Natalie's News

I intend to still try to highlight each of the girls, like I used to in our weekly, ahem, monthly e-mail posts. Above is a picture of Natalie and our first cucumber from the garden. She is the only one of my girls who will have anything to do with vegetables and fruit. She has always been more adventurous in many ways.

However, Natalie has not been so adventurous when it came to swimming lessons two weeks ago. I had her taking lessons the first week with my friend Kirsten, but by the third day, Kirsten suggested we let Sarah switch and give Natalie some time to get used to the water. She was just freezing up, refusing to try anything that would get her face wet, and not getting anything from her lessons. This was quite a different little Natalie from a couple years ago - she used to be fearless in the water - but age has brought on new understanding and fears. (Understanding that you can't breath under the water!) After several days of swimming with me and daddy a couple times too, Natalie was ready to finish her swimming lessons this week. She did awesome! She put her face in the water and started learning the basics of the front crawl. She is so proud of herself and so are we.

Natalie is always making me laugh. She is such a good girl too. When it comes to helping out around the house - she has her complaining moments, but for the most part, she will respond with a "Yes, Mom." I feel like she is a little soldier the way she says it - kind of in a "yes sir" tone. If someone didn't know me and heard Natalie respond this way, they'd think I had my kids well trained to respect me and do what I say. But it's not me, that's just Natalie's personality. She just takes things as they come and doesn't complain much. (Most days that is.)

Another little tidbit to share some insight to sweet Natalie was something that happened at the beach with grandma and grandpa. During our vacation with them, grandma had little presents for the girls she'd bring out every now and then. One afternoon grandma brought out new coloring books and crayons. The girls were excited to sit down and get right to coloring, but when Natalie opened her box she found the nice sharp tips broken off of about half her new crayons. It was just a random unlucky thing that probably happened before grandma even bought the crayons. But Natalie was the one that ended up getting that box. She pointed out the problem, but didn't really complain much - she went to coloring anyway with the other crayons and pieces of broken crayons. Grandma was very impressed, and so was I, at how Natalie just took what she was given and didn't throw a fit or complain that her sisters had nice crayons, but she didn't. I can almost guarantee that another little person would have been very sad and would have felt like life was very unfair if she had been the one to open up those crayons. Grandma rewarded Natalie with a new box of unbroken crayons, which Natalie appreciated, but would have been fine with her broken ones too.

Natalie does have her moments, but for her age, she is not much of a complainer - that is something I love about her. And she is very much a peacemaker in our family. Sure, she pushes buttons and teases Sarah to no end - because she is like her daddy and LOVES a reaction, but she is always the one to offer a toy first that is being fought over and she is ALWAYS the first to apologize when she has done something wrong.

Another little thing about Natalie that I have mentioned before - she is very honest. Sometimes a little too honest - pointing out my zits or "owies" as she calls them or commenting on how big my pants are when we fold clothes. But as soon as she sees that she has said something that might hurt feelings, she follows up with something to ease the pain, "But I love you mommy" is a common one. (o: How can you feel too bad after that. I may be large and have a zitty face, but Natalie loves me. (o: And I love her too.