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: