Apr 14, 2015

14 Months


At the very beginning of this month, she started signing and saying grandpa (she says papa). She's also trying to say grandma, but it does not remotely sound like the real word. It sounds like a p-sound followed by a drawn out ck-sound. She started saying grandma within a couple days of grandpa, but it took me a while to figure out that's what she was saying.

New animal noises: meow for cat, growl for bear, hoo hoo for owl, ho ho ho for Santa, and sss for snake.

New words: toast (sounds like tst), go, bye, no, whoa, ta da, ball (bow), roll, shoes (shs), and truck (ck).

New signs: truck, help, and she made up her own sign for prunes.

She can nod yes, which is very helpful in figuring out what she wants.

She wants to watch this video on YouTube all the time. Street vehicles just drive across the screen to video game type music while a monotone guy announces what they are. She loves it.

She likes it when I count things out loud for her. She tries to count too, which is super cute. Sometimes she asks me to count by pointing at things, and saying, "two?" Then she does the sign for sing, so I guess counting sounds a little sing-songy to her.

We started playing voice mails from the grandparents for her so she could hear their voices more. Now she says papa whenever she sees my phone because she wants to listen to their messages.

She can play i-spy in her books. I ask her where things are, and she points to them.

Whenever I turn the faucet on in the kitchen, she gets upset because she knows I'm working and won't pick her up. So she comes over and hassles me until I'm done.

Still hates the vacuum. She cries and trembles the entire time it is visible, not just while it's on.

We finally found some shoes that would fit her, and she got to walk outside for the first time! She really likes putting her shoes on and taking the off. Over and over and over.

She likes being rocked in the rocking chair, even though it is super squeaky.

That monkey gets way more snuggles than Jake and I do!

She loves playing with garbage; milk jugs are a favorite.

Steve and Allie sent this awesome cardboard fort for her birthday, and she loves it! She likes having that giant monkey in there with her and apparently watching TV through the window.


"This purse is just my size."

She loves watching the birds that come to our feeder. It's really fun to have this great view of the birds during the winter.

I came downstairs to find them kissing and Natalie trying to say "kissed ya!"

She wanted to wear Dad's sock.


She started sitting on the monkey's lap without our suggesting it. So funny!

Wearing some of her new shoes!
Next up: month 15!

13 months


Well, three months have flown by with nary a post from me. Natalie is 15 months now! So here goes playing catch-up. I've been keeping track of what Natalie has been up to each month, and of course there are lots of pictures. So I'll try to get the rest of my posts caught up soon. Here are some tidbits about Natalie's 13th month:

She started saying dada a lot and mama some. She calls out for Jake a lot during the day. I think it's been hard on all of us for him to go back to work after having him with us so much over Christmas break.

She started trying to say more things this month. She started saying "Pop pop" when Mr. Brown makes the sound of a cork in Dr. Suess. Don't tell her she's probably never going to hear that sound. ;) She also sings "Oh, oh, oh" and "Doo, doo, doo" at the appropriate times during the theme song from Doc McStuffins.

She loves animal noises. She can now do dog and elephant noises.

New signs: monkey, pear, squirrel, and banana.

Squirrels come right up to our glass door, so she gets to come face-to-face with them, and she loves that. She picked up the sign for squirrel after being shown only twice!

The "more" sign has become her sign for "I want," so she does it all the time and then points at things she wants.

We switched from formula to whole milk this month. This is a huge deal! Formula was costing us about $18 a week, and whole milk costs us about $3 a week. Yay!

She can climb down the stairs by herself with no coaching, although she still needs help getting started at the top.

Onto the pictures! There are a few from Christmas since we did some celebrating after her birthday. Enjoy!

Our Christmas tree had to go on the table this year to escape thieving baby hands.


She actually had fun opening presents, no matter how bored she looks in these pictures!

Hugging her giant monkey.



She really started getting into stuffed animals. In this picture she was trying to hug all of them at once!


I love everything about this picture, except how blurry it is! So sassy!

Helping me dust!


I have to take a picture every time she falls asleep on me because it happens so rarely.

Natalie's first artwork. Jake and I helped a little.

One big happy family! Wait, that's not Jake...!

Kisses for monkey! She loves that thing!
More to come soon. I hope!