Play Date with McKenna!

After the car accident, we journeyed on for our play date!  Natalie and McKenna are about 6 months apart.  They were very cute together.  They still don't really play with each other, but really enjoy parallel playing!

Natalie's First Car Accident

This morning Natalie and I were on our way to a play date with my friend Norma, and her granddaughter, McKenna.  On the way, there was a yellow light at an intersection (where the speed limit is 55) I slowed down to stop.  The lady behind me did not.  She attempted to swerve but still hit my left rear bumper then continued to lose control as she flew by me, did a doughnut in the intersection and then finally stopped. 
What was Natalie's reaction to all of this?  None of it even happened.  She was watching Barney and never even made a noise/reaction.  I don't think she ever had a clue.  She did say hi to the police officer, but that was it.

Oh and just because it is humorous- the cop let me know that her claim was that I started slowing down at a green light, but she has been sick and she sneezed, which made her close her eyes.  When she opened them, she was unable to stop in time.  So be careful!  Sneezes are dangerous!

Merry Christmas- 2010

We had an amazing Christmas with Natalie. I don't know if I would say that she completely got the concept of Santa, but she was really excited that her stocking was filled when it was empty before that. She was so cute because she took out each of her Santa presents from her stocking and set them around her to admire before she actually opened any of them. After she finished opening those, we got out the presents from Mommy and Daddy and she had such a hilarious look of being shocked and overwhelmed and she literally just sat there for a minute before starting to unwrap them (actually with her big box she thought she should climb onto it instead of unwrapping it!)

She loved all of her presents and loves taking care of her baby that constantly wants her teeth brushed, a drink of water, and then she has to go to the bathroom. Of course we were hoping that the doll would inspire Natalie to attempt her big girl potty. So far it has only inspired her to want to use her dolly's potty, which of course is way too small!

Then we went over to Mam-ma (we still say Grandma, but lately the way she says it def. sounds like Mam-ma) and PawPaw's house. She got a lot of great gifts from them of course as well. She also got some great videos from Nathan and made sure to give him a hug for them. After gifts it was time to snuggle and nap. Both Mam-ma and PawPaw wanted in on the snuggling! (as seen in the picture) Later, Mam-ma got a beautiful necklace from PawPaw, which Natalie of course put her name on immediately.

It was a great day filled with amazing memories!

Christmas Eve Part Two

This Christmas Eve was a lot of fun as we began to start our own family traditions.  We made cookies as a family (no photos, but we have some video that we will attempt to add later) and then helped Natalie write a letter to Santa.  Before Natalie went to bed we had her check her stocking one last time to see that it was still empty (hoping that she would remember this when she discovered the stocking full in the morning)   Here are some shots from our traditions!

Merry Christmas (eve)!!!

Well, we couldn't exactly wait until Christmas Day to start opening presents, so we gave Natalie the gift that Grammy sent from Pennsylvania- a personalized Dora book! Natalie loved it! Thanks, Grammy!

Santa- Year Two!

We just visited Santa this morning. It couldn't have been cuter. We got there a bit before 10 when Santa was to arrive, so we actually watched him come from the elevator to his seat. Natalie acted like he was her teen idol. She giggled and squirmed in my arms constantly and when Santa actually looked her way she turned and hid her face like it was too much to bear!

When it was finally (note: only one family was ahead of us, but that seemed like an eternity to Natalie) our turn I wasn't sure how Natalie would do with the thought of actually sitting on his lap. When we first approached she just kept quietly giggling...so cute! Then he asked if she would like to sit on his lap. The moment of truth! She did it! She totally had this look on her face the entire time like, "I cannot believe I am sitting on his lap!!!!" but there was never a tear, whimper or a sign that she wanted down. After the picture she said loveshu and bye to him and gave him a high five. As we waited for our pictures she still loved watching him from afar. Tons of fun.

We cannot believe how much she has grown in a year! This is the exact same Santa as last year and unfortunately he does not look as good! I guess this is what we get for waiting until the 22nd to go see him!

Dear Natalie...

I love you, child. You're only away at Grandma and PawPaw's for the weekend, but I haven't stopped thinking about you since the moment I kissed you goodbye Friday morning. I just wanted to take this time to let you know how much of my heart you occupy. My thoughts, my heart...my life. You bring such abundant joy to my life, and a love so profound that I cannot explain. There are always so many emotions and thoughts that come to me when I sit down to write you, but I will keep it short and sweet, with the bottom-line that will always be true for the rest of our lives: I love you.

Our First Gingerbread House!

Unfortunately, quite a bad stomach virus hit our household this week. I had it first, then Natalie might have caught a touch of it (she only got sick once and was fine the rest of the day), but unfortunately, Daddy was the last to get it and it hit him the hardest. So last night I was kind of stir-crazy with Natalie so I decided to get a gingerbread house kit and do it with her. She was so cute with it. She had no interest in building the house but she really got into decorating it. After almost every piece she would say, "Tank-en mommy. Fun. Pretty." (translation- Thank you Mommy. (This is) Fun. (This is) Pretty." A few times she said "Pretty House".

Unfortunately, Natalie didn't understand the amount of pressure needed to put on the candies onto the house, so you will see from the pictures, it quickly fell apart. But we had a lot of fun doing it. Ironically Natalie never made the connection that any of it was food, so I didn't even have to worry about her eating too much!

Hair!

These are just a few pictures from Natalie sleeping the other day. We wanted to document the fact that there really is quite a bit of hair coming in! It is just too fair and light to notice most days. Lately it looks more blonde, but in photographs it has a more reddish tone to it for some reason. In these pictures she had fallen asleep on me with her hand on Pumba. It was very cute.

Battle Scars

A bit ago, Natalie had a tough week at day care. On one day she got a decent scratch on her face from one of her teacher's nails as she was trying to catch her in mid-fall. The next day she did a face plant on the gym floor and busted her lip and bruised her gums. The next day she took a plastic ring to the face, which of course had to hit her in the exact same spot on her gums. She had three accident reports in three days! These pictures are on day two when I tried to show her busted lip. Ironically she was giving me some of her best smiles and poses, so it was hard to demonstrate that she was feeling any pain!

Tradition...

I had often told Nickie of a tradition I fondly remember from my childhood- each year around Thanksgiving time, my mom or sister would make a paper chain out of construction paper. They would cut loops and lock them together with tape. Each "link" would represent a day, and the number of links in the chain represented how many days there were until Christmas day. As a child, I loved tearing a link off each morning, and watching the chain grow smaller, knowing I was that much closer to Christmas morning. 

I came home yesterday to find that Nickie had made a paper chain with Natalie in order to continue that tradition. It was so thoughtful of Nickie and it made me very nostalgic when Natalie and I tore off the first link yesterday. Thank you, Nickie, and thank you Natalie, for bringing me joy in unexpected ways!

Another year...almost

Wow, I can't believe today marks Natalie's 23rd month since being born. While I was looking through the first year's worth of blog posts, I became both nostalgic and upset at myself for not updating the blog more this year. It seems life for all three of us has become "Go-Go-Go!", but that's still no excuse.

It's amazing to see her personality continue to shine through and develop. The wonderful part of it is that she is already a sweet, caring, sharing, funny, polite person and she's not even 2 yet. As our preacher, John Wentz said, we should be more like our children. I'm paraphrasing, but it's so true. We, as adults, can learn a lot if we try to look through the eyes of our children. Not yet jaded, not (as) selfish as adults, not mean-spirited, still excited by discovery....the list goes on and on. In short...Natalie, you are an inspiration to me. I love you.

Natalie and her friend Fudge

Natalie looooves my puppets. She interacts with them like they are her best friends. At first she was scared of my puppet Fudge because I can put my hand through his to make his hand "come alive" and that was too much for her. But now, she loves it. I think she likes playing with her puppet friends more than her mommy and daddy! This puppet is called Fudge, but so far, she has renamed him Mickey for some reason.

Here are some great shots of them playing blocks together!