Natalie’s Blog

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:

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?”

A list of 19 points of interest from the past month:

1. Natalie officially knows all the basic colors: blue, red, purple, orange, green, pink, black, brown, and white. Yellow is still tricky—she mistakes it for orange sometimes.

2. Natalie learned to pick her nose. It’s cute and gross at the same time.

3. She’s beginning to learn letters. She knows B, I, H, and T really well. Starting to get M, D, N, R, G, K & S.

4. Her communication skills continue to flourish. Chris was remarking today that Natalie’s speech has gotten much more conversational. She’s saying more and more two-word phrases and putting adjectives in front of nouns. As in, “big truck!” She also knows to put an “s” on the ends of words to make them plural or possessive.

5. Natalie got her first skinned knees this month after wiping out pushing her stroller on the sidewalk.:

6. She wore her hair in a pony-tail for the first time:

7. She likes to discipline Tillman by wagging her finger at him and saying “no no no” when he tries to drink out of someone’s glass.

8. Since recovering from her illness, Natalie is once again tolerant of bathing, diapering, and dressing.

9. She’s exploring opposites. She likes to shout “up down,” “on off” and “yes no” over and over and over…

10. Natalie became obsessed with bracelets this month. Last week she got upset when she couldn’t fit her hand through the hole of a bagel to wear it around her wrist.

11. She likes to discover new places to admire her reflection:

12. I never thought this would happen with our sweet child, but like a lot of toddlers, she answers almost all questions with a resounding “no!” The other day I offered her a cup of juice…Natalie shouted “no” and then grabbed the cup out of my hand and drank it happily. Go figure.

13. She finally learned to say her Aunt Kary’s name. Sounds like “dah-ree”

14. Natalie played her first card game with Grandma:

15. She went on her first solo carnival ride. Pictures soon.

16. She’s gotten really into playing with puzzles. We got her this new puzzle and she had it figured out in about 2 minutes.

17. Natalie started transitioning into the toddler room at daycare. It’s not going well. We’re investigating other childcare options. More on that later. For now, here’s a picture of her in the new classroom:

18. Natalie is loving the books Mother, Mother, I Want Another, Zoo Clues Animal Alphabet, and Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What Do You Hear?

19. Finally, Natalie really likes to make this pucker face:

Natalie continues to learn and grow every day. At her 18-month check-up I had to fill out a developmental questionnaire, which the doctor said Natalie “passed with flying colors.” She is now 33 inches (90%) and 22 lbs., 12 oz. The doctor was a little concerned about Natalie’s weight because this is the third visit in a row that it’s dropped in terms of percentiles (she’s now below the 25%). It’s also the third check-up in a row that immediately followed an illness that significantly decreased Natalie’s appetite. I’m not super concerned, but we’ll follow the doctor’s recommendations to try and increase her good fat intake. We don’t have another check-up scheduled until Natalie turns 2, which feels odd after having such frequent check-ups thus far.

Natalie’s latest cute thing is to raise her hand and say “I do!” in response to any question that begins “Who loves…?” She is learning her colors and can correctly identify orange, purple, yellow, and blue—if she does it on her own accord. If you ask her what color something is, she says “Bwoo!” every time. She also loves to jump like a frog, which involves her doing deep knee bends and shouting “‘bit! ‘bit! ‘bit!” since she can’t actually get her feet off the ground.

Happy half-birthday, Natalie!! May you always keep your sweet sense of wonder about the world…

This post is a photo essay commemorating the rattail in the back of Natalie’s hair. While a lot of parents are excited for baby’s first haircut I really didn’t want to cut Natalie’s hair…ever…so much so that I was willing to let her have a rattail. Sure, sometimes it was messy and unsightly, but at times is was a perfect ringlet curl. In the end, it was knotted up beyond repair, forcing Natalie’s first haircut before I was emotionally ready for it. The back of Natalie’s hair is now all one length. Chris is overjoyed that our daughter no longer has a hair style reminiscent of a redneck from the 80’s. I’m still in mourning for that perfect little ringlet.

The rattail started with a bald spot. In my grandmother’s day, mothers were advised to alternate the position they put their babies to sleep in to avoid bald spots and flat heads. Because of the “Back to Sleep” campaign, these days it’s common for babies to get bald spots on the back of their heads. Natalie was no exception. But because she was born with unusually long hair (especially unusual because she’s also blond) the hair at the base of her skull stayed long, even after the bald spot developed. Hence, her rattail began…

Around 5 months, we tried to sweep the rattail to the side. We thought the rest of Natalie’s hair would eventually catch up.

But there was no hiding or containing the rattail…

The rattail got longer, curlier, and messier as the rest of Natalie’s hair grew thicker….

This was my attempt to capture the perfect ringlet that the rattail would sometimes be:

Even I knew that eventually the rattail would have to be cut off. I had wanted to save the ringlet in a pewter box I bought specifically made to save a lock from baby’s first haircut. But, alas, the rattail had to go because it got knotted up, so we’ll have to remember it with pictures.

Here it is, the last known photo depicting the rattail before its demise….

P.S. It was actually difficult to find all these photos. We’re usually trying to photograph Natalie’s face, not the back of her head.

P.P.S. If you think I’ve gone overboard documenting every single aspect of Natalie’s young life, you’re right! Feel free to laugh with me and at me. Just be thankful I didn’t post a picture of Natalie’s first vomit!

I know, I know, the posts have gotten fewer and farther in-between. I blame going back to work full-time. There’s only so much of my work day I can devote to blogging…

Anyway, Natalie turned 17-months-old this week! Here are 17 things she’s been up to:

1. She learned how to walk sideways.

2. She decided that “Nama” is going to be called “Meemah.”

3. Her love of books is blossoming. She’s now into books that are more complex, longer, and have plots, in addition to the rhyming, rhythmic books she’s always liked. Some favorites are I Don’t Want to Take a Bath, The Little Lamb (a childhood favorite of mine), Owl Babies, The Napping House, and Bear Snores On.

4. Natalie learned to say “mouse,” which made us realize that she is much more attached to her lovey than we realized (since she can ask for it now). She also developed a love for her duck that rivals the love for her mouse. The mouse and duck are an essential to Natalie getting to sleep at night.

5. Natalie also learned to say “thank you” (sounds like “dikk oo”) and says it with a big smile anytime we give her something.

6. She is doing well at school—she no longer cries when we drop her off! YAY!! Whenever I pick Natalie up from school, she looks at me and says “Daddy?” When Chris picks her up, she looks at him and says “Mommy?” The teachers all think this is hysterical.

7. She absolutely loves digging in the dirt and will happily move handfuls of dirt from one garden bed to another for an hour.

8. Natalie also loves playing with trucks and balls. She has a basketball and a football, both of which she picked out herself.

9. And she loves to push her stuffed bunny around in the Natalie-sized stroller I got at a yard sale.

10. She loves to sing songs (that’s not new) but she knows all the motions to Itsy-bitsy spider, The Wheels on the Bus, and If You’re Happy and You Know it. She demands that we sing The Alphabet by shouting “A Bs!!!!” After songs are over, she claps and shouts “yay!!” She must have learned all this in school, since neither us nor Meemah nor Grandma taught her.

11. Grandma started teaching Natalie to identify colors. Last night, she handed me a yellow fish and proudly said “Bwoo.” After I showed her some things that actually were blue, she got it and spent the rest of the night pointing to blue things.

12. Her vocabulary is ever growing. I’ve noticed in the past couple of weeks that she is starting to initiate saying new words, meaning she points to something and says a word I haven’t specifically taught her. The other morning I was getting her dressed and she looked up at me and said “honey” (one of my terms of endearment for her, not the food).

13. She likes to play “hide and seek” with Grandma. Well, she likes to find Grandma when she hides.

14. She has taken a nap for Meemah three weeks in a row now (for a long time she wouldn’t nap for Meemah).

15. Natalie insists that all those around her wear shoes. If anyone doesn’t have shoes on, she will find shoes, bring them to you, and insist you put them on.

16. We’ve discovered some different playgrounds in the neighborhood. Natalie is especially fond of the wobbly bridges at one of them.

17. This certainly isn’t new this month, but it’s worth repeating. Natalie is the sunshine of our lives and the pride and joy of our hearts. We’re very, very lucky.

Here are some attempts at taking a family portrait. Natalie is much too busy to be bothered with smiling at the camera:

Lindsay, ask and you shall receive…I’ve been meaning to do a daycare update, and I’ll throw in a croup update as well!

Daycare
Natalie has been slowly and steadily adjusting to daycare. Yesterday was the first day she didn’t cry during the drop-off, which Chris and I were absolutely thrilled about. Even though it was extremely difficult to leave her each day as she cried, we knew from frequent check-ins with her teachers that the drop-off wasn’t a good indicator of how Natalie’s overall day was. Gaging from the pick-ups, I could tell that she’s been getting more and more comfortable. For the first few weeks, when I came to pick her up, she would get hysterical if I put her down—even just to put her coat on. Then she would tolerate holding my hand as we walked to her cubby to get her stuff. And in the last couple of weeks, she continues to play as I gather her things.

A few weeks ago, her teachers reported that she was starting to play with the other kids, rather than hang out with the adults all the time. She takes a nap every time she’s there without any problems. Some days she eats better than others, but since she does that at home too, I don’t think it’s indicative of any daycare adjustment problems. I think Grandma’s brilliant idea to have Natalie look at pictures of her school when she’s not there has helped with the adjustment a lot. The other day she was looking at the pictures and giving kisses to all her teachers. Natalie is still not talking much (if at all) at school, which make me sad since she’s speaking so well (she’s learning new words at a rate of about 1 - 3 per day) at home. But I suspect that she will start talking at school in the next couple of weeks.

Croup
As Natalie’s doctor predicted, the croup lasted about 5 days. Thank goodness for me, she’s sleeping better on her own again. Unfortunately, she still has a cough sometimes at night. Last night, in fact, she woke up a couple of hours after she went to sleep and was coughing and gagging on phlegm for a while before she could go back to sleep. Holding her upright seemed to help, so I was rocking her sitting up in the glider, but she (like most people) wants to sleep laying down. Every time she leaned back, even to a 45-degree angle, she started coughing again. Then she’d sit up and start crying, we suspect, because she was so tired and just wanted to go back to sleep. Then Chris remembered that she was coughing a lot in the car on the way home from daycare. The car was really hot, and she stopped coughing when he rolled down the windows. We opened the window in Natalie’s room and sure enough, as soon as the temperature went down a few degrees, the coughing stopped.

She went back to sleep and slept without coughing in her own bed until about 4 am, when the whole thing started again. I brought her into our bed, where she coughed and gagged in her sleep for about an hour until she spit-up all over my arm. Then she fell into a really peaceful sleep and didn’t cough again. The doctor warned us that the cough may hang on for a few weeks, but maybe she also has allergies? If it doesn’t clear up completely soon, I guess we’ll take her back to the doctors.

Here’s a couple of pictures to balance out all the tedious words in this post!
Natalie coloring:

She wrote those letters herself! Just kidding!!

Wearing her too-big-for-her rain boots and rifling around in the cupboards:

I forgot to post Natalie’s updated growth statistics. She saw her pediatrician, Dr. Stephen, last Thursday, who was very impressed with how many words Natalie can say (so many we’ve stopped counting)!

Vital stats at 16 months:
Weight: 22 pounds, 1 ounce (a little below 50%)
Height: 32.5 inches (90%)

The doctor asked how Natalie’s been eating, since her weight used to be in the 80-90%. Natalie is eating just fine, and her weight has probably dropped in percentiles simply because she’s walking and using more energy.

Our girl is 16 months old!!

Natalie at 16 Months from nataliecaroline on Vimeo.

The blueberry jumper she’s wearing in the last clip is actually a dress she wore around Christmastime. Either the dress shrunk vertically or Natalie has grown a few inches!

We’re having a problem with our upstairs tub/shower, and after considering bathing Natalie in the kitchen sink, we opted to try the downstairs stand up shower. If only our drain had gotten hopelessly clogged sooner! After all the drama in the tub lately, it was a refreshing change to see Natalie having fun in the water again.

Natalie turned 15 months old on March 7! This month she’s added a few teeth to her mouth, added lots of words (and animal sounds) to her vocabulary, and has learned quite a few new skills.

First, the teeth. Natalie has 16 teeth! The top molars and eyeteeth are not fully descended, but the bottom molars and eyeteeth are completely grown in. I fear that she’s working on her “two-year molars” already. If the charming little gifts she’s been leaving us in her diapers this week are any indication, she’ll have the last 4 molars in well before she’s two. Even though I would have liked a break from the teething, I am excited about the prospect of it being over with. Natalie’s aunts Katy and Kary gave her this funny shirt for Solstice this year, and this week ended up being an appropriate time for her to wear it:

Second, Natalie’s expanding vocabulary. Natalie has added these words to her repertoire: window, stairs, yogurt, stroller, apple, horse, bath, bagel, pizza, bubbles, cheese, and please (and probably more that I’m forgetting). And she’s begun saying two word phrases, like “bye-bye dada,” “bye-bye pizza,” “big step,” “read the,” “help me,” and “peas please.” A couple of months ago, she communicated her first sentence with a combination of words and signs. She looked at Chris, who was asleep, and said Dada, then made the sign for sleep. She has also signed “good milk.”

Natalie has learned so many more animal noises that I would venture to say that she knows virtually every one, including sounds that snakes, birds, roosters, chicks, chickens, mice, wolves, frogs, seals, beavers, squirrels, otters, and bees make. She also can demonstrate how giraffes have long necks, porcupines poke, zebras have stripes, camels spit, bunnies wiggle their noses, kangaroos hop, penguins waddle, rhinoceros have big noses, koalas hug, and alligators chomp. I think she may grow up to be a vet.

Third, new motor skills. Natalie discovered reverse! She used to approach chairs by facing them, making it rather difficult to sit down. Now she starts from about a foot away, and backs up. Sometimes she sits down too early and ends up on the floor, much to our amusement. Natalie can manage walking up and down the two steps between our kitchen and her playroom by herself. Sometimes she holds onto the wall and sometimes she does it totally unsupported. Natalie also learned how to spin herself around and seems to enjoy being dizzy. And she’s trying really, really hard to jump, but hasn’t succeeded yet.

Here is Natalie riding Clifford the Big Red Dog at the park, wearing an adorable hat knit for her by Auntie Bethany:

Some other random news items for this month:
1. Natalie has gotten much more tolerant of getting changed, getting dressed, and taking baths. Thank goodness that was just a passing phase.

2. According to her teachers, Natalie had a “wonderful day” at school on friday, her third day. We’re hoping for a repeat performance this Monday. Perhaps the transition into feeling comfortable at day care won’t take as long as I anticipated.

3. Much to our delight, Natalie has been going to bed earlier since starting day care.

As always, Natalie loves being outside and exploring nature: