Natalie is showing many signs of being ready to be a big sister.
1. Her favorite book is:
2. She has missed her babies and asked about them while we were in Florida. When we got home from 6 days away, she spent at least 30 min taking care of Baby Ellie and Baby Kathy:
Her deep care for where her babies are continued today. Ellie came to church with us and both babies were included in story time. The 5.5 of us took up almost our entire king-sized bed. I could barely see Jordan, as he and I were the bookends.
3. She knows Pinto is inside Mommy’s tummy and has requested “Pinto come out!” Since that has happened yet, she instead tickles and pats Pinto. (More tickles than pats.). And offers the occasional “nigh nigh”.
Since Natalie is very much a Mama’s girl, I don’t anticipate a very smooth transition when Pinto actually arrives in March, but Jordan and I are doing what we can to encourage Natalie’s natural nurturing side. And we know grandparents will be very helpful when it comes to doing special things with Natalie and watching Pinto so that we can have one-on-one time with Natalie too.
Before Natalie’s birthday, Grandma and Grandpa came down for an early celebration. You caught a glimpse of the excitement in the actual 2 yr update…. GaGa (Grandma) got Natalie a tea set. She was absolutely thrilled. I have never seen her that excited to open a gift. The deluxe kitchen was also a hit too… And i am cautiously optimistic it will provide hours of entertainment when I am caught up with feeding Pinto come March. Natalie was even willing to trade her smaller cupcake kitchen. We also….
Opened Christmas presents by our 3-ft tree
Made Birthday Cupcakes
GaGa- these Dora toothpicks are so fancy!
Waited in line for the carousel at ZooLights!
The anticipation is overwhelming!
Natalie chose PU panda and GaGa got zebra
Natalie had a stupendous visit with my parents. I wish I could remember more cute stories but I am having trouble remembering 2 weeks back. We also appreciated a night out with friends too. We are lucky to have family who visit Chicago a lot!
Merry (belated) Christmas. I don’t have the pictures on my phone to go through the last week, so I’ll just focus on some fun we had today! As we’re receiving cute winter pictures of our cousin Trevor in Wisconsin sledding….
How do I get this thing to go?
and friend Molly in Pittsburgh playing with snow-covered statues, Natalie is living
up the Christmas holiday Florida-style. Although its been a little chilly (low 60’s today), Natalie insists on wearing short sleeves for most of the time. The sandbox that Nana and Pop installed in their backyard has been a big hit (under-statement of the week).
Okay, now that I smiled for this picture, Uncle Al, will you make me another sand castle to destroy? Right here... to the left of the chair Pop made for me, please
Double handprint! See, Mom...this is so educational. You really should think about installing a sandbox in our 3rd floor condo in Chicago
After probably an hour of playing in the sand, Natalie took many “naps” in the sand. (She takes after her Aunt Leah, who always liked to pretend “sleep” as well – luckily, Natalie isn’t as good of a faker as her aunt, so it hasn’t gotten her into trouble at school.)
If I close my eyes extra tight, this really makes it look like I'm sleeping, right?
Of course, a girl has gotta help out around the house too… Natalie was more than happy to lend a hand gardening:
Okay, one quick pic, Mom, but then I have got to get this watering done!
Finally, thanks to Uncle Alex and Aunt Jira who gave Natalie (and me) a little dash of Wisconsin….
Hi ya! I love this sweatshirt. Can I pre-order in 4T, 5T and 6T too?
Hope you are all having a wonderful Christmas vacation week!
Natalie’s teachers and classmates helped make her 2nd birthday extra special. In addition to the pics we posted in the actual day, Here are some artifacts….
A hand-print signed card in blue (her fav color) and many, many hugs (at one point I couldn’t see her in the mass of hugs)
Happy 2nd Birthday, Natalie! I know I said 12 months, 16 months, 18 months, etc. was fun, but I have to admit – having a 2-year-old is more fun than I could have imagined! Natalie is definitely a toddler – she has her own opinion about nearly everything and initiates fun little games all the time. For instance, why walk to the bathroom when you could go on your tiptoes? Why brush your teeth standing up when you could try to brush them while hiding like a Jertain in the Curtain (thanks Dr. Suess). Why just let your O’s fall on the floor when you could instead pretend to feed them to Slow Poke, your turtle booster chair? (Just some suggestions for an extra dose of fun in your day!)
Personality: Silly. Enthusiastic. Curious. Concerned about others. Definitely keeps up to kids older than her. Particular.
Favorite Activities: Having her favorite people over (like Nana, Pop, Grandma and Grandpa), Swimming, Dancing, Running, Going to the Park (haven’t done a lot of that lately), Reading, Throwing stuffed animals out of her crib, Playing kitchen, Coloring with markers on a white erase board, Baking, Playing Hide and Seek. She’s starting to play make-believe games…. when we play with her dollhouse, she often sends my doll to the store to get tea. Her preschool teacher said that she had an animated dialogue about mommy and baby animals going the other day.
Daddy’s Top Activity: (from Daddy) My favorite activity with the Natbug – excluding cuddling in the rocking chair before bedtime – is dancing. This girl has got some moves. All anybody needs to do is start humming a little ditty and she will start shrugging her shoulders up and down to the beat and tilting her head back and forth. Even though she is more than capable of dancing on her own, we often like to dance when we brush teeth. Even though I’m holding her, she can do two moves I like to call the “head bop” and the “arm pump.” When it’s me singing, she’s partial to the refrain from Kylie Minogue’s “Can’t Get You Out of My Head.” When it’s me playing the iPod, she is VERY particular about what songs are acceptable but always seems happy with “Footloose.”
Mommy’s Top Activity: Well, in honor of Natalie’s favorite number – 2 – I’ll choose 2 things! 1) Reading stories in bed and the occasional goofing around that comes with that… be it wrestling, flying airplane, upside down or tickles. (Not too much right before bed though!) 2) Make believe kitchen play, especially drinking tea. Recent favs of Natalie’s include blueberry tea and chai tea.
At preschool, I am a birthday Queen for the day!
Least Favorite Activities: Being on the diaper changing table, Riding in the car for too long, Eating vegetables. (Last year, we had “shopping for more than 8 min” on the list, but that’s not the case any more! She and her dad go grocery shopping every weekend… and she loves to go to Lululemon or the Disney store and turn through clothes that are at her height)
Milestones: Tons of Talking, including a lot of full sentences “No go bye bye,” “I want that,” “Shh… baby sleeping,” “What happened?” “I got Dora,” “Here Daddy”, “I want to go down Mommy”, and “I want to see Mommy” (gotta love that one!). She can almost count to 10 (though often doesn’t stop at the right # of items) and can say most of her ABCs, with assistance. She runs EVERYWHERE. And, let’s not forget jumping! She also is really good at chiming in with songs (Ba rum ba rum ba bubble gum, Happy Birthday) and finishing ends of sentences of favorite stories.
Favorite Foods: Plain noodles, “cereal” (oatmeal baby cereal), raisins, gyros with tahini sauce, any kind of cheese, peanut butter, bread. Unf, you can see that fruits and veggies aren’t making the top of the list, so though we try hard! She is pretty good about eating fruit. (Some of her favs from last year – like blueberries and peas – are unf. off the list.)
Favorite Books: Adventures in the Great Up Nort’ (Natalie and her cousin Trevor are the authors of this classic), Big Sister, Fox in Socks (I try to hide this one), Green Eggs and Ham, Bear’s Snowy Day. We recently returned two books that we had gotten at the library – “Germs are not for Sharing”and “Smile Principessa”. Once we got home, she was sad that they weren’t there any more and had a 3-min story to tell us about going to the library. (Yes, Jordan and I were both with her so were well aware of the story.)
Height/Weight: 28.75 lbs (between the 75th-90th percentile) and 34 inches (50th percentile). She was weighed and measured on the big scale today – very exciting! I was excited about the continued drop in weight percentile (from off the charts at 1-yr-old to 90-95th percentile at 18 months), but was told no sweets, less fats (e.g. cheese, avocado), less starch and smaller portions! I told her that we’ve been trying all that, except the smaller portions, since 18 months – and let’s be honest, Natalie can get a little crabby when hungry, so I’m not about to limit portion size or snacks for a crabby toddler! Anyways, we’ll keep trying, but as you can see from recent pics, all rolls are gone. She is def. a toddler!
Natalie Ann at 1 Day Old
Natalie Ann at 1 Yr Old
Natalie Ann at 2 Yrs Old
I think it is safe to say that she understands the excitement of opening gifts now!
Oh my gosh, is this what I think it is?
AAAH!! It is! It is! Thank you, Grandma!!!!
Would anyone like some tea?
And although I think we are a long way off still, as luck would have it, Natalie’s first tinkle into her potty was today, on her birthday!
Ah yes, a little bathroom reading - it's worth it. They promised me an M&M!
We love you, little Natalie!
Daddy made me green eggs and ham for breakfast! Coolest Dad ever!
Mommy, will you read this same book over and over to me?
I didn’t get to see Natalie before I left for work this morning, but did receive a fun email date from Daddy. (Yes, Natalie seems to have traded in “Dado” for “Daddy” most of the time. Jordan resisted at first – he liked the uniqueness of “Dado,” but her voice is just so cute when she says “Daddy,” that he quickly warmed up to it.)
Nat and I had a really fun morning. She ate a big breakfast and then we took a bath. Where did that dolphin toy in our bath tub come from? She saw it floating there, stared for a minute, and then pointed and said, “no, no!” With a very concerned look. It was almost like there was an intruder! We also spent some time looking at the ornaments on the tree and she really liked the nutcracker ballerina that spins around. When I told her that I wouldn’t be home tonight and that mama would pick her up, she repeated what I said like three times and then goes, “mama and pinto. pick up.” Hah! How cute is that? I said, “Why yes, Pinto will be picking you up, too!”
Since Daddy needed to work late tonight, Natalie wrote him a message to post on the door for him:
I imagine the message hits some of our highlights from tonight, like her matching her hand print to a hand print mold that she and Jordan made (“Yeah – I did it!”), telling him about the fun dance party she had with Kieran at school today on the circle rug and tattling that I took away her wooden egg and spoon after she threw it on the ground. (That was incredibly upsetting this evening.) And, an “I love you” and “I’ll see you in the morning” too.
Natalie has begun to be more particular in her old age. It started over 6 months ago, with her being concerned when she found a long hair on the ground. Then, it grew to picking lint or small fuzzies or other miniscule items off of clothes or the ground. A few months ago, she became very concerned about tags – on her animals. We are now a tagless household – and if she could choose, the tail from her bunny pillow would be removed too, as it gets in the way of reading sometimes. From there, Natalie has become obsessed with “toe jam” – checking between her toes multiple times a day. Finally, she now rearranges my hands when we cuddle at night. Sometimes, its a discreet moving of my hand by her hand – other times, she actually says “head” or whatever else the direction.
I partially blame myself for her idiosyncrasies – after all, she’s the first born and most people probably wouldn’t call me a relaxed mom (or anything else, for that matter). Oh, as parents, what we do to our children…
Its okay, Mom. At least you are cool enough to let me eat PB&J on the go!
P.S. In other funny Nat news, Natalie had an itchy ear when we were reading stories tonight. She moved over to “cuddle” with Dad… actually, to try to use his nose to scratch her ear. What a goofball.
