Just a Random Update

Well, we are back to school mode in the Harris household! Natalie has actually gotten much better with going to day care and no longer cries at drop offs. She isn't thrilled at the moment of leaving her, but she stays strong and then has a great day every day!
She seems to be fully potty trained at home (cannot think of the last time she had an accident) At day care, she is pretty much trained, except for #2. We for some reason cannot get that to happen there- which stinks because I would really like to graduate from pull ups, but do not want that daily mess! She also sometimes has accidents after nap, but I wonder if she is trying to be quiet (like they are trained to do) and doesn't think she should tell anyone)
I only made it through 3 days before I got to use my first sick day with Natalie. She woke up on Wednesday night at around 12:30 violently throwing up. She then got sick 6 more times from then until 5:30 in the morning. It was exhausting because our smart little girl associated the bucket that I was using with what was making her do this scary, horrible thing. So every time I put the bucket in front of her she would start screaming and shoving the bucket away, all while getting sick everywhere! UGH! It was terrible. Ironically I got my sub plans written, ran them to school, only to come home to a happy dancing Natalie who was completely over whatever that was (except for a smaller appetite that day) I was still happy that I took the day off though because I was exhausted and needed nap time even more than she did!
A few other random Natalie stories:
Natalie was putting together a puzzle that had a slice of cherry pie on it. We asked her what it was. Her response? Pizza fruit! She is so smart!
Natalie also continues to be her momma's girl and loves Cosby. We were watching it together and Cosby told Theo that he would get strawberry shortcake and they could eat strawberry shortcake together. Natalie's face suddenly had a look of confusion and disgust..She said, "Cosby, why eat Strawberry Shortcake?!?!?! No, that's gross!"

Natalie's favorite things

Mommy was asking Natalie what her favorite things were. Here are her answers:

Favorite color: Red
Favorite number: 3
Favorite letter: N
Favorite food: Pizza
Favorite drink: Milk
Favorite show: Barney Circus
Favorite song: "Barney Circus song"
Favorite animal: Lion

Hi Ho, Hi Ho...Back to Day Care We Go!

Today was a day that I was dreading, but knew it would come soon enough. Natalie's first day back to day care and my first day back working (technically my first day is the 18th, but it takes much longer to get a classroom up and running)..
We tried our best the past week getting Natalie mentally ready by telling her that she was going to see her friends and get to tell her teachers that she goes on the potty now. We said it enough that by this past weekend Natalie could tell you all of the things that she was going to do with her friends and what she was going to say to Mommy ('Bye Mommy, See you later! Mwah, Mwah, Mwah (blowing three kisses) I was hopefully that maybe our actual drop off would be this good...

Well, it wasn't, but it wasn't as bad as it could have been (while I was there) There wasn't a teacher that I recognized in the room when I went to drop Natalie off and she did not want me to put her down with the kids. She began to whimper and say nonononono...Thankfully a teacher that recognized Natalie came and took her. As I left Natalie wasn't looking my direction, but she wasn't screaming for me, so that was good.

I did get an email from the director (responding to my email letting them know how potty training was going) letting me know that it was a rough start, but Natalie was back to her smiling self. (I later found out that the first hour was spent crying pretty hard to the point that the director came and got her to take her to see Ms. B (one of her teachers who doesn't join Nat until 9) But the rest of the day was positive. Natalie went on the potty 5 times and only had one accident (which was right after her nap and I figured that someone didn't get to her to take her to the potty in time since she is used to me taking her immediately when her eyes open)
Funny thing is that Natalie still was silent all day according to Ms. B! I just cannot believe that Natalie can have such control over her speaking for such a long period of time! Natalie also informed us that Miles gave her a biiiiiig hug (and at one point, claimed that he said, "I love you so much" to her, but later that story changed to her saying it...so not sure if there is any truth or if Natalie is already daydreaming about her crush) She said that she had fun with her friends today and she is very excited about seeing her friends again tomorrow, so that is good!

Unfortunately (or fortunately??) her other teacher was fired while Natalie was gone. I say unfortunately because we had told her that she would see her teacher today and Natalie was excited about seeing her....Fortunately because we are inferring based on other communication from the day care that there was a major problem that happened with her and they fired her immediately! (yikes!) I am a bit tired of drama in the day care world...thankfully it never directly involves Natalie, but it is still troubling. Thankfully, Natalie seems to like her new teacher and already has mentioned her by name several times!

Here's hoping for more good days and less drama!

Funny Girl

This Photo has nothing to do with the story that follows, but it's just too cute not to share (the photo comes from our trip to La Fiesta mexican restaurant Saturday night). 

So, the story I wanted to share; Natalie was in her high chair eating dinner this evening, when she had her eyes squinted and was holding one hand over her right eye. I asked what was wrong, then asked if she got something in her eye. Her response was "No, I'm a pirate!!" 

This is just one of many, many, MANY instances where her intelligence, imagination and comedic sense of timing (along with a dead pan face) combine to make Nickie and I laugh and appreciate Natalie's personality more and more every day.