Natalie...

I'm pretty sure I could devote an entire novel to the conversations I've been having with my daughter lately... her imagination is blooming... She is a little shy about it, but still it's coming along. I don't feel I have much of one, so I try to encourage her small one as much as possible.

Lately she's been talking about her sister, "Abbasheper" (pronouced Abba shep er). She is typically doing whatever Natalie is doing at the moment and if we go out, she stays home with Nana.

The other day she started talking about working... she said she was going to work and I would take care of her babies and that if I wanted to work Nana could stay with her.

Not only work talk but death. She asks me if things can die...like her dolls, her books, the dog, the trees...she is not at all sad when talking about these things, it sort of throws me off..I'm not really certian where it has come from or why. I try to answer as matter of factly and briefly as possible, then attempt to change the conversation, thankfully three year olds are easily side tracked, I just ask her about her sister!

James has been gone this week, so I took the kids to Rubios for dinner... Oh their tropical wrap salad is amazing...mango, cranberries, grilled chicken, cabbage, almonds, mexican spices... all wrapped up in a green tortilla! And the kids quesadilla, is really great too...shhhh the kids don't know it comes with a Churro...James and I take turns distracting the kids while we split it!! they are none the wiser! Okay so we just sat down to eat, and took a few bites when Natalie excitedly said "oh no, we forgot to pray mommy" then proceeded to bring her mommy to tears with her prayer!!

"dear jesus, thank you for this food, my sweet mommy, and my brother, help daddy get to the hotel, and bring him home safely too us, in jesus name, amen" You see James had not been gone a full day yet, I had not prayed with her, or prompted any of this! She choose those words all on her own..

She is also a bit silly...she has been finishing sentences of mine with the phrase "in Jesus name Amen" totally at random... Me: Natalie buckle your straps (on your carseat) Nat: "In Jesus name amen" it's pretty funny to hear!

I don't typically give my children much juice at all. They are big water drinkers, and fruit eaters, so that equals lots of juice in my mind! So really it's a special treat... well, Natalie spotted some in the fridge and said "mommy can we have a party?" And party we did... Natalie, Jameson, and I...right away on the patio... we celebrated a beautiful day, even put tiny straws in our cups to sip with!

I'm sure this is typical with most all 3 year olds, but we have the exact same conversations every day... "mommy, is that a school or a park?"
"it's a school"
"why is it not a park?"
"because, it's a school"
"is it open"
"yes it looks to be open"
or
(a target near us got torn down and is being rebuilt...it's only like 3 blocks from our house, so this conversation we have almost every time we leave the house)
"is that the new Target or the old Target?"
"that's the new Target, baby"
"is it open"
"not yet"
"why not"
"because they are not ready for us to shop yet"
"why"
"they have to get it all ready on the inside for us"
"but there are cars there"
"yes they are working on it for us"
"did we shop at that target?"
"no baby, we have not been to that Target"

(typically by this time we are out of sight of the target, thankfully)
sometimes I mix it up, give her wrong answers, she corrects me, and then asks me why I said the wrong thing!

Lastly, today we went to the Wild Animal Park... they had a cute little show on Africa... they had a man dressed as a very very large Gorilla... it made Jameson cry at first, then as the show ended Natalie was down shaking a rainmaker wtih the other kids and the Gorilla came back out...she ran away screaming for me...she was fine, but it really upset her... so tonight our conversation went like this as I put her to bed.
"mommy, I don't want that drilla to come here"
"no baby, it won't come here"
"oh, cuz it don't have a car"