Natalie’s Blog

For a few days last week, Natalie worked hard at getting her hands in her mouth. Mostly she missed, pushing her fist into her eye, cheek, or chin, instead of open her mouth. A few times I helped her by guiding her fist into her open mouth. Even though she wanted to suck on her hand, half the fun of the game was to do it herself! When I helped her, her hand didn’t stay in her mouth very long—she went right back to hitting herself in the face.

After two days of solid effort and practice, she did it! We were so proud of our determined, independent daughter. For the most part, she has this trick down pat, but still has the occasional miss.

Look at Natalie and David looking at each other! Despite the 7 week age difference, they’re almost the same size. I think their cries and sounds are very similar—a few times I looked up thinking Natalie was “talking” but it was really David. Cute babies are abundant in the family!

Look at the way Natalie is holding onto Grandpa’s finger—so sweet! I love this picture.

Grandma Susan brought Great Grandma and Great Pop Pop for a visit last week. It was so much fun to watch them together! The “greats” were delighted by Natalie and she got quite a kick out of Great Grandma singing and Great Pop Pop’s funny faces. There are more pictures of Natalie and her fans on flickr.

Natalie is now 12 pounds, 3.5 ounces and 24 inches long! That’s the 90th percentile for height and 75th for weight. Dr. says she’s doing great!

Natalie also got four immunizations—two shots in each leg, poor thing. She shrieked/screamed/cried like we’d never heard before! Chris, always the optimist, said “now we know what it sounds like when she’s really in pain.” I cried right along with Natalie.

She was in such distress the rest of the day that both Grandmas were called upon to help settle her. Infant Tylenol helped, too. We thought we’d be in for a night of pacing the floor with her, but she fell asleep fine and when she woke at 1 am for a feeding, she was smiling and laughing.

BTW, we don’t feel right about writing the blog from her voice anymore, since Natalie’s getting to be such a big girl, and she’s clearly got a mind of her own. She has things to say, even though she can’t vocalize them yet. When she’s old enough, she can take over writing the blog, if she wants to.

Love, Amy

Mom had to use gentian violet to treat thrush I’ve had in my mouth. Since I’m such a wiggler, I got it all over my cheeks so Mom and Dad are alternating between calling me Barney and Bozo the clown.

Mom says: This picture was taken on Sunday, since then the purple has faded considerably. She won’t match the color of the walls in her room forever…

Right now I’m bigger than David, but it looks like very soon he’ll be bigger than me. I’ll always be 7 and a 1/2 weeks older than him, though!

Can you believe how time flies? 8 weeks has past since I was born!

Mom & Dad say: Natalie is a joy and every time we look at her sweet face we feel lucky, proud, and happy. It’s amazing how big she’s gotten—she’s smiling a lot and vocalizing and cooing. With the exception of when she sleeps, Natalie seems to wiggle all the time—a friend at Amy’s work said Natalie was “quite a mosh-pitter,” and Uncle David has called her “bonk” from day one because of the way she would bob her head when being burped. When Nama (formerly known as “Grandma Martha”) holds her, she often asks Natalie where she’s going. Chris has gone from calling her “sweet pea” to “chick pea” on account of her cute chubby face and hair the color of chick peas. Natalie thinks it’s quite funny and laughs when Chris holds her and says “garbanzoooooooooh!” Amy recently discovered that Natalie likes to be read to, especially short books with lots of rhyming words. Thanks to all who’ve been so supportive and loving to all three of us as we’ve adjusted to family life and life as parents.