Rice Cereal

The day before her 6 month birthday, we gave Natalie her first taste of solid food!  She had been staring at us with some intensity while we ate for a few weeks, so we were pretty sure she was ready.  We were right!  The first mouthful caused her to stop and think for a minute, and then she decided she approved.  In these pictures you can see her evaluative look that she gets when she's really focused and paying attention to something very interesting.  Also, she already wants to grab the spoon and feed herself. :)

After a week of just rice cereal, we added in some peas.  At first Natalie wasn't sure about the texture, but I mixed in some cereal and milk and she loved it!  I had to take some pictures of my sweet girl with peas on her face.  She was very focused on her desire to grab the camera.

Six Months

Oh, six months is so much fun!!  Natalie's personality is so charming.  She studies her world very intensely, and has become very good at grabbing, manipulating and dropping her toys.  When she sees a person she knows, she has the sweetest grin.  She continues to adore Nathan, and he is still the only one who can get her really and truly laughing. 

Sleeping is going well.  She usually goes to bed around 7:15.  Todd loves to rock her to sleep.  When I try to rock her, Natalie gets nursing on the brain, so she's usually awake when I'm the one putting her to bed. :)  She usually sleeps through until sometime between 4:30 and 5:45am.  She is not much of a napper, especially at daycare.  Usually she takes one really long 3-4 hour nap on Saturday as a recovery from a week of twenty minute naps.

Natalie loves the bathtub, and has started splashing, which is really cute.  We took both kids to family swim at the YMCA last week, and Natalie was so happy and relaxed in the water.  I hope that it stays that way!

At her six month check-up, Natalie was a real sweetheart.  She was all smiles for the nurses, and only cried for a few seconds after her immunizations. Here are her stats:

Weight: 16 lbs, 3oz, 50th percentile
Height: 26", 50th percentile
Head Circumference: they didn't give me the number, but she's in the 75th percentile

First trip to the cottage

Of course no trip to Northport is complete without spending some time at the cottage!  Nathan ran around like a madman, checking all of the essential cottage activities off the list in the first half hour: throw rocks and sticks into the creek, pee off the bridge, line up all of his matchbox cars, look in the pole barn, drive the pedal car, run across all the footbridges, etc.  He was SO excited! :)  Natalie seemed to enjoy her first trip to the cottage, as she was her usual sweet and smiley self.

Natalie and Basil hanging out together.

Lunch on the deck! In March!

Such a big girl sitting in the high chair

Performing a little maintenance on the pedal car

Grandma Florence and Natalie Florence

One of my favorite places on the planet

In the afternoon we went for a hike over at Timber Shores.  Natalie snuggled in the Ergo and ended up taking a nap in there.

The Bay!

Jump!

I love those chubby little baby feet.  Have I mentioned that we were there in March??

Three generations

All three generations of Fowle boys had a wonderful time throwing stones in the water and trying to hit the metal pole.

Testing out the water--COLD!!!

Northport fun

We spent St. Patrick's Day weekend up in Northport.  We stayed with Florence and Basil.  Nathan was thrilled to be back, and to play with all of his toys that he hasn't seen since Labor Day weekend.  It's definitely a little slice of heaven for our family.  Todd and I were excited to have Natalie up there for her first visit outside of the womb.  It was incredible weather for mid-March, eighty degrees and sunny the whole time! I kept forgetting that it wasn't July.  We had a lovely time catching up with Florence and Basil, eating delicious food and just relaxing and enjoying the beautiful weather.

Of course Nathan was thrilled at the prospect of "helping" Daddy put the Miata back in the driveway.

We helped with a few projects around the house, one of which was moving in a new table and chair set for Grandma and Grandpa's kitchen.

Nathan had a blast playing on the swingset.  Last year he pretty much ignored it, so it was fun to see him playing.  He struggled a little bit at first with the "rock climbing" wall that led to the top of the slide, but he kept trying and was so proud of himself when he got the the top!