Matchmaking, drama and good behavior!

All about Natalie today!

Matchmaking -

Last week, she came up to me with a picture of Will and Maggie, and told me "Mommy, I think Will should marry baby Maggie when he grows up. Isn't that a good idea? We could send them a card."

Drama -

She's been telling me that she loves Joey in her class, and is going to marry him, but Joey doesn't know any of this. Then this morning, she told me that Brooke has been chasing Joey at recess. I said "Oh, she must like him!". She said "Brooke's a witch".

Good Behavior!

Last week was the first week her new teacher started her good behavior rewards program. The kids get an index card each week, and every day that they have a good day, they get a stamp. If they get five stamps each week, they get to pick something from the treasure chest! Natalie got her five stamps last week, and got to pick something! She chose a Matchbox police car and loves it! We're so proud of her!

Oh, one more.... I had lunch with her last week. One of her classmates, Austin (nice kid), sat on her other side. He told me "Natalie likes me A LOT. REALLY A LOT". I laughed and said that's nice. Then he proceeded to poke her and needle her (nicely) throughout the rest of lunch. I was laughing to myself - I think he has who likes who backwards.

Writing letters

Natalie has been on a writing kick since starting school, so we spend a lot of time spelling out words she would like to write. K's are hard for her, so I usually do a dot outline for her.

Natalie: I'm not very good at some letters
Me: That's OK, no one expects you to be perfect, it takes practice!
Natalie: Daddy does
Me: He does not
Natalie: Yes he does, he won't do the dots for K.
Me: Well, next time.... (I was going to tell her to ask him to be patient and help her out)
Natalie: Just ignore him.

Bear hugs

Oliver gave me his first real hug today, and my heart melted. He's been snuggling in, or will come up to you and let you hug him if you ask, but today he started really hugging. A couple of times he threw both arms around me, squeezed tight and snuggled his sweet head in my neck. *sigh*

Dude strikes again

He's full of it lately! Just now he ran over to the counter, grabbed my purse off. Dug my keys out and took off. Before I could catch him, he started playing with the Brinks remote and set off the house alarm. LOL

Good lord

Natalie and Oliver were playing while I caught up with a few things. All of a sudden, Oliver came up to me with an empty beer bottle (that he fished out of the recycling), stuck it in my face and said "Cheers"! Ay yi yi. I'm glad I make Jon rinse them! "Cheers" is his favorite thing right now. He likes to do multiple "Cheers" at dinner, and he'll also have you do a "Cheers" with food. Silly kid! He also likes to lift up his shirt and poke his bellybutton saying "beep beep", then he goes after mine!

Yep. I'm bragging.

I met Natalie's new (permanent) teacher this afternoon - really like her. Anyway, I knew Natalie is well-behaved at school, but was so proud of what her teacher told me today. She told me that Natalie is wonderful, and very helpful in the classroom, including with the other kids at her table - if they need help with instructions or didn't hear part of them, Natalie will give them a hand. And her behavior chart had a whole bunch of smiley face stickers! I was also told that Natalie is one of the kids her teacher uses as an example of good behavior to the rest of the class!

"Mommy, I have my first boyfriend!"

"Oh yeah?"

N - "Yeah. Joey. He's my boyfriend."
Me - "How do you know? Did he say that?"
N - "Noooo. I'm his girlfriend and he's my boyfriend. I like his hair. I like his clothes. I like his voice. He has blue eyes like mine. And he's nice."

And here we go...... LOL

Overgaard - Labor Day

We took the kids to Overgaard for the long weekend to get away from the heat! We had a lot of fun! I was pretty sick, but kept up. Drove up Friday night, didn't do much since we got there at 5. Unpacked, kids to bed, then we ate (the kids ate in the car).

Saturday we walked around in the morning, collected pinecones, went to Natalie's favorite rock shop, then it started raining, so we went in for lunch and a nap for Oliver. Natalie and I went back out and walked around for a while. She made friends with the boy whose family was staying next to us, so she showed off for him while he hung out on their balcony. Once Oliver got up, we went to a nice park nearby and let the kids play. Had dinner, baths, bed.

Sunday Jon took Natalie fishing (not so much as a nibble), and Oliver and I just went outside. I let him lead me wherever he wanted to go. He was having so much fun running around and exploring - it's been too hot this summer to go to parks, so this weekend was the most time he's had outside since Spring. He was squealing and laughing, pointing things out, then he'd start running and letting out this funny little happy yell. We met up with Jon and Natalie, had lunch, then Natalie and I hit the pool while Oliver napped. Took the kids for an ice cream cone so we could spoil their dinner. :-) Natalie was also given some really pretty stones from a jeweler who is on the property - she calls him "The Cowboy" - and always in this hushed, awed tone. Afterwards, the kids played in the hallway between the two units with Natalie's new friend Alex and a couple of his brothers.

Came home Monday. Yikes. Hell of a drive. Should have taken an hour from Overgaard to Payson - took about 3. Had our 2nd worst lunch ever in Payson (the worst was there too), then walked and looked at some shops to kill some time/wait out traffic. It had been raining pretty heavily, and we came across a big, deep puddle. I let the kids go to town in it - they were SOAKED! Jon went to bring the car around, and while he was gone, I got in the puddle with the kids. Oh his face when he drove up. The three of us changed and we were on our way home.

Summer Pictures

I went through and manually edited tons of pictures this evening - from July/August. Once I posted them here, I noticed that all the red-eye correction I did (which took a couple of hours) is gone. This is the second time Shutterfly has done this. I'm pretty pissed. I'll go back over the next couple of days, fix them AGAIN and repost the link. For now, if you look at the pictures they'll suck because of all the red-eyes.

ETA: They are fixed now.

Instigator

We're in the mountains this weekend - Overgaard again.

Jon was attempting to change Oliver's diaper this morning, and O was having none of it. After he was cleaned, and before the new diaper went on, he started kicking and bucking, laughing his head off. I swear, his little rear got at least several inches off the ground. Natalie noticed the commotion, came over and started chanting "That's it, Oliver! Now that's the spirit!".

Other than that, we're having a nice weekend! You know you're an Arizonan when you go away on a trip and are actually glad to have cooler, cloudy/rainy weather!