Natalie’s Blog

I came home from work last Thursday to see Natalie on her way to the park with Meema and Pop Pop. She was carrying a bag containing a pumpkin she’d picked out at Terhune’s earlier that day. Even though the weight of the pumpkin was preventing her from walking a straight line, she insisted that no one help her, saying, “Nannie carry it!” She also protested when I tried to adjust her hat so she could see better. Every time I tried, she pulled it down further until it was covering her eyes and she had to tilt her head back to see.

Once we got to the park, Natalie had fun on the swing and imitating an alligator:

(This one is one of my favorite pictures of Natalie!)

Lately Natalie has been saying “silly Natalie” whenever she does something kooky. Only when she says it, it sounds like “siddy Nannie!”

Like when she wears her duck slippers and turns upside-down:

Or takes a carrot peal and makes herself a mustache:

Here is Natalie giving her Great Grandma Wachs a kiss to wish her Happy 95th Birthday:

I’m not sure it gets any sweeter than that….

Our little artist concentrates very hard while painting! We keep the mess to a minimum using this hack. Washable water colors helps, too. Natalie, of course, still likes to paint her hands, make hand prints, and paint herself Hitler mustaches!!

Now all she needs is a bike….

Auntie Jodi is our babywearing guru…here she is carrying Natalie at the mall in her ring sling:

In a whole series of pictures, there was not one in which Natalie had her hands out of her mouth. Maybe the final 4 teeth are on their way?

A week or so ago, Natalie and I were in the car listening to the Laurie Berkner version of the song “She’ll Be Comin’ Round the Mountain.” During the verse where Laurie sings “We will all have cake and ice cream when she comes, yum yum…” Natalie started urgently saying, “No! No! No!”

I turned the volume down and said, “What’s the matter, Natalie? You don’t like this song?”

Natalie, “No! No cake! No cake…Nah!”

Mommy (who took a few minutes to realize Natalie’s meaning) said, “Oh! That’s right, Natalie doesn’t like cake!”

Natalie, very pleased that she was understood, replied, “Yeah! No cake…Nah!”

A few minutes later, Natalie smiled and exclaimed, “Mommy, cake!”

Mommy, ruefully replied, “Yes, you’re right. Mommy does like cake.”

Natalie gets a kick out of repeating this conversation each time we listen to “She’ll Be Comin’ Round the Mountain.”

That’s a lyric to a Barney song about oral hygiene. I can’t help but sing it every time Natalie brushes her teeth.

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:

Any doubts I had about changing Natalie’s day care have been completely alleviated. On the first day at Melissa’s, Natalie didn’t cry at all when I left. The second day she asked to go there. On the third day, she didn’t want to go home when I picked her up! We get far more information from Melissa about Natalie’s mood and her activities than we got at the Goddard School. In addition to the details we get about Natalie’s day through conversation, Melissa sends home a daily sheet where she logs all Natalie’s diapering, sleeping, and eating activities.

Of course the transition hasn’t been completely without challenges. While Natalie hasn’t been crying for her parents, last week Melissa reported that Natalie gets quite upset when Melissa would stray too far (like more than 2 feet) away. Today, Melissa told us that she explained to Natalie that if she wanted to stay with Melissa, she could follow her, but she didn’t need to cry. That seemed to do the trick! Melissa said the rest of the day was tear-free.

Another positive change has been with the artwork Natalie brings home. Goddard would always send home these elaborate art projects (like a construction paper Isreali flag or a hanging jelly fish) that may have looked impressive, but left us wondering what part Natalie actually did herself. At Melissa’s, Natalie has brought home art projects involving markers, finger paints, and chalk, all of which look like pictures she created herself.

Natalie sums it up by saying, “Missa’s…FUN!”

We took pictures of Natalie on her first day and on her last day of Goddard, as well as pictures of her at Melissa’s—her expressions say it all…

Looking happy and innocent because she doesn’t know what’s happening:

Looking scared and sad because she knows what school is all about (she didn’t look this way every morning, or we would have taken her out of there much sooner!):

Here are some pictures of Natalie playing at Melissa’s. Look how comfortable she is!