Sesame Street Live and Indy Easter

We had a busy and fun weekend:

Sesame Street Live: Elmo Makes Music and celebrated Easter in Indy

Both girls were excellent at Elmo!  It was about an hour and a half long and Natalie sat for the whole thing and never got whiny. She LOVED it!  We really don't watch Sesame Street ever, but Natalie has some books with the Sesame Street characters and especially loves Elmo, Abby, and Cookie Monster. Surprisingly, the show wasn't extremely packed like I thought it would be, but they definitely know how to sell to the crowd!  Grandma Lisa was nice enough to get each girl a special toy: Natalie got a light up, spinny Elmo and Aubrey got a stuffed Princess Zoe. Aubrey watched the first half until after intermission, then she slept for the last part of the show.

We learned about PBS in the Park coming to Indy in June where all the favorite PBS characters will be like Curious George, Sid the Science Kid, Daniel Tiger, etc. Admission is FREE and we are definitely planning to go to that!  Can't wait!

This is about how Natalie watched the whole show.

We planned on celebrating Easter at my sister's house on Sunday since they can't make it up to South Bend next weekend, but because the weather was so nice on Saturday and a blizzard was expected for Sunday, we decided to do the Easter egg hunt on Saturday, which worked out great!  Then, on Sunday we had lunch, then all parted ways before the big Spring blizzard came.

The Easter bunny was quite generous at Aunt Amanda and Uncle Matt's house!  The girls aren't spoiled at all!

I have no idea what she was doing, but she kept herself entertained. 

Rusty was trying to figure out what she was doing, too!

Having fun with sidewalk chalk!

Hopscotch Fun:

Coloring Easter eggs:

Happy Spring...haha!

Natalie and Aubrey also got some fun presents from Auntie and Uncle: a veterinarian dog for Natalie and a purple CareBear for Aubrey. From Grandma and Grandpa: Natalie got a Thomas the Train bubble maker and Aubrey got a soft taggie dog.

All in all it was a nice and fun weekend with family!

Warm Weather

...the windows are open!  The fresh air is awesome. I'm hoping to get these sick germs out of our house by having some fresh air go through the house. It is in the 60's today and we love it!

Aubrey had the flu yesterday with vomiting...poor girl!  My parents came down late Friday night and she was fine then, Natalie was the one that had been running a fever on Thursday night but seemed to be fine other than some diarrhea...ick!  Aubrey seems to be feeling better today and has kept some food down, so let's hope she just had the 24 hour bug. Both girls had just finished their antibiotic, too!  Go figure!

I'm hoping my parents don't get sick after being down here with the girls yesterday!

Bobby and I ran in the Run & Remember 5K that supports my job, but the hospice side of it. They had a great turnout and we were able to run on a great cross-country course here in Terre Haute where they hold the Nationals and all kinds of cross-country events. The course was confusing since there are splits at some sections and we had a 50/50 chance of picking the right course. It was a nice day as far as temperature for March (50's) but with all the snow/rain we had had this week, the course was VERY muddy!  Although our feet were drenched, they were never freezing...thank goodness. Bobby finished under 28 minutes and I ran/walked it and finished in about 42 minutes (not sure the exact time). I have no idea what I was thinking when I signed up for a 7K in Evansville next weekend...oh yeah, I wasn't thinking!  Oh well, it will be a fun road trip for me a 2 other friends.

Bobby says the sun was too bright :)

After the run, my sister and Matt came down to play with the girls and hangout. We played games, then later in the night, Bobby and I went to see a movie while my parents stayed home with the girls. It was nice to see a movie in theater for once and it was free for us since we used giftcards!  We saw Silver Linings Playbook, which was a good movie, but not a must see for theater purposes.

Today, after I got home from church (volunteered in the nursery), we ate and then headed outside to enjoy the nice weather!

Natalie is geting way too big...last time we played on the playground, she needed our help to walk up the steps so she didn't fall, or she would crawl up them! 

 

Guard dog, Rusty :)

No more baby swings for this girl!

 

Sleep Issues

Natalie has been quite awful for a while now when it comes to naptime and bedtime!  We really our at our wits end and get super frustrated...constantly!

The potty training took a backseat because she just doesn't show interest and cries whenever we set her on the potty...that is unless it gets her out of bed!  The poop thing is still an issue, but she does seem to be doing better about telling us when she needs changed, opposed to after she digs in her diaper. The backwards sleeper works, but I really don't feel like ruining a ton of sleepers because of this problem.

At daycare, she is hit or miss when it comes to naps and at home she is getting so bad!  She refuses to nap after lunch (same time as daycare) and it is a never-ending battle until she has been told (a million times) to go to bed so many times I can't even count. On Monday, I couldn't get her to sleep until I finally rocked her (typically even if she says she wants to be rocked it doesn't work because she just wants to get out of her room). Nighttime, she is constantly out of her bed, knocking on her door, playing...the list goes on and on! It seems like lately when we lay her down around 8:30, she doesn't got to sleep until at least sometime between 11p and 1a. Talk about exhausting!

Last night, I decided to sit in her room like a statue (suggestion by our friend, Amanda who watches some nanny show). I really feel like she exhausted herself by crying more than the threat of me being in her room. She got up about 3 times and each time she did, I put her back in bed without saying a word. I just sat still in her room and did not say a word and did not look at her. I felt like it was more torturous on me than her...probably as bad as Chinese water torture. This all occurred while Bobby slept on the couch...imagine that!

She did go to sleep (I didn't keep track of time, but it wasn't too awful long), but then woke up around midnight crying, and Bobby was able to get her to quickly go back to sleep. Tonight, so far, she has stayed in bed, but it's still too early to say if she will wake up.

Ever since Natalie has turned 2, she has been throwing more random temper tantrums, which just wears on a mom's nerves. I feel like I am always the bad guy in all the situations, but being nice vs. being mean really doesn't matter to her, so it's so easy to lose your patience!

Aubrey, on the other hand, has been quite easy. She usually lays down around 9p, then gets up at least once before it is time for me to actually wake up for the day. I need to get myself to go to bed earlier, but my sleeping clock must be broken because it seems like I can never fall asleep before 11p, even if I'm exhausted!

On Sunday, we had some friends over for dinner and the kids got to play and run/jump some energy out. Natalie enjoyed having someone else over to jump with...she is obsessed with her bounce house! We are definitely getting our money's worth!

2 1/2 years ago...4 kids later, we never imagined ourselves like this (The dad's look very into Daniel Tiger...lol):

Today, I was at the dollar store, picking up eggs for our church Easter egg hunt and I saw these window clings and thought it would be a fun activity to do with Natalie on this cold, wintery, icky day!  I am SO ready for spring!  Natalie enjoyed putting them on the door, but also enjoyed rapidly tearing them off the window as well...not quite sure I thought out the whole activity!  Natalie was also a big helper by helping me stuff the 36 Easter eggs I bought. She did a great job and really enjoyed doing that task!

Natalie's Dance Moves

She cracks me up!

Video of Natalie dancing: