Is Natalie Shrinking?

I should start by mentioning that we’ve long since given up cloth-diapering and Natalie’s been wearing Seventh Generation Disposable Diapers since she was about 7 months old. We’ve always been happy with the diapers, until a couple of weeks ago, when they started leaking. The only other time her diapers leaked was around when she was a year old and needed to move from size 3 to size 4. She’s been wearing the size 4 diapers for the last 8 months. The leaking was beginning to drive me crazy, especially because it would often happen when she was sitting in her car seat, which meant the car seat needed to be cleaned as well. One particularly frustrating day, I think I changed her pants 4 times. I figured it was time to move her into size 5.

But then I looked at the sizing chart:

Stage 1: 8-14 lb., 44 diapers
Stage 2: 12-18 lb., 40 diapers
Stage 3: 16-28 lb., 35 diapers
Stage 4: 22-37 lb., 30 diapers
Stage 5: 27+ lb., 26 diapers
Stage 6: 35+ lb., 22 diapers

and I realized that at 22 pounds, Natalie is at the very lowest weight for size 4 and still well within the weight recommendation for size 3! We also realized that the leaks didn’t seem to be a problem of absorbency—it was more like Natalie would sit a certain way, causing a gap between her leg and the diaper, and pee would just soak into her clothes. We got some size 3 diapers, which seemed small after she’s been wearing the size 4s, but we’ve haven’t had any more problems with leaks! As a bonus, the size 3 diapers include 5 more diapers per pack!!

So, is Natalie shrinking? Probably not. I think she’s just gotten taller, but not gained much weight, which means that her legs are not as chubby as they once were.

Natalie’s First Sentence!

Natalie uttered her first full sentence while on our camping trip! Since she’s always liked cleaning, what she said was especially fitting.

Natalie said…drumroll please

“Oh no, it’s dirty!”

Here’s a picture of one of Natalie’s favorite camping activities: washing the storage bins!
Natalie cleaning

Natalie & David: Coloring Buddies!

Natalie and David are at an age that makes picture taking pretty difficult. For most of the trip, they were much too busy running around the camp site to capture a photo of them together. But on the last day, I caught some of them coloring together in this amazing light.

Coloring II

Coloring III

And I couldn’t resist pulling out these pictures of the “driving cousins” from last summer for comparison’s sake!
Driving

Fun at the mall

Look how much they’ve grown and changed in a year’s time:
David & Natalie coloring together

Family Portraits: Camping 2008

IMG_1992.JPG

Susan & Katy at Balancing Rock

Sisters

Susan & Katy

Natalie & Katy

Natalie and Mommy

The Sheri/Clune Clan

All packed up...

Our Little Camper

Natalie is a natural camper! We had a wonderful time enjoying the great outdoors at the DAR State Forest in the Berkshire Mountains of western Massachusetts. We had great weather and Natalie had a blast being outside all the time. Some photo highlights…
Natalie relaxing in her very own camp chair:
Relaxing

Generally being cute:
Cutie-pie

Eating a whole tomato like an apple:
Eating a whole tomato like an apple

Sleeping in Daddy’s arms:
Natalie napping with Daddy

Playing with hammocks:
All tied up

Making funny faces in the woods:
In the woods

Hanging out with Aunt Katy:
Hangning out with Aunt Katy

Saying “Good Morning Newts!” every day:
Aunt Katy shows Natalie a newt

Chris & Katy enjoyed organizing the camp kitchen:
Camp kitchen

And Natalie loved standing on tree trunks pretending the be The Lorax:
"I am the lorax and I speak for the trees!"

Shoe Guilt & BS

A couple of tidbits…

I’ve found that there are lots of things to feel guilty about on this parenting journey. The latest pangs of guilt had to do with Natalie’s shoes. She’s been wearing the same size shoes for a while, and since I was still able to put her shoes on, I didn’t think much of it. Last Saturday, Natalie started pointing to her shoes and crying. We went to the shoe store, where her feet measured a size and a half bigger than the shoes she’d been wearing. Oops.

While I was changing Natalie’s diaper this morning, she was talking about the two pink bracelets she was wearing. She can’t quite pronounce “bracelet” correctly, so it took me a few minutes before I understood what she was trying to say. Chris overheard the conversation and said, “it sounds like she’s saying ‘bullshit.’” Anyone want to guess what Natalie then started saying next??

We’re going camping in Massachusetts next week—Natalie’s first camping trip! Wish us luck…

Don’t pick the “apples”

Even though the “Great Tomato Scare” is over, we’re thrilled to be growing our own tomatoes this summer! I enlisted Natalie’s help to pick some ripe ones for dinner the other night. To help her distinguish the ripe ones from the unripe ones, I asked her to identify the different colors. First, I pointed the red one and asked “what color is this one?” Natalie replied, “red!” Then I pointed to a green one and asked the same question. Her reply? “Apple!” Despite my attempts to teach her about unripe and ripe tomatoes, she insisted the green ones were, in fact, apples. Finally, I relented and said, “Alright, honey, just don’t pick the apples, okay?”

Natalie is quite the little helper in the garden! She loves to water the tomatoes:
Watering the plants

She loves to help pick them…
Tomato!

and gathering them:
Gathering

And eat them! (only I didn’t get a picture of her eating them)
Homegrown!!

Graduation Picnic

Pictures from Chris’ cousin Louisa’s HS graduation party!

Despite her loathing of baths, Natalie still likes to hang out in the pool:
Water baby

Especially with Grandma:
Swimming is so exciting!!

Natalie and Grandma

The mango sorbet for dessert was a big hit:
Eating Mango Flavor Ice

Holy Crap!

Natalie, I’m sorry for the future embarrassment this post will likely cause you…but I have to report that our girl pooped on the potty this morning!!

We actually bought her a potty about 4 months ago when Natalie started reporting what was in her diaper. As soon as Chris took it out of the box, she carried it around the kitchen shouting, “Poopy! Poopy! POOPY!!!!!” Here she is trying it out:
Potty
She’s been sitting on the potty almost everyday since then, but with her clothes still on. Recently she started taking bits of toilet paper to wipe herself with.

This morning, we were playing in her room just after waking up when Natalie said, “Poopy!” I thought she was reporting that she already went, but when I got her to the changing table and opened her diaper, it was empty. So I asked her if she needed to go and if she wanted to sit on the potty. She nodded, so off to the bathroom we went. And she went! In the potty!! We made a big fuss, congratulated her, gave high-fives, etc. She liked helping transfer the goods to the big toilet and saying “bye-bye” as it got flushed away.

After all the excitement was over, my first thought was (of course!) “what should I title the blog post?”

Mirrored Expression

Chris caught this funny picture of Natalie and her Grandpop making identical faces at each other:

Mirrored expression