We're On The Move!!!

Natalie is officially crawling! Her official crawl date was on Tuesday. She was very slow and hesitant, but proved she could do it. Even by yesterday, she still was quite slow and wasn't really sure of herself. Each movement was highly calculated and took every thought, muscle and effort available. Today she has gotten a bit better and more wiling to try without prompting. She is really adorable to watch.
She has been enjoying her toys and playing more and more. She loves things that make music, especially her piano and singing book. Pumba is still one of her favorites as well. I just got out two large stuffed animals (Tigger and Piglet) that she loves as well.
Natalie continues to love vocalizing by doing this monster-like scream all of the time. If you didn't know her, you would think that she was really mad or upset. However, she actually does it when she is happy and just having fun. It is too funny!
Natalie also had her first school (day care) and class pictures! Her school photo is adorable and her class picture is hilarious! Even though she is screaming, the whole thing just cracks us up.
Natalie continues to fill our lives with love and laughter. We hope you enjoy these photos!

An Update and Some Pictures

Natalie continues to grow and change! She has mastered her sippy cup and loves all three of her meal times. She loves her puffs and enjoys making "mmm" noises as she eats them. She tries really hard to put them in her mouth, however, she holds them in her fist and cannot get them from her fist to her mouth.
She is getting even closer to crawling. She can move backwards, but is still trying to figure out how to move forward. Tonight was the first time that she actually seemed frustrated with her failed attempts.
She now can easily go from the sitting position to laying down/crawling position. She probably spends about an equal amount of time between the two. When she is sitting up, she loves sitting like a cheerleader (one leg forward, one leg back- see picture)
She is wearing mostly 18 month old clothes. There are some brands and individual pieces that are smaller. She loves bath time and has begun to get visibly excited when she knows that it is time for her bath.
She is beginning to imitate what we do. She will clap if you clap. She will make this smacking noise with her mouth if you do the same.
Natalie has been giving even better hugs and if you are really lucky there have been a few kisses too.
The only thing we are currently struggling with is that she doesn't want to take naps. She would rather scream quite loudly instead until we finally give up because she sounds like she is going to make herself sick. She doesn't seem poorly impacted by the lack of sleep, so we wonder if maybe she doesn't need as many naps. When she does feel like napping, she enjoys sleeping with mommy or daddy. I am including a few pictures of her sleeping. I am also doing a comparison of a very similar shot that we got a long time ago compared to now. My, how she has changed!
The rest of the pictures are just to show how cute she is and how she loves hanging with her pug brother and attempting to play with his tail.

Growing: 8 Months!

Here it is... and some "outtakes" as well.

Weekend at Grandma and Grandpa's

Natalie spent the night for the second time at grandma and grandpa's this past weekend. This time the request came from grandma and grandpa!

Natalie and I met Grandma in Jacksonville where we found the mother-load of a garage sale! There were the nicest, cutest outfits ever there! This lady really knew how to keep outfits together and nice. I think she literally purchased a new item for her ONE child every day! We joked that we need to become this lady's friend so she will continue to pass on such clothes as her daughter continues to grow!

Natalie, Grandma and I first went to see her Great Grandma in Rushville. Natalie had a great ride. She went between laughing at herself to sleeping the whole time. Once we were there, unfortunately it did take her a minute to warm up to her great grandma since it had been almost two months since she saw her. Thankfully it didn't take too long though. Her great grandma got her a cute doll that moves and sings. Natalie loved it! While at grandma's, Natalie had two firsts! She gave her first kiss! I am very happy (much to grandma's dismay) that the first kiss was mine. Grandma quickly got her own though! The second thing she did for the first time is kind of hard to explain. Her grandma and I had been lightly tapping our fingers on her mouth to make Natalie make Indian sounds. Suddenly on Saturday, she discovered that she could use her own hand (the back of it) and move her hand over her mouth to make the same noise! She was quite tickled with her discovery!
Natalie stayed with Grandma and Grandpa that night. It sounded like she had a perfect visit- throughly enjoyed by everyone! Even I was able to relax and enjoy my evening more than last time! Joel and I laughed at the thought of just making this a routine! However, after talking to my mom tonight- they are both still recovering, so I am not sure they would really be up for that! On Sunday, Natalie got to enjoy a church service with her parents and grandparents (all while entertaining everyone sitting around us as well with all of her giggles and smiles) It was a great, busy weekend for Nattie!

Natalie has her first "school" pictures tomorrow. I still can't decide what to have her wear! I have too many options thanks to fabulous grandmas!!!

Natalie will be celebrating her 8 month birthday this week!! Time continues to fly! I can't wait to take our monthly update picture! We think that she has had another growth spurt with her height. It will be interesting to see if we are right!

Can We Get a Round of Applause??

Yesterday, Natalie clapped for the first time! And now she is a clapping fool! It is so cute to see her finally figure out how to put her hands together and make noise. This weekend has actually been a very musical weekend. Natalie got her first musical instrument. It is a little piano/xylophone toy. She loves it as well. (I need to get a picture of both of these things, but alas, I currently do not. Actually, the only pictures I have this evening are of Natalie after a bath and Natalie with me after getting my new glasses. I will post more later.
Tomorrow is the first day of school (with students) so our summer is officially over. Natalie has been such a joy this summer and I am so glad that I am blessed enough to have the time that I did. (Of course if someone would like to pay me to stay at home with my little girl, I wouldn't object either!)
This evening Natalie also really began adding consonants to her babbling- lots of B and D sounds (Grandma (my mom) thinks it is strange that I make such observations about her babbling (about vowels and consonants) I guess that shows that I am a teacher!
This week Natalie has also added having lunch to her day. So currently, she is having 2 tablespoons of cereal with a 1/2 tub (stage 2) fruit for breakfast, 1/2 tub veggies for lunch; and 1/2 tub of fruit and 1/2 tub of veggies for supper with 3-4 bottles per day. She enjoys her puffs more now. She actually "chews" them, which is quite cute. She still loves her sippy cups, yet I still am not sure how much water she is actually drinking.
I can't believe she is getting close to 8 months old!!! Time is flying!!!

Another Update

Natalie continues to be the love of our lives!!! Her latest milestone is getting really good at standing up. Natalie can stand as long as you are giving her some support. This happened rather quickly. It seemed like one day she really was not interested in putting weight on her legs, then she suddenly was doing it like a pro! She still hasn't made any further developments in crawling. Maybe she will go straight to walking!
I moved her exosaucer to the tallest setting. She now loves to jump in the exosaucer, which is quite loud and violent looking- but it puts a great smile on her face.
She has perfected how to do raspberries and gets quite tickled at herself when she does it.
We had another unfortunate milestone today. She had developed a rash that was spreading, so I took her to the doctor. She has hand,foot, and mouth disease. Which sounds a million times worse than it is. It is a viral illness that is highly contagious (the doctor said that almost all kids get it at some point), with really no treatment or complications for/with it. So essentially it is just like a cold, except has more visible signs. She has the rash in her mouth as well, which seems like it may be causing her a bit of discomfort when she eats, but other than that, she has been acting completely normal. It should be completely gone within a week.
I am including some pictures of Natalie playing with her new favorite toy- the fisher price ring stacking toy; hanging out with her best friend, Pumba; and a picture of Natalie with her Uncle Nathan at his graduation (she seems quite impressed with the degree!)

7 months old!!

I truly can't believe Natalie is seven months old now... it's one of those weird time warps where it seems like yesterday that she was born, and on the other hand, it feels like a lot longer than seven months ago that we were in the hospital waiting for her arrival.

Here is the monthly "growing" shot... We decided to start a new one every six months as it would become too wieldy otherwise. I'm also including some "outtakes" that Nickie took of Nattie sitting on the chair (you can see we were reconsidering the laying-down-in-the-crib format).

One last thing- especially for Grandma Harris and Aunt Karen, since they have been clamoring for it...a photo showing her at one week old and now both with her dolly. So here you go...!