My Gym pics

I said in my previous post that I hadn't been taking as many pictures of Natalie with my camera, because I've been using my new phone instead. My phone easily uploads pictures to Facebook (it's a one-button step), but not everyone who reads this is on Facebook, so I wanted to figure out how to get those pics easily off my phone so I could show them to people on here. Today, I figured it out!

So, here are a couple of my favorite pictures that I took today while at My Gym with Natalie. She's just recently (in the past 1-2 sessions) figured out how to jump on the trampoline, and hang from the uneven bars. I love these two of her playing on the bars today!

Yes, I'm aware that she's not actually hanging in either one of them. In the first one, she had just put her feet down when I snapped the picture. When she first grabbed onto the post with her legs (in the second one), I laughed so hard that she kept doing it over and over, so I got a great picture of it!

Last week

Wow, over a week since the last post! Sorry about that. I had gone on a bit of a spree there, posting every 1-2 days, but that seems to have dried up a bit. Probably because I haven't really taken pictures of Natalie over the past week, and if I don't have pictures it doesn't occur to me to write something!

That's not strictly true - I have taken pics, just not on my camera. I've been enjoying my fun new Droid Eris phone, and it has a beautiful camera! So, I've taken some pics of her while we've been out & about. I know I could email them to myself, then put them up here, but that takes work. I have uploaded them to facebook (as has Evan), as there's a one-button step to do that on the phone. But, no pics for here.

So, last week Evan was out of town in Cincinatti for work. Natalie and I were on our own Tuesday night; of course, she came down with a cold that day! Tuesday night was pretty rough - I was up with her for a while, and only got about 5 hours sleep. She was just so stuffed up! But she never had a fever, and it was draining, so I didn't worry about the doctor. On Wednesday my mom arrived to help out until Friday. Natalie was a little better, but I was still up with her some that night. I got frustrated with her for the first time, as after I comforted her as best I could (held her a bit, got her water, wiped her nose), she obviously just didn't want to be in the crib anymore. I finally said to her "Natalie, this is ridiculous. You need to sleep, mommy needs to sleep, and after you tell me what you need I'm NOT coming back in here again." She asked for water, I got it, and left. And guess what? Not another peep. So, I tried a bit of the tough love when the same thing happened Thursday night, and it worked again.

Obviously I have sympathy when she doesn't feel well, but once it becomes her just asking to go downstairs and play at midnight, my sympathy starts to erode. I now know that she can understand what I'm saying well enough for me to comfort, and then leave, and she'll be ok. It's great when we reach these milestones!

Natalie stayed home with my mom Thursday, and mom said she was really good, especially since she was still stuffed up. Mom left Friday (thanks for coming and helping, Mom!), and I ended up staying home that day because we had ice pellets coming down in the morning. Natalie really wanted to go to Miss Essie's house, so I took her over there to play while I got some things done around the house and relaxed a bit.

This weekend was also relaxing. The best thing I did was finally buy Natalie "black out" curtains for her room. They're bright pink, so super cute against the yellow walls. They block so much of the light when drawn, and seem to work: she napped for 2 hours both Sat & Sun, and slept until after 8:30! It was wonderful. I don't know why I didn't do this earlier. I just love that napping is happening again, as the whole "only nap for 20-40 min on the weekends" thing was NOT good for any of us.

So, that's about it. Hopefully I'll get more pics and/or video this week and get them up!

Playtime videos

That's right, two more videos of Natalie being adorable!

Explaining this first one: Natalie just learned how to jump on the trampoline at the gym. It's so cute to see her use both feet at once to push off the trampoline! However, she hasn't yet realized that it's very difficult to do the same thing on the regular floor, as seen in this video.


And this second one is from our day inside on Sunday. I think the fact that Natalie held onto her purse the entire time she was playing ball with Calla is the best part!

Lazy weekend

We had a pretty good weekend, mostly because it consisted of doing very little! On Saturday morning, I took Natalie with me to run a few errands. She was so good (as normal). She likes to walk in the stores, which I let her do because she has never really strayed from the cart, and she never pulls things off the shelves. Plus, it gives her some much-needed exercise when we go up and down the aisles in the stores!

Then last night, Kathy & Eric came over so we could take them out to dinner for Kathy's birthday. We tried a new Thai restaurant in Leesburg, and we all agreed it was really good, and quite inexpensive! There have been 3 restaurants in this location since we moved here, and we've tried them all. The previous two were crappy, but this one was really good. We will DEFINITELY go back there again! After putting Natalie to bed, we enjoyed some birthday cake and some 4-person Mario Kart. Much fun!

Today we woke up planning on doing a bunch of errands, but the weather was not really cooperative for going places with a toddler. So, we stayed in instead. We played with Natalie's babydoll

Evan ran a "class" for Natalie and all of her babies, where they learned about insects and sea creatures (using her Fuzzy Bee and Squishy Turtle books)

 but Natalie hit a bit of a boredom period this afternoon, after being cooped up all day, so Mommy pulled out the crayons and drawing pad, and that helped a lot!

December-January videos

I FINALLY figured out an easier way to upload videos to blogger (ok, Evan had to tell me!), so I went back through the past few weeks and found a couple of videos that I really like that I hadn't posted. So, here they are!

The first two are from the snow storm we got before Christmas.





This one is from the night last week when Natalie and I were playing with her doll. Forgive my singing please; I don't think it's too bad. I just love watching Natalie try to sing along, and her excitement at the end! I also translated her request, as she's still working on subject-verb-object order. :)

Early January pictures

I have a few random pictures since January 1, and since they're not quite enough for individual posts, I thought I'd throw them all into one post and talk about the stuff we did!

This first one is of the 3 of us from NYE. I have a bunch of pics of us with our friends from the party we went to at Kathy & Eric's house; I thought about posting them up here but I think it's easier to just upload them to facebook, so I'll probably do that. I do like this picture of the 3 of us though!

Last week, Evan had his company meetings, so most nights it was just Natalie and I at home. While that's more work for me now than normal (what with being in the third trimester and all), she and I had a ton of fun! On Monday night, after we got home from the gym, we spent a bunch of time building with her blocks. She wanted to build a "big tall tower!" (it started as a tunnel for her cars to go through, as you can see on the lower left), and I managed to snap this picture of her standing proudly in front of it just as it was falling over!

On Tuesday, we spent a lot of time playing with her "babies". Natalie got the three Cabbage Patch kids from Grandma Sandy, and the fourth baby doll (which is in there, just behind the other three!) from Grandma Lynn. She LOVES these toys! Right now she's a bit addicted to her baby; she likes to carry it around wrapped up in a blanket, feed her a bottle, put a pacifier in her mouth, push her in the stroller, etc. I'm hoping this will help for when I'll be doing these things with her baby brother!

And here's Natalie in her Disney Princess sunglasses (from Aunt Carrie). She likes to wear them around the house. In fact, tonight she wore them for at least 30 minutes while running around playing and putting on pjs!

And from last night, here's Evan with his girls on the couch! You can see Natalie's favorite baby peeking out from behind Evan. Right now, they're sitting on the floor leaning against the couch reading a different book!

Washington DC

After Christmas, Evan's brother Todd and his wife Claire came down to stay with us for a few days. Claire had never been to the US before, and Todd lived and worked in DC for a few years, so he wanted to show Claire around. Plus, Claire really wanted to see a bunch of the famous DC monuments. So, on Monday Dec 28 Evan and I took the day off to head into the city with them! It was REALLY cold and windy that day, so we left Natalie at daycare.

We first went to the American History museum, as we thought Claire would like to see a lot of stuff in there. It's been totally redesigned in the past couple of years, so it was fun for me to see the new stuff as well. Afterwards, we got lunch and then headed down to the Lincoln Memorial, as Claire really wanted to see it.

Here are Evan and I, and Todd & Claire, on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial with the Washington Monument behind us.

The Washington Monument (with Capital building in the background). This was one of my attempts to be artistic, with the flock of geese in the foreground.

I liked this shot of the frozen-over Reflecting pool, looking back at the Lincoln Memorial

All four of us at the World War II Memorial.

We then walked over to see the White House. The National Christmas tree, yule log, and menorrah were still up on the ellipse in front of the White House. First up, the Christmas tree.

It's surrounded by little trees, one for each state/protectorate. I had to find the Virginia tree!

And Evan is a fan of the yule log (really, a GIANT fire pit!), so we had to go see that.

Frankly, it was so cold out that the heat from the log was very welcome!

Fun Christmas gifts

I posted pics of Natalie with her push toys she got for Christmas (her vacuum and stroller), but she also got some super fun riding toys! We've had to put them in the basement, as there's no room on our main floor and it's too cold and wet right now outside to keep them outside (where they rightfully belong). So, our basement is currently Natalie's parking garage!

First up, Natalie's new bike!

Next, a gift from my friend Amy! We're calling it her Bug Car, and she loves it. The wheels don't work great on carpet, but I think it'll be perfect when we can take it outside.

Here's Natalie showing off her garage of riding and push toys.

Another favorite Christmas present that Natalie got after Christmas was from her Aunt Carrie. It's a kid's laptop! Natalie loves it. She's a bit young yet to figure out how to do all the games, but she has figured out how to press all of the buttons and work the mouse (which really makes things move on the little screen!). If I get my computer out, she has to get hers out too!

And this wasn't really a Christmas present, but a gift from Aunt Claire when we went shopping while Claire & Todd visited (more on that in next post). Adorable!

Boyd's Bear Country

On our way home from NJ after Christmas, we made a brief stop at Boyd's Bear Country in Gettysburg, PA. I had been there once about 3 years ago, as our annual work retreat is in Gettysburg and they gave us coupons for a free stuffed bear. I remembered the place being pretty cute (although its a bit country for my taste) and I thought Natalie would enjoy seeing all the stuffed animals. She was so adorable there I had to get a few pictures!

The bear Natalie is holding was one on sale for $5, so we bought it for Natalie. The name of the line is Max, so we call him Maxbear! He's super soft and cuddly.

A party for Todd & Claire

On the day after Christmas, Lynn & Doug threw a party for Todd and Claire, so the extended family could meet her. None of them were able to come to the wedding, so hadn't met the newest family member yet! The party was definitely busy - probably about 30 people, including all of the kids. It was a really nice time, and everyone loved meeting Claire and getting to see each other at the holidays. We also showed a ton of photos from the wedding, and the wedding video that I took, so they could see the ceremony and speeches during the reception. At least that gave them a feel for the beautiful wedding they missed!

Of course, I mostly used this event as another excuse to get Natalie all dressed up! This dress was actually given to us last year by our friend Peter's parents, but it was too big for Natalie last year. I was so glad to get to use it! And even though you can't see it, the tights have ruffles on the butt. Too cute!

Natalie with Grandma & Grandpa:

Our family!

Natalie with Todd & Claire

A group of the kids playing on the floor.

Christmas Day

I have a TON of pics from Christmas day, as it was so much fun to get pictures of Natalie opening presents (and some of the rest of us too). I've chosen just a few of my favorites to put up here.

First up, Natalie standing in front of the presents, which magically appeared overnight!

Here are Claire, Todd & Scott during breakfast while we were opening up the presents in our stockings.

Natalie with two of her favorite presents: a toy vacuum and a baby stroller! Also, in the second pic she's showing off her new Skechers sneakers!

Evan showing off his new Australia shirt and flag

Claire posing with the snowman she built on the deck.

Evan and I looking silly! The hats & whistles are an Australian/British Christmas tradition. You open up an exploding "cracker" which contains the hat, whistle (with your number), and silly jokes. One person acts as a conductor, and has music for us to play on our whistles. We sounded horrible, but it was lots of fun!

And this was probably Natalie's favorite present of the day: a bike from Uncle Scott! We put it together after dinner and let her come into the living room to see it. I love this picture - the look on her face captures just how excited she was with the bike. Now we just have to wait until it gets warm enough outside for her to really ride it - for now, we're just using it to go in circles in the basement.

Christmas Eve

On Christmas Eve we headed up to NJ for a few days to spend the holiday with Evan's family. This was a special holiday, as Evan's brother Todd and his wife Claire came back from Australia! Claire is Australian, and has never been to the states before (more on that later). It was the first time in 3 years that Evan's whole family was able to be together for the holiday, so we were glad to make that happen. Now I just have to make that happen with my family!

We had a really great time, and I have SO many pictures that I've deicded to break them up into 3 posts: one for each day we were there. First up, Christmas Eve!

It took a while (about 45 min), but I got Natalie and I all dressed up to go out to dinner while everyone else was at mass. Natalie even let me curl her hair!

Here's the family after we got back from dinner. From left to right: Grandpa Doug, Evan, Natalie, me, Uncle Scott, Claire, Uncle Todd, and Grandma Lynn

And now just the "young people", with cousing Kristen added in. And you can see my baby bump in this one!

The Christmas tree, now surrounded with presents (after we put Natalie to bed)

Claire and I in front of the tree. Note that I am now in pajamas; the pregnant lady was uncomfortable in dressy clothes!

Kristen made chocolate mice (the heads were hershey kisses, the body marischino cherries, all dipped in chocolate - so good!), and since I work with mice, I was told I had to take these pics: