Torture

Last night, Natalie wanted me to snuggle with her for a bit, after Jon put her to bed, so I did. We allow her to listen to CDs or classical music while she is falling asleep, and we just realized her CD player has a repeat function. We usually put her story CDs on repeat so they lull her to sleep.

Last night, she wanted to listen to a CD that her Great-Aunt Lois and Great-Uncle Don sent her a couple of years ago - it's a personalized CD of songs about "Natalie". I put the CD in, hit repeat, and left.

Half an hour later, I heard her scrambling about in her room, then thought I heard her door open. I went up to investigate, and found her crying in bed, thoroughly traumatized. I asked what was wrong, and she said "That song won't stop. It's making me crazy". Oops. I forgot that the CD player has two repeat functions - repeat one track and repeat all. I forgot to repeat all, so the poor kid listened to the same song for half an hour before finally cracking.

I had an immediate flashback to something I learned in Psychology in HS. If I remember correctly, in the early part of the 20th century, experiments were conducted on some unfortunate souls. Apparently, they were put in all white rooms, no window, no pictures, decor, nothing. And "Happy Birthday" was piped in continuously. And it did indeed drive people insane. I guess it's a good thing her room is painted bright blue, with lots of stuff on the walls!

Natalie's class

Natalie's school does something called Bible Days around Halloween. Today was the day! I signed up to help in her classroom, and it was so much fun! While it wasn't a typical day, it was so cool to see Natalie in her class (this is my first time) - she's learned so many songs (with motions), follows directions nicely, and it was so cute to see her engaged in play with her friends. She's very outgoing with her classmates, and likes to suggest games (like house or tag), or play games suggested by others. Her class is small, 9 students total, which is wonderful - it has really fostered a sense of closeness with the kids, and they all look out for each other. I'll be volunteering in her class more often. Her teachers, really all the staff there, are just wonderful people - I can't think of a better place for her to begin her education!

So, Bible Days is her school's Halloween celebration. The kids can dress up as an animal from Noah's Ark, an angel, or any character from the Bible. Natalie went easy on me and went as a sheep (she has a sheep ear headband, I blackened her nose, and made her a tail out of a piece of elastic and one of Oliver's socks - hot glued cotton balls to it, then strung the top through the elastic). They went from class to class hearing stories and doing crafts, having snacks. The Kindergartners were really impressive - they did the story of Creation - the full thing - and most of the kids had memorized the first two chapters of Genesis. Then Natalie's class went back to their room, and their teacher told they story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abendigo (that's totally phonetic, I'm too lazy to look up the proper spelling). She asked for some volunteers to act it out, and Natalie was one of the first to raise her hand. She was Shadrach, and did a great job with her role! After all that, the kids went trick-or-treating through the church office.

And one last thing...

Jon just took Natalie up for bed. She wanted a shoulder ride, but he said no because his back hurts. She told him "I'm calling a police officer". After they went upstairs, I heard her through the monitor, saying "Hello, police officer. Daddy won't give me a shoulder ride. He's a bad boy". Stinker.

Watch out world....

Oliver's crawling! He crawled several "steps" on several occasions today, so I think it's safe to say this milestone has been achieved.

What a big boy! I can't wait until he starts chasing Natalie around - something tells me he is going to give her a run for her money!

Warning - poop talk ahead

Natalie just went to the bathroom, and wanted me to come wipe her. Since it was #2, I delegated that job to Jon.

N - There's a poopy stuck in my butt
Jon - *inaudible*
Me - Is there still poopy stuck?
N - No - see?! Then she came out of the bathroom, totally naked, turned around and stuck her butt out at me, so I could see.

Thanks, kid!

Then she ordered Jon to flush it.

Jon - It's your stink
N - No, it's yours
Me - *laughs*
N - You think I'm funny? Do you? I'm not.

"I'm going to get a tummyache"

Natalie's seafood challenge is coming up in a few weeks. I promised her if she doesn't react to crab at the challenge, we'll take her to a seafood buffet in town (it's supposed to be really nice).

N - "I'm going to eat a YOT (lot) of crab. I'm going to get a tummyache. For* you burp, you say excuse me, then run away".

She makes me laugh every day!

*She gets her "fors" and "whens" mixed up.

My kissing spot is gone

:-( As most babies do, Oliver lost all the hair he was born with (except a tiny fringe at the base of his head, just like big sis when she was a baby!). His started coming back quickly, except one small spot on the back of his head. That sweet little spot was just the right size and shape for kissing. I just noticed tonight that he has the tiniest dusting of hair growing in "my" spot. It wasn't there yesterday! Just another little reminder of how quickly they grow and change.

Of course he's kissable all over, but I'll miss my special little kissing spot.

Some Natalies

I forgot to post - last week she had another note sent home from school, thanking her for "a wonderful week, being a good helper and a great friend".

Today she had a little star sticker on her shirt, when I asked her what it was for, she rattled something off, and since I was expecting her to tell me how she earned it, i.e. "I helped with blah blah blah", I didn't quite catch what she was saying. She repeated herself, and I realized she said "Love one another. John 13:34"., complete with hand motions. She memorized their Bible verse for the week! Her teachers haven't been sending them home, so I had spaced on that. So cute!

And Oliver's still working on crawling. He scoots, or army crawls quite well, does the rocking on all fours bit. He starting to go after toys, and Natalie's getting a little territorial. We're working on that.

Dumb ass. Literally

Seriously. Thanks, Sarah! "Vote" "Yes" Democratic donkey. I wonder how much that cost!

The last bit was added for Jon. He's a guy and didn't think it obvious enough. *eyeroll*

Six month stats

Weight - 20 pounds, 13 oz. 97th percentile
Height - 29 inches (same as four months, so I think he was measured incorrectly last time, he's definitely longer, you can tell by how his pants and shorts fit). Off the charts
Head - 18 inches. 97th percentile. Was 75th two months ago. LOL

Happy Six Months, Skeezix!

My baby turned 6 months old today. It doesn't seem possible. Oliver has to be one of the happiest babies ever - he just smiles and smiles. He's very close to crawling these days, gets up on all fours and rocks back and forth - sometimes he launches himself forward, but does a face plant. It really bothers the little guy that he can't crawl, so every chance he gets he tries, and gets so frustrated, very vocal about his displeasure. He was like this when he was trying to roll too. Bottle time is a challenge, as he'll take a few swallows, then try to flip over on your lap so he can try to crawl. Hopefully he'll master this soon. The other night, I peeked in on him before I went to bed, he was sound asleep, on all fours (head on the mattress though), rocking, so even in his sleep, he's trying to crawl!

He's been through all the Stage 1 foods, except prunes (little man doesn't need encouragement in the pooping department. Applesauce was bad enough. Oy.), and we're onto Stage 2s. His six month check-up is Monday, so I'll report back with his stats. He's just about out of 6-9 month clothes already.

Onto the pics! I cannot print to save my life, excuse the handwriting.

Just hatched:

1 month:
Today:

Trying to crawl:

Neil Diamond

Mitz and I saw Neil Diamond in Glendale last night. Fantastic concert, no lie. Everyone should see him live. He seems like such a nice, down-to-earth man, who truly appreciates his audience. One of my favorites is "Holly Holy", and hearing it live was incredible - it really lends itself to a live perfomance. The only song he didn't play that I would have liked to have heard was "Song Sung Blue". Even some of his other songs that aren't my favorites, such as "America" and "Forever in Blue Jeans" were undeniably great last night.

Could've done without the drunk hen party in front of us (when did I get so old? Except they were older than I), but there's some in every crowd. :-)

There's an elevator in her belly

Conversation in the car today:

"God lives in my heart. Jesus does too. Sometimes they go in my belly. They take an elevator. Mmmhmmm, yes, I have an elevator in my belly. It goes up and down. My belly is a door for God too, and the circle (her bellybutton?) is a window. They take the elevator and God presses the 2 button and Jesus presses the 1 button".

Post Turtle

A friend relayed this....

While suturing a cut on the hand of a 75-year-old Texas rancher whose hand was caught in a gate while working cattle, the doctor struck up a conversation with the old man. Eventually the topic got around to Sarah Palin and her bid to be a heartbeat away from being President.
The old rancher said, 'Well, ya know, Palin is a post turtle.'

Not being familiar with the term, the doctor asked him what a post turtle was. The old rancher said, 'When you're driving down a country road and you come across a fence post with a turtle balanced on top, that's a post turtle.' The old rancher saw a puzzled look on the doctor's face, so he continued to explain.

'You know she didn't get up there by herself, she doesn't belong up there, she doesn't know what to do while she is up there, and you just wonder what kind of dumb ass put her up there to begin with.'

And on another note - Natalie now says "My mama is for Obombombomba". Last night during the debates, when McCain was answering a question, she jumped up and said "That man is talking again, Mommy. I'll cover him so you can't see him", then jumped in front of the TV. LOL

We're back!

We spent the weekend in Overgaard, and initially, couldn't win for losing. Check this out.

We went up there to go to an annual festival. It used to be an Oktoberfest, but apparently, they decided to stop serving alcohol at it (buh?), and changed it to something else that sounded fun. Yeah. People got pissed about the booze ban, so they canceled it outright. We didn't find out until we got there.

The property where we stay has horses and a bison (it is called Bison Ranch, afterall!). They have pony rides for kids - Natalie loved her pony ride when we were there earlier this summer. Yeah. The pony rides closed for the season the weekend before we were there.

We decided to go to Holbrook on Saturday to check out the Painted Desert/Petrified Forest State Park. I was there 8 years ago, right before I moved to CA, and it was just incredible, and I wanted Jon to see it anyway. It is only an hour from Overgaard. Someone at the front desk told us there was a dinosaur park we should check out, near Holbrook. I looked at it online, and Natalie wanted to go. We got up to Holbrook, saw the sign for the dinosaur park, got onto 40 and saw two of the dinosaurs at a truck stop. We drove for a bit and didn't see the park, turned around and went back to the truck stop. Yeah. The Dinosaur Park closed a year ago due to declining business, and those two dinos at the truck stop were all that were left. So we stopped so Natalie could check them out. The funny part was, as Natalie and I were going back to the car (as an aside, I thought Jon was honking at us. Nope. He had Oliver in the driver's seat with him, and I think O was doing the honking!), another mini-van pulled up and started unloading kids. The father looked at us and said "Please tell me this isn't it". Sorry dude!

Since Holbrook is only about 20 minutes from Winslow, I insisted that Jon take us there so I could stand on the famous "Standin' on a corner, in Winslow, AZ" corner and get a picture by the mural - I think there was supposed to be a park or something dedicated to it. Yup. You guessed it. A year ago, there was a fire. The only thing left was the front facade of the building, but luckily the mural was still intact. There isn't much to do in Winslow, so we got the shot and left. :-)

All in all though, it was a nice weekend! Friday I had the kids out all morning at the playground, throwing rocks in the pond, checking out the shops on the property while Jon got some work done. Then we hung out all afternoon. Saturday was awesome - the Painted Desert/Petrified Forest is just incredible. There are petroglyphs in part of it (see the pictures I'll be posting after this) that are 600-800 years old. When we got back to Overgaard, we had dinner at this awesome Mexican restaurant we discovered on our last trip, Casa Ramos. It was good to get away, and the weather was refreshingly cooler. Could have done without the rain, but hey, that's ok!

And on a sadder note... There was a lizard that lived on our property - liked to hang out on the concrete block fence near our honeysuckle and palms. When Jon's family was visiting the weekend prior, Dude was in the yard, looking a little worse for wear. I kept moving him back to the shade under the palms, and we hoped he'd pull through. He died sometime over the weekend. Fortunately, I don't have to tell Natalie. Right before we left on Thursday, I noticed another Desert Spiny (a friend helped me ID him online) about the same size, hanging out in Dude's old spot. There's also a much smaller Desert Spiny and two geckos that live on our property! So, that brings our lizard total to four.

I'll be posting pictures in a bit - check them out! You'll notice there's a picture of a train station. That's the train station in Holbrook that Geronimo boarded to go to a reservation.