It's my Potty. I can cry if I want to!

Big news, everyone! Natalie pooed in the potty like a big girl today!! I was lucky enough to get it on "film"...
She wasn't quite so sure about the whole experience, but we heaped on the praise during and after the big event. The photos really do a much better job than any words I can write, so without further ado...

Fun with your friends

When I picked Natalie up from daycare today, she was playing in the sandbox outside with her friends. She was having so much fun that she didn't want to get out and come with me to go home! This is a rare thing indeed. She had long had a crush on a little boy named Myles in her class, but lately she's been talking a lot about a little guy named Michael. Watch out, Myles- you've got competition! 

After daycare, Angela and Ruthie came over. Natalie LOVES Ruthie. Sometimes they do nothing more than make each other giggle and chuckle harder than Natalie ever does with us. It's adorable and we can't help but to laugh with her. 

In sad news, Natalie's great-grandmother passed away this morning. Natalie didn't really know her, having only seen her a handful of times, but I would be remiss in not mentioning this sad event. It will be a trying week for Mommy, so thank God for Natalie constantly bringing sunshine into our home and into our hearts. 

Why?

Natalie continues to impress me with her vocabulary and understanding of context and humor. She has been asking me the last day or two "why you do that, Daddy?", but today I experienced the dreaded "why?" loop. We were heading home from daycare when I told her to keep her arm inside the car seat seatbelt. So it began... "why?" I said "so you are safe if something happens"...."why?" Uh...

(Photo has nothing to do with the story...but I like it!)

Just a little love note.

I had fun with you this morning, Natalie. You have been so much fun and so well-behaved lately. I am proud of you. Even though I had to work tonight and didn't get home until after you fell asleep, I loved watching the videos Mommy took of you after your bath this evening. I miss you a lot on days like this. I hope you know (in your infant-ness wisdom...sorry, bad dad humor) that it was me kissing you and touching your cheek as you lay sleeping like the sweet angel you are. I love you, Nattie.

So amazing...

It's so amazing to watch Natalie grow and learn every day. Her use of complex sentences seems to have come out of nowhere. She is stringing 4, 5 and 6 words together at a time now. Clearly, and appropriate to the situation or context.

For example- last night I was holding her on my lap while we watched Barney on T.V. She was getting sleepy and turned around to crawl up onto my shoulder. I hugged her tight and turned Barney off (thinking Nat was going to go to sleep). She turned around quickly and said clear as day: "Why'd you do that, Daddy?" I couldn't help but to laugh, and I answered her by saying "I thought you were going to go to sleep!". She said "what?"...I repeated myself. She said "what?" again, and I laughed- this time, she laughed with me.

I love not only the brightness of her spirit and mind, but I love her sense of humor as well. I just plain love this girl!!

Jekyll and Hyde

I think I should blog about Natalie's new nickname....We have now reached the "fun" days of being two. Natalie has grown to be very independent(stubborn) and very emotional when things aren't quite going the way that she wants them. She has been pushing the limits more with her reactions to things that she does not like with screaming and at times hitting. However, with a time out and an apology, she can go from a terror to a sweetheart within seconds...thus the nickname of Jekyll and Hyde.....

Some funny stories when it comes to this trying stage...On a night a few weeks ago, Natalie was up way past her bedtime, so she was overtired and was really fighting sleep. She was really struggling with me when she suddenly sat up, looked at me, and slapped me. She then pointed to her time out spot and said in a very hopeful voice, "Time Out?" She had purposely slapped me so that she could get out of trying to go to sleep and go to time out! We could not believe how smart that was! (she did not get that time out by the way)

She also has been actually choosing the time out instead of doing what I am giving as the other "option":
"Natalie pick that up or time out."
"Time out" (she will go right to her spot and sit)
(2 mins go by)
"Ok, Natalie will you pick those up now?"
"Pick up, OK!" (and she immediately goes and does what was asked)

I have been pleased with the fact that in the past few days, she has been able to explain why she is in time out when we talk for her apology. She so knows how this routine goes that when she was playing with her Elmo this morning, I guess her Elmo was bad!...
"Emmo, time out!" (takes Elmo and puts him in her time out spot.)
Points at him and says: "Time out Emmo!"
(leaves and comes back) "Emmo, no skeeming! Say sawwy."
(picks him up and hugs him)
At least I know that she is clear on our expectations with time out! :)

Happy Easter 2011!

Natalie was so much fun this year with Easter. She loved going through her Easter Basket, which had candy, an Elmo, bunny ears, lots of stickers, a magic dora washcloth, and some flashcards. We then had another easter egg hunt in our living room, which she loved.
Natalie was then very excited to hear that she was going to see her Grandma and PawPaw (she thought we would see them at church, which is our usual routine!) so we drove to my Aunt Jennifer's and had brunch with my mom's family. Natalie loved jumping on their trampoline (Daddy will have to add pictures of that), seeing cows, dogs, and cats, and getting a third Easter egg hunt! It was a great day with our family! Natalie made it about one mile in the car ride home before she fell asleep!

Natalie's First Easter Egg Hunt

On Saturday, I took Natalie to her first big city Easter Egg Hunt. (She didn't go to any big Easter Egg Hunts last year) It was held at Knight's Action Park, and actually had 3 different hunts throughout the morning. I knew that it would be busy so we got there about 15 minutes early. There was one big problem with that.....for Natalie's age group (0-2) the eggs were not hidden at all and just dumped right in front of all of the kids.
Unfortunately, I had spent all morning hyping Natalie up that she was going to go find eggs and pu them into her basket. I did such a great job, that this tactic completely blew up in my face! Have you ever tried to explain to a two year old that, yes, you can see the eggs right in front of you, but you cannot have any of them until someone says go???!?!?! Yeaaahhhh, that was not fun!
Thankfully when it was finally go time, Natalie had a great time and loved getting the eggs. She would have collected even more if she wasn't greedy and attempted to collect 2-3 eggs in one handful each time! After the hunt was over, we were instructed to get the candy out of the eggs and then recycle the eggs (give them back). I wasn't sure how Natalie would handle this, but she loved it. She acted like she had won the lottery every time she opened up an egg and found candy. It was so cute! The only adorable problem was when we were returning the eggs, Natalie began to return the candy too! I love that girl so much!

Our Beautiful Girl and an Attempt at Family Pics

Sadly we have not taken family pictures since Natalie was 2 months old, so we decided to utilize Natalie's Easter dress and get family pictures taken. Unfortunately it did not go as well as we had hoped (due to the photographer mostly) I will put up those pics when we get them, but until then, here are some shots of Natalie at home. She is our beautiful girl!

To the PARK!!!

We had to go out and enjoy the beautiful weather today! We were torn between going to the park or to the zoo, but Natalie made the decision easy for us as she had her heart set on the park! She was excitedly saying "swing! slide! tunnel!" repeatedly on our way out the door and to the park. When we arrived, she said "there it is!!" as if we were driving aimlessly in hopes of spotting a park along the way.

She loved going back and forth from the swings to the slides and the tunnel. She developed a routine at one point, where she would climb up the stairs, play with a giant tic-tac-toe spinner, crawl through a tunnel and go down the slide leading right back to the stairs she started at. She would repeat this several times. I told Nickie it was like she was doing circuit training for a toddler-triathlon!

Natalie made a new friend along the way. He is seen following her in one the photos below. He was pretty much left to himself as his mom wasn't paying attention to him, so we kind of "adopted" him while we were there, including him in the things we were doing with Natalie. The best part is, when Natalie ran away from the slides they were on to go to the swings, he yelled "Baby! Baby! Baby!" as if she was a girlfriend that was leaving her man. Nickie and I cracked up at this. This little guy even tried following us to our car when we left, but luckily his mom finally saw him and got him. I would've taken him home with us! He was a cutie. Nickie said no. Something about it being a felony. Whatever.