SUCCESS!!!

It's been one week now since we switched Natalie to her Big Girl room and queen size bed and I'm very pleased to tell everyone that it has been such a successful week!!! Although she did not take any naps last weekend, she did really well at night and hasn't been a problem at all. Here's a picture of what we've seen each night this week.

She's been staying in her bed until today - so that is such a win. Today however was the first time she took a nap in her room. I am just so proud of her. So I went in to check on her because I had originally laid down with her (cause momma was tired!) and slept some, she had just played and talked. Did I mention she talks a lot when she's trying to unwind? well, she does. anyway, i actually took a nap, she was still talking and playing (which is what woke me up) and i told her that mommy was leaving. She got sad and cried but that only lasted for a few minutes. We always close our doors when we sleep and since she doesn't know how to open them yet, I heard her wiggled the handle for awhile. then there was silence.

I decided to peak in on her and this is how I found her. Too cute! It's a good thing i didn't try and open the hall door - I'm really glad we have the bathroom door too.

Father's Day Weekend - Part 2 (Aquarium)

On Saturday morning, we all went to the Dallas World Aquarium (it's was Natalie's first time to go) and we had alot of fun. Natalie was a little scared at first, especially with the little birds (reminds me of her mom) but she gradually warmed up and had fun. Matt and I took advantage of this and gave her lots of cuddles and hugs which or course we hated (he! he!).
The jaguar was very polite to pose with Natalie and Daddy. Why is it that she is scared of little birds but this giant "cat" was no threat? Maybe it is the cheerois - or maybe it's because Daddy is soooooooooo serious.

Natalie LOVED the pink flamingos - she was cracking us up because she kept calling them PINKO's and didn't want to leave the exhibit.

Some cool pictures with mom in the tunnel:

Father's Day Weekend - Part 1 (big girl room)

This has been a LOOOOOOOOOOOOOONG weekend for the Zooks. It started off on Friday - I took the day off to finish Natalie's big girl room, run errands and the constant obgyn appointment. The day was over before I knew BUT I was able to get Natalie's BIG girl room (from here on know as BGR) into somewhat decent shape. There is still some decorating to be done, but for the most part, it's complete. Her new room is the old guest room and we tried to use as much existing furniture as possible. She's going from a crib (which she has been very content with) to a Queen! size bed. ai-yi-yi........ (more on the progress later)

We left the dresser and chair but removed the nightstands and bought some bookcases from Ikea instead. The lamps were existing, as was some of the bedding. The biggest change of course, is the color which Natalie helped me with. Below are the "before" and "after" pictures.

Before pictures (I loved our guest room - it had alot of stuff from my grandmother)

After pictures - Natalie's new BIG GIRL ROOM

Crib to bed transition progress: I have been really nervous about it and she's been doing exactly what I thought she would. So far, there have been zero naps this weekend. Saturday night was her first time to actually sleep in her room. Matt put her to bed and she was so tired that she cuddled up to him and fell asleep almost instantly. Amazingly - she slept thru the night and slept in about 30 minutes longer than normal. Tonight was a different story. No nap today, but she did tire momma out! I was soooooooo frustrated and just have to remind myself that this is a BIG transition for her. She was so tired this afternoon because of not having a nap that she actually feel asleep eating dinner. It reminded me of when she was a baby.

Ok, so I decided to put her to bed about 30 minutes earlier because of this, but she had other plans. As soon as I put her down on her BG bed, she popped wide awake and stayed up for about 2 more hours. We did enjoy talking in bed and I finally left after 45 minutes or so (she was still awake) and it's been quiet now for the last 30 minutes. Praise God!! I'm hoping that she sleeps thru the night again cause momma needs her sleep for work tomorrow!

Swimming with Mommy

Natalie is LOVING our pool this year. Almost every day she's asking to go swimming and well, mommy is very pregnant at the moment and loves to be in the pool too. SO..... we swim pretty much every day now. Here are a few pics from our swim tonight.


Natalie gets a little crazy with the camera - watch out dad!

Watching Elmo with Daddy

Recently, Natalie has become OBSESSED with Minnie Mouse (actually the mickey mouse clubhouse DVD's we bought her) and Elmo. Sometimes in the morning when we're getting ready to go to school/work or in the evenings, she asks to see Elmo's song. So we pull her up on our laps, google a video on youtube and watch a short clip. She LOVES this!

Memorial Day - Omaha visit

We had a great visit to Omaha this past Memorial Day weekend to visit with Matt's cousin Renee and her family (Mike, Mallory and William). It had been 1 year since we had last seen them and the twins had grown up so much!
Mallory and William are 6 months younger than Natalie and we had so much fun watching them interact while we got a chance to visit. We also got a chance to visit with Aunt Maggie (matt's aunt), have a "date night" on Saturday and a cookout on Sunday. We flew back home to Dallas on Monday.

It was a BIG adventure for us and we're so glad we were able to make it out there. We forgot to bring our camera with us so we'll update with more pictures when we can but for now, you can check out all the pics on Renee's blog.
http://www.mrloftusfamily.blogspot.com/