Caleb turns 1
Happy Birthday to Caleb, who turned one year old yesterday. He came to play with Natalie for a little bit, but now that he is one, he is too old to play with all of her "baby" stuff. Tomorrow we'll be going to his party, then heading to Chicago to fly out to Vermont. Isaac gets to come meet us there and word has it that he's bringing his parents too. Karl is afraid that Iceman might hurt Natalie. I'm afraid that she might give him the kiss of death (where she goes in for a sweet kiss and ends with a chomp. I swear she is sharpening those teeth at night.) These photos are old. She didn't have her top teeth yet and was still giving sweet kisses without the little chomps.
Anyway, we are looking forward to a much needed vacation, seeing some family, and eating maple syrup and Ben and Jerry's. We're hoping to also get time to see our friends Josh and Jodi Gritters and Unkle Kevin. We are NOT looking forward to flying with a baby. Hopefully she will be on her best behavior.
(Records) Girls Just Wanna Have Fun
Hmmm....How do I even explain this?
Naughty Natty earns her name
Today I went to collect Natalie from the church nursery. Evidently, she had been the bully of the nursery for the day. She's the youngest kid in there, so I used to worry about her getting trampled. Apparently, this is not the problem. Poor innocent little Kara was walking past Natalie, and Natalie tackled her and knocked her over. Natalie also went in to deliver a kiss to Caleb and instead bit him hard enough to leave a mark. She has been a bit out of sorts all day since then. It was almost like she knew she had been naughty. If you look closely at the top picture, you can see her sharp little buck tooth coming in.
New Cousin!
Congrats to Nate and Maren on the birth of Eowyn Grace. I will post pictures as soon as I get them!
I just started my Christmas shopping...
If you remember, last year everyone got the "I love Gretchen" t-shirts. This year everyone on the list can choose between three different styles. Put in your requests now!
Happy Birthday, Dad....one day late.
Why my dad is the best ever (a collection of memories in celebration of dad's birthday)
No one can quite do the dead man's float like my dad. It never fails. He gets into the water and soon enough is face down and still. According to Aunt Beth he has been doing this since childhood.
He plays a mean game of hands. (Hands is the game where you slide your hands under the door and let the old blind sea captain who lives upstairs slap them. Great fun. I don't think it ever occured to them that maybe the old blind sea captain was scared and perhaps was slapping in self defense. It is a little creepy to have little hands sliding underneath your door).
He came to parent day in 3rd grade. Everyone else brought their moms (except Alayna Pitts, who also brought her dad), so they all had to play girly games. Meanwhile, we played basketball with Alayna Pitts and her dad. Our dads were lifting us up to slam dunk it, etc, and everyone else looked up from hopscotch and jumprope with envy.
He didn't care when the little kids he was driving back and forth to church events got headlice in the car. (It may have been mom who disinfected the car, though)
He baby-sat for Natalie with minimal incident (the bruise on her forhead from where she bashed her head in faded after a couple of days).
He does the best bird calls ever. (Nate, do you remember "jib jib jib"?)
He does a great job faking heart attacks. So good, that we'll never actually believe him if he does have one. The one time where we thought he might be having a heart attack, he rode home on his bike from the bus garage rather than letting anyone know he felt ill.
He makes a great apple cake. Its only happened once in my life, but it was really delicious. Seriously.
While we're on the subject of food, he makes the best waffles.
Anyway, if you have a good memory of dad (or a silly one) feel free to share. And no one even discusses the time he pulled me out of the muddy field.
Uncle Vicky and Natalie
Natalie met Vicky Ybarra on Monday (it was very exciting). Victor works with me and was nice enough to bring me a load of wood chips (which I was supposed to get for my birthday from Corey).
Later, we decided to go to the beach with our friend Vonna and her nephew.
Natalie tasted sand for the first time and it was delicious. Nevermind the fact that I can't get her to eat baby food. Just give her some sand or a leaf or some cat food and she goes to town.
