Somewhat weekly update

So there was no update last week because I had strep for the first time in my life. Thankfully it is extremely rare for infants to catch strep, so I didn't have to worry about Natalie getting it too much. Natalie continues to grow up so fast in front of our eyes. She is staying awake now more during the day and taking shorter naps (except for in the evenings after day care, that still wipes her out and she sleeps all evening).

She is babbling a lot more, smiling a lot more, and once she even seemed to laugh. We have not been able to get her to do it since, but it has been fun trying! She still isn't sleeping through the night, but on average, we are only up once in the night...and sadly, I am pretty much use to getting up at that time, so it doesn't seem so bad.

Natalie still loves to suck and chew on her hands- quite noisily at times. She is wearing mostly 3-6 month sized clothes. It seems so weird to get out clothes that I remember thinking that it was going to be such a long time before she could wear them, and now she can! I figured out that it isn't public restrooms that she hates- it is places that are prone to echoes. When she cries, she really doesn't like for it to echo back at her and only upsets her more. We have discovered this in public restrooms and in the back bay at church.

This weekend, thanks to Grandma and Grandpa, we have our stroller so we went for our first walk. Natalie seemed to enjoy it until she got fussy at the end because she was sleepy. As soon as we came into the house, she fell asleep for a couple of hours. I can't wait til I go shopping again with my mom and wlll be able to use the stroller instead of lugging the car seat or trying to hold her myself.

This next week is going to be such a joy and blessing because I am off for Spring Break. So Natalie and I are going to have lots of time together and I already know that going back to work will be oh so difficult!