Natalie

This girl is four. I keep reminding myself of that fact lately. Four can be a hard age. It's a transition from toddler/pre-school age to school-age. They become more independent in so many ways, and you start to think "They know better!" when they act like a toddler again.

My sweet Natalie is in one doozy of a tantrum phrase right now. It wears on me. I'm never sure exactly how to handle them. If something goes not quite according to how Natalie had planned, you can pretty much count on some level of tantrum. They range from quietly crying and miserable looks to angry, withering stares and slamming of doors. A new favorite is to take her blanket and go lay on her bed and sulk for long periods of time. (Has anyone ever read Spinky Sulks by William Steig? It is hilarious and we just listened to it in the car the other day. It was all I could do to not say "This is you, Natalie!")

Anyway, I always feel like I'm walking the line between ignoring her inappropriate behavior/punishing over the top behavior and yet making sure she knows I love her and that I want her to be with us. The other day she must have had like 4 raging tantrums and it was one of those miraculous days where I was handling everything really well. I wasn't upset, I was just so confused as to why she was acting like that. I started to wonder if she is not getting enough sleep or something. I'm sure this is just a phase and we will work through it.

Natalie is such a sweetheart in so many ways. It is so fun to watch her and Nate together. Elizabeth used to be THE favorite sister because she would give him more attention. Natalie loves to play with him now, too, and she is incredibly patient with him. She uses the sweetest little voice to talk to him. Even when he's doing his loud, repetitive, obnoxious thing to get her attention--"NA-NA! NA-NA!"--she will say "Just a minute, Nate" so sweetly. In fact she is a good example to me. Of course Nate adores her and loves to play with her. Sometimes he only wants Na-Na to read him a story. It is too cute.

(Gotta love the drool-soaked shirt)

It sometimes makes me sad that Natalie will most likely be starting kindergarten this next year and will miss out on play time with Nate (I say most likely because we don't know where we're going to be come Fall!). I wanted them to have more time together. I was hoping that she and Elizabeth would be 2 years apart and she and Nate 2 years apart but it isn't working out that way. Natalie has been trying to be older than she is her entire life and as a result she is completely ready for school. As much as I wanted her to have another year, I can't imagine making her wait. Her birthday is December 1st, the day before the cut-off here, so she barely makes it. Life will be different next year with just Nate at home all day...

Natalie had a great year of preschool. I haven't talked much about the co-op preschool we did but I really did enjoy it. It was hard at times but a lot of fun, too. Natalie LOVED it and was always so happy on preschool days. She's had a hard time since it ended but we're trying to fit some play-dates and things in for her.

We had a some fun field trips. One to a local candy shop that let the kids come and make their own candies. They were so nice. Elizabeth came along and we all had a blast dipping things in chocolate.

So intent...

Proud of her creations:

I couldn't get any good shots because they were always too busy making (eating) the candy.

For their end of year trip, we went to the train museum. It was our first time and the kids all loved it.They had this fun play area with train tables:

I'll have to get this guy some train stuff someday. He loves them.
(He calls them "beep-beep"s instead of "choo-choo"s--adorable :).

We got some cute class pictures, too, which I may put up when I get them.

Here are some of my favorite preschool activities:
-A healthy snacks restaurant. The kids had menus with pictures of coins on them so they could use their allotment of change to decide what they wanted.
-A lesson on magnets. We moved little boats with magnets and did some cool tricks (like the Indian rope trick: attach one end of a piece of thread in a lump of clay and stick on your table. Tie the other end to a paper clip. Use a strong magnet to see if you can lift and hold the paper clip into the air without ever touching it.)
-A 'moving through the seasons' lesson with activities and snacks from every season including a cotton ball snowball fight.

and last but not least...
-Being with my Natalie-boo (this post is about her after all)

I love you, Natalie.