The Strength of Ten Toddlers

From very early on in her little life, Natalie has been shockingly strong.  She's not sturdily built, I wouldn't say (that's her brother).  She's fairly tall and pretty much of a skinny Minnie, but lacking in muscle she is not.

Exhibit A

Dangling by a single arm while looking out for approaching pirate ships.

And then there's this from her gymnastics class tonight:

She is so accepting of help while performing her "skin the cat" on the bar.  Then...

...she made a bee line to the uneven bars to do it all by herself, way up off the ground.

Atta girl, Nat!

The Sunshine State

We made it safely from the frozen tundra, previously known as the Midwest, last week, bound for Florida and warmer temperatures.  I hate to be smug, because it truly was warmer than home and there was sun.  Sun!  But...we were hoping for a little warmer than jeans and long sleeves and jackets.  But whatever, when it's below zero everywhere else, we'll take 60 degrees!

So the plane ride was ok.  Not awful, not great.  The kids reached their limit about 90 minutes into the two hour flight.  Natalie had some motion sickness, Ben got sick of Natalie being able to reach him and give him smooches for two hours.  It was a packed flight, and luckily we were sitting next to a very patient 20-something guy who shared his funny pages from his newspaper with the kids.

Our first order of business on day 2 was to play outside!  We found a playground...

...with lots of birds right next to it.

love the physique in shorts

kid loves to swing

And then there's Natalie.

She was swinging on the equipment, climbing, sliding, jumping.  You name it, she was doing it.  She's fearless.  I love that about her.

Natalie and Pa, solving the world's problems.

Once you're in Ben's inner circle, I think you've got a spot for life.

He and Pa did some real bonding.

Natalie taught some older kids how to jump off a giant pretend rock on the playground.

While they were discussing how safe it was and if they'd get in trouble for doing it, Natalie took it in for a few minutes then bailed off.  This was her warm up, apparently.

When slightly cooler temps moved in, we opted for the Lion Country Safari Park in West Palm Beach instead of the zoo.  If you're ever in the West Palm area, I highly recommend this.  I didn't want to bore you with the 75 pictures I had of all the different animals, but there were tons of animals, and they were super active and very close to the road.  The park offers about 5 miles of driving through open range type enclosures full of various types of animals.  And lots of them.  Like 20 zebras and 10+ rhinos (versus the 1 or 2 that you might see at the zoo).  It was very cool.  The safari portion was followed by a walk through zoo/amusement park that was perfect for Natalie and Ben.  Older kids might be a little bored by the few rides, but there were some animals and animal shows.  It was a really fun day.

Ostrich crossing

water buffalo right in front of our car

this herd was running across in front of us...my favorite part of the day

zebras!

The kids got a little restless towards the end of the driving part

tell me that baby rhino is not one of the cutest things you've ever seen!

Ben scoping out the giraffes.

out of the car at last!

the best I could do...

(I'm loving Ben looking just like an old man)

helping little brother ride the train

Natalie rode a camel.  By herself.

She's amazing.

It was her turn next.  She was studying the camel and the rider before her, 

very patiently waiting her turn.

a little help into the seat

Seriously.

Then, Miss Daredevil got to ride the ferris wheel...whose baskets were shaped like hot air balloons.

What a dream for a small fry.  Can you see her little face peeking out?

buckling up to head home

Natalie was pretty much as adorable as any kid could be when we got on the plane to go home.  We lucked out with getting one of two rows on the entire plane that wasn't full, which meant we were able to spread out.  The flight attendant came by to check on us and Natalie was very excited.  She said hi, then said, "My name is Natalie Beth.  This is my brother Benjamin Kranz" (then smooched him right on the cheek).  Finally, she pointed at me and said, "And that is Mama."  The flight attendant, and everyone in a 3-row radius, were just delighted.  

After a week of bad sleep by Ben, a bad cold that Natalie caught, and generally a lot of togetherness in cramped quarters we were ready to be home.  We had a wonderful time (and so appreciate our hosts for having us), but with a sick baby and a tired baby, the comforts of home were calling.

That is...until we stepped off the plane and it was below zero, I hauled to super crabby kids through the airport, our car in long-term parking was under several inches of snow, and I had to wrestle the car seats back into the car in the gale force winds with no winter coat, hat or gloves.  Instantly, I wanted 60 degrees back!

Just when you think...

As a mom, I can safely bet that I repeat myself no less than 4 dozen times a day.  But, just when I think they don't listen, they spout off the rules...to someone else!

Ben sure loves "doggies," and seems particularly fond of Aunt Beth's dog, Maggie, mostly from afar, because she's still pretty much of a giant puppy and a little crazy for our kids' liking.  Maggie spent the better part of this afternoon at our house, and Ben had the best time watching her out the back door.  Until he caught her on the picnic table...

Both Natalie and Ben were both very concerned about the fact that Maggie was on the table, and demanded to know why she wouldn't get down.  I wanted to shake them both and say, "I know!!  Isn't it frustrating when they don't listen?!"  

Stay tuned for tales of my temporary loss of sanity, with future posts detailing our upcoming plane ride to sunny Florida.  (I can still recall typing that I would NEVER take the kids--which at that time was just Natalie--on an airplane again until they were old enough to handle themselves in public.  Should be entertaining; I just hope people are traveling with a sense of humor tomorrow.)

43 degrees and sunny

Do you know what we do when it's 43 degrees?  We go outside to play!

Of course, it looked warm because the sun was out, but it felt more like 35 or so once we got out because there was a pretty brisk wind.  But after below zero temps last week, we needed a day to blow the dust off...

First we tried the swing set.  A few passes down the slide and some swinging, but it was still pretty wet and muddy down in the low spots of the yard, so we abandoned that for higher ground!

Completely randomly, Natalie asked if she could have a soccer ball on a recent shopping trip.  At first I said no, but she said she would take really good care of it.  Riigghhhttt...  Anyway, I told her she would have to use her own money to buy it, and (probably mostly because that means nothing to her) she willingly agreed.  We found $20 of her Christmas money that was headed for the bank, found the selection of balls in her price range, then determined what color would be the best, and she proudly handed over her cash to the cashier at the check out.  She's actually pretty good with it too!

The next order of business was to play with sidewalk chalk...

I love this!

Then after we had a dance party in the driveway and laughed at how silly our shadows looked while we danced, Nat and I recreated an oldie from two winters ago!

Back to Normal

This week has been refreshing in the sense that the holidays are over!  Less rushing, less preparations, more focusing on returning to normal.  We cleaned, we did laundry, Natalie got back to gymnastics, I picked up a few work shifts, the temperatures returned to survivable mid-week.  Life is good!

Ben is teething.  Bad.  Ben is a roundabout kind of guy, and his getting teeth fits right in there.  He has 4 (yes, 4!) molars coming in at once, plus another top tooth we discovered about to poke through tonight.  The molars have been swollen for almost two weeks now, but are stubborn and refusing to come through.  He had been doing somewhat better in the sleep department, but is back to having a pretty rough time of it with the tooth pain.

...but he still has lots of smiles for mama!

Natalie has been so good this week.  A few meltdowns for sure, but I can look past that because, well, she's three.  She has been excited to help out around the house with chores, has not injured her brother at all, and is just so sweet sometimes.  This morning she came  up, fluffed my shirt a little, and said, "Mommy, you look really pretty today."  Way to make a tired mom feel good, sister!

she learned to wink a few weeks back and thinks it is just the coolest

somebody is using big kid utensils and bowls...

(but still thinks it is HILARIOUS to throw the whole bowl on the floor after a few bites)

the kids love to play in the laundry room

They go in, close the door, and do all sorts of pretending in there.  Usually they are on a picnic or campout, or are at the grocery store.  And how fun is it to open and close the doors?!  

Ben is a fan of closing the door, then hiding in the space between the dryer and wall under a shelf.  It's height is perfect for him to walk under.  If I stand on the other side of the door and wait for him to open it, he gives the biggest belly laughs for days.

(do you like his hair?  He styled it with the remnants of his mac n cheese at lunch.  Since it was bath night, we left it go.)

Mommy's kitchen helper

We are looking forward to a quiet, and warmer, weekend at home!  Have a great weekend, everyone.

NOOOO!!!

I have never been one to squash creativity, especially in my children.  But artistic endeavors must be conducted in an appropriate medium and manner.

And, call me a killjoy, but my walls do not count as appropriate.  Mad as I was, I was actually chuckling to myself that this never happened when Natalie was littler.  She was not the perpetrator here.  It was...Ben!  With an apparent assist from Jack in the first picture (he added the purple, Ben was all black).  

This is the result of me being very distracted this morning with the team of electricians at our house attempting to locate and repair the damage from our lightning strike before Christmas.  Natalie had requested crayons while I talked to the men, then I lost track of where the boys were for a few minutes (the stairs up were gated, the stairs down locked, and all things dangerous to babies behind locked cabinets, so usually they just unfold a basket of clothes or unpack silverware from a drawer).  I came back to find this artwork.  

The top one was first when I was helping Natalie in the bathroom.  I called the boys and they came running.  Ben with the black crayon in tow, Jack with hands free.  I thought, hmm...I hope Ben isn't writing on the walls, so I peeked in the bedroom and down the hall.  Nothing!  Good boy.  Wrong, they had hidden their work around the side of the dresser where I couldn't see without walking all the way in the room.  Then Ben must have proceeded with his work while I talked to the men.  Oy.