August 17, 2003 - We had our anniversary weekend this weekend. Our fifth anniversary was last Friday (August 8) but we didn't really do anything until this weekend. My name was drawn for an overnight stay at Cherry Valley Lodge, which is just about a half hour from here. Yes, we took Natalie, but we had a lot of fun. We went swimming a lot, and just generally had no agenda whatsoever the whole weekend. I liked the oversized garden tub in our room, which took about a half hour to fill. The best part for Natalie was probably the beautiful courtyard area that this place had. There were lots and lots of ducks, and they were obviously very used to people. We fed the ducks a few times, even getting some to eat crackers right out of our hands. Natalie never got quite that close, but she threw pieces of crackers and bread right in front of her and had the ducks walk right by her feet. When we had to leave today, we told her to say bye bye to the ducks, and she continued to say "bye" the entire way out to the car. Natalie is saying just about every word these days, if you ask her to say something. She also said her entire name this weekend, instead of "Na na", she said "Na-a-lie", three syllables and everything. She was playing a game with a ball and two catchers in the pool with daddy, and every time the ball was passed to daddy she said "dada" and then when Phil passed the ball to her she said "Na-a-lie". We are so proud! :-)

I've been meaning to write all last week, and I don't know why I never did. I wasn't even all that busy this past week, and we even had our air conditioning working for the majority of last week so I wasn't even spending every day out of the house. The week just passed by really quickly I guess! For our anniversary last Friday, we had our home group at our house. So I had to spend the whole afternoon cleaning house, but we really had a lot of fun that night. We had a whole houseful of people (15 in all, including toddlers and babies) and in spite of the fact that it got hot because our air conditioner didn't want to stay on, we basically had a bunch of friends to help us celebrate. In a wedding book I've read recently, it had the idea of either buying or making a "wedding" cake for every anniversary, and since Phil and I both love wedding cake so much, we decided to start doing this (even though it's five years in, it's not too late to start an anniversary tradition!) So I baked a yummy white cake with white chocolate frosting, and decorated it to look (as much as I can without ever taking a cake decorating class) like a wedding cake. We used our wedding cake knife and server, and even used our crystal wine glasses when we had our juice with dinner. (Which was Taco Bell, by the way. We just wanted something quick before home group started, but as my grandma pointed out the other day, that was actually pretty relevant because we went to Taco Bell during our drive around the block after our wedding ceremony to get something to drink. I'll never forget going through the Taco Bell drive through in our wedding finery.)  We couldn't afford for Phil to get flowers this year, but when my friend April showed up for home group, she had brought us some roses and stargazer lilies! That was so sweet of her, and they were really beautiful. So with last Friday plus our freebie getaway trip this weekend, I think we had a very nice fifth anniversary. We had wanted to do SOMEthing special for our fifth anniversary, since this is our first real milestone one! When we were in Gatlinburg for our honeymoon, we talked about going back to the same cabin for our fifth anniversary, but that just couldn't happen this year. Maybe sometime soon though. 

Last Saturday (it was a big weekend) was Natalie's 18 month birthday. A year and a half! I just can't believe it. We have her doctor's appointment scheduled for this week, so I don't know her 18 month "stats" yet, but I'll make sure to write it down when we get back from that. I don't think she's gained too much weight in recent months though, because she's definitely gotten taller and thinner. She's getting long and skinny legs just like me - no more round baby sausage legs! (Just take a look at the first picture from her photo session last week!) I keep telling myself that it is normal for her appetite to go down at this time in her life, but it is just such a difference for her to not be munching all the time. She hasn't wanted to eat much for the past couple weeks especially. If I didn't know that this is normal and that toddler's diets regulate just how they are supposed to, I'd be pretty nervous by now. Especially this past weekend, she's had a cold so her appetite was even less that usual. This morning we went to Bob Evan's for breakfast, and typically Natalie devours lots of sausage and pancakes. This morning, she drank her milk and ate apple butter. That's it. She shook her head NO to eggs, pancakes, toast, sausage, and bacon. She loves all kinds of dip lately, but usually she's pretty good about eating the food to be dipped too. This morning she just stuck her spoon into the apple butter and ate that straight up. Then this afternoon she refused graham crackers, strawberries, a Nutrigrain bar, and various kinds of cereal and pizza. Oh well, it's not like I can force her. At least she drank her milk. :) At 18 months, her favorite things to play with are her babies (of course), books (always, many many every day), Mega Blocks (like ultra-duplo Legos), and still anything that makes music. She also likes to color. Most of the time we can keep her coloring on paper or on her wipe-able Elmo mat, but sometimes I've caught her going for furniture or the walls. Her crayons are all the washable kind. :-)  Oh, this is really cute. Last week she was playing with her wooden puzzle, which has a cow, sheep, pig, and chicky pieces. She's good with matching up the right pieces but she does get frustrated when she can't get them to fit in their spots correctly. (She usually likes to give me the piece to hold and then she "guides" my hand to put it in the spot.) She was getting particularly upset this time because she wanted to do it herself but it just wasn't working right, so I changed the game. I held up the cow and said (not really expecting an answer, as usual, silly me) "what does the cow say, Natalie?" She answered right away, "moo!" I was so surprised. Then I did the same with the sheep and she answered "baaa!" and then laughed. She couldn't think of "oink" or "cheep cheep" for the other two pieces, but I was so impressed that she knew the cow and sheep sounds without being prompted at all! 

One more thing I wanted to mention today, in another Natalie episode that surprised us yesterday. We were eating dinner at Fazoli's, and the window we sat at faced a Donato's Pizza (which we hadn't noticed). We were sitting there eating when suddenly Natalie pointed outside and said "Ra Ra!" (Aunt Sarah.) Aunt Sarah works at a Donato's here in Gahanna. Apparently Natalie saw an employee stick his head out of the drive through window at Donato's, and Natalie remembered that Sarah sometimes has that same blue shirt and black hat on. The kid amazes us. We think she's smarter than the two of us combined. That's fine with us. 

August 4, 2003 - Natalie did great with her 18 month pictures this morning! She was in a really good mood, and even smiled for the picture lady. We decided that we wanted her to wear casual clothes this time, since every other time she has dressed up in a dress. Here is the thumbnail for the proof sheet; click on it to see it bigger.

We only got prints of the last picture since it is our favorite, but it was hard to pick. We really liked how you could tell how tall she is in the first, and we liked her smile in the fourth one - that one she's turned too far to the side though. I made a couple of the individual pictures my Picture(s) of the Day today, below.

Natalie's favorite word is Uh-Oh! right now. She says it nonstop sometimes. We think it's cute because that was her daddy's first word.

By the way, good news! Our air conditioning is working again! We just added some machine oil and so far it's working great!

August 1, 2003 - We went to the state fair this afternoon. It was sticky and hot. We had a good time though. Natalie saw all kinds of animals up close and personal. She saw cows, bulls, horses, sheep, pigs, chickens, ducks, rabbits, goats, butterflies...lots of other random animals, even water buffalo (how'd he get there I don't know but everybody's got a water buffalooooo....) I think she liked the cows best (she kept mooing along with them) but also really liked seeing the ducks and bunnies. She's so cute when she sees an animal that she knows and does her sign for it. She didn't go on any rides (not that I really trust fair rides anyway!) but by the time we worked our way through all the animal stalls and exhibits, and then walked around the nature preserve area and listened to the state fair band for awhile, Natalie was starting to crash. She fell asleep in her stroller. (Which hardly ever happens, although if she looks back at pictures of herself she'll think she did it all the time because since it is so rare, lots of times I take pictures of her sleeping in her stroller, as I did today too.) I would include that cute picture of her sleeping in her stroller, but the picture of Phil and Natalie as Mr. Farmer and Cow was the winner of the day.

By the way, Natalie's rash is pretty much gone. (Yay, I don't have to reschedule pictures on Monday!) Natalie's cheeks look really flushed in the picture below just because she has my skin, which turns bright pink in any heat.