Four Years Old!

Natalie is four. How is that even possible? The days are long, the years are short, etc. Also, I think my sense of time is extra-warped, since we didn't really celebrate her turning three until October of last year. So, July just seemed a little . . . soon?

Anyway, needless to say, Natalie was definitely ready. This was the first year that there was real birthday anticipation and excitement - and it was totally adorable.

We started things off by taking Natalie out for Big Girl Breakfast.The picture isn't super-clear, but this is a dinosaur pancake.

Natalie's birthday fell on the Saturday of the family reunion weekend in Michigan, so it was prime party time. And dinosaurs were, in fact, the theme of the birthday party (which is odd because Natalie is not, in general, especially into dinosaurs, but she was remarkably consistent that this was what she wanted for her birthday party). We were so lucky that Bubbe and Grrr did everything for the dinosaur party. 

Prior to the party, we all gathered for some family photos.

The above are my photos from the photo shoot. The whole album from the photographer is also available. Here are a few of my faves that she took:

Here are some party animals:

The kids also got to hunt for dinosaur eggs:

And then there was cake. Which Natalie was a bit ambivalent about. 

Ha, ha, NO.

I mean, the cake even had her face on it (check it out on the lower right there). What's not to love?

Tiny dinosaurs at work:

It was a fun party! Thank you so much to Bubbe and Grr for working so hard on all the details!

p.s. So many pictures, right? Well, as they say, "not reading this is absolutely free," so, please feel no obligation - the blog is like my scrapbook. Otherwise, enjoy!

Michigan

I'm going to cover our Michigan trip in two parts. First, everything but Natalie's birthday.

The first picture is from Mike and Natalie's flight up - Natalie is definitely getting easier to entertain on the plane. The second picture is from the flight Jacob and I took a few days later.

Here is a picture is from our early morning return flight. You know, we're all about keeping it real here on the blog.

Once in Michigan, Natalie got some "fancy clothes" from Bubbe. She put these to good use hanging out with Aunt Jenny.

Jacob was not to be outdone. Everyone loves Aunt Jenny!

Playtime with Bubbe.

Creativity!

Because of the heat, our sloped driveway, and the lack of neighborhood friends, Natalie's never really had the experience of playing outside in our neighborhood with friends. That all changed when Natalie met the little girls who live next door to Bubbe and Grrr.

Bring on the extended family!

Here's Natalie dancing in her "ballet costume" with cousin Lindsey.


(Video is also available by clicking here)

As you can see in the end of that video, we also got to meet Baby Lainey, born three months after Jacob. Here's another shot of her - she's so sweet!

Here's Lainey's big brother:

We also had some super-large family suppers.

There was also some time to just kick back. And, you know, read about stomach ailments.

After a weekend with family, it's clear Jacob has some big shoes to fill.

Speaking of shoes and feet, on our last day in Michigan, all the ladies headed out for a pedicure. We took Natalie and she loved it. And they even cut her toenails. I loved that; we'll be back in three weeks. And three weeks after that. 

Natalie's pedicure finished up with some non-toxic light purple glitter nail polish. The color was called "Do the Mermaid." Natalie also persuaded everyone else to go purple, too. 

I'll leave you with a teaser for the next post (Aunt Jenny made the tiara; the goat was just the model).

Six months old!

Jacob actually turned six months old a few weeks ago, but we just had his six-month appointment today, so, well, all's cool that ends in a timely manner, right?

Here's the big boy!

Jacob is doing great! I mean, we think so, but the doctor confirmed this today, too. New stats are in the sidebar, but, as I suspected, Jacob's slightly smaller than Natalie at this age: 15lbs, 4oz to her 16lbs, and 27 inches to her 27.5 inches. I'm totally aware that those differences are likely measurement errors.

Jacob now sleeps in his own room - at least at night. Naps are still a mixed bag / work in progress. 

He eats cereal and purees, and so far he seems to eat everything. No teefs yet, but they are reportedly on their way (as they have been for the last two months, sigh).

He laughs, he smiles, and he even makes his weird growl (which we call the dinosaur noise). He can also say "dada," but this doesn't yet seem to mean Mike. In fact, Natalie is still his rockstar; I totally expect that some version of her name will be his first word.

Jacob loves to laugh and smile. He'll gladly play peek-a-boo with you. He'll also try to charm strangers. In fact, when we flew to Detroit last week, we had an early morning flight. Jacob was a gem, but the cutest part was that he passed a good portion of the flight just trying out his smiles on the sleeping passengers. It was like he was sure that if he only tried hard enough, they'd smile back. 

Here's a video of Jacob laughing in response to some heavy literary content.

(click to see the video on its own website)

He isn't yet sitting stably. I mean, he sits, but then he sort of tripods forward in slow-motion. Likewise, he can roll from his front to his back, but he still rarely does it. On the plus side, he's getting more adjusted to being on his stomach . . . .
 

Next up: our trip to Detroit and Natalie's 4th(!) birthday!

Video Rodeo

Here are a few videos from the last month or so.

First, for our email readers, a link to the Father's Day video. I think I've done better linking the videos throughout this email (just click on the topic of the video to access the video).

I know some members of our family have been in Hawaii recently. We've been here. Which is pretty much like Hawaii, minus the beaches, scenery, and pleasant temperatures. But at least we have hula!

Here's Natalie pretending to be a teacher. She's studied hard for role, as she explains.

Last, here's a Jacob video. He's really finding his voice lately - the video is of last week's sound, sort of a growl. This week, he's more into roars....