A commentary on our lives:

Each day when I arrive at DayCare to pick Natalie up one of the first things she asks is "Mom, where are we going?" She is always hoping that the answer will be "the grocery" as that is her MOST favorite activity. She could ride in that cart and greet each person who passes and sing every song she knows for a much longer time than I care to spend in the aisles of Jewel. And if I agree to let her ride in the car cart, well, that is just almost more joy than she can take. Unfortunately for her, we usually only go to the grocery once a week. So on the other sad days when I report that we aren't going to the grocery her next question is, "So are we going to a restaurant?" (Note: this is the commentary I was getting at in the opener.) How bad is it that my three year old expects to go to a restaurant before just eating at home? Hmm. . .as the year changed again, aside from blogging I am also trying to be aware of what we are eating too so our restaurant going days are greatly reducing. Natalie seems to feel great disappointment over this decision, so to make it more fun for her I now tell her that we are going to the "Stacy Bell restaurant." At this very special restaurant she gets to be the assistant chef and occasionally a hostess for daddy. It seems to work out. Who knows how long this will fascinate her, but here's an open invitation to all of you for a seating at the Stacy Bell restaurant whenever you are around. It turns out that the food isn't so bad here after all.

We also had a fun playdate this morning with Leslie and Avery. Barbies and Princess dress-up were on the agenda for the little girls, while coffee and conversation entertained the mommies. I thought it was so cute when we got their Christmas card and Natalie said "Look mommy, there's me!" You can see that these two friends certainly have some similarities. Natalie is on the left and Avery on the right.