Natalie’s Blog

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 undulate 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.

Natalie is getting closer and closer to turning 2 years old and it’s freaking me out a little.

Lately it seems like Natalie learns so much in one day it’s hard to keep track of it all. She’s using more and more 3-word pseudo sentences. These phrases tend to contain nouns and sometimes adjectives, but she often leaves out verbs and connecting words. For example, this morning when I offered her toast, Natalie replied, “no…toast…Nah.” (”Nah” is what Natalie calls herself, although lately she sometimes says “Nanny.”) The pauses between the words let me know that she’s aware that more is needed to make a full sentence. Either way she gets her meaning across. A few more examples:
“Mommy, Daddy…home”
“Mommy…blue shirt”
“Tillman…mess…rug”
“no, no, Tillman…Nah’s” (Tillman often tries to eat Natalie’s food)
“Nah…shoes…off”
“No…cream…butt!” (Natalie has developed a strong aversion to diaper cream)

One of our recent conversations illustrates her ever increasing ability to communicate her thoughts and wishes:
In the car, Natalie asked, “animal crackers?”
Mommy, who has never bought animal crackers, replied, “We don’t have any, honey. We have pretzels or raisins. Do you eat animal crackers at Melissa’s house?”
Natalie answers, “Yeah!….Animal crackers…Nah’s…house?”

Another “big girl” milestone—drinking out of a regular cup! She has been able to do this for a while, but we just started letting her have a non-sippy cup more often.

Natalie has been doing a lot of pretend play lately. One of her favorite games is to take a bag, and say, “bye-bye” as she leaves the room. Then she comes back and very grandly says, “HI!” When asked where she went, Natalie says “Shopping!” We usually say, “Oh! What did you buy?” Natalie usually reports, “crackers!” or sometimes, “Banas!” (bananas) or “boo-bayees” (blueberries) or “bed” (bread). Then she goes around to each person in the room and pretend feeds us whatever food she’s bought.
Here she is getting her (reusable of course!!) shopping bag ready:

She’s also added a few “jokes” to her repertoire. Not jokes exactly, but things she says that show her sense of humor. A couple examples:
Mommy, pointing to something green, asks, “Natalie, what color is this?”
Natalie, snickering, says, “Blue!”
Mommy replies, “Really? That’s blue?”
Natalie says, as if Mommy is completely absurd, “No! Green!!”

Daddy, pouring himself a cup asks, “Natalie, do you want coffee, too?”
Natalie, looking at Daddy like he’s crazy, replies, “No!”
Daddy says, “Oh, Natalie doesn’t drink coffee?”
Natalie replies, “No! Daddy…Mommy…coffee.”

This morning, Chris took these picture of Natalie trying on some of Daddy’s shirts:

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.

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…

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:

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!

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:

Natalie is 14 months old this month! She wants to walk all the time and refuses to hold our hands, which makes walking anywhere near cars or streets (pretty much everywhere) difficult. If I pick her up, she arches her back, raises her arms and kicks her feet in an attempt to get down. I used to think they were cruel and stupid, but now I totally understand why someone invented leashes for kids. I may break down and get one, but in the meantime, I’m trying to teach her to stay on the sidewalk.

Natalie is always happy to go for walks:

She gets very excited when the wind blows:

Five of the six teeth she’s been working on since she was 11 months old have popped, so she now has 13 teeth, including her first two bottom molars. She seems to be teething again still, so she may get even more teeth soon. According to this chart, Natalie’s teeth are coming in way ahead of schedule. With 13 out of 20 teeth popped already, maybe there’s hope that she’ll be finished with teething sooner rather than later.

One of the things we love about Natalie is her sense of humor and infectious laughter. We never know what is going to cause her dissolve into hysterics. Lately, she’s laughed hardest over unexpected things like dirty water pouring out of an outdoor planter, watching Daddy spinning a basketball on his finger, me trying to balance a giant exercise ball on my head, or kicking a rock on the ground as we walk. Since Natalie’s laughing fits take us by surprise, we never have the camera ready. By the time we try to recreate the situation for the camera, the joke is old and Natalie doesn’t laugh.

This month Natalie became very adamant about using utensils to feed herself. Since she’s no longer content to pick up food with her fingers, mealtime has become very messy and long (it takes forever for her to get things onto spoons and forks). We started by giving her sticky foods (like yogurt and guacamole) so she could practice with the spoon and have some success before having to learn the actual scooping motion. She never liked yogurt before because she didn’t tolerate being spoon-fed, but now that she’s doing it herself, she’s a big fan. Now she’s practicing stabbing food with a fork.

Getting yogurt all over her face:

Enjoying guacamole:

Eating pasta with a fork like a big girl:

[This entry is written by Chris]

Natalie turned 13 months-old this past Monday. Over the past few weeks she’s been practicing walking a lot, taking a few unassisted steps every day, but usually while clutching one of our fingers or pushing her walker. Before Monday, she’d been very reluctant to walk on her own.

When I got home from work on Monday night, it was like a whole month had gone by. She was walking all over, very deliberately and with much more skill. She toddled over to me with a book and held it out for me to read.

When I asked, “do you want to sit in my lap?”, she climbed right into my lap. She’s always liked sitting in my lap, but I usually have to pick her up and place her there. Then she practically read Moo, Baa, La La La to me, pointing at the animals and making all the right noises. It was surreal to witness such an enormous developmental leap in that short a period of time.

Here’s a video Amy and I put together showing her walking progress over the last few months:

Since we made this video her walking skills have been accelerating exponentially. She’s now much more independent and pushes us away when we try to hold her hand while walking.