Ready for Phoenix!

Luckily, Natalie is loving wearing sunglasses lately. She's going to need them very soon in sunny Arizona! We are busy packing, packing, packing. Grandma Betty and Grandpa Franc are here to help us this week....thank goodness...or we'd be out of our minds! Sorry for the single picture posts lately...it's about all this mama has time for!

Tub Time

Natalie could spend all night in the tub. After we drain the water, all her formerly floating toys rest on the bottom of the tub and she decides to do the same....she lies down like she's ready to go to sleep in there and just looks at us as if to say, "just try to remove me from this tub!"

Natalie Ann

Remember Edith Ann in her big rocking chair talk, talk, talking away?.....well, we have our own little Natalie Ann. She tosses the seat cushion aside, climbs up into the rocking chair and rocks and talks! Whenever I hear her really chattering away in her bedroom I know she must be on the rocking chair.

Little Big Girl

We had our friends Steve and Valeria and their new beautiful baby daughter, Camila, over this weekend. First, Natalie went through their diaper bag and helped herself to a water bottle and little blue hippo bath toy. She proceeded to pretend to feed the hippo water from the bottle and then tuck him under her chin and snuggle him after he had a good drink. This pattern went on for a while and apparently this routine tired her out a little so she promptly plopped in Camila's infant car seat and fed, cuddled and rocked the baby! We may be getting our infant car seat out of the attic for Natalie to play in...it kept her happy for quite a while even if it looked a little ridiculous!

A day in the life....

For those of you missing day to day life with Natalie, this picture pretty much sums up how we spend a lot of afternoons. She's wearing one of my shoes (she hobbles around...step, slide, step, slide, step, slide....it's a sound right out of a horror movie!), she has the phone (what the photo isn't capable of revealing is that she's having a one ended conversation) and she's got her hand on a bag she intends to pilfer all the while not taking her eyes off me (as she knows I'm about to stop the pilfering before it happens). Oh, and of course there's "the look"...she's got "the look" perfected!

Watching the Rain

Natalie loves watching the rain....and we've really started making it an event these days as we're not sure how many rainstorms are in our Arizona future! Actually, we are in quite a drought here right now and rain in this American rainforest has been very scarce this summer. Well, when the raindrops do fall, I pull this stool over to the window and Natalie sits and watches every drop. She really loves it when I crack the window and let her play with the water sprinkles on the window sill!

18 Months Old!

I had high hopes of getting the perfect smiley close up picture for a "Natalie-is-18-months-old-Can-you-believe-it-Where-does-the-time-go" post but this little busy toddler of ours doesn't stand still for pictures anymore and when she does I'm not usually quick enough with the camera to capture a grin.

But, I actually love this picture because it represents these days of toddler hood so well.

First of all, she's standing on the dining room chair after I'd asked her to "sit down, please" at least a dozen times. She's got something dribbled all over her shirt which is how she spends a lot of the day lately. And then there's this Pebbles Flinstone inspired ponytail on top of her head which is the result of a mommy and daddy not quite emotionally ready to give her a very much needed first haircut.

Love you, Natalie Ann....Happy 1/2 Birthday!