One Month Old

I wanted to get a cute picture of Nathan and Natalie, and while I didn't get the perfect one these were all pretty cute. Nathan is such a great big brother to his sister. He is always so sweet with her. It is funny to hear him repeating phrases I have used. Like "Hello sweetheart." and "You are such a cute baby." Alli asked him if he held her a lot and his response was "No you guys are always holding her."

This has been a fun month. It seems like it went way fast. Natalie has worked into a nice routine for eating and sleeping. She now eats every three hours during the day and wakes up once in the night to eat between 2 and 3 AM. She is definitely growing because many of her newborn outfits no longer fit her.

Nathan and his friend Adam enjoying a bowl of Kix.

Nathan playing games on my ipod touch.

Nathan playing with Chevron cars at grandma's house.

Natalie trying to open her eyes while hanging out in her bouncer.

Papa holding Natalie. One of the few times her eyes are open and also one of the few times she is keeping the binky in her mouth.

Week Four

Nathan enjoyed Halloween quite a bit this week. he was able to celebrate several times. Starting with a Halloween party at his friends Will and Jake's house. Then a party at preschool and finally he was able to go trick or treating. We went with some neighbors one was Batgirl and the other a darling witch. Since Nathan was Batman he and Ellie fit well together. Natalie was a cow. The outfit was a bit large on her. The hat was humongous no way on earth that was fitting her. But it kept her nice and warm in dad's arms as Nathan trick or treated.

The other highlight of the week was Ryan blessing Natalie. We had almost our entire family together. Both Ryan's sisters were there as well as both of our parents. I had five of my six brothers and my sister there. We also had many extended family and friends there. It was a neat day. Natalie was so good through all of church. Of course it did rain. It rains anytime I plan a gathering at our house. But it went well anyway. It was so fun to have my parents stay with us for a few days before taking off to Hawaii. Of course the day after they left we got several inches of snow. It's just not fair.

Week Three

She has started to open her eyes once in awhile. She still sleeps quite well. She is such a good baby. We feel so blessed.

Nathan talked us into carving his pumpkins this week. You can see he really enjoyed it.

It was such a nice day we decided to go for a walk. Natalie didn't take to the idea at first. But before long she was back to sleeping soundly.

Roland and Lizzy had their baby girl this week. We went to visit them in the hospital. Isabel was actually born on Natalie's original due date. She has such blond hair and looks so much like her sister.

Nathan also had his last soccer game this week. He will miss playing with his team. He had such a great experience his first year playing soccer.

Week Two

We had our ups and downs this week. Nathan must have seen something on one of his cartoons about gingerbread men because for several days he had been trying to get me to make gingerbread men. He finally talked me into it. We don't have a gingerbread cookie cutter so we took some various shapes from his play dough bin and washed them to use on our gingerbread. We made special gingerbread so Nathan could eat it. It took lots longer to make than he had expected. But in the end he got to "decorate" his cookie. He didn't end up liking gingerbread but had fun with the candy he had picked out at the store.

Here is my complaint about that shopping trip. I had gone to buy ribbon two days before Natalie was born to make bows. Once I was home I realized I had been charged for 54.4 yards of ribbon instead of 5.44 yards. The difference was something like $16 but was a pain right to have to return to fix the problem not to mention I couldn't use that ribbon until I got it sorted out. Well, because Natalie came early I wasn't able to get to the store to return it until a week and a half later and this time with two kids in tow. I went to customer service and waited in the long line to be told I had to go back to the cutting table and have the ribbon measured. I tried to explain what had happened but was told there was nothing they could do until I had it measured. So we went and stood in that long line. Longer than usual with Halloween being so close. Finally we got it all measured and checked out with our other items before returning to wait in the customer service line once again. This time I was told the person at the cutting table had not provided the right information and they tried to send me back there again but I refused telling them the problem once again and that it was their mistake and I had already spent too much of my time trying to fix their mistake. She finally saw the light and refunded my $16. What a pain!

Friday Nathan complained that his stomach hurt and that afternoon proved it really did my throwing up. Not a little throw up may I add I used a cup and scooped cup fulls into a bowl. He had been sitting on our new couch so three of our cushion covers had to be dry cleaned. He continued throwing up for about 24 hours always making it in the bowl he carried with him. he was really a good sport about it. The next afternoon he had a soccer game. He really wanted to go and since he had missed his game the week before I decided to take him. Ryan went to the football game so I took Natalie with us. She stayed in her car seat the whole time. Nathan played off and on but not too hard since he was feeling a bit under the weather. He never had a fever or any other symptoms. I ended up checking the reactions from the vaccines he had gotten that Monday and it said that one in fifty children vomit 4-6 days later. So I think that is what it was from.

We had the Wagstaffs over to celebrate Terri's birthday that Sunday. Her birthday is exactly one week after Nathan and Natalie's.

Natalie is still such a great sleeper and we found out on her two week checkup that she was 7 pounds 5 ounces and 19 and a half inches long. So she is getting enough to eat. I asked if we should be worried about how much she sleeps and I was reassured it was just fine as long as she was eating well. So we will just be grateful for a good sleeper for now.

Week One

The first week Natalie's life she pretty much slept through. This is the closest to eyes open I could get. My parents stayed with us until the 12th. It was so nice to have them here. My dad held Natalie almost the entire time. Sunday I had to take her back to the hospital to get her blood drawn to check for Jaundice. Luckily she was still doing well no lights needed. Monday I took both Nathan and Natalie in to our new pediatrician. Nathan for his four year check up and Natalie for a follow up visit from the hospital. It was my first adventure with two kids and I thought I was doing pretty good. I liked the doctor okay she was very nice and I could tell she knows what she's talking about. I wasn't too impressed with the facility but I think when the new hospital is built that will improve. But the nurse was terrible. Nathan had to have four shots. He was scared to death. I was trying to reassure him and make him feel okay about it. Natalie who was still undressed from her exam was not so happy about being left to fend for herself, so she was crying. The nurse came in and had Nathan lay back with his legs dangling off the table. I held his arms and looked at his face trying to distract him. Well as soon as she went to poke his leg he moved his leg (what kid wouldn't) the needle went through his leg and started bleeding, it left quite a bruise too. Shouldn't the nurse hold the leg while she gives the shot? As if that weren't enough she says well if your going to move your leg of course it's going to hurt. HELLO!!! He is FOUR years old. I couldn't believe it. He of course is hysterical at this point and Natalie is crying and he still needs three more shots. I left there and promised him he wouldn't ever have to go back. I made Natalie's two week old appointment with our old pediatrician. We work with the nurse 90% of the time and there was no way I was going through that again. Nathan was a good sport when it was all said and done. He still wanted to go to Isabel's house to play. Thank you Angie for taking him that day. It helped to distract him.

Here is Nathan playing Candyland. He played a piece for him and one for Natalie. I played my own person and the picture above is Nathan's way of discarding the cards during that particular game. He is so cute with Natalie. He loves to hold her and makes sure everyone that comes to visit washes their hands before they hold her. He is a good big brother.