Twinkle, twinkle

Natalie really likes to sing songs. And she likes to sing them in silly ways, mixing up the words. As you probably know, the normal version of Twinkle, twinkle goes

Twinkle, twinkle, little star,
How I wonder what you are

Well, here's Natalie's version that we got the other morning while she was getting dressed:

Twinkle, twinkle, little cracker,
How I wonder with no pants on...

Don't ask...

...If you don't want to know the answer...

Last weekend, we were at the video store. Karsten was carrying Natalie. I could see that he could feel, well, something, so he asked:
Karsten: What did Natalie just do?
Natalie (loud and clear so the whole store could hear it, and very proud): I made a stinky fart!

More pictures from the Museum

Last set of pictures from the museum...

Where did the boat go...

There it was!

Driving the big firetruck!

Hmm, which train should I play with...

Books - always a favorite!

Children's museum

Here are some more pictures from our trip last week:

The doll hospital was a favorite. Natalie listened to all the doll's hearts.

Coming out of a tomato, to slide down the celery stalk...

Looking at the birds in the aviary...

Clay. No further explanation needed...

And of course, the area for doing artwork was a huge hit!

Little girl, big world...

Shopping

Natalie loved the little store where she could go shopping at the Children's Museum. At some point, she even bought the chash registers!

Here's a little video of her shopping. She was so considerate, she bought muffins with sprinkles for both Mommy, Daddy, and herself:

A dream come true

On Tuesday, Natalie and I took a day of vacation together. We spent the day at the local childrens museum.

While she was playing, I noticed this across the room:

"We all dream different".

It was left there with the fridge magnets by someone else. It really captured my attention.

"We all dream different".

One of my collegues just went on a wine-tasting trip to California. On the local radiostation, they are on a partying vacation somewhere in Mexico. "We all dream different".

Recently, I've been dreaming about having a special day with Natalie. A "Mommy and me" day. I hesitate to call it a perfect day, because I don't believe there ever really is such a thing. But a day where we would just enjoy being together.

The trip to the children's museum was all that I could have hoped for. We were there when they opened at 9 AM, and we played and explored until noon-ish. Then we went for lunch as Wendy's - a real treat for Natalie, she hasn't been to a fast food place before. She was so proud of being such a big girl, getting to eat big girl food with Mommy. After a short nap in the car we went back to the museum and explored until they closed (5 PM). It was great to see Natalie have so much fun. And she seemed so happy and proud that she got to have such a special day.

"We all dream different". Tuesday was my dream. It was a dream come true.

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Don't worry, there will be plenty of pictures in upcoming posts - I came home with 89 new files on the camera...

Still in time-out

Back in August, I posted this picture of Aubriella and Natalie: Well, here they are, about half a year later - still in timeout...:

Aubriella came over to play last weekend. The kids had a blast! I don't remember the last time I've seen Natalie with so much energy. It was awesome to see the kids running all over the house, coming up with silly ideas together. About half an hour after Aubriella arrived, they got kinda quiet. We looked around the corner into the kitchen, and here's what we found:

Sooo good at sharing, they even shared the same piece of paper!

One little monkey

The other night, Natalie taught us a new "song" she'd learned in daycare:

I didn't know it, so I had to look the lyrics up on the internet. Just in case you don't know them either, here they are:

One little monkey swinging in a tree

Teasing Mr. Alligator, can't catch me, can't catch me....

Along came Mr. Alligator quiet as can be.......

And snapped that monkey right out of that tree!

Baking is fun

A weekend or two ago, Natalie and I were baking a cake together. She helped with measuring all the ingredients, sitting next to me on the kitchen island. When it was time to mix everything together, I asked if she was ready to turn around, meaning if she was ready to have the mixer turn around. I guess I wasn't clear enough in my description, because she stood up and started twirling around on the kitchen island...