Car Washing

Natalie helped Corey do one of his very favorite things this weekend...wash the car! Her motivations were most likely mixed...she does love anything having to do with water (washing dishes, washing rocks and she'll come up with any excuse as to why the garden hose needs to be on outside) but she's also terrified of the drive-through car wash and screams the entire time. I think she figures if she helps with the car washing in the driveway, she'll never have to go through that scary, sudsy tunnel again.

She scrubbed one small section so feverishly that I expected to see white paint on her rag! That spot shouldn't need scrubbing again until 2011. And I'm not sure what was more drenched in the end, but I think Natalie was holding more water than the soap bucket.

The Crummy Croup

Natalie has croup. I don't know if it's referred to as "THE croup" or just "croup", but regardless, it's THE pitts! The cough is dreadful, the voice is bizarrely raspy for a 2 year old and the mood...well, that might be the worst part. She's on a steroid to help with the inflammation and the chemically induced mood swings that result are not what our already overly dramatic toddler really needs. Oh, and the pharmacist cheerily informed me that this particular medicine can cause excitability, hyperactivity and insomnia in children. Really? Is that really fair to a family battling croup? So far, we've seen nothing but the moodiness...but the night is young!

Today she coughed almost constantly through a 2 hour nap. She still managed to sleep, believe it or not, but the coughing never really let up. We finally couldn't handle it and woke her up. We rewarded her napping efforts with a throat soothing Popsicle. Halfway through, she looked up at us and said, "that was a hard nap." Poor little pumpkin.

we asked her to give us her saddest sick face...she complied with a request for the first time today.

Ice Cream Truck

Natalie had her first experience with the ice cream truck the other day. Corey saw the truck leaving the neighborhood and chased after it on his bike. The nice driver agreed to come back to our street to make a little toddler's day. She was impressed enough by the musical moving vehicle...then, when she found out it opened up to reveal popsicles of all shapes, shades and sizes? She was beside herself! She picked the biggest "frawberry" one she could find and finished the entire thing. As she was licking the last bit of red popsicle off the stick she said, "I just wuv the ice wheam fwruck, Mommy".

Tonight I was on the phone with my sister when an ice cream truck drove by her in a parking lot. Well, Natalie heard it through the phone and immediately ran to the front door. Poor girl...she promptly got a less than exciting popsicle out of our own freezer as a consolation prize...how BORING!