getting ready for a trip

We're heading to Austin later today. Still have a bit of packing to do, but we don't leave until this evening. Our flight takes off right at Nat's bedtime so we'll see how that works. And hopefully we can keep her asleep through all the baggage claim and rental car shenanigans. We'll see.

So I thought it was as good a time as any to catch you up on some pictures. We've had a great week since Natalie's birthday. The weather has flip flopped on us so many times, and it's about to again, (hot and windy yesterday, and supposed to have snow again by Friday!? Welcome to Spring in Colorado I guess.) I just hope my beautiful daffodils that are popping up aren't all gone by the time we get back next week!

Here is Natalie the morning after her birthday playing with her new paints. The "shark jammies" are her all time favorites.
And here she is watering her pea plants! She's very good about doing this every morning after breakfast! (Grandma, it's on you that these don't die while we're gone!)
A couple days after her birthday my aunt and cousins came to visit, since they couldn't make it over in the snow storm. The girls were on spring break. These are a few of Natalie's favorite people.
My DH is cooking!! This is one for the history books. Natalie is helping.
Natalie loves her new underwear.
She moves this stool around to get to all the things she's not supposed to be able to reach yet.
Here she is closing her eyes while my mom hides the afikomen at Passover. She spent the next half an hour trying to get down to go find it and win her prize until we finally let her.
Singing "Itsy Bitsy Spider" after dinner. She wanted cake here since we were eating it, but really only for the ice cream she thinks goes with it.
And here is our new favorite game. Playing in the sink. Why didn't I think of this before?

She taught it to Aanya yesterday. How do you like their method to reach the sink?! They took turns using the garbage can; it was higher than the potty so became the more desirable play stool.

So that was our week! Natalie's new favorite word is "Myself". She says it when I try to help her do nearly everything, and often gets very frustrated with me if I don't let her do things herself. I think this newfound independence might be the beginning of the notorious terrible twos. Wish us luck!

Natalie turns 2!

My pictures from Natalie's birthday aren't all that great unfortunately. I'm hoping some of our friends have some better ones and if I get them, I'll share them with you.

The day started off sunny enough, and we did all of our usual Tuesday things in the morning. Natalie had a good afternoon nap, and then it was time to get ready for the party. Here she is in her pretty new birthday dress shortly before I braided her hair, (I've found bribes of chocolate chips work well to get the second braid in.)
By the time it was time to go to the party, the lovely sunny day had fast changed from rain to very heavy, wet snow. More snowballs than snowflakes. Luckily most all of our guests were coming from the neighborhood. Though my grandparents and aunt and cousins did not make it, (the snow broke my cousin's windshield wiper shortly after he left the house, it was too slick for my grandparents, and my aunt got stuck in some major traffic).

Here we are right after we made it in from the parking lot.
After a while the rest of our guests did make it in, though all a bit soggy. Here are Natalie's friends all lined up.
And they also enjoyed a lot of time running around chanting "follow the leader!" with their balloons.
Then they had some play time in the indoor playground.
After that we headed back for some cake and ice cream, and then packed up to head home. The rec center closed a bit early that night due to the snow storm and so they kicked us out. We made it back safely and managed to unload the car.

And so that's how Natalie successfully turned two!

overcoming the crud

For the past couple weeks this has been a sick house. But we are mostly coming through to the other side I think. First my DH and Natalie had coughs, and then I got a terrible sore throat. Then Natalie had an awful full-body outbreak of eczema. She is finally losing some of her red patches now and I am feeling better as well. Though my DH might be coming down with another cough. We'll stay clear of him for a while!

Anyway, that's my long-winded excuse for not posting any pictures! We have managed to get out and about, and even enjoy some of the nice weather we've gotten, (in between the snowy days.) So here are the few good pictures we managed to capture between runny noses an red eyes.

Natalie really enjoyed the lentil soup at the new Moroccan restaurant we tried in town. Doesn't she look cute with her towel over her left shoulder just like the real Moroccan's do it? Too bad it didn't keep the soup off the sweater.
Here she is wearing her new long skirt! Not the best wardrobe for soccer playing I know.
She likes to be right up in whatever I'm doing in the kitchen now, and her little stool is just not high enough. I need a bigger kitchen.
Here she is with our friends Erik and Renee's kids.
And again with their youngest, Megan, a couple days later at the zoo.
Later the same day doing some gardening.
And she likes to help make pizza now too. And by "help" I mean eat all the cheese and pepperoni off of it.
And here she is today stacking blocks. I can't wait 'till her hair gets longer. Hopefully it will be easier to keep out of her face. It doesn't seem to bother her, and she sure hates to wear clips or a headband. She's even gotten good at removing her rubber bands now. Just a couple more inches should do it.
So tomorrow Natalie turns 2! It astounds me how fast time goes. I'll post a couple pictures tomorrow.

Backtrack - the last days of the cast.

Though Natalie's cast kept us from tramping around in the mountains through the melting snow and mud we still managed to get out and enjoy the beautiful spring weather last week. We spent the entire afternoon out back on Thursday, painting, blowing bubbles, and checking out the garden in its full mid-winter mess. On Wednesday morning we decided to take a last minute bus ride into Boulder with Nupur and Aanya! The bus is so novel and exciting, we couldn't wait for it to get going.
The girls liked looking at their "tickets" (transfer slips - even though we weren't transferring).

And they were especially cuddly with each other that day which was so darn cute!
Waiting for the light to change.
These kids just love being outside. Everything is a game or a toy. What a fun bench!
They walked around this big planter about a dozen times! A balance beam! Natalie was only slightly slowed down by the width of her cast foot.
And here are two very tired girls on the bus ride back. I'm surprised they made it the whole way!
The next morning Natalie helped me make some pancakes before her doctor's appointment to get her cast off.
In the lobby at the Children's Hospital there were two other kids with appointments to get their casts off too. Natalie was the youngest. Once in the room she seemed a little nervous. She's had too many experiences in Doctor's offices now. Most notably were the stitches she got about five months ago which have since made even the most benign doctor's visits a bit traumatic. She liked wearing the earphones to muffle the noise from the saw though.
She wasn't so sure about the actual sawing-off process though... But she handled it better than some of the kids in the other rooms who I could hear screaming once the saw started.
And then there was the cast! She likes having that. Now when people tell her how well she's doing and ask her what happened to her cast she says "Daddy put it up on a shelf!"
Her leg is a bit rough around the edges still.
The doctor warned us not to pressure her into walking the first few days. She would probably be too sensitive about it, and everything would feel weird. He said he just would like to see her put a bit of pressure on it to make sure it didn't hurt her. Natalie was at this point struggling to get down from the table. On the ground she started heading for the door. No problem in the walking department! We could barely get her shoes on before she was down the hall!
And she hasn't stopped going since. She runs with a little hitch still, and they expect a limp for about a month, but it's not too noticeable. No more gym for a month or so, but we're looking forward to getting back to the pool, and maybe going for a hike and getting good and muddy again!

You know it's the weekend when...

you get out of the shower and hear your husband speaking in a Scottish accent. He's saying, "get outta my way Snoopy! I'm Shrek on a mission!"

This is followed by a whirring, and a bump on the foot. You look down and see this:

Moments later Shrek is joined by his friends Donkey, Cheetah, and Pteranodon

on his journey to save Fiona from the tower.

Where she is being guarded by a fierce dragon!

hanging with her friends

Natalie's cast comes off tomorrow. So I thought I'd show you a few more pictures of what we've been up to. About the only thing we can't do while she's still got the cast on is bathe her and swim... so tomorrow I think we'll start with the bath! It'll be great!

Natalie's showing us her edamame! Ummm... see food!
One of multiple trips to the museum in the past weeks.
Tutu-making playgroup. Poor Owen was not happy to be on the couch in the tutu.
Towards the end of playgroup Natalie was ready for nap time. But she didn't want Lucy to leave too....
Another trip to the museum, with Nupur and Aanya!
Caribou!
We ran into Allie and Zane at a local clothes shop... the kids kept each other out of trouble digging through Allie's purse! Sorry Allie.
Riding the giraffe at the grocery store. I've got to start carrying pennies.
Thanks grandma for the huge hunk of sugar on a stick! Chocolate-covered rice crispy treat... the white shirt came off moments after the picture.
And Natalie's newest skill is peeling a cutie all by herself! She was pretty proud of herself.
And here she is modeling her new mommy-made purse. Monkey print and full of little people farm animals. Doesn't she look like a big girl?!
Sigh.