Potty Party

Okay...before all of you, buried in diaper duty, jealously do the math calculating how old Natalie is, fret not, she's not potty trained nor even officially in active potty training...she's simply preoccupied with the potty!

We had her little friend, also named Natalie, over to play last week and this little "also named Natalie" is potty training as we speak (and doing very well, I might add)! Well, our Natalie was all too excited to be the potty cheerleader (clapping and cheering at the sound of a tinkle) that morning and since then has regularly led me by my hand into the bathroom, repeating, "Potty, Mommy. Potty, Mommy" until I lift her up on the seat.

Once there, she sings, she asks for a book, she reads, she talks to herself, she swings her legs with so much excited motion that she nearly loses her balance and falls in and she sings some more. So far, there hasn't been any action, but that does not stop her from grabbing gobs of toilet paper off the roll, "wiping" her tailbone and depositing said gobs of toilet paper into the bowl.

We'll tackle this potty training with more diligence in a few months but in the meantime, I'm happy she's interested...even if it does mean we are going through way too much toilet paper in this house!

Oh Christmas Wree!

I must say, we've had more fun with our tree this year than any other year I can remember. I honestly feel like writing this tree a thank you note. It made this place feel like home this Christmas and for that I am so grateful.

I was so sad when we were still in this temporary living situation as the Christmas season approached and that meant we wouldn't have our family decorations to scatter about this year. I thought of the stockings and Santas and ornaments and such that would spend this Christmas in a cardboard box instead of on our tree and it was so disappointing ...then I snapped out of it when:

a. I realized with the recent economic issues plaguing both our industries...WE were lucky not to be living in a cardboard box this Christmas.
b. I realized a lot of our Christmas decorations are far too breakable for two year old temptations anyways and there would have been a lot more "please don't touch that"s in this house than the season really needs.
c. This tree showed up.



Whenever I can't find Natalie these days, it's only a matter of minutes before the tree starts giggling! Natalie says "bye wree" every time we leave the house and when we come home she stands in front of the dark tree and says, "Mommy!" in a very demanding tone until I plug in the lights. She loves it! She'll miss it. I'll miss it.

Thank you, wree!

What a Christmas!

We had so much fun today with Natalie. She received so many special gifts and honestly loved all of them.
Her two big gifts were a baby doll (and, of course, all the necessary dolly paraphernalia including the stroller, high chair and cradle... at one point it looked like we'd had a miniature baby shower at our house) and a very special tricycle.

About the tricycle...Corey went to Michigan a few weeks ago for the funeral of a very dear family friend and when he was there he found the Brooks family tricycle sitting in the barn covered in rust and missing both pedals. Well, while he was there, he decided to give it a new look and a new life so he sanded, scraped, painted and polished until it looked like new again. Thanks to Uncle John, it even has two new wood pedals! Corey put the refurbished parts in boxes, Grandma Betty shipped it to Phoenix, and Corey had the timeless Daddy experience of putting together a tricycle and discovering he was missing one critical bolt. A few trips to the hardware store and the project was complete!


I think that tricycle must feel proud and excited to have another little Brooks enjoy it!

Natalie loves her new baby doll, but at first she struggled with not being the baby that got to sit in the little high chair, ride in the little stroller and rest in the little cradle. Goldilocks had to try all of it and realize for herself that everything was just a bit too small. We were able to get a picture of her trying out the cradle...luckily the kink in her neck convinced her it was okay to just let her doll enjoy it from now on.

And a special thanks to our Christmas visitors this week. Aunt Ashley came up and spent Sunday and Monday with us and Grandma and Grandpa "C" came to town for Christmas Eve and Christmas morning. Grandpa "C" is now officially "Papa", according to Natalie, and Grandma "C" is praying for a "Natalie Nickname" very soon!

Love you all so much. And thank you, everyone in Reno (and Greenville, SC), for your special gifts that arrived in the mail this week. What a lucky little girl we have!

Merry Christmas!

Excitement is in the air around here! Natalie's not sure what this holiday and all it's trimmings are all about quite yet, but she's liking it! The last couple of days she literally runs in circles around the house for no apparent reason other than she's just so excited to have a tree in the living room with goodies underneath it and her grandparents at the front door with goodies in their arms! Grandma and Grandpa "C" have come to spend a few days with us and it's been so much fun!

We can't wait for her to open her presents...Corey and I haven't been this excited on Christmas Eve for years!

Merry Christmas to all of you!

Poor Santa...

I took Natalie to see Santa at the mall yesterday and it did not go well. She was so excited standing in line...this is Natalie looking up at the Christmas tree lights above her...

Pure Christmas bliss!

Then, only 5 short minutes later...

What a nice Santa, though...he still gave Natalie a book about Christmas as she fled...now that's the spirit!

Tissue, please...

Natalie watches me wipe my nose with a tissue about a million times a day. (I've had a perpetual stuffy/runny nose since about the 3rd grade). I'm always sticking my tissues in my pockets, or if I don't have pockets, I stick them up my sleeve. Well, now Natalie has a perpetual runny nose and she wants to carry a tissue around with her, too. The other day, she "asked" for a tissue and when she was finished delicately dabbing her nose, she tucked it in the pocket of her jammies just like I do.

That was unusual, because, you see, a used tissue is trash and Natalie loves to dispose of trash. Most of the time, she wipes her nose with the tissue and then immediately heads to the trash can under the kitchen sink to dispose of it. I hear that cabinet door open and shut all day and I'm always a little worried about what she's throwing away. Most of the time it's a used tissue or a little piece of something she found on the carpet. Well, occasionally I give her her favorite afternoon snack of crackers and cheese in a little plastic Tupperware bowl to carry around and eat at her leisure. When I went to take out the trash today, there sat the empty Tupperware on the top of the garbage! Now we just need to teach her how to re-use and recycle...everything but tissues, that is!

Goodnight Moon

Last night, as I was putting Natalie to bed, she noticed the beautiful (almost) full moon out her window. She pointed, she "oohed", she "aahhed", she waved, she said, "mow" (apparently, that's "moon")...she was captivated. I turned out her bedroom light so she could see it even better and this really wowed her! I put her to bed and told her to watch that moon.

Well, this afternoon when I put her down for her nap, she looked out the window and pointed to the spot in the sky where the moon sat last night and looked at me puzzled. Where did it go? she asked with her eyebrows. I explained that the moon goes to sleep during the day. She then walked over to her light switch and said "up,up". I lifted her up and she toggled the light switch, turning her light on, then off...then she went over to the window again and looked for the moon. Again, she was disappointed.

I think she thought by turning off her bedroom light last night that I turned on the moon. Sweet little one.

Well tonight I thought I'd make moon watching more of an event. After her bath, I bundled her up (it's actually a little chilly here now) and we went on a walk around our condo complex. I was so excited to turn the corner and watch her see the fullest moon ever. But...it was cloudy. Not everywhere. Not overhead. But in front of the moon the clouds were thick and stormy. I walked us back to our house so disappointed. It's NEVER cloudy here...why tonight? Natalie was fine. She had no idea what she was missing. But I knew. Oh well, the next full moon is January 11th...I already googled it.

Christmas at the Condo

Because we have all sorts of room this year and the Christmas tree doesn't have to compete for space with a furniture item of any kind, we decided to bring home the biggest tree that would fit in Corey's truck! It's big and fat, REALLY filled in on top and a little bare at the bottom (oddly enough) and we love it. It's only decorated from the waist up, due to a little one obsessed with the glimmering "balls" hanging on almost every branch. I stayed up way too late last night decorating it and it's the most normal I've felt since we moved here. Don't get me wrong, daily life outside of these condo walls feels very normal, but when we come home it just doesn't feel like OUR home. But the presence of this tree, even dressed in unfamiliar, generic ornaments (thank goodness for the 50% ornament sale at Cost Plus)has helped us to feel like we really are home for the holidays.
I tried to get a picture of Natalie next to the tree, but she's only interested in walking around, crawling under and scooting into the tree...not really posing next to it. She's obsessed with touching the little fake red berries and the "ball" ornaments. Occasionally, she wraps her tiny hand around one of the balls, pulls it loose with all her might, creating a pine needle spewing tree shake and then says, "oups" when the ball lands on the floor as if it was a total accident.

Caught fake red berry handed!

Her Favorite Things...

Natalie is growing into such a unique little person. I just thought I'd share a few things that make Natalie Ann such a wanna-squeeze-her-most-of-the-time cutie pie:

She's obsessed with trash and litter. She has the eyes of a hawk, I tell you, and she sees everything from gum wrappers and bottle caps to tiny "made in China" stickers WHEREVER we go. The best part is, she cannot rest until she's deposited her trash treasures into a legitimate trash can. At the park, she spends more time picking up trash and taking each piece (one by one) to the trash can than she does on any of the play equipment. What a little steward of the earth she is.

She is obsessed with all things round and shouts "ball" whenever she sees a polk-a-dot on a sock, a small plastic bb at the park, or, of course, an actual ball of any breed. I had a lovely zit in the middle of my forehead the other day and she pointed to this perfectly round and red annoyance and shouted, "ball"! Great. I explained to her that it was not a ball, but a Mommy owie. Now every morning when she sees my uncovered blemishes she frowns, shakes her head, points to each of them and says very sympathetically, "oh, Mommy...owie!"

She says "hi" to everyone and I mean everyone. This condo complex where we're renting is not filled the friendliest folk, but that does not discourage her one bit. Natalie doesn't let the lack of eye contact stand in the way of a good and cheerful greeting. By saying "hi" to everyone from neighbors at the mail boxes to checkers at the grocery store, she snaps people out of their own little worlds for a minute and usually gets a pleasant response. It's been a lesson to me, actually, as I'm not often the initiator with smiles and hellos but thanks to Natalie I've seen how such simple gestures can brighten a day.

She's OBSESSED with shoes. I know I've done quite a few posts about this but that is because it is a major part of her life. She points to my slippers as soon as I get her out of the crib in the morning and she shouts, "schoos", "schoos" until I surrender them. There is no shoe too large or clunky that deters her...she'll try any she can find. We were invited to dinner the other night by very dear and longtime family friends of Corey's, the Stoneburners. Another guest at dinner and longtime friend, Beth Smith, was wearing flats and one was nearly falling off her foot as she bounced her crossed leg while we talked. Well, this drove Natalie nuts. A shoe that's almost off the owner's foot and almost available for the taking...it was too much to bear! Beth had no idea as we talked and she bounced that leg and foot that barely held onto that flat that Natalie was standing right next to her lifting her own little foot up and trying to wedge it into that half empty shoe mid-bounce. I was laughing so hard. Poor Beth, had she known Natalie longer than 1 hour she would have (probably) gladly surrendered her shoe but she just had no idea of the angst she was causing our little footwear fanatic!

And finally, coloring! This child is a born artist! She is perfectly happy with paper (and anything will do...receipts I'd hoped to save, grocery lists that haven't been put to use yet, and occasionally, actual blank paper) and a writing utensil (pens are preferred but crayons will do). She will sit for an hour and just draw on anything and with anything she can find! I actually have to write lists and thank you notes when she's asleep or not looking because if she sees me reach for a pen I'll absolutely have to set her little "artwork hour" up!

What a delight getting to know her continues to be! She turned 22 months old on Tuesday...22 months...that is so almost 2 and I can't believe it!

Happy Girl

Natalie had a good day today. She was happy and playful and feeling better. She's had a rough couple of weeks.

She came down with a cold around the middle of November and that turned into a bad cold which then turned into an ear infection which then morphed into a really bad cold that settled in her lungs resulting in a terrible cough, numerous trips to the doctor's office, nebulizer treatments morning, noon and night, two antibiotics (after the first one did little to help her feel better) and inhalant steroids! No wonder we're all exhausted around here!

Last night was the first night in over a week that we haven't had to do the nebulizer during the middle of the night (for a while it was every four hours...it felt like we had a newborn again). We have been so spoiled because she has been the healthiest kid we know. That is until we moved to Phoenix and her stir crazy mama decided she needed to be in every toddler activity in this zip code.

She loves the weekly social schedule, but let's face it, toddlers don't like to share anything but GERMS! She's around a lot of runny noses throughout the week and this is her third cold since we've lived here (not even 3 months). Hopefully healthier days are ahead!

Today we celebrated our first "feel good day" in quite some time by getting a latte. For those of you who remember this latte drama, our neighborhood Starbucks now gives Natalie an ice water of her very own so her mother can actually take her time and enjoy her beverage! Thank you, Starbucks!



I know this much...we'll never take a healthy kid for granted again!

A Squatter's Feast

You might think that having no furniture might keep one from hosting Thanksgiving...well, think again! We inherited this piece of furniture from Aunt Jackie and Uncle Mike recently and it (along with some Target folding chairs) seated 7 of us quite comfortably and stylishly for a Thanksgiving feast. It's just the coolest piece of furniture. This is how it looks most of the time...

And this is what it's capable of turning into...

It's just the coolest thing...it was my great grandmother's piece and most of the time it looks like a sideboard, but it's capable of expanding into a table that seats 11 or 12 people. The leaves of the table are stored inside and the front of the piece separates from the base and stretches across the room to create the base of the table. Can you tell I'm totally into furniture?...I am so excited about this thing I've almost devoted a whole blog post to it.
So, back to the feast...we had a great time and Natalie entertained us as usual.


After dinner she talked to the Michigan group while wearing Grandma C's shoes (on the wrong feet)!

Giving her new pony a kiss (a very cool gift from Grandpa C that has pony sound effects (you know, trotting and "neighing") and a "swooshing" tail)!

It was a fun couple of days and we thank Grandma and Grandpa C and Aunt Ashley and Uncle Matt for travelling to spend it with us. It was a Thanksgiving without a parade or football (no cable), without fancy dishes or serving pieces (in storage) and without coats or scarves (no need) but we still had the best time celebrating!

Happy Thanksgiving.....

We want to wish all of you a very Happy Thanksgiving. We had quite the feast today and I'll post more pictures of it tomorrow, but I just had to share this little shot of Natalie Ann with all of you. We are so thankful to share our life with this happy, healthy, growing, opinionated, loving, imaginative, creative, sensitive, inquisitive, talkative, all around adorable little girl.

Hair Accessories, Anyone?

Natalie's hair continues to create a quandary for her mother. I just don't know if we should trim it or leave it and just keep trimming her bangs. The reason I'm hesitant to trim it is that her beautiful little curls are only at the bottom and if I have them trimmed off and they don't come back I'll be devastated.

So, that brings us to hair accessories.....the only way to keep her hair out of her face! I found these cute little bow clips at Target and Natalie promised she'd wear them if I let her grab them off the rack and play with them in the cart (yeah...like she knew what she was agreeing to!...she'll say "yeah" to anything if it involves me taking something off a store shelf and handing it to her). Well, little did I know how serious she was.

This was the hair plan...one cute little clip holding back her hair in front.....



This, however, is Natalie's idea of wearing hair accessories....she wanted them ALL on at once. Good grief!


She's been sick all week, poor little peanut, so I wasn't about to take the excess clips out and make her upset...so, off we went to the post office...just like this!

"Seeol"

Natalie's breakfast of choice these days is cereal, or "seeol" as she says it! She eats a bowl of granola cereal every morning and finishes off every last drop of cereal milk! I think this is her new favorite food, because everytime I ask her if she's hungry, she starts repeating, "seeol", "seeol", "seeol", regardless of what time of day (or night) it is!

Stickers!

Natalie is crazy for stickers. A sheet of stickers can keep her busy for anywhere from 30 seconds to 30 minutes, depending on the day! She received this sheet of stickers in a really cute Halloween card from Grandma Betty and Grandpa Franc the other day and she had so much fun decorating herself, as you can see!

Girls Weekend!

Yet another fabulous weekend! Cousins Aimee and Emma and Aunt Ashley all came to our house this weekend to celebrate Emma's 6th birthday! Corey was studying and working most of the weekend so, in addition to being a 6th birthday celebration, it was pretty much a girls weekend that we've all been craving for a long time!

We had such a great time....on Friday we lounged around at the pool where Aimee and Emma were staying and it was beautiful. Aunt Ashley was such a good sport...she could have stayed with them in their nice hotel room but, instead, she camped out in our living room with minimal amenities. (Thank you, Ash, we love you and your good sport spirit! We promise to have furniture again someday....and at the very least, an extra blanket before your next visit! She froze, poor girl!)

On Friday night we went to the Rainforest Cafe and I was so afraid all the jungle animal theatrics would freak Natalie out, but, in pure Natalie fashion, she loved every minute of it. She even said "boo" to the gorillas that were near our table when they started moving and then proceeded to do her version of their gorilla dance!

On Saturday we had a 6th birthday pizza party with an ice cream cake and I think Natalie had just as much fun with Emma's presents as the birthday girl did. By Sunday night when everyone left, Natalie was sitting at the front door saying "Emma", "Emma" as they drove away. She just loves her older cousin so much!

What a great weekend....thanks so much for coming to town, girls!

We can't wait to do it again! Love you all so much.

 

A whole latte drama!

I'm learning more and more about toddler hood everyday....

1. A tantrum is no fun if no one is paying attention.

2. If a food is being refused for any reason (even if that food was the absolute favorite the day before) an often successful solution is for the parent to pretend to eat it (or actually take a few bites) and then act like he/she doesn't want to give it up! This seems to make the toddler suddenly HAVE TO HAVE IT!

3. Quiet is not good....ever....unless the toddler is sleeping!

Today's lesson:

4. "Giving in" to the screaming fit might not be the best long term message or solution, but it's often necessary to save the sanity of the parent and the relationship with the neighbors.

Natalie's latest obsession is my iced latte cups! When the rare opportunity arises for me to treat myself to an iced latte at a drive through Starbucks there is a major protest in the backseat. I've started ordering an extra straw because I thought that's what Natalie wanted.

Well, today she was beside herself, even with the extra straw to play with. She screamed all the way home and once home, she didn't stop screaming. I put her little straw in a cup of water.....that didn't work. I added ice cubes to her water to further resemble my latte....that didn't work. She was screaming and begging for my latte. So, I decided to drink it fast, empty the ice out of my cup, rinse it out and fill that with water......in an instant the tantrum was over and Natalie happily wandered out of the kitchen with her water in the Starbucks cup drinking out of my straw!




After I filled it up about 4 times, she set it down by the back door, went outside onto the patio and, before she started playing, turned around and pointed her finger at me and from her tone the best I can figure is she was instructing me not to take her latte cup away while she was outside.




Good grief! I wonder if Starbucks will take pity on me next time and give me a free cup of ice water with a straw to give to Natalie so that I can actually take my time enjoying my overpriced treat!