Aug 5 ~ Natalie's Grandma and Grandpa Essington came out once again to spend the weekend.  They were happy to see Nat clapping, crawling, and pulling herself up to stand!  Nattie has also attempted to stand alone, but is not quite there yet.  In other Natalie news: She is starting to get into things such as mommy's knick-knacks on the shelves.  She likes to hide behind the living room curtains.  And she is starting to use her sippy cup at mealtime.  She is such a big girl! 

 

Aug 6 ~ Craig had an inspector come out to the new house in North Liberty just to check it out.  It seems like everything is in great condition.  Now we just have to get our place sold and hope the new one stays on the market long enough for us to make a bid.  Craig's parents helped us finish up the cleaning in our current house today.  The place looks so nice and fresh now!  At least we know that if we don't get this new house, our spring cleaning has been done here...haha! 

 

Aug 7 ~ Our house is finally up for sale now!  Craig finished up the signs and posted them out front and around the neigborhood today.  As the signs were going up I was in Peru, Illiniois visiting my friend Jessica Winner.  It felt good to get out of the house for awhile and take a leisurely drive out there.  We sat around for awhile talking at her friend's (Nikki) garage sale, then Jess showed me the new home they just moved into, then we walked around the mall for a bit. 

 

Aug 8 ~ Craig's parents, Craig, Nat, and I all got up early to go to church.  Then we stopped at Iowa River Power Company for brunch...Natalie had scrambled eggs for the first time!  Later that afternoon, Craig's parents left to go back to Illinois.  They took Bailey and Brigit with them so they wouldn't be in the way while we sell the house.  I'm sure the dogs will have a GREAT time vacationing at grandma and grandpa's house...they always love being there! 

 

Aug 12 ~ We have been so busy lately, it's hard to remember what all we've been doing!  Playgroup today was at the mall in Coralville.  We met at Panera (the old standby!)  for coffee, then walked over to the other end of the mall to check out the play equipment area.  Even though it was very crowded with older kids, our babies seemed to enjoy themselves. 

 

Aug 13 ~ Natalie had ravioli for the first time today.  There was no doubt that she thought it was delicious...and no doubt it was messy!!

 

Aug 14 ~ Craig was so thoughtful letting me sleep in today :)  Plus it gave him some extra quality time with his daughter...daddy's schedule has been quite full these days with work, cleaning up for the sale of the house, and golf league.  It was nice for us all to spend some relaxing moments together this weekend.

 

Aug 17 ~ Playgroup was going to go swimming, but we thought it wasn't warm enough this morning.  So we decided to trek back over to the mall and let the kids play on the play equipment once again.  They had a blast!  It is so awesome to see our little girls crawl, stand, and interact. 

 

Aug 19 ~ Tonight we had all the playgroup families over to our house for dinner and playtime.  For those of you who have seen our house...picture 8 adults and 4 children all under 1 year old in our living room!  It was chaos, but it was also a fun time!  We decided to make it easy and order Chinese food, nibble on a few desserts I had made, and have a little wine.  Part of the reason we all got together is because the Tunzi family is moving to Michigan.  Scott leaves in a few days to start his new job, and Gina and baby Natalina will join him about a month later.  We all feel so sad that they are leaving, but we wish them the best!  That will just leave 3 of us families for playgroup.  We are still going to try to get together at least once a week, but it will be getting harder as Fall approaches and our schedules get busier.  Laura has started a new full-time job and Paula is splitting her time between teaching a few classes and helping with her husband's business.  We'll see how it goes.  As for me?  I will continue my same role as stay-at-home mother to our beautiful daughter, and I hope to get us both involved in a few more activities soon! 

 

Aug 20 ~ Craig's brother, Mike, flew in from Dallas today to visit for 4 days.  We only get the chance to see him a couple times a year, so we were happy he came to visit!  Craig's parents also drove out from Illinois, so we had a full house for the weekend!  Not to mention that Mom and Dad Essington brought our dogs back with them...Natalie was happy to see her doggies again!  Craig and Mike played golf during the afternoon while Craig's parents took me and Nat out for lunch. 

 

Aug 21 ~ Craig and Mike participated in a golf tournament today.  They didn't win anything, but had good time trying!  Craig's parents, Nattie, and I did a few things around town.  We toured a few open houses (and got lost trying to find them...haha!), had lunch at Bennigan's, and watched Natalie have fun on the play equipment at the mall.  Later in the evening we all had dinner at The Brown Bottle in downtown Iowa City. 

 

Aug 22 ~ This morning we all got up early for church.  Natalie did very well in the nursery today, so I was very pleased!  After church, we had brunch at Iowa River Power Company...gee, we have eaten out so much this past weekend...I think I packed on about 20 pounds!  In the afternoon we went to look at a few more houses.  Craig made some yummy barbeque ribs for dinner, which was followed by homemade vanilla ice-cream that Craig's parents made. 

 

Aug 23 ~ We all had lunch, said goodbye to Mike at the airport, then goodbye to Craig's parents as they got in their car to leave.  It sure was a long weekend, but we had a nice time seeing everyone! 

 

Aug 24 ~ Today I babysat Gina's daughter for about an hour.  Natalina and Natalie really enjoyed playing together.  It was really cute seeing them share toys and babble at each other!

 

Aug 27 ~ It has been a hectic couple of days, but I'm looking forward to a relaxing weekend!  Natalie is just getting over a bad cold, which kept her up both day and night the past few days.  But today she seems to feel much better.  She sure is a speedy little girl...it's getting so difficult to keep her out of trouble...haha!  She has curious hands and wants to touch everything.  I haven't yet put up baby gates or any of those safety devices, but I will be doing so shortly!  Plus, our dog Bailey has been acting a little agressive towards Nat since he came back from his "vacation" at Craig's parents' house.  I'm hoping it will just be a phase.  As for the selling of our home...not many people looking at it right now.  We've been told that August isn't the best month to sell a house.  We aren't in too much of a hurry to buy or sell, so we'll just keep doing what we've been doing for now.

 

Aug 29 ~ Made Natalie some scrambled eggs this morning.  After a couple bites she got very fussy and her face started blotching out real bad, especially around the mouth.  My guess is that she had an allergic reaction to the whites of the eggs.  She has had the yolks before in a jars of baby food vanilla custard.  She has also had scrambled eggs a few times at a restaurant...maybe their eggs were made from an egg substitute or something different?  Who knows?  The blotchiness went away after 20 or 30 minutes, so that was good.  We'll have to hold off on eggs for awhile I suppose.