Natallie's first 5K.

Hi! I am Natallie, I am 22 months old. I have been walking for about 7 months now and I am going to run my first 5K! Its called the Run for H20. My mom is bringing the stroller but she knows that I only sit in the stroller for about 5 minutes before I can’t stand being buckled in anymore. I know 5K is a long way to go for a wee sprout like me but it’s for a really, really good cause. My auntie Rainbee, work for Hope International and she really loves this place called Guatemala. I have no idea where that is but I think far away and I would never be able to sit long enough in a car to get there. She has been there lots of time and it makes her sad when she sees toddlers just like me who are sick because they don’t have clean water to drink. I have a cool button on fridge that squirts out clean, cold water. When I am thirsty, I can say “wa-wa” or sign “milk” and my mom gets it for me right away. These kids have mommies that love them just as much as mine does but they can’t just get clean water. Sometimes they walk for a really, really, really long time to go to a pond or lake but it has yucky stuff in it and it gives  everyone tummy aches after. I want to help kids like me have good, clean water so they can grow up healthy and strong like me. And if these people have water, they can also grow yummy foods! My favourite is raspberries!

 

I love water. I splish-splash in my bath every night, I love the water table at play school and I have so much fun at the spray park and at the pool. And my daddy just taught me how to use the hose to water our plants. I would be so sad if there was no water. I want other kids to have water too.

 

 

 

 

I’ve got two weeks until the big race day, it’s on June 22^nd at Riverfront Park. My mommy and daddy take me there all the time to feed the ducks but on race day, I will have to try not get distracted by the ducks and focus on running my little legs as fast as I can. Will you sponsor me in my first 5K??

Click here and you can make an online donation or if I see you in the next two weeks at the playground or on a playdate you can also give my mom the cash and she will get it to the right place.(You can also click  here  and search under my mommy's name if the other link isn't working) 

$100 provides 1 person with clean water for life.

$600 provides clean water for a whole family for life.

You can donate whatever you can, I promise I will try my best to run as much as I can!

Hats off Parade. Take Two.

last year intently watching the parade

scraped and bruised but OK after falling out of her stroller

Every year on the first weekend of June, there is a big parade and street festival in Burnaby. Last year, I had high hopes of taking Natallie (10 months old back then) and enjoying a family fun day. Natallie was so excited about the parade and wanted to stand up that I unbuckled her out of her stroller and let her get a better view. All was well, until she got so excited she fell head first out of her stroller and hit her face on the pavement. We had to leave the parade and find a doctor right away. It was a relief that Natallie was just scraped up and a bit bruised but all in all, she was OK.

This year was much better, we got a good spot and Simon held Natallie up so she could see everything. The parade was fun and lots of freebies (yay!). There was also a Show n Shine which Simon liked but we couldn't spend too much time looking at the cars because Natallie kept on signing "driving" and was really upset when we didn't let her climb into any of the collector cars. Good thing there were lots of people with dogs to distract her!

who wouldn't want a free doggy hat?

a cat balloon animal that lasted 5 minutes because Natallie tried to eat it

even managed to bump into her friend, Emily

so excited to meet a stilt-walker

excited but kind of freaked out by the life-size bee walking around

Simon said he never did stuff like this when he was a kid but he is glad that we are with our little family.
I'm glad too.

I think the next parade is Canada Day in July...yay...only one more month til the next parade!

Been there, biked that.

finally taught her how to blow and not eat a dandelion

We don't get out to the farm as much as we used to before we had Natallie. Somehow sitting in the car for 6 hours with a crying baby isn't as much fun of a get-away as it was pre-baby. But Simon has been doing the Okanagon 100K Century Ride with his mom for the past several years and it means so much to both of them to do it together.

The drive up consisted of two parts: cranky, tired baby and me asking Simon every three minutes if we were close to the rest stop yet and peaceful, sleeping baby where Simon and I had a great time just enjoying long conversations that rarely happens anymore. We didn't get to Enderby til mid-night and the plan was to transfer Natallie to her play pen in stealth mode but we forgot to factor in Sophie, who barked up the storm and let everyone know in the entire Enderby vicinity (even Grindrod) that we had arrived on the farm. Natallie woke up and sleepily inquired, "dog dog? dog dog?" and I lied to her and said, "no dog dog, go back to sleep" and rushed her inside the house. She surprisingly cooperated and fell back to sleep until 7:30 the next morning!

The next day we drove up a remote logging road and had a picnic at the top of the Okanagon Valley. It was a gorgeous view and we built a campfire to roast hot dogs for lunch. It was the first time Natallie had seen a campfire and she sat in her highchair and just stared at the fire for 20 minutes, she didn't make a sound or anything. Just memorized. After lunch, the guys rode their motorbikes around a bit while Natallie had fun playing tag and balancing on the fallen logs. Anything can be fun!

Sunday was race day. Simon and his mom left the house really early and started biking before 8:30am. Daphne, a family friend, who is also an avid biker but didn't do the ride this year was kind enough to drive me and Natallie with her 2 kids around so we could meet up with Simon and his mom at the halfway point. We wanted to be at the finish line too but they were waaaaay faster than we anticipated, they finished 100km in 4 hours and 44 minutes. So proud of them! and proud that Simon encouraged his mom the whole way. There are some horrible steep hills and Simon put one hand on his mom's back and pushed her up the hill while still on his bike! I think it made his mom's day when another biker saw and said, "now that's love!"

Pushing his mom up the hill

at the half-way point

a kiss for the road

100km, been there, biked that!

Monday was all-about-Natallie day (but isn't every day?) Anyways, we took Natallie to the Enderby Log Barn.  They have a random collection of antique-y things and random statues everywhere from a giant gorilla to dinosaurs to giraffes. (and just in case you were wondering, Natallie signed all of the above!) We left with fun pictures and overpriced pint of raspberries ($8?!!) and a fresh baked apple pie.

And in the afternoon, we went to Davidson's Orchards which is pretty much the same thing but there were more animals and little bikes but Natallie's little legs weren't quite long enough to reach the pedals. 

The drive home went suprisingly well, it seemed like a great idea to let Natallie color in her car seat and it did keep her happy and entertained for at least an hour. When we got to Merrit (3 hours later), we found a little blue Smurf! She had colored blue marker all over her hands, her feet, her face and her car seat. Oh well, good thing they are washable! After lunch, Natallie wanted to run around and play before getting back in the car but we were in the middle of nowhere so Simon just tied a string around a toy boat and Natallie was so happy to drag her boat around the Tim Horton's parking lot.

didn't get a good picture of the Miss Smurf

Toy boat fun!

Ahhh the simple joys in life.
Family fun. Love it.