Natalie’s Blog

Clara the kitty and Natalie the lion:

Is Natalie fierce or friendly?

Just when you think Natalie’s asleep…. from nataliecaroline on Vimeo.

Chris’ co-worker Eric and his family came with us to Terhune Orchards last weekend to experience all the fun the farm has to offer. Eric and Jodi have two sons—Evan, who is a couple of months older than Natalie, and Toby, a newborn. Natalie and Evan had a great time running around together. The weather was gorgeous—perfect for fall festivities!

Natalie and her parents:

Eric and Evan:

Trying to get a picture of Evan and Natalie sitting on top of a big wooden wagon, but Natalie was nervous about being up there without mom or dad:

Natalie getting more nervous while Eric tries to point out Mom’s proximity:

And Natalie’s fear of men overwhelms her:

But she recovers pretty quickly with the distaction of toy tractors:

Natalie enjoys sitting on the “swinging bench”:

Evan and Natalie pretend to be cows:

Evan, Eric, Jodi & Toby:

Chris, Amy & Natalie:

Natalie contemplating which pumpkin to pick:

We met our longtime flickr friends, Elaine and Sophie for the first time in person at the Smith Memorial Playhouse in Philadelphia last weekend. Elaine used to work with Grandpa Charles and has a daughter just a few weeks older than Natalie. After seeing pictures of Sophie online for almost 2 years, it was great to finally have a real live play-date!

Natalie and Sophie became fast friends:

Natalie drives the train:

And asks, “Sophie go?”

Natalie had a blast in the giant playroom full of toys:

Elaine and Sophie show us the slide:

Natalie, as always, loves the swing:

Training to be an astronaut on the saucer swing:

Natalie & Sophie on the tire swing:

“Hey, this is fun!”

Natalie & Sophie:

A video of Chris and Natalie sliding:

Recently I gave Natalie a bowl of corn starch and a spoon to keep her occupied while I cooked dinner. She enjoyed herself for a good long while, but the activity was awfully messy! I’m not sure why I expected her to just use the spoon to stir neatly…it’s much more fun to get your hands whole self (and the kitchen) dirty!

Lucky for me, Natalie enjoys vacuuming, too.

Natalie demonstrates her dramatic talents…and shows how she wants to do everything herself. Mommy demonstrates her poor camera work.

Five Little Monkeys from nataliecaroline on Vimeo.

First, you run up to the slide:

Then, you have to wait your turn:

And then make sure the coast is clear:

And zoom down!!

Then you have to stand up:

And brush yourself off:

And head back for more!

Just look how grown up Natalie is becoming:

In the last month Natalie has accomplished some pretty cool developmental tasks. And I don’t think it’s a coincidence that she’s made all these connections since moving to a daycare where she feels comfortable and happy. She can identify almost the whole alphabet and sing the ABCs (of course L M N O P are a little mumbly). Natalie can count to 20. After a couple of months of saying sentences here and there, I think we can officially say that Natalie is “speaking in sentences.” Sometimes her grammar needs work; for example, she says, “I turn it on, light!” This morning, after I accidentally stepped on her foot, Natalie said to me, “I sorry, Mommy!” She can put some of her shoes on all by herself. And after months and months of trying, Natalie learned to jump!

After seeing how much Natalie likes playing with dolls at Melissa’s house, we bought Natalie her first official baby doll. She is doing a lot of pretend play with dolls—feeding them, putting them to sleep, etc. But she still sometimes prefers to read to her troll, or give it (her? him?) a bottle:

She can’t yet modulate pitch, but she can recite the words from lots of songs: Happy Birthday, Rubber Ducky, I’m a Little Teapot, Ring Around the Rosie, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, Five Little Monkeys, and We are the Dinosaurs. In the car, Natalie requests the songs she wants to hear by name. She also often requests that the music be “loud!”

Sleep continues to be challenging (we really could write several posts, but it’s too depressing to write and to read about). We’re making some progress in terms of implementing and sticking to a bedtime routine (bath, bottle & books, nurse to sleep) but it still takes a long time (averaging 45 minutes) for Natalie to fall asleep. And she still wakes up at least a few times a night. For about two weeks, Natalie was sleeping for a 4 hour stretch at the beginning of the night. We considered that a great improvement, which should indicate how bad things have been.

Overall, Natalie has been much happier in the last month (again, since we made the daycare switch). She’s communicating better, is less clingy, and playing more independently. She’s like a little monkey, just bursting with energy and love and hugs.

Here is Natalie showing off her skills with letters and numbers:

Letters and Numbers from nataliecaroline on Vimeo.