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!
