SSR

Last week, I was the very fortunate winner of the use of this car for a week: At my work, we can nominate our colleagues for this honor - people that go above and beyond, people that are seen as "leaders". Well, apparently someone nominated me, and I won! This is only given out once a year at my location, so it's a pretty big deal.

And it is a convertible!

This picture is from the award ceremony at work.

We were very lucky in that I won it on a week where Karsten and I were on vacation. So while Natalie was in daycare, we cruised the countryside! It was such a great time, and it was a wonderful way to get to spend some time together.

Natalie also got a chance to sit in the car with me, and she got to push the button that made "the roof go away", which she really liked:

And then she told us: "I want to drive the car. I need the keys!"

No, **I** wanna to do it!

Natalie is in the "I wanna do it" stage. Big time. Which can make mornings rather challenging...

The other morning I was trying to get her ready to get out the door without us being all too late. I made the mistake of taking her jammie-pants off and putting her skirt on, before her I'm-not-all-awake-I'm-watching-TV self noticed it. Needles to say, a major meltdown was on it's way.

In an attempt to save the situation, I put her jammie pants on over her skirt so she could take them off all by herself. And of course, that was not acceptable. So she took the jammie pants off, took the skirt off, put the jammie pants on, then took them off and put the skirt on. So she could do it all by herself.

Then we went on to the jammie top. Learning from my earlier mistake, I let her take it off all by herself. She got her arms out of the sleeves, but the shirt got stuck on her head. Really stuck. After watching her stuggle for a while, I asked if she wanted help, and she said yes. So I took the shirt off. Big mistake. "No, I wanna do it!" Meltdown number seven hundred and fifty five for that morning was rolling in.

Then it happened. I just couldn't help it. I started to laugh. Because the whole situation was just too absurd, too silly. And you know what? Natalie couldn't help it, she started to laugh too. While she was still whimpering a little, trying very hard to pretend to be mad and sad, she couldn't keep the smile from her face. We laughed thru the rest of the morning routine and made it out the door at a half way decent time.

Sometimes, I guess laughter really is the best medicine.

Summer is here!

It's finally warm enough to play with water outside!

Order

Natalie likes to put things in order. This is what she did with her toys a few weekends ago:

I wonder where she got the idea for the spiral-shape from...?

Shouldn't quite make it...

Looking thru my pictures and videos on my camera, I came across a couple of things that really aren't quite blog-quality. But I like them so much that I'll post them anyway...

This video is really too short, but Natalie kept going for the camera... This brings new meaning to dancing the night away!

Here's another one I just had to post. The lighting may be bad, but it can't hide the light in her eyes!

Icecream - a very special treat!

The doll house

After Natalie was such a big helper with putting the baby toys away, we thought we'd take her shopping at the (used) toy store for a big-girl toy. She got a new doll house:

"Hmm, I wonder who lives in here..."

A few nights later, I told Natalie to go play with the new doll house while I was cleaning up after dinner. Pretty soon, she was calling me, in that tone that says that she's up to something and she wants to show me. When I came in to her play area, she was standing like this, laughing, and with her hands thru the windows of the top part of the doll house:
And she was saying "Mommy, lookit, mommy, I'm in the doll house!"

My Daddy!

Hi everyone,

Natalie here. I borrowed Mommy and Daddy's blogspace to tell you a little about my Daddy. I can tell my Daddy everything, like how big the train at the train museum is:

Look Daddy!

My Daddy holds me when I'm a little scared on the loud train ride.

My Daddy builds me things - and he let's me help him all the time!

And sometimes, we just hang out together. I really like that!

Happy Father's Day!

Natalie

Such a big girl

Last weekend, we finally put Natalie's last baby toys away, like her music table and her excersaucer. Though she did still play with them once in a while, she was really getting too big for them, and they were cluttering up the place a bit much.

Natalie did great with it. She helped pack the items up and put them in the basement. She helped take the batteries out. We used a real screwdriver to open the toys so we could take the batteries out, and I tought her to go "leftie loosie" and "righty tighty". She must have said "leftie loosie" at least a hundred times while she was working with the screwdriver - she's the daughter of two geeks, after all...

It was kinda weird to see these things go. I remember how much she loved them when she was a baby. But she is definitely not a baby anymore, and that's okay too. She's grown into such a little person, so full of personality. And so much fun to be around.

But still, sometimes I wonder how it happened so fast...

How did this little sweetheart:

Turn into this adorable, sassy little person:

Breakfast at the farm

Today, a nearby farm had an event called breakfast on the farm:

Yummi!

Natalie had a chance to see a baby cow up close. She didn't really want to pet it, though, and who can blame her - after all it was about as big as her:"I'll stay here with Mommy, just to be safe..."

We had so much fun. There was music, and lots of animals to look at (goats, alpacas, ponies, and lots of big, big cows). And there were some ultra-light airplanes flying over the parking lot. And Natalie got at (fake) tatoo - she chose a smily face, which looked super cute! And there were a lot of old tractors. Natalie got to ride many of them:

Vroom, vroom, here comes Natalie!

Of course, at a dairy promotion event, there also had to be icecream - Natalie chose the blue one:

I hope it's the blue icecream, she's a little young for blue lipstick and eyeshadow just yet!

Puddles...

There's nothing better than a pair of rubber boots and a big puddle:

Natalie's beloved yellow rain boots were getting way too small, so guess who just got a new pair of (orange) boots:

A preview of the teenage years?

Just lounging, watching TV...