Natalie’s Blog

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

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.

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.

We took Natalie to the Blueberry Festival at Terhune Orchards, where she enjoyed her first puppet show. I wasn’t sure how much she would like it, considering we were pretty far from the outdoor stage. Despite all the possible distractions, Natalie was mesmerized by the show! She especially liked the cow puppet, as you can see in this video:

Natalie’s First Puppet Show from nataliecaroline on Vimeo.

Natalie and David also got to meet cousin Michael’s bearded dragon, Rex!

After discovering that Rex liked to eat clover flowers, Natalie got to feed him:

Natalie’s latest entertainment is to push her little doll stroller around the house while we chase her pushing the regular stroller. The other night I was making the stroller do a “wheelie,” which Natalie thought was the funniest thing ever…

Natalie talks about one of favorite books, Owl Babies.

Untitled from nataliecaroline on Vimeo.

Love & Colors from nataliecaroline on Vimeo.