Natasha started a gymnastics class today! It was the funniest thing ever... I signed her up for an 18-week session of a parent-n-tot toddler tumbling, and it really went much better than expected. She had a blast... When I was signing her up a few weeks back, the coach told me they usually have between 5-8 kids per class, but surprisingly she was the only one there! Another little boy signed up for the Friday session but didn't show up so she had a personalized class today.

The warm-up was joined with the older 3-4 age group - they had a 10 minute running/dancing session (all to music), and then they did some mini-stretches. Then the older kids went off with their own coach, while Natasha, her coach, and I did exercises for her age. She got to do mini-cartwheels on the mats, walked on a high balance-beam, practiced sliding off an elephant slide, jumped on both a toddler-trampoline and a huge adult trampoline (her favourite part by far!), got to hang on a bunch of ropes, and practiced jumping on these huge mattresses. She found the whole thing so amusing and was laughing her head off the entire time.

She was so sad we had to leave and while I was putting her shoes on, she kept pointing at the gym and going, "jump? jump? more?" After we got home, she ate, and took a 3-hour power nap. She then spent the rest of the afternoon practicing jumping!

We decided to get Natasha a play-kitchen for her 2nd birthday. There are sooo many of them out there, but I wanted to get her something sturdy that will last a few years and that Veronika could also enjoy later on. We chose the LifeStyle PartyTime Kitchen by Step 2 because it got excellent reviews and also because of the design - it's gorgeous! So yesterday, Matthew spent the whole morning putting it together, while Natasha spent the entire time "helping" - she was copying everything her daddy was doing, it was cute. It was worth it - she loves it! But I think that she doesn't quite understand the entire purpose of a kitchen as she was putting her little plastic animals in the oven! (according to Matthew that's "normal" because normally you do put animals in the oven... ya know chicken, pork, etc... silly daddy).

This kitchen requires 11 batteries!! It has 5 electronic features: stove, phone, overhead light, microwave, and clock!

Aside from the kitchen she also got a Corolle doll set - a doll (that you can bathe with!), a stroller, playpen, and a diaper bag with accessories.
She is not too crazy about the doll, but she loves putting her Dora dolls and her panda in both the stroller and playpen.

My baby girl is ALMOST 2 YEARS OLD!! How bittersweet.

The Zoo...

Yesterday we took Natasha on her first trip to the zoo. She had a blast! She was running around, checking everything out... but her 2 favourite parts were the Orangutan family (they had a baby!) and the giant "afaphant" (elephants). After looking at the animals, we took her to the splash zone (kid play area) and she loved it there too, but she got cold pretty quick. I think she'll enjoy everything a lot more next year, though.

Checking out birdie

Looking at the elephants

Fishy!

And the splash area...

She was so tired, she just collapsed on the grass


And a new panda bear to take home!

I am having a lot of laughs with (at?) Natasha during the day. She's beginning to talk and put all kinds of words together and it's both funny and amazing at the same time. And I've been told that kids who're introduced to more than one language will initially be speech delayed, but so far I don't see it. Sure, her language is a mixture of English, Russian, and some Polish, but she definitely SPEAKS and can even associate different languages with different people.

A conversation from yesterday...

(I was giving her some milk from a spoon... she wanted her train that was on the floor).

NATASHA: A choo-choo, a choo-choo?
ME: When you finish your milk, you can have your choo-choo.
NATASHA: That's it, no more milk, choo-choo, okay???

She has also started telling me what time she goes for a nap... I usually put her down around 10-10:30 am, but lately around 9:50-10:00 am she would come up to me and say, "bye-bye? bye-bye?" which is her word for sleep or goodbye, both. I then ask her if she wants to go bye-bye, and she says "yes". The next thing that happens is she starts running from toy to toy, happily saying bye-bye to everything: "bye-bye Dora, bye-bye lampa (lamp), bye-bye vee-vee (TV), bye-bye car", etc. When she's done, she runs to her bedroom, jumps into her toddler bed and is ready for a nap! I then don't hear from her until around 1:00 pm.

I'm totally lovin' this age!!

Here's an e-mail Matthew sent me from work this morning:

Subject: Natasha = ahhh!
Time Sent: 10:43 AM

Guess what our little monkey managed to do this time???

She is even mischievous when she is not here!

She took my iPod Nano and turned it on and started playing music. I didn't notice and just put it in my backpack (since I use my iPod Touch on the bus.)

Well I'm about to listen to my Podcasts when I see the thing is ON and Playing its 60th song!!!! Its been on since 7:40! 1/3 of my battery is dead lol.

Oy... this child of ours.

Someone is obsessed with stuffed panda bears. Can you guess who?

(from left to right...)

Panda #1 is a very very old panda and is the one who caused the whole panda madness. According to Matthew, his father brought (sent?) this panda to him from Canada to Poland, and then Matthew brought it back to Canada when he came here. It's a very well travelled panda and is close to 20 years old.

Panda #2 was bought to replace Panda #1. Panda #1 is very old and stinky and been through the washer/dryer about a 100 times too many. Except the plan did not work, and Natasha was still determined to play with Panda #1. Panda #2 then became her "bedtime Panda" and she sleeps with it every day.

Panda #3 was purchased to aide Panda #2. Since Panda #2 was a "bedtime Panda", we did not want it getting dirty when Natasha took it outside. So Panda #3 became the "outside Panda".

Panda #4 was purchased when Panda #3 went MIA. Or so we thought. We searched the entire apartment for it and even asked my parents to search theirs. Panda #3 was nowhere in sight. So an identical twin was purchased. But what do ya know... as soon as #4 was home, #3 came out of hiding. *sigh*

Pandas #5 and #6 are Asian Pandas. Today at the mall, we went into an Asian home decor store and for some reason, they had a huge stand of -- can you take a guess?? -- yes, Pandas. Of course the missy was all over them. They were dressed up Pandas, or Pandas with leaves in their mouth. Natasha couldn't pick and kept touching them all. They were 2 for $25. So I picked 2 new Pandas for her and she was happy as ever.

We now have 6 stuffed Panda bears................................

It's been two weeks now since Natasha transitioned into her toddler bed, and she's been doing awesome! *knock on wood* - no problems whatsoever. Last night Matthew and I were laughing because about 10 minutes after we put her to bed, we heard her musical tree-house playing songs, stuff moving around the room, etc. At first I thought to go in there and kick her into bed, but Matthew told me to let her be, so I did. In another 10 minutes it grew quiet. I waited a bit and then opened the door to check up on her - she was in bed, fast asleep! What a good girl... I really think she loves her new independence and not having to be confined behind bars all the time. Our little girl is growing up!

*sigh*

I guess doggy had to go potty. I seriously need some eyes on the back of my head.
Did I mention the bottom part of the darn thing was all wet?? She should be happy it's still working!

The joys of having an almost 2 year old.. :D

When Natasha woke up from her nap today, it was raining really bad outside... The type of rain that looks like a white-wall where you cannot see anything outside your window. She was a little scared and wanted to stay in bed, sucking her soother for comfort. I was holding Veronika at the time (who was wide-awake and not so fond of the rain either), and put her next to her sister. I think they enjoyed each other's company.