Girly Girl

Natalie is such a girly girl. And, secretly, I love that. Someday, I may not be so excited about it...I just look at her sometimes and think I've got trouble on the horizon. But, for now it's cute at 21 months. Her new word is "shoes". And, she loves to wear them. She'll put them on, and carefully walk about the house with anyone's shoes. She even slips the thong part of my flip flops between her toes. It's especially adorable when they're on the wrong feet. This morning, I was putting laundry away, and she was taking pairs of shoes out of my over the door organizer and trying them on. After she'd try them on, she'd put the pair nicely back into it's pocket.

There's no denying her "motherly", "clean house" instinct. In fact, her attention to detail is making me a little self conscious about my cleaning :). She'll sit on the floor by the table, find a crumb, and bring it to me saying "ucky, Mommy ucky". Then she gives it to me and I put it in the trash. Or, if something is out of place, she'll say, "Uh Oh, Mommy", and point to it. Like the griddle that was cooling off on the counter after breakfast this morning. Or the iron that is unplugged-those are out of place to her, and she reminds me by telling me "uh oh". I love the two word phrases she's using lately.

She is so fun lately. She's loving her Little People-her new thing is to line as many up as possible along the edge of the Little People castle. And let me tell you, she DOES NOT like it when one falls off! Also, she walks around saying "shhhh, baby" to let us know baby is sleeping and we should be quiet. One of her new favorite activities is drawing or coloring. I gave her a pen, some crayons, and some paper. I put her in her highchair, and she was content drawing for about 20 minutes. Awesome!

Boonshoft MuseumTrip

Lucas, Lindsey, Natalie and Matthew at WSU.

This week, we had a very fun outing to the Boonshoft Museum in Dayton. My sister works at WSU, and invited us over to Dayton for an afternoon at the Boonshoft and out to lunch. Of course, we had to end the day by stopping by the college so she could show the kiddos off to her coworkers and the boys could run off some energy before heading back home.

Lindsey helping Natalie at the water table. .

The museum was fun. It's like a toned down COSI, and the boys were almost too old for it. However, they made the best of it. On the first level, they climbed on a huge playground, danced in front of a thermal screen, and saw a huge python. Also, Natalie, LOVED the water table and playing in the fountains and with the squeezy fish toys. The boys and Lindsey worked together to make a "rollercoaster" out of pipes and a ping pong ball.
Lucas waiting for his next patient.
Then, we ventured to the second floor. Up here was a lot of role play rooms. For example, there was a "veterinarian's office", complete with stuffed animals, check in sheets with various symptoms on them, an xray machine, and lab coats.
Matthew diagnosing the snake over his shoulder-high blood pressure.
The boys kind of got into that. And, they were so cute in the lab coats with their clipboards and pencils to check the animals. It was so funny-every animal they checked had "dangerously high blood pressure." Seriously, where do they come up with these things?! There was a room with a recycling truck, and various play pieces of recycling to sort. They sorted while Natalie drove and honked the horn.
Natalie driving the recycling truck.

We also walked through a treehouse, and at the end they have huge windows where you can watch birds. It was very cool. Finally, we went to the small "zoo". We saw meerkats, otters, a porcupine, and some birds. There was an area where the windows were dark, and if you put on night vision goggles, you could see the animals inside. The boys loved that. Natalie sat with Lindsey for a long time watching the meerkats. She laughed so hard at them when they'd come up to the glass and look at her while they stood on their hind legs. Too fun!
Matthew and Lucas checking xrays.
After our museum fun, we went to Wendy's for lunch, then to Lindsey's office. All three kiddos (and Lindsey), loved the "oohing and aahing" over the kiddos. Natalie was too cute, the boys had grown so much, and they were so handsome-according to all the coworkers.