Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas!

Christmas at Daycare

Last week, Natalie went to a Christmas-party at Daycare. It was such a great time:

Natalie made a pretty Christmas wreath.

Then, she got to color - her favorite thing to do! Here, she's making a snowman.

Then she made a Christmas ornament complete with glitter. At first, she was putting the glitter on a little at the time, but she soon found out that it was much easier to just turn the cup upside down...

But of course, the best thing of it all was to decorate the cookie!

The puzzle

Natalie got a new puzzle from Grandma. She really liked it:
And she made it - she put all the pieces back in their spots (allmost) all by herself!

Yay, I did it!

Cool dude!

Lately, when Natalie see's someone or something (i.e. on TV) that looks kinda fun and cool, she calls them a "cool dude".

A few nights ago, she was helping me fold up the laundry when she decided to try and put a sweater on all by herself. She got it halfway on, then she must have thought she looked funny, because she was running all over the house like this, saying "Natalie cool dude!":

Doll wagon

Natalie got a doll wagon from her Grandma for (you guessed it) her birthday:

The doll came with clothes, but for some reason it is not allowed to wear them.

Natalie put the doll in the wagon, and then she went around all over the house introducing the baby to it's new home. She kept taking small, imaginary objects and putting in the wagon, all the while talking to the "baby". She even took something from the bathroom door. I wonder what that was...

Then, she found out that she could also take real objects, not only the imaginary ones, and cart them around in the wagon:

That sure was a very useful gift!

Soon, she had moved all her toys to a new area, all of them getting a ride in the new wagon:

Love you too

A couple of weeks ago, we had a "lazy" morning, where we didn't have to go anywhere right away. Natalie and I were just playing around and being goofy. Natalie was laying on the floor, looking at me, and as she has done often before she was using a sing-song voice to say "Mommy, Mommy, Mommy, Mommy...". Then, quite unexpected, she added "Love you so much".

I will never be able to describe how wonderful that was! So unexpected, so pure, so simple. I gave her a big hug (so she wouldn't be confused by the tears of joy in my eyes) and told her that I love her very, very much too. We sat for a moment, then we went right back to playing.

Since then, she has started giving us some real big hugs, and she often tells us "Daddy, love you so much" and "Mommy, love you so much too". Does she know what it means? Maybe, maybe not. She probably doesn't get the complexity of love. But in some ways, I think she experiences love in it's purest, most simple form.

It is always precious to hear these words from her. But I think that that moment, that first time, will always be an extra special memory for me.

Natalie, I love you so much too.

Happy Birthday (part three...)

Well, I guess if you follow this blog, you know that it was Natalie's birthday recently... A few weeks ago, she had a birthday party for her and her friend Aubriella. It was a lot of fun. Just had to post a few pictures of the kids eating their cake:

Cake - yum...

Good friends, and good cake - what more could a girl want?

Happy Birthday (part two)

Natalie had a great birthday! We had a small birthday cake - with two candles in it!

Natalie liked the frosting...

She really, REALLY liked the frosting...

(I think it's fun to notice that she never ate any of the actual cake - just the frosting...)

Natalie was so good at telling us how old she is:

And here she's playing with some of her birthday presents:

It was a great day.

Happy Birthday, Natalie!!!

Happy Birthday!

Yesterday, I went to the store to get some treats for Natalie to bring to daycare today for her birthday. I looked at many different cupcakes. There were the Hannah Montana ones - nah, she's too young for that. Then there were the Care Bear ones - cute, but not quite "it". Then, all the way in the back, I found these:

Chocolate cupcakes with pink frosting and Dora the Explorer rings on top! I almost did a little happy-dance right there in the store. I never knew that shopping for cupcakes could be that much fun. And I was smiling all the way thru the checkout.

Because they are just perfect:

Natalie loves chocolate.
Natalie loves pink.
Natalie loves frosting.
And Natalie loves Dora the Explorer.

And in one of her favorite episodes of Dora the Explorer, Dora finds a pirate treasure, complete with gold, and toys, and stickers, and - you guessed it: Chocolate cupcakes with pink frosting! How cool is that.

Happy Birthday, Natalie!