18 month check-up

Weight: 23 pounds 25 percentile
Height: 32 1/4 60 percentile
Head: 18 3/8 55 percentile

About Natalie:
Natalie feeds herself with her left hand, writes with her left hand, throws with her left hand, and if you try to switch her hands she will switch it right back. I'm betting she is a lefty.
She is a very energetic, happy, smiley toddler, yet mischievous and naughty, or adventurous and active? (Let's look at the cup half full and say adventurous and active.) :)
When she gets in trouble or goes into time-out she laughs, smiles, smirks, anything else but feel sad or remorse. She's even made me laugh multiple times trying to discipline her.
Everytime she is done with dinner, if I don't catch her in time, she throws and wipes everything from her table or high-chair clear of everything. One time I leaned close to her face, pointed my finger, and as serious as I could to let her know I meant business, I firmly and sternly said, "NO!" She only responded back with her finger pointed at me, a very good imitation of my face, and a firm "NO!", following with a cheesy smile and laugh. So much for discipline.
She knows exactly what buttons to press with Marisa. Her favorite is to pull her hair and smile.

On the flip side, Natalie is a sweet-natured baby. She loves to be held and to cuddle. She is a total Momma's girl.
She will comfort Marisa if she is crying, (if she didn't make her cry in the first place) and has even comforted me when I was crying. She just held me for a long time.
She always hands Marisa a snack first before feeding herself.
She always wakes up from nap asking, "Whey 'isa?"
Natalie loves her Georgie and lately has been wanting two binkies at once. One in her mouth and one to hold, that way she can switch between her "peent" and "lellow" ones whenever she feels like it.
If you ask her how old she is she will reply, "Two!" and she holds out her thumb and pointer finger to show you her age. Like a gun.


Dynamite does come in small packages. So much to love about this girl...and man do I LOVE her!

private business

I think it is the funniest thing when kids hide to "take care of business". Marisa did it at this age and now Natalie just started.


Peek-a-boo. I found you, baby girl.

first day of nursery

Best birthday present ever. Natalie's first day of nursery today. :)
Isn't she so dang cute?
And yes, that is a big ol' bruise on her forehead from slipping on the bathroom floor and hitting hard on the side of the porcelin toliet...

it's official...

we are moving...


to...


LONDON!

We leave the first week of April, we will be gone for two years, we get to be there for the royal wedding and for the 2012 Olympics.
Crossing my fingers my girls come back with accents. :)

Paris, Milan, Austria, Spain, Germany, Scotland, ..... HERE WE COME!!!

two binkies

Why have one when you can have two?

who dat?

Tim loves to travel. I tell ya, the man daydreams about it constantly and can sit for hours looking at maps. Fortunantely, since we have been married, we have managed to "travel" as much as we can. We have done at least one big trip every year of our marriage. Hopefully as the years go by, the less poor we become, the more elaborate trips we can take, right? In the meantime, our small trips have been wonderful.
We have always talked about visiting New Orleans for awhile now. It is only a short drive away from ATL, and with the girls staying at my parents', and Tim's birthday weekend this past weekend, it was the perfect time to go!

December 31:
On the way down to New Orleans we stopped and saw the 16th Street Baptist Church, and the University of Alabama.
Being at the church made me reflect back and think that not too long ago things were WAY different than they are now. Very sad that those type of things happened so openly.


On the other hand, Bama has a beautiful campus! And the fun thing is, down the main college street there is a whole row of fraternity/sorority houses. I don't know much about frats or sororities, but check this house out.

Pretty amazing building, huh?

We then spent New Year's Eve on Bourbon St. in New Orleans! How crazy were we? I would bet thousands that we were the only sober people in that whole street.



(via iphone)

We first had dinner at Bourbon House where I ate alligator for an appetizer and a fried oyster salad for dinner. I'm getting more and more daring. Watch out!

(via iphone: Alligator. Yes, it tastes like chicken.)

(via iphone)

January 1:
For breakfast we ate at the famous Cafe du Monde for their famous beignets.

ABSOLUTELY. DELICIOUS.

We then walked and shopped around the French Quarter. This was my favorite part because we got to really feel what New Orleans was all about. The arcitecture, the music, the people. Soo fun. Jazz bands, local artists, street tap dancers. There is so much character there and the atmosphere is very unique. SO fun.




For lunch we ate at Mother's and had
their famous Po' Boy sandwich and gumbo!




After a wonderful warm lunch we took the Trolley to the Garden District and saw a lot of the original Southern Mansions. Beautiful homes with so much character. Even the sidewalks where uneven and cracked and I loved it. I loved the homes.




January 2: Tim's birthday!
For breakfast we ate at Camellia Grill. The people of New Orleans are really friendly and colorful in general and having the day be "game day" made the restaurant atmosphere so much better. Everyone was extra energetic.
New Orleans was completely covered in Fleur-de-lis, gold and black Saints gear, iron, mardi gras masks, beads, and even the people were completely decked out! Pretty cool to see.
Right next to the French Quarter is the French Market. Just a fun flea market type area. After that we went on a steamboat ride down the Mississippi River to tour a famous plantation.




Finally, for Tim's brirthday dinner we waited hours to eat at Port of Call. Tim uses "Yelp" to find good places to eat and this place had amazing ratings. It was good.

January 3:
On the drive back home we stopped and saw the University of Auburn. It was neat to see the college that was going to be playing in the National Championship game. Tim and I want to go to an SEC football game sometime in our life. Now THAT is football.

Well, that is about it. We literally ate our way through New Orleans. There are several things we didn't get to see that we wanted to, so we will just have to visit again! Until next time...

Centennial Olympic Park

Today we went to downtown Atlanta to go outdoor iceskating at Centennial Olympic Park. Marisa was so excited once again to put on little skates just her size. She was pretty hesitant at first, holding onto the wall, but it only took a little warm-up to feel confident enough to venture out on her own!










Afterwards, we ate lunch at The Varsity. Tim and I have heard so much hype about it so we decided to try it out. The food was fine, but if you ask me, I think it is over-rated. But at least we can say we have been there!
I don't have pictures of it, sorry. I learned a hard lesson today. Don't give your way expensive lens and camera to a 3 year old to walk only 10 feet to Nana because she just might trip on the sidewalk and crack it. Bad, bad, BAD idea. Ohhhh, I'm still hurting inside because of the scare she gave me. First thought: that is $3,000 gone! Luckily, the only thing that cracked was the UV lens filter. Easy replacement. $30 bucks. Whew!