Family of Four

Sometime around April 1st, Kim, Natalie and I will welcome a new member to our family. Here's a glimpse at the little one from earlier today!!! I'm about thirteen weeks and feeling great!! More thoughts on pregnancy and having another child to follow. I'm excited to get to share my secret. Now, I'm taking my tired self to bed.

Looking sweeter than she really is.

The real girl!

Great Weekend

Another weekend full of adventure for our family!

Kim and I had a great time at the baseball game on Saturday night. Hours spent with good friends are always fun. The game went into extra innings (we lost) and we didn't get home until after midnight, crazy kids! The report from Kim's parents is that Natalie did great. If they are keeping secrets it is fine with me!

We headed north on Sunday and took Kim's mom and dad to the Amish Country in Pennsylvania. It was a beautiful day to be out traveling. We had a yummy lunch, rode in a horse and buggy, drove around the area, went and saw "Thomas the Train" (very exciting for Natalie), and made it home before dark. It was a long day but a fun day!

Here are some pictures from our adventure.

So excited!

Tomorrow night Kim, Chris, Sarah and I are going out! We are going to a Washington Nationals game. I got the tickets for Kim for his birthday. I am so excited about time out with fun adults without my dear daughter. Kim's mom and dad are coming into town and are staying with Natalie so I am sure that she will have as much fun as we will. I don't know if I am more excited about the time with friends, the metro ride, the baseball, the hotdogs, the nachos, a cool autum night outside. it all sounds so wonderful to me.

Old song with a Natalie twist

So, here is Natalie's version of "Old MacDonald"

"Mic Old Donald had a farm..."

As Promised

Some recent pictures of my girl...

Giving her great-grandfather a happy birthday kiss.

Riding on her Papa's shoulders.

Playing in the river.

Lovely Afternoon

This afternoon, while Natalie napped, I prepared a meal for a new mom. This was the biggest blessing to me when I had Natalie so I am glad to return the favor whenever possible.

I discovered something about myself that I had forgotten...When given the mental and physical space, I really enjoy cooking! I whipped-up two lasagnas, brownies and salads and loved every minute of it!

I am also loving the fact that Natalie is in hour two of her nap and still going. This is my payback for this weekend!

Happy 88th Birthday, Chief!

What a joy to celebrate my grandfather's birthday with lots of family!!

Natalie Quote

We were driving down the road yesterday and Natalie saw the truck spraying water to water the grass/flowers.

Natalie: Mommie, is that truck going pee-pee?

Can you tell what we have been talking about in our house?

Children are expensive when the seasons are changing!

My sweet girl

Natalie has always been a verbal child. However, about two weeks ago someone hit the "super-verbal" button! Wow! The girl can talk! She really likes to sing, it is so increbily sweet.

When we arrived at my parent's house last weekend she sang her "ABCDs" (as she calls them) like this a,b,c,d,e,f,g,q,i,l,(mummbled mess), t,u,v,w,x,y,z. She woke up Sunday morning and could sing them perfectly!! Did she get a special lesson during the night?

Every car ride, she gives a running commentary. Today's went something like this:
"1,2,3,4,5, Mommie, I am counting the trees. 1,2, Mommie, I am counting the school buses. The trees are way up on the hill. Can I ride the school bus one day Mommie? Let's go buy some new shoes. Then, we can have a quesadilla for dinner. Does that sound fun? Does that sound fun Mommie?"

She has started to really enjoy talking to grandparents on the phone. She makes their day!

She is so much fun and a great buddy to have around during the day! I am really enjoying this age. I want to find the pause button!

I promise a recent picture soon!

Not a good day to be a Tarheel

Well, it happened, the Tarheels lost to ECU. I realize this game did not make national headlines but I am sure it will be making family headlines for a long time to come. Both of my brothers are ECU alum. They could be hard to live with for the next, I don't know, year.

Not to mention, my Dad is a Happy Appy and we will be hearing about their defeat of Michigan for a long time.

I love fall and football season. I know that the Tarheels will be getting better...Until Butch Davis performs some miracles, I am ready for basketball season. When, BTW, both of my brothers will be on the UNC bandwagon.

Natalie is a pro at saying "Go Tarheels! "Eat" the Pirates!" Too bad it didn't work out.

Always a sap

I am crying watching Roy Williams being inducted into the basketball hall of fame. Get a grip!

My Sweet Husband

Last night I had a meeting so I left right after dinner. Kim was on duty to give Natalie a bath and put her to bed. Lately Natalie wants to hear "Sleep My Babies" every night. Kim doesn't (didn't) know the words to the song yet.

He quickly mentioned it as I was walking out the door and I said "Don't worry, the words are on the blog and Natalie knows them." I didn't give it another thought until I was cleaning our bedroom this morning and saw the words to the song, printed from the blog, laying on the floor.

Kim doesn't do anything half-way, we all know that. He loves our daughter! He would do anything to her and wants to make everything just right.

If it would have been me and I didn't know the words to the song Natalie wanted, I would have just told her to pick another song. Kim makes me want to be a better parent.

I know this probably sounds simple to a lot of people but it was the sweetest surprise for me this morning. A love note that he left for me and he didn't even know it.

Kim, you are an amazing Dad (Daddy-Bear)! I love you!

Why Chic-Fil-A Rocks

So, after quite a blogging lull and reading what my friends have been writing I feel really bad coming back with a post like this but here we go...

1. Free table-toppers (the plastic, disposable tablecloths)
2. Purell hand wipes taped to kids meal bags
3. Fresh fruit (for Natalie)
4. Waffle fries (for Me)
5. A nice man to open the door
6. A nice man to help me get two highchairs to the table (one for Natalie, one for Madeline)
7. A nice man to carry Sarah's food to the table
8. Milkshakes!!!
9. Lemonade in styrofoam cups

Seriously, the people a Chic-Fil-A are marketing geniuses!

• The one down side is that the "toys" are not exactly "toys". They are educational books usually. Happy Meals toys win!

An Evening With Sarah

I had a meeting last night, Kim was working, so my dear friend Sarah stayed with Natalie. Why, you might ask, is Sarah babysitting and not a nice high school girl? Well, the answer is for another blog entry all together.

Me: Natalie, Sarah is coming over to have dinner with you tonight and then she is going to give you a bath, read you stories, and put you to bed. Does that sound fun?
Natalie: Sarah is coming!!!
Me: Yeah, does that sound fun?
Natalie: Yeah, and she'll give me a bath and I'll have poopie and she can wipe my bottom.
Me: Maybe?!

So, everything went well. Natalie and Sarah had a great time. When I asked Sarah about how everything went she said, "Great! Natalie can talk. I had no idea how much Madeline (Sarah's daughter) inhibited her." It is true. When Natalie and Madeline are together, Natalie is fine with being the follower. She is fine with watching Madeline, seeing what she is doing, and playing along. Madeline has established herself as the alpha-toddler. I like this aspect of Natalie's personality. I like that she doesn't feel the need to be in charge all the time, she is not bossy (for a toddler). She cares about her friends and their feelings. I don't think that I am raising the future president, vice-president maybe.

The dynamic-duo

Halloween 2006

Confessions of a Blogging Slacker

I have been a blogging slacker lately. For those of you out there, and you know who you are, who think I am actually going to get my "My Space" page together, forget it. I have a couple of excuses to offer.

1. My job has been a little crazy lately. I have taken on extra clients and 39 pregnant women can drive a person crazy. I still love me job it is just taking more of my time these days, twice as much as when I started actually. We are looking to hire more people but until that happens I get to spend lots of time chatting with pregnant women.
2. I am the hospitality chair for our MOPS group which gets started in three-and-a-half weeks. That means that I have been spending lots of time planning brunch schedules, naming tables, planning decorations, favors, games, etc. Again, something that I am glad to do but it is taking time.
3. I am tired. No explanation here.
4. I am raising a toddler. Since we have gotten back from vacation, I have been doing a lot of single parenting, not my favorite. I don't like it when I am the only parent Natalie sees during her waking hours. Thankfully Kim's schedule will be getting more normal soon. These days make me whine, complain, then remember my dear friend who's husband is across the ocean and I feel guilty. I don't know how she or any other military family does what they are asked to do.

OK, that's all the excuses I have to offer....

Here are some recent snippets from our life.

• If you are a parent you probably know the "Clean-Up Song" (Clean-up, clean-up, everybody, everywhere. Clean-up, clean-up, everybody do your share). Here is Natalie's version, pirated from her dear friend Madeline, "Clean-up, clean-up, everybody do my share!" She sings it very sweetly as she happily helps clean-up, it makes me laugh.
• While we were reading "Panda Bear, Panda Bear, What Do You See" the other night, Natalie called the Sea Lion, a "Swimming Lion". I thought it was so cute. Unfortunately she asked me what it was, I told her a Sea Lion and she corrected herself.
• Natalie's new favorite thing to sing, the "Pokey-Pokey", known to the rest of us as the "Hokey-Pokey".
• Kim starts a "writing elective" next week. Three cheers for that!! I'm not sure what a "writing elective" includes but it sounds good to me!
• My first quilt is almost done (see excuses above as to why it is not done yet). I just have to sew the outer border on.
• We are going to Jefferson next Thursday for a long Labor Day weekend! I haven't been home since early March. My soul is longing for the mountains and my mom and dad.

I will post some more pictures again soon! Thanks for listening! To my other blogging friends, please don't get slack like me. I still read your blogs daily, I just don't always to my share.

Morning Alarm

Soon after I got Natalie out of her bed this morning all the fire alarms in the house started going off. It took me a minute to figure out what alarm system was going off. Looking back on the situation it didn't even occur to me that there might be a FIRE, I just wanted the noise to stop, it was too early for such things. So with a toddle CLINGING to me I ran through the house (Kim had already left for work at 5:15) and down two flights of stairs trying to find the source of the problem. The fire detector in the basement was flashing, ah ha! Now, all I needed to do was peel the toddler off of me, find something that could help me reach the 9' ceiling and get it to stop. Ok, mission accomplished, LOUD noise gone, small chirping noise here. So, I guess the battery is low and we slept through the beep all night and the fire alarm was giving us a final notice. Now, all I needed to do was replace the battery. Problem, I don't have a battery and I can't reach to replace the battery. Decision, this can wait until after church. More LOUD noise. Clearly the fire alarm wanted to be fixed now. So, at 6:50 in the morning I call me dear friend and ask her to send a battery and her husband to my rescue. After replacing the battery, much button pushing (why do these things have to be so complicated? I can see now why people just pull them out of the wall.),and some early cursing, the problem was solved! Natalie keeps saying "No more loud, mommie, no more loud?!" The highlight of the situation was that me toddler wanted to snuggle very close to me for 15 minutes. Thank goodness for friends!

Excuses, excuses

Kim: Hey, I'm going to be late.
Me: What's up?
Kim: I have to sew a kid's ear back on.
Me: Can't somebody else do that.
Kim: No. Then I have to check on the kid from this morning with the subdural (head bleed).

In honor of this post, let's hear the best reason you have given/received for why you/your SO is going to be late.

I'm Back

Kim, Natalie and I just got back from a week in Corolla, NC. We had a great time. We left last Saturday morning and spent the weekend in Windsor to celebrate Mama Askew's birthday and Kim's 30th birthday. On Monday we journeyed to the beach. We stayed at our friend's parents beach home "Crescent Moon". The house sleeps 22 but we only packed in 14. We were with Chris, Sarah, Madeline (Natalie's BFF), Chris's mom and dad (owners of the house), Sarah's mom and dad (who left too early), Chris's sister and brother-in-law and two friends from college. Aside from the occasional turf wars between the two-year-olds we had a great time. Beach vacations are definitely different with children!

I still haven't figured out how to take good pictures to capture the moment, I am hoping that Sarah got some good shots. I had dreams of taking Natalie out on the beach in a cute little dress to take some pics, it didn't happened. Trying to align the weather, with a two-year-old's naps/moods, with everything else we wanted to do was too much.

We did have some lovely kite flying weather. That held Natalie's attention for about two minutes and then she wanted to dig in the sand together. Until I had Natalie, I hated the sand. Now I tolerate it because it bring her so much joy and find myself enjoying it.

We had a great week together, growing our friendship, mostly at Chris's expense. That is what happens when you invite friends to invade your family vacation. I treasure my time with the Reames. I am still trying to convince them that NC is way better than NOVA!