Sweetness

The sweetness and innocence of a child really is like nothing else in this world.  Our church office staff, a doctor and his nurse, most of Facebook, and I were all touched by Natalie's tender little heart today.  Natalie had a fever and a bad cough last night so I took her to the doctor this morning.  As he was examining her he told her he was going to listen to her heart.  She sat there quietly for a few moments then said very sincerely "do you hear Jesus?"  Everyone in the room melted.  Turns out poor little Natalie has pneumonia so we're on a course of antibiotics.  Thankfully I got her in to be seen just in the nick of time, it was just barely beginning to form in the lower left quadrant of her left lung.

Little monkey was so good for the x-ray tech, despite the stink face I think she was having fun.

Ignore Nick's dirty socks.  I like this picture because he climbed up next to his sister and leaned against her.  She never budged or shooed him away, it was just so natural.  It's meaningful to me because I was sitting on the sofa next to them and he wanted her not me!

Belly full of applesauce and taking a nice snooze in the warm JANUARY breeze.

This brazen little squirrel pranced right up to us and ate crackers out of the bottom of the jogging stroller.  I thought it was cute at the time but now I'm kind of wondering if rabies is airborne???

I mustache you a question but I'll shave it for later.

Natalie had been asking me for frozen yogurt for a few days.  So I took her and she made a huge deal out of picking her flavors and toppings.  Care to guess how many bites she took? Not one.

Mom makes the best meat pies, so the other day I invited her over to cook for me.  Aren't I a doll?  Anyway, she taught Natalie how to roll out the dough.  Surprisingly, Natalie actually ate them.  Nick preferred eating just the filling.  Have you ever seen a one-year-old shoving ground beef by the fistful into his mouth?

This is just pure silliness.  The company had a performance a few weekends ago, and like typical dancers we decided to goof off.

Pics

Natalie has had a "twiddling" problem all of her life, practically from birth.  So this week, after having had enough of her developing bald spot, I bribed her to stop twiddling her hair.  She asked for a piggy bank and all week worked very hard to stop twiddling her hair.  She did it!  She earned her piggy bank! Here she is in piggy bank heaven.  She picked the smallest one, and at only $4 I was quite happy with my bribe.  Unfortunately, piggy's life was short lived.  He didn't even make it 24 hours until he bit the dust :(

My little climber!  The child has no fear.

This was from the Halloween party at her preschool.  They only gave us hard copies so forgive my thumb in the shot.

Natalie and Nick watching the Care Bears together.  This picture is as excellent example of the twiddle.

Natalie was invited to a tea party at Gg's house.  Gg know's how to throw one heck of a tea party, but this one had a twist.  Natalie requested that it be in celebration of Jesus' birthday!  You can see "Jesus" on the cake, we sang to him and blew out his candle.  I was quite impressed with Natalie's understanding of the true meaning of Christmas!

Ah.  I adore this picture.  The guy on the left is probably my oldest friend.  We grew up together and have maintained a close friendship.  His name is Sam, but Natalie calls him Aunt Dam.  Anyway, the lady on the right is Aunt Dam's lovely wife, China.  China hasn't seen Natalie since she was very, very little so this was a fun reunion!

Busted.

A random memory

A while back I had to take Natalie to a urologist for a UTI check up.  While there we drew a lot of attention because everyone else in the waiting room were older men.  Natalie was goofing off and being her usual silly self, she was entertaining several people in the waiting area and definitely making the time pass.  So then a very tall, big boned, black gentleman came walking through the sitting area and Natalie exclaims "Look, Mom!  It's Yogi Bear!" and the room erupted into laughter.

More Disney!

Safari

This is how Nick spent the majority of the trip.

We tell Natalie that "it's tough to be a bug" all the time.  Chelsea found this sign at the Animal Kingdom.

By the end of the day we'd do anything to keep Nick happy.

Natalie loves the seagulls that repeat "mine" in the movie Finding Nemo.  So every present and accounted for Blanton wore a "mine" shirt one day.

Date night.

He stayed on the horse pretty much only long enough for Chelsea to snap a picture.  Not at fan.