Blog books

I guess this is kind of "meta", seeing as how this will be in the next blog book, but we just received the third book compiling Natalie's third year of life. I love these hardback books (shout out to Blog2Print). It's so nice to have a physical book of our thoughts and memories of Natalie since day one.

Princess Daze

Natalie is in full-on Princess mode. She loves to (repeatedly) watch Little Mermaid, Tangled, Beauty and the Beast and Sleeping Beauty (the original 1959 version). She loves her princess books (thanks, Aunt Cindy!) and she absolutely loves dressing up in her princess costumes. So much so that she makes Nickie and I dress up, and even poor Pumba.

Very Merry at CherryBerry!

Natalie (and mommy and daddy) had her first experience at CherryBerry. It was a pretty neat place- where you serve yourself from a variety of unique soft serve frozen yogurt flavors and tons of different delicious topping. They then weigh your bowl to determine the price. Natalie loved it. I imagine we'll be back soon!

Love note

Dear Natalie,

I was simply going to write "I love you." But that seemingly little phrase encompasses so much more than you might interpret it to, so to be safe, I wrote this:

Just a note to let you know how much you mean to me. Of course, that's impossible, as there are not enough (nor powerful enough) words in any language to express it, but I will try my best.

Your laugh is like a song that makes me happy in a way I can't describe. I can't help but to smile at your silly antics and your amazing sense of humor. Your bright eyes are always aglow with the spark of curiosity and imagination. It's amazing to watch you figure things out for the first time, and to see you catch on so quickly to concepts that I thought were well beyond your grasp. I am proud of you for being gentle, respectful and encouraging to others. My heart melts when you say that you love me, and I feel so loved when you give me a long, tight hug.

Thank you for being such a wonderful little girl, and more than I could've dreamed my child would be. I am looking forward to the journey we will take together in the coming years, and pray that I make you feel as loved and as proud as you make me feel.

Daddy

Mess

While watching Strawberry Shortcake this morning, Strawberry (in homage to Sleeping Beauty) pricked her finger as she was picking berries. She passed out and the berries went everywhere. Dramatic music played as Natalie gasped and said "she made a MESS!!"

Rockin' Out

Funny question

This morning, Natalie and Nickie were talking about eye colors. "mommy's eyes are blue. Natalie's eyes are blue. Daddy's eyes are brown!"
The natural next question from Natalie was "what color are your ears?"