Christmas begins

We recently had the first of many Christmas events for the year, and this one was at our house. Grandma and Grandpa Flannery along with Uncle Brian and April came over to celebrate Christmas. As you can see Natalie got all dressed up to help play hostess.
This year Natalie is old enough to open her presents, but we still have the minor issue of her wanting to immediately play with any present she opens. Therefore it can take quite a while to make it through a few presents. One of the first presents she opened was a package of new markers. She of course had to test them out for a bit before moving on to the next present. Natalie also got a new cart to push around, but Dad had to assemble it before she could use it. Natalie is quite the slave driver, because she checked in very frequently to see if it was done yet.

Natalie also got a big bin of plastic balls to play with. There are 100 of them. You can tell that Uncle Brian isn't the one who has to pick things up after Natalie :-) Of course, Natalie loves them.
For those that we won't be seeing over the next couple of days, have a GREAT Christmas!

Surprise in NY

Manhatten is an interesting place. There are lots of interesting people and interesting things to see. There are also quite a few famous people there, so you never know who you might run into on the street.

Natalie learned this first-hand when we were walking down the street during our visit. Both Natalie and I were shocked to see none other than Elmo himself standing on the street corner near Rockafeller Center. He was quite friendly, and Natalie was thrilled to see him.

You'd think that Natalie would be afraid of a 6-foot Elmo, but she actually wanted to hang out with him. She was pretty upset when we had to leave, but we did manage to get a picture or two before we left. Natalie was talking about him for the rest of the week :-)

Trip to the east coast

Natalie recently took the third plane ride of her life. This time we went out east to see her Great Aunt Laura and Great Grandma Robinson in New Jersey. Grandpa Steve also came along, which Natalie was thrilled with. We all had a wonderful time! We got to see a Christmas concert, the huge Christmas tree at Rockafeller Center, and the Statue of Liberty. Julie and I were happy to make it out to the statue since we weren't able to visit it during our last trip to NY.

Natalie did great with our long, windy day in Manhatten, and she also made friends with Aunt Laura's dog Emma. At the beginning Natalie definitely wasn't too thrilled with sharing the condo with Emma, but by the end of the trip Natalie and Emma were getting along very well. Natalie was still talking about Emma even after we made it home.

Thanks to Aunt Laura and Great Grandma Robinson for taking care of us during our visit, and thanks to Grandpa Steve for letting us hijack what was originally supposed to be a nice, peaceful trip out east :-)

More fun in Indy

Hi everyone. Just thought I'd post a few more pictures of Natalie from November. It was a busy month because we went back to Indianapolis three times. In the first picture above, you can see Natalie and Grandma Ginny getting crazy. Natalie loves running up and down the hall at Grandma's house, and Grandma decided to join in on the fun this time around.

One of our trips back was to attend my cousin Ana's baby shower (congratulations Ana!). As you can see in the picture below, Natalie and Carina (my cousin Monica's daughter) got along pretty well together. Here you can see them relaxing and enjoying a popsicle. We had a great time!

Thanksgiving

We went back to Indianapolis to visit Grandma and Grandpa Robinson, Aunt Emily, Aunt Rachel, and Uncle Nick. She had a great time, although the only item from the entire feast that she really ate a decent amount of was the rolls. I think that she would have eaten the entire basket of rolls if we had let her. The desserts were a different story of course. She ate just as much of them as everyone else :-)

As you can see from the pictures, she also had a great time with everyone. Thanks for letting us visit Grandma and Grandpa!

Natalie's little brother

The big news so far this week is about our new baby that's on the way. We found out on Monday that we're going to have a baby boy! I know that nothing is a sure thing at this point, but there are some pretty convincing pictures of... *ahem*... well, let's just say we're pretty sure from some of the sonogram pictures :-)

We've posted several more sonogram pictures at our website, so be sure to check them out! As soon as we have more news we'll pass it along!

Natalie's First King's Island trip

All the way back in September, Natalie got to take her first trip to King's Island. She wasn't quite tall enough to ride most of the kiddie rides by herself, but there are still plenty of rides that she can go on with us. She wasn't a huge fan of riding on the carousel, but she started to enjoy it when she got to sit in one of the seats instead of on the horses that go up and down. In fact, she hated it when we had to get off of the ride.


She rode a couple of other things, including a little airplane that went up and down. She was nervous the first few times it went into the air, but then she really started to enjoy it.

In the end, her favorite thing to do in the park (besides eating the ice cream) was to just run around in the huge open spaces. Since we were there on P&G day, there was plenty of room for her to just run around and she loved it. She also seems to enjoy pushing her stroller more than she likes riding in it.


We'll be back in the park plenty of times next summer, so we'll see how she likes the big girl rides. It had been quite a few years since Julie and I have been to kiddie land, but I have a feeling we're going to become pretty familiar with it in the coming years.

The Pumpkin Patch

A few weeks back, Natalie got to visit her first pumpkin patch with Grandma and Grandpa Robinson. She got to wander the field in search of that perfect pumpkin, check out some farm animals at the petting zoo, and have a couple of fall treats including apple cider and caramel apples.

As you can see she managed to track down a pumpkin that is just her size while cruising through the field in her hat and sunglasses. She enjoyed watching the animals at the petting zoo as long as they didn't get too close, but her favorite part was definitely the food at the end. Apples are so much better when they're soaked in caramel :-)

The weather was perfect, and we had a great time!

Halloween

Hi everyone,

First off, Happy Birthday Rachel!!!

To avoid further mocking and derision from our loyal blog readers, we will once again make an effort to post blog entries more often. At least more often than every 4 months :-)

So let's start things back up again with Halloween. Natalie dressed up as the cutest little lion ever this Halloween. She did go trick or treating to a few houses, but she's still not a huge fan of meeting strangers. It was a beautiful night and we had a great time. She also enjoyed watching the other kids come to the house in their costumes. Every time the doorbell rang she would run to the front door smiling.

Enjoy the pictures, and we'll see you next week for an update.

Natalie's Playground

Ever since we put Natalie in a swing at the park for the first time, she has been addicted to swings. Whenever we walk through the neighborhood she keeps a close eye out for playsets in other yards and points enthusiastically at them while looking at us with those big, puppy dog eyes that say "Pleeease take me over there to swing."

Since I'm completely incapable of saying no to her, she now has a playset in her backyard so she can swing whenever she wants :-) Thanks to a couple of weekends of hard work and some serious help from friends and family we've built a playset that includes a swingset, slide, climbing wall, picnic table, and sandbox. It hasn't fallen over after the first few weeks, so things are looking good!

Natalie swings on it at least 2 or 3 times a day when she's at home, and she's loving it so far. I'm looking forward to when she's big enough to use the rest of the playset as well!

Andy

Baseball and Bad Blogging

Ok, so I'm really bad at this blogging thing. I know it's been over a month, but I'm back and I'm still going to try to post at least once a week. I really am. Hey, quit laughing!

A lot has happened over the last month, and I'm not sure where to start. For now I'll keep it simple. Natalie attended her first baseball game on June 8th. Grandpa Steve and Aunt Emily were there as well, and we all had a great time! She lasted until the 7th inning, which is quite a bit longer than we thought she would since the game started after 7:00.

I Miss Natalie

I'm in Geneva this week, and it's absolute torture being away from Natalie for that long :-( She at least recognizes my voice on the phone though, so hopefully she won't completely forget who I am. Next time I'm definitely bringing along an online camera so I can see Natalie and Julie.

I thought you'd enjoy the picture above of Natalie on our riding mower. She seems quite fascinated by it when she sees me mowing the lawn. She enjoys sitting on the mower, but she wasn't quite sure about riding around on it. I think it may have been a bit too loud for her.

Andy

Check out my shades

First, just a quick reminder that our main website has been updated with a couple months worth of pictures for Natalie. Go check it out when you get a chance!

I also thought you'd enjoy this picture of Natalie in her new shades. Sometimes she wants them over her eyes, and sometimes she likes them up on her forehead, but she always wants to wear them when she sees them. She'll get plenty of chances to wear them this summer since Julie just bought a summer pass to the zoo and we're shopping for a bicycle seat so Natalie can go on bike rides with us. Combine those with the trips to the park and possibly some swim lessons and it should be a great summer!

Andy

Easter

We all had a great Easter weekend, and Natalie enjoyed seeing all four of her grandparents. She had a very pretty Easter dress on, which she promptly managed to poop all over, so we had to go to her backup spring dress while we were in Indy. Luckily Natalie received that dress as an Easter gift, or she may have been spending the bulk of Easter day in just her diaper!

We hope all of our friends and family out East are staying dry during all of the nasty weather!

Andy

Swinging in the park

A couple of weeks ago we finally took Natalie to the park for the first time. We set out straight for the swingset, and it was a good choice. Natalie was in the swing for quite a while and when we thought she was finally bored we tried to take her out, but she was apparantly just relaxing and had no desire to get out of the swing. She enjoyed it a lot, and we'll be heading back as soon as the weather cooperates.

We're also still shopping for a playground we can put in the backyard. Our loyal blog readers will be the first to see it when we finally decide on one! For now, just enjoy the pictures of Natalie's first time in a swing :-)

Sorry for the lack of entries lately. You should see at least a couple more entries this week to make up for it.

Andy

Natalie Trivia - First popsicle!

Natalie had her first popsicle on March 24th. Here's a picture just before one of the bigger sugar rushes of her life :-) She loved it!

Andy

"Look at this!"

Natalie has officially started saying her first phrase as of a couple of weeks ago. We weren't sure at first, but she's definitely saying it. When she's in the mood, she'll sit down next to you and start individually pointing out pretty much everything in the room with her tiny little pointer finger and say "Look at this!". It's pretty funny and almost too cute to handle.

"Look at this!" "Look at this!" "Look at this!" "Look at this!" "Look at this!" "Look at this!" "Look at this!" "Look at this!" "Look at this!" "Look at this!"

She can go on for a pretty long time, but it hasn't gotten old to me :-)

I'm sure she'll be happy to show you the next time you come visit us!

Andy

Natalie's New Hat

Julie and Natalie went shopping recently and Natalie found a hat that she really likes (and wouldn't let go of), so now she has a new hat :-) As you can see, she's pretty darn cute in it. She loves having it on!

Natalie's also really started to enjoy playing ball. She'll sit down about 6 feet away from me and we'll roll her Dora ball back and forth. She's getting very good at catching the ball, picking it up, and tossing it back in my general direction. Hopefully she'll be able to play while *standing* in the near future.

Andy

Future musician?

Natalie has recently discovered the keyboard we have set up in my computer room, and she absolutely loves playing with it. She loves making as much noise as possible while she's at the controls, and there are plenty of other buttons at the top that glow a neat blue. Every time she gets a glimpse of the keyboard she has to stop and play. This could be the start of her future career!

Natalie had a good St. Patrick's day. She didn't get to have any green beer, but she did get to go to a party where there were clowns, dancing, and plenty of cheese and crackers for her to snack on. She was well dressed for the occasion with her new shirt from her Aunt Laura and Great Grandma Carol!

Andy

My favorite thing ever

My favorite thing in the world to do is rock my daughter to sleep. Even if it's 3 in the morning, I don't mind a bit. It's hard to explain, but it's definitely true! :-)

Andy

Straws and suckers

Natalie still loves going to Skyline, and now she loves washing it down with some water through a straw. Every time she sees something with a straw in it she wants a drink! She can really gulp down the water too. She much prefers the straws to a sippy cup.

We took her to the Home & Garden show this week, and she had a pretty good time. There were lots of large playgrounds to look at. Julie & I are trying to decide what we're going to get her to play with for the summer. Some of those pre-made playgrounds are ridiculously expensive. We'll see how the shopping goes.

While at the show Natalie spotted a basket full of candy. I picked her out a dum-dum sucker and she played with it for a bit. We then decided to take the wrapper off and see if she would try it out. It took a few minutes since she wasn't quite sure what it was, but once she got that first taste of it, it was all over. We gave her a few tastes, but apparantly we weren't moving fast enough because she eventually grabbed it and took charge. She pretty much left it in her mouth at that point and drooled strawberry flavored slobber all over the rest of the show. She loved it!

So, for the record her first sucker was strawberry flavored and she had it on March 8th. That fact will be good for your Natalie trivia knowledge.

Andy

A New Skyline Customer

We've taken Natalie to Skyline many times, and while there she usually eats a few crackers and her usual food that we bring along. Tonight she was feeling adventurous and decided to try a little bit of everything in sight.

She had a few bites of Mom's burrito, some shredded cheese, and plenty of spaghetti from my 3-way. She loved it! She ate quite a bit of spaghetti, and made a serious mess in the process. In her defense, eating spaghetti with your hands isn't the easiest thing in the world to do. She seems to have mastered the art of sucking in the spaghetti one noodle at a time though.

Sadly, we didn't have our camera with us :-(

She's also been learning all sorts of new things about her toys. The picture to the left is of her playing with a toy where you can push the balls through the top and they fall down through a track to the bottom. Previously she just played with everything individually, but recently she's started pushing the toys down through the track, and she's having a lot of fun with it. It's a lot of fun to see her learn something new!

Andy

Welcome!

Welcome to our new blog! Natalie is learning new things every week, and we want to share them all with our friends and family. We'll do our best to let you know what's happening at least once a week, and we'll also try to post as many pictures as we can. We'll keep posting photo albums and video clips on our regular website as well.

Feel free to post your thoughts and comments as well to let us know what you think, and check back regularly for updates! Here's a little picture to tide you over until the next post :-)

Love,
Andy & Julie