Happy Father's Day

We had a low key Father's Day weekend around here. We didn't get to do much outside stuff (including no trip to the playground to Natalie and Owen's dismay) because we've had so much rain. We had huge storms with flooded roads on Thursday evening, then we were without power for over 6 hours Friday afternoon and evening due to storms. Natalie took advantage of the situation and created a slumber party in Mom and Dad's room because her room was "too hot." We were pleased to find that Owen has decided to resume his weekend nap routine in his new bed. For him, sleep is just more enticing than playing. Things are going very well with his bed habits. Natalie, however, has returned to her fear of storms and the "thunder monsters" and needed extra comfort over the weekend. She went for her first dentist visit last week and was really good. She was very excited about the whole thing, especially when we told her that Grandpa Roger was a dentist. She was really good in the chair and cooperated with all of the dentist's instructions. Grandpa Roger would be proud! Dad had a good father's day and didn't have to do too many projects around the house.

Ballet Performance and Big Boy Bed

We kicked off the weekend with Natalie's ballet performance on Friday, which completed her week of dance camp. It was adorable, and Mom and Dad thoroughly enjoyed it! The other big event of the weekend was moving Owen to a "big boy bed." We are actually doing this in stages, as we did with Natalie, to get him used to the freedom of sleeping in a bed. We started with the mattress on the floor, soon we will move up to the mattress and boxspring with bed rails, and ultimately we will actually assemble a bed. We are a little hesitant to move to the bed rails yet since Owen is a daredevil and likes to climb - we anticipate some falls from trying to balance on the rails in the future. He already likes to show off how he has taken "surfing with Elmo" (the Elmo surf rocker) to a new level with balancing on it, standing, and rocking with no hands. He is very excited about his bed and the dinosaur bedding set that he picked out. The bed transition has been mostly successful. We had no issues the first night, however, we had no nap time the next day - three hours of play time instead. Then last night, he fell out of bed at least 4 times. So, we're working on it. We also spent some time over the weekend getting little brother #2's room ready, and we had a fun (but hot) trip to the playground.

It's a Boy!

We found out today that Baby #3 is a boy! So we are now gearing up for the new little brother who will arrive at the end of September. In other news, Natalie is attending a dance camp (with a Sleeping Beauty theme) this week - she's learning ballet, tap, and jazz, and she likes to show off for us in the evening. We are really looking forward to the performance on Friday! She also started piano lessons on Monday, and she did really well so we will continue with that. Owen has discovered how much he likes to stick out his tongue, and he likes to do that when the camera comes out now. Over the weekend, Natalie went to a fun gymnastics birthday party - that was held on Saturday evening so all the kids were worn out and ready to go home and go to bed afterward - what a great idea! She had a great time jumping on the trampoline and getting on the bars and rings. Natalie and Owen also both enjoyed trying out their new gardening tools from Grandma Laura in the backyard. On Sunday we managed to get all the remaining boxes out of the baby's room and the garage, so that's a relief.