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.