First hair cut

Natali's first hair cut! I only was allowed by daddy to cut bangs - I couldn't even trim the rest of her hair. :) So I did a really quick job of the bangs while Josh was home Wednesday night. Natali was a little nervous about the scissors but we made it through. Then she got a bath which she loves.

An 18 month checkup finally...

(the shirt says "and no one gets hurt" under the big letters)

We went yesterday for Natali to have her 18 month visit and shots. We haven't been able to go because Natali has been sick the last couple months. But anyways - she looks good! Ears are still okay thank goodness. Everything else looks and sounds good. She got 2 vaccines and the flu shot.


Here are the Natali stats:


27 pounds 33 inches long/tall 19 1/2 inches head circ.


Overall, she is above average - in the 75th percentile. Dr.Roberts says to keep Natali away from cookies and french fries!!! :) Natali really doesn't get those that often but I guess that is a nice way to say she is a little pudgy? :) Oh well. She just eats so much at mealtime so we might cut her back some. Also, I am to make sure to brush Natali's teeth twice a day (right now it's probably like every other day). So I will do it after each time I give Natali her medicine.


We are happy to have a healthy little girl right now.

update

Well, Natali had her doctor visit last Monday and there is good news. :) Her ears look great right now - not redness or discharge! This is wonderful but we still go 2 more months on the 2 antibiotics. Natali's GI system is holding up pretty good - she had some diarrhea over the weekend but seems to be better now.

Natali is progressing very fast in the area of talking and understanding what things mean. She actually knows most of her alphabet and she tries to sing "Old McDonald". :) She can recognize letters anywhere. She saw a letter on a rug in a store and told us what letter it was. We are just amazed at how she can remember things she is taught.

Unfortunately Natali is becoming more independant. For example :
Natali is looking at her letter magnets on the refrigerator and saying her letters.
I go over there and say "What letter is that Natali?" And she tells me a couple.
Natali : "No mama" and proceeds to push me out of the way.
She does things like this quite often or only wants a specific person to do something for her.

Overall, we are doing well and enjoying Natali but also having some frustrating times with her and trying to figure out how to discipline her. Like when she doesn't come when we call her, when she screams in a store when I pick her up and it's time to go, or if I try to help her with eating food and she starts screaming at me. :) Fun stuff.

Family Christmas picture

This is our attempt at a family picture for Christmas. Yeah, Natali wasn't exactly looking at the camera when we wanted her to......seems to happen with kids huh? :)

Natali is finally letting me fix her hair sometimes. I have put pigtails a few times and she looks a lot different to me but it's pretty cute. It's hard to believe at this time last year she was just about bald!

Things are going pretty well. Natali is now on a 3 month regimen of 2 antibiotics together to try to finally clear up her ears. She had drainage again the week of Christmas and that's when they started the medicines. She had been on these 2 before, but only for like 2 weeks. The PA is saying it's possible the ear problems are from allergies, but we will see what happens. Natali goes to see her every 2 weeks now and we will go next Monday.

Natali is talking like crazy and is super smart. She understands so much now and puts 2 or more words together all the time. She also mumbles a lot too but she sure means something! We love the way she is growing mentally - it is amazing actually.

Here are some pictures of Natali that I took outside last week. She looks like a big girl. :)

Say "cheese"!

Christmas Tree Farm

So we went to cut down our Christmas tree the Saturday after Thanksgiving and I am just now getting pictures up. My grandparents who live in Florida were down and were able to come with us - we had lots of fun! It was a little windy and chilly but not as cold as it has been some other years.

In order to get to the trees, we had to take a hay ride pulled by a big tractor.

Uncle Mike and the bundled up Natali.

Great Grammie and Natali walking in the tree farm.

Yea - we found our tree!!


P.S. Our tree is up in the house but no decorations on it yet but hopefully that will happen today.

Ponytail

I finally got a ponytail in Natali's hair last week! She doesn't really like me to mess with her. Infact, she didn't really want to be still for me to take a picture either.. hence the off centered picture. :) Oh and pardon the mess. Natali's hair is getting so long we are probably going to cut her bangs soon. I can't believe it. Her hair will go nicely into pigtails if she would just let me........

These boots are made for walkin.....

Josh's mom got Natali these rain boots a few weeks back and the first time GramE tried them on her, Natali didn't much care for it. Well, a couple nights ago Natali brought me one of them and said "boots". So I put both of them on and she started walking around the house. :) The boots are too big but Natali didn't seem to mind this time. Here is the cuteness in her cool rain boots!!!!

New toy

My brother Michael came in to town this weekend as a surprise. We all met at Sam's for dinner (gotta love the cheap big pieces of pizza and a drink). Sam's had these big stuffed animals that have something really sturdy inside of them so a kid can sit on it. Michael was sneaky and bought one and we found out in the parking lot when he gave it to Natali. Natali likes it a lot and when she sits on it she roars like a lion. :)

Natali giving the lion/bear (not really sure what it is) a hug.

Here she is roaring and she puts her hands up like claws when she does it. It is really cute!!

Natali still have a little bit of a fever - I am not sure why it won't go away. It she still have a fever Monday, I'll have to take her back to the doctor. We will stay home from church tomorrow and then see what happens.

well she was feeling better

Yes yes, Natali is sick again. An ear infection in the right ear still and the congestion/coughing/breathing fast stuff all over again. We are on some special ear drops and oral antibiotic that have to be mixed up for us at the Medical Plaza pharmacy. It seems like the ear drops are going fast already and we have just used them 2 days. The doctor says Natali keeps getting "viral induced asthma" meaning she gets a virus from day care or church nursery which causes the snotty nose, which gets in her ear and chest, which causes ear infection and congestion/wheezing. We are considering finding another means of child care since Natali seems to always be sick. And the doctor bills and medicine costs add up quickly. :) I had to stay home a couple days this week since she had fever this time. We are very thankful that Josh's mom could help watch Natali so I could at least work some.
I will try to take some pics this weekend to put on here. I really haven't talen hardly any in the last couple months. I guess that's a wrap for now.

Poo Poo

Natali has started saying "poo poo". We started checking her diaper when she said it, and there wasn't anything but then like a few minutes or so later, she would have poopoo in her diaper! I am NOT ready for potty training. I haven't read up on it or anything. She actually hasn't done this today but she was doing it over the weekend. I hope we didn't miss our chance with her to start working on the potty training stuff. The other thing she does is if you put her in the car seat and she has a poopy diaper, she will say "poopoo". :) I'll have to keep everyone update on this.

I think Natali is finallly feeling better - not as much congestion, no more runny nose and no more stuff coming out of her ears. However, she has a horrible diaper rash right now - maybe a yeast infection. It is pretty painful for her when we clean her at diaper changes.

More words Natali can say:
puppy
cat
yes
"goo goo" - thank you
"peas" - please
"anki" - blanky
"ain" - train -she says this when she hears the train that goes near our house
cookie
daddy
she says "hi" and "bye bye" to everyone
light
"eaf" - leaves
stick

Photos at last and stuff

I cannot believe it is November the 8th already.........time is seriously going too fast for me.

Natali is sick again - an infection in her right ear (yes even with the tubes) and some chest congestion/coughing. She is on an antibiotic again and ear drops. Aaarrgh. This is really frustrating me for me in many different ways but I will spare you all my thoughts. :) I would appreciate people praying for us and Natali - it is very hard to give so many medications 2-3 times a day. She is on 2 inhalers while she is congested, nose spray, ear drops, and antibiotic. We all get tired of it.

Mugshot is doing okay - we need some more business but overall we are doing well. We got a new security light today which makes a huge difference and the parking lot will finally be striped tomorrow. Yeah!!!!

Aunt Jenny and Uncle Christian sent balloons and puzzles for after Natali's ear tube surgery. She loved both of them! We are using the puzzles to teach her some words and colors. She like the balloon with Dora on it and when Natali looked at the silver side, she would say "babies" because she could see her reflection in the balloon.

Well, we have been a busy family lately.

I went to Ohio to see my sister Rebecca with Natali and my dad. It was a good trip overall.
More on that at a later date.
The coffee shop is going pretty well - Fridays and Saturdays are busier than weekdays which is nice.
Natali had her 2 week checkup from the ear tube surgery and her ears look good! We have to continue a nose spray until it freezes and probably again in the spring. The doctor said it's so she hopefully doesn't get a runny nose which could lead to infection in her ears.

I will post pictures hopefully soon. SO sorry!

Life is pretty crazy right now.

Surgery went well!!

Natali's surgery went well. The doctor said her ears were very bad (infected and stuff). The surgery took less than 20 minutes. She was pretty fussy the first hour or two but after that she has pretty much been herself. She is on a few different medications - nose spray, ear drops, antibiotic, and the inhaler that she has been on for a while. We are going to see Dr.Roberts tomorrow to have her check Natali's lungs - the anesthesiologist that helped with Natali's surgery was concerned about the congestion in her lungs. He says she has reactive upper airway something or other (basically asthma). So he really wanted us to see our pediatrician. We will see if Dr.Roberts wants us to use anything else to get her over this nasty stuff. We will keep you updated! Thanks to everyone who prayed for our little girl. It was really hard to let the nurse take Natali back for her surgery but God took good care of her. :)

Quick update

So, I haven't posted in a while because life has changed around here and I haven't had the time or energy to get on the computer much.

Here are a few highlights:

Mugshot Coffee House opened on September 29th (this is the business we started in Longview)
So we were up there all the time the whole week before and week after that day

Natali is having tubes placed in here ears tomorrow morning bright and early
So we have been to the pediatrician and ear,nose,throat doctor

I had a seminar in Dallas from last Thursday until Sunday so Natali stayed with Grammie and Grampie

The house is a total wreck! Josh works pretty much 5:30am until 10:00pm on weekdays and until about midnight on weekend. Fortunately we are closed on Sundays. So I get up in the mornings and get myself and Natali ready for daycare and pick her up every day.

Then on this Thursday I am scheduled to take Natali to Ohio to see my twin sister Rebecca. (My dad is coming too)

So that's that in a nutshell. I will hopefully post some pictures sometime........Natali's hair is getting a lot longer and she is talking more.