Our Country Girl

Natalie has started trying to whistle with this Barney song. We captured it on the flip tonight. Enjoy!

28 Years Later...

This is a photo comparison of Nickie and Natalie at approximately the same age. I'm guessing the photo of Nickie (left) was circa 1982. The photo of Natalie is from earlier in 2010. The similarities are remarkable.

20 months and counting...

It's hard to believe we will be celebrating Natalie's second birthday in a few months. She is, as always, learning new things every day, but it seems she is learning things minute by minute recently. It only takes her hearing us say a word once for her to repeat it, or seeing someone on Barney dance for a moment before she is imitating it (in a much cuter rendition, I assure you).

One of the hardest things about being her Daddy at this stage is seeing her take so many bumps, bruises, scrapes and hard knocks as she is learning the principles of physics (such as "you can't run on one leg" or the hard-to-learn "your head cannot pass through solid objects harmlessly"). I know it's part of the process, but man, I understand why parents want to wrap their kids in three layers of bubble wrap  first thing in the morning.

Ok, enough rambling. Here are a few recent photos!

20 Month +1 Day Update

Natalie continues to grow and fill our hearts with such love. I think I officially have to stop recording the words that she can say, because she is getting to the stage that she will attempt practically any word that she hears, so really her vocabulary is limitless! She is starting to attempt to count and move her fingers with you as she is counting them (not successfully, but still adorable). Both eye teeth are technically poking through, but barely. They have been the slowest of all of her teeth so far. She loves looking at pictures of herself and her family and naming everyone. I recently changed some pictures in our large photo frame and she was so excited to see new pictures!

She finally has gotten back into the habit of sleeping in her own crib for at least the majority if not all of the night, which has been a blessing. She always wakes up happy in the morning though, which is a great way to start our day too!

We believe that with a few of her Barney videos, she could actually quote the entire show word for word. She will say the smallest line with the characters/actors out of the blue and it cracks us up.

My favorite phrase that she says is "I-dun-know" - I don't know. She puts her hands up when she says it like she is shrugging her shoulders and it is too cute! She also now says "ok" when prompted, which I love too.

We have had some negative events at day care this month. We all know that Natalie is the sweetest girl ever, but there is a boy at day care that takes this literally and keeps biting her! We have had 4 bite marks within 5 days this past week. We were very upset and let them know that if it happens again, then we will have to find a new day care. I hope this doesn't happen, because until these events I was very happy and impressed with the care she was receiving.

Natalie has become even more loving with us. She loves to run up and give hugs, and occasionally she wants a kiss as well. She still says "Aww" as she is hugging you. And if she wants to stress a long kiss then she says "Mwwwwwww (holding the kiss as long as she wants) ah!"

Natalie also now calls Joel "Daddy" with a very strong "E" sound at the end. It makes my heart melt to hear it. I am still "Momma" She has gotten better at calling my mom "Mam-ma" and it has begun to sound different compared to my name.

For some reason Pumba has become more of "muma" which is really hard to distinguish between that and Momma, so I have answered when she is calling for Pumba many times!

She is still pretty shy around strangers. I cannot get her to say anything to anyone (even though she is capable of saying a lot) But the funny thing is that she will say "Bye!" to anyone! She is always willing to leave a stranger/new place, so she has no problem saying bye when prompted.

I still question if Natalie suffers from seasonal allergies. This past weekend was much cooler, so we opened the windows and suddenly Natalie has been having an itchy, runny nose and a dry cough. I am not sure what future steps we will take with this, but we will continue to monitor it.

Natalie has grown about an inch in the past month, which is more than last month (only about a half an inch), so she is about 31.5 inches. Her weight is around 24 pounds. She still wears 18-24 month clothes.

She continues to be the shining light in our lives! We love her so!

Very late photo Update

Sorry for the recent inactivity on the blog- we've been too busy playing with Natalie and working to be posting much. Having said that, boy is there a lot to catch up on. I don't want to make this a negative post, so I will not recount the goings on at daycare for Natalie at this time. I will just say that four bitemarks in five days is unacceptable and ridiculous. Enough said. On to happier things- Natalie is flourishing with her development. She is saying so many words now, and is crawling onto and off of chairs, dancing to music, and laughing at her silly mommy and daddy when we play silly games. Her personality is amazing. Just when I thought I couldn't love her any more. I have a feeling I'll be saying that many times in the future. 

Here are a few recent photos. 

PS Natalie wishes her mommy a VERY happy 30th birthday today!!!

I was listening to a song by Paul Simon, called "Father and Daughter" and the chorus resounded with me so deeply. Each day that you grow, each day you learn more and more and become a little girl, I am just so proud to be your daddy, and to see the best of your mommy and myself represented in you. Here are the words to that chorus-

I'm gonna watch you shine
Gonna watch you grow
Gonna paint a sign
So you'll always know
As long as one and one is two
There could never be a father
That loved his daughter more than I love you

19 Months +1 day Update

I am a bit late with the monthly update. We are really busy getting ready for our first big trip to go see all of the relatives in PA!

As I reread the update from last month, I cannot think of a lot of things that have changed in the past 30 days.

As far as her verbal skills, she has added a few words:

waffa- waffle

Bwuu-Blue (from Blue's Clues)

taiuu-thank you

auwsiii- outside

Hannah- Hannah (a girl at day care that Natalie just loves saying her name!)

Jaysuh-Jason (our good friend)

Auju- Angela (another good friend of ours)

baby

wuhyu-I love you

daahn-down

And she is getting even better at attempting to repeat words that you say. Now if we could ask Natalie what words she can say- this list would be five times as long. Especially when it comes to her nursery rhymes that are in her Barney book. She loves reading this book and will literally "say" every word with you. She is very animated with this as well. It is one of her favorite things.

She also loves playing ring around the rosie and london bridge now (thanks to that book and Barney).

For a moment, we thought that Barney was getting replaced with Blue's Clues, but Barney is still her number one. She does love the Blue's Clues song and wants me to sing it with her frequently.

She finally wears a size 4 shoe! She has been in the same size 3 shoes since last fall! I was excited that I was able to get the same shoes in 4s because these have been great shoes to have!

I think I keep forgetting to update the status on her teeth. She currently has 12 teeth (front 8 and 4 molars) and she is currently working on her first eye tooth.

She has begun to really like wearing a hat around the house. She has also discovered her Barney slippers so she looks like a lil bag lady around the house!

Natalie had her first experience with pink eye. It wasn't a big deal at all and we think she purposely found it at day care so she could stay at home with mommy for a few days!

Natalie currently (much to Grandma's dismay) is very very smitten with her PawPaw. She spent the night with them last night and from what I heard, PawPaw is her best buddy. There are a few cute pictures that I am going to attach from my mom and there should be some additional ones coming soon.

I am sure we will have some pictures and videos to update in the next few days!