First Day of 2K

So Natalie started 2K this past week. She is usually the youngest in her class..the class spans from 18 months to 4 years. She is a little apprehensive about being away from us, but she is easily distracted when she gets upset about it. Her teacher, Miss Devvy, (who is also our minister's wife) says that Natalie loves playing in the mirror and giggling at herself. NOT A SURPRISE!!! We are hoping that Natalie will learn a little discipline from her class. We are only sending her 2 days a week for now but may up that in the Spring if I go back to work. Each week they work on learning a color, letter, number, shape and concept. So for example, this week was "Yellow, A, 1, circle, and big vs little". Paul and I have been working on these at home with her as well. She now says "lellow" and "aaaaeee". But 1 is also "two".

Her vocabulary grows so much each day. It is really fun to hear all the new words that come out of her. Lately it seems like she has gotten really good at all the Sesame Street characters, her favorite being Elmo (or Melmo) of course! Guess something don't change!

Enjoy the pictures!

Excited for first Day..

Not so sure about going alone though...

Showing off the new backpack (has a monkey on it)

Changed my mind...

I'm going back to sleep!

p.s. No, she didn't take her blanket and Mindy (aka "min-me") to school with her. She just LOVES to carry them around the house lately.

Cruising

I found a Little Tikes car for Natalie on Craigslist. Below are pictures and video of her enjoying the car. (And one of her walking to the "tickle tree" with Daddy.)

Pigtails and Knee Socks

Firsts

First outfit Mommy sewed for me. I figured out how to get it off 5 minutes after this picture and ran around the house naked instead.

First pigtails. They are a little lopsided because I wouldn't sit still for Mommy. She got smart and bought bands that I can't pull out, even though I have been trying to get them out for at least 45 minutes.

The Playroom

So we decided instead of an office/guest room for our 3rd bedroom, it would instead be a playroom/guest room. Here are a few pics of Natalie enjoying the room and one of the room itself. It is still a work-in-progess but Natalie is really enjoying it!

And here's the proof...

Some are a bit soft but two, four and ten are really clear. For some reason, she only knows the even numbers right now!

New this week!

So this week has been a week of new things for Natalie. First of all her vocabulary is growing each and every day! It's kinda fun to see what words are going to pop out of her at any minute. Our current favorites are "Two" and "Door". She also can now count to 10 with us supplying the odd numbers and her saying the even ones. (We have this on video and will try to upload it soon.) And today she figured out she could walk backwards. She had this total look of wonder and amazement when she did it the first time!

Unfortunately, other new things this week include climbing onto the coffee table and standing up as well as using the shelves of her changing table as a ladder, climbing to the top and standing with her hands above her head!!! (we've since made it so she can't be in her room alone!)

Anyways, I will try to get the video up soon and try to keep you up-to-date on all the new things happening here. Paul has his orientation this week and faculty meetings. Classes start on the 19th so we'll have a busy 2 weeks but then we should get back into a good rhythm!

Master Bed and Bath

Here are pictures of our new master bedroom and bathroom. I've also included the pictures from the previous owners so you can see the changes we made. The biggest being the bathroom and having countertops at 33.5 inches instead of 29 inches.

Master Bedroom, Before

Master Bedroom, After

Master Bath, Before

Master Bath, After

Natalie's New Room

Below is a picture showing Natalie's room as it looked with the previous owners, and then a few pictures of how it looks now. I had to order more polka-dots so only half the room has them right now. Still need to hang the curtains and put a few more things on the wall and then it will be ALL DONE!!!

Before

After

Enjoying the Grass

Here are a few pictures of Natalie enjoying our new backyard. She loves going out and exploring the new yard and playing in the grass. What a change from AZ!!

Progress

We have made a lot of progress in a week. We've finished painting Natalie's room and I am now working on doing the polka-dot transfers on the wall. It's going to take a while and I had to order more but I will try to post up pictures of it soon. I will probably have one wall done this weekend. Our bedroom is painted and we installed a new fan/light fixture. Unfortunately, the light part broke so we are awaiting a new part for it. Our furniture arrived on Wednesday and almost all of the boxes are emptied. I just can't stand to have the boxes sitting around. Paul's mom helped me a ton to get all the boxes emptied. Our washer and dryer arrived on Thursday. Can't even begin to tell you how excited I am to have a washer/dryer in the house instead of the garage. And they are AWESOME!!! Our entertainment center arrives today so we will have all of our furniture and deliveries done. We still have to find a dresser for Natalie though.

The biggest challenge has been our bathroom. We painted it early in the week and then Paul and his dad begin removing the 29" cabinets so we can raise the sinks in the bathroom. Unfortunately, the person who installed the countertop (which was one 8 foot piece) did so with liquid nails so when they tried to remove it, it cracked. We then had to find new cabinets and new countertops. It turned into a journey of me going to 3 different Lowes to get all the pieces. That is all now installed. The only things left to do are hanging the curtain over the window and the towel bar. Unfortunately, whoever installed the previous towel bar cut 2 big holes in the wall so we have to repair that first.

Well, fussy Natalie so I gotta run. Will update with pictures soon.