"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?

MEMORY CARD?

I recently started my third blog:



http://www.ainsworthremembering.blogspot.com/



There are time when I want to post things about my family that don't regard Natalie. So I started "Worth Remembering", a blog dedicated to my family's memories that are Worth remembering to me and them. Of course, Natalie is a big part of my family. So it would be easy to double post somethings. In this case, I am just going to post the link to the little story about Natalie finding a memory card in my room.



http://ainsworthremembering.blogspot.com/2008/08/memory-card.html



I know I am behind this week. I have many images to post. I have just been a bit overwhelmed with the move to Baton Rouge. It has also left me a bit sad...which I assume was expected. My life (my world) has been so choatic the last year helping raise an infant who has grown from a toddler to a very know-it-all 3-year-old. And all of suddenly, her world (the majority of her world) will exists without her Mimi. Yes, that makes me very sad. I am coping and adjusting just as she is. She still isn't too fond of being left at her new school, but I will let her mommy tell about that since she witnessed it, not me, on her blog. I know she hasn't posted any updates yet, but she has been taking photos and she does intend to. As you could guess, I am sure the move has been overwhelming for Natalie's parents too. They, too, will soon be starting another school year. Lots of changes take place in the fall. Maybe that's one reason I am not too thrilled with this season any more.

Stay tuned. I do hope to get some new images posted very soon.

~~Natalie's Mimi~~

"I WANNA GO TO BATON ROUGE."

"I WANNA GO TO BATON ROUGE" that's what Natalie said yesterday on the way back to their apartment.

For the last few weeks, I have been telling her that she is moving to Baton Rouge with her Mommy and Daddy. The other day when Cameron brought her here, he was was wondering how she knew she was moving to Baton Rouge. Well, her Mimi told her, of course!

I would also tell her that we are going to miss her. I hope she misses us some too, but for mostly I hope she and her parents settle well into their new home, new school schedule and new daycare/pre-school. (I am plan to go get a web cam this week. I know she is going to grow so much from one visit to the other. She certainly seemed to while we were away on our 5-day cruise.)

This is the rest of the story behind the title:
Yesterday, we helped move them to Baton Rouge into their new apartment for LSU students that are couples, family and grad students. Cameron and Brittany had already expressed their anxiety over the "small" place. We were pleased that once they begun to see their things in there that it wasn't as small as they thought. It was neat to see this blank place (should have done photos of that) transform into their first home.

At the end of the day, we (Britt's mom, Britt, Natalie and I) went to the big super wal-mart on College Dr. to buy some things for the apartment. Her mom wanted to get her some things like garbage cans, storage baskets, etc. and I wanted to get them started on groceries: milk, sandwich meat, paper towels, paper plates, bread, etc. and some food that I know Natalie enjoys eating when she is here like instant oatmeal, del-monte peaches, fruit snacks, yogurt raisins and some other things that are coming to my mind at this moment.

It's was a fair as it could be when we left for the store as it was on the trip down there bringing the flat-bed trailer. We were concerned about getting caught in rain as was predicted. Well, we didn't totally miss it. The bottom fell out of the sky while we were shopping. We got totalling soaked taking their bags up the stairs (3 flights...they're on the 3rd floor). Okay, I just had to throw that end too.

While we were driving back (in the rain storm), Natalie says:
"I wanna go to baton rouge."
I explained to her we're in Baton Rouge. I am not sure how we came to the conclusion, but we soon realized that she thought their apartment was Baton Rouge.

The things they say are so cute and funny. I love it!

I have more photos, but of course, they aren't ready to post yet either. I took some of Natalie and Emma playing on the LSU playground and of the apartment before we left. I even looked at them yet since I haven't been up that long and I need to get after it around here, but I wanted to share this story before I did and before I forget it.

More posts regarding the last few days coming soon.

~Natalie's Mimi~

LITTLE SHORT STORY...

THIS IS A LITTLE STORY ABOUT NATALIE AND HOW SHE THINKS SHE CAN AND SHOULD DO EVERYTHING WE DO...OR ACTUALLY IT WAS A LITTLE CONVERSATION THAT TOOK PLACE BETWEEN THE TWO OF US A FEW DAYS AGO:

• NATALIE--"What are you doing, Mimi?"
• MIMI-- "I am changing the batteries." (I am referring to my cordless mouse.)
• NATALIE-- "I wanna do it."
• OKAY...HERE COMES THE CUTE/FUNNY PART:
• MIMI--"It's very hard to do."
• NATALIE--"It's soft for me."

What can you say but...LOL!

THE REST OF THE STORY...

• NATALE--(in reference to the batteries that I am removing) "Is that one yuck?"
• NATALIE-- (after the batteries have been changed) "It works now!" with her wonderful, typical Natalie enthusiasm. I ABSOLUTELY LOVE IT!

And, of course, I did find a way to let her help me.

She has been going through the phase of what i call I-DO-IT-MYSELF for quite a while now...probably since she just before she turned two. But from time to time it has slacked off where it wasn't quite as important. I always try to encourage it or rather let her do it...that is when we aren't running behind or going to be late, etc. Because I believe that's how they learn to do it themselves and it is how they build confidence in themselves. Though sometimes you just do not have the time...like yesterday when she wanted to walk down the stairs. We just didn't have the time because we were trying to leave to take Cari to school. By the time we got in the car, she was crying about me scooping her up so that we could be on our way. So she was determined to do something herself....so then she wanted do her own seat belt...even on the best of days...she can only do parts of it, not all of it. Again, I had to take over, she cried again. She finally got content once she was settled into the car watching her DVD...though that didn't start out smooth either. She wanted a different show than what she had, but after a few minutes Cari and I could hear her back there laughing at Little Bill. Isn't it cute when they develop a since of humor and we can use it to ease her out of a bad mood?

Sometimes life can be quite complicated dealing with a toddler, but overall OH SO MUCH FUN!

~~Natalie's Mimi~~