Another Long Overdue Update

Well, I've done it again and it's been too long since I posted anything. Christmas is just crazy. I just did 2 posts with lots of pics from Christmas, though, and I'll try to do my best to get down what Natalie's been doing lately in this post.

Natalie cut her 8th tooth today. It seems like it's all the way through, but she was awfully fussy this evening, so maybe there's still a little bit left. She does seem to get through it more quickly now, but she's still got SO many teeth to go, I dread all the teething yet to come!

Natalie has added a few animal sounds to her repertoire! She knows:

• cow
• sheep
• horse
• snake
• rooster (although she says "hoooo hoo," but she is trying to say "doodle doo")
• kitty
• doggie (but only sometimes)

Here's a quick list of cute stuff she's been doing lately:

• Brad taught her how to tell a secret, so she gets a kick out of leaning into your ear and making "whispering" noises.
• She's so prone to runny noses that we seem to be constantly using saline in her nose. She'll find bottles of it lying around and put the bottle (lid on) into her nostril.
• On a related note, she's on some eye drops right now, and she will find other kinds of bottles (the eye drops are definitely not within her reach), and act like she's putting them in her eyes or in a baby doll's eyes.
• She got lots of baby dolls for Christmas, and I think her favorite part about them is feeding them their bottles. It's so cute! She knows just what to do! (see pictures below)
• She fairly consistently says "nose" when she points to her nose and "mouth" when she points to her mouth. She also knows these body parts, just by pointing: eyes, ears, head, hair, teeth, tongue, hands, feet, and belly button.
• She loves her Brown Bear book, and I think it's because she gets to point out the eyes on every single animal each time we turn the page. She definitely has a fascination with eyes.

Long Overdue Update

I know I've been terrible about updating the blog for the past few weeks, so I'm going to try to do better, but here's my attempt at a catch-up. :)

Natalie now has four animal sounds that she will consistently tell you: cow, sheep, snake, and kitty. Before kitty, there was doggie, and it was my favorite - also because she picked it up all on her own. She said "bow wow wow" in the cutest way. Well, I decided to try to teach her that a kitty says "meow" and Santa says "ho ho ho," and she learned the kitty (very cute!), but not Santa, and ever since then, now when you ask her what a doggie says, she has a very unintelligible string of sounds, part of which sounds like "meow." So now we're back to working on "bow wow wow" again!

She just recently started saying thank you when she hands us toys. ;) It sounds more like "tee cu," but we know what she means. ;) Also, when she stands on the couch, I ask her to sit, and when she does, I say, "thank you." Now she's taken to standing up and at the same time, saying "tee cu!" Not exactly what I was going for!

She just got over her first ear infection. Boy, was that rough. I was glad that we finally figured out what it was and were able to start her quickly on (her first) antibiotic. It took about 3-4 full days for her normal sweet, funny personality to return, so I know she must have been feeling terrible. I feel like I have a better grasp of what she might act like with an ear infection now, so hopefully she won't get more, but I think I'll be able to spot it more quickly if she does.

Miss Nat still LOVES to eat. Katie made potato soup this week and the girls had it for lunch yesterday. She said Natalie had a spoon in one hand and was using the other hand to scoop handfuls of it into her mouth. Also, we've decided that she prefers Braums milk over Borden. She must get that from Opa! ;)

She still loves Casey, and the word "Casey" is still probably the clearest word that she says right now. She's learning better how to pet Casey gently, which is a good thing. Casey is sooooo tolerant of Natalie though. My mom says Casey is a gift, but we don't always feel that way when we have to clean up her messes! Natalie sure loves her, though! :)

Natalie is really big on putting her hands up and making a "Where did it go? I don't know!" face when a person hides or when she hides a toy. It's pretty cute. She'll put toy food in her play microwave, shut the door, and look at us as if to say "Where did it go?" Then she opens it and smiles. A couple days ago, we were all in Natalie's room and Brad left to do something. Natalie followed him out, but somehow lost track of where he went. She got into the kitchen, and Brad could see her but she didn't see him. She saw Casey in the kitchen, and put her hands up and made the face, as if asking Casey, "Where did he go?" Brad was cracking up that she really thinks of Casey as one of us and thought Casey could help her out. ;)

Well, I'm sure there are a million more little things I could write, but I'm out of ideas off the top of my head. Hope everyone out there is enjoying the holiday season!

What's Going On

Just thought I'd post a little update on the things that Natalie's been doing lately!

• I've been singing/saying the ABC song to her lately, and she loves the letter "s." Once I get to "s," she goes, "sssssss" and keeps on doing it. Katie heard her just playing and making "s" sounds, so she asked her what sound a snake makes. Now when you ask her what a snake says, she says "ssssss."
• She loves to dig in the laundry (clean or dirty, ugh!) and find something small like a sock or baby washcloth and just carry it around with her while she does other things. This will be her favorite item for a whole day.
• A couple days ago, Brad saw her playing with one of her dolls and a washcloth (see above! ;)) and he asked her if she wanted to give her baby a bath. He took the washcloth and washed the baby's hair, and now she'll do it if you ask her to.
• She's been doing this a LONG time, but she loves to get a plastic ring and crawl around with it in her mouth. It looks so silly!
• She immediately pulls on her ear if you ask her where her ear is.
• If I ask her to stand up, she'll stop what she's doing and stand up! It still is a big effort for her, but she usually works at it until she gets it!
• She likes to "brush" her hair with her hairbrush while I'm changing her diaper.
• The reason I gave her the brush mentioned above is that she now can totally take her diaper off by herself. Fun, fun! She only messes with it while she's on the changing table, but it's annoying to get her all fastened up, then reach for her pants, only to have the diaper completely unfastened again!
• She's enjoying walks outside in the stroller instead of napping when we go out, which is great! Sometimes she'll get a little fidgety, so we take her out and we figured out that she likes to push the stroller! She's just the right height to use the basket as a handle. It's pretty cute, but we're not too fond of it for very long. She doesn't really walk quite fast enough! ;)
• Her baby toothpaste must taste really good, because she enjoys having her teeth brushed! Hopefully this habit will stick, but I'm kind of doubtful . . .
• She calls shoes and socks "shuussss."
• She's not too fond of shoes and socks or hats - well, at least not while they are on her body. She'd much rather take them off and play with them. I'm getting a little frustrated with that with the weather getting colder!

I'm probably leaving some stuff out, but that seems like a pretty good list, so I'll leave it at that for now. :)

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!

Current Baby Tricks

I've gotten behind in filling out Miss Nat's baby book. Here are some things that she's doing that I'm taking note of as I work on it:

• Using the sign for "more" when she's eating. She also says, "Mo . . . mo?" at the same time.


• Pointing to her nose when you ask her where it is.

• Sticking out her tongue and wiggling it when you ask her where it is (thanks to Great Aunt Jane for this cute trick)!

• Patting her chest when you ask where Natalie is. She also sometimes adds, "Naa . . . Naa" or what might sound more like "Daa . . . Daa" to the untrained-in-Natalie-language ear. ;)
• Pointing to your eye and saying, "Eye." Sometimes she does this when you ask her where her eye is, but sometimes she points to her own nose. Go figure!
• Saying "Nigh" oftentimes when you tell her "Goodnight" after laying her in her crib and turning out the light.
• Claps and/or dances as soon as she hears even the littlest bit of music.
• Says "Hi!!" or "Hey!" when she sees someone and wants to get their attention.
• Says "Uh!!! (pause) oh," usually when she drops something.
• Stands for about 20 seconds on her own.
• Is still obsessed with Casey and calls her "Ase."
• Gets scolded daily for insisting on standing in the chair she got for her birthday. She has got a strong will already!!!
• Looooooves fruit of any kind. Her favorites are blueberries, bananas, and grapes.
• Makes a scrunchy face and shows you all 4 of her teeth when you ask her to smile (I am STILL working on catching this on camera!)