The bike!

A few weekends ago, Natalie got a new "bike" (a trike)! She was so good at helping Daddy put it together: Hmm, I wonder where this one goes...?

The wheels on the bike goes round and round...

Here, Daddy, I'll hold this one for you.

Off we go!

A biking pro!

She's still learning, she doesn't quite have the whole stearing and pedaling thing down yet, but she still seems to like it. Of course, it will be for outside use only, she only got to try it inside because it was all new.

The Easter Egg Hunt

On Sunday, we decided to have an easter egg hunt with Natalie. I filled the easter eggs (all twenty of them) with small prizes that I found around the house, like pretties for her hair, stickers, a bead necklace, etc. It was a beautiful day, and Natalie had so much fun walking around the back yard finding all the eastereggs: There was an easter egg in the (empty) flower pot!

" And I would like to thank..."

And of course, a few of the eggs had candy inside!

Happy Birthday, Baby Natalie

No, it's not Natalie's birthday! Here's the explanation:

Last weekend, we decided to give Natalie an extra special evening. We picked her up a little early from daycare and pretended that her doll - whom she calls Baby Natalie - had a birthday! We had a little birthday party complete with cake with a candle in it and birthday presents for Baby Natalie. Baby Natalie got a bag full of accessories, like baby bottles, pretend food jars, a sippy cut, and many other useful items.

One of the items was a foam duckie. Now, Natalie being who she is, doesn't connect foam duckies with bathtime as you might expect, but rather with artwork and foam painting. So Baby Natalie was going to do artwork. She got two other pieces of foam from the artbox to choose from, and all the baby bottles etc. had different colors so they became different colors of paint. And Baby Natalie even got to borrow Natalie's chair:

Happy Easter!

Here's what Natalie and I did last weekend: Colored eggs! It was so much fun. It was like a little science experiment, and Natalie really enjoyed pouring the warm water into the cups, putting the color tablets in and stirring to dissolve the color, and putting the eggs in and watching them come out all colorful and pretty! And it was a lot of fun to put the stickers for the silly eyes and mouths on too.

Of course, it would be a shame to let the eggs go to waste. So the next day, Natalie helped me make eggsalad: We had the greatest time. It took Natalie more than half an hour to peel her pink egg, but she did it, and it was flawless. All the while we were sitting at the kitchen table and just talking and being silly together. The eggsalad turned out quite colorful, because some of the color leaked thru the cracks in the shell. But that just made the project even more fun.

Happy Easter, everyone. Hope you get to enjoy some quality time with your family too!

A big baby...?

Last night Karsten was working on the tractor, and it was running when Natalie and I came out in the garage to say goodnight. Here's the conversation they had:

Natalie: You made a loud noise.
Karsten: Yes, the tractor is loud.
Natalie: I like that sound.
Karsten: I like that sound too. Are you going to be a gear-head when you grow up?
Natalie: Yes! (a thoughtful pause) No, I'm gonna be a baby when I grow up!

TV time with Daddy

Natalie got to wear Daddy's earphones the other weekend. They enjoyed some nice TV time together.

Cleaning up like Mommy

You know how you always need a wet washcloth at the end of every meal - well, at least with a two year old around? I always hang them over the side of my little kitchen-laundry-basket to let them dry out:
The other night, Natalie was cleaning, and her (dry) washcloths became her dolls bibs. And of course, she had to clean up, just like mommy: