Mommy and Me Time

With the impending birth of Baby Gusto No. 2, I've been trying to spend as much time playing with Natalie as I can. Sometimes (as you can tell from the photo) it's exhausting, but I know this time with just her is short lived, so it will all be worth it. Last night I gave her her first manicure. She picked a light pink color and did a very good job sitting through it. She's growing up so fast! I can't believe it some days. Next time she wants to try blue, purple or green on her nails -- and yes, I have all those colors!

2 and a HALF

I have been trying to teach Natalie how to say Two and a Half when people ask her how old she is. We celebrated her mini-milestone by taking her to the Twins game. She lasted 7 innings, WAY longer than we thought she would -- and it was raining! If you ask her about her favorite part she'll talk about all the food. She's really excited to go back to a Twins game and sit in the big brown glove.

Movin' up in the world

Joey and I worked all afternoon to get Natalie's room ready. There's still some of my knickknacks up there until I find a box to put them in, and we still need to do some decorating on the walls, but it's livable! She's pretty excited. She can't sleep up there until we get a bed rail, which we will hopefully get tomorrow. Changes are coming. Big, BIG changes.

Memorial weekend at the cabin

It's a right of passage in MN to hit the highway with EVERYONE else on Friday of Memorial Day Weekend. So, I snuck out of work a little early and we went to the cabin. We beat Grandma and Grandpa up there by a couple of hours. Saturday was spent in the HOT 90-degree heat with Joey under the pontoon most of the day hooking up new boat toys. Unfortunately, Sunday was windy and 60 -- and I didn't pack any warm clothes -- Oops! Karin and her roomie Laurie brought the sunshine up with them Sunday night and we spent some time playing games. We finally got a sun-filled boat ride before we left on Monday. It was very relaxing and the stresses of our lives were gone for a couple of days.

Due to popular demand, I am swallowing all pride and putting a pic of my HUGENESS online for the world to see.

Natalie touched her first fish, and ate her first bass thanks to Grandpa Craig's early-morning fishing prowess. It is most likely our last trip up with only one child, which is a little mind blowing to think about.

Weekend at home

We got a lot accomplished in two days here in the Gustafson household. Joey replaced the alternator in the Ford with Grandpa Craig on Saturday while I graded essays. Then we started cleaning out Natalie's new room and got her new big girl bed set up. We're getting close to moving her upstairs! She's really excited. Then today, we took advantage of the beautiful weather and went to Calhoun this morning before planting flowers and playing at the YMCA's splash pad with Alana and her brood. Next weekend it's supposed to be even nicer outside, so we'll undoubtedly spend a lot of it outside!

Natalie hasn't been napping all that well. We found her room like this after her "nap" on Saturday. It was funny, until we realized she used an entire package of wipes on her baby doll. You can kind of see the pile in her bed.

Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day to all the Moms out there!!!

Natalie had a hard day of work yesterday at the cabin and she currently is enjoying a well-earned nap. Whenever she finally wakes up we're headed to see Grandpa Kent and Grandma Lee!

Strep

Natalie has strep =(

We went to urgent care late yesterday because Natalie had a rash to go along with her fever. The result is strep throat. She's sleeping soundly as we speak -- hopefully she gets back to full speed in a hurry...