Three!

Or, you know, "free". Whatever works.

Natalie had a pretty fun birthday. No party yet - we're waiting until October when we can do a kitty-themed party in a local park. That said, we still had all the other birthday essentials, like toys and cake!

Her gift from us was a toy box. I had bought the toy box some months ago, but never really liked the color. I had always planned to paint it or paint some designs on it, but I was suddenly out of time (and ideas). Luckily, I found these pre-painted wooden cut-outs at the craft store. Those, plus a little wood glue made for a far less cloyingly colored toy box, if I do say so myself!

Natalie's Bubbe and Gramps got her a tricycle, complete with a bell. She loves it!

Responsible parents we are, we totally neglected to get her a bike helmet until she started asking for her "bike hat". To be fair, it is 106 here right now, so we really didn't have the expectation that she'd be riding outside for some months. At any rate, a purple bike helmet has now been acquired.

Grandma Pat got Natalie some gymnastics lessons.

Among other gifts, Aunt Jenny got Natalie a much-beloved butterfly / fairy set, consisting of wings, a wand, and a headband. What more could a girl want?

Also, I mentioned in our last post that Big Girl had moved into her Big Girl Bed. Here's a picture of her, in her new pjs from Uncle Eric and Aunt Melanie.

Of course, Natalie also received many other nice gifts. Pictures to come! Stay tuned!

In closing, since I'm all of 3.5 weeks into three years old, I can tell you that three is much harder than two. When I mentioned this - gingerly - to the pediatrician at Natalie's 3 year check-up, the doctor nodded knowingly. Awesome. Another friend of mine pointed out that it's really the terrible twos, the terrifying threes, and the f-ing fours. So there's that. I'm not super-sure I'm ready to go there (yet), but it's good to know that others have found the combination of enhanced verbal skills + bigger / stronger + more autonomy a wee bit challenging. But she, of course, remains totally adorable. Most of the time.

There's no picture of this, but one sweet thing she's done lately is to decide that I am, in fact, not a person, but a squirrel. So she'll offer me peanuts, call me a squirrel, point at me and declare that she likes "that squirrel better than a lady", narrate my actions by stating "the squirrel is . . . .", and pet me. Odd, but totally adorable.