A Little Jumperoo Time

I remembered that when Nico turned 3 months old, I bought him his Johnny Jumper and his Jungle Jumperoo; however at the time he was too little for both. Last week I dusted off the Jungle Jumperoo being that Natalee is already over 4 months old (have I mentioned before....where is the time going?!). She was a little skeptical at first and of course I had to stack something at the bottom for her feet to touch, but she got into the swing of things pretty quick! I love seeing her face light up with her gorgeous smile when she has these new experiences. I guess pretty soon I will have to hook up the Johnny Jumper and let Natalee give that a run.

Don't forget to check out the video of baby Natalee on the Jumperoo!

Spalsh Day

The first splash day of the summer was yesterday at Primrose; however with them all being scheduled on Fridays, I thought we were out of luck and Nico was going to have to forgo all the splash days this summer. Luckily, Nico is very well loved at his school and we were told we could just come on up for the fun! Nico's class was already outside when we arrived, but jumped right in, almost forgetting to take his shoes off. He had a blast playing with this friends and watching his teachers shriek as they got sprayed down.  I will definitely have to take him to another splash day this summer!

Decisions, decisions

To me, usually the beginning of summer symbolizes the end of an era. This makes sense since I work for a school system, so the start of summer mean the end of another school year to me. However this year, summer is the start of something different, something new. Next week, just like last year, Nico will begin going to school two days a week since I won't be working. Although summer time at Primrose is considered "summer camp" and not focused on the academic preschool curriculum, I do not want to take him out of school completely because the social interaction and following the classroom routine is so important at this age. The fun news is that when August rolls around and it is time for school to start up again, Nico will continue just 2 days a week! We have decided that it is best for our family that I stay home part time next school year. I did this the first full school year after Nico was born and it was the best decision. I loved having the best of both worlds. I get to stay me, keep my job and stay in the game, while at the same time, I am allowed to spend more quality time with my kiddos and focus on being a mommy.

One of the major concerns for me in making this decision was taking Nico away from his school environment for so much time every week, thus not giving him as much of an opportunity learn and grow. He is so smart and I want him to continue to be challenged. So in order to counter this concern, I have decided that once school starts back up, three days during the week I will be homeschooling Nico.  I am excited and nervous about this prospect. I think there is a fine line between being a mommy and a teacher. I know how to do both, am both, but not at the same time to the same children. I have the phonics/language arts and the math curriculums we are going to used picked out, have a scheduled ready, and am slowly putting together a pile of supplies I know we will need. As the time comes, I am sure I will end up blogging about some of our homeschool ups and downs, so stay tuned.

I thought I would post some cute recent pictures of my littles, both of whom seem to be growing like weeds!

Summer is here!

Summer is here and to start the fun, Gigi came for a visit! Natalee and I are still getting completely over our coughs and colds, but we were certainly well enough to pal around town with Gigi for a few days. In between wrapping up a few things at work this week for me and the daily household grind, we were able to fit in some fun outings such as going to the Texas Discovery Gardens and Butterfly House as well as the Dallas Children's Aquarium. As always the visit seemed too short, but thanks to it being summer vacation, we will be heading to Gigi's house in just 3 weeks. Nico will be very happy about this because this morning as Gigi drove out of sight, I was left with a crumbled up, sad 3 year old who wanted his Gigi! Nico has such a loving and joyful heart and it always breaks my heart to see him hurt and sad when he has to say good-bye to any loved ones. I guess this weekend we will have to go out and do some more fun things as a family to get his mind off of saying good-bye!

Here are some pictures of our first fun week of summer:

I am sure Gigi is going to kill me for posting this picture, but I couldn't resist! It's precious! Gigi and her two grand babies first thing in the morning and still a little sleepy.

Sleepy girl. She just can't seem to catch up on her sleep since getting sick.

Just precious! Gigi starring down in awe of her beautiful granddaughter.

Blowing bubbles...always fun!

Here we are checking out the caterpillars and cocoons in the Butterfly House.

Natalee was actually tolerating the Moby! She seemed to enjoy getting to look around at all the plants and butterflies flying right past her as we walked around.

Taking a break and just enjoying the pretty butterflies around us.

This one particular beautiful blue butterfly seemed to like us. He kept following us around and landed on both me and Nico! Nico was so startled when the butterfly landed on his face and then his hand that he screamed!

Checking out the gardens behind the butterfly house.

At the Children's Aquarium! Sharks, octopus, jelly fish and sea turtles!

Nico also was able to touch a starfish...

and he and Gigi fed the sting rays!

And Natalee just sat back for the ride....experiences=learning; and that is just what we did!

A Bunch of Sickies

Boy, we have been some real sickies around our house lately. Last Sunday evening Ed noticed Nico's eye was looking a little odd. It was swollen a bit and seemed to be slightly gooey. We both knew what this meant! So Monday morning instead of heading off to work and school, Natalee, Nico and I headed out to the Minute Clinic at CVS, which is super convenient for us, and Ed flew out to D.C. It turned out that on top of pink eye, Nico also has a "very bad" sinus infection. I was quite surprised since any signs of a cold appeared just that morning. So we walked out of the clinic with some eye drops and antibiotics.

Just the next day when I picked up the kids from school, I was informed that Natalee's eye was now oozing mucus! Great...so I had to figure out a plan. Since Ed was still out of town, I either had to get Natalee into a after hours clinic in order to start her antibiotics that evening or wait to take her to the pediatrician's office the next day. The trick was that in order for her to return to school, she had to have been on antibiotics for 24 hours. After running ALL over town and attempting to go to 3 and almost 4 clinics (even after calling), I succeeded to taking Natalee in the next day to the pediatrician's office. Thankfully, I did have the bright idea to begin giving Natalee the eye drops Nico had just been prescribed just the day before in order to begin the 24 hour clock.

This is not a very good picture and please excuse the dribble of spit up, but it is good indication of the pink eye

After working through our pink eye episode, which surprisingly I did not get, I woke up last Friday morning without a voice! Within just a few hours the laryngitis turned into a nasty upper respiratory infection. Sadly, Natalee immediately caught what I had and she came starting coughing terribly on Saturday. Both of us have been pretty pathetic this past week. Luckily I am able to load on meds to get me through the day, but there is very little I can do for Natalee. She is sleeping at an incline, I am using Vick's Vapor rub on her chest, using the Vick's Vaporizer, and suctioning her nose when needed. Today, being one week from when this lingering virus hit us both Natalee and I took trips to our doctors. While we were at the pediatrician's office, They decided to give Natalee a breathing treatment to determine if it would help with her cough. Unfortunately, this was not the case, so we did not have to bring home a nebulizer, but we did get sent over to Cook Children's to have a Pertussis test done. Of course since it is Friday we will not have any results until Monday or Tuesday! After Natalee's appointment, I dragged myself back the the CVS Minute Clinic where I found out that I actually have Bronchitis and the start of an ear infection! This explains why I feel like death!

Here is Natalee getting her breathing treatment. Poor sick baby girl.

I am so grateful Nico has stayed healthy with the exception of the pink eye. He has avoided this horrible URI Natalee and I came down with (knock on wood). Although, URIs are a virus and not bacterial, I really think that Nico having been on the oral antibiotic for the last 10 days has helped keep the illness at bay for him. Although, not sick, he did have to go to the doctor this week...the tooth doctor! He had his 6 month dentist appointment this week where he actually had a fully cleaning with plague removal, polishing, x-rays, and all! He did a great job and was such a bog boy about it all.

And to the end week and the school year in a fun way, Nico's class had pajama day! Now time for a fun summer!

Here is Nico in his PJ's playing at the park after school.

Rolling, rolling, rolling

Yesterday, Natalee officially rolled over all by herself! She was laying on the floor in her room and Nico and I were in there talking to her making her laugh. However, Nico's bowl of cookies must have looked appealing to our baby girl, because she set her eyes on that bowl and was determined to get herself over to it. Within no time, Natalee had rolled right on over to the bowl! Then she proceeded to roll over and over and over!

Nico Dancing with Natalee

Nico absolutely loves his sister! I can't wait to see the two of them in action once Natalee begins moving around on her own.

Talking Away

Here is my chatty cathy! She just loves to talk and talk. Wait a few seconds into the video and then she really warms up to the camera!

4 Months Old

I know I keep saying this, but where is the time going? Natalee Lynn is now 4 months old, and she becomes more amazing everyday. She has brought so much to joy to our family. We are truly blessed to have her in our lives and now I can't imagine a day without her. Here are some interesting facts about our little Natalee.

Natalee is definitely my daughter; as you have seen in the pictures, she has the bluest eyes and is looking more like her big brother everyday.

Lately, Natalee has become such a chatter box. She loves to babble and will talk on and on anytime, anywhere: the changing table, in the car, in her swing or sitting in my lap.

Just as much Natalee likes talking to us, she also really loves it when someone shows her one on one attention and talks straight to her. Her face just lights up with the most beautiful smile. The same happens when you sing to her. Those gorgeous eye shine bright and a smile spreads across her face as soon as you start to sing the "Natalee" song, the good morning song or any catchy tune.

If Natalee wasn't swaddled at night, she would sleep with her arms up above her head. During the day this is how our little angel sleeps, and every morning as soon as I unswaddle her, the arms go straight up around her head.

Believe it or not, we have a sleeping champ on our hands! Natalee sleeps from 8:00 pm until she wakes up to eat between 4-5:00 am. She then goes right back to sleep and continues to dream away until 7:30 am! How in the world did I get so lucky to have such a fantastic sleeper?!

Natalee has become a hand sucker. She likes to ball up her fist and suck on those cute little fingers whenever she gets the chance. In fact many times, Natalee will spit out her pacifier and replace it with her hand. It is pretty cute, but causes a bit of a mess sometimes.

Natalee will become a giggle-fest if she is tossed in the air. It is the sweetest sound to hear her laugh and giggle!

Natalee must be the happiest baby there is! Unless she is gassy or hungry, Natalee is smiling, talking or watching what's going on around her.

More Than Just Phone Pictures

I thought I would post some cute pictures I have taken using my phone recently.I really love technology because I am able to snap a cute moment wherever we are using my phone, and beleive me, there are a lot of cute moments with my kids!

Taken at Primrose at Muffins for Mom's to celebrate Mother's Day.

This one and the next are of Nico enjoying his frozen yogurt! We love making fro-yo trips after school.

This is of Natalee sitting in the highchair for the first time. She always makes sad puppy sounds when we are eating dinner without her, so I decided to test out her sitting abilities the other night. She loved it and really enjoyed being included with the rest of us.

A little brotherly love towards his sister before heading out the door to school.

Loving bathtime!

My little hand-sucker! Apparently, Natalee has decided her hand is better than her pacifier.

I love my boys!

Cookie Monster!

A couple pics of Mommy and her girl!

A couple of Nico and his Gigi at Chuck E Cheese

And now a couple of Nico and his Pops!

Nico decided to dress himself that morning...it almost matched!

A few pics of Nico being my everyday handsome boy!

So cute! This is how Natalee loves to sleep!

Peek-a-boo!

Ah, Marker Monster!

Who's my pretty little girl? She is such an angel!

My sweet girl has some crazy hair!

And finally....I certainly love these three! They are all so amazing!