11 Months Old

Riding the carousal at the park
Being so sweet

The excitement continues, and we are as busy as ever! Natalie and I stayed with my parents for a week at the end of May while Matt was fishing in Hayward. And on our way home we stopped by for a very quick visit too. Natalie had so much fun playing with her cousins and all her other relatives. But her most favorite part of the visit was petting and torturing Kitty cat, Mickey! She got to go for her first boat ride, and enjoyed being on the water, but hated the lifejacket.

Natalie is becoming a very affectionate little girl. She loves giving hugs and kisses to her dolls, and any children that she can find! She's starting to understand simple commands, like "bring that to me", "wave bye-bye", "blow kisses", etc. It's amazing to me how much they can understand at such a young age. She's been eating grown up food really well now, she loves chicken noodle soup, spaghetti, cheerios, mostly all fruit, cheese, crackers and yogurt. In the past couple of days, she's also starting cutting some more teeth. 1 more on the bottom is popping through, and there are 4 on the top that will be through soon. She's been handling it like a champ!

Some of our family is planning to visit next month for Natalie's birthday so we're looking forward to the company.....I have a feeling this summer is going to go by way too fast!

10 Months old!

Mother's Day
Standing up like a big girl

10 Month b-day

Enjoying an afternoon at the park

Cooling off with Daddy

We've been enjoying this warm weather and early summer! Natalie is as busy as ever, and she handled the move like a champ. My mom came down to help watch Natalie while Matt and I finished painting, redoing the trim and finally got to move our stuff in! It was a long, tiring day but we managed and are now comfortably settled in and enjoying our new home!

Natalie hasn't taken any steps yet, but she will stand on her own. She is a very adventurous little girl, and is always making us laugh with her expressions and antics. Other than moving into our new house, life is pretty much the same. It's so fun watching Natalie grow and learn new things every day. She seems to always have something on her mind and is very talkative. We are heading up north for a few days to visit family, hope you all have a good Memorial day! Love, Matt, Ann & Natalie

9 Months Old!

Making Easter Eggs
Getting ready to play outside

On Easter Sunday

2 Teeth!!

On her 9 month b-day

Well, her bottom 2 teeth finally came through! They are so cute, and Natalie loves helping to brush them. Her 9 month check up went great, especially because there were no shots involved! She weighed in at 17 lbs (20th percentile) and is 28 inches (60th percentile). Dr. Szabo said she looks very healthy and is doing great!

We've had another busy month, and have been chasing Natalie around like crazy. She's a very curious little girl, and loves investigating! She's been having lots of fun at the drop-in daycare at the Y, when I go to aerobics twice a week. She loves playing with all the toys there, and her new friend, Sully. She's been talking so much, and it seems she always has something on her mind that she wants to babble about. She says Mama and Dada, and I think she's starting to figure out which name goes to which person.

I have been working on giving her some table food, like grapes, carrots, cottage cheese, spaghetti, and a few other things. I think the texture of the food is a problem sometimes, but we're working on it. Other exciting news is that we bought a house last week! We're going to paint and do a few other things to it before we move in, but we hope to be all settled in by the end of May. So, it'll be another busy month, and I'm sure we'll have more fun stories next post! Love, Matt, Ann & Natalie

8 Months old!

Another month flew by, but we are all doing good. It's great that spring is arriving, so we are able to get outside for some fresh air. Natalie is crawling around very fast, and keeping us on our toes. She's able to pull herself up on everything, and seeming to get braver everyday! We started parent/child swim lessons which she seems to really love. It's at the YMCA on Wed nights, and we have a big class this session. She's able to kick, splash, put her face in (that's her way of "blowing bubbles") and jump in from the side (well, more like fall in, but she loves it).

Natalie and I made a trip up to MN for my friend, Jill's baby shower. She did great during the drive, I left at 4 am, so she slept the majority of the way. It took us about 6 hours. We spent a week there, and it was fun to see family and friends. Natalie is getting a lot better about new people, and has started waving to everyone and clapping. It's adorable, especially when she randomly starts waving to pillows and the TV among other things. :-)

No teeth have poked through yet, but we can see the outline of her bottom two. Maybe next month we'll have a picture of her with some teeth! That's about all the news for now! We're going to go to the park since it's another nice day! Take care everyone. Love, Matt, Ann & Natalie

7 Months old

This month flew by! Natalie is moving around a lot faster now so Matt and I really have to be on our toes! She's up on her hands and knees and is able to crawl around pretty good. She's also able to pull herself up and loves standing-hopefully she'll wait a little while before she starts walking! We had to bring Natalie in for her flu shot booster and we asked to weigh her. We were surprised to find out she gained over a pound in this past month, she was 16 lbs! She's been eating really well and likes most of the food we've given her, green beans and peas aren't her favorite, but she'll eat them. I'd say her favorite foods are still pears and she really likes bananas too.

Natalie made a friend at the Y daycare, his name is Sully and he's a month older than her. They'll talk to each other, wave and smile, it's really cute. She's been talking a lot more and says da-da all the time. When I ask her to say mama, she'll just smile at me and say, da-da over and over. We took her to the park on a semi-warm winter day. She loved the swing, so I know this summer we'll be at the park often! Our parent/child swim class starts on Wed, so next month I'll let everyone know how that went! Love, Matt, Ann & Natalie

6 Months old!

Happy New Year everyone! Natalie enjoyed her first Christmas, even though we weren't able to go to MN because of the storm. We had a quiet day at home, and enjoyed our time together. My mom, sister and niece and nephew were able to come visit us last weekend for a late Christmas and we enjoyed that as well! Natalie is doing great and has mastered sitting on her own. She is getting better at her scooting and is getting places quicker and going father each time. She's a very curious baby, so I think we're going to have our hands full very soon! She is usually a happy baby and it's so fun to see her learning and exploring new things. She loves being tickled, sang to, playing peek-a-boo and blowing "raspberries" at us on a regular basis! She's been talking away lately, and we've heard her say da-da and hi, even though she's just copying us and probably has no clue what she's saying!

Natalie's 6 month check up yesterday went well. The poor thing had 5 shots, and was pretty mad about it, but got over it fast. The nurse said Natalie has very strong legs for a little girl! She in 26 1/2 inches and 14 lbs. 13 oz. She's in a lower percentile for her weight but Dr. Szabo (her new pediatrician) said that it's nothing to be concerned about. We got the go ahead to give her more solids, and we're going to work our way up to 3 meals a day. Natalie loves her rice cereal still, and we introduced oatmeal, which she loves too. We've given her quite a few different fruits and veggies and I'd have to say that pears are her favorite. We're also working on introducing a cup, and have been giving her water with her meals, which she is getting a lot better at.

As expected during the winter, Natalie endured her first illness a couple of weeks ago. She got a cold and cough, but was a champ throughout and is now back to normal. Our family got memberships to the YMCA and Natalie and I will be taking a Parent/Child swim class next month. They also have a drop in daycare that we can use, so Matt and I can work out and Natalie can be around other kids.

Well, that's pretty much the update for now. We'll post more news next month. Love, Matt, Ann & Natalie

Scooting

I hadn't posted a video in awhile, so here's Miss Natalie scooting for her toys!