ALMOST TWO! 23 Months :)

I've been updating less and less lately. But we have been a busy family lately and our summer is starting to fill up quickly too! We went to Puerto Rico in the beginning of March!! It was amazing, such an awesome trip, we had a great time with Jo & wally. We relaxed, explored, drank rum, and did some touristy things too. Natalie's Grandma came and stayed with her while we were gone. They had so much fun together, I was so glad they got to spend some quality time playing. Grandma got lots of hugs and kisses, and I'm sure Natalie loved having her all to herself! Nick and I missed her a ton. 5 days was a lot of time away. It was needed adult time for Nick and I, but next time I want to be able to explain to Nat that mommy and daddy will be home in a few days. I think it screwed up her sleep patterns a bit. We spend lots of nights, crying, scared of our crib, and rocking for hours. However, we are back to our normal good sleeper self after about 3 weeks :)

Aside from our trip, we have had lots of fun play dates with new friends! The weather has been all over the place, but we have done the zoo, lots of parks, and pool days too. Hoping for some beach time in the next week or so. Maizy and Natalie are so cute together. And we made friends with a few more PGA folks. We spend lots of time up there, and it's always a blast. We also had some fun in Orlando. Natalie played with Ryker, Braxton & Chase. Then meet the new-bees Quinn, and Andi! It made Orlando that much more fun. We stayed with Liz and Adam this time to mix it up. They have a BEAUTIFUL new home! Unreal how much more house you can get of there...maybe one day we can make our way up there :)

Now for some Natalie updates. She is talking up a storm. putting 2 and 3 words together like a champ. I'm so proud of her, and now longer concerned about her language development. It's incredible, she is a parrot, and so smart! We know most of our shapes, and half dozen colors, a couple letters, and still stuck on counting with only the number 2 lol. She thinks every day is someones birthday, and loves cake. She talks about uncle Richy and Jamie often. Every time I'm on the phone she says "A-JO?" (meaning Aunt Jo). She said mama and papa at my grandparents house yesterday. And asks for "Baizy" (meaning Maizy). Every time we meant a new friends she asks for them the next day. It's so awesome. She asks to see her "nana" and we quickly FaceTime Wisco! Her Mimi and Poppy always bring big smiles, and she is starting to warm up to my dad too. She is shy! Especially with dudes. It takes her a LONG while to warm up to people. And she can be a bit of a brat about it. We are working on sharing, she says "mine" constantly so we are trying to teach her how to take turns. She is good about saying please, but hasn't picked up thank you yet. Sometimes I'm not quite sure what she is saying, but it's getting easier everyday. She LOVES the guitar. She sits and plays and calls it "singing". Its amazing for Nick and I, being such big music lovers, to see her embrace music already. SO COOL. I can't believe she is going to be two next month. She is the light of our life! And becoming such a big girl already. Now if she would only eat like one lol.

We are very excited for the next few months!! April is Natalie's 2nd birthday and Aunt Jo is coming to visit. We are having a bachlorette party in Orlando for her. May Nick goes to the derby, and I'm going up to NJ for Jo's bridal shower (nick and nat may join me). June is Nick's birthday & we are heading to WISCO for a wedding and some family time. July we are going to Maine to celebrate my Grandma's 90th birthday. And August is the big wedding in NJ! Then my Nick takes on an Ironman in October! So if anyone wants to book us for September, I'd get dibs ASAP lol. CRAY!

I gave up ice cream for Lent...COME ON EASTER!!

Ok I'm leaving you with some photos.

GO SLEEPY!

Where's Nana for my tea party?!?!

SINGING

my girls and our kiddos!

Happy St. Paddy's 

Nat and her BFF at the zoo

Guitarist :)

Just a HI!

Nat is a cutie pie. She is my favorite side kick, my number #1 girl, and I think she is starting to use it against me lol. She knows what she wants, and can be quite the handful lately...however, I still can't get enough!! She is so sweet, gives great hugs and kisses. And when she wants to snuggle I will stop a train to be her cuddle buddy. She makes me smile, and hearing her learn to speak has been incredible. I realize that every toddler learns to speak, some faster, some slower than others. But it is truly awesome to hear YOUR little girl make it happen. I want to call a certain someone and tell her how Natalie calls TV "T". I feel like Aunt T would think that was funny. I hope she chuckles from heaven at all the funny things Nat is doing lately. She really cracks us up :)

We had a fun New Years party! It was awesome seeing our friends and watching the girls play! Maizy and Natalie had a great time, they are really playing together and interacting like big girl friends. The Beatty's just welcomed their new little man Chase into the world today. Michelle was at the party 4 days from her due date and stayed up well past 2:00AM like a champ. So many babies the last few weeks!! Makes me want another one...really bad...soon. Lets go Serafyn-Mauceri wedding!! :)

It was a long week of travel for my nick this week. Hoping to get some fun family time in this weekend. We are planning to take Nat to the zoo Sunday with some friends. Our friends the Nicholas's got us a year pass to the zoo for Christmas!! We love them! #bestgiftever

I also got a sweet-ass camera from my hubby for Christmas. I need to learn how to use it, and how to operate photoshop correctly. Im going to attempt to take some pic of Nat this month, STOKED!

We are doing the 200 sit-up challange from now until our trip to Puerto Rico in March!! Jo and I are turning 30, we have always said we would take a trip together to celebrate being OLD! It's happening dang it, so we mine as well get in shape for it. A few girls at work and my bad ass mom are also doing the challenge. It should be fun :)

Ok a few pics and then going to sleep!

Worn out! Still going for Cheerios!

Stacking champ :)

Playing some footy in the house :)

She wanted 3 head bands on for the park!

We got some fishes!! Blub Blub!!

2012. What. A. Year.

This blog entry is for me. Sometimes you just have to WRITE from your heart.

New Years Eve will be spent with a few friends at the house this year. Nothing too crazy. I (along with many) am still struggling with the loss of a best friend. She is on my mind daily, and tears still find their way to my eyes pretty often. My heart hurts, mainly for Jonathan. I wish I could grant him the strength to heal quickly, but this may be a long road. Tiff was a truly beautiful person, and I hope he knows he is an amazing dude and we are always here for him! Going into 2013 I hope we all start to heal. She is very missed, and very loved. I will spend this new year reminding myself just how precious life is. You really do need to cherish EVERY moment. Sometimes its easy to find ourselves caught up in the little things. My resolution this year will be to focus on the big picture in life, try and be the best mom, wife, daughter, sister, friend and co-worker I can be...and live everyday to its fullest.

Love you Tiff.

New Years Eve 2011

Lots to be THANKful for, Happy Holidays!

Well, as per usual, it's been forever since I've blogged! It's ok though, we have been a very busy family these last 2 months. This time of year work is pretty crazy/awesome for mom and I. WE LOVE IT. Thanksgiving was beautiful, we had fantastic FL fall weather! We all went to my moms and had a wonderful dinner. Natalie ate NONE of thanksgiving dinner with the exception of the string beans. Super. lol. She is still picky as ever!

Oh....great news!! Jo (my bff) set a wedding date!!!

We also squeezed in a Tatge family Christmas trip up to Chicago! It was really great to see everyone, the weather was gentle on us Floridians and we had a very hard time leaving (as usual). We spent lots of quality time with Nama, stayed at uncle Ryan (birthday boy) and aunt Dana's house (Nat loved all their pets), and also got to visit with uncle Eric, aunt Marissa (newlyweds!), uncle Ian and Amanda (new home owners)! THere was lots to celebrate and we really had an awesome time. We took Nat to the Shed aquarium with Nama, went up to the sky deck downtown, took pics with Santa, saw our friends the Staniaks, partied for Ryan's birthday, and did our secret santa exchange!

....Did I mention Jo & Wally finally set a wedding date?!?!?! Crazy right!!

After our trip Nick had some traveling to do, we both had a few Christmas parties to attend and work was super busy! We had a great Christmas, lots of family time, plenty of presents, and everyone spoiled miss Natalie. She is one lucky little girl! Nick spoiled me as well, but honestly having him home this whole week and next has been the best present ever :)

**NEWS FLASH: Jo and Wally are getting married in AUGUST 2013...get stoked people.

We can officially say Natalie is a chatter box!! It has just exploded the last few weeks and Nick and I can't get enough! She is repeating (finally), and learns new words everyday. It's incredible! As much as we were told not to worry, it was always a little nerve racking that she was a bit slower than most 18th month olds. But 20 months is definitely her magic age. She is an amazing little girl in so many ways. Having a front row seat to watch her grow is a priceless gift. So. Much. Love.

Nailize Christmas Party! <3 you girls :)

Helping daddy with lights!

Nat and her buddies :)

Nama and I being silly!

ready to party. always.

Nat and Nama up at the Sky Deck!

Merry Christmas Eve.

My little 20 month old!

Slide Champ.

Driving the bus....

Christmas Day 2012

A big, but brief update (oct-mid nov)

I completely slacked last month. It's November and I still haven't written about Ireland!! Or Natalie's 18 month check up!

A quick overview, she is doing great, growing well, and a happy girl. She needs to put on a little more weight, only 15th percentile. Height at 50, and head still huge. She is doing much better with speech. On average picking up a word a week now. Still a bit picky with dinner, and she is on an anti-sandwich kick for lunch now. But she still has a pretty balanced diet, and loves her milk. Nick took Nat to her checkup this time! I was so proud of him to totally offer to take her, and asked Dr. Gina lots of questions! Very impressive daddy skills, I must say :)

Ireland was amazing!! We had such a wonderful time. Natalie was so good, she completely blew me away. I, of course, was way over worried about EVERYTHING. The flights were very long, but we kept her busy, read books, she slept some, and watched lots of Lorax (still her only movie of choice). The first day in Dublin was a lot of adjustment! We were quiet tired, but kept ourselves up and tried to get on a regular sleep schedule. The ONLY thing we had a hard time with in Ireland was miss Nat's sleeping. She would wake up during the night and want to hang out for a few hours before going back to sleep around 4 or 5. Except, of course, for the two night she spent with Nama and poppa Gary...she slept perfect for them! Other than that we had no hiccups. She was great on the bus trips, was fine with snacking lots, missing naps, and by day 4 was BFF's with our tour guide/bus driver. The wedding was absolutely gorgeous. The castle was out of a story book, the wedding party (3 of us included) looked super! Eric and Marissa did a phenomenal job with every little detail! The whole trip was mapped out perfectly, they totally rocked the destination wedding thing! Trip of a life time, so glad we brought miss Nat. So happy we got to spend time with family, across the atlantic, celebrating Uncle Eric & Aunt Marissa :)

Natalie is still my favorite little person. We have so much fun with her. This age is a blast! She is so funny and has the most entertaining personality. Currently she is cutting her eye teeth and quiet honestly, she is such a trooper. She was a dream most of the day today (i've seen swelling since friday). By 4:00 she was a hot hot mess. Felt in her mouth and one toofer broke the skin, OUCH! Poor baby. After some teething tabs and a mushy dinner, by 7:30 she was snuggling with me on the couch ready for bed. Such a tough kiddo (ehem...gets it from me...obvi). She has also developed several fancy dance moves in the past few weeks. She is getting really good, and even added some spin moves. The dance skills daddy can take credit for, I'm horrible lol. She is such a love, and gives the best hugs EVER.

Nick was home the entire month of October so that was amazing. His travel schedule seems to be simmering down a bit. Very happy about that. Holidays are fast approaching, can't wait to play Santa this year! I think daddy is more excited then I am, its cute :)

We went to Orlando for UCF Homecoming last weekend, and Aunt Jo came in town to visit with us as well. She was here for a good 5 days, and really got to spend some quality time with her God daughter.  It was a bitter sweet HC this year. We were missing one of our closest friends, Tiff. It was not the same without her there, but she was most definitely there in spirit. It was great for all of us to get together, reminisce, laugh, cry, & tell stories. We miss Aunt T very much and will always keep our memories of her close to our hearts. Love you Tiff!

LOTS of photos to share this post. NOT in order. And the rest of the Ireland pics are on FB (we barely took out our camera)!

BOO @ the Zoo with her BFF :)

Maizy and Nat having a blast!

Playing in the zoo fountains!

My sweet butterfly :)

Dublin, wearing the hat her Aunt T bought her :)

IRELAND

Silliest bubble blowing I've ever seen lol

Daddy and his girl.

Tiff showed up for a visit <3

At the park!

Being a goof :)

Celebrating our 4th wedding Anniversary! <3 you Nick

Hanging with Aunt Jo in Costco!

17 Months

WHAT A BIG GIRL! Lots of fun this last month! We are so excited for Ireland, 12 days and counting!

We added Owe, Juice, & pop (bubbles) to our vocabulary! She is really starting to babble lots, it's so cute. She abuses the word "owe" lol. It's pretty funny, everything is owe, and she makes such a good hurt face too! Little faker! I've done a ton of reading on language development in the last few weeks. My conclusion is I need to stop worrying. She is just fine, understands everything I say, communicates as best she can, and the words will come at her own pace. I've discovered lots of things my first 17 months as a mom (and I have a truck load more to learn). A big one is this: Anytime your little one does ANYTHING good or bad, slow or fast, wrong or right, you immediately think it's something YOU did wrong. News flash...it's usually not. Ever kiddo is different and realizing that recently, especially with Nat's talking and picky-eating, has simmered me down a TON! She is eating better, but only when she feels like it. She is progressing with her speech, but not yet striking up conversation with us. I'm just fine with all of it :)

Her temper is also progressing nicely. She has a very strong personalty and knows what she wants. We have days when she is as sweet as pie, and days where she is a little terror lol. However, both days are equally as busy, fun and entertaining!

She is really pushing herself and testing her abilities physically lately. Lots of falls, minimal tears, and completely fearless. It keeps me on my toes! Another thing keeping me on my toes is learning how to discipline her when she SLAPS ME...right in the face. At first it was only in front of my mom to get a reaction out of her. She would slap me, look right at Mimi, she would yell "don't you hurt my girl Natalie!" And Nat would laugh. Now she slaps me when she gets frustrated, or when tell her she can't do something. I've put my foot down, my routine when she behaves like this is almost perfected. She still hasn't stopped doing it, but she is starting to hesitate before she does it. Hopefully we will have that under control soon lol.

IRELAND UPDATE: Ok, getting down to the wire. Nick and I have our clothes laid out, Natalie's clothes are tried on and laid out. Everything we think we need is purchased, passports are packed. Oddly, I think I'm less nervous this week than I have been in the last month. I'm super excited, not to concerned about anything specific. A bit anxious about the flight, but other than that just stoked for the trip, THE WEDDING, seeing family, family seeing Nat, exploring Ireland, and spending time with NICK! It's going to be a trip of a life time :)

I miss Nick very, very, very much. This has been a long few months of lots of travel. I, again, don't know what I'd do without my parents (and brother). I've been with them 4 sometimes 5 days a week, and poor Nick has been working so insanely hard. I can't wait for the end of October lol. Another reason I'm stoked for Ireland...10 straight days with my husband!

We have a busy wknd full of packing, Bedner farms for the pumpkin patch, and a 1st birthday party!


Nat is: happy, healthy, tall, packed with personality, funny, smart, ball kicking and throwing, sweet, active, limit pushing, dancing machine, and totally adorable little girl who I love very much. Next update will be after the big trip!

LOVES THE POOL!

Obviously I'm a horrible singer.

trying on Ireland gear...yes she can open the doors now lol. 

So silly :)

BFF's

Loves daddy's juicer, hooray for liquid Kale!

My little goof ball :)

16 Months!

What's up Isaac? You turned out to be pretty lame. Go easy on the Gulf states though! We are still in for about 24 hours of rain, and some wind gust. Other than being trapped inside and potential power outages, we are safe...this time lol.

The Mohawk!

So Natalie is 16 months old. She cut two of 4 1 year molars, and the 3rd one is trying to make an entrance. She is full on running!! Can almost jump, climbs on and off the couch with no help, stands on her picnic table (not good). And is still a bit of a dare-devil. She listens much better, and is understanding more and more each day. This morning she pointed to her diaper right after she made her pee-ing face. Quite helpful I must say. Our new thing is being totally mean to strangers! Anyone she doesn't know who tries to say hi to her, she shakes her head no at them and whines lol. It's a little embarrassing, especially when I take her to work with me on friday afternoons. SHEESH! But I'm sure she will grow out of it. She has made two attempts to climb out of her crib. I'm not having it. I really want to make it till at least 2 before we have to do toddler bed. DANG IT! She is to little still, why is she growing up so fast?!?!?! The last few days lot of new sounds are creeping out. She says two new words. "Go" and "hop" when she sees a bunny, frog, or kangaroo lol. She does the doggie noise and can belt out a good growl...it's the cutest thing I've ever seen :)

The Badger....coloring :)

Eating is still a bit frustrating. Nick was home half the week and shared in the clean up duty experience after dinner. Such a waste of food. She is so picky, and a texture freak. I think my Ireland concerns have moved from flight to food. I'm sure she will be fine, she is a snacker, but I'd just like her to eat a solid meal...ever. Everything she snacks on is really healthy and pretty balanced though so I try not to worry too much. Although I did make nick look up to see if there was a grocery store close to our hotel in Dublin. hehe.  Ireland is only 39 days away! Getting stoked for Uncle Eric and Aunt Marissa to get hitched!

We did some winter clothes shopping for Natalie too (for the trip, it's cleary not cold here). She is in 18-24 month shirts from gap and old navy, but then the 12-18 month jeans fall off her hinny. I had a few coupons, shopped mainly in clearance and got some really cute stuff. I also scored a big Gap coat for her on eBay! $19.00 BOOM. It's in the wash as we speak, really nice, will keep her warm if we go to WI this winter as well. Good find! Nicks mom sent the stuff I'd never find here. Lots of warm socks, thick leggings, and fleece PJs! Thanks Nama :)

We also packed up ALL of her baby stuff last weekend. And did a little rearranging to make the family room more organized in the toy department. Can't believe how fast time has flown!
She is still funny, and such a little cuddle bug. So sweet and blows everyone kisses. I'm amazed at how much I have fallen in love with this little girl. She is so awesome, I feel so lucky to be her mommy :)

Cracking up!