6 months old and visit with Santa

It's Natalie's Half-Birthday today! Our baby girl is 6 months old! She's getting so big! To celebrate, we took her to see Santa today. She did such a great job. We thought she would cry when she sat on Santa's lap but she was all smiles. I think she was contemplating how to grab his beard. She looked so cute. She's wearing the outfit my parents got us last Christmas when we told them we were having a girl.

We also opened up the Leap Frog Activity Table that Emile's cousin, Astrid, got Natalie for her birth. She's now old enough to enjoy it. She loved it. It was great watching her figure out how things work on the table.

She also went to her first birthday party today. My friend's (Stephanie's) son Dylan had his 1st birthday party today. Natalie and I got there just in time to see him dig into his cake. She seemed to enjoy looking around at all the little kids.

Yesterday, Natalie finally got to meet my friend Jimmie and her daughter, Elena, who is now 16 months old. This was my first time meeting Elena also. It was great to see them. Natalie enjoyed trying to grab (common theme!) and eat her hair. Elena was very cute when she went to hold Natalie's hand and give her kisses. Jimmie's husband, Mick, and Emile joined us for lunch also.

Natalie is now a pro at sitting in her bebepod.

We're trying to get her to practice rolling from her back to her belly. She hasn't been so into it the last couple of days but has a few times. Here are a few photos of her trying.

Natalie is also very interested in textures lately. She's rubbing her hands and nails over everything she can get her hands on.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving from our family to yours! We hope you have a wonderful day.

We have a roller and sleeper!

YAY! This past Wednesday, Natalie started rolling from her back to her tummy. She rolled from her tummy to her back around 2.5 months. We were starting to wonder if she was going to get around to rolling the other way but now she has! She still doesn't like to stay on her tummy very long -- just long enough to get the toy she's reaching for and then she rolls back. We're excited to watch her become more mobile.

Here are some videos of me trying to get her to roll and one of her rolling toward the toy Emile is holding out for her.

We decided to start sleep training Natalie this past week. She just hasn't been getting good naps in since moving her to the crib instead of the swing. We decided she wasn't going to learn to nap in her crib until she learned to go to sleep without nursing - including at night. So on Tuesday night, we decided to move around her bedtime routine to bath, massage/lotion, nursing, books and lullabies. Then we followed suggestions in the Sleep Easy Solution book (which involves checking on her at intervals if she starts crying). Natalie did exceptionally well! She usually wakes up about an hour after going to sleep -- she didn't! She also had been still getting up twice a night (usually around 1 a.m. and 4 a.m.) at which point I'd nurse her back to sleep. I didn't think she really needed to eat at these times given her age and weight but instead was getting up out of habit. On Tuesday night, she woke up at 1:30 a.m. but on retrospect, I think she might have went back to sleep -- I jumped the gun though and out of habit and being groggy, went up and nursed her back to sleep. She didn't get up again until her normal wake-up time of 7 a.m.! Every night since then she's not gotten up to nurse at all!! I thought she'd eventually drop these feedings once she learned to self-soothe but I didn't think it would happen in one night. She's now sleeping through the night! Last night she slept 12 hours! I'm so relieved!

And her naps are getting better too! Today for instance, she didn't cry at all when we put her in her crib for her naps -- before it was always such a struggle to get her to take a nap, and sometimes she'd fight it so much that she'd not get all her naps in. She always seemed so tired since being moved from the swing. Now, she has so much energy -- she's started talking a lot again (she hadn't been babbling as much lately) and the day after we started her sleep training was when she rolled from her back to her tummy. We definitely feel we made the right decision for Natalie but at the same time, we think everything we were trying up to this point was helpful (e.g. rocking her back to sleep when she'd wake after 1 hour at night instead of nursing, giving her 10 min to try self-soothing when she'd wake after putting her in the crib asleep if she woke up). YAY Natalie!

We also stopped using her swaddle last night now that I got her a bunch of flannel footed sleepers. She had only been sleeping in a swaddle with arms out (and in a cotton sleeper) so I didn't think she really needed it anymore but it helped keep her warm since we won't put blankets in her crib. She did great without the swaddle -- no complaints from her!

Here are some photos of her playing:

We also moved her to a duck tub! She was getting too big for the infant tub and is now splashing around so much that it will be less messy if we start bathing her in the adult tub (in the duck tub). We tried putting her in the duck in the adult tub on Friday for the first time but she wasn't happy with so much change at once so for right now, we're bathing her in the duck on the counter still. She loves her new bathtub!

Natalie also tried avocados today -- she loved them!

Eating Bananas

After Natalie got used to eating rice cereal from a spoon, she started showing signs of not liking it at all. We tried giving her oatmeal instead but got a similar response. So we started giving her bananas. She loves them! She opens her mouth wide for them and loves to help feed herself already. I'm not surprised that she didn't take to the cereal as well as bananas. I've read that breastfed babies do better starting with bananas because they're similar to flavor (sweeter) to breast milk, whereas formula-fed babies are more used a bland taste similar to cereal. We're going to introduce her to sweet potatoes today. Emile is making all her food!

Trying to eat Papa's head:

Play time:We're trying to encourage Natalie to reach for toys to the side of her so she'll pick up on rolling from her back to her tummy. She's making some progress -- she'll roll to her side. The video below shows her doing it a little bit; it's also a great video of her laughing!

Natalie no longer sleeps in her swing for naps. It's now been over a week with her sleeping in her crib. It hasn't been the smoothest transition but she's getting better. She's not good yet at put herself to sleep during the day (she can at night if she wakes up in the middle of the night when it's not time to nurse). But we know she'll get better at it as time goes on.

Historic Day

Yesterday Americans voted for the first African American President! What a change of events compared to 50 or 100 years ago! I am so proud to be an American today. Not only did we elect our first African American President, but we also voted in a candidate that will motivate our country, who reasons through problems rationally, and who has the best interest of the whole country in mind, not just one group. With all the traveling we've done over the years, I can honestly say that most foreigners we've met have not looked that highly on the U.S. as they once did. I think Obama will change that.

What a wonderful year for Natalie to be born in!

Raleigh Half Marathon

I ran a half marathon today for the first time! I'm so excited to have completed it and accomplished a goal I had but wow, am I exhausted. I've been training for 3 months but of course, a more modified training schedule given that we have Natalie now. Luckily, Emile cooks dinner so I was able to get a few runs in during the week while Emile cooked and hung out with Natalie -- otherwise, there's no way I could have worked, spent time with Natalie and went for a run. Although I didn't get all my weekday runs in, I did do all my long distance runs on Sunday. And it was super helpful for losing my pregnancy weight -- I've lost all but the pesky last 5 lbs!

I wasn't sure if I should do the run today given that Natalie won't take a bottle and so I was worried she's be hungry while I was running and cry the whole time. But we worked out a good plan where Emile would give her cereal and spoon feed her breast milk if she couldn't hold out (my mom discovered recently she'll drink breast milk from a spoon). Turns out Natalie did wonderful! She took a 45 minute nap in the stroller and after that was thrilled as punch to be in the Bjorn looking around at all the people in the crowd. She didn't even want cereal or milk -- and didn't cry while I was gone to eat. All afternoon though she's been definitely making up for it! I'm relieved that I did the run and everything worked out for Emile and Natalie while I was gone.

I can't believe I ran 13.1 miles today! It took me 2 hours 26 minutes and 25 seconds. My average pace was 11:11 min/mile -- a little slower than I had wanted (I was hoping for 10 min/miles). The first half of the race I was running closer to 10 min/mile but not surprisingly, I ran slower towards the end. I finished 1,944 out of 2,484 people. Here is a photo of me starting the race full of energy:

And here I am about the cross the finish line -- I can barely lift my feet anymore :)

My parents came down to see me finish the race before driving back to Wisconsin.
Yesterday, we went with my parents to the Farmers Market in Raleigh and then spent some time lounging around outside -- it was a beautiful day!

Natalie's 1st Halloween!

Natalie celebrated her first Halloween yesterday! We dressed her up as a pea in a pod. She looked so adorable! We didn't take her trick or treating but we did swing by a few neighbors to show her costume off to some friends. We were going to have her hand out candy with us but we didn't have many trick or treaters at the beginning and then it was time for her bed time routine.

We also got a photo of Natalie with Oma in her Halloween costume last weekend when she was in town.
Earlier in the day, we went to "downtown" Wake Forest with my parents to check out a few stores and stop for coffee at the local coffee shop. Natalie enjoyed looking around.

Last night, Natalie spent time hanging out with Nana and Grandpa, and got a bath from the both of them.