Natalie’s Blog

Natalie and David are at an age that makes picture taking pretty difficult. For most of the trip, they were much too busy running around the camp site to capture a photo of them together. But on the last day, I caught some of them coloring together in this amazing light.

And I couldn’t resist pulling out these pictures of the “driving cousins” from last summer for comparison’s sake!

Look how much they’ve grown and changed in a year’s time:

Natalie is a natural camper! We had a wonderful time enjoying the great outdoors at the DAR State Forest in the Berkshire Mountains of western Massachusetts. We had great weather and Natalie had a blast being outside all the time. Some photo highlights…
Natalie relaxing in her very own camp chair:

Generally being cute:

Eating a whole tomato like an apple:

Sleeping in Daddy’s arms:

Playing with hammocks:

Making funny faces in the woods:

Hanging out with Aunt Katy:

Saying “Good Morning Newts!” every day:

Chris & Katy enjoyed organizing the camp kitchen:

And Natalie loved standing on tree trunks pretending the be The Lorax:

Natalie and David also got to meet cousin Michael’s bearded dragon, Rex!

After discovering that Rex liked to eat clover flowers, Natalie got to feed him:

Natalie was reunited with her cousin David last weekend and they had a blast swinging together! At one point, David got off the swing and Natalie very sadly called after him, “Day-day? Day-day? Day-day?”

We tried to get a photo of both of them smiling, but we got these pix of them making funny faces instead!

I love this photo of Natalie with her Pop Pop! They were looking at the way the clouds turned pink as the sun set…

Natalie feeds Clara:

We spent Memorial Day weekend in the Poconos with the Schantz family. Natalie (despite her illness) and Clara had a great time running around together. And the adults got to relax a bit. All in all, a very nice trip!

Here’s Natalie snoozing on my lap, lakeside:

Lovely blue skies:

Dave, Diane, and Clara canoeing:

Clara playing by the lake while Natalie slept:

Chris reading the girls a story:

Clara asleep in the ergo:

My friend Chloe (just realized we’ve been friends for 15 years!) called me last weekend to say she was in town from VA. Chloe has two kids, Greta (age 4) and Marla (just 8 weeks older than Natalie). We talked about seeing each other (a rare treat) and I immediately started talking about playgrounds and kid-friendly activities. Chloe stopped me and said, “OR, we could get babysitters and go out by ourselves.” Duh! I have been so baby-focused over the past 17.5 months that I didn’t even think of going out without the kids. I replied, “I can tell who’s been a mother longer…I have much to learn from you, Chloe!”

Here we are—our big night on the town, sans kids. It was refreshing to go out to a kid-unfriendly restaurant (and sit down through the entire meal!) and then linger over a cup of coffee, as opposed to slurping it down while chasing after toddlers!

Between Diane and I going back to full-time work and Natalie and Clara both being sick so often this winter, the girls haven’t seen each other for a long time. We finally got together last night, and it was quite a reunion!

Natalie was so happy to see her friend that she gave Clara a big kiss:

We took them out for pizza and then to the playground at dusk. They had a blast running around in the twilight:

Climbing:

And sliding together: