Girls' Nights (& Days!)

Well, Brad left today for a short trip to D.C. for work, so I guess it will be just the girls for a couple days - me, Nat, & Casey (aka "Ase!"), of course! We've got quite a few things going on that will keep us busy, but Natalie has seemed a little out of sorts the past couple days, so I am little nervous about being without Brad. It just seems like sometimes she gets bored and fussy when there's only one of us around if she's not in the best mood. She took an awesome nap at Katie's today, though, so hopefully she'll be happy this evening and we can have some nice quality time. :) Both of her top teeth next to the middle ones (not sure what they are called?) are right on the verge of coming through, so maybe that's what's getting to her - I'm just glad for all of us that she's still sleeping ok!

She's still working on the walking, but doesn't do it too often unless we initiate it, and then it's only 2-4 steps at a time. We've had her walking back and forth between us while we're sitting on the floor, but even if she's still balancing fine by the time she gets close to one of us, she just lunges into our laps! So she still needs a little more confidence!

Oh, and I think that maybe Natalie is starting to call me Mama! Yesterday afternoon, she said what sounded exactly like "Mama" and started crawling towards me. I laughed and said, "Yes, Natalie?" because she's never really called me Mama before, so I thought it was a coincidence (I try to keep my expectations low so as not to be disappointed!). She said it again and kept crawling toward me at lightning speed. I picked her up, and it became obvious VERY quickly that she needed a diaper change! Ha!

Steps - Part 3

Well, I can't say that Natalie is officially a walker yet, but she is doing lots of practicing! She is definitely getting better and more confident, but she won't do it all the time. It's so cute to see her working on it! She's also been practicing going from sitting to standing on her own, which is really fun too. Here are some walking pics from the park today.

Steps - Part 2

Well, Miss Natalie has really started to take off! She took 5-8 steps a few times throughout the day today, then tonight she took about 12 at one point! I'm just amazed at how quickly she's progessed with this! I took some pictures during the 12-step venture - they are not great pics, but you get a bit of an idea. She was really fussy and ended up going to bed almost an hour early tonight, so I guess this walking thing is really taking it out of her!


Oh, and you'll notice her birthday present - the pink polka-dot chair - is upside down on the couch. It spends 50% of its time like this because Natalie won't obey when she's told to SIT in it! Hopefully someday she'll decide to listen!

Steps!

Miss Natalie took her very first two steps on Sunday! Yesterday, she did the same thing a few times. She's definitely getting more brave, which is good I think. She's getting much braver in standing on her own, too, and she can do it for 30-40 seconds at least. She doesn't usually fall down, either, she just really carefully sits herself down. It's kinda funny. :) She will even start to sit down and then stand up again, too. I know once she's walking it'll be even more work for us, but it's so amazing to see her making this big milestone. It will probably still be a little while before we officially have a true walker on our hands, and that's fine by us! It would be fun if she were walking by Halloween, but I know she'll do it in her own time. I've been so caught up lately with realizing how big she's getting, and I was shocked at how little she looked again when I saw her taking steps on her own!