Spring Has Come and Gone

Spring is here! The ground is powdered with radioactive-yellow pollen dust and all of the trees have gone from bare to green in a week. It's already almost too hot to enjoy the outdoors during the afternoon and we went from using our heat to using our air conditioning with only one day interlude. It's a shame that Atlanta pretty much went from winter straight to summer. I love open-window weather! At least my mom got to be here for a few days to enjoy the last few days of highs in the 70's. We went for a nice little walk and Natalie did well. She is getting to the point where she will not stay in her stroller, carrier or be held (making it impossible to go to the store!), so I guess I'll just have to teach her to stay with us when we walk. She did better than in the past along this trail- mostly moving forward with only a few detours climbing off into the brush on either side. 

 

 

I really want to get one of those animal-backpack-leash things (the backpack straps on like a harness and the animal's tail can be held like a leash), but I made the mistake of reading an article about how horrible it is to keep your child on a leash and how so many people can teach their kids to just obey and be safe, why can't you?! It made me feel bad. So I'm struggling now to decide if we need one- I feel like it would give Natalie more freedom when we're out walking the dogs or at the store or in other public places so she would be happier, but of course I realize that it would be ideal to just teach her to stay with me and not walk out into the street or wander off. I'm just not sure she is old enough to understand that. Right now, I'm leaning towards getting one and just trying to use it judiciously and not all the time. If my biggest reservation is that I feel badly being judged for having a kid on a leash, then whatever. The haters can just suck it.

 

Here's my mom on her visit snuggling with the pack

Natalie got ahold of a box of tampons. Naturally, she shoved them all in a sandal.

 

And here she is in her favorite hangout: the window ledge behind the couch. At first, it was no big deal. She's just practicing her climbing skills, nothing to worry about! There's not enough space that she could fall! But it is becoming increasingly obnoxious because our couch is slightly curved, so towards the sides, there is a gap large enough for her to slide her feet through. Then, she moves towards the middle and gets stuck and it is way hard to get her out. Once I had to pull away the couch, which was no easy feat!

 

 

Natalie is just non-stop these days. She runs and plays and has an attention span of perhaps 15 seconds. We just bought tickets to go to UT over memorial day weekend for a friend's wedding and I have NO idea how we will make her stay with us for a 3 hour flight. We can't even keep her in our row for a 75 minute Sacrament meeting! But I'm excited that we'll get a chance to see some old friends and that they'll get to meet her and all that jazz.