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.