Kids these days

Peanuts and the Terrible One's

Peanuts is about Alli.  I had taken notice over the last few weeks that she gets terrible dark circles under her eyes during the school week and they clear up on the weekends.  So we kept trying to put her to bed earlier during the week, makes sense, right?  But she couldn't fall asleep and she kept claiming she just wasn't tired.  Then it dawned on me that she eats a peanut butter sandwich *every* day for school lunch.  (Don't ask, it wound up being the only thing she would let me pack so we just decided it was easier to make that every day so we knew she would eat.)  On the weekends though, we rarely have peanut butter.  So I decided to do a little experiment and I told her she was not allowed to have peanut butter sandwiches for a couple of days, nor peanut butter snack bar after school.  It was a dramatic difference in her eyes.  So, apparently, she has a mild allergy to peanuts.  Now her lunches consist of either chicken noodle soup or Boar's head turkey breast sandwich.  Why Boar's head?  Well, believe it or not, she's actually allergic to some of the lunch meats too, and after doing some research, I found that some of the companies use a dairy product in their curing process.  Boar's Head does not.  Interesting!!


Natalie is giving us some new challenges.  You know how the terrible two's are pretty much about the fact that the child knows what she wants but can't express it and so they throw fits?  Yea, we're hitting that a bit early.  Natalie doesn't use many words, but she does point, smile, wave hands, etc. and usually we can figure out what she wants.  But when we can't, or we tell her "no", we have complete and utter melt-down.  It's like the world has ended.  She screams, cries, throws her head back like any good drama queen does...  I told her this morning that she tricked us into thinking she was an easy going child, just so we wouldn't trade her in!  ;)  haha

Surprise!!

Courtesy of Molly, here is a picture of Natalie's surprise look that I mentioned in her 11 Month update:

Riding with style, in her PJs

Go Nat, Go!

11 Months Old!!!

Ok, I'm a little late, but Natalie is 11 months old!!!

The weekend before (Labor Day), we had spent with friends up by Olympia, Washington.  The kids got to play in the sand, go on boat rides, Alli got to go tubing and ride with daddy on a waverunner, and we did a few nature walks.  It was good fun!

So, more about Nat.  Her eyes are a beautiful hazel color.  They are closer to my hazel (more green) than Kim's (more brown), but they are still not my color.  Her green is more of a deep blue.  In any case, very pretty.  She has decided that crawling isn't as much fun to get around as walking, but she needs help walking.  So her latest thing is to crawl to an adult, reach up for their hands, and then promptly turn around and take off - leading the adult to wherever she wants to go, which is typically outside or to the green room.

Ah, yes.  Outside.  This child *loves* the outdoors.  For quite a while now, if we went to the back door to look out the window and didn't actually go outside, she would throw a fit.  Well now, she walks you to the backdoor and if you don't take her outside, she throws a fit.

Molly actually took her to Target this week to get her some shoes because she likes to walk in the gravel.  So now we put shoes on, and walk and walk and walk and walk outside.  And then plop down and play with the rocks some, and then walk and walk and walk some more!  She's funny!!!

Natalie is also very interested in books.  She especially loves the Winnie the Pooh book that is read (recorded) by her cousins.  That book is funny.  It operates on light.  So one night, Natalie and I were sleeping on the couch and the sun came up and in the windows.  Well, apparently the book was on the floor opened to a page - we woke up when the light got bright enough to trigger the reading.  I think it was Jonathan!  :)

Natalie also makes great "surprise" faces.  Maybe it's because she does something and we give her this surprised look like "Oh!!!"  Now *she* does it all the time, and it's super cute!!

Not a lot of words yet.  Still Mmmma for milk.  Some "mama".  Some "da da da".  A little "uh oh" when she plunges things to the ground.

Lots of fun!