We took Natalie to her first zoo visit today at the North Carolina Zoo in Asheboro. It's about an hour and 45 min from our house (only zoo in NC). Natalie did pretty well on the ride there, and managed to get a nap in both ways (although shorter than usual). It got up into the 90s today (and it's not even May!) so we went early. We arrived at 9:30 and toured the Africa side of the zoo (there is also a North American side). By 11:30, we were all pretty exhausted from walking in the heat. We met up with a few of my friends from the NC baby board for lunch in the picnic area -- it was great seeing everyone! All the little babies are getting so big!I think Natalie had a great time. She got a chance to see some chimpanzees, gorillas and elephants. I'm sure she'll love it even more in a year or two!
When we got home, Natalie hung out in her new swim pool. It fills up with water and then squirts out the top in little streams around the perimeter and in the middle. She first tried out her new pool yesterday with Kinsey. Here are some shots from then.
Because it was so hot today, Natalie hung out in her cloth diapers for a little while after going in the pool. She's got such a cute fluffy butt in diapers, although about 3 times bigger than her naked butt!
I keep forgetting to mention that Natalie has been eating solely table food now for a month. She does so well with it. I think she probably could have transitioned from purees to table food earlier but I was more nervous for her than she was! She loves Emile's chili and chickpea stew! She's so used to eating food with spice in it that now she won't eat anything plain! Here she is feeding trying to feed herself. Her laugh is wonderful!Although she first started waving the normal way (palm facing away from her), she's now stated waving backwards (palming facing her) which I think is because she's mimicking us -- it's adorable! She now will start waving hi to people when we go for a walk and in stores even before they say hello. We think she's pretty close to saying "bye-bye".
Natalie loves playing with her Poppper. She pulls the balls from the bottom and tries to put them into the part where the balls come out. It's so neat watching her lean over the top to see if the balls are coming out. This video doesn't capture it the best but it's still fun to see. This was the last time she wore this outfit -- I realized while watching her that it's a bit tight! Opps.
We spent Easter in Minnesota visiting Natalie's Oma and Opa. We arrived on Friday and flew out on Monday. Natalie did great on the flights. On the way out, she feel asleep while I nursed her and slept for over an hour on the plane. On the way home, although she didn't fall asleep, she did great and didn't cry or fuss.
On Saturday, we took Natalie to the Richardson Wildlife Preserve near Emile's parent's house. In addition to having an Easter egg treasure hunt (not something she could participate in at this age), they were going to have bunnies. I thought it would be cute for her to see some bunnies for Easter. Well, she was not at all interested in the bunnies. Instead, she loved looking at the turkeys -- her Easter turkeys!
This past Sunday, Natalie and I got together with some other moms and babies. Her birthday buddy, Liam, was there too. He and Nate were in Natalie's swim class with her previously. Natalie seemed to really enjoy playing with Liam and all the other babies.
