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Natalie turns 1!  Thank you for all sharing in what has been the most incredible year of our lives.  Natalie is an absolute joy.

I was a really cute newborn!

Yay! I'm one today!

It’s a little hard to believe that 366 days ago, we were heading to the hospital and we basically knew the following things about “Lentil”.

• She is a girl
• She liked to hang out on the right side of my stomach
• She was active at night
• She liked Tums, bananas and pizza.  She disliked lettuce, chicken, and Cracklin Oat Bran.  She especially hated the smell of coffee.

Although some of those things are still true (especially the love of bananas), I am so thankful that we know her so well.  Some of our favorites:

Personality: Enthusiastic.  Curious.  Opinionated.  Eager to keep up with her older girlfriends. Fun. Sometimes a bit of a prima donna.

Favorite Activities:  Dancing, Music, Exploring, Crawling, “Walking,” Going to the Park (haven’t done a lot of that lately), Taking Baths, Keeping up with her older girlfriends, “Chasing” anyone up or down the stairs, Playing “Peek a Boo” (e.g. “sneaking” up on Daddy – multiple times in a row), Hokey Pokey, Reading (usually), Sneezing, Making friends off all ages and ethnicities everyplace we go (just this weekend – Corner Bakery for lunch, line a Wal-Mart, Church, Grocery store)

Daddy’s Top Activity:   “Every morning, as I’m making breakfast before work, Erin and Nataile ‘sneak’ up on me.  This consists of Erin carrying Natalie down the hallway and telling her (loudly) that they are going to surprise me.   Then they jump out into the doorway and yell, ‘Surprise!”  And then they do it two or three more times.  Natalie always grins ear-to-ear, and I’m always very, very surprised.”

Mommy’s Top Activity: Storytime.  Nearly every morning and evening, we read stories in my and Jordan’s bed.  Natalie leans back against me.  I usually give her a choice between two stories – she’ll eagerly grab one or toss one to the side (nearly always with her right hand).  She enthusastically turns the pages and lifts up flaps.  She often wiggles from the original position and sometimes we end up tummy-to-tummy – and then she falls over, at which point, I tickle her.  So much fun!

Least Favorite Activities: Being on the diaper changing table, Riding in the car for too long, Seeing mom and not being able to eat right away, Shopping for more than 8 min

Milestones: High Fives, Clapping, Crawling, Pulling herself to standing, Sitting after standing, Pointing, “So Big”

Super Cute Things in the Past Week: Blowing kisses, Giving kisses, “So big”, Starting to imitate what we do, Pointing (sometimes, I even get a double point, when she’s really excited to see me)

Favorite Foods: Fruit – especially blueberries, bananas and strawberries.  O’s.  Peas. As of an hour ago, a new soup I made. The list could go on and on – she likes to eat a lot.

Favorite Books: Five Little Lady Bugs, Please Baby Please, Karen Katz’s “lift the flap” books like Where’s Baby’s Belly Button? and Toes, Ears and Nose

Although her 1-year-old doctor’s appointment isn’t until Wed, we had to go into the doctor’s last week for her cold, and she weighed 24 lbs, 9 oz.  I’m pretty sure we’ll be rocking the 90^th+ percentile again.

This bow is fascinating. Grandma is a really good wrapper

Since her actual birthday is a Monday, we moved up our little family celebration to Sunday.  We went to church (always a blast), opened up a couple presents, and went to Zoo Lights at the Lincoln Park Zoo.  Although Jordan and I usually like to do birthday waffles, Jordan ate too many cookies last night and wasn’t up for it this morning.  This is probably the only year we’ll be able to get by with not doing birthday waffles and wrapping her presents in front of her (and, to be honest, not getting her many presents at all!)

Daddy's lucky to have two bakers in the house - me and Mommy!

We love you, Natalie, and are so thankful you are here!

Natalie had a holiday-themed “friends” birthday party in Chicago last weekend.  We were lucky that my parents were able to come – and were such a big help in getting everything ready.  My mom and Natalie were in charge of cupcakes….

Grandma, I love my new kitchen!!! Thank you!!! Wanna try a cupcake too?

I could get used to this....

Many of Natalie’s favorite Chicago friends were able to come celebrate.  The day was a blast – filled with lots of crawling, walking, ripping wrapping paper, and talking. 

Natalie, this is how you REALLY open a present!

Hey, Anna - come back and play with me. I'm gonna get you!

And, Santa even showed up!  I wasn’t sure how Santa would go over, since after I had invited him, Megan told me that Molly had been scared of Santa – and they were working hard on making him seem like a fun guy.  Santa was 2 for 3 – in terms of the number of kids who cried while sitting on his lap or being near him. 

Who is this strange guy who really needs a shave?

Our friend Jeff braved Santa with a smile….

Jeff: Why does Santa smell like Bud heavy?

We had a holiday book gift exchange, which was super fun.  Grandpa helped Natalie open (and later read) “That’s not my reindeer….”

Another present for me to open? Yeah!

Towards the end of the party, Natalie asked everyone to join in for one of her fav games – the Hokey Pokey!

Can I have a birthday party everyday?You girls are the greatest friends a girl could ask for!

You girls are the greatest friends a girl could ask for!

Hey – it’s Jordan.  I’m back on the blog posting train after 5 or 6 mos away!

When in Florida at the end of November, we not only celebrated Thanksgiving and Christmas, we also celebrated Natalie first birthday!  It was quite the affair.  The whole Stevenson/Hinshaw crew came over to celebrate.  Natalie was a little overwhelmed at first and didn’t know what to make of the cake, but after a few nibbles of icing she got into it.

Everybody says it, but it is difficult to believe how fast that first year goes.  A year ago, it was a big deal to open her eyes, but now she can:

• crawl
• talk
• walk (with assistance)
• clap
• waive
• feed herself

Some pics below!

I’ve been in Houston nearly all week for work and cannot wait to go home to see Natalie….

I'm silly!

Natalie has had a fun week playing with Rachel, Connor, Amanda, Gretchen, Daddy, Grandma and Grandpa, but soon – in about 11 hours – it will be my turn!  Yeah!

Our little nephew/cousin Trevor was born yesterday afternoon!  Welcome to the world, Trevor!

That was a tough trip - I'm exhausted! Good thing I can cuddle with my mommy

We cannot wait to meet him at Christmas time – 2.5 weeks feels like a long time away!  We love you, Trevor!

And, congratulations to  his parents – my younger sister Becky and her husband Rob!

Happy Thanksgiving!  Rachel and Natalie kicked it off with her first art project, the day before we left for Florida…

Who knew my hands would turn into a little turkey?

My Mom and Dad live a block or two from the beach.  When we visited in February, Natalie only made it half way there – this year, we made it within the first hour!

A hug and a pretty thing to look at - you teach me so many things, Nana!

So much warmer than Lake Michigan!

Jira, you show me such pretty things!

We had Thanksgiving at Aunt Ann’s house.  The whole gang was there!  The food was delicious, as always – and Natalie loved their pool.

I like you all but I need a nap!!!

Just chillin' with the boys... all the 4th generation!

Daddy, help me stretch faster!

Also, since we unfortunately won’t see my fam over Christmas, we celebrated Christmas this morning too.  In our family tradition, we got to open up PJs on “Christmas Eve.”  my mom – Seamstress Extraordinaire – made us family PJs!!!  This was Erin’s #1 requested Christmas gift of the year, and my mom definitely knocked this one out of the park!

yeah - triplets!

I may have already written about this, but now I have more pics to back it up.  Last month, we traveled to Havana, IL, for the wedding of a wonderful friend from Kellogg – Derek – and his awesome new wife, Erica! 

Congratulations, Derica! (Derek + Erica)

We were happy to spend the long weekend with our friends the VanHams too… thanks Heather for taking some great pics!

Oh Henry... could you please wake up and join us for a picture?

You can tell that I'm my Daddy's favorite little girl, can't you? 🙂

Yesterday (Saturday) was Natalie’s 11-month birthday!

Oh gosh, is it my month bday again?

At 11 months, Natalie has very busy weekends!  Natalie and I went to our friends’ house Sat morning – it was cold, so we bundled up…

(Giggle, giggle).... Mom, those headbands are so 80's. You've gotta get some trendier headgear - like my snow hat!

As a family, we went to the park and then to dinner at the house of friends’ from Kellogg.  Matt and Viv deserve mad props – they hosted 3 kids under the age of 2 and 7 parents – inc. one who is within 2 weeks of her due date, even though they don’t have kids! Viv even had extra diapers on hand… (her new client is a diaper maker!)  Natalie loved Matt’s facial hair and yummy quinoa.   She especially loved playing with Sydney, who turns 2 in March.

I'm a big girl like Sydney too!

Unfortunately, we kept Natalie out an hour past her bedtime, which resulted in a fussy Sunday.  However, she LOVED gonig to Connor’s 1-year bday party today!  Connor is the only 1-year-old I know who has seriously dug into his cake.  He loves to eat, so his mom said that she was not the least bit surprised.  I’m hoping to get a picture to share later… he did a great job getting appropriately messy!

So, back to Natalie’s 11-month update.

Weight/Height: Not exactly sure, but she is slimming down a little.  When she lies flat on her back, her belly doesn’t protrude.  Her rolls on her arms are less pronounced, but don’t worry – she still has ankle bracelets, and I think her face is rounder than mine (on an absolute scale – not a relative one!)

Milestones: Natalie can crawl, pull herself up to standing, sometimes go down to sitting and give high five’s.  She is a super fast walker (with assistance) – sometimes she walks at nearly a 45 degree slope.  She is great at clapping – and even knows to clap when she hears the words, “good job”!  She still doesn’t wave hello or good-bye yet.  That’s next on our list!  Unfortunately, she hasn’t been very generous with her kisses lately (with the exception of seeing herself in a mirror) – I’m hoping those come back soon.

Favorite Activities: Being chased up the stairs, Chasing someone up the stairs, Sneaking up on Daddy, Playing “Where’s Natalie?” with a blanket, Cruising, Talking, Dancing, Doing the Hokey Pokey (HUGE lately – we’ve even “taught” two of our friends), Banging things together, Reading stories in Mommy’s and Daddy’s bed, Going to the park, Hanging on a bar at the park and doing “ballet”, Taking baths, Being by other kids.  She is getting a little better about being in the car.  She is OBSESSED with my cell phone, so we’ve had to cut that down. (I cannot even answer it without her freaking out.)

Favorite Books: Thankfully, Natalie likes reading a lot more than she used to, so I bought 24 new books ( at 25 cents a piece) at a 2nd hand shop.  However, it turns out, that she prefers to read what she is most familiar with, so we’ve been slowly introducing new ones, like “Five Little Lady Bugs,” “Where’s Baby’s Belly Button” and “Peak a Who.”  She likes a farm chunky lift-the-flap book and still really likes the simple, one word book collection that her Aunt Becky gave her last Christmas.  She loved, loved, loved “Daddy Loves Me” by Karen Katz a couple weeks ago, but she now longer screams in excitement when she sees the book. Brown Bear has definitely lost his gusto, but she still will read it.

Foods: Natalie is a pretty good eater, which I’m sure doesn’t surprise you!  She will eat Gerber garden veggies, green beans, etc, though doesn’t love them.   When we have cooked veggies like broccoli and asparagus, she will eat them too. She loves fruit – strawberries, blueberries, and bananas.  She just tried clementines this weekend.  She really likes wheat bread and often eats cheese.  She has 2-3 bottles of formula once a week and took to it just fine.  Sad to say, but if I knew how easy that would be, I might have done that sooner!

Summary:  Natalie continues to be the sweetest little girl.  She gets so excited about so many things and is a blast to be around.  We are so thankful for her and all the joy she brings to so many people’s lives!  We are really looking forward to spending Thanksgiving and Christmas with our families!

*Editor’s Note from Dad:  I haven’t gotten a kiss from her for a month!  I’m looking forward to these becoming cool again.”  However, she’s making up for it by comfortably leaning up against me when reading her a story, laughing and smiling whenever we “chase” momma or do the hokey-pokey, and enjoying walks around Lincoln Park strapped to my chest in the Ergo Baby Carrier.  When she has her little hat on, we stop traffic.  🙂

I am the egg queen and I'm invading your castle!!!

I am told that I have the upper body strength of a 13 month old

Natalie crawled forward – with her right knee on the floor and left leg outstretched – today.  She was reaching to get some bread and cheese.  Yeah!  Although most kids learn to crawl before they almost hit 11 months, we have to give Natalie credit for overcoming the obstacle of excess weight to reach this point!  She’s been pivoting, scootching and pushing on her belly backwards for awhile now.

Natalie continued to learn other new tricks this week.  Her Daddy taught her how to “high five”.  I taught her to: 1) Turn on and off a Light Switch

Magic!

2) Pull the kleenex out of the box

Pull, pull, tear, tear, taste test... Hey, come on, Mom. Why can't I taste test?

Okay, so maybe this last trick isn’t quite so hard to learn, but it certainly was fun!  Good thing we’re Costco members!  I need to go buy some more.  (Natalie wants her environmentalist Auntie Leah to know that I shoved all salvagable kleenexes back in the box for reuse).

We also had a fun weekend of:
– Notre Dame Friends Dinner.  It was great to see walking Molly again and smiley, rolling Taylor!  And Molly’s good friend Ella, who is going to be a big sister soon. (Yeah to living in the City, instead of the ‘burbs!)
– Kellogg Friends over for Dinner – Jordan cooked a great meal and Natalie slept through it all – success! (Once again, yeah to living in the City!)
– Family dates to the Zoo (yeah City!) and Bookstore
– Natalie helping Mommy and Daddy cook Sunday night dinner (so helpful that she can pokily feed much of her food to herself!)

Have a great week, Everyone!