Mommy's 32nd Birthday!

It's Mommy's birthday (and Uncle Paul's too)! The three of us went out to dinner last night to celebrate. Natalie was wonderful at the restaurant -- no major meltdowns thankfully! Emile got me a Wii Fit, two historical fiction novels and a "fuel belt" that holds water for while I run. Emile also got me a dozen red roses on Friday for being a good mom! :) We tried out the Fit this morning -- I think it's going to be a lot of fun although registering involves having the machine determine your weight and BMI -- not something someone just having given birth a few months before needs to know about on her birthday :) I have actually committed to running a half-marathon in Raleigh on November 2. I began training for it this past Monday! Now I can use the Wii Fit program for my cross training, strength and stretch days. This is something I've always wanted to do and what better time than when I have extra baby weight I'd like to get rid of. Although I didn't make my goal by my birthday, I have lost 69% of the weight I put on. Not much more to go now!

Over the last two weeks, Natalie has really started to "talk" a lot! It's so enjoyable to listen to - it's as if she has a really important story she's trying to tell. I finally figured out, with Emile's help, how to get videos on the blog so I've added two from when Natalie was talking and playing earlier this week.

Yesterday, I had a hair appointment so Emile was in charge of getting Natalie ready for the day. This is what happens when Papa takes over picking out her outfit! Natalie tried to tell him that little girls like to match.

Last weekend, while I was running errands, Emile and Natalie got to spend some alone time together. She was pretty happy with it -- she feel asleep in Papa's arms (note Emile has her cute orange monkey socks on :).


Natalie is getting much better with tummy time and lifting her head up now. She still throws a fit if we put her on her tummy for more than a minute or two but at least now she's lifting her head up.

Our friends, Ben and Brit, got Natalie a Bebepod chair. Since Natalie is getting pretty good with her head control and can now sit while assisted (I still need to get a photo of her doing that), we thought we'd try the chair out. I think it's going to be a few more weeks before we can let her sit in it for longer than a minute or two :)

I'm not sure she knew what to make of the toy on it.
Over the last two weeks, Natalie has started giggling out lot frequently (it's so adorable!) and she now loves to put everything her hands come in contact with in her mouth! Her favorite things to eat are her hands, her clothes, her bunny on her play mat (shown below) and the taggie her Auntie Kendra got her.



She's also getting much better at holding onto rattles and other toys.
We've also stopped swaddling her at night. She was breaking both of her arms out of the swaddle at night that it seemed pointless. She now sleeps mostly in footed sleepers -- they look so cute on her.


We're pretty sure she's now going through her 3 month growth spurt. Over the last few days, she has been really difficult to get to sleep at night and is wanting to feed every 1 - 1 1/2 hr (much more frequently than before). These are all things she did during her 6 week growth spurt. I'm hoping this doesn't last long and that she'll soon start sleeping through the night. We've only had a handful of nights where she slept 5-6 hrs at a time (maybe twice or three times).