Not A City Girl

Time for an update!

We discovered Natalie is not a City Girl, at least this weekend she wasn't. We went up to San Francisco to visit some friends. Natalie did great in the car on the way up - slept the whole way! That was the end of the sleeping. The trucks backing up, cars honking, sirens, and other general street noise woke her up early and kept her up at night. Oh well.

We took her to her first baseball game - Giants vs Cardinals. The weather was a perfect 70ish degrees, but Natalie wasn't in such a great mood. She didn't want mama to sit, wanted to be up moving around. She also didn't like the loud yelling from the guys behind us. Brought her to tears everytime! So, we spent much of the game walking around the base of our section. She fell asleep - for the last 15 minutes of the game!






We went to visit with Ariel, Ricardo & Sebastian. He was walking everywhere! So fun to see how much he has grown! We're planning to see them again next month; I bet they play more together next time.



We gave Natalie her sippy cup a few weeks back. She just tries to chew on the spout. She did manage to get water out a few times, and she just makes the sourest face ever! I sweetened it a bit with Apple Juice yesterday and she managed to drink an ounce or so.

She's been turning circles when she's on her tummy. Sometimes she gets up on her knees, but then she dives forward to reach for toys.


Yesterday I took Natalie to the swings at the park for the first time! I took a towel because I knew it'd be way too big for her. She was neither excited nor upset about it; mostly just curious about the shadow on the ground! I have a feeling we'll have to take a lot of trips across the street to the park when she realizes how fun it is!



More pictures from the last few weeks:
Hanging out on mom & dad's bed



Trying peas:


Quick visit from Grammy & Papa:


Meeting Charlotte (5 weeks old - Amazing what a difference 5 months makes!):

6 month check-up

Just got back from the doctor's office. Natalie is doing great!

Weight: 15 lbs 9 oz (40th %)
Length: 26 inches (60th %)

Her length surprised me the most, but I'm also amazed that she is an ounce shy of 8lbs heavier than when she was born! Crazy how much she has grown!

The Dr. noted that she flew through her first cold season without any problems (most likely because we haven't had to see him outside of the check-ups). He said to start increasing her solid food to twice a day and that by 9 months old she should be having solids 3 times a day! Now I have to figure out how to fit in the extra feeding!

I asked if I should try to get her to be a more consistent napper and he said he wouldn't mess with it much because she is so good at night. She'll continue to increase her daytime activities and the extra food will help her get the energy.

He listened to her lungs and said all is clear. Her little fake laugh/cough thing is just that.

He said a lot of babies at this point are rolling across the floor, but not to be worried that she doesn't. Just continue to show her how, but that she might skip right to crawling and pulling up on things.

Since she doesn't have any teeth yet, it sounds like the next 3 months could be interesting. The Dr. said that most babies will get the bottom 2 and then the top 4 teeth by 9 months old. Yikes! Sounds like she could get a whole bunch at once.

She did good with her shots, a little whimper and then she was fine when I picked her up! The next round is in 3 months.

6 months!

Yesterday was Natalie's 1/2 birthday!

Some of the things she is doing:
* Sitting on her own. She's able to sit more upright for longer periods of time. We still don't leave her alone like that, but she's definitely getting stronger.

* Transferring objects. She'll take her pacifier and transfer from one hand to the other. Same with some of her toys.

* Putting her pacifier in by herself. Been doing this a few weeks now. She still won't do it at night, but during the day, she puts it in and takes it out by herself.

* Eating lots of foods. This month she's had rice cereal, oatmeal, sweet potatoes, pears, carrots, bananas (in that order). She's done well with them all. She gets 1 - 2oz around dinner time.

* Nursing 4 times a day. 8a, 11:30a, 3:30p, 6:45p.

* Sleeping all night. She goes to bed around 7/7:30 and is up again at 8am. The past 3 nights she hasn't even needed her pacifier in the middle of the night!

* Squealing, laughing, smiling, and happy talking. She giggles, but it's not real often. Her newest thing is to sort of silent laugh. It sounds like she's sort of out of breath or something, but she has the biggest smile on her face. I'm sure it will turn into a big laugh soon! This girl has the biggest smiles for her daddy. He walks into the room, she'll turn her head and immediately give him the biggest smiles.

* Crunches, crunches, crunches. This girl must have abs of steel (under her baby fat, of course!). When we put her down on her back, she will hold her upper body up forever! People comment they've never seen other babies do this (or at least never this long). It's just her way of seeing what's going on, I guess.

She seems to have mastered rolling from back to front around 4 mo old, and has no interest in doing it anymore. If we push her legs over to her side, she'll flip over and push up on her arms, but she rarely initiates rolling over. I only saw her roll front to back twice, and I'm not sure it wasn't on accident! I guess she's just going to go straight to crawling - no barrel rolling for Natalie.

She's around 15.5 lbs, wearing 3-6 mo clothes, size 2 diapers. She can still fit into some of the 0-3 mo onesies, but most of them are getting snug or too short. We've definitely moved on to 3-6 mo stuff. We'll have her official stats on Monday at her next appointment.

Easter Post

Some pictures of Natalie in her Easter dress, playing with her eggs and basket. We cheated and took these a week early; good thing too, because the Easter weather wasn't nearly as nice.










Last weekend we celebrated Grandpa Pierre's birthday. Natalie just loved talking and playing with Anna!



We made a quick trip to see family on Sunday. At first she didn't know what to think of Papa, but she eventually warmed up. Here's a cute one of she and Grammy together.

(her little socks say "My First Easter")

Ryan hunted eggs while Natalie had her first taste of bananas. Yumm!




Natalie's tummy-time skills are really improving. I swear she's doing new things daily! About two weeks ago, she really started reaching for her toys. In the process she would either flick them further away, or drag them down by her side out of sight. Her newest trick is to balance her weight on one hand and reach for her toys with the other. She's been pulling her knees forward, but her tummy is still on the floor. She'll be inching around in no time!

I've been experimenting with our fancy camera; trying to figure out how the darn thing works. We played dress-up today and I got some cute pictures of Natalie in her new headbands. I randomly met a girl who makes these while we were shopping at Vons a few weeks ago. Her website is called Alison's Garden. I think they are so fun!

Happy Friday!

Our house has been super busy. Not a lot of time for posting or taking pictures, but we did get this cute one yesterday. She was smiling up at Grammy who was on Spring Break and came to hang out with Natalie.

Looking forward to a quick family visit this weekend!

Cutie pie

Some cute pictures from today. The first one is my new favorite!






Some fun pictures from last week. I've been waiting for warmer weather so she can wear her cute dresses.








Nothing much new to post. This week Natalie has been practicing sitting up. Sometimes she'll sit for 10 or 20 seconds before toppling over, so she's still far off, but she's getting there!

She's been getting a lot of Tummy Time and likes reaching for her toys. Most of the time she ends up pushing them just out of reach.

We've been sticking with the cereal so far. We've been making it thicker and thicker and she's getting pretty good at it. Tonight most of it actually made it into the mouth and stayed there! Throughout the day, she sticks her tongue out and licks her lips, so I'm sure that practice helps. David and I made some Sweet Potato puree tonight. I think tomorrow will be the Big Day!

Giggles!

Natalie giggled tonight and we got it on camera! Surprising because it was almost bedtime and she was still in a great mood. I just love these sweet sounds and could listen to her all day!



Happy Friday!

5 months old!

Ok, so yesterday, Natalie was 5 months old. We didn't miss the date, just too busy to post. Busy in the middle of March, can't imagine why! (hint: taxes)

She is doing all sorts of fun things now. I got her to giggle for a good 60 seconds on Monday. I know, doesn't sound like much, but I've been [patiently] waiting and finally got it out of her. I was laughing too hard to think about grabbing the camera. She's been doing quick laughs here and there, but this was the first laugh-out-loud-because-my-mom-is-making-a-funny-face-laugh! Too fun!


She's also been steadily eating rice cereal. She gets bored of it about 1/2 way through the feeding. The Dr. said to expect that, because after 3 or 4 days of wallpaper paste, she'll be ready to move on. I'm trying to decide what to serve as her first official food this weekend. Maybe Sweet Potatoes? I'll research more tomorrow. By the way, this is hard for me, because I don't like to eat half of the things you're supposed to feed babies. In fact, I don't even know how to cook most of them! (potatoes? peas? squash? avocado? should be interesting for us both)


She rolls around on the floor occasionally, and gets up on her side, but she's just not that interested in moving. She'll find her hands or feet and just try getting everything into her mouth at once. That keeps her attention for the most part.


Her head and neck are really steady now. She turns and looks when she hears noise or voices. And most definitely follows mom and dad across the room.

She seems like she is getting bored just sitting in our laps. She wants to have a toy or better yet, whatever you're holding. We played cards on Friday night with Trisha & Travis, and she kept trying to swipe my cards! We went out for dinner on Saturday, and she reached for my salad multiple times. I started reading her books in the evening and she wants to help hold the book and stares at the pictures. Kind of nice to know she's paying attention!



Her nap schedule has really adjusted. Her morning nap is still consistent, but she's cut it down to 45 minutes. She'll usually take 2 more 45 minute naps throughout the day, but she's definitely awake more. I've read about this, and hopefully when we move to more solid food, she'll take better naps (the goal is to get 2 naps of 1.5-2hrs each).

We haven't been using her swing much anymore. I'll put her in it sometimes if she seems sleepy but is fighting her nap. It usually buys me 30 min or so, but other than that, she gets bored and wants out.

She's still sleeping through the night. We put her down about 7:45 each night and she'll wake up around 7:30 or 8 on her own. The putting her to bed routine has gotten better, but it varies depending on her naps. Sometimes she fights us when we lay her down, but usually a crank or two of the mobile calms her enough and she is able to do it on her own!

Stats for this month:
Weight: about 14.5 lbs
Height: about 24 inches

Hoping to get more pictures tomorrow, we took these close to bedtime and the smiles were hard to get!

Exploring

This has been a week of exploration for Natalie. She has been practicing new sounds and tried cereal tonight!

She discovered her voice and likes to repeat this high pitched whine. Hear for yourself:


She's also been talking to herself in the mornings before I go in to get her. I grabbed the camera a few minutes into her chatting, and she stopped after she saw me, but she is such a happy girl in the mornings! She's been waking up earlier and earlier - just in time for the time change next weekend.


The past few weeks Natalie has been staring down our food. She follows it from your plate to your mouth and is super quiet studying how to do it. The Dr. told us anytime we were ready, go ahead and start with cereal. We decided she was in a pretty good mood tonight when David got home from work, so we thought we'd give it a try. I think she might have worn more than she swallowed, but she definitely had the right idea!






A couple cute pictures from an outing with her daddy. It was a drizzly day!

Hard to believe we'll be taking her 5-month pictures next week! Time is sure flying!

(Complete side note - I was doing some experimenting with the uploads. I switched the video quality to low so that it would upload quick, but now they are kind of blurry. Next time I'll use medium and see if it is better. I also tried to upload the pictures using the "small" option to see if it would be faster, no such luck. Took forever and the pictures are small. Oh well, now I know!)