Wednesday, August 31, 2011

Natalie the 4 Year Old

True or False: We got Natalie's eyebrows waxed and colored for her birthday. 
Answer: False
But those stickers sure look awesome don't they?
Natalie's birthday was also the first day of school. We had done a little celebrating as a family on Saturday night with Natalie's choice of movie (Chicken Run) and choice of treats (M&Ms and chocolate ice cream). Since the kids wake up around 6, we ended up having plenty of time to open presents in the morning before walking to school. Emmy was helpful as always. 
Natalie, Emmy, and I had a fun little day together that included spending some birthday money at Toys R Us and a Happy Meal lunch. She also got to go play at her friend Jane's house in the afternoon. Once Nate was home from work, we had dinner and moved on to the cake and ice cream. Does Natalie love Hello Kitty? No. Did she request a Hello Kitty cake? No. I just thought it was a doable cake, so I chose it for her. :)
I might be "done" with the whole birthday cake thing. It's certainly not my strong point, as evidenced here, but mostly, we just don't get all that excited about cake. Here's my idea: sit down with each kid before their birthday and show them a ton of dessert ideas and pictures from the internet and they choose one for us to try on their birthday.
All day I wanted a nice little picture of Natalie with her hair done and her face clean. But that's not my Natalie. This is.
What else about our Natalie?
  • Still completely and totally attached to her pink blanket. I have to do some thinking on this one...I am trying to decide how to continue to handle her love for it. Same with the thumb sucking.
  • She is a really good eater for the most part. Her favorite snacks are string cheese, grape tomatoes, bananas and nutella, yogurt and granola, carrots with ranch, and milk. 
  • Although Jansen was the early reader, I see Natalie possibly being the bookworm. She loves to make up the words to her books, have them read to her, or just look at the pictures.
  • I am so lucky to have such an imaginative child. She plays incredibly well on her own. I rarely have her ask me to play with her. She loves Littlest Pet Shops and other small animals.
  • She plays very messy though. Lots of nests, piles, scraps of paper, etc. 
  • She loves to be outside. She asks all the time to go camping, and loves to hike, bird watch, and get dirty. 
  • She wakes up between 6 and 6:30 and usually comes semi-running out of her room yelling Emmy's name...who is our early riser.
  • She can be emotional and sensitive. She responds so well to positive words and needs hugs a lot. Hugs calm her down the quickest when she is upset.
  • She loves to stuff odds and ends from around the house in envelopes and tells me who to send them to. I should probably really send them. Who wouldn't love a screw, a bead, a gum wrapper, and a bobby pin?
  • She can get really annoyed with Emmy, but she is also so sweet with her. Oftentimes when we get in the car to run an errand, Natalie will bring a sippy a cup of water for Emmy, all on her own.

12 comments:

Bethany said...

Cupcakes. That is my advice to you.

Happy Birthday, Miss Natalie! :)

Monica said...

Happy Birthday, Natalie! I feel so bad we spaced it and didn't call her! You know Sofie would have loved to wish her a happy b-day. Adorable cake. I love that she didn't request it though, but that she was still content. SO much easier than a specific request. I love Natalie. She is such a sweet girl. We miss her!

Ryan, Becca, Brinley Boo AND Casen too! said...

So fun! What a big day you guys had Monday! I had no idea it was her b-day! And I love the Hello Kitty cake, too cute! Different birthday desserts is a fun idea... but looks like you make great cakes so you shouldn't stop all together! :)

Anonymous said...

Can't wait to see you tomorrow! We can get messy together and we won't do our hair. Love Grandma

Kati said...

That cake turned out really cute. I was going to do a Hello Kitty party for Jaedyn next year, do you want to make her a cake?!?!

Unknown said...

Happy Birthday Natalie!
We deal with the blanket issue still with Kambryn. It use to be pink but now she calls it her grey blanket...and I really do wash it all the time. ha!

Ashley M said...

What a fun kid! Happy Birthday Natalie!

Laraine said...

My cousin's daughter was attached to her coat!! It was "back in the day" and was a red furry coat. She snuggled up to it and sucked her thumb. Needless to say it was always dirty. So she cut it into small manageable squares and gave her a clean one every day. She soon laid those aside...and problem solved. Good luck with that!!!

Laraine said...

By the way, Happy Birthday to Natalie!!!

Annie said...

Happy Birthday Natalie! I love the multicolored eyebrows. And I agree with the cake. Unless it's chocolate no one at our house will eat it.

Britt said...

Happy Birthday to your sweet 4 year old. I'm glad my daughters were not the only ones at that age who had squirrel habits of collecting odds/ends and storing them in a concisely messy pile in a random corner of the house. Thanks for the deep chuckle on sharing your perfect birthday picture of her. I laughed pretty hard. Isn't that just how it goes? Candid always makes the best memories anyway. By the way...you're great.

Lindsey said...

Love the Hello Kitty cake. My kids are not huge cake eaters either, so I don't know why I have bothered making them cakes, but Jordan would absolutely L-O-V-E this cake. If I show it to her, she won't take her mind off of it until her bday which is in Feb. I will probably just have to copy you. It was very cute and well done.

A tip on thumb-sucking. Jordan didn't suck her thumb as a baby, but then started when she was 3. She saw other kids doing it so she started to. I hated it so bad. Nothing we did could make her stop. She would hide under her pink blanket (which she is very attached to still) and suck her thumb. We were nice about it, firm about it and everything in between, but she just kept at it. And you know what worked for her? She was sent a video message from "Santa" last winter where you go online and fill out personal info about your kid. They have a list of stuff to choose from good or bad. Anyway, basically I had Santa say to Jordan, "You have been very good this year, but I can see that you are still working on not sucking your thumb..." After that, she stopped. Don't know if that will work for Natalie, she may be more attached to it than Jordan, but you could try it in a couple months come Christmas time.