Two!

45 some odd days since my last blog post? Eh, it’s summer and we have been enjoying it. 🙂

I’ve been posting a lot to fb (it’s so much easier for family to keep in touch) and I’ve become one of those mothers that everyone hates on fb who only posts about her kids. Seriously, every post in the last two weeks has been about Natalie.

And so is this one!

Vacation was wonderful, and Natalie had a blast. She was great most of the time, and only had about 2/6 days as really rough.

But today she turned TWO! My baby girl isn’t a baby anymore more at all! She’s a big two year old now! We had a really great day today with her Nana, Auntie Amanda, Uncle Josh and her cousins. We celebrated small tonight (frozen pizza and birthday cupcake) as we’re having a big Monster’s party on Saturday.
I’m pretty stoked for her party, as I’ve been planning it for about a month. I tend to go crazy when it comes to parties.

Summer!

We only have 15 days of school left!
Tonight Zach and I bought season passes to the new Hawaiian Falls that’s going up in WS and since we’re in the same zip code we got resident passes for each of us for only $49 (which us awesome because daily passes are $31)! I’m so looking forward to summer. With the pool pass down the street and the zoo pass (and vacation too!) I’m just stoked! Natalie and I (and Zach when he’s off) will have an awesome summer.

My kiddos at school have been so much better this week. We had a long talk on Monday about not making the rest of this year miserable, and it hasn’t been (thankfully!)

Ok dosing and posting isn’t a great idea so goodnight all 🙂
Next time I’ll get into all the latest Natalieisms!

Vcay in… 45 days!

Zach and I frequent Universal Studios Orlando about once a year for their Halloween Horror Nights and are annual pass holders. Honestly I think it’s one of the best vacations if you’re into the theme park scene.
We did Disney back in 09 and while we had a good time, it just paled in comparison to Universal.

Anyway, we’re going twice this year – once in June and again in September (for the Halloween Horror Nights) and I.Cannot.Wait.

This year we’re taking Natalie! They have this huge little kid’s area and I think she’ll really enjoy it.

These next 45 days hopefully will go by quickly. I am so beyond ready for school to be out. It’s been one of *those* school years. I’m so excited to have time off with Natalie for the summer, hell just time to do things other than school stuff for a while.

Anyway we went to lunch with Wyatt and Amanda today and had a nice time. Natalie was so glad to see them! She got all worked up and kept chanting “Auntie, Auntie! Auntie!!” leaving the house, in the car, in the parking lot ha!

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Encore!

I love these two more than words can express. Video of Natalie listening and dancing to Zach playing SP’s Disarm.

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Also. I survived the field trip and didn’t lose any children! (I was worried about a couple prior to the trip) Whew. Thank God it’s Friday.

Zach’s making homemade Margamaritas as I type. <3

If only they could hug her back

We were reading this baby peek a boo book tonight before Nat’s bedtime and there’s this little baby wearing a hat and she says “Baby hat!” then grabs the book and hugs the baby’s picture.
Earlier as we were getting her ready for bed, she took an extra package of wipes sitting on the dresser and says “Natalie Wipee’s!” then hugs them, and kisses them, and hugamugas (eskimo kisses (see ) it… bites it… then is told no biting so she starts kissing it again.

She’s hilarious.

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Normalcy

It’s been a while…

Zach got back from Japan about two weeks ago. I can’t even put into words how glad I am he’s home. I wound up with that horrible stomach bug myself… and caring for a toddler while sick yourself is miserable.
Thankfully, all is well and back to normal now.

Zach, as always, comes home bearing gifts for both Natalie and I. He brought Natalie a large 40th anniversary Monchhichi whom has become her new best friend. If we’d let her, she would haul him around everywhere we go. I’m actually surprised I don’t have a picture of her with him.

Zach brought me some fabulous Dior perfume, but exclusive to Japan he brought us these awesome Japanese KitKats in three different flavors, green tea, cherry blossom green tea and strawberry. The Cherry Blossom ones ARE AWESOME.

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So we took Natalie to the Zoo today for the first time and wound up getting a year’s zoo membership. I’m really excited about it, especially for the summer. Natalie had a blast, which is partly why I’m so excited about taking her in the summer. It started raining on us, so we left a bit earlier than we expected to, but it was still great. More pics are in the Gallery.

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So thankfully all is back to normal, Zach’s back, my sweet big girl is back and isn’t throwing 40 minute long tantrums! Thank goodness for normalcy and routines.

“No” is the only word in her vocabulary

aka my daughter hates me, aka tantrums suck, aka we’re speaking different languages. Actually, no, we’re not, because I understand “No” perfectly, I just don’t understand what she’s saying no to.

So Natalie was sick from Thursday evening until Monday. I think I posted about her throwing up all over the place Thursday. And Friday. Saturday (when the previous sweet picture was taken) I thought she was on the mend, but after Zach left Saturday she started throwing up again and I won’t even get into the blowouts. It was a NASTY stomach bug.

At any rate, Friday all she wanted was me. She wouldn’t get two steps from me, and cried “Mama!” every time I got up from her.

That ended when Zach left town. I know she’s getting over being sick, I know she’s still not at 100%, and I know taking her to the PTA program tonight wasn’t the best idea (but I needed to get her right home and didn’t want to drop her off at Mom’s then go get her as mom was having a bad memory day).
She’s been crying for nearly 45 minutes straight. I have no idea why.
I got her out of the car when we got home and she started screaming, and kicking, and hitting, and crying. I don’t know why, I wish I did. So we fought through a pamper change, teeth brushing and jamies, and she was throwing such a fit I couldn’t even read her a book before bed for all the screaming and flailing. So I just put her in her bed. And she kicked and screamed some more. In fact, she still is, she hasn’t stopped.
And she was throwing such a fit, I didn’t think she deserved to have her blankie. Maybe that was a wrong move, but it’s what I went with.
A lot of times I wonder if I’m making the right discipline choices. Zach so many times says I’m trying to discipline her like my 2nd graders but then again, he’s left me to be the disciplinarian. So obviously she prefers Daddy to Mama when it comes to things like that.

And it kills me. I hate seeing her cry, I hate putting her in time out, I hate swatting her on the butt, but I don’t want her growing up to be a brat either.

I’d like to take her blankie back in to her if she calms down…. but she’s still crying.

All I want to do is for her to know that I love her more than she could ever know. It KILLS me to have her hit, slap, bite and yell “no, no, no Mama!” as she’s pushing me away when I’m trying to hug her.

Everyone keeps telling me to enjoy my time with this sweet girl. But who can enjoy this? I’ve got two bruises on my arms where she’s bit me, it’s insane. She was such a sweet baby… what happened? Terrible twos? Lord these are terrible.

Edit:
Went in and sang “Hush Little Baby” (making up all the words after diamond ring…) and she finally calmed down, stopped crying and gave me a hug and a kiss. Then cried for blankie some more, so I sang some more and she layed down with her lovie, and her other blankie and said “night night”.
I’m so thankful she finally calmed down and is dozing off.

Sick baby

Natalie’s full blown sick with a stomach bug. Nothing is worse than a toddler who is not potty trained throwing up and everything else that comes with a stomach bug. Zach leaves for Japan tomorrow too… Thankfully she is eating the pedialyte ice pops this time though. Last time she was sick with a stomach bug she wouldn’t touch them.
And we’re low on diapers. We’re going to attempt to run to Walgreens when she finishes her ice pop… I pray there are no accidents.

Edit: Thankfully no accidents there or back. She feels so bad, and all she wants is Mama. I’m so glad I can comfort her, but wish I could make her feel better.

Sick Natalie 🙁
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Yucks and Ukes

It all started when I picked up Natalie from daycare and was promptly informed she *just* bit someone. It’s been weeks since she actually bit someone at school, I thought we’d gotten over this. Her teacher said the little girl she bit wasn’t even doing anything to her.

She’s progressing so quickly, I got on to her and she was upset and kept trying to hug on me. I’ll sure be glad when we’re through this. Anyway she was back to herself on the car ride home, signing, playing boo and laughing, but she kept saying “ow!” and pointing at the back of her neck.

So I pull onto the major street close to home and she starts crying and yelling “ow, ow!!” and I tell her to hold on because we’re *almost* home… then the yucks start… and she starts puking all over herself and the carseat. Massively puking, crying, puking… So I call Zach and tell him it’s an emergency and Nat’s throwing up all over the place we’ll be home in a second.

Thankfully Zach saved the day. He met us outside with towels while I gagged and nearly puked myself as he was trying to get her out of the car. Curdled milk is just something I don’t deal with well.

Zach took care of all of it thankfully while I got Natalie cleaned up. She was so clingy and kept saying “I sick, I sick”.

Thankfully she was okay and didn’t yuck again. Zach was playing his ukulele and she kept dancing to it (tried to get a video but didn’t turn out well). So I get her ready for bed and am tucking her in and I open the door and she can hear Zach playing his uke, and she hops up in the bed and starts dancing and yelling “I dance! I dance!”  –  I couldn’t help but laughing, she’s so funny.

Love my baby girl.