My Favorite Time of Day

This is my favorite time of day. Both girls are napping, (this happening at the same time is RARE!) and I get a chance to get caught up on some of what I want to do. The clouds have built, and it is thundering! I LOVE THAT! Hopefully it will rain, right now the clouds aren't big enough, but hopefully they will keep growing.

I am in the process of rearranging some things in the house. I think Natalie is big enough to play with her toys in her room, so after some cleaning out and arranging I have managed to fit most of them in her room and closet. She took well to the change, she walked into her room and said "Wow! Toys!" It was almost as good as Christmas, you would have thought they were all new toys! She spent the rest of the time before her nap playing in her room, by herself. Gabbie even played in there with her for awhile. They were so happy, and so was I! Now my living room looks like a real adult room! I still need to finish organizing some stuff and vacuum though.

Gabbie is six months old now, I can't believe it. The time has gone by so fast. She had her Checkup today, she weighs 16 & 1/2 pounds. She had her Cardiologist appointment earlier in the month, to follow up on the murmur and abnormal EKG that her regular doctor performed. The EKG done by the cardiologist came out normal, and he said whatever was wrong before had corrected itself. She only has a "Functional Murmur". She is getting very good at sitting alone now, although I still put a pillow behind her to catch the occasional falls. She is always busy, and always has to have a toy or something in her hands. She is always doing something! She is trying out the crawling muscles, although I think we are month or away from that still. (I don't know if I'm glad or not! :) )

Natalie is still a challenge, in more ways than one. We are still trying to get her into the idea of potty-training, and not having much success in that area. She can count to 10 all by herself. She knows several shapes and colors, and is now getting into the alphabet. She knows A-F in order pretty well, while recognizing a few others, just not in order. Last night she brought Tony a piece of paper and said "Dada, A Bs." She wanted him to write the alphabet for her. She can recognize most of the letters when they are written down.
When she was saying her prayers last night She said " Dear Jesus, I love you,... R,S,X,Y...Amen!" I guess she had the alphabet on her mind. Her prayer usually goes, "Dear Jesus, I love you. Thank you for Mommy and Dada and Gabbie, amen. She loves saying her prayers at night.
She loves shoes, and usually ends up wearing 3-4 different pair every day. She does great at putting them on by herself, and gets them on the right feet most of the time. When she doesn't, all I have to say is "Other foot", and she switches them. She likes having a say in what she wears and especially what hair bows she wears. Usually the shoes and bows don't match the outfit when we are at home, but it makes her feel like big stuff. She says please and thank you almost always without having to be prompted.

Natalie and Gabbie still get along great, Gabbie is showing more of an interest in Natalie's toys, so sometimes we have trouble, but for the most part they adore each other. Any time Gabbie is unhappy or cries, Natalie is right there to comfort her. Natalie wants to carry Gabbie around, but since there is only about 7lbs difference between the two, that is a little difficult to do. So she will just grab her by the legs and pull her wherever she wants her to go! (I have to watch out!) I can always tell if Natalie is nearby by watching Gabbie. When Gabbie sees her big sister she gets so excited and smiles so big. Today both girls were playing alone in their room together for quite awhile, as happy as they could be. Gabbie can push herself up when she is laying on her tummy when she is in bed too see over her crib bumper. When she does this she can see Natalie's bed, and I often hear them talking and Natalie playing peek-a-boo with Gabbie when they first wake up. That's one of my favorite sounds!

I need to go get busy now. Tony just called and he is off work now so I need to get started cooking supper.