Baking and Purse

Natalie and I baked chocolate chip cookies tonight for Papa. Natalie helped out in her little apron that Nana and Grandpa got her for her birthday. I love how cute it looks on her -- perfect size!


She loves to help unload the dishwasher and attempted to try loading it after we were done baking.

Natalie loves to carry her toys in buckets, etc. on her shoulder so Oma got her a toy purse to play with. She loves it! She has been carrying it around all day, putting in and taking her toys out as she moves around the house.

Happy 4th of July!

We took Natalie to the Wake Forest Children's Parade today which consisted of children walking/riding down the street with their bikes/strollers, etc. decorated for the 4th. Natalie seemed to really enjoy looking at all the kids, but we found it pretty dull. Nothing like the parades they have back home. I was disappointed to see that none of the cities I checked around us actually have a real 4th parade! After the parade, we joined the rest of the kids at Holding Park. Natalie tried to participate in as much as she could!

Back home, we played outside -- writing on the driveway with chalk and water/paint brushes. She made a mess but had fun doing it! I think she was mostly intrigued by Emile washing his car next to us.

Yesterday we took Natalie to Sandling beach at Falls Lake for the first time. It was a blast. I'm hoping to get there more frequently now. She loved being in her ladybug water float watching the other kids splash around. Ignore my very pale white legs under my maternity swimsuit -- Since having Natalie, I just don't get out in the sun in a bathing suit much anymore!

One of Natalie's new favorite pastimes is to ask (sign please) to be let into the pantry. She likes to check out the food on the bottom shelf and more importantly, pull out the saltine crackers and start munching!

Natalie has really been doing well with sign language. She now signs consistently when required "done", "more", and "please". Although she doesn't say many words yet (mostly just "cup"), she understands a large part of what we say or ask her. Yesterday, I was reading a book to her that talks about touching toes and she reached out and touched her own toes. When we ask her to point to her toes without the book around, she does -- it's so cute! She's almost got nose and ears down too.

Visit with Oma and Opa

Oma and Opa came to visit for a few days. Natalie got to spend a lot of time playing with them.

We spent an afternoon at the NC Life and Science Museum. It was a lot of fun taking Natalie there now that she's walking. She had such a great time exploring everything. She really wanted to play with all the big kids in the play area -- she put in a good effort!

We also went to Blue Jay Park. Natalie spent some time playing in the sand. We also walked down the path to the tip of park which stretches out into Falls Lake. Natalie got to put her feet in the water and watch some dogs swim after some balls. She found them to be pretty entertaining.