Monday, October 31, 2011

Back in the air

We took our first family trip in at least 2 months over the weekend. We flew down to see my dad in Houston.

Natali did fine. She's a travel pro. It helps that Kelli and I have travelling with a toddler down to a science. We had one diaper backpack, one backpack for us (chargers, ipads, magazine), one car seat and one Go-Go-Babyz roller. That's it.

Natali had not seen my dad in almost 4 months. She is very standoffish with new people. We were a little worried she wouldn't remember him. Not an issue. The moment we walked into the house my dad picked her up and Natali was fine. Nice.

It was a very long day. Natali woke up a little early and had just a 15 minute nap on the plane, maybe 20 minutes in the car....and that was it.

By 5PM she was spent. She slept in the car on the way to the airport for about 30 minutes. Not enough.

When Natali is tired she is happy, but volatile. She is fine as long as no one interrupts whatever she is doing. If she is walking in circles fine. Starring into infinity fine. Trying to slide off a chair...well she needs help...and here comes the crying.

Thankfully she's very easy to console. It's very rare I can't calm her down in less than 10 seconds.

DFW airport has REALLY nice kids areas. Lots of room and soft stationary play equipment. Natali loved the slide. George Bush Airport (IAH) doesn't have a play area....at least not in the American Airlines area.

We found a somewhat empty part of the waiting area. Natali roamed for a bit. She kept signing that she was hungry and wanted "more". We showed her the apple sauce and she signed "more". Fine. After it was opened...nah.

Thankfully the plane was on time and we timed our arrival so we only waited about 30 minutes before boarding so she never got too bad.

Once on the plane she was fine. Slept for part of the flight.

Once back at DFW she was out. She slept through getting off the plane , riding the train to a different terminal and all the way home. I put her in her crib at 9:10PM. Her normal bedtime is 7PM.

This morning I decided to let her sleep in. Yeah about that.

Natali has an internal clock. Almost every morning she wakes up at 6:15AM. Today was no exception.

She stood up in her bed and cried. After 3 minutes I had enough. I brought her to our bed (Kelli left for work at 6AM) and Natali immediately fell sleep until 7:40AM.

Since today is Halloween and her day care said it was costume day I decided to dress her up.

Our great friends Eric and Angela bought Natali a Michigan State University cheerleader outfit when Natali was born. It's a 12 month outfit so it didn't fit until recently.

Over the weekend I bought Natali some stockings as it's the proper thing to wear with a cheerleader outfit...I think.

Anyways she looked adorable. Best costume of the class in my opinion.









 

The bottom photo looks a little funny. There was a dog's rear end pointing up originally...I used Iphoto to remove him...not a pro job...just a quickie.

Beyond that she is becoming more amazing everyday. Her vocabulary is expanding. Her current two favorite words are "uh oh" and "outside".

More soon. Trying to update at least once a week.

Friday, October 21, 2011

No more bottles....and lots more words

Natali is now bottle free. She's actually been bottle free for about 3 weeks now.

She bounces between whole milk and water. Every now and then she grabs my bottle of "ghetto koolaid" which is Walmart brand crystal light flavoring...she likes it.

Her vocabulary is always increasing. Her newest words is "diaper". She says it with a Bostonian accent so it's like, "Daaaaper".

Natali will say diaper while either making a dirty diaper or as soon as she has finished making a dirty diaper. It's cute...and annoying.

I try to keep her diet somewhat varied. Thanks to me she eats a good amount of fish. She either eats fish sticks or white fish (imitation crab) shaped into sticks. She likes them both. Aside from that she eats chicken, refried beans (she loves them), carrots, corn, peas, natural applesauce and more.

Her favorite breakfast is mini-pancakes. Natali won't touch them until I put the sugar free syrup on them. She'll put both hands in the air and wait. Very cute.

Natali and I took a few hours and stopped by the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History. She had a good time. They have a good sized kids area that she loved to just roam around. Still not so sure about playing with other kids just yet though.

 



There is a metal beam from one of the twin towers from 9/11. It will be difficult explaining that day to her.



Finally.....Kelli's side of the family eats more ice cream than the average American....probably twice as much. I'm sure it's a genetic marker....Natali loves it too. Hear is a frozen yogurt induced smile.

Monday, October 17, 2011

Walking, "Talking" and putting us in our places

Natali is walking most of the time. When she wants to get somewhere in a hurry, she crawls.

Most of the time when she's home she is barefoot. Every now and then when she gets home from being out I will leave her in her shoes.

With her walking so much....she loves to go places she knows she's not supposed to go.

Our living room is like a prison yard. Gates block off the entertainment center, hallway and area next to the couch so she can't go back to the dogs (I will never leave her with the dogs out of my sight).

Natali has learned to manipulate the gate between the couch and dogs quite well. She goes for gold and will not pull back and unless I physically pick her up and move her away. It's like she becomes deaf.

That's not to say she doesn't respond to our "request".

Natali knows the word "no". If she is doing something I don't like I will firmly and slowly say, "no" and most of the time she stops. If I see her heading for the open bedroom door early enough I can verbally stop her. Once she's crawling and kicks on the turbo.....there's no stopping her.

Her speech has really advanced. Her firm words are , "outside", "socks", "shoes", "all done", "doggy", "mommy", "light" and "daddy". She will repeat or attempt to repeat any word we say though.

Natali has learned how to manipulate us. She will fake cry to get her way. Sometimes I will let her cry it out or join right along with her crying. Either way often makes her stop crying.

Her sleeping habits are "interesting".

On daycare days she wakes up between 5:40AM and 6:10AM. She then gets one nap around 11:30PM till 1:30PM. Most of the time after daycare she is awake the rest of the day until her 8PM bedtime.

I debated moving her bedtime earlier, but her internal body clock will always sleep no more than 10 hours. So put her to bed at 7PM and she will get up around 5AM. Eight PM works.

Finally...some photos.

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Tuesday, October 4, 2011

Family Photos

A few photos from our first family photos. We had a GREAT photographer while we were in California. Her name is Channa Vance. If you are in need of a photographer in Sacramento I HIGHLY recommend using her. Very affordable and easy to work with.

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Saturday, October 1, 2011

Kicked to the curb

Natali has been kicked out of the infant classroom on Friday. Starting Monday Natali will be in the toddler room.

The change happened pretty quickly.

Two weeks ago they asked if they could move Natali to the toddler room for an hour or so a day to get her used to it. I was tinking she would be moved in a month. Nope. Done.

I figured there would be a pretty large price change. Nope...$3 a week.

Natali is fully walking now. She only crawls when she gets tripped up. She hasn't mastered standing up from a sitting position without climbing up on something. In time.

I found out this week Natali likes seafood. While shopping I found "seafood sticks" which are like cheese sticks but made of white fish. Natali loves them! She also tried my salmon and eggs...again she liked it. Yay!