The hallmark of the last month has been Natalie's increasing mobility. She is now a confident crawler, and doesn't let pesky obstacles like toys, her brother or anything else keep her from getting to whatever she has her eye on. Lately one of her favorite objects to explore is her carseat, especially the strap in the center that allows us to tighten or loosen the harness. The bathtub continues to be a source of delight for Natalie. She nearly bounces off of our laps to get into it. Once there she takes full advantage of her buoyancy in the water and tries to crawl all over the place, pulls herself up using the edge of the tub, splashes, steals her brothers toys, squeals, and just generally revels in life. If she accidentally dunks her face in the water, she is completely unfazed, taking a brief moment to catch her breath and then forging on after whatever she had previously set her sights on. We don't take our eyes off of her for a second! She's also pulling up to her knees and starting to think that she might like to get to her feet too. This girl is on the move!
She's also started to initiate games of peek-a-boo and "How big is Natalie? Soooo big!" Sometimes she will just start waving and smiling at one of us out of the blue. It's easy to see that she is thrilled about being able to initiate communication with us, and I look forward to her continued growth in this area.
Natalie continues to be reserved around people with whom she is unfamiliar or has not seen in a while. She fixes them with a very serious and focused gaze, seemingly evaluating their every move until she decides that they are going to be a fun addition to her life. With her family and at daycare, she is super smiley and chatty--the ladies at daycare call her the life of the party!
As for vocalizations, they range from squeals and laughs to lots of "ba, ba, ba, da, da, da, va, va, va." Still no mama! Food introduction is going pretty well. We've started offering purees of our dinners, which have been met with mixed reception. Some she likes and some she refuses to eat. Drinking water out of the sippy cup is a piece of cake, and she's finally mastered the technique of eating puffs, so we'll probably move on to some other finger foods soon. Natalie still only has one tooth on the bottom, but will "chew" her food, so I think when a few more teeth pop through she will really relish eating big kid food.
When Natalie is holding on to a toy, or a non-toy that she really wants to investigate (especially paper or the insulated bag that ferries her bottles to and from daycare) and you try to take it from her, she gets REALLY mad! She's definitely learning that she has opinions and preferences and is experimenting with ways to express them.
Our monthly photoshoot reflects a girl who is interested in her world and not afraid to ignore the task at hand (cooperating with Mommy's photo vision) in order to investigate her surroundings and check out what her brother is doing.
Nathan wanted to participate in the photo shoot too. It's impossible to get them both looking at the camera and in focus. This is why you hire a professional! :)
Fearlessly attempting to launch herself off the chair in order to grab my camera!
A little miffed that I returned her to safety
