then and doesn’t seem to understand we can eat it again the next day. (Our whole life is leftovers… with getting home from work around 5:30, there’s no way I could get dinner on the table if it wasn’t leftovers every night).

Her interest in collecting everything. Besides the growing number of stuffed animal friends (reference the most recent post), she has commandeered a basket that used to be in my nightstand, in which I kept rosaries, ear plugs and my mini iPod. It started with Natalie always going back to use her “phone” (aka my mini iPod)… tonight, Natalie purposefully placed the basket on top of Elliott’s mat, so that tomorrow she can play with the “phone,” rosaries, car, Thomas the Train and who knows whatever else is in there.

Her insistence on wearing her blue “Bella” (the whale dress) almost everyday this week. (Similar to Aunt Leah’s Big Bird Dress when she was 3 or 4…. Natalie actually displays a lot of characteristics that remind me of her Aunt. – I just hope Natalie decides to live closer to me than her Aunt does!)

And, as I may have mentioned before, the justification with why she needs something, “Because I’m 2 and a half.” or “Because I like it”.

I’m being a goof-a-loof!

Is there a weight limit to this stroller?

(Note from me as Mom: I know that she shouldn’t have the paci in her mouth… it’s usually restricted to storytime before naptime and bad diaper changes.  And, we’re already talking about how she needs to give it up when she turns 3.  I should have done that at age 2!)

Minnie’s stroller has been carting around many guests lately.  I think this load included: 3 Mouseys (so much for having a spare for the wash!?!), Nemo, Boots, Dora, little Dora with the little hat, Baby Ellie, and Mom’s blue work-out band.

And, Elliott’s been as happy and cute as can be!

After a challenging couple days at work, spending today with these cuties was awesome!!!

First Outing. Oz Park for lunch.

Oz was chosen since it is a 5-min walk from our house, of course!

Elliott was loved hanging out on the blanket in the shade, so we are definitely going to do a lot more of this!  He was all smiles.

We ran into a friend from preschool!  For awhile, she was busy taking family pictures, which resulted in nearly 10 minutes of Natalie crying loudly, but thankfully, her Daddy let her stay after for some great kickball time.

See you tomorrow, Mischa!

During Natalie’s nap

I love my sister, but its also nice to have mommy’s undivided attention!  (Well, let’s be honest… Mom was still checking her phone a lot due to work stuff.  Sorry!!)

Second outing : Bauler Park with Taylor and Hailey

Hamming it up again!

Hailey, you are wiggly… and a very proficient back-to-front roller.  Do it again!

Natalie said “hi” to Hailey (the youngest) when playing…. Taylor was quick to say, “she’s my sister.”  Natalie responded, “I was just saying HI.”  That seemed to satisfy Taylor. 🙂

At dinner tonight, Natalie also agreed to eat her chicken so that she will “grow faster”.  Every morning, she tells me how she is growing up – usually because she doesn’t want to sit in her booster seat.  I always think, “I know – and I don’t need you to remind me!”  I am really just trying to enjoy every age and every day.  Easier said than done.

When I’m putting Natalie to bed, she often asks if I will sleep with her.  I usually explain that I need to do a little bit of work or clean up the house and then I’ll go to bed soon.  Tonight, she asked me if I could make dinner for all of us tomorrow.  She explained… “I like ravioli.  Dado likes oatmeal.  You like salads.  I like ravioli… or maybe tortellini.”  She has been very into tortellini lately, which is strange, as we’ve only had it a couple times at the house.  I think she’s probably had it at school more and its a frequent request now.  She even wanted me to read her a tortellini book.  We don’t have one, so I made up a story about trying to shop for tortellini in the freezer section but that the grocery stores are out of it because its Italian Day.  After visiting 3 grocery stores, we decide to make our own – with orange and white cheese, of course.  That’s the synopsis.  The story in is full glory is about 10 min and sometimes requires more energy than I can muster up at 7:15pm!

Here are some cute pics from this morning!

Just some pre-season calisthenics

Let's get ready for some football!

We spent the morning with Nana, Pop, Uncle Alex, Aunt Jira, Uncle John (in from FL) and his brother.  However, Jordan or I didn’t get any pics.  We had a fun time at Nana and Poppy’s house though!

After nap, it felt like fall so we bundled up to go to the park.

Mama, did you see my silly sister?

Can you catch me?

Hi Toto!

Have you met our friends, Dorothy and Toto?

Wee!! Higher!!

Glad you decided you missed us too much and joined us at the park, Dado! Work can wait. 🙂

Whoa Mom. Those eye crinkles are really coming out!

I can go down the big slide! ( Real quote)

On our way home from the park, we met Edward, a 74-year-old who likes to play the banjo on his front porch.  He asked Natalie which songs she liked… she replied, “Bob Marley and the Lion Sleeps Tonight.”  He didn’t know either, so he offered Old Mac Donald instead.  What 2.5-year-old requests Bob Marley?  I love it!

Speaking of “two and a half” that’s often the reason for many things that occur in our life.  The crying mouse in Mouse Soup has two tears running down her cheek because “I’m two and a half.”  For example, at the zoo, there are 2 giraffes because Natalie says, “I’m two and a half.”  The rhino has two horns because “I’m two and a half.”  (And, yes, he’s going to grow a third when she turns three, she told her dad.)

Elliott had his 4-month check-up today.  He is NOT a small boy!

Hey there! Just playing a little bit of doc with my Big Sis!

Weight: 18 lbs, 4 oz (90-95th percentile) vs. Natalie at 16.5 lbs (96th percentile) – I guess boys are expected to be larger at this age

Height: 26.5 inches (95th percentile) vs. Natalie at 24 inches (43rd percentile)

Head Circumference: 17 5/8 inches (98th+ percentile)

Elliott’s weight and height percentiles are actually slightly lower than they were at 2 months.  I found out we haven’t been feeding him enough during the day when I’m at work…. we had asked the nanny just to give him 3.5 or 4 oz a feeding, but it should be 5-7 oz.  I’m hoping that explains some of his ravenous (and painful) feedings, as well as the increase in night feedings.  I will need to start supplementing with formula soon, as I just cannot bring myself to pump 3x a day at work.

Big Sister Natalie accompanied Elliott to the doc.  After checking out his heart and ears, Natalie gave him a back tickle while we were waiting for the doc.  She wondered what those “wrinkles” on his back were… aka fat rolls.

What are those wrinkles?

Natalie loves going to the doctor and dentist (see below for some dentist pics from early July that I never posted), so she didn’t like her brother being in the spotlight.  Thankfully, Dr. Summers checked out Natalie’s cold and said that she would be okay.

So thankful and lucky to have such healthy kiddos!!!!! 🙂

Today is LinvilleUSA’s favorite Mama/wife/woman’s birthday – Erin is 32 years old! And though nothing we could do could possibly tell her how much we love her and how lucky we are to have her, we tried. And it was a ton of fun.

We kicked things off yesterday with birthday waffles, a sort of Linville tradition that we started about three or four years ago.  It is a tradition extremely popular with Natalie.

Happy Birthday, Mama! 32 never looked so good, eh?

While not part of the bday celebration per se, yesterday, we went to the park and met our friends Todd, Heather, and Henry (the “Van Hams”) and swam at the pool. Tons of fun! Despite the fact that I let Natalie’s head go under water for 1/2 a second on the the first jump off the edge, and she didn’t let me forget it. Literally, the conversation preceding the next seven jumps:

Natalie: “Dado, don’t let my head go under water.”
Jordan: “Ok, Nat, sorry about that. I’ll be more careful.”
Natalie: “D-d-d-don’t let it go under. Never again.”
Jordan: “I understand. Sorry. It won’t happen again.”
Natalie: “Never.  Ever.  Again.”
Jordan: “Ok, got it. Jump!”

Afterwards, we opened up some presents Erin had gotten from her mom and dad which included some sort of foot soak.  Erin and Natalie put that to use and I must say – their feet smelled fantastic.

"Mama, this mini-bathtub in a standard bathtub is just perfect for a pedi. Relaxing and not at all cramped."

"My feet don't smell like lavender, but don't my froggy towel and I compliment Mama nicely?" Crazy cute. Both of 'em.

Next up, we opened up some presents we got Mama including a Mountain Hardware jacket, a framed picture w/ art work, and a blue candle.   The blue candle was Natalie’s idea from two weeks ago when I said we needed to start planning Mama’s birthday.  I realize now that this was probably her way of saying she wanted cake (with a blue birthday candle in it), but oh well.  She was actually pretty excited about a blue scented candle as well.

my peeps

But on that note, what would a birthday be without some cake?  So this afternoon, we met up with our best friends, Molly and Megan Baltruzac, and went to Sweet Mandy B’s for cupcakes.  It was really funny because Natalie loves blue and Molly loves pink.  They were both wearing those colors, and they both picked out cupcakes in those colors, too.  They were quite the little splash of color (FYI – a very sugar-buzzed, noisy splash).

"Are you eyeing my cupcake?"

And we capped the day off with a trip to the park as well, where Elliott took is first ride on the swing and loved it.  It was also fun seeing just how active and mobile Natalie and Molly were at this park as compared to a year ago.  Keeps Dado more active as well!

All-in-all, a pretty awesome weekend for a totally awesome mom.  Erin is definitely the bright spot in the lives of all three of us – Natalie, Elliott & Dado – and I feel lucky every day to be able to raise kids with a mom like her.   And for the occasional date nights that we get, to be able to spend time with a women like her and call her my wife.  Seems a little crazy that she’s 32 and I met her when she was barely 21, but all the better!  The kids don’t know it yet, but I can guarantee that she will be just as fun – and beautiful – at 82 as she is now.