the lego, the runway, and the table

last week before school one morning, russell was playing with his legos like he does just about every day and i saw him put a teeny-tiny piece into his mouth. he was just chewing on it and it was such a tiny piece that even if he swallowed it, it proably wouldn't cause him any harm. but i just didn't like the fact that he was putting legos in his mouth so i decided to tell him a story -- a scare tactic, if you will. it involved our good friend logan who, just about a month ago, decided to put a small lego up his nose. to his surprise it became stuck and after a few tweezer removal attempts and some phone calls, his mom (heather) had no choice but to take him to the ER where it was finally safely dislodged. (i can assure you, this rendition is very simplified). i quickly described this story to russell and told him how really, really bad that would be if that happened to him, then walked away feeling pretty good about my "scare tactic." fast forward to later that afternoon after school. we were at home rushing to get ready for natalie's ballet class when russell yells out "MOM! i accidentally put a lego up my nose!" umm, "accidentally???" i immediately panicked and thoughts of heather's horrible incident with logan flashed through my mind and i began to cry. WHY DID I EVER THINK IT WAS OKAY TO TELL HIM ABOUT LOGAN'S LEGO INCIDENT?! i frantically searched for my tweezers and luckily the lego peice was so tiny it had slid down a little by the time i was ready to pull it out. within a minute or so russell's nose was lego-free and we were out the door headed to ballet. all i could do was laugh as i recounted the story to russ later on. boys are so curious. you tell them NOT to do something strange and they decide they need to try it out to see for themselves. i think i learned a lesson from that one...

the tiny lego, our new keepsake:

last night i took natalie to a "fashion show" that was being put on by a ministry from our church. when we walked in, i soon realized that even with our 25 year age span, natalie and i were two of the youngest people in that room. i knew it wasn't going to be anything like i had imagined when i first signed us up for it. as it turns out, we ran into a friend of mine who was alone and looking for company and then we realized that we knew quite a few other people there. the dinner was great and the MCs were entertaining and funny. natalie had such a good time socializing with everyone and making everyone smile. the highlight of the night was when one of the gentlemen who was volunteering (and also sitting at our table) asked natalie if she wanted to walk on the runway stage. they were having an intermission break but a lot of the people were still seated at their tables. they watched as natalie excitedly walked down the stage and posed and modeled as awkwardly and as cute as possible. she was in her glory and the "audience" loved it too. i snapped a couple of pictures with my cell phone, though it doesn't do the moment any justice. i'm not sure where natalie gets her outgoing behavior from, really. celena moved this weekend. in the process, she was letting go a lot of her things, including some furniture. we graciously inherited her kitchen table and chairs and we were very excited to put it use for the first time this evening. thanks celena, we love it!