Time with Family

Natalie and Claire had a great time playing with their Nana and Grandpa over Easter weekend.  We had planned to go to Pullen Park to play on the carosol and train but when we got there we discovered it is closed for the year for renovations.  It won't be open again until Spring 2011 unfortunately.  Natalie still had a lot of fun running around the pavillion areas with Grandpa and Nana.

Because the park was closed and it was pretty hot out, we went to the mall play area for Natalie to get some jungle gym time in.  On the way in, she kept saying "jungle....gym".  She is pretty good at holding her own on the equipment with all the other kids trying to run and climb around on the toys.  We also let her go on one of these mechnical rides.  She was a little afraid of it at the beginning but then of course, didn't want to get off.

 

Nana brought some large bubble wands and we spent some time with the girls blowing bubbles in the yard.  Natalie's gotten pretty good at being able to blow her bubbles.  It's one of her favorite past times right now.

And of course, there was a lot of time hanging out with the girls, and Nana and Grandpa.

The day that Nana and Grandpa left to drive back to Wisconsin they took Natalie to her Winter Wiggles class (Art to music class).  I think she really enjoyed showing them all the activities she's involved in.

Claire had her 4 mo. appointment this past Thursday.  She's up to 15 lbs. 8 oz (80th percentile) and 23.75" (25th percentile).  Her weight is staying pretty constant on the growth curve (she was 70th percentile at 2 mo.) but her height is finally picking up again (up from 5th percentile).  She had got 4 shots which she was extremely unhappy about, of course.  She ended up getting a fever and pretty fussy from the shots for about a day or so.  She is getting a flat spot on the left side of her head because she tends to favor sleeping with her head in that direction.  I tried using a rolled up towel under her crib sheet to keep her facing the other direction as recommended by the pedi but she kept waking up from it bothering her.  So we're just going to focus on not having her lay down on her play mat between sleeping but rather have her either doing tummy time, sitting in her bebepod or high chair, or sitting with us.  Other than that, the pedi said she's doing great and right on track as to where she should be for 4 mo. old.

Natalie can now say Picus very clearly and can identify and saying about half of the alphabet.  She loves to point out letters on signs and in books.  We're amazed as to how well she's doing with it already.  She's started copying counting down for things such as saying "1, 2, 3 jump".  I don't think she gets the concept of counting yet but it's great that shes's starting to recognize numbers.  She also says "almost" for things now, like "almost done", "almost night night" which sounds so cute.  The best toddler saying she has is "go away" when we try to help her with something she wants to do herself -- I'm sure I'm going to hear this again when she's 16.