Wednesday, September 28, 2011

The gig is up

Yesterday when Kelli picked Natali up from school there was a milestone.

Natali saw Kelli and WALKED all the way across the room to meet her. Too bad I missed it.

Then today Natali is walking more than ever. Still wobbly but she will walk down the hall unassisted. Across the room unassisted. She even walked, bent down to pick up her sippy cup, erected herself and drank while standing up.

I think Natali has been a closet walker for a while. Walking in her crib and showing off at school for weeks. She didn't walk in front of us to play mind tricks on us. I think walking in front of Kelli yesterday was a fluke.

It's been a rough week. Monday and Tuesday Natali was up from 5:30AM until 4PM nonstop. She didn't nap at day care. Once Kelli picked her up from day care, Natali fell asleep immediately.

She then slept from 4PM until 6:30PM on Monday. We woke her to feed her. She was cranky...very cranky. Just dinner and a bath then bed.

Tuesday we let her sleep till 7PM. Same thing. Cranky. Bath, dinner then bed.

Today she took a nap. Kelli and I were happy as we got to spend some quality time with Natali.

 

Sunday, September 25, 2011

An Escape Plan

Natali is walking more...still primarily crawling. Patience.

Natali has never been too difficult to put to bed. Most of the time...say 8.5679 times out of 10 she lays down, plays for a bit, then goes to bed. The other 1.433 times (who's counting?) it's a little tricky.

I've noticed that if I put her down gently (as opposed to the ol'toss and run!) and then QUICKLY exit the room, she's fine. If she rolls over and watches me leave....then she screams, cries, summons the demons.

I bought Toddler 411 today. The Baby 411 book was great. I plan on reading and referring to it like I did in the past.

One thing I did read was about eating. We should introduce a new food 10 times before giving up. We've tried pasta twice....8 more times to go. Natali does like grilled scallops AND salmon..so that's a plus.

Natali knows a little Byrd sign language. I've taught her hungry and "I love you". Hungry in "Byrd" is holding her hand at the corner of her mouth. She does it well. Natali all does "I love you". I taught her tapping her chest means "I love you." She has associated hearing the phrase with tapping her chest. Natali does "all done" every now and then.

This will be Natali's first full week of day care ever. Due to my training Monday-Friday and Kelli not being able to swap weekdays for weekends....this happened. Not great.

When she goes to daycare it's hit or miss if she takes a nap. When she doesn't take a nap she sleeps from the time she gets home till 6:30PM or so...giving just 90 minutes for us to interact. Eh.

It's just a week.

 

 

Monday, September 19, 2011

Confidence, Confidence, Dry and Secure!

Over the weekend Natali took a big step forward in her confidence. Out of nowhere she started just standing on her own...still...but standing for long periods of time. She just stands, talks and makes hand gestures.

Natali stood around a lot over the weekend. It got to the point where, while out shopping for a new fridge, she would fuss until we put her down and let her just stand.

She did take a few steps on her own.

Natali is also able to start walking, stop, continue walking and recover from being wobbly. Progress indeed.

I haven't talked about her teeth much. She has four middle bottom fully in. Four top row teeth about 1/2 in and two side teeth about 1/3 in. Not bad.

Our weekly grocery bill has dropped a full $20. Reason? No more formula! We actually stopped giving her formula about a week after her 1 year birthday. Natali now just drinks whole milk and water. Nice.

Kelli should be updating soon. It's been busy lately as we haven't had a full day off at the same time in a while now that I'm temporarily working a Monday thru Friday schedule and Kelli is working weekends to save on daycare.

Finally Natali has correlated a camera flash with her "ugly" face I taught her. Nice eh?

Monday, September 12, 2011

We've got a walker!

Yesterday we were all on the living room floor when Natali finally had enough. She took her first official steps.

Coincidentally Natali turned 13 months old yesterday. Hmmmm.

We are very proud of her. Hopefully she starts walking more and more.

She's come a long way....and has a long way to go. We are glad to be along for the ride.

 

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DlkgTdrgLcc

Friday, September 9, 2011

The mushy stuff

Natali is growing. Everyday growing up. She "talks" more.....tries to "walk" more. Getting bigger.

When I hold her in my arms it upsets me that one day she will be too big to hold. I take way to many pictures of her. All an attempt to keep her small. One thing I love about photography is the ability to capture a moment in time forever in my own way.

With all of this...I still only want one. I don't want to experience any of this (the good and the bad) again.

Monday, September 5, 2011

Closer to walking

We had a nice trip to San Francisco. Natali is now up to 26 flights.

While in California we saw some friends who has a daughter two weeks younger than Natali. They are both teachers and it showed.

Their daughter, Cacey, is WAY more advanced than Natali. Cacey has been walking since she was 9 months old. Of course she is much smaller than Natali so it was a little easier to walk (so I hear). Then there is the whole talking and communication thing.

Cacey opens says many more words than Natali. What she doesn't say....she signed.

I tried to teach Natali sign language, but since I'm not here everyday, and Kelli didn't really participate, it didn't stick.

Natali talks...but only on her own terms. She will say "dadda", "mamma", "up","hi", "doggy" and "Replublican"...but only when she feels it. Kidding out the Republican thing. Bleh.

Natali is walking a bit more though. For a while she would only walk if we held both of her hands. Now we are down to one hand. Progress.