Well, we made it through Christmas. We had a wonderful time Christmas Eve with Josh's parents and sister, brother-in-law, and 2 month old little boy. He is so cute and starting to smile at things. :) We had Christmas with my family last Saturday because they went to Florida this week. Natali received all kinds of things: CDs, a couple videos, a My Little Pony, shoes, and other fun things. She was most excited about a few new vehicles of course. She also got a remote control car from A. Jenny and U. Christian which she loves! It's made for little kids and she is able to work it pretty good.
We have been letting Natali take naps again because after about a week without a nap, we realized they still might be necessary sometimes! She was being quite cranky. So if she needs it, we let her nap but try to make it early in the day. She is doing wonderful with potty training! We are so proud of her and she got more panties for Christmas. :)
Will try to put pictures up soon, I know it's been a while. Busy busy bees around this house.
One more bit of information, we will be closing the coffee shop that we opened last year in September. Unfortunately the sales and income were just not enough to keep going. We will miss the place and put a lot in to it - especially Josh. We know the Lord will provide for us and Josh has actually had a job offer somewhere else already. Hopefully all will work out.

Changes

It's crazy how fast a 2 1/2 year old seems to keep growing up. Natali has gone 4 nights wearing panties and staying dry all night. She does just fine during the day so far staying dry all day. She is finally okay with learning how to pull her panties down by herself too. She has also stopped taking naps... I should say, we have stopped letting her take naps. She was staying up until 10:00pm a lot of nights so we are trying no naps and she is getting to bed a little earlier - about 8:30pm. She has SO MUCH energy at night it is amazing!! She runs around making lots of noise yelling and singing... back and forth... back and forth. Crazy. She just talks so much, she knows a lot of songs and can sing them pretty much on tune, and her vocabulary is wow!

A couple pictures of the precious


The above picture is just another example of how she lines things up. (Notice all the cars are facing the same way too) :)

Squishy car

I can't believe I haven't blogged about Natali's squishy car! Natali goes to a family friend's house usually one day a week. They have 3 boys and Natalis loves to go to their house because they have lots of vehicles! :) One day the mom gave Natali this stuffed race car. She said Natali had been carrying it around a lot that day and they would like for Natali to have it. Natali has been attached ever since! She has to have the "squishy car" with her every time she sleeps. It's the funniest thing - I guess it is kind of like other kids who have blankies - she even talks to it. I can't remember the exact circumstances of this picture but here is Natali asleep with her squishy car.

News on the kiddo

Well, we started puting big girl panties on Natali over the weekend. My mom suggested to give it a try. Natali stayed with my parents Friday night and Saturday morning because I had to work Saturday. So they put the panties on... Dora panties of course! When my mom put them on, Natali said "These are very soft!". She did really good - at one point she started to go pee-pee and leaked some but caught herself. She did that a couple times I guess but then seemed to get the idea. We told her to keep Dora dry and she goes for that. :) She says "Dora needs to be happy so I will keep her dry". Sunday she did really good and today has gone alright. Still needs work but overall, I'm impressed. This morning, she came out of her room and the first thing she said was "Mommy, can I make pee-pees in the potty?"! So we sat on the potty (she had already gone a little in the nighttime pull-up) and she went a little more and did a #2. Then she saw her panties and said "Can I wear the yellow ones today?". It made me so happy!

Sorry if this is too much information for some people but that is our beginning to big girl panties! Natali can talk like the best of them! She understands just about anything. Oh, another thing is that she likes to make funny faces and have other people make funny faces. SO here is a funny face session with Natali.

All you have to do is say "Natali, make a funny face". :)

Could it be.... a post?

Yes, as a matter of fact, it is a post. I have been really busy, out of town, and some is just plain lazy. Natali is growing like crazy in personality and vocabulary. She is amazing with what she can remember and then use later in the right way. She'll say "it's a pleasant day outside" and "I'm funny aren't I?" and "is this your antibiotic?" or "she just had a problem" or "can we go to my home now?". She knows Bible verses and songs and her ABCs and she can count in Spanish. One of the biggest things she is still in to are vehicles. She especially likes to line them up in a line anywhere at anytime. She'll line up anything actually and she'll also put things in piles or around each other. Here are some pictures

Shnedgie

A couple nights ago, for some reason we got on the topic of a wedgie when Natali was around. Her Pull-Up was bunching up in her rear end and I think Josh told her it is called a wedgie. She thought that was funny. The next day in the morning, Natali's was having bunching up problems again and she said "I have a shnedgie"! It was hilarious and I died laughing. She was very upset and said " I have a shnedgie!!!!!" So we fixed it and she was happy. Then I think she later said "I don't have a shnedgie anymore." She is too much!
I tried to get the video on here but didn't have luck, so I will have to try again another day.

Trying to be a big girl

Natali is officially without her paci - we took it away last Friday night. She has done okay. The first couple nap times didn't go so well, actually they didn't go at all - no nap Saturday or Sunday. She is taking longer to fall asleep and just keeps on talking in her bed. Most nights we stay with her to help her fall asleep but we will stop doing that soon. She still asks for the purple paci but not often. It's funny - she'll be in her bed and say " I need.... I need.... I need.... somethin." Like she thinks she can't say the paci word anymore.
Also, we are done with diapers - we are using pull-ups and working on potty training. I think it might be a little early but there is no turning back now. It's gonna take a while I am pretty sure to get the potty training down all the way. I don't know what to do!!! :) She goes in the potty pretty good but also goes in her pull-up.
We got a growth chart thing from my parent's for Natali's birthday and put it up sometime in May I think and marked where she was at that point. Well, we decided to see her how tall she is and she is 3 inches taller!!!!!! All her dresses were seeming short and she is growing out of her shoes. And she is reaching even more places she couldn't reach before. (Starting to work on doorknobs). Hard to believe a child can grow so much in a short time! Well, that's all for now. I have a really cute video I will hopefully post tonight.

The Nebulizer

We had to take Natali back to the asthma/allergy doctor last week because her asthma wasn't getting any better after wheezing and coughing for 1 week with the ear infection. We finally have a nebulizer. I wondered when we would finally reach that point. The inhalers just didn't seem to be doing the trick anymore. Natali was a little scared of the nebulizer at first but she has done way better than I would expect. The nebulizer has a storybook and stickers with it about Mr.Bubbles and the face mask is a fish face! :) We read the story about Mr.Bubbles needing the nebulizer because he couldn't blow very big bubbles. Well, when I went to turn it on, Natali said "make bubbles!". She thought the machine was going to make bubbles apparently after the story. Anyways, it has helped her out a lot. As long as she can watch a video, she sits really good for it. Sometimes she holds it and sometimes we will strap it on her head. The doctor said if Natali has another "asthma attack" we may look in to allergy testing. SO here are the pictures of Mr.Bubbles and Natali. (Actually she has changed it to DR. Bubbles) Silly kids.

stuff

Natali has had a runny nasty nose the last couple days and didn't feel real good last night. This morning she woke up with discharge out of her right ear. ARRGHHH. This is really frustrating and I know not fun for her. Although, she always is in such a good mood. Of course her asthma is flairing up too.
I am glad tomorrow is Friday - just ready for this week to be over. Natali is talking so much it is unbelievable. She saw a light on our computer yesterday and said "It's very strange". :) She uses words like that perfectly - I wouldn't think she would understand words like that - and "actually" and others like that. Crazy.
That's all for now. I will put up some pictures over the weekend sometime.

4th of July

I realized I didn't post pictures from the 4th of July party we went to. Kind of late but oh well. We went to the house of one of the doctors that I work for. Natali had fun going down the slide and swinging. Also, they had a train which Natali really enjoyed and we had to ride it twice. :) Here are the pics!

Natali talk

This morning we had a really bad thunderstorm/lightning/lots of rain/strong winds. There was a really big thunder, so I went and sat in Natali's room in case she needed me or whatever. She woke up shortly after that and I went and sat next to her bed. She said "I hear thunder". I said "Yup there is thunder". Natali said "It goes BOOM BOOM sometimes". :) I agreed with her and then I laid down on the floor by her bed and I guess we both fell back asleep because I woke up about 30 minutes later and Nat was still in her bed but waking up. I sure didn't mean for that to happen but it did! So then we both got up and went on with our day.

Our day included a trip to Dr.Holman's office who is an asthma/allergy specialist. Overall, he said the medicines Natali is on are good and to continue them. However, we will change the inhaler she is on every day to see if we can keep her from having flair ups. Also, we are to work a little bit on her inhaler technique to try to get her to take longer breaths each time. The appointment was okay except for Natali crying the whole time the doctor tried to look and listen to her. She hates to have her ears looked at and the stethascope. I guess one day she will understand it's not that big of a deal!!! :)

Natali was fussy a lot more today than usual from first thing this morning. Not sure what that's about. She has been putting her fingers in her mouth a lot too today. I will have to get on our other computer tomorrow and post some pictures. Until then, it's nice to have some quiet since Natali is asleep and not whining about everything like she has been today.

More potty news

Natali pee peed in the potty last night before her bath! :) She also has gone #2 another night this week. I know nobody probably wants to hear that, but maybe someone wants to know.
Anyways, potty training is coming. She wants to sit on the potty but usually she has just gone in her diaper. Oh well.

We will be seeing an asthma specialist next Friday morning so I'll keep everyone posted on how that goes. I am hoping for some more insight and maybe changing medications. I am just very curious to hear this doctor's opinion on Natali's asthma. She has been doing pretty good lately - just occasional coughing or wheezing. Hopefully Natali will be good and talkative to the doctor.

Big girl bed

Natali has been doing pretty good since we changed her bed to a toddler bed. The first night I checked on her before I went to bed and she was hanging halfway off the bed sound asleep so I scooted her back up and she did good the rest of the night.

This morning after my shower, I went to check on Natali. She wasn't in her bed and the house was perfectly quiet. Of course I start thinking bad things that she was unconscious somewhere or something like that. Well, I walk in to the living room and this is what I found......

Natali was sound asleep on the floor!!!!! I couldn't believe it. I bet from the time Josh left for work to the time I was out looking for her was maybe 20 minutes. I really wish I knew what happened in that time frame. :) So, we are experiencing new things with Natali now able to get in and out of the bed. She is cute - she says "Sleep in the big girl bed".

We are still working on the potty training - no more successes while sitting on the potty. A few times she has been on the potty, gotten up, and pooped in her diaper less than 10 minutes later. Very frustrating but I know she'll get it.

Naming our friends

Yesterday we changed Natali's crib into her "big girl bed" which is nothing more than taking the slats off the front and opening up her crib so she can get in and out on her own. We will post pictures and talk more about that in the next few days but I have a funny quick story about her during that process. We let her climb up and get in her bed on her own when we finished and she grabbed her little stuffed frog. I asked her what the frogs name was, and it doesn't have one so she said she didn't know. I then told her to give it a name since it didn't have one. She looked at it and thought very hard for a moment and then said "Samma-doo" followed by lots of laughing, and I have no idea how to spell that so I'm doing my best and spelling out what she said! So now the frog is officially Samma-doo. I just thought it was neat how she was able to give it a name and according to Grammie she remembered it's name this morning when she woke up! It's the little things that are special and that was a special moment for us with Nat!
-posted by Josh

Pool

These pictures are from last weekend I think - the first time we had gotten out the pool. Natali loves to play in water. It is hard to get her out of the pool when it's time to go inside. And if it wasn't for those pesky mosquitos we could go in the pool more often.

I think Natali is cutting her fourth back molar. She has the bottom 2 and the top left but the top right is peeking through. She has been chewing on her fingers a lot the past few days and not eating quite as much.

So, she's been a little extra cranky lately but I think we are starting to get used to cranky. :)

Natali talk

I am in our "office" on the computer. Natali came in and wanted something off of the bookshelf - a wooden skunk, cat, and a car. After saying "please" she got them. She took all 3 and went in the living room. About a minute later I hear- "Look at this vehicle Ranger, I got it from Mommy!" :) (Ranger is our dog) Then she said "I got this skunk too". She is so funny! She likes to talk to the animals like they are people and she loves to show people what she has.
I have the day off so hopefully I will post pictures later today. I just wanted to blog this while it is fresh on my mind.

I can't believe it!!!!!!!

I'll get right to the point - NATALI POOPED IN THE POTTY TONIGHT!!!!!! I know that is kind of a crazy way to start a post, but I am thrilled! We have had the potty out for over a month, maybe 2 months and we let her sit on it every now and then and we talk about it all the time. About how she needs to make poo poo and pee pee in the potty and no more diper changes and so on and so forth. Natali hasn't showed a whole lot of interest but some and she is definetly, shall we say, prize motivated. :) Yes, I'll say "I'll give you something special Natali if you do....." and just about every time she will do it. I know it sounds bad to bribe your children but we only do it when necessary. SO Natali got a little plastic frog for going poo poo on the potty. She was happy. This is a scary part of parenting for me - potty training. I'm really not sure where to go from here and what do you do when you are out somewhere and she needs to go potty and there are only big potty chairs? Oh what things life brings when being a parent. More to come on the potty training.......

Some of Natali's new favorite things

Natali has recently been interested in doing new things.

She loves to "stand on daddy"


"Stack 'm up" She likes to stack up these boxes she got for her birthday and knock them over, stack them up and knock them over, stack them up.... you get the picture.





She likes to spend time with daddy when he is able to come home in the evenings. Natali hardly pays attention to me if daddy is home. Oh well. We are glad that Josh has been able to come home a few nights a week lately and of course we are able to spend Sundays together because the coffee shop is closed.
We are having an interesting time dealing with our new 2 year old child with an opinion on everything, a will to disobey a lot of the time, a will to challenge things she is told to do, but also just plain cute and fun to have conversations with and talk to. She talks about EVERYTHING - if she sees something, she tells you what it is, if she is doing something, she'll tell you what she is doing, and so on and so on. Overall, I think we are doing well, but it sure is tough these days.

Last couple weeks

So yes, I (Christina) have been gone for a week in Ohio and then a busy weekend of work and then another busy first of this week at work. Josh posted the previous 2 posts while I was gone. :) I had a really good time with Rebecca and my mom came too. We picked out a wedding dress for Rebecca and the bridesmaid dresses.
Natali is going through another asthma flair up but I think it is getting a little better - at least I think it has stopped getting worse.
I have to tell a story from the first morning I was home. I got in Wednesday night after Natali was asleep. The next morning I got her out of bed and got her started on breakfast. I was in the bathroom and she walked to the door, and said "missed you mommy" and I told her I has missed her too and then she said "Daddy missed you". How sweet is that!!!!!!! So I was happy Natali was glad to have me back.
So hopefully some pictures to come when I have more time.

While and Grammies......

Things that happen at Grammies/Grappies are supposed to stay at Grammies/Grappies.......unless the picture is too cute to hide! This is obviously Natali playing with a live toad. She really likes this toad!

A daddy's tale

Well I don't have any pictures to put up with this because Christina has the camera up in Ohio with her, but I would like to share a little update from daddy's perspective. Christina has been in Ohio helping her sister make wedding plans and the like since Thursday of last week so this has given me an excuse to get away from Mugshot and spend some time with Natali, not as much as I would like mind you! Anyway, she continues to amaze me with her sharp mind and just the fact that she is growing up and now able to communicate with us so much better. We have this routine that needs to stop although I will miss it when it does stop. I take full responsibility for starting the whole thing because daddy is a major softy when it comes to my baby girl. Somehow at night when it is time to go to bed, Natali has decided that she needs to hold someone's hand (specifically - a finger) while she drifts to sleep. If this does not happen, she will cry out very loudly "Hold a finger, Hold a finger!!!!" So daddy not being able to say no to this, sits beside the crib and puts just enough of his hand through the slats and lets Natali hold a finger until she falls asleep. Admitedly this needs to stop because she needs to sleep on her own but I just really enjoy that quiet time and I get sad when I think it will have to end. She reaches out and gets a rather strong grip on my pointer finger and just watches me as the sleep takes over and her blue eyes get too heavy. I just sit and watch her for sometimes up to 20 minutes as she lays so peacefully and innocently in her bed. There is something about where she is in life that is desirable, she is taken care of, all of her needs and most of her wants are done for her to keep her content and care-free. If only we could learn to be that way with our Father, we are taken care of, no matter what it looks like. Nat and I have had alot of fun, but we are ready for mom to come back and put some stability in our lives! One more thing about the little ones, there is nothing on the planet like the hug that little arms can give, when it is followed by "love you daddy," it just makes everything else go away and you know there has just been a moment you would never trade for anything but you would give anything to hear it again! Being a daddy is a rather good thing to be.

Rainbow

I forgot to blog about the rainbow. On Natali's birthday, this is what we saw on our way home from ToysRUs . This was a full rainbow - you could see the whole thing from end to end. We actually stopped in a parking lot to show Natali and to take a picture (since I had my camera in the car still). When Natali saw the rainbow she said "Noah made it". :) I guess that's close. We told her that God made the rainbow and it was for Noah at one time and so on...... I am just in awe of rainbows everytime I see them. Also on the left side of this rainbow was part of a double rainbow. So enjoy!!!!

Natali's first 2 years of life

I know I'm late, but I love to remember all the moments we have shared with Natali over the last 2 years. These are only a few of my favorite pictures. Happy late Birthday again Natali!!!

We had a good birthday celebration while my sister and her fiance Bradley, my mom's parents, and my brother were all in town. I am so behind in blogging and most everything else around the house. Oh well. We are trying to get Natali over another asthma flair up.....started last Wednesday.. so hopefully she will be breathing better soon.

Happy Birthday a day late to Natali!! We had a birthday party Saturday night with the Edinger side of the family and had lots of fun. I made a ladybug cake and we had other "snacky" things and ice cream. Natali got some new vehicles which made her very happy. :)

Last night we went out to eat at Chik-Fil-A with my parents and enjoyed dinner and Natali played in/on the playground. Then we went to ToysRUs because they sent a coupon for Natali to use on her birthday and the card said that if she came in to the store, she would be treated extra special. So we had to see what that was about. She got a balloon, some candy and a crown to wear. She was SO CUTE walking around ToysRUs holding her balloon and Natali was in heaven - she looked at everything and pushed all the buttons on all the toys. Daddy was a softy and let Natali get a new dump truck that makes noises and all kinds of things. :0) That's what birthdays are for right??? Overall, we had a great birthday weekend and we are so happy to have our little 2 year old!!!

Vehicles and new race track

Natali is really in to "vehicles" lately. She will play with cars/trucks/tractors, etc. all day long and most of the time is spent lining them up, relining them up, and then puting them in a different line again. Sometimes they are right side up and sometimes she puts them upside down. She mostly does this on the couch for whatever reason. I took some pictures from a couple days last week of her playing with the "vehicles". (By the way, that is what she calls all of them - vehicles, but if you ask her what a certain one is, she will specify. EX: truck, hummer, Nissan Z, etc.) :)

Also, I got her a race track that I found at WalMart on the clearance isle. She enjoys watching them go around and around and she can actually catch them and then put them back on the track if she wants to. We had to get rechargeable batteries because she wears the regular ones out too fast.

she said..

On Sunday I was getting ready to put Natali's shoes on for church. But she saw a different pair of shoes on the rocking chair and said "These, I like"! :) It is so funny to us the way she keep putting things together. We can have pretty decent conversations with her and understand what she is trying to say to us.
She was playing in her room on Saturday and I walked in and talked to her for a minute. Then she looked at me and said "bye bye mommy". I said "Do you want mommy to leave?" and she said "yes". So I left and she kept playing in her room all by herself.
Gotta love it!!!

Finally - some pictures!!

I have had some complaints that there are not any current pictures or much of anything on this blog in the last few weeks. Yes, I have been using my time to do other things unfortunately. We have been very busy at work and at home so blogging has been on the back burner. And, it seems like I haven't taken hardly any pictures of Natali in the last few months because she is always moving - it is very difficult to take pictures at this age. But I managed to capture some good ones.

Natali being tickled by daddy.

Say "cheese" !

This is to show what a big girl she is getting to be in her chair - she used to look so small sitting in it.

Silly girl - she is giving a funny look.

P.S. Yes, her hair is very light, sortof sandy blonde I guess. People ask us quite frequently "Where does she get the blonde hair?" We don't really know - Josh's sister has blonde hair but other than that we all have brown hair. Who knows. Natali gets the blue eyes from daddy but who could figure I/we would end up with a blonde hair / blue eyed kid. :)