Ahoy, Wilmington!

So, last week, I took the little princess up to Wilmington, NC. We stayed with my Dad while Micah was at his conference in Orlando.

Unfortunately, there was a huge tropical storm remnant stuck over coastal NC from Monday onward, so we had to come up with some more interesting things to do than go play at the beach. Though, we did get to play at the beach on Monday morning before the clouds rolled in and Natalie had a blast. She didn't quite get the point of my sand castles and wasn't at all impressed by my magical pail-mold skills, but she thought that it was fun to knock down my towers after I made them. And she wanted to go in the water, so like an idiot I thought I would just let her wade. It took about 3 waves before she managed to soak herself head to foot.

One of the best days we enjoyed was at the children's museum. We were there for 5 hours and Natalie still had to dragged away and rushed through the last few exhibits.

Here, at the pretend dentist's office, she brushes a dinosaur's teeth.

They had a teddy bear doctor's office, a tree house jungle gym, blocks, puzzles, puppets and other toddler toys. Then, downstairs was a science exhibit. I expected it to be above her, but she LOVED it.

Next time we're having trouble passing time, I will have to pull out a bulb syringe! At this station, she LOVED squeezing the colored water and mixing it in her little dish.

We stayed there so long, I had to entertain myself and mix some colors.

Here, Natalie remains oblivious to the magnets that she is supposed to move around into pictures from the cards and instead has a blast shuffling through all of the cards

They had a wonderful arts and crafts area. Natalie got to paint and use a glue stick for the first time. Both the painting and collage were very messy and difficult and it was hard to restrain myself from grabbing away her supplies and doing it for her. I eased my control anxiety by instead making a painting and collage of my own.

Ahoy, Wilmington!

In addition to the children's museum, we went to the aquarium. We loved it, though Natalie was very unhappy because about 3/4 through, I couldn't carry her anymore. I wanted her to walk from tank to tank and then I would pick her up and show her the tank. But she didn't want to walk and she melted into the floor and kicked and screamed. So our trip was shortened a bit.

We did enjoy just hanging around the house. Natalie was very excited for the change of scenery. She loved pumpkin and anabeth (dogs) and all of the new toys and avenues for destruction. We had both Sammy and Nick, so it was a little crazy. Sammy behaved very poorly, but Nick was sweet as always, though pumpkin awakened within him amorous longings of which I didn't think him capable.

Here, Natalie picks the strawberries out of Grandma's Special K

Playing dress up with a box of princess stuff.

It was a great trip and we are excited to go back for Thanksgiving. Natalie loved Grandma and Grandpa and Gabby. I was happy that she took so well to them so quickly, since she can sometimes be shy and clam up. I guess it helped that Grandpa had a cookie jar.

Micah's conference was a huge success. It's too bad; I was rooting for a colossal failure so that Dr. Gaylord could see that he really gave Micah too much to do. Now, he can feel validated and load Micah up with too much work in the future without concern. Grr. 

I Scream, You Scream

Just thought I would show off to my sister Darlene, who got a defective carton of Breyers Blasts Reeses PB Cup ice Cream a while ago. THIS is what it should look like when you dig into it. 

And here's Natalie playing with the baby we're watching. They've been entertaining each other quite well. But it's impossibly hard to get either of them down for a nap. The other can't stand not being paid attention to and cries, thus keeping the other one from going to sleep. Urgh. It drives me nuts. Second children must just get used to falling asleep easily under whatever circumstances.

Development

Natalie has been growing a lot. Lately, she has been saying a lot of new words and can repeat things that we say more easily. She's also putting words together into phrases and responding to questions. For example, we had this lovely conversation last week:
*Natalie rolling on the ground with some fabric scraps*
Me: Natalie, I think it's time for a nap
Natalie: No
Me: Why not?
Natalie: still fun *continues rolling around*
She's also becoming more self-conscious and just scowls when nice people at the store or park try to tell her how cute she is.

This week, we will be babysitting a 4-month-old all day, every day. It will be interesting to see how Natalie responds to her. It should be manageable- her mom and her previous babysitter insist that she's a very easy-going baby. And she doesn't move yet, so Natalie shouldn't feel too threatened. Also, she's not so young and delicate that I have to worry about Natalie snapping off her head. Natalie is very curious about all of these "new" toys that I dug out for the baby.

It should provide a welcome distraction as Micah comes down to his last week of preparation before the conference. I'm taking Natalie and the dogs to visit my Dad in NC while Micah's  gone the week after. My biggest concern is that Natalie will be bored and scream the whole time and the dogs will howl and it will just be very, very annoying. I'm considering moving her car seat to forward-facing just so that she is entertained by the novelty of it.

In unrelated news, check out these awesome bagels I made. They are from a copycat recipe for Einstein Bros Bagels everything bagels. They were AMAZING and probably contained about 1200 calories each.

I've been super clumsy lately, spilling and dropping things. Around 10 am the other day, I dropped Natalie's cup of milk as I was trying to get the sippy cup lid on. It was my 3rd large spill that morning. I'm so glad I have the dogs around! They simplify cleanup considerably. 

And as it's gotten colder, we've been pulling out all of the long pants that still fit Natalie. She realized yesterday that she could put her hands down her overalls but then couldn't figure out how to get them out. Ha!

Bapa? Marc?

Micah's been really busy lately. Like REALLLLY busy. Gone 70+ hours a week, getting up before 4am just to keep working on all that he has to do. He is going to a conference (for which they are grossly unprepared) on the second week of October, so maybe after that things will slow down a bit for him. Like maybe he'll be able to sleep in until 6 like a normal person. It's hard because I know he is exhausted and stressed, but my sympathy is outweighed by my own self-pity, as it's been tough for Natalie and I with him gone so much.

It's been pretty taxing on Natalie, who seems to be developing some separation anxiety. Last time Natalie stayed at the YMCA nursery, they said she cried "dada" the whole time. When I picked her up, they were confused at why she was calling for daddy since she came with me. I told them that her dad works a lot and they all nodded with understanding and gushed about how she must miss him. Often when she can't fall asleep and is screaming in her crib, she cries "dada, dada" over and over again. Yesterday, she was saying, "Dada, go home. Dada, go home." It's so sad. I always just tell her that he's at work and we'll see him later. This afternoon as she was screaming, I went up to offer her some water and calm her down and she was asking, "Dada?" and so I told her that he was at work and that we would see him later. Then came the question that surprised me. "Bapa? Marc?" Bapa is what she calls Micah's dad who lives north of us. Her Uncle Marc lives in WA and she hasn't seen him since January, so she mostly knows him from a family picture. I told her that Grandpa was at his home and Marc was at his home and that we would see them later. She settled down for a while and I left, then got worked up again, so I went back up and she was crying for me to rock her, so I sat with her on the rocking chair and she said, "Dada work. Bapa work. Marc work." Then she mournfully slipped off to sleep. It was so sad :( It's like she misses Micah so much she's transferring it onto other men, too. I mean, she knows Grandma and Chere and Shelly from the same picture and in person, but she didn't ask about them. Pobrecita.

Cake

I just baked the most awesome chocolate cake ever. Used my no-fail from-scratch recipe. Baked to perfection. It smelled amazing. I got ingredients for a fabulous whipped cream cheese topping. As I removed it from the oven, the dish towel I was using to hold the hot pan slipped and it teetered on one hand and the towel for one sickening second, fell towards my other uncovered hand and burned my forearm, and then fell with great force onto the tile floor, where the pyrex pan shattered and cake and glass shards flew to every corner of the kitchen. For some reason, I feel like it is the most tragic thing that has ever occurred in human history and I couldn't stop crying as I cleaned up the kitchen. The combined crying, bending over and heat coming from the oven combined to make me feel pretty faint. So now, I sit here. Teetering on the edge, cakeless, miserable. Life is such a sad, sad thing. So sad, I think I'll go buy a cake to make myself feel better.

On a happier note, have you seen this video?

Brooklynn will love it. As does Natalie...

Another blaugh week. There has been a lot of laying around and a lot of sesame street viewing. And a lot of whining and crying.

I got a YMCA membership, which I am excited about. They have a nursery where I can drop off Natalie while I exercise, but she has been a little hysterical there the 2 times I've gone. Hopefully she'll get over it.

Just like how she'll hopefully get over this not-sleeping thing. She is currently screaming in her crib because she doesn't want to take a nap. The past 2 nights, she screamed forever before going to sleep. And she is waking up like 5 times in the night, usually wanting a drink of water, a kiss on her hand where she accidentally bit herself, or just for us to hug her and tell her to lay back down and go to sleep. It is making me crazy.

She likes to put on other people's shoes. Here she is in her stockings and diaper cover after church (dress removed for lunch), reading a book while sporting my new sneakers.

Blaugh

Lately, I have been feeling super tired and unmotivated. Maybe a combo of end of summer blues, not getting out of the house enough and Natalie waking up at night. I was excited that my mom came to visit for a couple of days last week- things had been getting REALLLLY monotonous- but since then, I just don't feel like a mess. 

While my mom was visiting, we would move Natalie from her crib into the packnplay in our room when we went to sleep. This way, my mom could use the bed in Natalie's room without having to get up with her at night. It worked out nicely because Natalie would just climb out of her packnplay onto our bed when she woke up at night and I could go on sleeping with minimal disruption. Maybe we should go back to that?

This morning at 2 a.m. I woke up in Natalie's bed with her. My memory of how I got there couldn't have been right- I remembered my mom getting up with her and wondering if she was sick or in pain and trying to give her medicine, then I went in and said that I would take over and laid down with her. My mom has been gone several days. I guess I'm a little delirious.

Natalie has been good at stacking blocks for a while now, but usually only makes it to 3 or 4 before she is overcome by the urge to knock it over and scream "crash!" Her taller towers hopefully indicate a developing sense of self-constraint.

And here she is watching her bedtime show with all her posse.