Natalie’s Blog

While most people in the area stayed indoors during Tropical Storm Hanna, we went to visit friends in Brooklyn. The drive there and back was fine, but we naively decided to walk three blocks to a coffee shop when the rain didn’t seem too heavy. We forgot that walking anywhere with Natalie means stopping every few feet to examine cracks in the sidewalk, manhole covers, leaves, or anything else that makes her stop and say, “Yook a Dis!!!!” (look at this). We also forgot that Natalie wouldn’t want to be carried, but would rather walk and hold her “own” umbrella. Lately that’s what Natalie says whenever I decline to give her something she wants by explaining that “it’s mommy’s.” She looks very inquisitive, then points to herself and knowingly says, “own” as if she’s very proud of herself for solving the problem.

Needless to say, we got soaked from head to toe:

Natalie loves to talk about what color things are—she labels the cars and trucks we pass on the road, the crayons she’s using, and what color shirts we wear. Every morning when she sees us, she announces what color our shirts are with great enthusiasm. Yesterday she was super excited because we were all wearing brown shirts. She kept exclaiming, “Mommy, Daddy, Nah—BROWN!!”

At our last visit to the pediatrician, Natalie yelled, “Black!” as soon as Dr. Stephen walked in the examining room. Dr. Stephen is of south-Asian decent, so naturally she looked rather aghast at Natalie’s statement. I felt equally aghast and rather horrified that it seemed like Natalie was labeling the color of her skin. All was well after I frantically explained, “Your shirt is black! Natalie’s talking about your shirt!”

Lots of communication firsts today!!

Natalie woke up fussing this morning and when I asked her what was wrong, she replied, “I wet.” Sure enough she was soaking, but the exciting part is that it’s the first time she’s used the word “I”! Then I put her on the changing table and she told me that she was “cold.” Natalie’s talked about objects being hot or cold, but today was the first time she’s ever expressed feeling a certain temperature herself. This evening, we were sitting at an outdoor pizza place and witnessed a man yelling at his kids. Natalie came over to me (she had been running around with some of her play group friends) and said, “scared.” While I wasn’t happy that Natalie felt afraid, I was ecstatic that she was able to communicate what she was feeling.

It’s amazing to watch the wheels turn as Natalie learns new words or figures out new concepts. It’s equally incredible to witness these leaps that seem to happen overnight.

I’m late in writing a monthly update for the first time in 20 months…but rather than let it slide, I’ll tell you about Natalie at 20.5 months. She can count to 10. She learned to say “sorry” in the right context. Natalie loves saying the phrases “let’s go!” “come on!” “good job!” and “oh no!” We introduced the book Where the Wild Things Are, and it quickly became a favorite. She imitates the wild things roaring their terrible roars and gnashing their terrible teeth and showing their terrible claws. Natalie always asks to read the book again while we still have 1 page left to read.

On July 22, Natalie said “I woove woo” for the first time.

Now that Natalie has gotten through her bath aversion, we’ve settled into a routine of nightly baths. Natalie insists on washing herself! If we try to do it for her, she fusses—she prefers if we put soap in her hands and she wash each body part herself. Chris usually bathes her, which is a nice way for them have some daddy/daughter time. As much as I hesitate to jinx us by saying this, getting Natalie to sleep has been much easier and more consistent since starting the routine.

I scored a turtle shaped sandbox on Craig’s List for $20! Personally I hate sand, but when I saw how long Natalie was happily occupied at the beach, I knew it would be a good toy for her. She got so engrossed that we couldn’t get her to look up to take a picture.

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!

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…

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 talks about one of favorite books, Owl Babies.

Untitled from nataliecaroline on Vimeo.

Love & Colors from nataliecaroline on Vimeo.