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/

Sick :-(

No pictures to update you with but just wanted to let you guys know that we've been sick with a late spring cold. BOO!!! It started off with Natalie getting sick (runny nose / congestion) last week. Then, Matt started feeling bad on Saturday afternoon and myself on Saturday evening. We had to cancel our date night (SUPER BOO!!!) and missed church on Sunday. I think I've felt it the worst (dr. said it's because I'm pregnant) and I basically felt like I had the flu without a fever on Sunday and Monday. I didn't even get out of bed until 2pm! on Monday and that was only so that I could go to the dr. office. Also, I decided to miss the monthly Mother's Night Out with my church girls too (BOO!!!).

Thankfully, we all seem to be on the road to feeling better (thanks to all the medicine and fluids we're ingesting).

The only upside to this weekend was that I bought all the new bedding and decorations for Natalie's Big Girl Room. It's going to be done in white, pink, red and orange. Fun!

Oh no!......Natalie's got the camera

Ummmm.... natalie got ahold of the camera. Interesting pictures.

New Haircut (Erica)

Yesterday I took the afternoon off work and had a long-awaited haircut. I wasn't really sure what I wanted to do to it - I just knew I wanted a change. Here are some pictures.I picked Natalie up alittle early that day for a doctor's appointment and when we got back to the house, we had fun playing with the camera. I had alot of fun taking pictures with her.

Jenn's Visit

Tonight, we had a great visit with Matt's cousin Tom's fiancee Jenn. She was in town for a few days for work and we picked her up, had dinner at Blue Goose and brought her back to our house to visit more. Natalie loved Jenn's bracelet and sunglasses!

Here are some more pictures from her visit - Erica (6 months pregnant) and Matt.

Erica and Jenn

Pool and P&B Sandwiches

What goes with peanut butter and jelly sandwiches? Swimming of course.
While Matt mowed the grass this afternoon, Natalie and I went outside to play in the back yard. With the weather getting warmer each day, we've started going out to the pool and dipping our feet in. Natalie just LOVES to be outside and especially out by the pool. Today, the water actually felt pretty good - still alittle cool but the sun was nice and warm. So instead of just dipping our feet in, we stood on the steps and got up to our knees. Natalie decided she had to have her shirt and shorts off (she never takes her clothes off) and I thought - why not just get out suits on and sit in the water. So we did that and gradually made it waist deep in the pool. Can I just say that it makes me soooo happy to have a little water baby. She LOVES it! I was like this growing up so I'm really happy to have a daughter that can share my love of swimming pools with me.
We played in the pool for almost and hour and finally had to pull ourselves out (due to hunger - I told Natalie that mommy was hungry and she said "Nana hungry"). But, we had to take a bath to wash the chlorine off first so we didn't eat until almost 7pm (we always eat at 6pm - and she didn't have a snack). Needless to say, we were both famished! I have never seen Natalie eat so much before! She had 1/2 a banana, 1-1/2 P&B Sandwiches!!!! and a glass of milk.

She was very tired so we did a short video, read some books and went to bed. She is loving her collection of Little Critter books right now (thanks Aunt Cathy!). Tonight, she also did something she'd never done before (or at least since she was a baby). About 30 minutes after I put her down, she was screaming and when I went in to check on her, she had gotten her leg stuck in between the slats of the crib and had little tears coming down her cheek. Poor baby! It scared her more than anything so I just picked her up and rocked her back to sleep. I hope she sleeps well tonight.

Running Around with Mom

So Natalie and I have come up with a new game of "chase" that consists of me pretending that I'm going to catch her (or catch up with me) while we run around the kitchen wall. It's so much fun - I just love hearing her squeal and surprising her when she runs around the corner. Here's a handful of videos from earlier this weekend.

What Does a Zebra Say?

Always wondered, now I know.....

Mothers Day Adventures

Okay, the day started well. We got Natalie up and dressed for church and major cuteness was achieved:

then she wanted the camera...

then Mom hopped in to take some LOVELY Mother's day pics!! (this one is so bad I love it. I don't know what's up with Nat's face but I hope it does not stick that way...)

I don't know whats going on in this one but I promise there was no wind machine used.

Finally Natalie decides to just bail out...

After church, Grandma Cadden - AKA "Mimi" - took Natalie out to the pool. She'd bought a butterfly net for Natalie the day before to help her, well, catch stuff. First Natalie caught a duck:


but then she had a better idea......

Zook Videos 3-Fer

Here's three new Zook videos for the price of ...well...nothing actually. Enjoy!

1."The Space Out". This is great because my Dad use to "space out" when he was eating in the living room while watching TV. He would zone me and my mom out and be completely oblivious to everything. Well, like Father, like Son, and maybe, like Granddaughter! :

2. "Nat's Zoo". Thanks to the generosity of friends and family we have amassed a stuffed animal zoo in our house, not least of which is "Poo-Poo Bear":

3. "Reading is Fundamental". After her bath and before bed a couple of weeks ago, I put Nat in a fresh diaper and then had to leave her room to get something or other. When I returned, I found her hard at work educating her "little sister":

Random Family Pics

Fashion Tips from a 20-Month-Old

1. Always wear Mom's heels with red socks and shorts.



2. Always wear your sunglasses inside.......and at night.

3. Carry around a mirror at all times, and if you're looking good, feel free to make out with yourself.

Yard Help from Nat

Here's my little helper......donning work gloves (almost) to help dad in the yard.


Of course, she wound up in a tree instead (see previous post). I'm throwing this vid in because it shows off one of Nat's new tricks: asking for help and then refusing to let me help her (insert any number of jokes about women here).