My Daughter Walks!

Its a miracle! Natalie is finally walking. It only took her until she was almost 15 months old but better late then never. It seems like one day she just woke up and started walking. Now she walks everywhere. I was so worried something was wrong with her because she hadn't walked yet. But yet again I learned that all kids do their own thing in their own time.

She went to the Dr to get her last set of shots and she was so upset with us! She was clinging to her Magenta puppy dog the whole time. Natalie is also a little anxious about the change in our routine lately. We have been doing a lot of moving preparation and she is all out of sorts.

The movers come tomorrow! I wonder how Natalie will react. I can't wait until we move! I'm so excited!

News

So its finally going to happen. Ben is getting out of the Air Force and we are going to have a 'normal' life again. We will be moving in with my parents in PA while Ben is searching for a good job. Its very scary to start over again with no money, but I am so thankful we have family that is willing to help us out in our time of need. Thank goodness my parents have a 4,000 square foot house :)

I have been agonizing over this for almost a year now. I have been a nervous wreck for so long. I have been worried how we are going to pay our bills with no income, or how we are going to afford health care for Ben and Natalie who both have major health issues. All of their prescriptions are VERY expensive.

But now that it is all finally happening I am just so relieved and at peace with it all. I don't really know how it is all going to work out but I trust that God has a plan for us and everything will be okay.

I am so excited to be moving close to our family again. I am so happy Natalie will be able to grow up with grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins all around her, just like I did when I was growing up. Ive really missed my family these past 5 years. We have missed so many Christmases, birthdays, thanksgivings, all kinds of things. You don't realize how important your family is to you until you don't have them in your life anymore.

The next few weeks are going to be crazy..... but its all worth it.

9/11/01

I remember where I was when I found out what happened in on 9/11. I was 16 years old at the time. I had gotten home from Seminary class (seems like another life ago) and I was homeschooled at the time so I went back to sleep. I had just started dating Ben about 9 months earlier and I was having a weird dream that Ben and I were on a plane. I remember the plane had blue colored seats and it was dark. We must have been flying at night. In my dream I told Ben I was scared of plane crashes.



For some reason my dads job at the time meant that he had to drive back past our house at this particular time of the day. My mom and I were snoozing in bed and he runs in the room and says



"Have you heard whats happened? Ive been listening to the radio in my truck."



He turns on the TV and they have been replaying the first explosion. I honestly thought it was a movie. Coming out of my sleepy haze I am thinking he has turned on a movie.....but this TV has no DVD player.



Then all of a sudden the second plane hits. All of us in the room jump. My dad was like



"This is NO accident! This is on purpose."



We all kept watching the screen as the TV reporters slowly started to realize this was an attack and not an accident.



While we were watching it live, they were showing footage of the buildings burning. One of the camera men for the news was zoomed in on the people hanging out the windows for fresh air.



Then one jumped.



The camera mans feed was cut and the news went to another camera mans view point.



Everyone was in absolute shock. That is the only word I can use to describe it. Just shock. Could this really be happening? Why would they attack those buildings??



Everyone knows what happened after that. The pentagon, United 93 the passengers who fought back.



This seriously brings goose bumps to my body just thinking about it. NOTHING and NOBODY has been the same since that day.



I pray for all those family's of loved ones who didn't come home that day. I can't even begin to imagine the pain of that kind of loss, and I honestly I hope I never have to.



The men and women of the NYFD who risked their lives to GO INTO those buildings to save complete strangers lives deserve so much of our gratitude. Everyone realized this and I can remember such an out pouring of support for the NYFD. The firemen always just humbly said



"They were just doing their job."



In the aftermath of it all, the thing that struck me the most was how everyone rallied together in a spirit of patriotism. If anything good came out of this horrible act of terrorism, it would be the common sense of patriotism.



I know that MY personal love for this country grew more that day, and the days following then I ever thought it could. I remember when I moved overseas to Germany, it just so happened that the Summer Olympics were on then. Whenever they would play the United States National Anthem, I would literally cry and cry. I missed my country so much.



I have flown A LOT since 9/11. EVERY single time I get on a plane I think about the passengers of United 93.



Could I be that brave? I hope so.

Bad blogger

I KNOW! I KNOW! I have been a terrible blogger recently. But I have SO MUCH to blog about. I have felt a little overwhelmed now that I have a toddler I have to run after.

So lets get to it. I want to go over all the new cute things Natalie is doing. She is growing so fast!! It seems like yesterday she was just starting to learn how to smile.

New cute things Natalie is doing/learning.

1. She is making "kissy" noises


2. She is also making a hole lot of lip smacking noises


3. Grandmom was here for a few weeks and she taught Natalie how to play "So big"


4. Grandmom also taught her how to touch noses, eyes, mouths, and ears


5. Mommy taught her where to find her belly button (and everyone elses)


6. Natalie goes to the end of the arm rest on the couch or the recliner and squats down low and hides and then pops up to PEEK at us, she thinks this is hilarious


7. She is learning how to color with crayons on her little table


8. She also has these little "Temper Fits" she mostly has these when I tell her she can't put crayons in her mouth, she gets so annoyed with me :)


9. Whenever either of us say "Natalie don't do that" or "No Natalie" she bursts into tears and she breaks out hearts. She is so sensitive. I only have to LOOK at her like I'm mad and she falls to pieces.


10. Once my mom let Ben and I go on a date and she watched Nat for us. She gave Nat a bath and apparently Nat was angrily "chattering" at mom, because she didn't want to take a bath! When Nat woke up the next morning she saw me and started "angrily chattering" at ME! She was upset I was gone so long :)


11. Nat has learned how to say I did it, Mom!!!, Mommy!!, Da Da, Naa, bab, and a whole lot of other chatter.


12. Natalie loves to DANCE! Anytime and kind of music starts playing she starts to bob her head back and forth and shake her butt.


13. She also give us "love squints" she looks at us and then squints her eyes.... she is a character


14. She plays with the buttons on the TV to get our attention, but then she gets extremely scared of the "white noise" and she tries to get as far away as possible


15. She loves playing "telephone" everything becomes a phone to her. She also plays with the cordless phone and has figured out which button changes the ringer volume. Whenever she touches that button on purpose she throws the phone away from her because it scares her. But she does it on purpose!


16. She loves for us to build up blocks so she can knock them over. She has just started to stack a few blocks all by herself


17. We were working with her trying to get her to wave bye bye, she did it once when grand mom left for the airport and we haven't been able to get her to do it since


18. She LOVES to eat string beans and carrots, they are definitely her favorite foods.


19. She HAS to be the one to turn of the light switch whenever we leave any room


20. She is finally getting over her shyness. But now she goes up to complete strangers and wants to look at their belly button. I have been totally embarrassed


21. She is also very "sassy" Some how she has picked up the ability to give very dirty looks ( I can't imagine WHO she learned this from) But she has given us quite I few dirty looks


22. She absolutely LOVES cantaloupe and watermelon.


23. She went to the DR for a check-up and the Dr said that she is going to be super short (sorry Natalie)


24. She lets us know she needs something by STARING at us. If she has a poopy diaper she stops everything and stares at us until we figure out what she needs. She also does this if she wants a drink of juice


25. She is pretty much weaned off the bottle and on to the sippy cup. She only has one bottle at bedtime.


26. She is also feeding herself with a spoon and a fork. Its still a work in progress but she is very very good with a fork.


27. She is more into reading her books or playing with her toys then watching TV anymore.


28. We were watching "Wipe out" on TV last night and when the people were trying to walk across the "big red balls" after they fell Natalie was cracking up. She is so hilarious and she definitely has her parents sense of humor

Mommy and Natalie tried to paint what little toenails we have :)


I think Natalie looks so grown up in this picture. Like she is ready to go off to kindergarten

Natalie and her Daddy splashing in the pool.

I used to HATE it when people would post pictures of their kids covered in food. But now that its MY kid I don't mind it so much :) hypocrite?......Maybe

Today was the first time Natalie and I went to the library for story time for her age group. She wanted to play with the kids SO BAD. She wasn't much interested in doing any of the activities. She just wanted to get to those kids!

I am so happy that I get to spend these days home with her to watch her grown and learn new things everyday. It really changes a person when they become a parent. The world is an entirely different place then you thought it was.