BEFORE THE CIRCUS!

CARI AND ALEXA ARE EXCITED ABOUT GOING TO THE CIRCUS! I REALLY THINK THEY WERE JUST EXCITED ABOUT GOING TO THE CIRCUS AS NATALIE! I TOOK A FEW PHOTOGRAPHS OF THEM ON THE WAY. I WAS PLAYING WITH CARI'S CAMERA (THE POINT AND SHOOT THAT I BOUGHT FOR BOTH OF LAST FALL). IT HAS TURNED INTO CARI'S...IT JUST CAN'T DO WHAT I WANT OR EITHER I JUST DON'T KNOW HOW TO MAKE IT DO WHAT I WANT...ANOTHER LONG STORY THAT I WON'T GET INTO AT THIS TIME.
I should have taken one of Natalie asleep. I tried to keep her up from her usual afternon nap so that she would sleep on the way to Baton Rouge so that she would be well rested when we got there. It was quite funny because at one point soon after we left, she looked at us with slow blinking eyes and said "I can't keep my eyes open." I never heard her say anything like this. It was like she knew she didn't want to go to sleep because she didn't want to mis the cirucs. It was so sweet. She probably thought the circus was just down the road like the one we saw a few months ago. We told her to relax and that she could go to sleep because it would be two hours before we would be at the cirucs. So soon after that while driving through Natchez, we looked back with her dvd headphones on her head, she was sound alseep!

We all were so excited to be there. This is as we are leaving the parking garage.

Even seeing the cirucs tractor trailor made us more excited and built up or anticipation even more...

...that is until we got there and waited and waited for a while.

We purposely arrived early so that we could go to the "pre-show". But I guess we got there a little too early. We were like the 5th family to arrive and we got a little tired of waiting.

There were several set of doors. Most everyone was lined up at the middle set of doors but Randy stayed in front of another set which did eventually get us in the door just a little quicker.

The really story behind Natalie trying to open the doors: After her trying to open the doors, she ran over to me and was digging my purse. I asked her what are you doing in my purse. She quickly explained her mission..."I'm trying to find the key to open the door."

Did she really think I had the key? I don't know, but how adorable is that!

We might as well pose for another photo while we wait.
And while we were waiting who did we see about 1/2 way down the long line that had accumulated outside the doors...JONAH.
Cari and Alexa went over to say hi and then I sent her aback over to take photos and then I went and spoke to them too. Natalie is smiling. It is often cheesy, but at least she has past that phase that she was going through when I first started blogging...you know that phase where she wouldn't even look at the camera unless I pleaded, begged, and threatened. Maybe it all finally paid off.

When I went over there and saw Natalie, playing with Jonah's toy I was worried that she would have a fit for one too. Read on about Natalie and the toy and the cotton candy.

okay, we're bored...Natalie saw another child playing this with his grandmother so she tired to play with me and then Alexa played it this way with her..."in the middle"

"up high"
"down low...too slow!" It was funny!
Another one of these two peas in a pod!

Okay, I finally have three posts ready to upload from the circus. Yea!

~~Natalie's Mimi~~

THE CIRCUS: "THE PRE-SHOW"

We're finally in there after waiting a while outside. We were about the 4th or 5th family to arrive to stand in line early to see the "pre-show": a close-up and hands-on view of the cirucs! Natalie sitting on the ring watching! I am sure she had no idea of what was in store for her at the circus!

If you look really close, you can see Jonah on the ring on the other side! I circled it!

This is Natalie, Jonah, Alexa, and Cari watching the girls jump. And of course, Jonah's mom taking a photograph of them watching the jump roping!

Another angle of them watching...

Jonah wouldn't go jump and Natalie really wasn't coordinated enough on her own, but she was with the help of this guy. WOW!
From Cari's camera...
After they would jump with each child, they would pose for a photograph with the child. I think this one is so sweet!
Cari demonstrating the hula hoop for Natalie and Jonah.
Natalie thinks she can do it!

By the look of Jonah's face... I think he was pretty sure he couldn't!



Okay, just pose for a photo!
They had a wardrobe for the kids to try on clothes and take photos.

Cari and Alexa in costume...

Natalie got her cotton candy!
Okay, I Poppa wears the hat too!
Okay, I was bored while wanting on the pre-show to end and for the Circus to begin. So I could see Nicki and Jonah at their seats from out seats. I took a few of them. I didnt' think any of them were clear, but I had a few that were. They were on like the 2nd row on the right side of the stage. I considered the floor seats, but I think, unless you had the first row, you might have problems seeing the show since they were all on a flat level.

Okay I somehow another small photo was checked when I posted these. I changed it when I did the next set of images, but it didn't change these...Oh well.

Let me give the little story behind Natalie and the cotton candy. Long story, but Natalie sleeps with us when she is here. In efforts of trying to get her to sleep in her toddler bed, the night before the circus, I tried one of the typical child bribes. I told her if she would sleep in her bed that she could get cotton candy and a toy at the circus the next day. After a long rough night of back and forth from her bed to ours, I wanted to give her some credit for sleeping some of the night in her bed. So I told her she could still have the cotton candy, but not a toy from the circus. I was very worried about the promise. I was worried about my ability to keep it. I had decided that if she really insisted on something that I would give Cari the money to get her something so that I wouldn't be rewarding her after I told her she couldn't have one. I guess it's the same, but maybe not. Well...I am very proud of Natalie in one sense. She did not even ask for a toy. I am proud that I have been consistant enough that she knew that I wouldn't get her a toy. She asked for the cotton candy right way and thoroughly enjoyed it. Consistancy is a problem that I have had through the years a as parent. Though Natalie is a grandchild that one should spoil...when she is here, since she is here so often I am actually parenting rather than "grand" parenting. So I am trying to be consistant and structured as much as possible (at least in the things that really matter). We do have a lot of fun time these days w/o structure especially in the pool. I know summer is short and before long my little one who has been such a wonderful part of my life the last three years will soon be living 2 hours away. I don't know how my heart will survive...so I find the need to fill it as much as possible with lots of sweet Natalie love as I can this summer!

~~Natalie's Mimi~~

SIGHTS AND SCENES OF THE CIRCUS (ONE WEEK AGO TODAY)

I am not sure who enjoyed the circus more...Cari and Alex OR Natalie. When we were making plans to go to the little circus in Vidalia a while back, I realized that Cari had not been to a circus. Being the 2nd child she was, I guess we had gotten busy with ball or other activities and just didn't think about it. Though I asked her to go with us when we went to the other one, I think at the time she was getting interested in partiuclar boy or something along that line and chose to got to a ball game instead. I guess that is typical of a teenager especially on the weekend. When I told her about this one (about 2 days before when we decided to go), she was immediately excited and wanted to invite Alexa.



We had actually looked up Circuses on the internet after going to the little one in Vidalia, we saw that Barnum and Bailey was coming to Baton Rouge, but I had forgot about it until Nicki was tellling me about some upcoming events for children. I had emailed her back to confirm that it was this month. We had talked about going together or something, but since I didn't hear from her (I am sure she missed that questions in probably my long winded email), that I figured she had plans with some of her other plans with children near Jonah's age or something. So I decided to look up ciruses in Baton Rouge. So just days before the circus, I purchased our tickets.



We were tickled to see them at the circus and had fun with them at the Pre-Show that I will post after this, but will show up first when I get through making all my posts.



We were in the first sets of sets off the floor, they were on the floor. We could see their seats from ours. I took some of the watching, but since the lights were out they aren't that sharp. This one was taken during intermission. I think Dan was taking Jonah for a diaper change.

Natalie was introduced to cotton candy last fall at the little fair they had in Vidalia. She ate it again at the little circus in Vidalia a few months ago. By now she knows what cotton candy is and that she loves it.

I am trying deligently this morning to finally post the circus images. I had so many of them. I took a few, but Cari went a little nuts with my nice camera and my long lens and took almost 2 Gigs of memory of just animals and circus talent. Some of them are pretty bad, but some were really pretty nice. I most wanted to capture us there and a few of the events...enough to remember, but I can relate to overshooting better than the average person...that really is one of the cool things about digital. If they had been film...what a different story! One of the reasons I had not posted this yet, is because of the abundance of images I had to go through. I first picked images with Natalie and us enjoying the circus, then I picked images of Natalie's favorites (the next few images) and I wanted to pick a few of some of the really awesome talent, but I have ran out of time because I want to stay in order as much as possible. So maybe I will post them later, but probably not...

The next day when I was looking at Nicki's blog...boy did she get a jump start with hers, I showed them to Natalie (mine were still in the car with the camera bag we got in at 11:30 that night). As we were looking at them, I asked Natalie what was her favorite part of the circus. She immediately responded: "the elephants and tigers!"

So I had to pick out some of those for you:

"ELEPHANTS AND TIGERS! OH MY!"

BRAVE WOMAN, UH!

I think this was high five from the tiger!
And here he is waving to every one!
And after she finished with the tigers, she took of her "tiger coat" and did some most amazing acts in the air! Maybe I will post one of those later!

Cari and Alexa being entertained at the circus. Small children can't really appreciate the talent of these performers, but teens can.

Cari had to have her turn wearing "the hat".

Natalie wearing her silly hat that came with the $10 cotton candy while watching the circus.

I took this one of his leaving and then I asked Randy to take one including me.

We're leaving...take a photo of us leaving since we have already taken so many documenting us arriving so now take one leaving too! I am finally ended up in some photos with Natalie after almost 3 years of being her Mimi. I am not fond of some of my expressions and such in them, but at least she will know that I was there. I often wonder if something were to happen to me (when she was much younger), would she know how special she is to me...how close we were (are). Because if you look through the photos, you rarely see many of us together. It certainly doesn't reflect the time that I have spent with her the last few years, but surely someone would tell her...surely they would tell her that I was the one behind the camera. Gee, I didn't mean to go there. But I guess I need to finish it now. I used to rarely ask someone to take my photograph...even after I realized this and had expressed it to my husband (who is often photographed where her) when Natalie was close to a year old Randy would offer to take my camera and photograph me with Natalie. Often I would decline (usually because it was always, always when I looked funky for whatever reason). Since last fall I have lost approximately 20-25 lbs (depending on what day it is). So I am sure that is one reason that I ask to have my photo taken with my little sweetheart too. I am still not that photogenic and I am still not the size I want to be, but I will have some photographic memories with our little one...after all she is "my heart".

Hopefully, this gives you a little view into Natalie's World and her trip to the "big" circus! It is always so special to see things through the eyes of a child whether they are the "almost-three" years or 15 years old.

~~Natalie's Mimi and Cari's mom~~