Christmas with the Ns!

Eating, always an important part of Christmas.


Looking cute.


Goodies in the stocking!


Peering in.


Baby E eyes the talking singing pony from Grandma and Grandpa.


She decides it's fun!


Daddy talking smack.


Baby E's cousin E has mad skills!


This is me at 23 weeks, enjoying an English muffin. Note the belly button!


Baby E eventually figured out the whole unwrapping presents thing.

Recent Pictures of Baby E

Sometimes Baby E lets me do her hair. Rarely. She LOVES to brush her teeth.



Baby E's temper tantrums are always short-lived. Thank goodness!

Getting the Christmas Tree

Aborted Christmas Card Shoot

Unfortunately we remember Friday evening to take the Christmas card photo fifteen minutes before Baby E's bedtime.



Mr. N preps the camera. Baby E already exhibits an uncooperative attitude.



Baby E cries because we will not allow her to continue playing the piano.



Dh announces, "This photo shoot is over! Baby E needs to go to bed! I don't care about the stupid Christmas card anyway!" Tucks Baby E into bed.

I go to Target on Saturday and buy some cheap Christmas cards. Sorry in advance - the Christmas cards are ugly and do not contain a photo of our family! I promise next year's will have a photo!

It's Going to Be a Boy!

That's right! We found out last week that Baby #2 is definitely a boy!

Baby E...Almost 17 months!

Baby E is not really a baby anymore. She is definitely a toddler. But I still call her Baby all the time. Eventually I suppose I will start calling her Miss E on this blog.

This is unfortunately one of Baby E's favorite things to do: play in the trash can. Sometimes I will glance in the trash, only to see it full of toys and a sippy cup! All covered in something gross, of course. Blech. Half the time I have to put the trash can up on the counter.

Baby E loves to sit on Daddy's lap and read the paper with him, it really makes her feel like a big girl. And Daddy is a good sport.

This is Baby E getting her first taste of apple pie! She liked it!

I knitted this hat for Baby E and I am quite proud of it! She consents to wear it for a few minutes at a time.

One of Baby E's favorite things to do that I encourage is playing in the backyard. She absolutely loves to wander around back there. She climbs up and down the step, sits on the step, points at birds, drops things in puddles, and falls in the wet grass. It's like Toddler Heaven in our backyard. In the above picture, Daddy helped her pick a small pumpkin and she was holding it on her lap.

Baby E adds to her vocabulary constantly. She has many words now including: Mama, baby, ball, pumpkin, balloon, arf arf (for dog), quack (for duck), book, more, bird, mouth, nose, and her favorite - NO! (Mama hears this one many times a day.....) Instead of saying anything like candle, she blows, like she's trying to blow it out, Daddy taught her that one. That's all I can think of off the top of my head.

She is altogether too clever. Once she somehow turned on Daddy's laptop. She likes to point to her different body parts so I will name them for her. She loves animals very much and giggles delightedly whenever she gets close to one. She no longer throws major tantrums when I dress her, but she does prefer to run around in just a shirt and a diaper. If she has to wear pants, she also likes to wear her little boots and her sweater. Maybe this is so she can go outside whenever??

She also enjoys getting into the cleaning products, rearranging the pots and pans, going on walks, playing with her friends V and E (my friend K's daughters), reading books, being chased by Daddy, being carried by Daddy, sitting on my lap while I read to her, and eating pancakes. Baby E is great and I love spending time with her!

The N Family Is Growing!

In April, I will be having a baby! We are really excited! Except Baby E, who has no idea of the pending upheaval. Now that the morning sickness is (mostly) over, I am soooo much happier. September was not very fun. So let's see...I am about 3 months along, we will be finding out if it's a boy or a girl, sometime in December. This picture is now about three weeks old, and blurry, but it's the best I could get at the moment! In this picture, you can see the baby all stretched out.
I can't really think of anything else to add right now. Oh, I did just barely start being able to feel the baby move occasionally, which is my favorite part of being pregnant. In both ultrasounds I've had so far, this baby has been super active. Baby E was not so active...does this mean something?? Hopefully not! Baby E is plenty active now!

Sign Language

Mr N and I were rather half-hearted in our attempts at using signs while talking to Miss E. I think we pretty much just did the sign for "eat." Personally I guess I had a hard time believing it would work and that E would ever use sign language to communicate. Well lo and behold, one day Miss E kept doing some movement with her hand by her mouth. I realized, "She's signing EAT!" This was followed by much celebration!

At first E would cry and sign "eat" constantly until I put her in her highchair. Then after a day or two, once she signed "eat" (not crying) and I acknowledged it, she was fine. She understood that I understood her and would feed her. THEN she started signing "eat" ALL the time, even when I knew perfectly well she wasn't hungry (i.e., lunch was 10 minutes ago). She was kind of using "eat" as a catch-all sign because it was the only one she knew. So I taught her "play" and am currently trying to teach her "full" and "all done" (do you think she'll stop throwing food on the floor when she's done eating once she's done eating??? that's my hope!)

Image credit: http://www.babysignsbymaureen.com/

More Pictures of E

Enjoying some Gerber Puffs


Hanging with my favorite guy


Trying to play with the laptop!

The Tuna Adventure

Mr N went tuna fishing and brought home a cooler full of tuna steaks! He canned it all (hard work, late nights, terrible mess & stink) and ended up with this:



84 jars of delicious tuna!! We've already used two jars - this stuff is MUCH better than that junk from the store. Yay Mr N! You rock!

To read more about his tuna adventure, namely the catching of said tuna, go here: Tuna Fishing

14 Months Old!

In a few days, Baby E will be 14 months old. I'm going to take a few minutes to note what Baby E is up to.

She has 7 teeth and loves to eat. She especially loves mooching off her parents. She is always on the lookout against vegetables, but sometimes I can slip them into casseroles without her noticing. Her favorite foods recently are blueberries, oranges & grapes. She is a fruitaholic.

Baby E gives Mr N a nice smirk.

She is a happy baby who loves to "read" books, clap her hands, sit on Daddy's lap, cuddle with Mommy, giggle, and get tossed around by Daddy. She is really growing in her ability to communicate. She can express when she likes something (or hates it). She said her first word on Sunday: Yum! (talking about blueberries, of course). We went to play with some friends yesterday and she showed quite clearly that the pool was not much fun but the berry bushes were fantastic!




She loves to play with adult things - the cell phone being an especial favorite. If your phone rings only once and your caller id says it was us, well that's because Baby E called you! She discovered the drawer in the coffee table unfortunately so I cleaned out all the scissors and matches and our house is officially and completely baby-proofed. Only took 13 months! Her favorite book right now is The Lady With the Alligator Purse.

She loves to look at other babies, but as typical for her age, doesn't interact with them much yet. In an unfamiliar situation, she likes to sit with me or Mr N until she feels more comfortable. Eventually she gets comfortable enough to go exploring! She is more of a homebody, though. At home she likes to play for a while then check in with her parents. If I leave the room, she will usually follow me to see what I am up to. Her newest thing is opening the shower door and getting soaked when one of us is in there!


Thanks for the dress, Grandma N!

Mr N's Motorcycle Trip

To learn all about Mr N's cool motorcycle trip, go here!

Trip to Utah

Baby E and I went to Utah last week. My parents and siblings all converged on Midway. We make quite a crowd now! Some parts of the trip were very fun - hanging out with my family, I got to see my friend L (first time in 5 years!), swimming in an actual crater (very cool).

Alas, I have finally realized that Baby E does not Travel Well. She was so clingy all week and wanted to be on my lap all the time. She cried (hard) if I got more than two feet away from her. This added up to not so much fun for either of us. So, dear family, be warned that we will be severely limiting our travels until Baby E outgrows this phase. (Do not tell me she will not outgrow this phase. I am not interested in that prospect! Ha ha)


Highlights from the trip:

My crazy uncle G telling L: You know what you get when you live in one of those communes? (L shakes her head.) You get AIDS.

Us "older kids" wandering the resort peering into craters in the middle of the night.

My sister E asking if someone had multiple scoliosis.

Laughing so hard before family prayer our abs hurt the next day!

Some Recent Photos of E

Baby E likes to bang on pots and pans, a common baby past-time.




Baby E likes the binky. We only give one to her at naps and bedtime. She is pretty good at finding them laying around though. Once the orange binky was lost for a few weeks. I had given up on it because it wasn't really worth it to dig through the house to find it. Well, apparently all I needed to do was leave Baby E in her room for a while, because she emerged with the orange binky in her mouth! Unfortunately she could not tell me where she found it.

First Naughty Moment

Baby E was naughty for the first time on Wednesday! She stuck my bookmark in her mouth. I pulled it out and said, "Don't put my bookmark in your mouth." Then she got a very sly look on her face and stuck the bookmark in her mouth. I repeated my reaction. Still with the sly look on her face, she licked the bookmark! "Don't do that!" I said, trying not to laugh. She licked it again. Her expression was so mischievous, it was hilarious! I finally had to take the bookmark away from her, the little imp!

Welcome

Hello everyone! This online journal will document the adventures of the N family. This journal will be heavy on pictures of E, so if you don't like that, you don't have to visit! We think she is darn cute personally.




Eventually I will figure out how to configure text and photos in LiveJounal, but until I do, sorry!

Happy 1st Birthday, Miss E!

E is now one! She was cranky on her birthday, but we still had fun. Daddy took the day off work and we hung out as a family. We went to the park and had a picnic.

Her one year appointment was today - she weighs exactly 20 pounds and is 29 inches long! (That's 13 lbs. and 10 inches longer than she was one year ago!) Way to go, E! We love you!