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.