Natalie Turns 3!

Our little princess turned 3 years old last week. She has been anticipating this birthday ever since her brother celebrated his birthday in January. Whenever the subject of birthdays has come up since then, she has commented on that fact that she'll have a birthday soon. The past few weeks we have talked about it daily and she has sang Happy Birthday to herself many times!

We threw a Princess Tea Party and invited our family to join us for pink cupcakes cookies, brownies, pettifours and lots of candy (Natalie's favorties). It all turned out so cute if I do say so myself! We sent out invitations shaped like little dresses. As I was putting the finishing touches on the party setup, Ben asked me, "Isn't this a princess party? Where's all the princess stuff?" I replied, "Well, Natalie's the princess." He responded..."oh, okay." The two then disappeared and I hurried with some final preparations. The doorbell rang with the first guests arriving and they came down the hall. He had dressed her up in her Snow White costume, gown, crown, shoes, and purse. Ben announced: "Now she's the princess at the party, Mom! I dressed her up!" It was so cute!
My favorite part of the whole event was the priceless look on her face as we sang Happy Birthday (she sang along too of course) and then blew out the candles. It was adorable!



A little bit of remininscing about our little darling over the past 3 years...

She was born June 4, 2006 (she shares her birthday with a cousin...there are many June birthdays in our family so it bound to happen!) at 8:30ish pm at LDS Hospital. She weighed 6 lbs. and 4 oz. and was 19 in. long. She was 4 weeks early...can't imagine how big she would have been if she would have prolonged her arrival! She seemed pretty tiny though and came with lots of dark hair...you wouldn't know it now what with the blonde curls she sports today!

Before we knew about her, I always said I'd love to have a family of boys. But, boy oh boy, I wouldn't trade her for the world! Having a little girl is so much fun. I love the mother/daughter relationship and look forward to more that will come...well except for the drama which may escalate as we reach the teenage years...I can barely handle the 3 year old drama we have now!

Some favorites at age 3: She is all girl and loves everything pink and frilly. She loves playing with babies, playing house, carrying purses and diaper bags, shopping with Mom, cooking (pretend and real), painting her nails, playing with makeup, wearing dresses and pretty shoes, dressing up, and playing with friends. She's a bit of a fussy eater and will avoid nutritious meals at all costs and instead prefers to drink juice and snack...especially on candy! She loves her brother and would follow him just about anywhere and loves it when he plays with her.

Some quirks at 3 years old: She has a very sensitive nose and is constantly picking up scents and asking me "What's that smell...I smell sumpin'!" If she's not sniffing the air, she's sniffing her pink blankie. She fell in love with her favorite fuzzy, pink blanket when she was 7 or 8 months old and drags it around constantly. When she still had her binkie, she would put the blanket between her nose and binkie and smell it and rub it back and forth. She still hates it when I wash it and can tell if it's been washed with one whiff..."this not smell, Mom!" We have a duplicate blanket so I can wash them often, but she'll smell them both and always picks the dirty, stinky one over the clean, fresh one...crazy girl! She doesn't like cleaing up toys and such but loves to help clean the toilet and dust and vacuum. She is a pack rat and loves filling purses and bags with collections of random items...which drives me crazy! When she talks about size, she using only two words...it's either teeny or huge!

We love our little princess...quirks and all. Happy Birthday Natalie!

Inquiring Minds...and Noses

Have you ever read any of those Sam and Stella books from the library by Marie-Louise Gay? It's a cute little children's book series about a brother and sister who are always on some imaginary adventure together and all the while Sam quizzes his sister about the how and why of things. Stella always has some witty response.
"Stella, how do dogs learn how to swim?" asks Sam. "They take swimming lessons," answers Stella. You should check them out some time, they are so cute and fun.

Anyway, somtimes I feel like my life is a Sam and Stella book. My Benjamin is just like Sam, so inquisitive and curious and quizzing me a thousand times a day about all the hows and whys in the world. I think about 90 percent of his questions I either don't know the answer to or can't begin to think how to come up with a response a 6 year old can appreciate!

Here's a little list:

"Mom, what does the number infinity look like?"
"Do snakes know how to swim?"
"What would happen if you ate a watermelon seed?"
"Why do some animals lay eggs and why do cows give milk?"
"How many stars do you think there are?"
"What are you doing Mom?"
"When is it summer?"
"Why do we have Santa and Christmas trees on Jesus' birthday?"
"Why do some people speak different languages?"
"Is the Easter Bunny real or is it just a costume?"
"What is a butterfly doing when it's in his chrysalis?"
"Why does the Sun come up in the same place every morning and go down in the same place every night?"
"Why do dogs bark?"
"When is it summer?"
"What are you doing Mom?"
"What are we going to do today Mom?"
"Why do monkeys like to eat bananas?"
"Are ghosts real? What about the Holy Ghost?"


And if I'm not being quizzed to insanity by Ben, Natalie's nose is inquiring...

"I smell sumpin, Mom."
"What I smell?"
"Do you smell sumpin?"
"Sumpins in my nose."
"Sniff, sniff..what you smell, Mom?"

Good or bad, Natalie's nose doesn't let a scent go by without asking me about it or letting me know she "smells sumpin"!

I literally feel on the brink of insanity some days with all the questions! I need to be more like Stella and come up with something more witty than "I have no idea" and "Are you kidding me?" Let me know if you have a good response to what the number infinity looks like!

Little Pigs Have Big Ears!

You've heard the sayings about children and eavesdropping..."little pigs have big ears" or "children may not obey but they will listen." These expressions came to mind this week as I had few experiences with my children repeating things they have heard me say. Just yesterday at lunch time, I pulled out some Teddy Graham Trail Mix I'd recently bought and passed some out to Natalie. She looked over the contents: mini chocolate teddy grahams, mini graham bees, tiny pretzel twists, and yogurt covered raisins. She replied "Oh, these pretzels are kinda cute!" I smiled only to hear her brother reply, "Food cannot be cute!". I laughed and recounted the the banter to Bryan. He pointed to Ben and said "Daddy" and then at Natalie, "Mommy." We have had several such conversations where I have commented on how some snack or food I've prepared turned out cute and he's sarcastically disagreed! Funny how our kids picked that up. Ben's also been heard to repeat some silly phrases we say...especially Seinfeld quotes!

I've been also thinking about a conversation I once overheard my own mother have. She was talking to my grandmother about my aunt and her daugther. She said something along the lines of "If you want to know what kind of parent you are, just watch your children playing house." Apparently my aunt had been watching her daughter play with some friends and got a view of just what kind of mother she was. Recently I've had my own such experience. I've lately overheard Ben talking to Natalie in a sarcastic tone when he's frustrated with her. He'll respond to her questions or actions with sarcastic questions. "What does it look like I'm doing Natalie?" "What do you think?" It really started to annoy me so I sat him to down to discuss it one afternoon. I realized half way through the discussion why he was talking this way. I often respond to him with questions, sarcastic and serious...and had, in fact, used a couple when I was talking to him! What a good mother I am!

So I'm learning to be more careful about what my little pigs ears hear...whether it's funny Seinfeld quotes or words of discipline. Oh how much respect I've gained for my own parents since I've become a mother. It's a tough job!

The Contents of a Woman's Purse

I've heard it said that you can tell a lot about a woman by the contents of her purse. Well, my little Natalie LOVES purses and has quite a collection...5 purses plus 2 doll diaper bags and a zipper bag she adopted from me. She plays with these on a daily basis and they a packed full of interesting things. The current contents from all 5 purses and the zipper bag are as follows:

-2 Valentines Day cards
-a snapshot of herself
-2 advertisements from her Tinkerbell DVD
-a little book she colored in Nursery
-2 combs and 2 mirrors
-several costume jewelry necklaces and bracelets
-1 half-eaten chapstick
-Bryan's IPOD chord
-gum wrappers
-3 sets of play keys
-2 play lipsticks
-a wallet with a pretend debit card
-a play makeup combact
-a coin purse
-loose change
-several buttons
-a business card
-2 little Madonna idol dolls Bryan got in France
-and an old cell phone

Now what exactly is this saying about my daugther? Well, I've been thinking she's a disorganized packrat that loves having piles of clutter around her...the opposite of her mother. This until I looked through my own purse the other day to realize the contents of my purse could suggest I was a disorganzied packrat! Here's my list:

-2 sets of keys
- a wallet with checkbook, debit cards, library cards, Costco card, expired coupons, "loyalty" cards to various stores like Great Harvest and Cold Stone, my kids immunization records, insurance cards, coupon books to Jiffy Lube and the UPS store.
-crumbled receipts
-old grocery lists
-empty packages of fruit snacks
-smashed golfish
-a ziploc bag of teddy grahams
-an umbrella
-cellphone...uncharged of course
-gum and several gum wrappers
-used tissues
-lotion
-hand sanitizer
-post it notes
-and a handful of crumbs

Needless to say I will be less critical of my daugthers purses and try to keep mine in better order!

The Princess and the Potty

We've been working on growing Natalie up a bit...you may remember my "No More Baby" post a few weeks ago. So we decided to take the plunge and potty train. I've been putting it off because I had such a rough time potty training Ben...it took a year I think and he still likes to power struggle over whether he needs to go to the bathroom or not. Anyway, I was dreading a repeat experience but decided to give it a go. It has been a miracle...2 days later and she's pretty much potty trained! She's still nervous about No. 2 but No. 1 is all taken care of! Hip Hip Hooray!

Who's Your Favorite Princess?

The other day one of my piano students was waiting for her mom to pick her up and I was starting "Sleeping Beauty" for Natalie. My student started telling me a story...her favorite princess is Aurora and the last time they were in Disneyland she got to meet Prince Phillip and he asked her to dance. I replied that Sleeping Beauty was my favorite princess, too! Not wanting to leave Natalie out of a discussion about princess's, I asked her who her favorite princess was. Her reply: "Me!". So cute...she's really my favorite princess too!

Bye Bye Baby

Not sure why, but we have so babied our darling little girl but I realize as she gets closer to 3 years old that it's time to move her forward a little. This lovely picture was taken yesterday afternoon after 30+ minutes of crying for her binky. She loves her binkies and we have unsuccessfully tried to break her of such habits for a while. However, she likes to chew on binkies as well as suck on them and was warned that when her "pink binky" broke (it now has a huge hole in it)it was time to give them up. Well, as you can see she is not happy about such matters but I am determined to stick to my guns this time and do away with binkies! She's still allowed to have "blue binkie" at bedtime but that too is on the way out!

In addition to the binkie breaking I am ready to dive into the business of potty training. However, I need a little motivation and some advice. So to all you mothers out there...share your best potty training tips with me if you will. Thanks!