Flooded

Pictures I took of my daughter on stage at the Grand Ole Opry in October of 2007.



















Picture taken on Monday, May 3, 2010. Grand Ole Opry Underwater.
Devastating and heartbreaking.

MY kids are great!

I am so sorry to have such a lapse in posts.

What's new with us? Not too terribly much. The kiddos are getting big.

Natalya can tie her shoes and has read her first sentence all on her own "Sam is a big dog". She read the wrods all by herself. I was so proud! She also is having some trouble with her shoulders- luckily no pain. She has been diagnosed with Snapping Scapula Syndrome, and we have a follow-up appt with a specialist on Monday afternoon to figure out what to do next. Luckily she is not in any pain. We are hoping it will be nothing big and she can continue her gymnastics. She would be sooo unhappy to have to give that up.

Zachary could care less about walking and can crawl almost faster than I can walk! He is quite the comedian. He loves to make people laugh and once he discovers something he does makes you laugh? He will keep doing it. Like in the pics above- he tips his head down and frowns down while looking up at you- and then starts cackling like crazy! He has a few words- Daddy, uh-oh, night-night and he tries to say dog and piggy ("duh" and "diddie"). Occasionally I will get a "mama" but those are very rare. He signs milk (also meaning water) and more, all done, bird, thank you, and he tries to do cat, dog and please.
It's very sweet because he has gotten "thank you" all figured out and will do it whenever you give him something. A few days ago natalya gave him a kiss and he signed "thank you" to her. AWWWWWWW

Doug is still at Pepsi and I'm still doing the coupon thing. Saving money and trying to help others do the same! We're super thrilled that we are actually going to be able to take a family vacation this year and are planning a trip to Florida, the beach and Orlando for Disneyworld, Animal Kingdom and Islands of Adventure (hoping Harry Potter World will be open!). We are finding some pretty good deals and also discovered the "Give a day Get a day" deal with Disney, where if you donate a day of your time to an approved organization, you get a free ticket for a day to a Disney themepark! Awesome!

She's growing up

My four year old has recently learned to write her name. I am a proud mommy for sure. She came up to me a couple of weeks ago and said, look Mommy, I wrote Natalya.

(It's a tough one to spell. lots of letters.)

*sniff* My baby's growing up on me.

Zachary is ONE!!

I mean, seriously. Can you believe it?? Time has FLOWN by!!

He turned one a week+ ago, but we had his birthday party yesterday. He was so funny. He loved everyone singing to him but didn't know what to make of his own cake (we got a "smash" cake with the big cake) he bit his fingers in it and I finally cut a piece out and put it up to his mouth and he took a nibble, but that was it. I think he was shy to eat in front of everyone. :)

He just started pointing to things he wants. He is still signing milk, but now he signs it for everything! LOL! If I have shown him a sign for a work, he uses the sign for milk. So he understands and remembers that I showed him a sign, he just can't remember it or figure out how to do it, so he signs milk (like for dog, more, thank you, bird) he just signs milk. hehe.

He is a crawling madman. He is fast too! He isn't showing interest in walking yet, which is fine by me. He is saying Mama, Dada and Nana (natalya) ocassoinally and Uh-oh. Not talking nearly as much as Natalya was but he does like to squeal. Oh boy can he squeal. I guess he wants to make sure he is heard because he is LOUD and high-pitched. !!

He loves balls. Any ball he is obsessed with. He got lots of ball toys for his birthday and he is in ball-hog-heaven. He carries them everywhere, although it's pretty funny to watch him try to figure out how to carry the balls and crawl simultaneously. He has also suddenly become obsessed with balloons! He had one we got at Publix last week and he would NOT let go of the string. I mean, I had to pry it loose to get him to go to sleep. When I take it out of one hand, he sticks the other out and grabs it with the other hand. Smart kid. lol. So for his birthday party, my grandmother went to dollar tree and got like 12 helium balloons and the strings were long enough to reach the floor- he was loving it- crawling around and grabbing all the strings. He would crawl past you with them all trailing behind him! hahahaha! I have all these pics of him clutching onto the balloon strings.

He is a pretty smart cookie too. He was in the bathroom with me the other day and picked up a roll of toilet paper that had not made it onto the actual roll yet and he looked at me and pointed to the roll like, Mommy, this goes over there.

He also loves putting things in and taking things out. Especiall balls. hehe. Anything he can put in and out makes him happy. To occupy him, I will sometimes give him a plastic cup and a couple of small-ish balls. In out, in, out.

I can't believe he's already one!! He's my baby! He's not supposed to be this old!

A few new pics of the kids

I snapped a few pics today of the kids. I have been lax on the picture taking. I am still pretty bummed about my camera, and have been using mom's old camera (thanks!). And it needs the battery to be recharged a LOT. We went to the pumpkin patch last weekend and had a LOT of fun- when we got there... battery died on the camera. I think I took one picture. They had fun though- and Natalya picked out a pumpkin that needs to be carved, so perhaps that will be the plan for this weekend. We always carve a big one and paint some small ones. (Speaking of which...I need to find the paint!).

Kids are getting big. I can barely even lift Natalya anymore and Zachary is no tiny thing himself. :) Natalya is doing great at gymnastics. She's in a pre-competition class and loves it. She can do bunny hops on the balance beam now by herself without holding onto a coach! She is also doing simple math. She'll say something like, "Mommy, I have four crayons!" And I'll say, "If I take one, how many do you have?" And she'll say "THREE!!" And she can do it quickly too, with very little hesitation.

Zachary is out of his "dada" kick and into "Mama" kick. Everything is "Mama". My new favorite? He will say "uh-oh Mama" when something falls. :) His top two teeth are in, barely poking through- finally! He was working on those forever it seems like. He is crawling everywhere- and he's FAST! If he knows you're after him, he'll hit high ghear and laugh the whole time he's beelining away at top speed. Very cute. He also started "kissing". He does the sweet open-mouth baby kisses, but also, if you say "Zachary, kisses!" He will make a kissy sound by sucking his tongue through his lips. It makes the same sound you'd make if you were puckering and making the "kissing" noise. It is REALLY stinking cute!

Both kids are balls of energy and I can't wear them out fast enough!

Without further ado, here's some pics... Not great, but better than nothing, right?
These are from a few weeks ago at the park


And here is one from earlier this week

And then some from today

Zachary's first sign!

I've been signing with Z just like with N. We started with him at around 3 months, just like with N. She picked up her first sign, "milk" at 7 months. I haven't given up on Z yet, but it's taking a lot longer! (That boy thing and communication thing).

He tried to sign dog once a bit ago, but hasn't really attempted anything since.

Today he signed milk to his sister, then has been signing it all day! He is so excited to have put it together he is very exuberant with his signing. He gets the biggest smile when he signs it and you say, you want "milk"?

Of course, I've been nursing him a lot more today than in the past few weeks as a result since I want him to appreciate that asking for milk will actually result in him getting milk. kwim?
LOL

Communication begins! I love it!

Awww- poor Zachary

He is finally getting the top two front teeth in and it is taking forever! Poor baby- the front right one is protruding down, but the gums haven't popped over it yet, so it looks like the tooth is "in" but it's the gum poking down. You can tell it hurts. I was trying to let him chew on my finger, and rub the gum to help it pop through, but he was resisting. The gum was bleeding some too. I have tried giving him cold things to chew on, wet/cold washcloth, etc, and he's having none of it.

I guess time will be the only thing to help. I don't remember Natalya having any trouble cutting her teeth.