The fun we had at the park and Henry's Ark!
This is how Natalie fell asleep one day during our walk-very cute!First off-I am very excited!!!!! Natalie is currently down for a nap-I can't begin to tell you how much of a struggle this has been and just to have one day every now and then is a blessing! Since we have moved to the big girl bed her sleep patterns have changed (for the worse) and I am hoping it is still just an adjustment that she is having to get used to. Today she woke up at 5:40 a.m. (last night she went down at 8 and with no nap-well she just isnt' getting enough sleep-fortunately she doesn't get too grumpy) so I laid down on the chair next to her and told her if she got up out of bed she would get a spanking-she got out once and I followed through and she made some more attempts but after about 45 minutes she is sleeping peacefully in bed. Hallelujah!!
Here I am 26 weeks pregnant!Steven and I are close to a consensus on the name of the baby-as I just entered my last trimester. I have dropped the name Brock because I think it sounds too close to Barack-not that I have anything against him but I don't want it to get confused or for people to think I named him after the president. One of the names we have always both liked has been Chase but he works with someone who has the child's name and wanted to see if we could find something else-well we haven't and I think we both are so sick of arguing over it that I would guess that Chase will be his name. He said that we could use one of my middle names (within reason-he has banned many of my names including Rylan, Mekhi, Sawyer, etc..) but it is hard to find a name that has really flowed. One of my favorite names though not unique is Noah-and I didn't want to use it for a first name because I would feel like I would have to use a N name for our third..so we will see.
Natalie only has 5 more music classes and I am sad-it has been such a joy to see her open up in front of others, learn, sing, make friends, etc. With the new baby and winter we won't be able to do much so I think I am going to start a little preschool curriculum with her at home-teaching her her letters, numbers, maybe a Bible verse/story, crafts, some sort of math/geography, and some sort of exercise two to three days a week. My sister does it with a friend of hers and the kids love it and I think it would help to break up some of the monotony of the winter days ahead with some structure/education. We will see if I get organized enough to do it!
Steven was off work Tuesday-Friday this week and on Tuesday we were able to enjoy the day together by going to Henry's Ark and on a picnic lunch after voting of course! It was a lot of fun and a good way to spend some quality time together as a family. On Wednesday and Thursday I worked this week so on Wednesday Steven took Nat to Puzzle's Fun dome-an indoor blow up place with playground-she really enjoys spending time with her Daddy! On Thursday Steven came down with like a 12 hour bug-his stomach and head were bothering him so he dropped Natalie off at his Dad's house. I am thankful for that because Natalie and I both are well and no one else got sick. This coming week we are both off Tuesday and will probably go out and do something else.
As for Halloween-which seems like forever ago-Natalie enjoyed herself for the most part. She was very shy and didn't like the scary costumes-the first trick or treater at our house was the Grim Reaper-and she said "Natalie's scared"-which made trick or treating at first a bit of a challenge. Steven passed out candy while I took her around-it was supposed to be the other way around but she insisted I take her and she wouldn't walk-so we didn't get too far! We went to maybe 10 houses but her bag was full-our neighbors had special bags for her or gave her one of everything-just what I need-my weight gain this month will probably be a doozy! She kept saying "more candy" but I could only hold her for so long. Anyways, I think her costume turned out great-granted the tutu has some major flaws-(the ones I have made after that have been much improved) but she wore the peacock costume proudly! (and Sarah-yes of course you can borrow the costume next year!)
