Three!

Last weekend was Natalie's third birthday! She is so much fun these days. Smart, funny, stubborn, fearless, snuggly, nurturing... this girl is the whole package! 

Current interests: Frozen (naturally), playing with babies, playgrounds, puzzles, her friends at school, reading, coloring, monster trucks, swim class, ballet, legos

Talking: Natalie talks a mile a minute, and is extremely articulate. There are only a few words she does not pronounce correctly: lellow (yellow), mazagine (magazine), and loshcloth (washcloth)

Reading and writing: Natalie is starting to recognize some letters of the alphabet and can recite them all. She can count to ten and throws in an "eleventeen" here and there. :)  She loves being read to. Coloring is a favorite activity, and it seems like she is going to be a leftie!

It is impossible to capture in a blog post how magnetic Nat's personality is. She is so engaging and funny. She loves playing with Nathan and her friends from school. She fearlessly climbs the ladders and goes down the big slide on the playground. She would listen to you read books all day. Jumping into the pool and making a "big, GINORMOUS splash" is her favorite thing about swim class. She loves music--every night I sing her Twinkle Twinkle, ABCs, and Baa Baa Black Sheep. Oh how I love this girl!

For her birthday party, both sets of grandparents, the great-grandparents, and Aunt Erin came into town.  Natalie selected the menu of her favorites: hummus and pretzel chips, grilled Italian sausage, corn on the cob, macaroni and cheese, and ice cream cake "with sprinkles on it."