Mistakes

Natalia LOVES her Opa. She calls him "MY Opa" and constantly wants to be around him. He responds in like, reading to her every night, teaching her about the world, and generally spoiling her. They really have a connection and he can really bring out the best in her. This is one of the conversations they had tonight before bed. She was telling him about a book that she bent earlier today.

"I broke a book Opa!"

"Really?" he said, "How did you do that?"

"I did this," she said, moving her hands back and forth, pantomiming breaking the spine of a book.

Pause...

"Sometimes I make mistakes."

Seriously!?!? She isn't even 2 1/2 yet. I'm totally blown away by this little one. Can't even imagine what a full command of the English (or Spanish) language is going to bring.

What Dogs Say

This photo has nothing to do with the post, but it makes me crack up, so I thought I would share.

Natalia and I were feeding Odin this afternoon. As she was filling up his bowl Natalia stated, "When Odin eats it then he will burp."

"Does he say excuse me," I asked.

"No."

"Why not?"

"Because he doesn't have words." Pause. A thoughtful wrinkle of the nose. Then she looked up at me. "But Opa has words."

"And what does he say when he burps?"

"Whoa...That was a BIG one!!!"

Got to love him.

My Little Pulpo

Halloween 2008

Last year Natalia was an octopus for Halloween. This year, she said that she wanted to be a princess. But the day of her school's Halloween party, she found the costume from last year and would not take it off. So she was, once again, an octopus (or pulpo when she was at school).

(Notice anything besides the costume that is similar? Yup - the child is obsessed with lollipops - not that she gets them very often. She wouldn't even take this one out for the photo.)

The school party was a lot of fun. They had all kinds of stations and activities. Face painting, photo booth, popcorn, cookie decorating, and a pinata. Natalia espically liked the cooking decorating and the pinata.

She is such a careful decorator

And such a delicate and proper eater.

No way she is my kid...I don't know anyone who would attack a cookie like that.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!!

Dreams

I love trying to see the world with Natalia's eyes. Through her I get to re-experience snippets of my own childhood, relive the wonder and excitement of learning something cool every day. I get to let my imagination run wild.

One of my new favorite memories occurred a couple days ago in the shower. I was just getting ready to squeegee the glass door (we don't want the glass door to be etched with soap scum now do we) when Natalia looked up, with flushed cheeks and sparkling eyes and yelled, "Look Mommy...look at all those dreams."

"Do you mean drops?"

"No, they're DREAMS!"

She really can believe things very forcefully. Don't even try to tell her differently, if she things water drops are called dreams, THEY ARE DREAMS. Sometimes I try and gently correct her. Other times, it is nice to think of things her way. In this case I chose her way. How beautiful to think of all the droplets of water on the shower door as dreams.

So we left them on the door. One day of dreams doesn't a ruined shower door make.

Happy Halloween PJ's

Aunt Sarah is the best!!!! She is always sending the CUTEST cloths. I never have to worry about Natalia missing out on the latest holiday because right around the time I start thinking about buying her something a shoebox of surprises arrives in the mail.

This time it contained two sets of Halloween pj's and the cutest outfit ever. It has been a struggle to get the little one out of them ever since. The pj pants are the biggest hit because they glow in the dark. This once unknown phenomena now totally preoccupies Natalia - she'll walk right up to you, get real close to your pants, cup her hands around her eyes, and lean in. Why don't all pants glow in the dark? It is a questions I will have to answer for a while...

First Day of School

Natalia started preschool at My Spanish Village last week. I simply cannot believe that my baby is big enough to go to school!

She absolutely loves it - talks about the other kids in her class, jumps out of bed in the morning, and is already using Spanish every day.

"Vamos Mommy! Vamos!!!!"

"Leche . . . LECHE!!!!"

"Que pasa Mommy?"

It is so wonderful, but is definitely taking some getting used to hearing both languages come out of that little mouth.

What Would It Be Like To Have Twins?

Natalia and I went on this last trip to Tahoe with the Lyons Family. Courtney and Danielle had a wedding to go to in South Shore and I said I would watch Ava while they were partying like rock stars. The girls and I started off our afternoon with a trip to the meadow


It really is such a fabulous place. Tons of things to look at - birds, butterflies, dragonflies, flowers, etc. Lots of space to run, and plenty of fresh air. The boardwalk also provided a perfect little bench for the girls to have a snack.




I had promised them that they could touch the COLD water in the brook on our way back to the car. Ava wanted to climb all over the rocks, while Natalia wanted to scoop up the sandy bottom. (I think I will feel a lot better about trips to the brook once the girls can swim and are big enough to rock climb without help. There is something about freezing cold water and jagged rocks that is so magnetic to those two, and knowing that I don't have to have a hand on them at all times will be so nice!)



The only way I was able to get them in the car was to promise that we would make play-dough when we got home. Now I have never made play-dough in my life. Thank goodness for my Blackberry. I downloaded a recipe for easy play-dough, pulled out two bowls, stripped down the girls, and put everything on the island.

The play-dough experiment started off a bit rocky. The recipe said 1 C water and 1 C flour with some salt and oil and cream of tarter thrown in. Maybe I didn't read all the directions. Maybe I was supposed to cook it on the stove, or put it in the microwave, or bake it, but let me tell you something. 1C of water and 1 C of flour do not play-dough make. A gooey, sticky, gloppy mess? Yes! Nice, moldable play-dough? NO!!!

"Sticky...Sticky...Stickly!!!" The consistency of the stuff almost broke Ava. She DOES NOT like to get messy. Sticky things are no fun for her. So having goopy, messy, flour stuck to her fingers was about the worst thing that could have happened. Uh-oh. I quickly washed off her hands and gave her a spoon. The world was once again all right.

Natalia on the other hand got the stuff ALL OVER. She plunged her hands in, wiped it on her legs, her belly, her face. It was like she was trying to give herself a play-dough wrap. Spa day for 2 year olds.

While spa day was a great idea, we did need some play-dough. So I just started mixing more flour in. Then a little more salt and cream of tarter. The some more oil. The some more water. I really have no idea how much I put in, but we ended up with a HUGE amount of the stuff. Natalia wanted hers blue, Ava wanted yellow, and then they mixed some up and made green.

As you can see, Natalia helped me mix the blue food coloring into the play-dough.

After we had all the fun one can have with play-dough (after Natalia started trying to eat it) we decided to take a bath. Those girls do love their water!!! We got all the sticky stuff off, bundled up into our pajamas

And headed to bed.


Good day!

We Have Contact

So you may have thought that Natalia and I fell off the face of the earth. In a way it is true. We have been traveling, and starting businesses, and getting ready to start preschool. Lots of work for two girls. But now we are back.

We recently returned home from a trip up to our cabin in Tahoe. Natalia got to spend lots of time outside in the meadow close to our house.

It used to just have dirt paths, but there is now a wonderful boardwalk that winds through it.

What a happy girl she is!

Roses

Our days have been filled with picking roses and looking at houses. Natalia is SUCH a trooper.

What is the saying? You can either be upset that roses have thorns or grateful that thorns have roses. Natalia is grateful that houses have roses and that roses have petals to pull off and scatter as she walks. On this particular day she was also grateful that one house had an "alter to the big screen."

It was not what I consider good use of nice marble tile, but it provided hours of entertainment for Natalia while the rest of us walked through the house. Nooks, and crannies and things to climb up and down on.

Like I said. Such a trooper.

And no, we did not put an offer in on this house.

A Small Recommendation

I've done a bunch of posts tonight and reading them will likely make more sense if you click on the post titled "Pink Ears" and then read up.

But go backwards if you want.

It's totally up to you.