Our Real New Best Friend

My friend, Angela came over today with her daughter Ruthie. Natalie acted shy with both of them, but eventually, Natalie fell in love with Ruthie. She wanted to do whatever she was doing and loved every minute of it. Then we got Sonic kid meals, which came with these goofy Halloween glasses. I think those glasses made the gals even sillier! Here are some pictures of them as they rock out with their drumsticks too. I really haven't heard Natalie laugh as hard and for as long as she did tonight with Ruthie!

Her New Best Friend

It is rare to have two posts in one day. But I had to post this.

As the previous post explained, we went to a pumpkin patch today. Natalie has loved seeing pumpkins around town and squeals whenever she sees one. So we knew that she would be excited to have one of her own...but we had no idea.

Tonight she said hi to her pumpkin multiple times. She shared her goldfish crackers with her pumpkin. And if that isn't cute enough, when I picked her up to rock her to sleep, she asked for her pumpkin and she fell asleep with it. I think she has a new best friend!

Natalie's First "Pahnkin" Patch Visit

We took a little family trip to our church's parking lot which has been transformed into a pumpkin patch for a fundraiser for our high school and young adult ministries.

Natalie loooooves pumpkins so we knew this would be a hit. And it was...literally. Natalie ran toward the pumpkins when we first got there and tripped. She face planted directly into a pumpkin! It must have hurt pretty bad because she did the silent cry for quite a few seconds.

Thankfully she recovered quickly and loved the trip. She had to touch every pumpkin while saying "Pahnkin!" to each one. She also got to take a few pictures with her church friends Simon and Elliot (Elliot being her long-time boyfriend -mainly due to their very close birthdays). She picked out a mini pumpkin and then we chose a large pumpkin for the family.

It is fun to begin doing these family holiday traditions together!

It Has Been Too Long Again

I missed my 21 month update- oops!

Natalie once again amazes us by how much fun she is becoming and how every day is a wonderful adventure!

She had a long overdue well visit at the doctor. We found out that she is tall and thin for her age. She is healthy and doing great according to the doctor.

She is talking more and more and having her personality continue to grow as well. She is beginning to actually tell stories when she talks, which is only evident if you know the story before she tells it. For example, one morning she was eating waffles with daddy and a piece fell out of her mouth and Pumba ate it. Joel laughed and told me what happened. Then Natalie came to me and said, "Momma.. akdkahgaoeiwd waffle askjasldkjfe mouf adkajsj umba ..haahhaha" It was so cute and awesome that I knew what she was trying to communicate to me!

Natalie loves bossing Pumba around by telling him no and lots of other commands that we don't understand. Thankfully Pumba is willing to take it all.

She loves playing a running game where she goes to one side of the room and says "ready" then you say "ready, set, go!" and she runs into your arms. She will repeat this game at least 20 times.

Natalie now does flawlessly with drop offs at day care as long as her teacher, Alicia takes her directly from us. When Daddy takes her she even says hi to all of her friends as she comes in. Which hearing her say all of her friends' names is adorable too.

She loves wearing shirts or jewelry that she thinks is "prreeeetty" so she can go around telling you that it is "prreeeeetty".

Natalie now will at least attempt to repeat anything you ask her. Sometimes it is a very small attempt, but there are tons of words that she can say quite clearly.

We love how she says I Love You. It sounds more like "Whuhshew" but it still has the meaning and we love it.

I am attaching some pictures from my college homecoming today. She loved every minute of the parade. She especially loved seeing the horses- she told them hi, bye, and blew them kisses as they went by.

Fun With Grandma

Natalie spent a fun-filled weekend with Grandma and PawPaw and we have video that shows one of the fun games Natalie played with Grandma:

Our Trip to the Children's Discovery Museum

We took a trip to Bloomington with Jason to the Children's Discovery Museum. Natalie had a wonderful time there! She loved the water table, the grocery store, riding in the tractor, playing with the pincushion thing (yeah, that is what I am calling it anyway), and she loved the painting wall most of all. Here are a few videos of our fun!