Today Natalie is officially 21 months old. Almost 2! Crazy! So, I thought this occasion warranted a quick update...
Her vocabulary continues to amaze me. Just this week she started using three word sentences like "nack peas mommy" (translation: "snack, please mommy") or "mo mik peas" (translation: "more milk please") She's really good at saying please and thank you which sound more like peas and conkyu (and imagine an accent on the u, because she really exaggerates that.) It's great being able to understand what she wants/needs most of the time. She still babbles gibberish but it's supplemented with some of her favorite words. Like when she pretends to talk on the phone you can understand just about every third word and they are usually Elmo, milk, Na Na (which means Natalie), Emmy, Toby, Mommy, Dadda and baby.
We've also found ourselves in the middle of potty-training land. It's a mysterious and tumultuous place but hopefully my goal to have her out of diapers before baby brother arrives this fall might just work after all! She is very focused on going potty. Which means she goes every five or 10 minutes. A drop here, a drop there. I think she really likes the attention and praise and getting to wash her hands like a big girl. But it's exhausting. And just when we think we're making progress, we try the "big girl panties" and have major accidents. But she's still pretty young and I see a light at the end of the potty, er, I mean tunnel.
Natalie is still obsessed with babies, as you can see from this week's photo. Yes, she has three babies now--the most recent was a $1 garage sale find that weighs more than a real newborn baby so she can barely carry her with just one hand. But all of her babies must accompany her nearly everywhere so Jeramy and I find ourselves carting the babies up and down the stairs umpteen times a day. We're hoping this is great practice for when Natalie's little brother arrives, but when I see her carelessly toss one of her babies down the stairs or bang its head against the table, I cringe, just a little. But most of the time, she is very loving toward them.
Well, there are the highlights. I could go on and on about picky eating habits, the funny poop in the crib story or how nose picking has become a fun activity, but I won't bore/gross you out much more. We'll save those for the next edition of "As the Toddler Turns".
Like his big sis, he seems to be very active and wiggly, giving us quite a show! It was fun to see him. Natalie didn't quite get it yet, but we were glad she was there with us. 
