Saturday, March 29, 2008

At the Wildlife Sanctuary

We went to the Wildlife Sanctuary today. Natalie had a blast walking on the trails and looking at all the animals:
Look, there are some animals in there!

On to the next one...

Here's a little video of Natalie walking around and telling us of all the things she's seeing!

Look at all the duckies! (But daddy, the duckies in my bath at home are all yellow...?)

What did you do on your day off?

Karsten and I had taken Thursday and Friday off. We had our own little "Mini-vacation". So what did we do on our day off? Well, we went to Fleetfarm, and then we took a long nap... Doesn't that sound romantic? Well, the truth is, it actually was really romantic. Natalie has been having some tough nights (she's doing better now, knock on wood), so we were pretty tired. And a day of doing nothing was just what we needed.

Of course, we did other things too. After we dropped Natalie off at daycare, we went out for breakfast. And Natalie was still on our mind while we were at Fleetfarm, which was probably why we bought her these cute little rainboots.

The forecast says it might rain tomorrow, so we'll probably go looking for puddles...

Anyway, we did go home and got some sleep. Then we picked Natalie up early, so that we could spend some time together before we went out that evening. We left her with a sitter, so we could go out for dinner and go to a show with the Blue Man Group - which was totally awesome, by the way.

So yes, we did spend our time off napping, and yes, we had a great time!

Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Happy Easter!

On Saturday before Easter, we went to an easter egg hunt at the zoo. I wasn't sure Natalie would really get the idea of it all, but she sure did get into it! Hmm, I wonder if there are any special easter eggs in these bushes...

Maybe there are more over there...

Yep, found them! On to the next ones...

Here is a little videoclip. Sorry for the poor quality - I actually forgot the camera - hooray for camera-phones!

Natalie held on to her little basket for almost two hours straight - she didn't let go until she fell asleep on the way home in the car! And she didn't want to leave. When she saw the car, she turned around and started walking right back to the zoo - so I guess she had a great time.

Monday, March 17, 2008

Baking cookies... make that Burning cookies

Karen decided that it would be fun for Natalie to try and mix up some simple cookie dough. She was absolutely right - Natalie had a blast mixing the dough and making little balls of the cookie dough to put on the baking sheets.


"See what I can do !!"



After baking, these were the good parts of the cookies



These were the bad parts !!!


I don't think the recipe said to bake until the smoke alarm goes off !
We stopped baking them once I noticed smoke rolling out of the kitchen and something smelling "not like cookies".

I guess we learned from this:
Natalie's cookie dough mixing skills: Not bad for her age
Karen's cookie baking skills: Well... not bad for her age ;-)


Sunday, March 16, 2008

Laughter is contagious

We were having soo much fun this afternoon. Natalie was being silly and ticklish, and Daddy was tickling her:
Hahahaaa...

Daddy, it tickles...

And just to support my claim that laughter is contagious, here is a little soundbite - I bet you can't watch it without smiling just a little bit...:

Mean Mommy...

I read something the other day that has been very valuable to me. Another mom wrote on her blog that "a lot of people can be your friend, but only I can be your mommy" (I'm paraphrasing, unfortunately I don't remember where I read it).

I wish I could always be Natalie's friend. There's nothing better than when we get to cuddle up and have a great time reading books, drawing with crayons, or emptying the dishwasher.

Unfortunately, there are times when I can't be her friend. Sometimes, we can't empty the dishwasher because the dishes aren't clean. Sometimes we can't go outside because it's too cold. And sometimes I have to put her down for a nap even when she doesn't want to stop having fun just so she can get the sleep she needs.

Sometimes I have to be "Mean Mommy" and tell Natalie "no", so that she can stay healthy and safe and have reasonable, predictable limits. And most times, being "Mean Mommy" feels pretty bad. At least until I read the comment above.

You see, after all "Mean Mommy" isn't really about being mean, it's about being Mommy. Most of the time "Mommy" and "friend" is the same thing to Natalie. Some day, I hope to be both friend and Mommy on a full time basis. But for now, when I have to, I choose to be Mommy. After all, no-one else can be just that for Natalie.

Wednesday, March 12, 2008

Reading is the best.. especially with Mommy

Natalie has really taken to the books lately. She has no interest in her other toys, she just wants to read and sort the books all the time. She can spend half an hour just moving books off the shelf - look at them - and them put them back on the shelf.

A ritual that we have established is to read in the couch before it is bedtime.
It used to be 2-3 books, but now it is more like 20 - and in super-speed. Natalie is taking care of turning the pages, so you just have to keep up!!!


In addition, Natalie has started asking all the time "what is that ?".
At least that is how we interpret the pointing finger and "djiip"


What is that ??
(djiip)

Stop looking Daddy - we are reading important stuff here.


Thursday, March 6, 2008

An avid reader

I like to read books. Granted, for the last year or so, most of the books I read started with "once upon a time" and ended with "and they lived happily ever after". And though that definitely counts as fiction in my book, it's not quite the kind of fiction I used to read (being a geek, I'm mostly into sci-fi, of course...)

It seems Natalie also likes to read. Yesterday, she wanted all her books down from the bookshelf, and then she just started from one end. I can only assume that she hoped to reach the other end of the pile at some point...

This is one of the times I really wish she could talk. She's telling us so many stories of what she is reading in the books. I just wish I could understand them, 'cause I'm sure they are much more interesting than anything any childrens book's author could possibly imagine... I mean, who would have thought that the "Dda" would go dancing with the "Ghih", while the "Tjou" was playing on the "Habbb"?

Monday, March 3, 2008

Bubbles

We were blowing bubbles in the garage yesterday evening:

Soo many bubbles!


Pretty!


That's a big bubble!


I think I can catch this one...


Where did it go?


Enough with the pictures, Mommy!