Halloween went pretty well. Natalie was excited to trick-or-treat with her friend Ray. Ray was Bumblebee from Transformers, and Natalie was a purple-monster...a friendly one though (despite putting on her costume promptly growling at anyone in view!). Both kids were very excited and were able to knock on the door and say the traditional "Trick-or-Treat!" They only needed a few reminders to say "Thank You," and only a couple of times did we have to prevent the kids from inviting themselves into someone's house!!! Ray was great at striking up a conversation with just about every neighbor, and it was oftentimes funny and cute! For one house, Ray was first to the door. Natalie was a little behind, and by the time she reached the door, Ray had already knocked, made his plea, and received candy. The neighbor knew Natalie was coming, though he closed the door to get more candy. Natalie was very worried, screaming "TRICK-OR-TREAT!" She did not want to be forgotten. As I mentioned, she lasted about as long as I did, so that worked out perfectly.
I have realized that Natalie is picking up more and more of what we say and do. So, we really need to start being more conscientious.
***I overheard her playing with her pretend cell phone, talking to April (who lives at the airport!!!! She has mentioned this several times over the last couple weeks. I had to explain that April does not live there, but since she lives far away she flies on a plane to come visit. Natalie only recalls us going there to pick her up so, naturally, she lives there!). Well, with this phone, when you close it, it rings as if the phone is receiving a call. Natalie pops it open and mutters, "Ahhhh! It's a telemarketer." She's also very good about telling anyone how annoying they are.
***Last Friday I told her we had dance school that night. She loves it, so she says to me, "Mommy, I don't want to dawdle today. I don't want to be late for dance school. I'm not dawdling!"
***Mom-mom has been accompanying us on several shopping trips lately, since I can't really handle walking around very long. Well, there are times when Mom-mom seems to disappear without a trace. On a couple of recent trips, we finally caught up with her, and when Natalie saw her start to walk ahead or in a different direction she screams out, "Mom-mom don't bugger off again!" I can't help but laugh. I realize that I mumble to myself something to the affect of, "Mom-mom has buggered off again! Where is she!"
***Over the last couple of weeks, Natalie has developed a fear of smoke detectors. She has a "Little People" book where the kids go on various field trips. One of them is to the fire house. One night, as Dan read this story to her before bedtime, she asked a ton of questions about the fire house. She's not afraid of firefighters, but she really dislikes the engines because of the loud noise (funny, I never thought anything loud would bother Natalie, but fire engines and fire works do). Dan talked about different firefighting things for a good 10 minutes or more, including telling her that mommy and daddy used to be firefighters and pointing out the smoke detector in her room. He went on to explain the purpose of the detector and what happens if there's a fire. Ever since then she's been afraid that it's going to make noise. After a particularly rough day trying to get her to nap, (I walked up and down the stairs a good 6 times...normally something I can handle, but not in my current condition, and pleaded over an hour and a half that the smoke detector was there to protect her...blah, blah, blah...she didn't buy it. In fact she said, "You and Daddy need to protect me." I told her we were doing that by having the smoke detector...not good enough. I finally broke down with "I'm sorry I'm doing a sucky job, but you need to go to sleep NOW. I am NOT walking up these stairs again!" Of course, I felt even worse after that)...anyhow I digress, Dan had to lay in her bed one night for awhile to get her to sleep. I was afraid that this would start something we didn't want to deal with, so the next night Dan agreed to sit in the chair, the night after that he sat on the steps with the door open, and the next night he sat on the steps with the door closed. She still mentions her fear of the detector, but for the last couple of nights she has gone to bed without needing any extra support. I think it helps that she seems to be transitioning to no naps, so is getting tired earlier and is actually eager to get to bed. Now, if I can just make sure she gets to bed earlier, we might eliminate some of the tantrums that have started!!!! (Since typing this post a month ago, Natalie's fear seems to have subsided. She will often inform us, "I'm not going to be afraid of the smoke detector anymore." We have been getting back into a normal bed time routine, and that has been great).
***Natalie loves getting her hair cut. Once opposed to the Cartoon Cut gimic, I realize that for Natalie it is a great thing. She has always been pretty easy at trying something new, but I truly wasn't sure how she'd be with getting a haircut. She LOVES it and will often ask to get her hair cut. She loves getting shampooed, and will say,"This feels so good." Of course that's after multiple reminders to the lady to "be careful not to get it in my eyes or pull my hair." She will also comment on the cartoons as she is getting her hair cut, and will continuously remind the cutter to "be careful! Don't cut yourself with those scissors." After one particular trip about a month ago, I decided to fluff out her hair! I didn't have them dry her hair (it was still fairly warm at the time), and so with it being wet and combed through, the curls were not bouncing up yet. Natalie became irritated with me, exclaiming, "Mommy! I just got my hair cut! You're messing it up."
***Just a few days ago I was making some faces and mildly (for once) groaning over my aches and pains carrying this large child around! Natalie asked me what was wrong, and I said "Your brother just keeps growing and growing." Natalie walked up and put her face to my belly and said very calmly but assertively, "Brother, stop growing in there."
***Natalie is still loving dance class, and actually will be in a recital on June 14th at Northeast High School (where I graduated from!). We decided to take her to see the Nutcracker Ballet, being performed at Northeast, as part of our holiday festivities. We gathered with some friends and family and explained to Natalie about the show. I also read her the story the day before so she would have an idea of what was going on (for my benefit too, because I have never read that story). She LOVED it! She was great throughout the whole first act. Of course, the timing was a little poor as the show started at noon. So, by the time the second act came around, Natalie was hungry (despite having a snack), and becoming more irritable. She decided that she was done watching everyone else dance, she wanted to put on her "costume" and dance on the stage. She informed us that she would not be scared to dance on the stage. When we told her that it wasn't her turn right now, but she would get a turn when she was done learning her dances at dance school, she couldn't handle it. She did manage to pull herself together and finish watching the show, and was very happy to grab a quick bite to eat and then head to Anna and Ron's for cookies and playing (especially with Milo and Otis...their cats). A day or so afterwards I was commenting on how good she has been, and how proud I was of her listening so well and being good for me. She said, "You are? But not like at the ballet when I was freaking out." I could hardly contain myself. She is definitely my child!!!!
***A few weekends ago Natalie attended a sibling preparation class at St. Agnes. She enjoyed it, for the most part, which made it somewhat worthwhile, otherwise, I wouldn't recommend it. She was able to diaper a baby doll, and learn to swaddle. I think the most interesting part was when they got to see a real live newborn in the nursery. Natalie was really enthralled. The teacher talked about the umbilical cord and other stuff, including feeding the baby. Breast milk was talked about a lot, and as I've mentioned Natalie soaks up everything. So, right afterward she is telling us, "When I was a baby I liked breastmilk." She fumbled over the words at first, but never fear she has them down now. Dan and I didn't really know how to react. We didn't make a big deal out of it at all, but wasn't sure how comfortable we would be with Natalie sharing breast milk stories with everyone she meets!!! A few days later we are putting her to bed. I read her a story and then she starts talking about milk. We talked about white milk, and chocolate milk. She was talking about not wanting to be a big girl, but a baby (which was new, since she has never expressed this kind of typical behavior in a soon to be big sister). We were explaining that it's cool to be a big girl because of the things she can do and eat that her brother won't be able to at first. She said, "Babies drink milk." We agreed. Then she asks Dan something to the effect of, "What's that milk taste like." Well, Dan, being the literal person he is, is trying to answer the question directly and explain to her that the milk babies drink isn't a different taste just a different kind. I could tell by the way Natalie was prompting him that she understood that, but she had forgotten (or just wanted to hear daddy say) what it was called. So, I whispered to him, "She wants you to say Breast Milk." So, he obliged, and she thought it was wonderful. "That's right, breast milk!" "Why do babies drink breast milk?" Since then we've had numerous stories of how her babies have come out of her belly and they like to drink breast milk. See, this is the stuff that I don't know how to deal with being a parent! I just say something like, "Well, that's good." hoping the subject changes!!!
Anyhow, things are going pretty well with me. I get to go to 2 appts. every week now. I am officially 36 weeks now (I was about 32 when I started this post!), so I go to my regular doctor every week. On top of that, because they think he is going to be a big boy (see Dan's upcoming post for more details), I have to go to the hospital to get a non-stress test and biophysical profile every week. Basically, they just do another ultrasound to make sure the baby is moving, practicing breathing, and that there's enough fluid in there. They also hook me up to monitors to see if a) he's moving, b) his heartbeat goes up when he moves, and c) if I am having any contractions, and if so how the baby responds to them if they are significant. I've had 2 so far, and Aiden has passed 100% both times. So that is definitely good news...of course unless that means he is too comfortable in there. I am ready for him to be done!!! I am already dialated some, and my OB is definitely hoping that the baby comes soon...basically any day now. We'll see how that goes.
I was feeling guilty about taking so long to post, so I decided to get back on and finish this up. I see that my wonderful husband has started another post (not finished yet) to sort of take over. For this I am so grateful. Hopefully you will get some better more concise updates ;) The typing is not a problem for me, it's getting the pics up that gives me a headache. He's much better at that, so hopefully he can keep up on it among the million other things I ask of him ;) Having said that, I am posting this now so that I can get it out there. There are no pics, but I will make sure that either this post is edited, or Dan includes them on his upcoming post (which should be soon)!
Hope you are all doing well!!!
Aiden at 1 day old.
Natalie when she was a few days old.
