January Playtime

As you can tell, it is hard to keep up on this blog with two little girls! By the time I get to sit down at night, I'm pretty exhausted. So tonight is my night to try to catch up!


The girls are both doing great things. Claire has finally said her first words. Emile and Kinsey have heard her say "bye bye". And my parents have heard her say "ball" when referring to one of her favorite things -- balloons. But the one she's really started using is "mama", which I love to hear! Her favorite toy now is Play-doh. It's the first thing she goes into the closet to get. We have to watch her with it thought because she still tries to put it in her mouth but she's now knows that she's not supposed to so she'll start to bring it to her mouth, she looks for me to tell her not to and she gives a big smile!

Natalie can identify all the lower case letters (she's known the upper case letters for 6 months or so). She's now starting to try to sound letters out. It's really cute because although she knows some, like the sound of "p", she just takes the letter for the others and makes it into a sound, like "u" sounds like "u" over and over. :) Her favorite things to do are still playing with princesses and dancing/dressing up like princess/ballerina.

Below are a number of photos of the girls playing around the house.

Claire in the apron Oma made her:

Natalie playing with her word puzzles:

Natalie being dramatic, pretending to sleep:

The girls dancing in their tutus:

Natalie Dancing

Natalie loves to dance like a ballerina, especially now that she's seen the Nutcracker in person.  She's always showing us her ballet poses; her favorite ones to say are the arabesque and attitude.  She's such a little performer.

Marbles Museum

We took the girls to Marbles Museum today.  We hadn't been since Claire started walking and actually awhile before that.  I think the girls had a great time.  Good thing there were two of us there -- both girls wanted to go in different directions for most of it.

There was a stage with a curtain that Natalie was very excited to perform on but she wanted the curtain close.  Everyone time, someone came to open the curtain for other kids, she got upset and had to start her dancing over.  Then she discovered they had ballet shoes to wear.  She was in heaven.

Natalie has finally started letting me put bows in her hair.  I convinced her by telling her they were princess bows.  :)  Now, to just find some that actually match her outfits because once she puts one in, she won't take it out the rest of the day.

Little Gym

We signed both girls up for Little Gym for the Winter/Spring.  Natalie loves this class and it was Claire's first time.  She really enjoyed it.  During Claire's class, Natalie did a great job sitting back so Claire could do her activities and helping out when needed.  During Natalie's class, Natalie got to do a lot of the activities by herself with minimal help.  She even did a somersault down the inclined mat on her own.  She's getting so big and independent!

Claire's Class (called the Birds):

Natalie's Class (called Super Beasts):