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? 🙂
Hmm... should I go over there or stay over here? So many new things to investigate
Today is GREAT! I'm almost 1, I'm super messy and all these people keep on smiling at and cheering for me. Can I have a birthday party next week too?
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!
Given the rainy weather, we met Molly and Megan at the library for storytime (it was crazy busy – let’s hope that the Mayor’s budget cuts for libraries don’t go through) and lunch. Molly was showing off her new ability to cruise – and remained unphased when her balance would cause her to tumble. And, at lunch, Natalie was trying to sneak in some TV watching – between many bites of food. (Natalie had at least 4 meals – plus milk – today; she is on a growth spurt!) These girls are so busy – its hard to catch a picture of them both smiling and looking at the camera at the same time, so I’ve included two!
Natalie, you've gotta look at this!
Molly, you're right - that ketchup bottle is amazing! Its so red and I'm sure it makes a wonderful mess!
Natalie had a very busy day today – she accomplished two weeks worth of milestones in one day! Perhaps, this was to celebrate her Grandpa’s Birthday! He must have been a source of inspiration. The highlights….
I also accidentally or absent-mindedly tickled her foot this morning… she giggled, pulled it away, and then put in back there for more. I love it! When Jordan went out to Boston a month or so ago, he tickled Delia (Karen’s darling 2-year-old) and she kept on saying “again”! So cute.
I don’t have pictures of any of these, but how could I include a post without a cute pictures? So, here is a random photo from today:
Dad, why did you stop reading?
Although Jordan almost never shops, he opted to go into Old Navy with Natalie, instead of into the grocery store with me, this weekend….
Dad, you did a great job of picking out a hat for me. Its so cozy that I might actually wear it for a couple minutes, before pulling it off!
You cannot see it well here, but Jordan insisted that Natalie have at least one winter hat with ears! I emailed this picture out to a couple family members and got the following response from my sister Leah:
Who's cuter?
I’m putting it to a vote – you be the judge. I’m sorry Leah, but you have some pretty steep competition!
