One month old already!

Natalie is one month old today! The past four weeks have flown by and she has changed so much already. She is doing a great job of holding up her head and she is very alert, observant, and so sweet natured. She seems to be studying things all the time. I just love her more each day. All of Mike's grandparents pitched in and bought Natalie a Little Einstein activity "thingy" (I can't remember the official name). She is, obviously, still a little young for this...but it did make for some bright colored pictures this morning!

I especially like the picture of Natalie and Ben together. There was something on TV that has them both intrigued. I am anxious to see how their relationship is going to develop. Ben's preschool teachers told me that on Thursday he told them, as he wiped his brow with a sigh, "I am exhausted from taking care of my little sister, Nat." HA! I'm not quite sure what he's talking about....maybe he meant to say "My mom is exhausted..." Hmm... :)

Quick Benny story...tonight as we were getting ready for bed, The Lord of the Rings movie was on TV. Mike was teasing Ben and told him that he looked like Smeagol (Gollum). Ben has seen parts of this movie on TV before, so he knows who Smeagol is. Anyway, he responded back to Mike with..."No I don't, Daddy. Smeagol wears torn up underwear." Why yes, Ben, you are right...he sure does. I just don't think the movie would have had the same effect if Smeagol was crawling around in your Mickey Mouse undies. :) Here is Smeagol and his torn up undies...creepy!

There's an Alligator Under My Bed...

Ben loves monsters (remember this?) and he loves books (in addition to his love for all things with wheels). When I was Christmas shopping for him this year, I found the book below and thought it was right up his alley. I was right. It contains three monster stories and he loves each of them.

One night, a little over a month ago, I was putting him to bed and he wanted me to read this book to him. I was really tired and told him I would rather he read it to me. Well, I was surprised to find that he knew, almost exactly word-for-word, every story in the book. His memory amazes me (he'd only had the book for about a month at the time)! He even "reads" the stories with the correct inflection. It just makes me smile.

Anyway, I didn't want to put an eight minute video on the blog, so I only recorded him "reading" the last story in the book... "There's an Alligator Under My Bed." Hope you enjoy!

Warning: Please excuse the occasional nose pick, face scratch, and/or side bar comment he throws in! :) Just be glad he didn't burp or "toot" during his reading of the story. :)

Natalie, Natalie, and more Natalie...

I know many of you are likely sick of post after post featuring just Natalie's face...but I'm not. Sorry! :) I need to take some more pictures of my cute little man...the poor guy has not had enough blog press in the last few weeks. I have a new video in the works for him though. Just have to catch him in the right mood to take it! :)

Anyway, below are a few pictures from today...Natalie has started to lose some of her hair on top (can you tell in the top right picture?). The hair on the back of her head seems to be there to stay, but for some reason the hair on top falls out really easily...so she might look like a little old man soon.

Picture of the day...

I think I love her...

We ventured out a couple of times this week...a lot more work with two when you are by yourself! I just had to get out of the house or I was going to go crazy!

Milk...it does a body good!

I've been thinking the title of this blog would be a good caption for some of the photos I've taken of Natalie lately. She is packing on the pounds (or ounces) quickly. It is so funny...I'm not used to a chubby baby...but I love her and her chipmunk cheeks. I've started to get...what looks like...smiles out of her. Don't you just want to squeeze those cheeks?

Oh...and our good friends, the Gerber's, sent a package for Natalie and included the silly glasses below for Ben. He loves them. Here he is using them on Natalie to get her to stop crying. I'm sure it worked?!

Quick funny story about Ben...I was getting ready the other day and Ben and Natalie were hanging out in my room. Natalie started to cry and I was ignoring it (just for a minute!) and Ben apparently had had enough...he said, "Mom, the only way to solve this problem (the crying was a problem apparently) is to give her some cough medicine so she will fall asleep." Uh...sorry Ben, we don't give our three week old cough medicine...but that is a very creative idea!? :) Don't worry...I'll be making sure all meds are far out of his reach! :) (By the way...he learned this "technique" from the movie Monster House...which he LOVES...it took me awhile to figure that out!)

In case you haven't seen enough of her yet...here's some more! :)

I know I've been blogging a lot and posting a lot of pictures...but most of my family lives far away and I know my mom, at least, will appreciate the frequent and photo filled posts! :) Natalie has changed so much just in the last week. She is turning into a little chipmunk (notice the chubby cheeks and double chin below). She is quite the eater! She is so sweet natured and pretty laid back when she's awake. She just makes me smile. :)

Just a few family shots! Does she look older than three weeks? Most people seem to think so.

Here's my little man showing off some of his artwork from preschool and some more of Natalie. I thought she was especially cute in the yellow outfit. I thought it looked good with her complexion..which seems to be darker than Ben's.

The Monster Jam Debacle...and more.

Ben loves cars and trucks and anything with wheels. He has been collecting monster trucks for quite awhile now and even has a Monster Jam DVD he loves to watch. When I saw that I could get discounted tickets through work for the actual Monster Jam in Cleveland, I just knew he would LOVE it. Trust me...this was not the type of event Mike and I EVER pictured ourselves attending...it was all for Ben! Ben's great-grandmas actually gave us money for the tickets and we gave them to him for Christmas. He knew that after Natalie was born he would be going on a special adventure to the Monster Jam with just mom and dad. He had been talking about it for weeks and was SO excited as we drove up to Cleveland last night!

We had been told by several people that it was very loud, so we would need to bring ear plugs. Little did we know that by loud, they actually meant... ear piercing, deafening, the loudest sound you've ever heard, make your heart race...loud! Ben has always been a little sensitive to really loud sounds, but we thought he had gotten past it and the ear plugs would do the trick. NOPE! All six monster trucks came out of the tunnel at once with their engines revved and that was it! He started sobbing and shaking and looked at me and Mike and said "I want to go home!" It was awful! We thought maybe he'd calm down once it really started, but everytime a truck did something, it was so unbearably loud he couldn't take it. He was so afraid. Nothing like blowing $50 on tickets, $6 on parking, and $20 on a stuffed "Grave Digger" monster truck for a whole lotta nothing! :) Oh well, he was all smiles as we left and is still talking about it today (like he actually had fun in the five minutes we were there?!).

So, instead we went to Blockbuster and rented two "Benny movies", as he likes to call them, and got some ice cream to take home. He stayed up late with us and we had a much less noisy time at home together. Oh well...we tried! Below are some pictures I took before the meltdown...

Oh..and I couldn't do a post without including a few extra pictures of my girl...and Ben and Grammy napping together.

Natalie got to meet Mamaw and Papaw this past week too!

My cutie patootie...

Just some new pictures from the week. I am loving her more and more! :)

Lots of pictures...

I've decided that I like her a lot. She has been such a good baby so far. How do I get so lucky? I really do feel overly blessed some days. She rarely cries (except for the picture below and when I'm giving her a "bath")...loves to eat (10 minute intervals...have no routine yet)...sleeps a lot (no routine though...I'm not good at this)...just a pleasant little baby. We went to the pediatrician on Thursday and she had gained over a pound in less than a week (she's 8 lbs 7 oz now!). Apparently some moms make skim milk and some make whole milk...I think I make whole! :)

Anyway, we've had some visitors this week and my mom and dad arrived yesterday, so I thought I'd post a bunch of pictures from the last week or so. Sorry for so many...but would you expect anything less? :)

Our attempt at a family picture. Natalie was hungry...Ben was acting goofy...I was tired...luckily Mike looks cute.

Our good friends and neighbors, the Hurrle's, came to visit Natalie. Ben was thrilled to have his buddies visit for a bit! Kailin made the cutest sign for our front door when Natalie was born (wish I'd taken a picture!!). Angy, Pappy, and Granny came this week too. They love her already and I'm sure she will be falling in love with them soon too!

Just some more of my little sleeper. I even had a two hour period this week when Ben and her were BOTH napping in our bed. I was there the whole time, in case any of you freak that my newborn is laying on top of pillows and blankets. :)

I think she's cute. We have not really figured out who exactly she looks like. Probably because she doesn't look exactly like anyone, but we seem to think she looks more like Mike than Ben does. I'm good with that because her Daddy is pretty cute.

Finally, just a few pictures of my mom and dad (Grammy and Pops) with Natalie. I'm pretty sure this baby is loved lots already. Oh, and Pops calls Ben...Benji...so they brought Ben the "Benjie Engie" book (really old!) and a little train engine. He thought it was pretty cool. :)

Still tired from the move...

My father-in-law likes a certain comedian who does a funny "sketch" about how he kept a diary when he was a baby. Apparently the first entry in his "baby diary" was..."Day One: Still tired from the move." It gave me a little chuckle and I thought this would be an appropriate title for the collage of pictures below. :) She sure is a cute sleeper though! We are doing well and LOVING our little girl. I just can't believe I'm the mom of TWO now. :)

Just a few random shots from the last two days. Ben has done a great job, so far, adjusting to not having all of my/our attention. Mike said today that he is enjoying getting to snuggle with Ben more since I'm a little preoccupied! :) I look forward to the days when I can have a little more balance and feel like I can juggle both kids...but for now, it's all Natalie...and I sure do love snuggling her. My little man knows he is LOVED...trust me! :)

Here are some shots of Natalie spending time with her Nana, Papa, Uncle Brad and soon-to-be Aunt Christina. They all love her lots. Can you tell? :) Grammy and Pops arrive next Friday to spend some time getting to know their third grandchild! We are looking forward to them arriving and anxious to hear what they think of her. I'm sure they are DYING to get their hands on her by this point (right, Mom?). :) There are still so many people in our families who have not met her yet, so I'm sure there will be lots more pictures soon!