el natester: sunday AM

Jolly dude turns on some tunes and enjoys some cheddar bunnies on the couch.

A little outside playtime in the backyard house while big sis is at ballet class.

Nate loves opening and closing this door and playing peek-a-boo.

Back inside, Nate relaxes and catches up on some phone calls.

Hi cutie.

"Who else should I call....?"

blowdry

Finally, mommy has someone to blow dry her hair in the morning before work!  Abigail is very enthusiastic about this job.

She likes holding the hair dryer really close to mommy's head. That gets a person going in the morning!

building museum

It was a good day to go to the National Building Museum.  Abigail told us that she'd never been on a train before (not true!) so we decided to go by Metro to refresh her memory.... Abby & Nate were both big fans of the Metro ride.

Another train whizzes past!

Nothing like seeing your same-old boring every-day commute through the eyes of a 3.5 year old!

Checking things out.

And then we arrived.... a fountain inside, oh my!

Nate checks out the giant legos and fellow toddlers.

Then Nate goes for a jog.

Abby built a super-cool, super-tall tower.

Nate did some building too.

Some serious room to roam.  Perfect for a chilly January day.

So.  Much.  Running.

And climbing!  We'll be back soon, Building Museum.

foxy

It's hard to remember exactly when Abigail got super attached to Po.  But it was a long time ago, and the attachment so strong that we had to get a twin Po who became known as "school Po".  We wondered whether Nate would get attached to any particular stuffed buddy (other than his beloved sleep-time loveys: paci and mommy's old t-shirt).  And then out of all of the stuffed animals in the house, Nate clicked with this little fella.  His name is Foxy (even though he's a wolf).  And he is Abby's.  Uh oh.

As soon as Nate decided that he loved Foxy, Abigail decided Foxy was her favorite too.  Poor Po.  Poor us.  What could we do but turn to eBay and find a duplicate Foxy....who arrived in the mail yesterday, spent the night in the freezer (is this really what you're supposed to do with used stuffed animals to get rid of germies?), and is now a full-on member of our family.  It's hard to tell the Foxies apart, but they are both much loved.

One for each.

This makes Abby happy.

This makes Nate happy.

Very, very happy.

1-2-3, hug your foxy!

where's abby?

Introducing the game that never gets boring, that only gets more hysterical the more you play it... "Where's Abby?"  (or when we're feeling frisky, "Where's Nate?")

Nate gets us started.  "Where IS Abby????"

"Ummm hmmmm...."

"Found her!"

Let's try that again, shall we?  Where's Abby???  Nate is momentarily distracted by the fun phone toy.

Seriously, does Abby know how fun this phone is???

AHA!  We found her again!

What a goofy girl.

Next game: How many finger puppets can you put on your fingers??

january visitors

We've had lots of visitors in 2012 already!  Didn't do a very good job photo documenting our visit with Aunt Elizabeth, Uncle Scott, and cousins Eva and Patrick, but it was great to see them.  Last weekend Eloise and Finn and their parents came to town.  

Eloise & Abigail are both 3.5 and like art projects.

Finn & Nate are both almost 1.5 and they like to cause mischief, and give hugs.

More artist action shots.

Natester thought this looked like fun.

Concentrating.

More concentrating.

"This IS fun" says Nate!

Haven't they all grown up so much since their last visit??

happy new year!

Happy New Year!  We've had a slow start to blogging in 2012 but will work on improving that!