Finally: recent pics!

As I mentioned briefly in my last post, we hung out with our friends all weekend! On Saturday, we went to our friend Peter & Alison's house in Bethesda. Evan, Peter, and our friend Bryan are going in on brewing a batch of beer (Peter home-brews), and they started brewing a new batch of IPA that day. So, we all hung out for the day, with the boys brewing (and making us yummy dinner!), while the ladies watched the kids (Natalie & Liam, Peter's little boy). Then on Sunday Peter, Alison & Liam, and Kathy & Eric, came to our place to go to the pool! Liam had barely gone swimming at all this summer, and Kathy & Eric had wanted to go to our pool for a while (it's pretty great!).

Unfortunately, none of us took any pics either day! Except for when we got back to the house after swimming, and we washed Natalie & Liam together in the tub. I grabbed my camera to get a couple of pics, including this great one:

All week, I kept forgetting to take my camera out of the bathroom, so Evan grabbed it tonight after Natalie's bath. He snapped some great pictures, including these, and the video as well.

This is the face Natalie makes when you say "Can I have kisses?"

Look at this adorable face!

And here we are on the couch, finishing watching "So You Think You Can Dance"

Finally, here's the video Evan took while I was putting lotion on Natalie after her bath. It's so nice to have a conversation with her! And you can see how much she likes to talk.

Ah, mood swings

I know I posted last about Natalie having a case of the mommies. Well, over the weekend, especially Sunday, Natalie seemed a bit clingier to her daddy, which of course made Evan quite happy! Mostly though, she just wanted to be held. She was on-and-off fussy all day, but really not too bad (we had a really good time with friends, which I'll talk about - with pictures - in the next post!).

Monday, however, was a totally different story. I think our lovely Natalie was possessed. Let's just say that I didn't know it was physically possible to scream, cry, and throw oneself around for 45 minutes! That's what we dealt with last night. She barely ate dinner, nothing made her happy (including many of her favorite things, like going outside!), and she intentionally did things she knew she wasn't supposed to. She even got her first time out (which worked ok; she did seem to understand that she had to sit in one spot, and managed to for about 20-30 seconds before getting up again). We put her to bed a little early, as she just wore herself out. Didn't hear a peep from her for about 12 hours, so we're thinking she may have just been exhausted and cranky.

Today, I had my girl back! She was her usual happy self, had fun outside with Essie this morning, was wonderful at her gym class (even tried some new equipment, like the trapeze swing!), pretty good at dinner with Evan's coworkers, and great when we stopped at the grocery store afterwards. The best part of the night: while buckling her into her carseat to come home, I said "I love you" and she said it back! First time that's ever happened! It was wonderful.

So we're going to hope that yesterday was just a fluke, and our little girl isn't turning into a hellion...at least not yet!

Some Natalie love

We think Natalie has a serious case of "the Mommies" right now. But not in a bad way, where she's ridiculously clingy and doesn't want to be with anyone else, or do anything else. In a good way, where I get to snuggle with her, which happens SOOOO rarely anymore! So I'm loving it.

In fact, tonight I had the best 30 minutes of the year, hands down. I changed when Natalie and I got home, and then we went to the living room to watch "So You Think You Can Dance" from last night. It's the only TV show Natalie actually watches - she loves the dancing! She curled up on my lap, and we held hands while I stroked her hair and she almost fell asleep on me for about 20 minutes. I thought she might be a little uncomfortable because she kept shifting, so I moved over to lounge on the couch. She spent about another 10 minutes laying on my chest/stomach, letting me stroke her hair & arm, just relaxing. My phone rang; I refused to get up. I wasn't moving until she did, which she eventually did (cause how long can a toddler really stay still?). It was wonderful, especially since I had to work late last night and didn't get home until after she was in bed.

We also spend some time playing games! Here we are playing "Pat-a-cake" the other night:

Pics from the weekend

This past weekend Evan's parents came to visit, and they brought amazing weather with them! So, we spent a bunch of time outside. On saturday, we went to the Leesburg outlets for a bit (they LOVE going there, and I'm always up for a trip!), and then over to our playground. Natalie got there in two forms of travel: on Grandpa's shoulders:

And with me & Grandma:

We spent a while on the swings (Natalie's favorites!)

And then some time going down the slide (which she also loved!). Daddy was very good at catching her.

I stopped to get some water on the way back, and of course Natalie wanted some too! Her first drink from a water fountain (and yes, it's clean!).

We then set up one of Natalie's christmas presents: a water table from her Uncle Scott. She LOVED it! We had fun on our deck with her for quite a while, pouring water, splashing around, and making a big mess.

On Sunday we went to the new A.V. Symington outdoor pool/water park here in Leesburg. It's such a great place! We can't wait to go back again. Slides, a lazy river, fountains, kiddie pool - something for everyone. Unfortunately I didn't take any pics, but hopefully next time we go I will get some!

"18 month" Dr visit

Yesterday was Natalie's "18 month" checkup. Yes, she's a bit over 19 months now, but they didn't have an appointment that I could get to earlier than now. So, we went yesterday. Here's her stats:
Height/length: 33 inches (75%)
Weight: 22 lbs, 8 oz (10-25%)
Head size: 18.5 inches (50%) - up from the 10th percentile she's been in for so long!

So, still tall & skinny. She's dead on for everything the doctor asked me about, and is far ahead of the average for a kid her age in one thing: verbal ability! Most kids don't have this many words before they're 2! I knew she was verbal, but I didn't realize how much so. I love it, as I think it helps prevent some tantrums, as she's so good at letting us know what she wants.

She had 3 shots (last HiB, first chicken pox, and MMR), and no more until she's 4! Yay! She did very well, and let the doctor check her out. Cried with the shots (no surprise there - it hurts!), but stopped crying right after and was fine.

I asked the doctor about the rash in her elbows, and she thinks it's eczema. I was hoping not, but with Evan's history when he was a kid, it's not surprising. So, we're going to use Dove hypoallergenic soap (and shampoo if I can find it), just the Aveeno lotion we've been using, and try some Aveeno 1% hydrocortisone cream on the rash. Hopefully these changes will make the eczema better. At least now we have a plan of attack!

Running in circles

One of Natalie's favorite things to do is run around in circles. Or spin in circles. Or be swung in circles. Really, anything that makes her dizzy. I know most toddlers enjoy this activity; it's just so much fun to watch her do it!

This first one is Natalie "exploring" her favorite part of our new patio furniture: the umbrella.

And this one is of her having fun in our living room tonight before bed.

A good day

I had an interview today! No, not a job interview; I was interviewed by a freelance writer, who is writing an article on "pregnancy brain" for American Baby magazine! She came across the publications from my dissertation research online, and contacted me to discuss my results (and similar rodent research). Basically, I looked at effects of pregnancy/reproductive experience on rodent moms' behavior and the underlying neural mechanisms. I answered her questions about my research, and what we know about positive/negative effects of pregnancy on women's cognition, mood, etc. The article should be out in Nov/Dec, and she's going to send it to me when published. I'm excited to see it!

Also, we have these annoying neighbors 3 houses down from us who 1) never take care of their yard (it was by far the worst on our block); and 2) always complain to us when we have a party, and "their" parking space gets taken, even though we have NO assigned parking in our neighborhood! Well, they moved out today, and the owners (apparently they were renters) finally came and took care of the yard! It's been mowed, weeded, and mulched and looks SO much better. Yay for our street looking better; maybe we'll get some cooler people in there now.

19 months old!

Natalie turned 19 months old today! I can't believe what a big girl she is now. Evan and I said tonight how much we feel she's grown up, this week alone! She constantly asks "What you doing?" and "What that?", wanting to know everything that's going on. She picks up at least one or two words a day, and loves naming everything she knows!

I don't have any stats on her physically, as we still haven't gone to the doctor for her 18 month checkup! But we go on Wednesday, so I'll fill everyone in then.

We had Natalie's bangs trimmed up this week, so now you can see her beautiful face even better!

Swim Lessons!

As I posted earlier, Natalie has started her swim lessons! We signed up for a 4 week class every Sunday morning (except this past week because of the holiday). So, the first one was almost two weeks ago now. Natalie seemed to really enjoy it...at least until the last 2 minutes of class. She had a bit of a freak out then, as she wanted to keep doing one of the activites, and not move on to another one. So, we just pulled her out of the water...and then class ended anyway.

Prior to that, she had fun (frankly, so did I). We did a lot of little games, and songs, to get them used to moving around in the water. Here's a video that Carrie took of us doing "The Hokey Pokey".

Pics from the Outer Banks

So we never ended up going out in the boat on July 4th. :( Unfortunately, the boat was just having too many issues. Dad got a couple of them fixed, just for something else to not work! It seems that there may be a problem with the fuel line, so some things will need to be fixed. But hopefully we can get out in it next time!

We ended up going to the beach instead on the afternoon of the 4th. It was BEAUTIFUL!! Perfect beach weather. The water was about 75 degrees F, you could see clear to the bottom, and it was pretty calm. We all had fun in the water, including Natalie! She did great. Much better than when we took her on thursday. Dad and Evan took turns holding her, and managed to keep her from getting hit by any waves. She thought going up & over the waves was tons of fun! She was splashing, and trying to kick her legs. So cute!

Saturday night we celebrated my Aunt Linda's 60th birthday. We got her 60 items! All kinds of fun stuff. I think Linda had a lot of fun opening everything. We also had a cookout for the 4th, and were just too tired to go see fireworks. Next year we'll keep Natalie up and go see them!

On Sunday, Linda took us to lunch at Lone Cedar Restaurant, which was really good. I think Natalie had the most fun watching all of the birds that were outside of the restaurant!

I took so many great pics, that it would've been difficult to get them all on here. So, I put them all on Picasa and you can click below to see them all. Enjoy!

Outer Banks July 2009

Happy July 4th!

We're here at the Outer Banks for the weekend to celebrate July 4th! We came down on late Wednesday night. Unfortunately it wasn't as easy of a trip as I'd hoped it would be. Last time we drove down here, we left around Natalie's bedtime, and she slept the whole way. This time, she was doing great sleeping until we hit a HORRIBLE thunderstorm around Richmond. Lightening so bright I could barely see the road, pouring down rain, loud thunder, etc. Lasted for about 45 minutes. Poor Calla was totally freaked out (ended up sitting in Evan's lap for the storm), and of course it woke Natalie. So, for the next 3 HOURS of the car ride, she didn't sleep! We got to my parents' around 12:30am, and she went to sleep around 1. She slept nice and late on thursday, which was nice!

So far, we've had a nice time. Beach yesterday (I of course forgot my camera!); Natalie did really well! It was a little too rough to carry her in, so we just stood where the surf washed up and let Natalie get her feet wet. She seemed to like it, but got a little scared at points.

Today we had planned to go out on my parents' boat, but we encountered a few snags in terms of needing parts. Dad's gotten it fixed, and once Natalie's up from her nap, we'll be heading out! I will definitely have pictures from that.

The only other thing that happened last week is Natalie started her swim lessons. I tried to post a video from it, but it didn't work. I'll try again soon, cause it's really cute!