A new day....

Natalie has finally adjusted (just in time for Zack to go home). We had about 10 of Denise's friends over for Thanksgiving and Natalie loved all the attention from everyone. She has been the biggest show off. Best of all, we got her to ride in the stroller today which makes everything alot easier.




Natalie took a morning nap today and so Zack and I headed into the city to hang out. Denise stayed home with her to clean up from our Thanksgiving part. After we strolled around for a bit we ended in Central Park. Denise was suppose to meet us there but she got stuck doing laundry at the laundrymat with Natalie longer then anticipated. So I talked Zack into iceskating. It was so much fun...I wanted to ice skate in Central Parl when we were here for Christmas before but, we never did. By the time we finished Denise and Nat were there to greet us.




Then we walked around the park and Natty loved the leaves. We would toss them in the air and she would giggle.

Meltdown City

Well, yesteday was not a good day in the city. This is about the only picture you will see of us all smiling. We were zombies by the time we made it home. Lets just say Natalie did not want to see the sights and made that perfectly clear. We attempted to get a stroller and put her in it...that didn't happen. After screaming for 5 minutes we gave up and used it as a coat rack. Then we took her to a really cute Childrens Book store with specialty books (old classic folk and fairytales which was so cool- its fun to see the books we grew up reading or older) and a cupcake cafe inside. Well she did like looking through books but when we got cupcakes it all went downhill from there. She didn't want it, wouldn't eat it, wouldn't sit at the table, wouldn't put on her coat, wouldn't walk outside, sit in the stroller, or want us to hold her. She proceeded to arch her back in protest and cry all the way home. Yes we made a beeline for the subway and I ran several blocks home with her in my arms desperate to get there.




We think between her still being semi-sick, her sleep schedule has been off, and just to much stimulation to soon set her off. On a good note. We put her to bed ontime last night (more from desperation to get away from her. In fact Denise and Zack said the shutting of the closet door when I put her down was the best sound they had heard all day.) made for a happy child today. She went to Starbucks with us this morning to get our cup of joe, no tantrum, and then walked to and from the grocery store around the corner with no complaints. So, when she gets up shortly we will take her back into the city and we are confident it will be a pleasant one. (You better be listening Universe!)
On a side note- Denise felt so bad for us that she sent Zack and I back to the city in our despair while she stayed home with Nat sleeping. We even made it to Serendipity (although we have decided the Frozen Hot Chocolate just isn't what its cracked up to be). The atmosphere and other goodies yes. We happily made it back on the subway before midnight- which is a good thing since the N train is having some repairs to its track and shuts down at 12:01 am...it would have sucked to get stuck in the city after the day we had.

We have arrived

So, I haven't taken my camera out much since we got here...I don't have pics to really post yet. However, I had to blog the beginning of this somewhat chaotic experience. Two days before we left Natalie woke with a 103 degree fever that would not go down. I had to take her to the dr. and then to Primary Childrens for some tests to make sure she wasn't getting secondary infections from a cold she has had. Well, she has the adenovirus they told me Friday morning. Great...the dr informed me we could travel but she could have a high fever like 103 or more for up to 8 days. And they can develop pneumonia really easily.
It would have cost more then 400.0 to change our flights and so we boarded our 8:30 am flight saturday moring with our contagious child. (sorry to those on the plane) Suprisingly it went really well until the hour before we landed when Natalie arched her back and started crying really hard because she was so tired by then and refused to sleep on me. 10 minutes before we landed she fell asleep. The flight was extremely bumpy the last half hour and if anyone knows how Zack is...he was ready to puke...mind you the lady behind us did. To put it mildly we were so ready to get off the plane and get to Denise's we would have sold a kidney to do so.
Natalie's bed in the closet has worked out extremely well. It took her the first day to get use to it but now it is her quiet sanctuary. Yesterday was our first trip into the Big Apple. Denise stayed with Natalie while she napped and Zack and I went to see "Wicked" which was AMAZING. I have loved the soundtrack and the book so it was refreshing to finally see it live. Then Denise & Nat met up with us afterwards and we ate at her roommate Michael's work. The whole time Natalie had a stony look of silence as she processed all lights and people (not to mention culture shock- lets face it, Utah is not diverse ethnically speaking). Did I mention how nice it is to hop on and off the subway with no carseat.




This morning we took her to a park near our apartment in Astoria (Queens NYC) and she chased this squirrel. Its by the fence in this pic. Then we found used SideWalk chalk and she did what she loves to do best....color all over!

If you look through the trees you will see good old Manhattan...thats the east river dividing us.

I will post more this week once we get back into the City to see more of the sights with our little protege.

I couldn't help it...

Well I did it...I broke out some of the Christmas decorations and its not even Thanksgiving yet! In my defense I will not be here for Thanksgiving as I leave this Saturday for NYC and won't be home till December 3rd. On top of that Zack is out of town till Friday and Natalie and I didn't have anything else to do.



I have this Christmas frame of Zack and I on Santa's lap from our first Christmas together. Natalie spotted it and just kept pointing at Santa and saying his name over and over. She is obsessed with all things Santa. Christmas is going to be so fun with her this year!



Then I had my Santa and Snowman dolls out and she went and gave them a hug and picked them up to kiss. It was so stinking cute. I can't wait to take her to the Macy's Christmas display to see Santa in NYC.

Did anyone call for some snow?

I woke up this morning to a blizzard outside. It's trash pickup so in order to get my garbage can out to the street I had to shovel the driveway. (Zack is out of town so it was up to me or Natalie.)

I bundled her all up (minus snow boots b/c I didn't think I needed them yet) and out we headed. You can see from the first pic that Natalie wasn't to sure about it. Then everytime I would ask her where the snow is she would wave her hand back in forth. Like "duh mom, its all over".



She didn't want to come back inside. When I would ask her to she would run down to the end of the driveway shaking her head.

Trick or Treat

Zack came back from a trip this week and had a surprise. He brought home a giant sucker from Dylan's Candy Store. Natalie took one look at it and I swear she was in heaven. She would cry so hard when we would take it away since obviously we couldn't let her finish it all in one sitting.
Anyway, last night we got Natalie dressed up for Halloween. She needed to wear all black under her costume and once we put her black top and leggings on we both looked at her and thought "She looks like a little Thespian". No offense Denise.



We went to Jordan Landing to trick or treat at some stores with my Mom. (Charles came for dinner only afterwards.) She was so cute. She wouldn't crack a smile. She just wandered around staring at everyone and held on to her little candy bag. Every once in a while she would try to sit on the ground to get some out.



Below is her twirling her bag around- What a cute puppy!!!