Natalie is 9 months old!

Natalie is 9 months old today! In a few days we will have cared and nurtured her outside of me for as long as I cared and nurtured her inside of me (I delivered her at 9 months 6 days). And as you can see from the above photo, she moves around much more now! I can't get her to sit still anymore in the chair for her monthly photos. We may have to find a new photo location for next month.

Natalie has reached two big milestones recently. I mentioned in the last post that she had just started taking her first "steps" with crawling. Now she's zooming all over the places. Her new favorite pastime, as we were expecting would one day come, is to go after the cats

Also, on Wednesday, she started waving back to us. Mostly right now she only waves good-bye to Kinsey, our nanny, but she's starting to associate waving good-bye to both Emile and I. I was expecting her to wave backwards (with her fingers facing her) like other children given that's how she sees it when we wave at her but she actually waves the correct way. So adorable!

This past weekend, the three of us went to Wisconsin to visit my family. It was Natalie's first trip on a plane (and first time out of North Carolina). She did very well. No crying or major meltdowns on the plane. She only got fussy towards the end of each flight because it was close to her bedtime.

Natalie spent a lot of time with Nana and Grandpa. This is the chair my mom rocked me in when I was a baby:

Hanging out with cousin Hayden (and her favorite rubber teething toy -- Sophie the Giraffe, and the Cat and the Hat dolls Nana got them):

Natalie with Uncle Paul:

My brother and his girlfriend, Sharron. We like her! They look so cute together.

Natalie is going through a bit of separation anxiety. If I'm in the room with her and other people, she needs me to be holding her or next to her. Here's what happens when she wants me to hold her but I insist on trying to get a photo of her with my brother, Paul.

We went to Kendra's work pool to take Hayden and Natalie swimming. They had a great time splashing around. Hayden is becoming a pretty good swimmer!

While home, we went to my mom's surprise birthday party. Luckily, my cousin Tara's family, my Uncle Merlin and his wife Pam, my Aunt Becky and family, and my grandma were there -- the first time they all got to meet Natalie. We're glad our family and my mom's friends were able to make it to her party. She was pretty surprised!

Tara's family (including her fiancee, Mike, and their kids, Tye, Kelsey, Addison, and Nina), Merlin and Pam went back to my parents house to visit after my mom's surprise party.

My mom, sister, Natalie and I went to my good friend, Stacy's, baby shower while I was home also. She was one of my bride's maids and is due to have her first child (a son) in the beginning of April. We've been friends for about 20 years! She looks adorable pregnant. I'm very excited for her and her husband, and I can't wait to meet their little one. It was Stacy's first time meeting Natalie too.

Happy Valentine's Day from Our Little Crawler

Natalie has started crawling a bit. She started moving her knees forward a few steps on Wednesday. But today she's really started moving more. She's not zipping around the floor yet but she's definitely moving forward and backward on all fours to get her toys. We're pretty excited for her. Looks like the safety gate will be going up this weekend. We'll post a video of her crawling soon.

Today, we took Natalie to try out a swing at a nearby playground. It was actually a playground in a subdivision near ours because ours unfortunately doesn't have one. We'll probably get Natalie a swing or swing set this summer so we don't have to sneak over to the other subdivision for her to play on the swings. But she loved it!

She sat up!

What an exciting day for Natalie. She learned to get from her tummy to a sitting position. This morning, Kinsey, our nanny, went in to get Natalie after her nap to discover her sitting up in her crib. Since then, whenever Natalie lunges forward and ends up on her tummy, she scoots her butt back and sits herself up again. It's the most adorable movement! We're really excited for her! All afternoon and evening she wouldn't stay sitting still for very long -- she would go from sitting, to lunging, to her tummy, back to sitting, over and over again. She must have been so exhausted. I can only imagine how much she's going to move around once she starts crawling!

I also forgot to mention last time that when we took her in to the pediatrician's last week that they weighed her -- she's now up to 17 lb. 15 oz.

Here's a example of why we needed to move the duck tub from the counter to the bath tub.

Emile's Birthday!

We celebrated Emile's birthday this past Thursday, February 5th. Natalie and I made him a Boston Cream Pie. Natalie then helped him open his birthday gifts.



Natalie got her first cold this week. It's been a rough time for her but she's getting better.

We had to move Natalie's baths from the duck tub on the counter to into the bath tub. She's splashing so much now that she soaks us and the floor. She seems to love being in the bath tub. She spends the entire time splashing a lot.

She's becoming such a big girl! She loves lunging for her toys and is getting close to crawling. Her latest adorable thing that she's learned is to give open mouth kisses! I love it. Plus, she now lays her head on our shoulder to snuggle when she's tired. So cute!

Look at that big cloth diaper butt!