the things you say

Look Natalie, you're doing such a good job on the potty!

How about some bubbles!?

Poop Bubbles!! Yay!

"Poop Bubbles"? Really!?

Hey, whatever works.

V-Day Weekend

We had a great three-day family weekend. We had no plans for the weekend so played each day by ear, and ended up having lots of fun, and more importantly enjoying a nap every day!!

We started off the weekend right, having dinner and watching the Olympic opening ceremony with some friends. Then on Saturday morning we decided to head to the butterfly pavilion and see what that was all about.

The Butterfly Pavilion is an invertebrate zoo with rooms lined with aquariums and terrariums containing all sorts of interesting creatures from sea stars to giant cockroaches!

This guy greeted us at the door.

And I got to hold Rosie, (I even got a sticker proclaiming the same.) Natalie was too young to hold the Tarantula, and DH was not interested.
We had the most fun in a sun-filled "rainforest" housing thousands of free-flying butterflies and moths. This is a giant Owl was enjoying some tasty rotting fruit from one of the many feeders.
Unfortunately it was so sunny in that room that most of our pictures didn't turn out. But we did manage to capture these rare beauties a bit later.

The next day was Valentines day. It was so snowy that it didn't look like our tentative plan to go to the zoo was going to pan out. So we had a relaxing morning at home. After our naps we decided to give the zoo a chance in the warmer, (above freezing at least!) afternoon temperatures. It turned out to be a perfect time to spend a few hours at the zoo. We missed all the morning Luner New Year festivities, but the place was all ours so it was worth it.

The Lions were up and about....

And so was the tiger, (it is now year of the tiger by the way.)

We all enjoyed some hot cocoa to fend off the cold while we watched the polar bears look for all the food the keepers had just spread around for them.

I definitely recommend the zoo on a snowy day. Especially if the sun is out. It was great. And there are always the indoor exhibits around if you need to duck out of the cold for a bit. We followed another keeper around bird world where she was dropping of crickets and grubs. It was also interesting to see the winter quarters for the flamingos! Looked like quite the party. We'd been wondering where they all were on such a chilly day!

Yesterday was much warmer. DH gave me a belated V-day present and took Nat out for the morning shopping. When they got back we had our third great nap of the weekend, and then enjoyed the afternoon at home just hanging out. Here are my two favorite people playing with some bubbles while the grill heats up. Nat is also in her belated V-day outfit. And she's clean too! We managed to give her a very thorough bath this weekend. Hair and all. It's a real chore with the cast on, but we got it done.
Not sure what this face is about, but wanted to share it anyway. Hopefully it doesn't come out for all my pictures from now on!

Not slowing her down.

Natalie has had her cast on for a week now. She got it last Thursday morning.
Here she is trying it out. She was a bit hesitant to walk on it at first, so we just took her to lunch and then put her down for her nap.
But the doctor said she should be putting weight on it as soon as possible for it to start healing, so I decided to take her over to Aanya's house to go play with some different toys. And it worked. Soon enough Natalie was running around on her new cast, jumping with Aanya on the bed and the couch and anywhere else she could climb onto.
And she's been going ever since. Here she is reading at the library.
And giving Kenze a high five! Kenze came to visit to compare casts. Hers will come off in another week or so, Natalie has hers for another three. Natalie has been getting around just great all week. We played on the indoor playground at the rec center today, and have been running around outside and inside almost every day. We even went to her friend's birthday party at a little gym on Saturday and she did everything she normally would have done, including the balance beam and the trampoline!

We'll see how she looks in another three weeks after no real bath, but thank goodness, other than that it doesn't seem like the cast is really cramping her style!

a fracture

This is cautionary tale about letting your kids go down slides on someone's lap. Yesterday, while taking advantage of some late afternoon sunshine and warmth, we went to the park with my dad. After running around for a while my dad took Natalie down the slide. She was crying almost as soon as she got off of the slide, and we just thought she'd been scared. But after a bit, when she couldn't be calmed, I took her back to the car, and on the way, between sobs, she told me her leg was hurt. After she kept pointing to the same spot, and still could not settle, I called her doctor's and they fit us in as soon as we could get there. The X-rays showed very clearly the buckle fracture in Natalie's right tibia, down near her ankle.

Currently she has a splint on, which seems a lot like a cast to me, but we can take it off if we have too. Tomorrow, if there's not much swelling, we have a morning appointment to get a cast put on it. Natalie says she wants red, so we'll see.

So we skipped gym this morning, (as I think we will continue to for the next who-knows-how-many weeks. ) Instead we crashed storytime at the library to visit with our friends. Natalie says she's "sad" when the other kids do things like jump and run and play, but supposedly she should be able to put some weight on the real cast which will allow her more mobility. We still had fun at storytime and brought home tons of new books to enjoy while she's laid up. I'm also planning some craft projects. So as long as my creativity holds, I think we can keep the kiddo occupied for a while. Maybe the groundhog was right and we won't feel too bad staying indoors for a while.

little couch potato

When the TV is on she turns into a zombie.

An Spring Day in January

Last week we took another trip to Waldon Ponds in Boulder to enjoy some sunny weather before it got really cold again. Natalie and Aanya loved "running away" and then "running away to Mommy" along the boardwalk over the marsh.


We also explored lots of fun stuff outdoors. We found rocks and cat tails and other seed pods. And played with big sticks...


And stomped in the mud!
It was a lovely morning out that we look forward to repeating. Though Nat's pants got a bit dirty...
And so did her shoes!