LinvilleUSA.com

Natalie turned 5 on Dec 19th!  Grandma and Grandpa came into town for her birthday (that marks six y ears in a row now!)

Call in the reinforcements – Grandma, can you finish Elliott’s train? Blue please. I’m pretty busy with this coral cupcake.

We celebrated with some friends from preschool at a pottery place – with cupcake decorating of course!  I’m uploading these pics from my phone so they are totally out of order.

Below is Natalie’s bestie Nuala – I anticipate a lot of FaceTime calls in the coming months.  They share a mutual love for Elsa, being creative, little dolls, being silly and arguing over their common interests.

Besties!!!

Before the party, Natalie and I had a relaxing time getting pedicures.  Well, pedicures and hot chocolate.  Well, actually, pedicures, hot chocolate and manicures.

A foot soak with my Mom – so relaxing! We gotta get ready for our trip to FL!

Below are Natalie and her friend Vivi from preschool, along with her adorable older sister Izzy.  

Above is Alison helping Elliott frosting a cupcake – with Natalie and Vivi faring very well on their own.

Um, do we really need to interrupt this cupcake eating for a pic?!?

Take 5. AH! SUGAR HIGH!

We are so blessed to have so many great friends in Chicago – we’ll miss you all!

Friends for nearly 5 years – we’ll miss you Taylor!

Cousins!!!!

While in GB for the weekend, we went to Kids Town. Nat loved it and drew a pic so we would remember it. The things across the top are the princess dresses that were hanging from fancy hooks. The purple thing in the lower middle was a princess makeup stand. The stuff on the side is where we all did foot soaks, got our hair cut (so ticklish!), and did our nails. So relaxing!

From May 2014 ( just never published).

Okay, maybe not, but boy, 14.5 months old is super smart!  He is just learning and picking up things everyday.  It’s amazing how much he can communicate, even with a vocab of 3-4 words (Mama, Dada, Naht and glasses – the last one, my mom swears he said twice while wearing Natalie’s heart-shaped sunglasses).

For instance, he loves his helmet, so he often goes over and points to wear it hangs.  On Saturday morning, it wasn’t hanging there – we had left it downstairs under our stroller port with his red car.  I explained where it was and then he went back over to his play area.  He grabbed his ND baseball cap and brought it over to me.  I was excited that he was willing to accept that as a substitute – but, no, I was wrong.  He insisted on going downstairs to get the helmet – which often then means he gets a ride in his red car (which is what I think he really wanted).  Just he and I went out – 30 minutes, to the park too.  Smart little dude.

Elliott wakes up hungry every morning – and just milk won’t do it.  While I’m getting Natalie’s milk ready or making breakfast, I often give him a few O’s in a bowl.  He has been loving them.  Until this morning.  He went back over to the closet, pointed up until I noticed the Mini Wheats (which his sis and Dad eat often).  Guess who got a few mini wheats in  his bowl this morning too!?!

From May 2015. After watching Cinderella, Natalie has been really worried about parents dying.  The other night, she told me, “If you die before me, I will walk you all the way to heaven and stay with you there, even if I have kids.”

The next night, she was crying for more than 15 minutes about a lost lovey (the 3rd mousey lovey – which we’ve since replaced with other pink loveys) and we talked about how the mousey might be in heaven.  She asked, “How would it have gotten there?  Mousey doesn’t have legs!!!  That’s silly”

A few weeks back, Natalie came up with the idea of turning a project from school into a fan to mail to Grandma.  She was very diligent about the precise folding of the fan, as well as the stapling with our near-antique stapler from the 1970’s (obviously a hand me down from someone).  She then proceeded to spend nearly a half hour carefully and precisely writing Grandma’s address and her address.  Since her handwriting gets bigger over time, I suggested she use a different color for the return address (as to not confuse the postman).  She gave me a hard time about not putting the top and bottom on the I (instead it looked like an l from the post-it she was copying from) in Chicago, but with all the explanation, you will cutely see that she just totally forgot the whole thing herself.  I’m so proud of my little writer!

(inspired by the Bunny Cakes book)

Elliott is such an imitator.  He obviously has a great model in Natalie.  When I read him his favorite book (The little engine that could), by the end, he’s echoing every word I say…. I think I can, I think I can… up, up, up…. chug, chug…. puff puff.

Yesterday morning, he asked for his “O cup”.  I grabbed the blue one – his favorite color.  And the green top that goes with it.

Elliott: “No Mama.  Blue top.”
Mama: “Okay but the green one usually goes with it.”  (I go get the blue one and start to put it on.)
Elliott: “There you go now”

Um, okay?!?  Thanks mini-Mom!

Hanging up at school…..

We have had great luck with classes from the parks department recently – the kids especially love gymnastics, which includes a “ball pit” (aka spongy cubes) and obstacle courses.  A huge thanks to Aunt Jira for turning us onto this gym.  I am most proud of Natalie though for her participation in “seasonal sports,” which turned out to be all boys.  Our amazing nanny “Lala” told me a cute story, where all the kids lined up to sprint across the gym or a field.  Natalie was first to the finish line.  One little boy looked oddly at Natalie, as if to say “what?  She beat me?  That must be a fluke.”  And then the kids sprinted back – Natalie finishing first again.  Woot woot!  That’s my girl.  Although I am (quietly) proud of her for being the fastest runner, I’m more proud of her for trying hard and going to a class where she is out of her comfort zone (she really gravitates towards playing with girls at preschool but when she does play with boys, she has a great time – which her dad is okay with for the time being.  May be a different story in a few years.)

Come into my “ball” pit!

Catch me if you can!