Good stuff

It seems like I have so much to talk about just in the last week. First and foremost - Natali's 2 ear infections have finally cleared up!!! Josh took her on Thursday to see Dr.Roberts and she said Natali looked great!

Natali is changing and learning new things so fast! Her biggest thing right now is that she gets a book and brings it to you, sits down so you will read her the book. Over and over and over again. :) Sometimes she puts her arms up for you to pick her up and read to her. She can point to her belly button now - she pulls up her shirt and points at it. If she has a onesie on, she tries to pull it up but can't and she gets kind of upset/worried. :) Natali knows when we say "Natali, do you want to get a bath?", she starts walking towards the bathroom! Also, you can ask "Do you want some socks on?" and she will put her foot up for you to put some on. When she finds her shoes she brings them to you and puts her foot up to get her shoes put on by someone.

We are having so much fun with Natali and how smart she is, the new things she learns, and how much she is growing in all sorts of ways. It is so amazing that her brain allows her to figure things out.

Happy 14 months to Natali!

Can't believe she can be that old already - time sure is flying fast. Natali is actually spending the night at my parents' house because both of us have to work early tomorrow and it saves on us having to go over there and drop her off. :) It is very weird sitting at home without a little toddler running around. She has been really jibber jabbin lately - making all kinds of new sounds. And she has started a new laugh that is quite cute I must say. Well, that's all for now.....

Hooray!!!

This morning when I took Natali to day care she didn't cry when I dropped her off!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Yesterday Josh took her and he said she wimpered a little but didn't go in to a full cry or screaming as she has every time previous to now. We are so happy that she (I guess) is getting used to the day care. She actually let me set her down and she started playing on the floor! She pointed at me and waved bye bye as I walked out the door. :) It just made my day. Natali is still usually fussy when we pick her up - the workers say that when other parents come to pick up kiddos, she gets fussy and points to the door. But overally they say she is doing good.

Natali knows where her belly is now. I asked her last night "Natali, where is your belly?" and she pointed to it! We haven't even been working on that unless maybe one of the grandparents have been and we don't know it. :) She also knows where a nose is on other people, but she hasn't quite figured out when we ask her where her nose is.

The other day, I stopped Natali from doing something or took a toy from her. Anyways, I picked her up and she bit me!!! Yes, she bit me. I scolded her but not a few seconds after, she did it again!! So I got on her more. She kind of gave me the "I want to do it again but I see that look on your face so maybe I won't" look. This child has a mind of her own let me tell you. But at the same time, she is so sweet and getting better at coming back to us when we ask her to. We just love her so much!!!

Goings on......

I know there haven't been many pictures lately so here are a couple in the PJ outfit my sister got Natali when she visited a while back.

Well, Natali has added a couple more things to her "can do" list. She just started walking backwards. She goes very slow and carefully, but she does it for a little while. Also if you ask her what the cow says, she will make this cute noise kind of like Mooo but more like a buzzing sound I guess.

I don't know if I already wrote about this, but Natali is cutting her molars and they seem to be coming up really fast. It seemed like the front teeth took a long time from when they first showed through to when they came through a lot and looked like teeth. (Does that make sense?) Anyways, she is drooling a lot more and putting more things in her mouth.

Update on the ear infection/sickness... I am feeling good but still have a little sore throat and cough. Natali however still has the 2 ear infections. We took her back to the doctor yesterday because she was still pulling at her ears some so I wanted to make sure they were healed or not. NOT. Doctor Roberts looked in there and said "yup, there is still pus in there". Needless to say, we are on our 3rd antibiotic and we will have a recheck in 2 weeks. She said we are a ways yet from Natali needing tubes in her ears or anything like that, so that made me happy.

Update

Well, Natali and momma are feeling better neither is all the way well yet though. I just have this cought that is hanging on. Natali finally doesn't have a fever but she is still holding her ears sometimes and shakes her head. I am going to call the doctor tomorrow and see if Natali needs to be checked out again.

I will try to put some pictures up on here soon, I know everyone likes to see the cute stuff!! :)

Natali is walking so well now - she can keep her hands down. Also, now she can bend down while standing and stand back up without falling or holding on to something. AND she can stand up from sitting down without any help. Josh and I constantly look at each other and say "She's so big!!". She is working on 14 months. Well, that's all for now..... hopefully the sickie crud will go away totally soon. Thanks for those of you who were praying for us!!!

Sickies

So Natali is sick... we took her to the doctor on Friday because she had a fever Thursday night. Actually we saw the nurse practitioner and she was just fine. Natali has 2 ear infections along with the virus that is causing the runny nose and coughing. So to fight the secondary bacterial infection, she is now taking Amoxicillin which we have to mix with applesauce in order for her to take it. :) Needless to say, Natali didn't go to daycare Thursday or Friday - we are hoping to start her back Monday.
However... we are at home right now instead of at church because Natali's fever is back this morning and I don't feel good with a sore throat and stuffy nose. Good times. Daddy went to church because we are responsible to help with the sound board since there really isn't anyone else who knows how to run it.
What a week/weekend. I am worn out and we still have one more day left and then the next week starts. But all in all God is good. I am thankful we haven 't had to take Natali to the hospital yet because when my sister and I were little, we had lots of ear infections and some of them required a hospital trip! Natali is in her crib and it seems as though she might have fallen asleep so I am off to nap myself! I just hope Josh isn't the next one on the sickie list.

Day care - this is kind of long - Beware!

Yes, we started Natali in day care this week. We figured it was time because I work full time and Josh will be going back to work soon so day care was inevitable (sp?).

Day 1: The first day we walked in the room and Natali was the only kid since we got there early. She pointed at everything and was very happy to get down and explore all the new things and toys. She didn't cry when we left either so we thought we had it made in the shade! Well, I called to check on her at lunch time and they said she had been crying on and off, didn't eat much at lunch time (NOT a Natali thing), but they only had to sit with her a few minutes to get her down for her nap. I was worried about that - that she would cry and keep all the other kids from sleeping. Anyways, Josh picked her up around 4:30 and Natali wasn't really herself for a few hours. She was just really quiet and you could tell she had been crying. She got more happy and talkative later in the night and went to bed at normal time. End Day 1 of day care.

Day 2 : Josh took her and they got there during morning snack time. The kids sit in those cool tables that have 6 little seats in them so all the kids sit at once. :) Well, I guess Josh gave Natali to the lady but Natali had a death grip on Josh's shirt and starting crying really bad. Josh said it was really hard to leave her because she was screaming so bad. But he did and he picked her up again at 4:30. She did better this day and ate better so that was good.

Day3: I took Natali this morning and the same thing - screaming when she saw me leaving. So I stayed for just a minute and stood by her seat in the table while she started a snack and she was fine. She seemed okay so I started to leave and the screaming started again. I just left though ( SO hard to do when she has her arms out to you crying). She did okay today too, although she didn't eat all the much for lunch, but ate her afternoon snack plus some. :)

Overall, the day care workers say she is doing well for her first days/week. Natali does have a snotty nose already but who knows if it really came from there. However, when Natali went in her seat this morning the boy next to her had snot running from his nose. Sigh. But we like this day care - they give you a "report card" every day she is there and it tells you what kind of diapers she had and for each snack/meal they have the option Some Most Everything Seconds
and they circle what she did for each one. Cool I thought. And they put on there how long she slept for each nap (they get 2).
So, after all that boring nonesense, this is a big change in our lives and I have been very emotional this week. Our girl is growing up! Someone laughed at me at work because this is just day care - not even her first day of real school but she's my little girl! :) I just hope it gets better and she will like to go to day care.

First day in the pool

Natali got a baby pool from my parents for her birthday and the first time we used it was Monday. The water was pretty cold I thought but Natali didn't seem to care. She really liked pointing at the animals on the pool and splashing in the water. It was cute to see our big girl in her little kiddy pool.

First steps in the pool..... not too sure what to think....

Ok, I think I will sit down and see about this pool....

Fish!!!!!

Momma time... she wanted to walk and I didn't want her to fall in the water face first...

Our little pool girl. And actually it was me and my mom - Josh was out fishing with both grandpas for Memorial Day. We had fun and hopefully there will be more pool days!

Natali's bath mohawk

Cool huh? :)

Playing outside

Natali loves to go outside. Unfortunately, it is getting very hot here in Longview and we have lots of mosquitos in the back yard. So, we don't like to take her out much. She always points outside and gets excited because she wants to go. Anyways. Here are a few cute pics of her playing one day last week with some new toys.



Just for an update on Natali......... She is walking around like crazy - she rarely asks for our hands to hold on to while she walks. A couple times she has gone from sitting on the floor to standing up without holding on to anything! Natali is working on saying "ball", when you ask her to say "fish" she says "ish", she says "mama" and "dada", she just started saying "no" - she walks around and says "no"... "no"..... "no"(it's pretty funny), and "yes" is "ssss". That's all I can think of right now.

And boy does she see cats! If there is a cat on the TV, a book, her clothes, anything - she makes the "meow" noise. It blows me away how she know what a cat is/looks like. We were in the cat litter isle at WalMart today and she was pointing at the litter/food and going "meow". It is seriously amazing.

Natali will be starting daycare on June 2nd!!! We were very lucky to get in to a place very near to our house and on the way to work for me. They are open from 6:30am to 6:00pm so it shouldn't be a problem to get her there before work and pick her up after. It seems like a nice place so I hope it works out for Natali (and us).

That's it for now... got to get to bed. Happy Memorial Day to everyone!

Walking, walking, walking......

You have got to see this video of Natali walking!! I can't believe the progress she has made even in the last week.

The Caldwell Zoo pictures

At the Caldwell Zoo they have a bird walk-a-bout where you can buy these popscicle sticks with birdseed on them and feed the little budgies(parakeets) and cockatiels. Unfortunately when we went there were a TON of children there so most of the birds were staying up in their tree. :) But one birdie came down and I put my stick out to it and they step on your stick to eat the birdseed. Then I brought it over towards Natali and she liked it.

We saw the tigers which is one of my favorite parts.

I thought this was a cute picture of my mom and grandma walking with Natali. :)

We ate lunch at the zoo's cafe and Natali ate the lunch I brought for her. She was being real funny and laughing and stuff and she just happened to make this funny face when I took the picture.

So that is a summary of the zoo trip which was a week ago. :) I just haven't gotten on the computer much in the last week.

Happy Mother's Day!

(Josh's mom, Natali, me, and Daddy)

It was a pretty good Mother's Day around here. We went to church, got some Chicken Express (my momma day lunch), came home, Natali fell asleep on the way home and slept for 2 1/2 hours, we played a video game, Natali woke up, Josh watched Natali so momma could take a nap, then we went to small groups, delivered a card to my mom, came home, did computer stuff, and went to bed. :) What a day!!! Hope everyone had a great Mother's Day!!!

P.S. Last year today we were coming home from our second trip to the hospital. I was so happy to be able to leave the hospital and celebrate part of the day at home. :) Thank you Lord!

Great Grandma (GiGi) visits!

My grandma came in to town Thursday from Florida for a visit and goes home tomorrow morning. Of course, when Grandmas come they bring gifts, so Natali got a cute kitty from GiGi. We have had a great time with her! We went to Tyler on Friday and went to the Rose Garden and then to the Caldwell Zoo. Other than being a little warm, we had a wonderful time.

The roses were beautiful! This was one of the biggest blooms we saw!

I will have to post the zoo pictures another time..... if anyone hasn't been to the Tyler Rose Garden when it is in bloom, you are missing out!!!!

So....

I forgot I was going to post some pictures from 1 year ago of Natali...... I always like to go back to these. Plus I am working on finishing her first year scrapbook so I get to go over all her old photos.

It is pretty hard to remember her being that small. I do remember wrapping her up so tight in her burrito to keep her warm. I look at her now and wonder how in the world she got to be so big! I mean, she is walking some now, feeds herself (somewhat), drinks out of a sippy cup, has grown into a new carseat, jibber jabbers a lot, communicates when she wants something, and can communicate with the cat. : ) It amazes me how much a child learns in 1 year and how much a momma can learn in 1 year. What a time this has been!!! Lot of ups and downs. We love our little girl so much!!!

TTFN