Photo shoot

I realized I needed more pictures to put on the blog, so I took Natali in her room and took a few pics of her.

She is doing really well , she has a little snotty nose right now, but otherwise good. She is learning more words - the main one right now is "bubbles". We have some bubbles from grandpa and Natalis loves to go outside and have us blow bubbles for her. Now she goes to the door and says "bubble". :) It's cute. I took a video of her outside with the bubbles on our video camera and I am still working on getting it downloaded to our computer. I will post that video later sometime. Natali is also into saying "uh-oh" when she drops something.

Natali's hair seems to be growing really fast lately. Josh took this picture one night when I was gone and he had given Natali a bath. Her hair doesn't look this long when it is dry, so this is a cool picture to me. And kudos to daddy for getting a great picture! (He said it wasn't easy to get her still long enough to capture the photo)

Camera smile

Natali somehow has figured out that she is supposed to smile for the camera! It is really funny. If you have the camera and say her name, she looks up at you and does this cheesy smile. She likes to look at the picture on the camera after you take it. Here are some examples:

Pig tails

So, my first successful pigtails was the other night. Usually Natali does not like me to mess with her hair. She looks pretty cute with them so hopefully she will let me do it some more. I tried last night and she would have none of it!

I can't believe I haven't blogged something in a week and a half. I haven't really taken hardly any pictures of Natali since she turned 1. It's really sad. I will try harder. Anyways.

So Natali is over the thrush, hand/foot/mouth disease, and I think over the yeast infection. She has a little bit of a cold right now.

She is all about showing her opinion about things these days. She likes to bat her hands at my face and yell when she doesn't like something I do. I didn't expect this to happen already. :) It's interesting.

I took a few pictures of Natlai in the bath and I like them because you can see her teeth so good - she has 6 teeth on top and bottom I think.

This last picture is of Natali waving bye-bye to the water. She does this now while the water is draining..... and most of the time she won't let you take her out of the tub until all the water is gone. :)

No pics, just words!

So Natali has been busy learning and practicing new moves! Her latest funny thing is that when we make a certain sound that means basically "I'm gonna get you!" she looks at you with a certain look and starts to walk backwards slowly, then, she runs to you giggling until you grab her and give her a big hug, its a fun game, we recommend it! Also, when you change her T-shirt she knows just where to put her arms to get them in the holes, she is so very helpful.

She has had a few medical/health related issues lately. She has some fluid in her ears which the Dr. says should clear up on its own and it looks like it already has, she isn't pulling at her ears anymore. Next she had a mild case of hand, foot and mouth disease, probably contracted from daycare, but that seems to be clearing up as well. Lastly, she has a yeast infection that we first thought was just a nasty diaper rash, we were wondering why it wouldn't go away! And lastly lastly, she also had thrush which is somewhat uncommon for older babies to get, they say it is somehow associated with the yeast infection. All in all, Nat is still happy go lucky Nat, for the most part, she woke up at 11:30 last night and never really went back to sleep besides maybe some 30 minute spells here and there, so we all had a long night. We are hoping for a better night tonight. We are very blessed to have a child with such a bright attitude no matter what is going on with her, she just keeps a smile on, and we are glad for that.

P.S. this was written by daddy! :)

Silly girl

Natali was full of laughs tonight during her bath. And she actually continued to laugh even after I got the camera to record her. :)

Just Nat being Nat

Good stuff

It seems like I have so much to talk about just in the last week. First and foremost - Natali's 2 ear infections have finally cleared up!!! Josh took her on Thursday to see Dr.Roberts and she said Natali looked great!

Natali is changing and learning new things so fast! Her biggest thing right now is that she gets a book and brings it to you, sits down so you will read her the book. Over and over and over again. :) Sometimes she puts her arms up for you to pick her up and read to her. She can point to her belly button now - she pulls up her shirt and points at it. If she has a onesie on, she tries to pull it up but can't and she gets kind of upset/worried. :) Natali knows when we say "Natali, do you want to get a bath?", she starts walking towards the bathroom! Also, you can ask "Do you want some socks on?" and she will put her foot up for you to put some on. When she finds her shoes she brings them to you and puts her foot up to get her shoes put on by someone.

We are having so much fun with Natali and how smart she is, the new things she learns, and how much she is growing in all sorts of ways. It is so amazing that her brain allows her to figure things out.

Happy 14 months to Natali!

Can't believe she can be that old already - time sure is flying fast. Natali is actually spending the night at my parents' house because both of us have to work early tomorrow and it saves on us having to go over there and drop her off. :) It is very weird sitting at home without a little toddler running around. She has been really jibber jabbin lately - making all kinds of new sounds. And she has started a new laugh that is quite cute I must say. Well, that's all for now.....

Hooray!!!

This morning when I took Natali to day care she didn't cry when I dropped her off!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Yesterday Josh took her and he said she wimpered a little but didn't go in to a full cry or screaming as she has every time previous to now. We are so happy that she (I guess) is getting used to the day care. She actually let me set her down and she started playing on the floor! She pointed at me and waved bye bye as I walked out the door. :) It just made my day. Natali is still usually fussy when we pick her up - the workers say that when other parents come to pick up kiddos, she gets fussy and points to the door. But overally they say she is doing good.

Natali knows where her belly is now. I asked her last night "Natali, where is your belly?" and she pointed to it! We haven't even been working on that unless maybe one of the grandparents have been and we don't know it. :) She also knows where a nose is on other people, but she hasn't quite figured out when we ask her where her nose is.

The other day, I stopped Natali from doing something or took a toy from her. Anyways, I picked her up and she bit me!!! Yes, she bit me. I scolded her but not a few seconds after, she did it again!! So I got on her more. She kind of gave me the "I want to do it again but I see that look on your face so maybe I won't" look. This child has a mind of her own let me tell you. But at the same time, she is so sweet and getting better at coming back to us when we ask her to. We just love her so much!!!

Goings on......

I know there haven't been many pictures lately so here are a couple in the PJ outfit my sister got Natali when she visited a while back.

Well, Natali has added a couple more things to her "can do" list. She just started walking backwards. She goes very slow and carefully, but she does it for a little while. Also if you ask her what the cow says, she will make this cute noise kind of like Mooo but more like a buzzing sound I guess.

I don't know if I already wrote about this, but Natali is cutting her molars and they seem to be coming up really fast. It seemed like the front teeth took a long time from when they first showed through to when they came through a lot and looked like teeth. (Does that make sense?) Anyways, she is drooling a lot more and putting more things in her mouth.

Update on the ear infection/sickness... I am feeling good but still have a little sore throat and cough. Natali however still has the 2 ear infections. We took her back to the doctor yesterday because she was still pulling at her ears some so I wanted to make sure they were healed or not. NOT. Doctor Roberts looked in there and said "yup, there is still pus in there". Needless to say, we are on our 3rd antibiotic and we will have a recheck in 2 weeks. She said we are a ways yet from Natali needing tubes in her ears or anything like that, so that made me happy.

Update

Well, Natali and momma are feeling better neither is all the way well yet though. I just have this cought that is hanging on. Natali finally doesn't have a fever but she is still holding her ears sometimes and shakes her head. I am going to call the doctor tomorrow and see if Natali needs to be checked out again.

I will try to put some pictures up on here soon, I know everyone likes to see the cute stuff!! :)

Natali is walking so well now - she can keep her hands down. Also, now she can bend down while standing and stand back up without falling or holding on to something. AND she can stand up from sitting down without any help. Josh and I constantly look at each other and say "She's so big!!". She is working on 14 months. Well, that's all for now..... hopefully the sickie crud will go away totally soon. Thanks for those of you who were praying for us!!!

Sickies

So Natali is sick... we took her to the doctor on Friday because she had a fever Thursday night. Actually we saw the nurse practitioner and she was just fine. Natali has 2 ear infections along with the virus that is causing the runny nose and coughing. So to fight the secondary bacterial infection, she is now taking Amoxicillin which we have to mix with applesauce in order for her to take it. :) Needless to say, Natali didn't go to daycare Thursday or Friday - we are hoping to start her back Monday.
However... we are at home right now instead of at church because Natali's fever is back this morning and I don't feel good with a sore throat and stuffy nose. Good times. Daddy went to church because we are responsible to help with the sound board since there really isn't anyone else who knows how to run it.
What a week/weekend. I am worn out and we still have one more day left and then the next week starts. But all in all God is good. I am thankful we haven 't had to take Natali to the hospital yet because when my sister and I were little, we had lots of ear infections and some of them required a hospital trip! Natali is in her crib and it seems as though she might have fallen asleep so I am off to nap myself! I just hope Josh isn't the next one on the sickie list.

Day care - this is kind of long - Beware!

Yes, we started Natali in day care this week. We figured it was time because I work full time and Josh will be going back to work soon so day care was inevitable (sp?).

Day 1: The first day we walked in the room and Natali was the only kid since we got there early. She pointed at everything and was very happy to get down and explore all the new things and toys. She didn't cry when we left either so we thought we had it made in the shade! Well, I called to check on her at lunch time and they said she had been crying on and off, didn't eat much at lunch time (NOT a Natali thing), but they only had to sit with her a few minutes to get her down for her nap. I was worried about that - that she would cry and keep all the other kids from sleeping. Anyways, Josh picked her up around 4:30 and Natali wasn't really herself for a few hours. She was just really quiet and you could tell she had been crying. She got more happy and talkative later in the night and went to bed at normal time. End Day 1 of day care.

Day 2 : Josh took her and they got there during morning snack time. The kids sit in those cool tables that have 6 little seats in them so all the kids sit at once. :) Well, I guess Josh gave Natali to the lady but Natali had a death grip on Josh's shirt and starting crying really bad. Josh said it was really hard to leave her because she was screaming so bad. But he did and he picked her up again at 4:30. She did better this day and ate better so that was good.

Day3: I took Natali this morning and the same thing - screaming when she saw me leaving. So I stayed for just a minute and stood by her seat in the table while she started a snack and she was fine. She seemed okay so I started to leave and the screaming started again. I just left though ( SO hard to do when she has her arms out to you crying). She did okay today too, although she didn't eat all the much for lunch, but ate her afternoon snack plus some. :)

Overall, the day care workers say she is doing well for her first days/week. Natali does have a snotty nose already but who knows if it really came from there. However, when Natali went in her seat this morning the boy next to her had snot running from his nose. Sigh. But we like this day care - they give you a "report card" every day she is there and it tells you what kind of diapers she had and for each snack/meal they have the option Some Most Everything Seconds
and they circle what she did for each one. Cool I thought. And they put on there how long she slept for each nap (they get 2).
So, after all that boring nonesense, this is a big change in our lives and I have been very emotional this week. Our girl is growing up! Someone laughed at me at work because this is just day care - not even her first day of real school but she's my little girl! :) I just hope it gets better and she will like to go to day care.