Natalie

Sweet, sweet Natalie.  So full of greatness!  She has been her own person since birth.  She taught me that things won't always go my way, but when we work together we can easily find a successful pattern.  What a valuable lesson for me!!!  I'm so grateful to have a Natalie as my daughter!!!

Her little heart is overflowing with love.  I don't think I can count the number of times I hear "Mommy, I love you".  Almost always said out of the blue.  And so often I get to hear "Mommy, can I give you a hug?".  So often I hear that at a moment when what I want is for her to be eating dinner, brushing her teeth, picking out a book.  I have to remember that hugs are the most important thing... not those other things.  She's just like her daddy... enjoy that special hug and then she is able to do her other tasks.  Her heart is fragile, taking care of it is my most important job.

Encouraging her to embrace her beautiful and pure emotions while learning to guide them is so important.  I want her to embrace those emotions, while learning to read them and learning how to express them.

Her personality has always brightened a room.  She is a quite, shy little girl at times... but more often she is full of fun.  She loves to run, needs to run.  Often this turns into racing back and forth in the hallway during the rainy days, or back and forth on the lawn if it's dry outside.  She is dancing a lot lately, singing silly songs that she makes up and wanting to dance for us.  SO FUN.

Her smile makes my heart ache with love.  I love that she gives love on her terms.  It comes out of nowhere, and there are times that we might ask for a kiss only to hear that "she is out of kisses".  I have to love her for those moments too... for her ability to go with how she is feeling.  She will meet in the middle and blow us a kiss most of the time.  This is where I see a bit of myself in my sweet girl, affection for her is genuine when it feels natural to her and she isn't up for faking it when the moment isn't there for her.  I know she will learn how to balance her needs with being nice, we'll help her get there.  For now I just smile at her honesty, she is definitely an honest little girl.

I love that this girl is willing to work hard.  It's okay for her to make mistakes, she just wants to be involved. She looks up to her big brother and wants to do what he does.  Trying to do his school work.  Love that!  And she loves puzzles, something Trever and I cherish doing with her.  She's really good at working out a puzzle, it's so fun to see her strengths emerging.

Our hearts overflow with love for this girl.