WORDLESS WEDNESDAY

NATALIE THE "CHEF"

Natalie arrived here Saturday afternoon after her daddy voted. [He is still registered to vote here.] She gave me and Randy the most delightful, enthusiastic hugs ever. Her enthusiasm is always so sweet and sincere. Isn't it sad as adults that we loose some of the enthusiasm for life and the things we love? Too bad we loose....it is so sweet and contagious too!

Next she headed straight into her "room" to start playing with some of her toys. I guess she had actually missed some of them, but for some reason one of the first things she wanted to play with was her kitchen things. She put on her "Natalie" chef hat. This was a gift from us this past Christmas. Doesn't it look precious on her. This is a posed version of it because I wasn't quite ready and missed the original. [My camera still had settings from this weekend sessions.]

I have a few other images from the evening (last night), but I wanted to quickly post this one. She is so darn cute in it and I was thinking you might be having "Natalie" with drawls too. After all it has been almost two weeks since I posted new images of her.

After church, she went with her parents to her other grandmother's. They plan to stay until Emma's soccer game and then I am going to pick her up. She is going to stay one more night with us and I will take her back to BR tomorrow. So I am sure I will have even a few more images to add Monday or Tuesday. But enjoy this one until then.

~~Natalie's Mimi~~

NATALIE HAVING FUN AT MIMI'S

This costume recently came in. I decided not to mail it to her...the package was big for one thing, but the main reason is because I wanted to see it on her and see her reaction when she saw it the first time. (I am glad that I did. It was priceless.) We had showed it to her on the webcam. Randy tried to convince her it was his Jamacian hat...strange, but he explained it (long story). Not long after she was here, she found it and started trying it on.

I will wait until later to show full the effect of this so it will be a surprize, but I couldn't resist showing at least a few of these because Natalie had so much fun with it. She tried it 3 or 4 times.
As I look at this images, I am reminded that Cari informed me that we were putting the wings on upside down...oops!



I needed to clean the kitchen a bit so that I could cook up some simple supper. So we played this ABC card game (I made up the way we played it) and since she was already hungry she had a healthy snack.

the ABC game...

the game and the healthy snack Dora yogurt smoothie and roasted pecans...

JUST BEING SILLY AND PLAYING WITH MIMI....

I was also glad to see Natalie wearing this new cute little out fit that I recently purchased for her from Gymboree for the Prep School line. I assume that she wore this to school this day too. It looked really cute on her with little Sperry boat shoes that I had sent to her too. It also has a cute little hat too. I love little outfits with cute hats. I am such a sucker for them!

~~Natalie's Mimi~~

A LITTLE FUN AFTER THE STORM:

After the yard was cleaned up from the storm and before cooking supper, on Thursday evening (09.04.08) Natalie had a little fun out in the back yard with her new "Dora" soccer ball. Cari and I found this ball earlier this day at Fred's. We went shopping at Fred's just to get out of the house for a little while. We had already done some work outside earlier that a.m.--sweeping leaves and small limbs of the steps and porch. It was much cooler working outside with the Fall-like breeze blowing rather than the alternative, no air conditioned house. The first phot is of her getting the ball out of the car...I left it in there when we came home since it rolled to the back. It is much easier for her to climb in to get it than us.

Earlier this afternoon we finally got to watch the Little Mermaid movie that we checked out several days ago. She liked and had many questions about the witch and such. She still seems to enjoy shows like Dora and Diego that interact with the child viewing the program. They interact by asking them questions, asking them to repeat things and to do things like jump, etc. according to the adventure of the show.

The following images are her playing with her daddy and her aunt Cari. Her mommy was working. She called the Sand Bar and told them that she was "in" for the storm and asked if they could use her to work. So while they were in, she got to make a little extra cash.

I love this one with her knee up in the air trying to really understand this soccer concept!

After a litte soccer fun, Natalie and her daddy swing.

I love this one too. It shows her braided her that I braided while we were watching the Little Mermaid. She has never been too fond of you doing much with her hair. Evidently she is tendered-headed like her mommy. I never thought that actually existed until I have had many battles with her doing her hair. It turned out really cute and she seemed to be proud of it too.

That's it for now. While I was cooking supper this same night the rest of our power was restored. Actually, all of our power. We turned the generator off and finally had central air again. Yeah!

~~Natalie's Mimi~~

"DID YOU SAY SALLY?"

NATALIE NAMED HER SALLY!

This image is to represent a little story about Natalie and her baby doll. To my knowledge and to Natalie's mommy's (I asked her this a.m. about this), this is the first time Natalie has named a doll or anything that doesn't already have a name (like Elmo, Dora, Diego, etc.).

It was when I was getting ready to take her to the town to her Nonna's house.

• Come on Natalie let me fix your hair so you can go to Nonna's house. (Mimi)
• I can't right now. I am fixing Sally's hair. (Natalie)
• Natalie, did you say Sally? (Mimi)
• Yes (Natalie)
• Is her [referring to her doll] name Sally? (Mimi)
• Yes (Natalie)

Earlier this a.m., Natalie brought the doll to me so that I could fix her headband (that came with the doll). It is so hard to keep the headband on her little slick head. It slips off so easily. So I guess it had slipped off again after I put it back on for her.

I just thought this was so sweet. She named her baby!

In my book...it doesn't get much sweeter than this.

~~Natalie's Mimi~~

P.S. As I previewed this for the blog, I see her hair bow (headband) slipped off again. It is in her the doll's lap...too funny, huh?

LABOR DAY (09.01.08)

LABOR DAY MORNING

We didn't have specific plans since there was this cloud of the storm. It was beginning to rain and we had seen where it had begun to hit land. But what did we know...

I fixed Natalie pancakes for breakfast. We were sort of on a watch and see basis at this point. Natalie had no clue of anything. So did just what she wanted to do...play puzzles. I had previously (the day before) finished organizing her room...something I had been in the process of doing since before she moved to B.R. She found the new place for puzzles and was as content as she could be playing with them...though at one point I heard her frustration with one of them.

Do you see this one that's she's working on? It is quite difficult for me to do. She did this one by herself. I was shocked at this achievement. Next she attempted to do another one like this and lost her patience before she finished it.

This is where the hurricane was at this point. Even though it remained a Category 2. The damage was wides spread. As far as north Louisiana felt the affects of Hurricane Gustav.
Natalie's Nonna called and wanted to know about coming to get her. I was content to keep her the rest of her days here, but I know we have to share her sometimes too. I had already made plans to go into town to pick up milk and cat food. They were completely out of 2% milk at Wal-mart the day before when I was getting groceries and supplies for the potential storm. So I didn't even bother purchasing one of the last 5 gallons of whole milk (which all the bare shelves of the dairy cooler had left Sunday around mid-morning) because Cari will not drink whole milk. And I just plain forgot to get the cat food. So offered to take Natalie since I was going to the grocery store anyway.

Natalie stayed there for the next few days because of us not having any air for several days. She has never had to deal with uncomforts like that yet and I definitely wanted to spare her that.

~~Natalie's Mimi~~

LABOR DAY WEEKEND: PART 3 (08.31.08)

Natalie and her Poppa had lots of fun playing with the Lego Block that I got her as a little suprize gift for the weekend visit.
Before playing blocks we watch one of the Disney classic movies that we had rented earlier in the day. Even before Hurricane threats, we wanted to start watching Disney classics with Natalie when we could with her. We rented this one: 101 Dalmations and The Little Mermaid.

This is the robot that Natalie and her Poppa created with the new Lego blocks!

~~Natalie's Mimi~~