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Happy Mother’s Day to me!  Jordan and Natalie teamed up to make this a very special first official* Mother’s Day for me.  With naps interspersed between, we walked to brunch and went to church.  Jordan picked out a really neat pair of shoes (Sperry Top-Sider) for me – thanks to my sister Becky, who was wearing similar shoes around Easter: http://www.zappos.com/sperry-top-sider-angelfish-linen-floral.  I also got to shop and work-out!  What a great day!  I was also very fortunate to receive many “happy mother’s day” wishes from friends and family.  And, I hope the mom’s in our lives know how much we love them too!

My Mom is an Awesome Mom! She came from Heaven Above. (Sung to the tune of My God is an Awesome God) My parents love to make up songs, so now its my turn!

I’m not sure if you can see this cute onesie, but it says “I love my mommy.”  Its another one of Aunt Stephanie’s super cute holiday onesies!  She was smart enough to make them big – she must have had an inside scoop that Linville babies are big!

*We knew I was pregnant last year this time, but had not told anyone yet.  I still thought that I might get a card – but I wasn’t very clear to Jordan in that expectation!  He got something for Father’s Day 2010.  I think that moms-to-be should get to celebrate Mother’s Day too… after all, they are doing the very important work of incubating that baby!  Doesn’t morning sickness, bloating, a growing waistline, no alcohol, heartburn, a up to 30+ lbs. extra pounds count for something?  SO, to all those expectant mothers, Happy Mother’s Day to you too!

Our friend from kellogg, Ashley (the new Mrs Morse – congrats!) visited today! She called Natalie a dumpling of love. We like it! – (Erin, from Jordan’s iphone – when I get one of these?!?)

What a busy Saturday!  First, we went to the park with Nils (age 4) and Elsa (age 14 mo), along with their mom, Sophia (who I used to work with at Bain).  Nils showed us how to play hopscotch (kinda – it involved throwing wood chips on miniature squares) and go down the tube slide.  Elsa used the big girl swing.  And Sophia, with amazing energy, kept up with both of them – even turning into a giant T-rex at one time (after all, Nils spotted the T-rex footprints!)  We are sad they are moving back to Sweden in a month, but are happy that they are happy!

Sweden... is that close by? Can we come to visit?

Then, we got a last-minute call from Katie (who also worked with us at Bain) and her two adorable daughters, Ali (age 3) and Emma (age 8 months).  They were up in Evanston for their dad’s 5-year Kellogg reunion.  After a bit of crazy play at our condo, which included Ali checking out nearly every one of Natalie’s toys (despite a backpack full of her own), Natalie grabbing Emma’s shirt and Emma grabbing Natalie’s hand, we walked them back up to Kellogg.  Natalie loved Ali’s, er Little Miss Beyonce’s, nonstop singing.  So much fun!  Thanks for visiting!

Wow - a big and a little sister. What fun! Mom and Dad, can we get a big sister?

Can you come over and play again?

Saturday was a special day for us – the 1-year anniversary of when we found out about “Lentil” (our nickname for Natalie before we knew she was a Natalie – we figured she was probably the size of a lentil bean)!  We had been trying to get pregnant for awhile and took a pregnancy test to verify that I was NOT pregnant, before calling my doctor to discuss options for trying to help us get pregnant.  Surprisingly, the test was positive!  I ran into tell Jordan at 6 a.m.; he had no idea I was even taking the test, so my proclamation of: “I think we’re pregnant; I took a test and it says we’re pregnant!” was a shock.  The timing was also a bit challenging, as it was the day I was leaving for my sister Becky’s bachelorette party in northern WI.  My mom, sister Leah, Aunt Lisa, cousin Rachel, dear friend Stacy and Becky’s long-time friend Amanda were the other ladies in attendance.

Happy Bachlorette Party, Becky! (May 1, 2010)

It was tough to hide the secret… I was only 7 weeks along, so I wanted to wait before sharing the news and didn’t want to take away any attention from our bachelorette!  I’d like to think I was tricky, but my mom claims she thought something was up.  When the water stopped running, I volunteered to go down to the lake to get a bucket of water to flush the toilet…. and happened to spill my daiquiri in the lake.  I got out of shots by volunteering to be the DD on the way to dinner.  And I drank a lot of rum and cokes, sans rum, at the bar.  It also helped that Stacy was a DD too and isn’t a big drinker either.  Amanda and Leah provided plenty of entertainment for us all….

Move over, Becky - Amanda found a new best friend

Leah took over as bartender

In summary, I was obviously on my best behavior during Becky’s bachelorette party – which serves two purposes: 1) obviously, beer isn’t good for a 7-week embryo, and 2) her aunts cannot tell any naughty stories about me to Natalie when she’s older (let’s hope).

On April 19, Natalie turned 4 months old!  Its been a busy few weeks (when is it not?), so once again, here’s a belated “bday” post.

Happy Birthday to Me! I haven't tipped over yet!

Weight / Height: 16.5 lbs (96th percentile), 24 inches (43rd percentile).  For those of you who pay close attention, no Natalie is NOT losing weight, nor shrinking.  Jordan was responsible for the 3-mo post and for some reason, he wrote 18 lbs and 26 inches.  I have no idea where he got those numbers.  Silly boys.  However, we are proud that despite being sick about 3 out of 4 weeks this month, she still managed to increase one percentile in weight.  She is trying desperately to catch up to her Daddy, who was 99th percentile (I was no light weight either).  100, here we come!

What - no candy? Its not like my pants are too tight or anything.....

Personality: If I had to sum Natalie up in two words, it would be smiley and chubby.  We just got back from church and its amazing – she is very generous with her smiles and makes everyone feel special.  (Confession: Even though Jordan said we should bring a diaper bag, we didn’t, and of course, were met with a poop explosion upon arrival at church.  I stripped her down to her cute Easter Bunny onesie (thanks Aunt Stephanie!), complete with poop residue on the back.  Whoops.)

Favorite Toys/Games: She LOVES faces – it started with people and has now extended to her Cat in the Hat “welcome” poster (from my baby shower – thanks, Tricia and Heather!) and stuffed animals.  She really likes the door frame turned picture frame above our couch – it has some of the places Jordan and I have traveled over the past few years.  (I think Natalie will be surprised that we were ever that cool to go to Namibia and Thailand!)   She loves her “Jacob’s toy,” which is a plastic molecule type toy that the Burggraff’s kindly got us.   She still loves standing and tummy time.  And now likes to sit up, with assistance.  And talking.  She’s learned some more tricks over the past 14 days, but I’ll save those for the 5-mo update.

Easy to grab, colorful and tasty - what more could I want in a toy?

Big Accomplishments. Natalie’s first giggle came during bath time, when her grandma accidentally squirted her in the face with a bath toy.  For awhile, she was soaking us during bath time too, by kicking so much, but that has trailed off. Still no rolling over or sitting up on her own.

First Family Easter

Hehehe... coming to G&G's house is the best!

Welcome to my home!

We are so lucky – Nana and Pop have make the trek up from NC and/or FL for the 4th time this winter season (Thanksgiving since I couldn’t travel, New Year’s, baptism in Feb and Easter)!  We can thank little Natalie for this!

Hey, have you met my Nana? She's the greatest!

Nana and Pop have been spoiling all of us – and we LOVE it!  We have at least 20 pics of Natalie from this week.  We have had fabulous dinners.  My guess is Natalie always has someone to play with her – and more kisses than she knows what to do with.

Um, I love you, Pop, but your whiskers are itchy

(Jordan hopes that Natalie reacts this way to every male who kisses her from now until she’s 28.)

On their last day, Natalie was visibly upset that they were leaving…. Nothing says ‘I’ll miss you’ like a massive bowel movement:

Mom, can we go up to a size 3 diaper?

When I emailed my mom to show her the pic, she wrote that “it must be a Linville” thing.  Nana couldn’t agree more.  (She’s a Stevenson.)

Nana and Pop, thanks for visiting (and for taking care of that massive poop)!  We are so lucky that you can come up so often – and we cannot wait for an extended visit this summer!

Here’s ND’s chunkiest cheerleader!

Go Irish! Beat (Eagles / Spartans / Trojans and the list goes on....)

(Jordan prefers to say its a tennis outfit, in which case, she’d probably be the chunkiest tennis player too.  However, since the outfit is from her Aunt Sandy, a former cheerleader and cheer coach, whose daughter was an excellent cheerleader and whose granddaughter has personalized cheer uniforms, my guess is its a cheer costume)

We are with Grandma and Grandpa and leaving Green Bay today. But we will meet Nana and Pop in Evanston tonight. All four grandparents in one day, hooray!!!

Here are some pics from last weekend. If the weather would get above 60, maybe we could play outside longer!