Seeing her little mind work

I canjust see Natalie's mind whirring as she tries to navigate walking by hanging onto things.  She is continually looking for the next thing that she can reach to keep her upright. You can even see her make adjustments to where her hands currently are to be able to reach further.

Lexi on the other hand is learning to spell more words though she doesn't read try and sound things out when we are looking at books. I think she is "reading" from memory.  Tomorrow at her school they have an evening program about reading at home that we will go to since childcare and dinner is provided! :)  With Stephen gone that seems like a great deal.

Natalie at 1 year old

We had a good doctor's visit on the 1st. Natalie got 5 shots (including one for the flu) and had blood drawn out of her finger for the lead test.  The phlebotomist didn't see a vein so that is why she drew blood from her finger. She pricked the finger and then squeezed the blood out of it so it took a bit of time to fill 3 little vials.

Natalie weighed in at 23 lb 10.5 oz., close to the 90% percentile.  She is 30.75 inches longer which is the 95% percentile.

As you can see from the pictures Stephen posted, Natalie has been moved to the front facing seat and seems to love it. She has also done this funny thing where she is walking on her knees.  It's cute how she scoots along that way though crawling is still her mode of choice.

Granny commented when she was here that Natalie enjoys going to day care.  She really does get very excited when we get to the door in the morning - chattering and waving her arms.  I am glad she has such a good time there.  She is eating the center's food now so I don't have to bring anything - yeah!  One less thing to worry about.

Some photos at the one-year mark

 

 

Happy Birthday, Natalie!

Natalie turned one on Saturday. It is very hard to believe that it has already been a year since she was born.  Stephen and I both remember the long day at the hospital waiting for her to arrive. Lexi remembers telling the school at all school meeting the name of her baby sister.

Natalie's loves eating bananas and really will eat just about anything. She continues to be a really good eater.  She loves pulling things out of boxes, bags, etc and leaves a trail of "stuff' behind as she goes exploring.  She is continually pulling herself up on anything she can from the coffee table to the nearest adult's legs.  I think she will really enjoy walking.

We had a small family party on Saturday night with Uncles Andy and Russell and Aunt Michelle.  Natalie didn't quite get opening gifts thought she liked pulling things out of the gift bags and crumpling the cards.

Her 1 year checkup appointment is first thing Monday morning so I will be able to soon report her stats. We did measure her on her growth chart and it looks like she is 1 inch shorter than Lexi was at 1 year old.

Natalie also switched to the front facing car seat on Saturday and I think she loves it.  She grinned happily at me every time I turned to look at her.  I got her two more pairs of shoes.  I figure I probably need to have her in shoes most of the time from now on.  I haven't bothered too much up to this point.

She steps!

Not quite walking, but Natalie is definitely on the cusp of walking 3 days before she turns one.  She was standing up and let go of what she was holding and took 3 steps.  She is very close to balancing on her own standing up.

Very exciting!

Natalie learning to use a spoon

11 months

Here's Natalie on her 11-month birthday on August 29. Hard to believe she's almost a year old already.

Another sign of what a big girl she is: She's getting her eighth tooth in - another one on the bottom!