Around the House

Todd worked late on Friday night and I had to work on Saturday morning, so the weekend got off to a hectic start, but we did manage to work in some nice downtime with the kiddos as well.

Natalie's really loving her exersaucer now--I think she feels like such a big girl that she can sit up and watch what's going on.  

Nathan and Todd love to watch car and truck videos on You Tube on Todd's phone.  I think this time around they were watching a Dodge Ram that was off-roading.  Nathan is enthralled by the idea that just about any car thing he can think of can be found on the web, and Todd relishes the cuddling and car talk with his favorite dude.

Friday night I was hanging out in the playroom with the kiddos, and Nathan was telling the cutest story about all of his cars and trucks.  Of course as soon as I grabbed my phone and started the video camera he stopped doing it, but it still turned out pretty cute.  And you can also see that Natalie is mastering the skill of sock removal!

After that video, Nathan wanted to make a video of some of his cars and trucks.  :)

Small Victories

As is the case with every homeowner, my around the house to-do list is a mile long with both fun and necessary projects.  Since we can barely keep up with grocery shopping, cooking, laundry and basic cleaning, the to-do list has not seen much progress since Natalie arrived and especially since I returned to work.  I decided that in order to maintain a shred of sanity and at least a slight grasp on my illusion of being a productive human being, I needed to get at least a few small (and way overdue) projects crossed off the list.  

I finally ordered some canvases of the kids!  Steve and Joanna gave me a gift certificate for Christmas for one, and I decided I wanted to do a series of them and found some additional deals on Groupon and Living Social.  I absolutely adore the way they turned out, and continue to be so thankful for Becky's photographic skill.  www.beckyandersonphotography.com

For ages I have been wanting a sofa table to provide some extra storage and a place to set my water glass/wine glass while I'm sitting on the couch.  I used some of my birthday money from Florence and Basil to purchase this one from Ikea, and I'm really pleased with how it's working out!  If I were a fancy blogger I would have removed the breast pump, daycare bag and purse from the cubbies and accessorized the tabletop.  Clearly I'm not a fancy blogger, and you can now see how I avoid at least some on-floor clutter.  Although once Natalie gets mobile I'm going to have to come up with another solution. 

I spent my Christmas money on this dresser for the landing to corral hats and mittens, as well as placemats.

I expanded my hallway art gallery of Becky's photography to include some photos from Natalie's newborn session--it's about time we got some photos of her on the wall with all of Nathan's pics!

Two years ago we repainted our bedroom.  This summer I refinished the dresser.  This week I finally hung up more photos, a mirror and hook on the wall.  Perhaps next year the new headboard and mattress that I'm pining for? 

Again, if I were fancy, I would have put some cute accessories on the dresser.  Instead, I cleared off the clutter and dusted! :)

I picked up a $2.99 drawer organizer at Ikea and finally conquered the chaos of our utensil drawer!!

Video Updates

Here are some recent videos of sweet Natalie.  I love her. :)

5 Months

Monday is Natalie's five month birthday!  Every day she gets more interactive with the world.  She has expanded her variety of cries to express frustration when a toy won't cooperate and irritation when she isn't fetched from her crib immediately upon awakening.  She also continues to increase the variety of her happy squeals and coos.  I've still only heard her laugh once, so hopefully that's the next developmental milestone on the horizon.  Natalie can pretty reliably roll from belly to back now, and has gone from back to belly a few times, but doesn't seem to feel the need to do that very much.  She loves her toys and is starting to really reach and grab for things now.

Nursing and pumping is still going well.  We're in the phase right now where Natalie hasn't started solids yet (we're waiting until she's six months old) but her appetite is increasing.  So that means extra pumping sessions for me.  While it's pretty much the last thing I feel like doing before bed, I don't really mind the additional pumping since it's the first time I've had to worry about my supply this time around rather than the constant stress that I had about supply with Nathan.

Nathan and Natalie are still really good buddies.  Nathan loves his baby sister, and often stops to talk with her or bring her a toy.  Natalie thinks Nathan is the funniest, most talented person she's ever seen.  It's really cute. :)  

Natalie continues to be a pretty laid back and a very smiley, happy baby.  Such a sweetie!  She wasn't really in the mood for a photo shoot this afternoon, so this series of photos doesn't really reflect how smiley she usually is, but she's still really cute.

Nathan wanted to get in on the photo action.  Such cutie pies!

Hi, Mommy, I'm five months old!

Bummed that Nathan left and she still has to sit here and pose

Oh! Nathan's back! A smile!

Checking out the pattern on her quilt

Another smile for big brother

This month she's discovered her feet and toes--fascinating!

And.... SCENE!

Photo shoots are exhausting.

Exersaucer

One night this week I finally got around to getting the exersaucer out of the basement and cleaned it up so that Natalie could check it out.  She thinks it's pretty awesome, but her brother was even more excited about the "new" contraption.  He was so wound up, banging on everything and making the puppet talk.  Natalie was totally entranced by Nathan's command of all the toys.  She loves her big brother!

"Mom, look at all this stuff!"

"See, Natalie, this button makes a duck sound."

Big grins for her brother.

Watching in amazement at the dexterity.

Her little toes barely touch the bottom!

My Sweet Babies

Every day Natalie is becoming more adept at grabbing her toys and stuffing them in her mouth.  Freddy the Firefly is apparently very popular with the four-month-old set; Nathan loved it at that age too.

This morning Nathan was sound asleep when I went in to get him up for school.  So much so that I was able to turn the lights all the way on and take a picture.  I hardly ever get to see him asleep, and he looks so sweet!  Although, I do not know how that position could be even remotely comfortable...

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I was able to spread my birthday celebrations out over almost a week!  Yes, I am talented. :)  On my actual birthday, Dan and Nancy brought over dinner and cake, which was a real treat as I'm never a huge fan of cooking dinner, especially on a weeknight.  My gift from Todd this year was a really nice dinner date at Bistro 120 on the Saturday after my birthday.  It is such a luxury for us to have some time to ourselves and be able to have a complete conversation!  The next day my parents came over with dinner and pie (yes, dinner I didn't have to cook was the wonderful theme of my birthday celebrations--perfection!).  This was the only phase of the celebration that was captured on camera.

Grandma and her favorite girl

 My handsome Dad

 

I can't remember why, but Nathan did NOT want me to take his picture!

Hannah's Birthday

A few weeks ago we headed over to Becky and Andy's house to celebrate Hannah's sixth birthday.  It was so great to be able to celebrate with them--just one more item on the miles-long list of reasons I'm thrilled that we live in the same town again.  The birthday girl is naturally a little bit shy, and having a house full of people was a little overwhelming to her, so we all said "happy birthday" really loudly instead of singing to her, and the only time she had everyone's attention focused on her was when she was opening presents, which she didn't seem to mind. :)

All the big kids and Aunt Becky hanging out with baby Natalie.

The birthday girl making a wish and blowing out her "6" candle.

The party had a rock star theme, so all the kids got cupcake "microphones."

I think it's cute how little Nathan looks sitting at the table with all the big kids.

Sweet boy eating sweets with his blue "rock star hair" extension.

Hannah with her rock star hair.

"Hey Mom, take a picture of me with my rock star hair!"

My fam

Rock stars!

Leah and Nanny

Such a cute rock star!

Beanie was completely fascinated by all the big kids.

Time to open presents

Nathan eating his rock candy