Natalie's "Purse"

A couple nights ago, Natalie decided that she wanted to carry this little bag around like a purse. It was so cute! She wanted me to help her put it on her arm, and she'd walk around with it, then sit down and take everything out of it, hand it to me, then put each thing back in. We got some cute pictures of her with the "purse."

Long Overdue Update

I know I've been terrible about updating the blog for the past few weeks, so I'm going to try to do better, but here's my attempt at a catch-up. :)

Natalie now has four animal sounds that she will consistently tell you: cow, sheep, snake, and kitty. Before kitty, there was doggie, and it was my favorite - also because she picked it up all on her own. She said "bow wow wow" in the cutest way. Well, I decided to try to teach her that a kitty says "meow" and Santa says "ho ho ho," and she learned the kitty (very cute!), but not Santa, and ever since then, now when you ask her what a doggie says, she has a very unintelligible string of sounds, part of which sounds like "meow." So now we're back to working on "bow wow wow" again!

She just recently started saying thank you when she hands us toys. ;) It sounds more like "tee cu," but we know what she means. ;) Also, when she stands on the couch, I ask her to sit, and when she does, I say, "thank you." Now she's taken to standing up and at the same time, saying "tee cu!" Not exactly what I was going for!

She just got over her first ear infection. Boy, was that rough. I was glad that we finally figured out what it was and were able to start her quickly on (her first) antibiotic. It took about 3-4 full days for her normal sweet, funny personality to return, so I know she must have been feeling terrible. I feel like I have a better grasp of what she might act like with an ear infection now, so hopefully she won't get more, but I think I'll be able to spot it more quickly if she does.

Miss Nat still LOVES to eat. Katie made potato soup this week and the girls had it for lunch yesterday. She said Natalie had a spoon in one hand and was using the other hand to scoop handfuls of it into her mouth. Also, we've decided that she prefers Braums milk over Borden. She must get that from Opa! ;)

She still loves Casey, and the word "Casey" is still probably the clearest word that she says right now. She's learning better how to pet Casey gently, which is a good thing. Casey is sooooo tolerant of Natalie though. My mom says Casey is a gift, but we don't always feel that way when we have to clean up her messes! Natalie sure loves her, though! :)

Natalie is really big on putting her hands up and making a "Where did it go? I don't know!" face when a person hides or when she hides a toy. It's pretty cute. She'll put toy food in her play microwave, shut the door, and look at us as if to say "Where did it go?" Then she opens it and smiles. A couple days ago, we were all in Natalie's room and Brad left to do something. Natalie followed him out, but somehow lost track of where he went. She got into the kitchen, and Brad could see her but she didn't see him. She saw Casey in the kitchen, and put her hands up and made the face, as if asking Casey, "Where did he go?" Brad was cracking up that she really thinks of Casey as one of us and thought Casey could help her out. ;)

Well, I'm sure there are a million more little things I could write, but I'm out of ideas off the top of my head. Hope everyone out there is enjoying the holiday season!

Tired Natalie

Katie sent me these pictures from lunch today. Natalie was so tired that she could hardly stay awake. However, that did not stop her from eating. Katie said she would still pick up her food, put it in her mouth, and chew it, all with her eyes closed. Poor girl. I sure hope her afternoon nap rejuvenates her!!

Sick Again

Miss Natalie appears to have yet another cold. I feel like she's got some kind of congestion all the time! I am really starting to wonder if she doesn't have allergies like me. She's been in a pretty good mood, but her nose just runs constantly and she has A LOT of trouble sleeping. Last night was one of the worst in a long time. I don't think any of us got much sleep. Brad was really a trooper; he got up with her and ended up sleeping in the other room with her so I could get some more rest, but she woke up for the day at 5:40 am - which is MUCH earlier than normal which is like 7:00-7:15. I'm at work today and Natalie's with Katie, and the last time I checked before lunch, she was doing well. Both of the girls had been in time out at one point, so it's a regular day for the most part. ;) I'm just praying that she can sleep well at her nap this afternoon AND tonight!!

Talkin' on the Phone

Yesterday, I was talking to Natalie over the phone. Previously, I've never really expected her to actually listen and understand me - I don't really know why! I started asking her what a cow says, what a snake says, and where her belly button is, and she answered me on all of them! I feel like we had our first phone conversation! ;)

The Hairbrush

This morning, after I gave Natalie a bath, I was brushing her hair and she kept getting frustrated with me because she wanted the brush. So, I finished quickly and gave it to her. I started trying to get her dressed, but she wanted to stand up. She would not give in! She finally managed to get to a standing position, put one arm on my shoulder, and proceeded to brush my hair. She just kept standing there, very gently and intently brushing strands of my hair. :) I just thought it was the cutest thing.

Just Some Pics

Here are some more pictures from this weekend that I thought were cute. :)


Casey just climbed up into Natalie's lap. Natalie was pretty excited, even if you can't tell from the picture. :)


Remember how we said Natalie liked to crawl around with things in her mouth and how she will latch on to one small item for a day? Well, the above day, it was a travel-sized toothpaste tube. And she looooved walking with it! :)

Little Helper

Just thought I'd post a few pics that I've taken over the last month of Miss Natalie "helping" around the house . . .

And, once again, as the designated photographer, it only looks like I never hold Natalie and never do housework apparently! :) This is certainly NOT the case! :)

We have a walker!

Well I think we can officially say that we have a walker on our hands! Natalie still crawls a little bit, but she walks at least 85-90% of the time! We got some video of her last night, and it's so cute! I'm going to see if Brad can maybe upload a video so I can post that! It's really neat to see her walking around just for no reason - or walking with a specific destination!

I feel like I haven't posted much in a while about what Natalie's doing. She is still pretty consistent with the animal sounds that she knows - snake, cow, and sometimes sheep. I tried to teach her "owl" on Halloween because she had an owl on her shirt, but I figured out after a while that she just thought I was saying "cow" and "moo" instead of "owl" and "hoot." We're trying to teach her that a pig says "oink," but that one hasn't caught on.

I am constantly surprised at how open Natalie is! Brad and I are both reserved people and pretty quiet in general, so we figured our children would probably be that way since that's the example that they'll see. Well, I don't know if it's just a stage with her, but I'm not sure that Natalie is going to be a shy girl! She is very shy when she first meets someone, but she warms up pretty quickly, and then she is not self-conscious at all. She also makes me laugh at how LOUD she is when we're outside. Saturday, Brad was putting up a swingset that we got for her and she was walking all over the back yard. She walked over to the patio where I was sitting, and she saw a basket of plastic baseballs and softballs, and yelled, "OH! MAH BAH!!!!!!" over and over. We couldn't figure out what she was talking about, but I think she was saying something like "Oh my! Balls!" She had never seen those particular balls before, but she does like to play with the other balls she has. :) Anyway, I just thought it was hilarious how loud and determined she was about it. We gave her the balls, and she had a blast with them. Brad also took the plastic bat and helped her hit them across the yard, which she also thought was a lot of fun.

A Few More D Family Pics

OK so I just had to share some more pictures from Sunday since I have them all edited now!!!

Sneak Peek for Bill & Katie

Here are some of the pictures I took this afternoon of our good friends Bill, Katie, & Brooke. We went to the Myriad Gardens again, and I was amazed at how different it looked - same time of day, but the light is different and so many of the trees have started changing color. Just beautiful!

A Fresh Fall Day

I am just amazed at what a big girl Natalie looks like in these pictures that Katie took of the girls playing outside earlier this week! I think sometimes it takes someone else's pictures to see how much your child is maturing!

Our Little Ladybug

Here are some pictures of Natalie in her Halloween costume!

Proverbs 15:15

Every day is a terrible day for a miserable person, but a cheerful heart has a continual feast. Proverbs 15:15

I just received this verse in an email from someone at the children's ministry at LifeChurch, and I thought it was so good! It really makes you stop and think - and realize that your outlook makes such a difference on how every day turns out. It also reminds me that although we think that times have changed SO much, people in the Old Testament were having the same basic "problems" that we have today.

God is good . . . all the time! I hope anyone who is reading this has a cheerful heart today! :)

Sneak Peek of Baby A

Here are some pictures I took today of our friends' new baby! He's a week old today and is sooo precious! I couldn't believe how light he was compared to what I'm used to! My arms expected him to weigh so much more when I first held him! I'm still working on some more photos, but these are the ones that quickly caught my eye when I started looking through them.

What's Going On

Just thought I'd post a little update on the things that Natalie's been doing lately!

• I've been singing/saying the ABC song to her lately, and she loves the letter "s." Once I get to "s," she goes, "sssssss" and keeps on doing it. Katie heard her just playing and making "s" sounds, so she asked her what sound a snake makes. Now when you ask her what a snake says, she says "ssssss."
• She loves to dig in the laundry (clean or dirty, ugh!) and find something small like a sock or baby washcloth and just carry it around with her while she does other things. This will be her favorite item for a whole day.
• A couple days ago, Brad saw her playing with one of her dolls and a washcloth (see above! ;)) and he asked her if she wanted to give her baby a bath. He took the washcloth and washed the baby's hair, and now she'll do it if you ask her to.
• She's been doing this a LONG time, but she loves to get a plastic ring and crawl around with it in her mouth. It looks so silly!
• She immediately pulls on her ear if you ask her where her ear is.
• If I ask her to stand up, she'll stop what she's doing and stand up! It still is a big effort for her, but she usually works at it until she gets it!
• She likes to "brush" her hair with her hairbrush while I'm changing her diaper.
• The reason I gave her the brush mentioned above is that she now can totally take her diaper off by herself. Fun, fun! She only messes with it while she's on the changing table, but it's annoying to get her all fastened up, then reach for her pants, only to have the diaper completely unfastened again!
• She's enjoying walks outside in the stroller instead of napping when we go out, which is great! Sometimes she'll get a little fidgety, so we take her out and we figured out that she likes to push the stroller! She's just the right height to use the basket as a handle. It's pretty cute, but we're not too fond of it for very long. She doesn't really walk quite fast enough! ;)
• Her baby toothpaste must taste really good, because she enjoys having her teeth brushed! Hopefully this habit will stick, but I'm kind of doubtful . . .
• She calls shoes and socks "shuussss."
• She's not too fond of shoes and socks or hats - well, at least not while they are on her body. She'd much rather take them off and play with them. I'm getting a little frustrated with that with the weather getting colder!

I'm probably leaving some stuff out, but that seems like a pretty good list, so I'll leave it at that for now. :)

Girls' Nights (& Days!)

Well, Brad left today for a short trip to D.C. for work, so I guess it will be just the girls for a couple days - me, Nat, & Casey (aka "Ase!"), of course! We've got quite a few things going on that will keep us busy, but Natalie has seemed a little out of sorts the past couple days, so I am little nervous about being without Brad. It just seems like sometimes she gets bored and fussy when there's only one of us around if she's not in the best mood. She took an awesome nap at Katie's today, though, so hopefully she'll be happy this evening and we can have some nice quality time. :) Both of her top teeth next to the middle ones (not sure what they are called?) are right on the verge of coming through, so maybe that's what's getting to her - I'm just glad for all of us that she's still sleeping ok!

She's still working on the walking, but doesn't do it too often unless we initiate it, and then it's only 2-4 steps at a time. We've had her walking back and forth between us while we're sitting on the floor, but even if she's still balancing fine by the time she gets close to one of us, she just lunges into our laps! So she still needs a little more confidence!

Oh, and I think that maybe Natalie is starting to call me Mama! Yesterday afternoon, she said what sounded exactly like "Mama" and started crawling towards me. I laughed and said, "Yes, Natalie?" because she's never really called me Mama before, so I thought it was a coincidence (I try to keep my expectations low so as not to be disappointed!). She said it again and kept crawling toward me at lightning speed. I picked her up, and it became obvious VERY quickly that she needed a diaper change! Ha!

A Few More R Family Pics

Here are a few more pictures from yesterday because I couldn't resist. I had to make sure that all of my favorites were represented. :) It was lots of fun! Now I'm looking forward to doing some family pictures for some more of our LifeGroup friends in a couple weeks!