The first one happened on the long subway ride home from Madison Square Park. We’d seen a concert with Josie and Tam, then had lunch with Chris and Kary.

Dancing to the Dirty Sock Fun Time Band at Madison Square Park

Shake shack!!!

Sitting on the bench on the subway, Natalie took off her shoe. I noticed there was some stuff in it.

“Natalie, what’s that in your shoe?”

She handed her shoe to me and I when I looked up close, I realized that there were about 20 tiny rocks in it. We’d just walked a few blocks and down a bunch of stairs into the subway.

“Rocks! That must have hurt so much to walk on! Why didn’t you tell me that you had rocks in your shoes?!?”

“Well, I didn’t want to complain. You always tell me not to complain.”

I gave my poor child a hug and we had a long talk about the difference between complaining/whining about things that we can’t control (like the temperature outside or having to walk uphill) and speaking up about something that’s easily fixed—like stopping to dump rocks out of shoes.

Later, after dinner, Natalie was getting ready to take a shower and was cold.

“Mom, I need to get in the water right away. I’m so cold I have goose bumps! I even have goose bumps on my butt cheeks!” (giggling)

“Oh really?”

“Goose bumps on my butt cheeks!!” (laughter)

“Ok, honey, enough with the butt cheeks.”

“BUTT CHEEKS!!!!!!!!” (more laughter)

“Natalie, did you ever know that you are a rascal?” (trying to hide my amusement)

“Mom, did you ever know that your name is BUTT CHEEKS?!?!?!?!”

The two of us both had tears running down our faces from laughing so hysterically. I stopped feeling guilty.

But this morning’s negotiations baffled me.

Natalie: I’m full (she’d eaten two bites of oatmeal, a food she loves)

Me: Ok, 5 more bites (knowing that otherwise she’d be begging for snacks in no time)

Natalie: No, 6 bites!

Me: 6 it is!

I love an easy victory.

Mr. & Mrs. G

Jodi and I have been friends for over 20 years and she has been there for me and our family countless times. So I was thrilled when she asked me to be her matron of honor and Natalie to be her flower girl. We have been looking forward to Jodi and Jay’s wedding since he proposed last year. There were many fun things leading up to this weekend—making favors, dress fittings, the bridal shower, bachelorette party—but we couldn’t wait for the actual wedding to arrive.

Natalie was so excited to be the flower girl! She has been telling everyone who would listen about the upcoming wedding and her role in it. At the rehearsal the day before the wedding, I started getting a little nervous that she would be too shy to actually walk down the aisle. But by the end of the rehearsal, she felt comfortable with the location and all the people in the wedding party who were new to her. Here are some pictures of the rehearsal and the bridal party getting ready to go out to dinner the night before the wedding. Jodi made all of our awesome shirts!
Flower Girls practicing
Lovely Bridesmaids Amanda, Marisa, and Lisa

Groom and groomsmen
Bride and Flower Girl
The famous Auntie Lori with the bride

Friends of 20+ years!!!
Bride and her Mama

The day of the wedding was picture-prefect. Sunny, not a cloud in the sky, with a light cool breeze. Jodi and Jay picked a gorgeous location for their nuptials—Wickham Park in Manchester, CT. The view beyond the alter was a beautiful valley. The day went without a hitch, everything was perfect down to every meticulously planned detail. Jodi and Jay did so much work to make everything special and it showed.

Natalie was extremely well-behaved and patient the entire day, even though much of it was spent waiting—for hair and make-up to be done, for the ceremony to start, for pictures to be finished, etc. I was waiting for her to have a meltdown at some point because she didn’t get to bed until after 10:30 pm the night before the wedding! But she started out happy in the morning and was an angel the entire day and night—we didn’t leave the reception until 10 pm!

After the ceremony, I was explaining to Natalie what would happen at the reception. I guess I spent so much time telling her what would happen during the ceremony, that afterward she though the wedding was over. Upon hearing that there would then be dinner, music, dancing, and cake, Natalie said, “well, Mommy, I’m a lovely dancer!”

We had decided beforehand not to take Miranda to the wedding. Although I wanted her to share in this important family event, at her age she isn’t able to wait patiently through a ceremony or stay up past her bedtime without freaking out. So, we left her with Bonnie and Ray, who said she did very well. Looking at how beautiful the pictures are, I was sad that she wasn’t with us. Maybe next year we’ll take another trip to the park and have some family photos taken.
Hair and Make-up
Natalie and Chayenne Flower girls all ready and waiting for the ceremony to start.
Marisa, Heather, and Amanda Jodi’s friend Heather served as the wedding coordinator and did a fabulous job!!
Flower girl with her Dadddy
Family shot
Flower Girl and Matron of Honor
Running
“No more pictures!!!!”

I can’t wait to see the professional wedding photos from Val McCormick!! Congratulations, Jodi and Jay!!!!

Natalie: I’m so happy!
Mommy: Oh? Why?
Natalie: Because you’ll always love me, and I’ll always love you.

Today, Natalie came over to me, not quite crying, but very upset saying she needed a bandaid.

I looked at her knee and said, “sweetie, that’s just peanut butter.”

All better!!

Josie: “Yeah! And we’ll be pretty!”

I don’t think those two could be any cuter together…..here’s pictures from some other occasions to prove it!

Fun with weeds!

Ah, the joys of spring! Natalie received a kite as a “goody bag” from her friend Nick’s birthday party. She and Chris took it down to the park as soon as we got home from the party to try it out. Natalie was delighted to see her kite flying through the air, but was also happy to blow dandelion seeds when there wasn’t enough wind to fly the kite for more than a minute at a time.

Big Sister Natalie

Natalie is proving to be an awesome big sister. Before Miranda was born, we had been worried about her regressing in any number of areas: sleep, potty, eating, etc. We worried about jealousy and Natalie acting out to get attention or out of confusion, frustration, and anger. We worried about her insisting on Mommy’s attention while I was nursing or otherwise attending to the baby. Our heads were filled with stories of older siblings trying to sell or throw out their new, unwelcome family members.

But like the strong, amazing girl she’s always been, Natalie has accepted the challenge of becoming a big sister with grace and enthusiasm. She has been willing to share her toys, loves to hug and kiss Miranda, and wants to be involved in taking care of her. In fact, the only times Natalie has gotten upset haven’t been when she’s not getting attention. Rather, she gets upset if we deny her access to her sister, i.e. “Miranda just fell asleep, so now isn’t a good time to hug her.”

What’s even more impressive to us is that Natalie seems to be embracing not only that she has a baby sister, but that she is, in fact, a big girl. Instead of regressing, she’s become even more independent in terms of the potty, eating, and playing. She’s been sleeping in her bed all night almost every night. Miranda is only 3 weeks old, and so far we’ve loved watching Natalie’s relationship with her sister develop, as well as see her growing maturity.

Rocking out Notice her pajama shirt says "I like to be LOUD!"

Big sister and little sister

Sisterly love

We have a couple of stories to share that illustrate how well Natalie is taking to the new member of our family. The first happened while she visited us at the hospital and Miranda started fussing. Natalie, who was across the room at the time, came running over saying, “I bet she needs her big sister!”

Today when we came home, Natalie was excited to hold Miranda right away. Then we were all upstairs getting Miranda changed when Natalie ran into her room and came running back with her once beloved lovie, mousie. Natalie, who hasn’t been as attached to Mousie since she was about 2½, very proudly gave it to Miranda to hold.

So excited to have baby sister home!
Miranda with Natalie’s mouse

Let’s hope this trend continues!

When we took Natalie to her 2½ year well-visit in July, Dr. Stephen encouraged us to begin potty training since Natalie appeared ready and because it would be helpful to have potty training established before baby #2 arrived. We knew that Natalie was ready but had been dragging our feet. Labor Day weekend seemed like a good time to start since we could hole up at home for three days. We planned on taking diapers away entirely and expected a lot of accidents until Natalie got the hang of things.

But the weekend before labor day, Natalie decided that she was done with diapers and wanted to wear pretty underwear instead. Although we weren’t fully prepared (we only had a few pairs of underwear and no potty training books or videos as we had planned) we decided to follow Natalie’s lead. I ran out to stock up on underwear and stickers and tattoos for rewards.

The first day went as expected: lots of accidents! She actually got the hang of pooping on the potty fairly quickly, but had some trouble with peeing. My suspicion is that the diapers are so incredibly absorbent that Natalie had no clue what it even felt like to pee. At one point during the first day, she angrily said, “HEY!!! These underwears keep peeing on me!!!”

Luckily, it didn’t take very long for Natalie to make the connection that she could control the peeing. After a week or so, she was making it to the potty most of the time. She would mostly have accidents if she was too distracted by something fun to stop and use the potty. She was successful with the potty at Melissa’s and while out and about too. And she was covered in temporary tattoos! At some point we had to start putting tattoos on the tops of her feet because there was no space left on her arms.

But then she started resisting sitting on the potty, especially to poop. At first, we used upped the rewards….every time she produced something on the potty, she could have a lollipop. One day while Meema was watching her, she went to the potty twice in quick succession and asked excitedly, “After my pee lollipop, can I have a poop lollipop?”

I was worried that we’d never be rid of the lollipops, but we were able to phase them out fairly easily. First, I started setting some limits, like no lollipops after dinner, then she only got lollipops for pooping, then only for keeping her underwear clean and dry for the whole day. It wasn’t long before she stopped asking for lollipops altogether. But for a while, she looked like this much of the time:

Sometime in the fall, Natalie started regressing in terms of pooping. I’ll spare you all the gory details, but we finally realized that every fall, Natalie starts struggling with constipation, probably because we are eating less fresh fruit. Unfortunately, constipation quickly turns into a vicious cycle for kids as they start withholding because they associate pooping with pain. For Natalie it also caused a lot of problems with potty training.

We tried a few different interventions (including miralax) and finally settled on what seems to be the best solution: cutting down on milk, pushing more fruit, and sitting in the bathroom, telling stories and/or reading books with Natalie for a long time before she actually goes.

After a few rough months, we seem to be settled into a good, regular schedule and Natalie has been virtually accident-free. We’ve noticed that she is much more likely to wake up at night (sometimes crying) if she hasn’t pooped that day, so sitting on the potty for 15-30 minutes has been incorporated into our bedtime routine most nights. Makes us wonder if constipation has been at the root of her sleep problems all along.

Overall, the experience was positive, and Natalie is very proud of herself for learning this new skill. Dr. Stephen was right to encourage us to accomplish this before the new baby arrives. One because it would be difficult to devote the amount of attention the process took whilst caring for an infant. And two because it’s one of the ways that Natalie identifies herself as a “big girl” because “only babies wear diapers.” We are so proud of our big girl, too!