Mimi and Natalie's 29 hours together...

WARNING: This is a little play by play of my time with Natalie. It is a little excessive (overdone), however, you want to word it. I had this idea of listing all that we did, but I can't seem to do that w/o going into at least a little detail. So you don't have to read it. I am sure I did this more for me. I want to remember what a special weekend we had together. The posts that I made before this one are the images that go with this weekend. You may prefer to just view them.

*another warning...I am uploading several sets of images, but I am backwards in finishing publishing them. I just "saved" and I am finishing the lasts first...though this last actually is the one that sort of sums it all up. So you may want to come back later to read bottom up. Just a suggestion...

This is a black and white image that I photographed of Natalie before we played at the park. Natalie hitched a ride to Mimi's house with a friend and her daughter who were coming in from Baton Rouge. Natalie's parents stayed home so they could study. I was so ready to see my Little Sweetheart, Natalie pooh. I was soooo ready to hug and kiss her. I couldn't do that enough this weekend to get in 2 weeks worth!

I wanted to make all our time a Natalie adventure. And I love that a 3 yr. old adventures can be the simplest of things like feeding the cats or giving Precious a bath.

Natalie arrived here around 5:00. (I worked all day trying to get as much work done before she got here because I wanted spend all our time together playing once she arrived.)

• I had to tell her that the "new " kittens had a new home. (Someone took the whole litter. Yeah!) I decided that she and I should name the older kittens who must be staying. We ended up with Bobby Cat (the 2nd or is the 3rd) for the cat with the 1/2 tail (and the only make cat or teenager cat). For the other two, we decided on Abby (as in Abby Caddabby) and Zoe (both from Sesame Street). The black kitten with no tail was named Zoe and the other gray kitten who looks a lot like Mama cat (aka Paris Hilton, originally named by Aunt Cari).

• We fed the "big" kittens and Mama Cat.
  
• Natalie found her tutu, fairy wings and wand for her new costume. I should have had it put up to show her later. She had the tutu over her bottoms before I knew it. It was too funny-too sweet. It was time to get the camera out.
  
• Natalie and I played games and had a snack while I finish doing some straightening in the kitchen...a must so that I could cook supper.
  
• Poppa played with Natalie while I cooked grill cheese sandwiches and French fries for our supper.
  
• Natalie also had to show Poppa her new tutu. Then they showed Natalie's mommy and daddy the tutu via webcam. This moment should have been videoed. It was so cute! Actually it was hilarious!
  
• Natalie and I gave Precious a much needed bath. This was quite messy.
  
• Natalie insisted on watching "baby einstein" DVD (Baby Noah, Animal Expedition). In my opinion, she has long outgrown these, but recently she has re-discovered them. So I got the two out of the bag that I was giving away to my friend's new grandbaby. I guess even little ones enjoy watching re-runs (their own kind of re-runs). It is probably us (Randy and I) that's tired of these. I wanted to read to her (I miss reading to her.), but I guess she misses the videos that stays here.
  
• She did let me read her Prayer Book that I found while cleaning my room really good recently. It is an interaction book and question book for you (the parent/grandparent) to ask questions and document them. She had not seen this book so she was interested in it.
  
• She started off sleeping with us which is what she normally does and then I remove her to her toddler bed. Early in the night she seemed to be having nightmares. I comforted her, but the next time a little later in the night when she did this, I called her to come get in bed with us. She slept pretty good after that!
  
• Natalie slept 'til 8:30 while I did some work in here on the computer for a client.
  
• I climbed back into bed with her for a few minutes to snuggle....something I started when she just learned to toddle in here. It would be cool from the A/C so I would ask her if she wanted to snuggle. We would either grab some blankets and snuggle on the sofa or we would go back to bed to snuggle. One of my most favorites things in the world to do with Natalie is to snuggle!
• She wanted cereal for breakfast. At first she said she wanted the pancakes that I had offered to cook her, but then changed her mind by the time she got in here. I think she remembered pancakes take a little more time than cereal. I think she woke up hungry.
  
• I asked her what she wanted to do today while we ate our cereal. She said "play games", "play play-dough". So while we were discussing these things, I received a text message from Cari (she had stayed the night with a friend). She reminded me of the lunch that included the parents to meet the new youth pastor candidate. So I asked Natalie if she wanted to go to the church for a bit to see Aunt Cari and then go to the park. That's not playing games or play-doh, but playing at the park has to be better, huh?
• So next Natalie took a very long playing bath. She found toys that she had not seen in a while that I discovered while doing some cleaning/organizing in my bathroom last weekend. She even found some I had put in another room to give away or garage sale (some that I thought she had outgrown...sort of like the DVD that I thought she had outgrown too).
• Finally, I realized it was later than I thought so I had to rush the rest of the bath. And finish getting Natalie dressed. I decided to dress her up a bit because I just don't get the chance to do as much any more...something that I enjoy and miss. I dressed her up in a cutsey casual dress and brought more casual clothes for the park.
• Natalie and I went to the lunch to meet the potentional youth pastor. I thought it was for parents and youth, but it was just for parents. So Natalie didn't get to see her Aunt Cari yet, but she did get to see her special "auntie" Tanya. She loves and adores Natalie too. She was so glad to see her.
• After the lunch (before heading to the park), Natalie and I went to the mall to buy her pair of shoes. She wore sandals with her dress, but I always have her wear tennis shoes to the park because of the dirt and pea gravel...I do not want that on her feet or in her sandals. I grabbed the other clothes, the socks and I meant to get her tennis shoes out of bag. I recently bought her several pair of shoes but they went to BR. It wouldn't matter because I forgot to get them out the bag.
• Natalie seriously wanted a pair of Boy Diego shoes. That's our shoes shopping started. We spent 45 minutes to an hour trying to get shoes at Shoe Dept (a simlple task that should have taken no more than 15 minutes). I wanted plain leather keds or mary jane keds like I recently purchased for her. I found something in between an authletic shoes/traditional keds. After waiting and waiting we discovered, they didn't have the mate. So back to square one, we finally settled for a pair of plain Nike's and pair of Deigo socks (to go with her boy Diego p.j's that she wears every chance she gets...she had wore them the night before!). A shoe store with three-year old w/o a stroller is not fun.
• Thank goodness she had the next stop to look forward to...COOKIES! From the very beginning I had told her after we got shoes, we would get cookies. I had to remind her often during our time in the shoe store that if she didn't be sweet that she would not get a cookie. She picked a sugar cookie with sprinkles, of course. She is very fascinated with sprinkes. She also asked for a "brown" icee! I love the way little ones request what that want...brown icee rather than coke icee.
• One more thing before playing at the park! Poor Natalie! I knew Natalie probably wouldn't wear this cute little dress again and this was her first time. Summer is almost over and I am afraid it will be too small for her next summer. So I insisted on a few photographs before playing. She was not too happy about this, but she did cooperate. After all she really did want to swing and slide.
• FINALLY NATALIE WAS ALLOWED TO PLAY. She had so much fun. She loved chasing the other children around too. She played until Cari and her friend, Ashley, showed up. They went to the youth meeting for their age group. Natalie was thrilled to see her Aunt Cari. This was her first time to see her since she got home (our home is still her home too).
• Next we went to Dairy Queen for ice cream. Natalie has found a new love for ice cream sundae's (I have a post just about this.). I felt sure she wanted the chocolate sundae, but after reading the list off to her, she insisted on the Marshmallow Sunday. I don't even know the name of what I got, but when I saw the people in line of ahead of me with it I knew that was what I wanted. It a waffle cone bowl with tips dipped in chocolate, filled with vanilla ice cream drizzled with carmel and sprinkled with pecans (coconuts as Natalies calls them most of the time...she knows they are pecans, but continually says the wrong thing...heck, we all do that about certain things...I know I do!). Oh yea, it also had whipped cream. Guess who's ice cream Natalie ate. Mine! Who could blame her! Hers was good, but mine was definitely better. I tried to talk her into just getting this with me to share...oh well. We all got to taste a Marshmallow Sundae, but 90% of it went in garbage. It was good. Mine was just so much better.
• We came back home after this. There was one more meeting at the church with the youth group at 6:30. It was already about 4:30. We were going to do some goof-off shopping, but before we even got to our first stop Natalie fell asleep so we came home. I knew she needed her nap much more than we needed to shop. I knew we would not have much time here, but it was good that we came back home because I had forgot about the package the mailman would be delivering while I was gone that I needed to open and take to Vidalia.
• Natalie woke up as soon as she heard me complaining about a package that the UPS guy must have left the day before under the carport area/Randy's work room. It must have blended with his stuff. It really upsets me when delivery people leave stuff out. In the past I have had packages damaged after they were left. I have had them rained on and I have even had negatives chewed on that was torn open by a dog. She must have assumed that this package was for her. I often send her packages to BR, little happies from books and DVDs to the rain jacket that I got her last week. This package actually was for her. It was fall clothes from The Children's Place. I wished I had some photo of her opening it. You would think it was Christmas!
• My portrait packages were at the front door that I needed to go through so that I could deliver when I went back to Vidalia. I had forgotten about this until we came back home. The client was in for the weeknd and since she had a 20x20, it is better to hand deliver than mail. While I did this Natalie tried on her tutu one more time to show Aunt Cari and then she played bubbles.
• I took Cari and Ashely back to church for the youth activity for all the youth. Then Natalie and I delivered portraits to Mrs Cristi's house for her daughter, Casey, Avery's mommy. Natalie made herself at home there helping herself to chips...not just any chips...certain chips. I caught her putting one back to get another one. I guess she is a little young to know that that is rude.
• After the youth activity, I picked up food for Natalie and Poppa at Popeyes. Then I delivered Natalie to Nonna's house. Nonna and Papaw had plans so Katie was there to keep her and Emma. I wished I had photographs of this meeting too. Katie and Emma were glad to see Natalie as she was excited to see them too. This is where my weekend with Natalie ended with Natalie. I got back in the car a very sad Mimi.

I came home and cried. I cried for the joy she brought during our most precious time together and cried because it just wasn't long enough. Quality really isn't better than quantity. I heard this one time and it definitely applied to this. I cried again the next morning. She is so fun and is always such a busy body and never quite unless she is asleep or engrossed in a show. So it sure was quite and lonely here the next day without her.

I am trying to get this blogging caught up so that I will be ready to savor our memories with digital capture the next time she is here and so that I can look back at my posts so that I can enjoy the fun we had together one more time. She truly is our little ray of sunshine!

~~Natalie's Mimi~~