Eleven Months

I'm so glad that I am almost done taking these monthly photos! Natalie will not stay laying down for a single picture. I usually take a lot of pictures that I narrow down to 8-10 good shots to choose from for her monthly photo; this month I was able to get four shots of her laying down TOTAL, and two of them are blurry because she was already rolling over so she could stand up and run away. She is a very busy lady! I'll have to recruit Jake to help with the shoot next month to see if we can get one last good photo. So here's what Natalie has been up to this month:

She doesn't just walk anymore, she also runs! She used to bring me things when I would ask, but now she just runs away. If she gets going too fast, though, she takes a spill. But don't worry, she can get back up to walk from any position now.

I know I haven't been mentioning her baby sign language in past posts, but she has several signs she does really well and a few more she's working on. She's good at more, eat, all done, milk, down, sing, and cracker. I'm trying to teach her drink, dog, bird, book, dance, please, thank you, and airplane.

Her favorite foods this month are graham crackers, club crackers, cheese, and macaroni and cheese. We also found a meat she likes: summer sausage! The healthiest of meats! ;) She also really likes sour foods, such as plain yogurt, pickled beets, sour cream, and lemon San Pellegrino. We also tried giving her tiny apple pieces this month, and she really liked them, but she doesn't chew them up at all, so we don't give them to her often. We gave her raisins, too, and she is not a fan.

Natalie enjoyed her first Thanksgiving. We had dinner with a few couples from church. Natalie loved the sweet potatoes Jake made, she liked the bread from the stuffing okay, but she did not like the mashed potatoes or turkey at all. Once we tried to give her those things, she wouldn't eat anything else we gave her except her yogurt bites. Well, we had to try, didn't we? I can't believe she doesn't like mashed potatoes!

When she sees us eating without her, she makes the cutest little "What do you have there?" face, and does the sign for more. It's pretty hard to resist!

We are calling "uh-oh" her official first word. She now knows to say it when she drops things, and it is just so cute! She can also say "Da da," but she will only do it in one context so far. She will call up the stairs when she thinks Jake is up there to get him to come say hi to her.

She knows what a monkey says and can do the "ah-ah" part of ooh-ooh-ooh-ah-ah. We're working on the lion now. She can growl, but not in response to the question.

She's gotten really good at ignoring me when I want her to stop doing something. She can ignore "No," "Stop," her name in a disapproving voice, "Put it back," and a whole host of other pleas for obedience. (Do you like how I worded that positively, as though she has made a great accomplishment?)

She has mastered all of the cupboard doors and drawers and bins in our apartment, so she can (and does!) get into everything!

And she is sooo tall! She can wrap her hands over counter tops, tables, and the tv stand. Everything has to be pushed back several inches from the edge. It's crazy how fast she grows. One week she can't reach our insulator lamps, and the next she can! She sure keeps us on our toes!

Speaking of toes, she knows where hers are. She also knows where her ears and feet are, and she knows where other people's noses are but not her own. However, a lot of the time she is too busy or uninterested to show us.

If she sees me sitting on the floor, sometimes she'll come up behind me and put her hands on my back, like a little pounce to surprise me. It's a fun surprise!

She loves watching out the window, even if there is nothing notable to see. She stands over by the window a lot, watching squirrels, blowing leaves, children playing, or sometimes nothing, like I said.

Her favorite TV shows are Doc McStuffins about a little girl who is a doctor for broken toys, and Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. She mostly just watches the parts with songs.

One of her new quirks is hugging pants. Last month she would find a sock in the laundry to carry around in her mouth. This month, she finds a pair of her pants and walks around hugging them with a big smile on her face. She'll even stop and scrunch down a little to give them a big squeeze. Such a silly, little girl!

We took Natalie to Zingerman's for lunch for Jake's birthday, and she started mimicking him. These two are such cuties!

Peering at Mom under the camera with her bunny.

The Head Chef working in her own kitchen.

Christmas-y Sunday Babe

Library playgroup. She loved the egg shaker and the dolly.

Natalie and I like to watch Giada together.

"Time for your spanking, Mom."

I love how she squats down to look at things. She's watching her favorite song from Doc McStuffins. 

What's back there?...

She's got something!...

It's a blanket!

The time Natalie got stuck under my sewing table. She was very calm trying to find her way out.

Sitting in her toy basket.

She's gotten a lot more snugly with her stuffed animals recently. I found her on the floor like this one day.

Now for some videos.

The next post will cover her first Christmas and her first birthday! I can't believe my little baby is going to be a year old! She gets to spend her first Christmas with Jake's family and her first birthday with mine. We intend to have a blast! Until next time.

Goodbye Long Locks!

I cut my hair recently, and a couple people wanted to see pictures, so I thought I would post them here so you will all recognize me when you see me next. Prepare for a shock. I'm donating about 12", so it's a big change! Here are the before and afters:

I really like it! I've been wasting a ton of shampoo and conditioner in the shower, but I'm doing better every time. ;) It's kind of fun having short hair for a change. It's faster to style, and Natalie can't really mess it up or pull it as much. I'm putting this one in the success column!

Family Photos

We got family photos taken this fall, so I thought you all might like to see a few of our favorites. We really like the way they turned out!

Natalie looks like she wants to be adopted by another family. :(

Those eyes!

Peek-a-boo!

We're so glad the photographer was able to make us look like a cute, normal family. ;) Haha! It's fun to have some nice pictures of all three of us!

Ten Months

First steps! Natalie took her first steps about a week after she turned nine months. At first she would only walk if we got her started or if we were nearby, but now she ventures out on her own. She walks laps around the apartment all the time, stopping off at a few of her favorite haunts: the garbage can, our shoes, the oven window (she likes to see her reflection).

She can get right back up into walking position if she falls forward onto her hands, but if she falls on her bum, she hasn't figured out how to get back up without crawling over to a piece of furniture to help her stand up. She loves to walk, and she gets mad if she falls on her bum because she doesn't want to crawl, she just wants to walk. She is very strong-willed, and sometimes she'll just sit and cry until I come help her stand back up so she can walk.

She's a little problem solver. She can figure out how to maneuver into the right location to get something under the couch by repositioning and then checking again on the location of the object.

She can turn the page in a board book when asked if I get it started for her. Sometimes she doesn't want me to even read the pages, she only wants to turn them.

She loves to read. If I start looking through a magazine, she'll come right over to look at it with me. Sometimes she hands me a book, and puts her arms up so that I'll pick her up and read it to her. Love it!

Unfortunately, she now recognizes the rustling sound of candy wrappers. So even if you are doing a great job of hiding it, she hustles over to share your treats. Oh, well, it's fun to share with her!

She has started pointing a lot, particularly when we are holding her. She wants to direct us toward things she would like to touch that are usually out of her reach.

She knows where my nose and mouth are; she'll point if I ask, "Where's my nose (or mouth)?"

She loves to squeeze under or around things. When I'm sitting on the couch with my feet up on the coffee table, she likes to come duck under my legs. Or if I'm sitting on the floor with my knee up off the ground, she'll come and army crawl under it. So silly!

She loves to come up behind me, stand up holding onto my legs, then crawl between them, even if there are cabinets on the other side. Sometimes when I'm still in my baggy pajama pants, she'll stand up holding onto my legs, then pull my pants down until she can reach my back pocket to take my cell phone. Yep, I've been pantsed by my baby.

She makes a lot of consonant sounds, and there are certain situations in which she frequently makes the same sounds. For instance, when she is trying to entertain herself, she often says, "Bop" over and over. When she's complaining about something she says, "Na na na na na." And when she's mad she says, "Hey dee dee dee." It's so funny to hear her trying to express herself with words.

She can repeat "uh-oh" back to us, although sometimes she won't. She doesn't understand what it means yet, but it's the first "word" that she will try to repeat back. Video below.

She's still eating like a champ, but she only wants to eat things she can feed to herself. She will hardly eat anything off of a spoon anymore. A few new foods she likes include graham crackers, fruit cups (peaches and pears), bread or toast with a spread (jam, nutella, butter), grilled cheese, and cheese cubes. She doesn't love meat; she's tried chicken, meatballs, tuna, and ground turkey, but she isn't a huge fan.

We call her the Head Chef because she has to be involved in everything that happens in the kitchen. She always follows us in there, and tries to get us to pick her up so she can see what is going on. We are just her sous chefs! She makes it really hard for me to get dinner ready because if I don't pick her up, she just hugs my legs and cries, making it impossible to get anything done.

We got her a stuffed bunny to snuggle around bedtime, and she loves it! She hugs Bunny really tight and gives it kisses. It's so cute!

She absolutely loves playing peek-a-boo. She puts her hands back behind her ears (as though she had just uncovered her eyes) when she wants to play. She hasn't quite figured out how to cover her own eyes yet, but she will duck behind things and pop up and down to play or she'll use a blanket or curtain.

She's really good at waving bye-bye. She does it when she knows we're going out or if visitors are getting their shoes on by the door. It gets kind of awkward sometimes because she starts waving as soon as we go over to the door with our guests, so while they're getting their shoes on or we're chatting, and Natalie keeps waving, it seems like she's saying, "Get out already." Haha!

She likes to carry things in her mouth, mostly socks. I've seen her put the occasional toy in her mouth and then crawl across the room, but more often she finds a sock, puts it in her mouth, and walks around with it in there. Usually they're clean. :)

She's wearing mostly 24 month clothes and size 5 diapers. She just keeps growing! I put up some fall decorations and purposely placed them out of her reach at the beginning of the month; well, now she can reach them. She's almost as long as her changing pad now, so we'll see if I can use that much longer.

Now on with the pictures!

Being silly. Check out that double chin!

It's too cold for this now. :(

Natalie likes to kiss Jake's foot when he has his leg crossed. It's funny, but sometimes she bites. Yikes!

Natalie's favorite parts of conference were the music and the pictures of Jesus!

So proud of herself for conquering blanket mountain.

A package? For me?

Let me in that bath!

This is a fun story. I took Natalie to a baby (0-2 yrs) story time/playgroup at the library for the first time. She has been a bit wary of strangers at first, so I thought she would stick with me, and maybe we would meet one or two moms. Well, Natalie sure surprised me! She was so outgoing and social! She enjoyed the songs during story time, then they put a ton of toys out and let the kids play. She walked and crawled all around the room. She would crawl up to complete strangers, use them to help her stand up, and smile and wave at them. She would go up to other kids and try to touch them or scream with excitement. I don't think she was quite as popular with the little ones because of that, but we met so many parents just because Natalie was so outgoing. In the picture below she is crawling through one of those fabric pop-up tunnels. It was at least ten feet long, and there were a lot of older kids who were scared to go in it. Natalie went right over to it and crawled right through without any convincing from me. I just ran to the other end to catch a picture. Another time, she actually started through when a nervous kid was just inside the other end. (She got in there before I could stop her, so I just had to go to the other end to make sure she was nice.) She crawled right up to the boy, touched his face, and squealed. He backed out of her way to find his dad so fast! Poor little guy!

I caught a picture mid-fall. The amazing, levitating baby bottom!

This is a side of Natalie we like to call Lounge Babe.

Nothing! Nowhere!

She's always getting down on her belly to inspect things these days.

Grandma Adams sent a cute headband to keep her ears warm this winter! Love that tongue!

Sometimes she gets so crabby in her car seat!

One day Natalie didn't take very good naps, and then we took her to a little party at a friend's apartment, where she walked round and round, getting lots of attention from everyone. Then we came home, and she crashed. She never just falls asleep on us like this without a fight, but she just sat on Jake's lap watching TV, slumped over, then curled up and went to sleep. What a cutie! She didn't even wake up when we put her on the changing table!

RAWR!

Sometimes lunch time goes from this...

...To this...

Just a little rester.

At the ward trunk or treat, getting robbed by the cutest cat burglar on the planet!

Happy Halloween!

These Christmas-y overalls are not going to fit at Christmas, so we got festive early!

Love those lips!

Natalie's space magic

So Natalie has not been very good about going right to sleep for her afternoon naps for several days (It's a sore subject!), but luckily she doesn't cry. She just plays in her crib for 45 minutes or so before going to sleep for only about 30 minutes. Like I said, sore subject. Anyway, I check on her periodically using the monitor, and one day I discovered she had done a little redecorating. She pulled a blanket into her crib (it was on the back of the couch at the end of her crib). She threw a pillow on the floor (was also on the couch). And she was reaching out through the slats trying to retrieve said pillow. Needless to say, someone did not get her nap that day, and I get crabby when I miss my nap. ;)

Now for some videos!

Here is the video of Natalie saying "Uh-oh."

These other videos are just a few everyday moments I thought you might enjoy.

She's so close to a year old, I can hardly even stand it! Until next month!