Three years old

Natali is 3 years old. Hard to believe eh?



To celebrate her 3rd birthday we took a weeklong cruise to Bermuda. Seriously. It was a planned family vacation with her Cousins, Aunts, Uncles and Grandparents. Fun week.

Natali still isn't fully potty trained.

We did have some success while on the cruise. Natali's cousin Renee is 4 years old and fully potty trained. Natali picked up on this and actually ASKED and USED the potty a few times. She had a dry diaper all day at least 2 days.

Things were looking up. Then we got home...and she quickly reverted.

Work continues.

She did get to ride in First Class for the first time. Natali had enough real airline miles from real tickets and purchased a First Class seat for her return flight from Newark. She didn't know any different from coach...which is good as she can't non-rev in First Class until she is 6 years old.

I hope to update this blog more often. We head to the Doctor tomorrow for her yearly checkup. Stats will be posted.

Here's a few vacation photos.



 

Where did June go?

June went by fast.

Over the last two months we sold our old house, packed up and moved into the new house.

The transition went very well. We were worried Natali would have problems adjusting. Not at all.

It likely helped that we visited the "new house" several times over the last few months. Natali has been calling it the "new house" for a long time. She hasn't had a single issue.

What has been an issue is potty training.

Her Daycare teacher was shocked when Kelli told her Natali won't use the potty at home. Natali has been using the potty just fine at school, even pulling down and up her pull up!

We are still trying. Natali will sit on the potty fine, but hasn't actually used it in the new house. We have tried taking away her Ipad, which had no effect at all. She didn't miss it at all.

We then tried a slice of birthday cake as she LOVES birthdays. Nope.

Cupcakes. Nope.

M&Ms. Nope.

Cookie. Nope.

Lollipop. Nope.

Natali knows what she is doing. She will sit on the potty for a while then say "I'm all done, no Lollipop for Natali."

We aren't giving up.

It's hard to believe Natali will be 3 years old next month. We ordered a new growth chart for her room as we had to take the old one down.

I'll try to update more, hopefully the next one will have potty training progress.

Loves her cousins

Natali is rapidly approaching 3 years old.

THREE YEARS OLD.

Potty training is still planned this summer. She knows what a potty is. She will ask to sit on it every now and then, but she's used it only a handful of times.

She did go #2 with her Grandma recently. Kelli and I were at work when Natali told her Grandma she needed to go "poo poo". She went down the hall and went. Natali has never done that with us.

With all the house stuff we haven't made the time to potty train. That will change in July.

Beyond that Natali really enjoys playing with her cousins.

We recently flew to California to visit Natalis cousin Haley (and her parents Jami and Kelly).

As always Natali is VERY shy with everyone but Kelli and me. It doesn't matter if  she met you last week, for the first 5-20 minutes of meeting you she is very reserved. I was very shy as a kid as well. She will grow out of it.

Natali has been taking swimming lessons for months and is very comfortable around water.

Jami and Kelly have a pool in their yard and the girls wanted to go swimming, but it was a bit chilly. They did have a great time kicking and splashing though.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5XqMDaku3UU

I still look at Natali with amazement. She has come so far in such a short time and yet has a long way to go. I'm

Almost done

It's been very busy in the Byrd household.

We listed our current house for sale on a Sunday. We had an offer for full list price on the following Wednesday.

The plan is the close on June 7th on the old house and June 13th on the new house.

The new house is almost done. As far as our eyes can see the new house just needs carpet, appliances, a good cleaning of the floor  and touch up paint.

Here's a video of the almost done house.

 

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YlJueR14B6U

First ear infection

We had a really good run....2 1/2 years of no ear infections.

Natali had a really rough night last week on Thursday. She woke up crying and screaming. She said her ear hurts, but we dismissed it as her sleeping on it funny.

The next day she was really moody. She never complained about her ear, but she had big mood swings.

Saturday she was normalish, but late in the afternoon she said her ear hurt. Sure enough she had a yellowish ring around the exterior of her left ear.

Off to the urgent care clinic. I felt bad for not looking at her ear closer on a weekday.

Ear infection confirmed. Thankfully Natali likes taking medication.

Still not potty trained. With all the house selling stuff we haven't given potty training much attention. Now that we replaced our vinyl flooring with carpet....we think we will just wait until we move into the new house, which should be in late June.

 

 

Now arriving gate 2....those "terrible twos"

Natali is a pretty good kid. I've been around a few kids...I know she is pretty easy.

People warned us of the "terrible twos". Natali turned two in August. I cringed....nothing happened...until lately.

She is learning how to push our buttons. Two of her favorite things to do are spill/spit water and take off her shoes.

The spilling/spitting water came along as a surprise.

She USED to have a sippy cup in bed so if she was thirsty overnight she could drink. Then she started to "spill" the water on the side of the bed and carpet. I thought it was an accident....until it happened several times.

Natali also will drink water while sitting at her table and then spit the water onto the table. She then turns around and says "uh oh I made a mess".

Beyond water she is taking off her shoes again. Natali went through a phase of taking off her shoes when she first started walking. It passed. Now it's back.

Either in the car, sitting in a shopping cart or wherever.

We are still working on potty training. She knows when she needs to go, but doesn't tell us until it's to late. A few times we've snatched her up and ripped her pants like they are on fire, then plopped her down on the potty. Baby steps.

Natali's vocabulary and speech skills are amazing. I thought my niece Haley was advanced at 2 1/2 as I was having conversations with her at that age. Natali seems well past that.

Natali is literally a sponge. We will give her a new fact...like where her cousins and grandma live. She repeats it a few times and then over the next day or so will ask us where they live. Before long she is telling us where they live like, "Grandma lives in Oregon" and "Haley lives in California."

She learned a while ago that "Mommy works in the building," and "Daddy works in the airplane."

Her sentence structure is also quite advanced. I'm very proud of her.

Beyond that we are just really busy getting this house ready for sale. Natali often says, "I want to go see the new house."

We should be there in under 90 days. Likely around 70 or so.

Tour of the next house

It's coming along well. Hard to believe it won't be done till June!

httpv://youtu.be/kb_CU0MYQoE