Enjoying every moment

When Hallie was born, I told myself that I was going to enjoy every stage of her life. With Natalie it was easy to just think "okay, she'll grow out of this". She won't always be unable to sit up on her own. She won't always be unable to roll over. She won't always have to be fed by you. She won't always be unable to crawl. She won't always be unable to walk, to stand on her own. I didn't really relish those times like I should have. Heck the first bath I gave Natalie was when she was almost a year old and until Hallie was born, mama did it pretty much every night. I did feed her, but not bottles, and I did change her diapers. So along came Hallie and my attitude was ready to go. I thought about all of the phases we had with Natalie and how I managed to survive them all so this time I should enjoy them. I was excited for the nights when it was my turn to be up with her, I was excited to feed her every chance I got, and we alternate bath nights for the girls. One night I do Hallie the other night I do Natalie. I love it.

There is one area however that I haven't enjoyed. I knew it was coming. I have thought about it since the hospital really. It was torture for Natalie when she went through it and thus it was hard on us as parents. It seemed like it took forever. In reality it was about two months. I told myself that it wouldn't be THAT bad, it couldn't be THAT bad. I was wrong. I could change my attitude about alot of things but one thing still is no fun to go through. Teething. That's right teething. The runny nose inducing, fever causing, extra gross diaper resulting process that seems to take forever with our girls. We could feel them on Hallie a long time ago. The doctor showed us how you could see them dropping in her gums. Well they never broke through, and never broke through, until this week. Hallie Bear officially has one tooth. You can't see it but you can sure feel it. Now if only those other ones would hurry up and get here....

Natalie

I was informed that I might have exaggerated Natalie's behavior a little too much so I just want to pass along a story from this morning on the way to school that made me smile. We pulled up to the school and I got out of the car to go open her door. Here is the conversation that ensued:

N: "Daddy, I was just praying."
D: "Oh, really? That's good."
N: "I was praying to God."
(pause)
N: "I prayed that he would bless me."
D: "You did? How sweet. What did you pray for?"
N: "Um, Snow White and Ariel"

Only from the mind and mouth of a three-year-old. :)

The drought is over

And we're back. I could give you all the lines about "oh, I promise to do better", "I've failed as a blogger", "no excuses, sorry I haven't posted more", etc...but I will spare you from reading those. Let's just leave it at "I'll try and do better" and call it good.

Natalie loves school. She gets up excited every morning, right up until breakfast. See, Natalie has been going through the "I'm 3, you can't tell me what to do" phase. She will eat when she wants, what she wants, and however much she wants. She will play where she wants, when she wants. She will get dressed when she wants. It's not pretty. Unfortunately she has taken that to school with her. She cries when she doesn't get more snacks. She doesn't get in line when told to. We have talked with her about it and the teacher says she is doing better, but still it's embarrassing as a parent that the one who is supposed to be the "peer model" is the crier. Never been on this side of the parent/teacher relationship. It's stressful when you want your kid to do well and be well behaved only to come home and hear that the teacher talked with your wife while she was picking up the kid and the kid's not following directions. To Nat's credit she is doing MUCH better and even is at home, except when it's time to eat. So strange. Wilson's don't cry over the beginning of dinner time, we cry when it's over! I didn't mean to make her sound like a problem child, because she's not...at all. She still plays well with other kids, shares toys, and says please and thank you.

Hallie Bear is gross. Okay so she's cute, cuddly, adorable, chubby, beautiful beyond description....but still gross. She spits. Alot. And often. We took her to the doctor and she looked at our 20 lb 6 oz chunker of a 7 month old and verbally said "oh, I think she's fine, a tablespoon of spittup isn't worth worrying about", but what I heard as the daddy was "why are you bringing this perfectly healthy baby around this office with all of the flu going around, just so you can spare the laundry???" Or something like that. Besides the spitting, she is wonderful. She is crawling, pulling herself to standing, and gabbering like a monkey. She cries too, mostly when she's been up for more than two hours in a row. That seems to be about the limit. Some nights between Hallie crying from being tired and Natalie crying over not enough snacks, I just want to scream. But I don't, because it's all part of being a dad and I wouldn't change a thing about either of them, except for the spittup. Its just so gross. :)

Every morning on the way to school Natalie and I solve the worlds problems. There are three corn fields we drive by every day, and Nat has commented on them every single day. Well yesterday they were all harvested and so Natalie says "Hey, someone cut all the corn and took it home...AND ATE IT FOR DINNER!" in a slowly rising voice. Sometimes I don't know how I don't crash the car. She is a riot. Like I said, I wouldn't change a thing!

Dare Devil

Natalie is like me when I was little in many ways. She doesn't like loud noises, she is shy when she enters a room with alot of people, and she didn't want to go on stage and perform with her VBS preschool class. However when it comes to trying new things, she is much more adventurous than I was that's for sure. Sunday night we were at Aunt Penny's house for Father's Day dinner. She has a rather tall covered twisty slide on her playset that Natalie has never really had any interest in going down whatsoever. For some reason she decided that she would do the slide. In the past she would get up to the top, stare down the tunnel and turn around and back down the ladder. This time nobody was talking to her asking her to go and it was just mommy out with her at that point. Sara was standing at the bottom trying not to say anything so as not to freak her out and make her stop at the last minute. She didn't. She went down and decided it was fun and went down many more times after that. All of that brings me to last night. We went back to Rock River Rapids...it's 100 degrees, what else are we going to do?....and this time we took Papa Steve with us. We were playing and splashing and since my dad was there I took the opportunity to enjoy the bigger slides. Sara brought Natalie over to watch me and she thought it was the funniest thing she's ever seen. She asked me to do it again and again. Well after a few times I told her that I wanted to watch HER go down her "boat" slide in the kiddie area. She was more than happy to oblige, however Papa Steve had other ideas. He asked her if she wanted to ride the tube slide that is attached to the fort in the kiddie area. She wasn't so sure but mommy said it was just like the slide at Aunt Penny's house. Well she thought that was fun so I scooped her up and carried her onto the fort to the top of the tube slide. She was whining about not wanting to go, but I put her in and pushed. When she came out the other end she was beaming! She LOVED it! Thought it was the coolest thing ever and wanted to go again. For some reason I was the only one who could take her but I eventually go the point where I could put her on the first platform after the entry waterfall and she would go the rest of the way by herself so I could get back to the bottom in time to see her. It was so stinkin' fun! Here is a picture of the slide that my 2 year old rode:


She rode the one on the right the whole time, didn't want to ride the other one...go figure. :)

Flower Girl part deux

Wow, what a weekend! Last weekend my amazing sister Emily got married to a lad by the name of Nick Beydler. As if anyone reading this wouldn't already know that. :) We headed up last Wednesday evening for the festivities. The wedding itself wasn't until Friday but there was LOTS of fun to be had before we got there. Wednesday night Sara went with Em and her friends for the bacherelette party. I went with Nick and some of his buddies. That left Natalie and Hallie with grandma Sue and grandpa Marty....that would be a theme for the weekend. Luckily we were staying with Cindy and Charlotte so they were around to help as well. On the way up we realized that we had made a HUGE error. One that might just put the whole weekend in the tank. About an hour out we realized that we left Buster Bear at home! That's right, we were going to be gone for five days and we left our daughters required sleeping buddy at home! This was not good. But being the amazing parents we are, we left her with grandma and said good luck and went to our parties. :) Turns out she is a big girl and didn't fuss too much, she adapted to having a different blanket, sorry blankie, and went to sleep fairly quickly.

Thursday Nat and Hallie spent the day with grandma, Cindy, and Charlotte. Marty, my dad, and I went golfing and Sara helped Em and my mom decorate the church. Thursday evening was the rehearsal dinner....but not the rehearsal. That was Friday morning. The dinner was awesome. The Beydler's put on a wonderful night and Em and Nick did a great job hosting the whole thing. Natalie was everwhere! She wanted to be on the stage with them and then she would run around. I am sure people were thinking "could someone get ahold of that kid?"

Friday morning it was off to rehearsal. We weren't sure how Natalie would react because the aisle was longer than the one for Uncle Eric's wedding and we weren't sure if it would scare her. Turns out that wasn't the problem at all. No the problem was she was "feeding the chickens" with her petals. It's a Cinderella thing. :) She never really made it down when she was supposed to she just kind of meandered down and then sat on the stage through the whole rehearsal. This was not looking promising at all. By this point I was just thinking, "ok, if she comes down just don't make a scene, but if she doesn't come down, no big deal at least she won't stop to feed the chickens". She spent the rest of the morning with Em, Sara, and the bridesmaids while they got their hair done. She played and had a great time, but the wedding wasn't until 7 and so she needed a nap....enter grandma Sue again. She came to the church (about 25 minutes from Cindy and Charlotte's house) and picked up the girls to take them back and put them down for a nap. The MOST important part if Nat was going to make it down the aisle. Of course Natalie didn't want to leave and didn't want to nap when either. She did though eventually and then got a quick bath to get rid of her "nap hair". Then it was time to head for the church and get dressed for pictures.

Sara and I were at the church and dressed already by the time Nat got there along with Hallie. I saw them go in so I said to Sara "your flower girl is here". She headed down to help get her ready but by the time she got down there, Natalie was in her dress already and swaying from side to side to show off. Her dress was an exact replica of Em's dress. She was beautiful. Then Hallie Bear came around the corner in her pink dress that was the same as the bridesmaids brown dresses and she was just beautiful! I was one proud papa that's for sure. At this point we all got more and more pictures taken and after that I was thinking "now if she doesn't do it, so what, she got to be in her dress and have her picture taken, it will be fine".

Natalie was supposed to come in after all the bridesmaids. I escorted the first bridesmaid (Nick's sister Kristi) and Sara was the last one in as the Matron of Honor. She was going to come in with Natalie if Nat wasn't wanting to go by herself. Sara came alone. The ushers came down and grabbed the aisle runner....it was show time for Natalie. From on stage, we could see her at the back looking through the glass doors. Frozen. Uh-oh. Then after what seemed like an eternity (which was only like 30 seconds I'm sure) she started down the aisle. She turned the corner and started dropping petals! Hallaelujah! But then I noticed that she stopped...and carefully emptied all of the petals at the back of the aisle. Oops. She set her basket down (it was empty after all) and ran down toward Grandma Sue and Grandpa Marty where she was supposed to sit. Grandma told her to go back and get her basket so BACK up the aisle she went and grabbed it and back down to grandma and grandpa she ran. It was awesome. Just about that time, the music hit it's apex, the doors swung open and in walked Emily. The timing couldn't have been better. :) Mission accomplished.

She was quiet enough through the entire wedding and then it was party time. That girl LOVES to dance and she found her best dancing partner in my cousin's 5 year old daughter Destiny. They just danced and danced and danced until Natalie's feet were black on the bottom. It was a wonderful time. About 10:00 Natalie decided it was time to go home so again grandma Sue and grandpa Marty were there to save us and took her home so Sara and I could stay and help with the minor clean up and also see Nick and Em off to start their life together.

We stayed two more days after that and just made it a vacation. We went to the petting zoo, had lunch with some college friends and their kids, and got to spend time with Aunt Christina and Uncle Eric. Overall it was an amazing week/weekend and went about as well as we could have ever imagined.

The other big news is that Hallie bear is eating cereal! Tuesday night she got her first taste of it and it took forever, almost 45 minutes, to eat what little we gave her. Unlike her big sister, she managed to keep hers down. Minor reversal, but overall not to bad. She slept from 10:15-8:15...God bless baby cereal. Last night was attempt number two. Since it took so long the first night, I was going to give Natalie a bath so that she would be ready for bed when Hallie was done. I waited about 15 minutes and then went upstairs to run the water. Sara was sitting at the table on the computer. I thought "oh great, Hallie didn't want it and isn't eating". I asked Sara what was going on and she said "we're all done". WHAT?!?! Wait just a minute. She went from 45 min to 15 min? I didn't remember that happening with Natalie either. Holy cow, what a chunker! :) Again she went down at 10:15 and was still sleeping when I left this morning for work. I really do love it when they first get cereal. :)

Hallie's Dedication

We had a busy Mother's Day at our house.  Our church does ALL the baby dedications for the entire year on Mother's Day, so Hallie (and 4 other babies during our service) was dedicated.  She looked beautiful- with her white dress made by Grandma Sue.  Mom has made both of the girls dedication dresses using the scraps of fabric left from when she made my wedding dress.  They are priceless, and something we will save forever!  We arrived at church and went to the back room to wait with the other babies and their families for it to be out turn to walk out to the front for the dedication.  As we were waiting Natalie was a little anxious... she would really rather have been out in the seats with all her grandparents and great-grandparents, who had come out in support.  But, we told her we needed to wait a few more minutes and it would be our turn.  She said, "That's right.  Because baby Hallie has to be decorated!"  We about died laughing.  That kid.  After we were done she didn't want to go back to Sunday school, so she stayed in 'big church' and really was a good girl (to our surprise!).  We had brunch here at our house after church with all the grandparents to celebrate, and it really was a great day.  

Natalie continues to baffle me... her new thing at night is that she reads the stories to us before she goes to bed, rather than us reading to her.  Last night Hallie was fussy so Cameron was in the living room with her and I took Natalie back to read books.  She read me 2 different versions of Cinderella (her very favorite story... we have about 4 different versions in the house).  It amazes me to hear her rattle off LONG passages of the books word for word.  My favorite last night was "The fairy Godmother waved her wand and turned Cinderellas rags into a dress the color of moonlight.  And, on her feet, 2 dainty glass slippers twinkled like stars."  Word for word what the book says... and I had to look it up to remember.  She doesn't. :)   Two nights ago Hallie wasn't fussy at story time, so she and Daddy got to come with us.  Natalie was reading, I think that night it was Snow White, and Hallie was laying on the bed next to Natalie.  When Natalie started to read Hallie was completely fixated on her face... just staring at her, listening.  And, then she started to smile at her big sister.  It was the sweetest thing.  I can already tell I am going to love watching those girls interact. :)  

More Natalie

That kid just never ceases to amaze me. Her latest fad is a series of books called Fancy Nancy. She loves them. We read them on an almost daily basis and there is even a game that came with it. The premise is that this little girl loves to be fancy and her family is not. She uses words like exquisite, posh, and iridescent. So of course Natalie is in to those as well. Our favorite two are posh and exquisite. Posh is because she tells everyone that her family is posh. The other night we were out to dinner and bumped into some friends we hadn't seen in a long time. She was complimenting us on having a beautiful family and Natalie said "we're posh!". I am not sure the lady heard her but Sara and I were laughing pretty good about it. The reason we like exquisite is the way she pronounces it..."ex-quiz-a-bit". It is priceless!

Every time Hallie cries, Natalie likes to help calm her down. Lately that has involved singing to her and sometimes Hallie actually does stop when Natalie sings to her. This leads to a couple of stories. The other day they were at my mom's house and mom was singing to Hallie to calm her down. Natalie was playing on the other side of the room. The singing worked, however my mom didn't stop. She just kept on singing to her granddaughter as any grandma would. Natalie would have NONE of it "GRANDMA, quit singing, she's NOT crying anymore!" Mom wasn't sure if the singing was that bad or Natalie just thinks you should sing when babies cry and no other time. Those of you that know my mom, I'll let you decide. :) The other story is from the other night when we were in the car. Hallie started crying and so we asked Natalie to sing to her. She sang Rock-A-Bye-Hallie to her and it was precious....only one problem, Hallie didn't stop and actually cranked up the volume. Natalie goes "(gasp)That made her cry even MORE!"

Hallie is much more entertaining these days. She will lay on her back for long periods of time and if you talk to her she will smile, kick, flail, flex, anything to let you know she hears you. Last night she and I were having quite the conversation. Natalie wanted to join in. So she came over and I had her tickle Hallie. Hallie smiled at her...it was awesome...and so I said "Natalie, are you and Hallie going to be good friends?" She looked me dead in the face and said "No, first I have to finish my candy, THEN I can be her friend". Apparently in Nat's world it is candy or friend, never both. :)

Big news around our house, Natalie is going to school next year! A little back story first. Derby has a program where they take kids that aren't developing as quickly as others or have certain conditions like Autism and stick them in pre-school classes with "mentors" so they can hopefully pick up the basics and be ready for Kindergarten. They do it for 3 and 4 year olds both. Three year olds in the morning and fours in the afternoon. There are a lot more kids that try for the four year old program so if you can get them in as three year olds you have an in the next year. Sara found out about all of this, I had no idea let's be honest. So a couple weeks ago we took Natalie to a screening to be a mentor. She did really well and was put on the list of possible mentors. There are like 20 spots for mentors and they had somewhere around 30-35 kids qualify. So out of that list they just start drawing names (or so we're told) and our Natalie was chosen to go to Carlton next year from 8-11 Tu-Fri. My favorite part is that I get to take her to school now. I can't wait, we will have quite the time and I will have TONS of stories, I'm sure. :)

Here are a few pics of Hallie working on that smile:

Cinderella Round 2

Today we had a fitting for Natalie with Grandma Sue for her flower girl dress for Auntie Em's wedding in June.  In the short time since she last was a flower girl, I forgot just what it does to a daddy to see his baby girl in a beautiful princess dress.  Since this was a fitting, the dress wasn't hemmed and so it scraped the floor hiding Natalie's feet.  That meant that when she walked it just looked like she was gliding along like an angel.  Add to that the fact that Sara is a bridesmaid and was also wearing her dress and lets just say it's a good thing I got a preview before I see them walking down the aisle in June.  This fitting went MUCH better than the last one, in fact she like it so much she didn't want to take it off, but we made her don't worry Aunt Em she won't be wearing it before the big day. :)  Before she got out of it she told me that she was Cinderella and that I could be her prince and asked me to dance with her.  Man that kid knows how to get her daddy.

This afternoon Natalie had one THOSE sneezes.  You know the kind where the boogie comes out and goes to about her belly button.  All of you parents know what I'm talking about.  Anyway, she went to brush her hair back and grazed the dangling rubbery goo with her hand and got some in her hair.  As I got a kleenex to wipe her off she looked at me and said "Oh.   Daddy.  I have sneeze in my hair"  I laughed so hard I almost couldn't wipe her off.

Natalie is also still loving her baby sister.  She constantly wants to be around her and go check on her.  She also gives her hugs and kisses and likes to try and make her smile.  She also comforts Hallie when she's crying, often saying "It's okay baby sister, don't cry."  Hallie is starting to smile.  I forgot just what it feels like the first time your child smiles at you on purpose.  It's amazing, that's all I can say.  She doesn't smile alot and it doesn't last very long.  She sometimes needs help so we have to tickle her face to make her muscles react and form a smile, but hey it's still sweet! :)

I guess I haven't written since Easter so I will fill you in on that.  It was BUSY.  Honestly it was so busy I forgot to slow down and enjoy the day.  The weekend started with an Easter Brunch at my mom's house with her side of the family.  It was a blast and the weather was gorgeous.  Natalie and her cousin Destiny had a great egg hunt in the back yard and a real live Easter bunny was hopping around in the back yard as well.  Mom had found some "eggs" shaped like animals and she thought Natalie would love them...not so much.  Natalie didn't want any animal "eggs" in her basket.  She would pick them up and throw them back down, even once she realized they had candy inside.  My dad snuck one in while she wasn't looking.  Five minutes later I hear "Hey, what's that doing in here?  I don't WANT animals!" and she chucked it back on the ground.  It was an excellent start to the day.  After that we went to Sara's parents to see Uncle Eric and Aunt Christina while they were in town.  We had a nice dinner and enjoyed spending time with them.  Natalie got to have a solo Easter egg hunt there.  She liked it but started to slow down and had to have grandma help her finish.  She liked it well enough but the long day was starting to wear on her.  Easter Sunday was wet here just like most of Kansas.  Church was packed but the service was nice.  That evening we went to Aunt Penny's house for the Hunt Easter celebration.  With the weather being so wet we had the egg hunt there inside.  With this being Natalie's third egg hunt she was pretty much done.  She didn't want anything to do with it, she just wanted to play with toys.  So we got what we could out of her and then let her be.  By that time there was no reason to fight with her.  She was warn out but we are pretty sure she enjoyed it none the less. :)

When bargaining with a two-year old...

...be careful. :) Last night Natalie was just crying and crying and crying. She has been doing this for the last week or so, originally because she was sick and now we aren't really sure why other than she's two. Her normal bath time is around 8:30 and then she heads to bed and is out around 9:15 and up around 8:00 a.m. Works great. Last night I heard her tell Sara through sobbing "I'm ready to take a bath now". It was 7:15. Sara made sure she was really wanting to take a bath and Natalie was adamant that she was. So Sara said alright. Natalie immediately stops crying, starts jumping around and says "can we watch videos now?" The latest Natalie fad is to watch a few of her disney songs on YouTube. She will sit there and watch them for an hour if we let her, she just loves them and it's disney music, what's wrong with that? :) I piped up and said no, that if she was taking a bath this early it was going to be without videos. She starts BAWLING. Sara looks at me and says "I told her she could watch two." I missed that part of the conversation. So basically Natalie is willing to take a bath and go to bed at ANY TIME just as long as she can watch two videos before that. We managed to make her wait until 8 and then she got to watch her videos, take a bath, and head to bed. Little stinker. :)

Story time

So many stories I don't even know where to begin.  First someone who Natalie sees on a regular basis is in serious trouble.  We are not sure who at this point but when we find out, you are in soooo much trouble.  The other day at dinner I was joking around with her asking her all sorts of silly questions.  We were talking about her day and I was asking her about what Hallie did.  I asked her something like "Did Hallie have ice cream?" and then "Did Hallie eat pizza?".  Natalie said "No, she didn't."  She thought for a minute and said "What were you thinkin' about?"  Sara and I tried our hardest to not laugh because that is not something you want to hear from your two year old for fear that at Sunday School she looks up at the teacher and says "What were you thinkin' about?"  So whoever you are, know that we are looking for you. :)

Last weekend my dad and I painted Natalie's room.  It was of course miserable outside so hanging out all day painting seemed like a great idea.  When we broke the news to Natalie she said "Oh, can I have green like Hallie's room?"  We said no, she got purple so she would have her own room.  She said in her saddest little voice, "But I want green like Hallie."  We convinced her that her own room would be better.  She "helped" us for a few minutes and painted a few streaks on her wall.  She was so proud of herself and walked around the rest of the day talking about how she "helped" paint her room.  That night when we were done and had the room all put back together I took Natalie in to show it to her.  She loved it!  I was so relieved.  After what she said earlierI had this nightmare of her walking in and going "No, I DON'T WANT PURPLE!" and throwing a huge fit, but she didn't.  She did the opposite, she went "ooooh, it's purple!"  A few minutes later she was in Hallie's room for something and I walked in and asked her how she liked her new room color.  She stared straight up at me and said "Oh, it looks terrific, dada.  I just love it!"  Makes a daddy proud. :)

Tonight we went for a walk.  It was a little windy, but other than that pretty nice.  Wrigley was her usual self, more on that later.  Natalie is getting over being sick so she was getting kind of fussy and wanted to walk with us about a mile from our house.  I said, how about you ride on my shoulders instead.  She was good with that so up she went.  When she's on my shoulders she likes to play with my ears.  Not sure why but she does.  Sara and I were walking along chatting when I hear above me "Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy birthday dear ears, happy birthday to you!"  I almost dropped her as I was laughing.  Like I've said before, that girl kills me.

Another dinner story.  Last night she was in the worst part of whatever illness she was dealing with so it was all we could do to get her to eat anything for supper.  I promised to go get her ice cream if she would eat her dinner.  So she fussed a little bit and then said "you go now to get the ice cream."  Sara said that she needed to eat two more grapes before I would go.  So she said okay.  A little back story.  Even when she's healthy she sometimes will only eat fruit if she shares with you.  She goes one for one.  You eat, she eats.  That's her deal.  Well, last night she picked up two grapes and said "I will eat these two.  Mommy you eat one too."  So Sara picked one out of the bowl on the table and started to eat it.  Natalie screams "NO, you don't eat that one!"  So Sara puts the grape down and Natalie says "You eat this one" and extends her hand with one of the two she had.  So they both eat a grape.  Natalie looks at me with a mouth full of grape and says "now you go get the ice cream"....sneaky devil.  She thought mommy's grape counted on her tally.  Sometimes I think she's too smart for her own good.

Today I got my first phone call from Natalie at work.  It was very important too, I assure you.  I answered the phone and could hear Sara in the background saying "put the phone to your ear" and then I heard "Wrigley went outside."  Me: "She did?"  Nat: "She went poopy."  Me:  "That's a good dog."  Nat:  "Yah, here mommy, I'm done."  I asked Sara if that is what she called to tell me and Sara said no, she told Natalie she was going to call daddy at work and Nat said "Oh, I will talk to him first and you next" So apparently she felt the need to tell me that my dog went the bathroom.  I love having a two year old! :)

Now for the Wrigley story.  That dog likes to go for walks.....a lot.  She pulls and pulls and pulls the whole time, no matter how long we go, no matter how many times she goes the bathroom.  She pees about every 10 feet, I swear.  This act gets very frustrating for me as I have to stop with her every time she goes and my right arm is now three inches longer than my left.  The most embarassing thing is when she takes a #2.  I feel like a horrible dog owner because I don't clean it up and I just pray that nobody is watching.  Most of the time she does it in lots that are obviously owned by the city or in a corner of a yard where no one has appeared to walk for ages anyway so I don't feel that bad about it.  Not tonight.  She pooped right by someone's mailbox.  Door was open and everything so I was just hoping they weren't watching, I have to be honest.  They were.  Oops.  Enter angry lady.  She comes flying out the door and stands on her porch "Hey, are you going to clean that up?"  Honestly, we weren't if we hadn't got caught.  But since we did we said, sure we'd be right back after we got a bag and scooper.  Apparently the husband didn't buy it.  About half a block from their house, he pulled up and stopped beside us IN HIS VAN and said "Are you really going to go back and clean that up?"  We assured him we were and that was good enough for him as he drove off.  And after we got home, I did go back and clean up after my dog.  We won't go on a walk without the scooper and bag again, I assure you of that.  But honestly, did he have to chase us down with his van?  It's just a little dog poo, it's like fertilizer.  It's not like it's a nuclear weapon that could kill you for goodness sake, it's just poo.  Is it worth all the fuss?  Would you chase someone down if their dog pooped in your yard and they didn't clean it?  Me, I would just go scoop it up myself, what's the big deal?  Oh well, I learned my lesson and will be a responsible dog owner from now on.

Our girls... the models

Anyone who has ever taken a child to have their picture taken knows that its an adventure. Since we are camera-happy parents who had our first child's picture taken at a studio monthly, the bar is sat rather high for how often Hallie will get her picture taken. You'd think this would have made Natalie a champ at posing for the camera... not so at all. (Note: 1. We did not take out a loan to pay for all those pictures- most of them came from Sears where you can get a package of pictures for $10... I showed restraint and did that for most of the months her first year. When we want to spend a fortune, we go to Portrait Innovations. You can't leave that place without enough pictures to wallpaper a room in your house. At least I can't. 2. People told me I was crazy for taking her every month because I'd never manage to get that done with a 2nd child... now I'm determined to prove them wrong!) Anyway- many of Natalie's photo sessions have been disasters, so taking both girls to have Hallie's 1 month pictures taken along with a few sister shots was a little disconcerting. We started talking about it days ago, to prep Natalie, and she seemed excited about having her picture taken with Baby Hallie.

When we got there we didn't have to wait long, which was good because the longer the wait the worse the pictures in my experience! Our photographer was really good with both the girls, and to my astonishment, Natalie was more cooperative than I could have imagined. She is still 2, so there were a few things the photographer wanted her to do that she didn't want to or wouldn't try, but she did awesome. Hallie did her part just by being awake and not crying, what more can you ask at 1 month old! So, the pictures we got are BEAUTIFUL- which isn't hard with our beautiful girls.

Natalie is a child of obsessions. She moves from one to the next every couple of months. One of her first ones was her Larry and Bob CD just before she was 2, then she was hooked on Madagascar for a long time and carried her Madagascar toys everywhere, then the princess phase began (which we are really still in). But the current thing she is hooked on is watching Disney videos on YouTube. They have all the songs from the classics on there- Lion King, Little Mermaid, etc. So, even though she hasn't seen any of those movies (she's a fraidy cat and I'm afraid the villians in them would scare her half to death), she knows all the songs by heart, and randomly sings them when she is playing on her own. So precious. She doesn't quite understand all the words. For example- a line in one Little Mermaid song says "I've got whos-its and whats-its galore" and she says "whos-its and whats-its a-glore". The one that made me about fall over laughing last night was when she told me she wanted to watch "Supercaliexpidocious" and "A bowl of cereal"... The first one I could figure out, but it took me until I looked at her YouTube playlist to see that by "A bowl of cereal" she really mean "A spoonful of sugar"... not sure how she made that mistake, but it was pretty funny. I corrected her, but this morning she was still asking for "A bowl of cereal".

She did it!

Natalie did it! She walked down the aisle by herself as the flower girl at Uncle Eric and Aunt Christina's wedding. It was awesome! Now for some details.

We got there on Friday night around 8:30. The trip was uneventful and for our first trip with a 3 week old and a two and half year old it was a breeze. Hallie started crying about two minutes from Cindy and Charlotte's house where we were staying. The good news is that the crying didn't bother Natalie at all. In fact she said "Uh oh, baby Hallie is crying. Why is she crying mommy?" When we said it was because she was hungry Natalie said "It's okay, baby Hallie, don't cry." Once we got to the house we needed to start the process of winding down so Natalie would go to bed. Of course she didn't want to, she just wanted to play. Guess who won that battle? That's right, for one of the few times of the weekend, mommy and daddy won that one.

Saturday looked promising. Natalie slept in pretty late and was in good shape to be on her best behavior for the rehearsal at 11:30 and lunch afterward. Boy was she ever. She did great although she wouldn't sit still at the rehearsal...which didn't bode well for the wedding. The worry was quickly becoming what to do with her once she walked down the aisle. It was apparent that she would indeed walk down the aisle, but how could we contain her and keep her quiet for 30 minutes. This was not good. When it came time for Natalie to practice they said first the bridesmaids will come in, then our flower girl, then Christina and Natalie stepped up to the pastor and said "I'm the flower girl!" Sara and I were impressed. She walked to the back and grabbed her basket full of flowers. She walked down the aisle and placed a few handfuls on the ground. When she got to the front she realized that she had more and she wasn't going to be done until ALL of them were on the ground. Note to self, at the wedding don't put so many petals in the basket. Here is a picture of her at rehearsal doing her thing.



At rehearsal dinner she and cousin Hannah had a wonderful time playing together. This gave me an idea. Maybe if Hannah sat next to Natalie during the wedding Natalie would see how a big girl is supposed to act and stay quiet....hmmm. After lunch we went to Aunt Emily's for a nap and to relax for a bit. It worked out well because she lives only four blocks from where we had lunch and so Natalie stayed awake until we got to Em's house and then fell asleep. Perfect!

On Saturday night we made her go to bed early and she still slept until 7:45 in the morning so again we were in good shape, the question was how would she be at 2 when she was supposed to walk down the aisle. I mean 2 is precisely the time she normally goes down for a nap. We got to the church about 12:15 and got Natalie changed into her flower girl dress. She was beautiful!


As the time drew near Sara and Aunt Em took Natalie upstairs to the room where the girls were all waiting. Sara came back down and we went to our seats. It was judgement time. Unbeknown to us at that time Natalie was upstairs saying "Come on big girls, you go first and Aunt Christina you go last." as reported by Aunt Emily who was ushering Natalie until it was time to go. So down came the first bridesmaid, then the second, then the third, then the maid of honor....then it seemed like forever.....and ever....and ever....and ever...but then there she was, standing at the back of the aisle holding her basket all by herself.

She came down the aisle and wasn't dropping any petals. A cousin (we think it was Abby) told her to drop some petals. She reached into her basket and....nothing. She panicked. She got a look on her face that said "Oh my goodness, where did all of these people come from, it wasn't like this yesterday" She spotted Sara on the aisle and walked down to her without fussing. Success! No petals, but no crying either!

Now for my plan. Would sitting her next to Hannah work? I sat her down and gave her some juice. That was good for awhile. Next in line was a few (and by a few I mean four bags worth) fruit snacks. She was quiet and moved a little bit, mostly to my lap and back to her seat. She did wonderful, thank you Lord!

After all of that it was time to let loose and have a little fun! That she did, holy cow. She danced and danced and danced some more.


And after all of that, here is what you are left with on the ride home....


Here are a few more pictures from a great weekend. First is Hallie in her matching dress to Natalie.


Our family


The new version of the Hunt Family (welcome Christina!)


And finally one last shot of my sweet sweet flower girl

I need to be better

I really should update this site more than once a week and I definitely need to add more pictures. I will try to do better. I have no excuses, I owe it to all 10 of you who read this to do better. I appreciate that you care about our family and hope you will keep checking back, you never know when something new might come up.

Hallie is doing amazing. She eats about every three hours and is awake at just the right times from about 8:30 - 11 in the morning and from about 8 - 11 at night. Then she sleeps in her basinette unlike her big sister. We could never get Natalie to sleep in that thing, maybe one or two nights is all. Hallie on the other hand sleeps like a rock in there and usually gets up somewhere between 2-4 depending on when she gets her last bottle before we go to bed. She eats and USUALLY goes right back to sleep about 30 minutes after she gets up. Sometimes she has the hiccups or a dirty diaper that keep her awake a little longer, but she has only had one or two nights with a 3 hour marathon in the middle of the night.

Natalie is so excited about being a flower girl. Just this morning we asked her where we were going tonight and she said "You tell me" which is her form of "I don't know". We said "Kansas City" and she said "For the wedding! I am going to walk down the aisle". I asked her what she was going to do walking down the aisle and she said "drop petals out of my basket." This might just happen. We'll see. :) She has also started the "Why?" phase. I am sure all of you moms can relate to that one. "Natalie pick up your toys please?"...."Why?" "I have to go to work now"....."Why?" "You need to eat your dinner"...."Why?" "We don't pick boogies and hand them to daddy."...."Why?" You get the picture.

This weekend we had a bit of a dilemma. If we go out of town usually one set of parents is home to watch Wrigley for us. Well they are both going to the wedding this weekend and we didn't know who to ask. That's right, we are bad neighbors and didn't even know any of them well enough to ask. I eventually asked the 8th grader next door if she would do it and she said she would love to. They have four dogs, so we know they love them. Wrigley has met her all of twice so it will be interesting to see how that goes. I hope my dog behaves herself.....

It will also be interesting to come home on Monday and see how many ants we have in our kitchen. They get worse and worse every day. It started with just a couple. We thought we saw where they were coming in and so we sealed it up and thought we had 'em beat. Wrong. There were more. Saw where those were coming in from, sealed that spot up....wrong again. This morning was the worst. It was something out of a horror movie. I am just glad they weren't giant ants. Luckily I had a can of Raid and some bait traps. It took awhile to get them all but I got 'em...for now. We'll spray again before we leave and leave the traps out and pray. I am just hoping there is no sequel when we get home on Monday.

Well, we are taking our first trip as a family of four tonight. It shouldn't be too bad since we will have SO many people up there willing to help. I will try and update this a couple of times over the weekend and let you know if indeed Natalie walked/ran/crawled/cried down the aisle. :)

Back to work

Going back to work has provided me the opportunity to bond with Natalie.  Sara and Hallie sleep until I leave a little before 8.  However Natalie has decided to get up earlier than normal the last two days and so she and daddy have had plenty of time in the mornings to get things figured out.  I make her breakfast and explain to her that pancakes aren't on the menu every day, sorry it just isn't going to happen.  She asks for videos on the computer and I have to break the news to her that that also is not going to happen.  She isn't too happy with me at this point but I think she's okay with it.  While I make my lunch we solve the world's issues.  Just today we decided that Tigger and Pooh are funnier than Little Einsteins.  Yes indeed it was a deep discussion.  Then as I was getting ready to leave she said "Oh, let me get the door for you."  And with that, my two-year old opened the door and told me to have a good day.  I think I just might. :)

One week down...

Life as a family of four is off to a flying start. It has been so good and Sara and I are feeling truly blessed. Hallie is an amazing baby. She sleeps for three hours at a time during the night and goes right back to sleep after taking a bottle. So she is only up for about 20 minutes which means more sleep for mom and dad...we love that. Out of the first six nights she has only had one night where she didn't want to sleep and it took a double team to make it through that one otherwise we have alternated nights and get 8 hours of sleep every other night and 6 on the nights we are "on duty". That is all about to change though as I go back to work on Wednesday. It will be interesting to say the least.

Hallie had her check-up with Dr. Mitchell on Friday. She is doing so well that the doctor said she doesn't need to see her until two months, we can skip the one month appointment unless we feel like we need to bring her in. She said that Hallie has really good muscle tone and is strong for a week old baby. A little jondace but nothing to worry about, definitely not as bad as Natalie was. Speaking of Natalie, she has been AWESOME! She hasn't been jealous one bit and we aren't fooling ourselves in to thinking she won't have her moments but for now she is great. She brings her stool out of the bathroom and in to Hallie's room so she can "help" change diapers. She helps give her a bath every night and she always, always, always has to have baby Hallie read stories with us before bedtime. While helping change diapers she often looks at Hallie and says "Don't cry baby girl." "It will be over soon baby Hallie". "Hi baby Hallie, how are you?" She is loving being a big sister.

I wish I remembered more stories about Natalie, she says some of the cutest things. We will have to start writing them down so we will have them documented and can share them with you all. Here are a few pictures from life at home:

Big sister gives her baby a kiss


My girls :)


Natalie likes to show baby Hallie videos on the computer


Doctor Mitchell gives Hallie a good report

Natalie helps get Hallie undressed

She doe NOT like bath time

Hallie Caroline Wilson

She made her arrival on Sunday, Feb 22 at 11:33 a.m.  It was a whirlwind of a morning.  Sara got up at 5:30 having contractions and woke me up at 7:00 which is normal time for us to get ready for church.  She woke me up by saying "We are going to have a baby today."  I said, "OK, great, I'm going back to sleep."  Not really, I wouldn't do such a thing.  The first thing I asked was how far apart the contractions were.  She didn't know because she hadn't been timing them.  So I timed a few and they were 45 seconds long and 2 minutes 45 seconds from start to start.  We decided it wasn't time to head to the hospital just yet.  We called Sara's parents in KC and told them to come home and we called my parents and told them they would have Natalie duty. :)  About 8:30 we decided it was time to go to the hospital.  When we got there Sara was diolated to a 5 and so we were definitely staying and having a baby that day.  They about 10:15 she was a 7 and I talked with the parents again.  My parents decided to take Natalie to church because we figured it would be 2:00 or later when we had this baby.  Sara's parents would have plenty of time to get back, it would all work out great.  About 11:00 the nurse said "I am going to check you again, you're contractions make me think you are going pretty fast and you are a lot further along than a 6."  Well she checked and Sara was complete and it was time to start pushing.  They called up all the doctors and nurses that needed to be there and our room went from just Sara, me, and the nurse to 10 people in under 5 minutes.  Sara pushed three times through the first contraction and the doctor wanted her to keep pushing with no contraction so she pushed two more times.  By that point the resident had a hold of the head and they said one more ought to do it.  Sure enough on the next contraction Sara pushed and Hallie joined our world forever. :)  It was only 11:33.  At 11:35 Sara's mom called to get an update as they got in to Wichita.  I had to step outside and tell them that they baby was here and everything was okay.  I called my parents and told them to come to the hospital.  Mom answered in the middle of church (she had permission from the pastor :) ).  When they all got there, I told Natalie and she turned around to them all and said "I have a new baby sister."  It was a crazy morning and so much faster than with Natalie.  The whole experience was faster because we went home at 2:00 the next day.  With Natalie we went to the hospital on Friday night and didn't come home until Monday morning.  This time we were ready and glad it all went so fast.

2 weeks maybe less

Sara went to the doctor yesterday.  Nothing really changed from last week.  The heartbeat was 144 this time and he didn't seem to think that this baby was in any big hurry to get here so he is sticking with March 1.  Sara is trying to relax more as that seems to help her feel good.  She had conferences this week so she had to work everyday and now has a much deserved day off.  After not feeling so hot last weekend she has felt okay this week, just getting to the "tired of being pregnant" phase, as I'm sure all of you moms can appreciate.  

Natalie is still adamant that this kid is a girl.  She was singing "He's Got The Whole World In His Hands" and there is a verse in her version that says "He's got you and me sister, in His hands..." and she all of a sudden stopped and goes "[gasp]Just like MY baby sister!"  Sara and I said, do you think it could be a baby brother?  "No, my baby SISTER".  Everyday since she has said a sister so we shall see about the prophetic tendencies of our two year old. :)

All of a sudden, Natalie's big word is "probably".  The last couple of days everything has been, "well, probably...".  For instance, we were talking about Madagascar because she wanted to watch it last night.  I said "What kind of animal is Alex?"  "Well, probably....a lion"  "What about Melman?"  "Well, probably, a giraffe."  You get the picture.  I asked her what she was going to do at grandma Sue's house and she said "Weeeellll, probably make Valentine's cookies.  And probably you can have one, and probably mommy can have one, and probably... "  We have no idea where she got it, but the way she says it is precious.  On a "kids say the funniest things" side note, I took off my jacket and she looked at me and said "Hey, that's a fancy shirt daddy".  Followed shortly by, "Ooooh, I like your shoes."  That kid slays me.

For those of you reading this on Facebook, be sure to go to the actual blog and vote in the poll.  Tell us what you think, boy or girl?

Room is ready!

This weekend we put the finishing touches on the nursery.  Sara had purchased a few animals and a phrase from Upper Case Living.  They are letters/animals on a transfer sheet that you put on the wall, rub down and peel the paper away.  It looks like we are very artsy and creative with a paint brush when really we have the ability to rub a piece of paper. :)  The phrase is "From small beginnings come great things" and it is surrounded with an elephant, giraffe, hippo, and a zebra.  It turned out really, really well and looks really good above the crib.  Pictures will be added of the entire nursery tonight when I have access to them.

The rest of the weekend was fun as well.  Friday night we went to the high school basketball game.  It was Homecoming and the queen ceremony was at halftime so Natalie got to watch that.  Before it started I told Natalie that girls would be coming out in Cinderella dresses.  She was fascinated by the whole process and when the first girl got to her escort at mid court, Natalie said "Are they going to dance?"  It was the sweetest thing.  On Saturday, Natalie came to visit me at Upwards while I was officiating and she even helped us clean up afterwards.  She was helping grandpa stack the chairs. :)

So one more weekend off the books brings the count down to three weeks left.  There is no way this kid is waiting that long.  I just don't see it happening.  There was a due date of Feb 22 on one of the early sonograms, but the Doctor said he wasn't going to change the date from March 1.  Now Sara and I aren't so sure the Feb 22 wasn't accurate.  Maybe that's just wishful thinking... :)

Doctor Report....and more Natalie

Sara went to the doctor today.  Everything looks good with 3 and half weeks to go.  That's hard to believe.  It seems like just yesterday that it was the end of June and Sara was telling me on our anniversary in Colorado that she thought she was pregnant.  Man the time flies!  The heartbeat was 151 so for all of you that think that means something, start guessing. :)  When the doctor first put the monitor on, he looked kind of worried/thoughtful.  Apparently he could read Sara's face and said, "Oh, I hear the heartbeat, I am just waiting on this silly machine to give me the report."  So after a slight hesitation, all was well.

Tonight, Sara wasn't feeling so hot and I needed to run to Lowe's so I took Natalie with me.  Let me say, a trip to Lowe's isn't quite as quick when you have a two year old with you.  At first she wanted to take one book, however when I came out of the bathroom she had two different books.  As we got to the door she said "Oh...I need to go potty."  So we headed back to the bathroom.  She then proceeded to open and close the bathroom door in a small game of hide-and-seek.  When I finally convinced her to sit on the potty, she said "I come to fight you in the name of God." and smacked me on the forehead.  That is a quote from her children's bible about David slaying Goliath for those of you who haven't seen her perform that yet.  Then we closed the door and Wrigley was whining outside so Natalie said "Wrigley is sad indeed."  I said, "Wrigley is sad"  and she said "NO DADDY, indeed".  After that we were allowed to leave.  At Lowe's we were strolling down the aisle and all of a sudden I hear her singing "Shall we gather at the river, the beautiful, beautiful river.  Shall we gather at the river, the beautiful, beautiful river" loud enough for the entire store to hear.  I didn't stop her. :)  She proceeded to serenade me the rest of our trip...it was a great trip. 

Names

This shouldn't be that hard, right?  I mean it's just the name that this child will have for the rest of his/her life.  The name which will be announced at sporting events, the name that will be called for awards, the name I will holler when I get upset.  So the questions start filing in.  Do we go with something biblical?  Do we take in to account what the name means?  In case your wondering Cameron means "crooked nose", obviously my parents didn't look at meanings. :)  Do we just simply go with what we think sounds good?  Do we look for popular names?  Do we avoid trends?  Sara is adamant about avoiding names that are too popular.  She had 4 Sara(h)s in one wing of her dorm and would like our child to avoid the same fate.  We fell in love with the name Natalie and only then realized that it was growing in popularity and actually hit it's peak the year she was born.  Her middle name is Sara's grandma's first name.  Which brings up another question, do we keep it in the family?  Do we do what celebrities do and go outrageous with something like Apple or Coco?  Not happening.

Last night Sara and I were looking through books and on various websites looking for inspiration.  We pretty much have a girl name picked out, but no middle name.  We found a bunch that we like and are letting the various options sink in.  We had Natalie repeat them to see how they sounded coming from her.  She was vary cute with them and I don't think she knew what she was doing. :)  The boy names are a whole other story.  We had a boy name picked out if Natalie had been a boy and so we had just each assumed we would use it if this child is a boy.  But we got to talking about it and realized that neither one of us really loved it as much as we thought and so we were back to square one.  That was 5 months ago.  We still have nothing.  We found one that we are letting marinate for awhile before making any final decisions.  The hard part is that if it is a boy the middle name is going to be a family name.  He would be the fifth generation Ward.  Obediah Ward, Robert Ward, Stephen Ward, and Cameron Ward are all the first born sons of the last four generations.  So whatever we pick has to go with Ward which makes it a little more difficult. 

So we have a girl first name and a boy middle name and the baby is due in 3 and half weeks.  I hope he/she doesn't come early, it would just be Baby W for awhile!  At least now it has somewhere to sleep. :)

New idea

I plan on this being the place to find information about us and all things related to our family.  Funny stories, information, thoughts on becoming a family of four, anything that comes up.  I don't know how many people will read this, but I figured it will be the best way to share stories with family and friends all in one spot....and it's free. :)  So check back often, bookmark the page and come along for the ride.