First trip to the pool

Happy Memorial Day everyone! I hope everyone has had a great day, and that you've had as wonderful of weather where you live as we have had here. We celebrated by taking our first trip of the season to our HOA pool! And it was Natalie's first time to be in any water not as part of a bath.

Natalie LOOOOOVED the water. She did so great! Big giant smile on her face almost the whole time. The water was kind of chilly still, as they just filled the pool not long ago, so I was worried that Natalie would not enjoy the water. When Evan lowered her into it, though, she was smiling!

I held her on my lap in the wading pool, and let her get used to it, and before long she was splashing around with her arms, and seemed to want to stay in the water more than get out!

We were there for over 30 minutes, and Natalie was in the water just about the whole time. We even took her to the big pool, where there's a splashing fountain, and she was fascinated by the water falling. I'm so happy that she likes the water - it means we get to spend lots of time in the pool this summer, and hopefully she'll like going in salt water at the beach just as much.

I love to laugh!!

Both Evan and I are now addicted to Natalie laughing. Therefore, we're willing to make complete fools of ourselves to get Natalie to laugh. The fun for all of you is that we will catch ourselves on tape doing completely idiotic things, just because Natalie laughing is SO adorable. Along those lines, here is Natalie laughing her head off at Evan making silly sounds. Enjoy!

A week(end) of fun

I had mentioned to me by a couple of people that it has been a week since I posted anything. Yes, I apologize for that! It's just been a really crazy week, but a fun one. Evan was out of town at a conference in Newark, NJ this week from Tues-Fri, so for the first time it was just me and my girls! We had a pretty good week - Natalie had great nights Tues & Wed, but not so great on Thurs. I ended up tucking her into bed with me after being up with her for over an hour and nothing else working. The second she got right next to me, she went right to sleep. I guess she needed Mommy!

The only other issue with it just being Natalie and I was daycare. Evan always takes her, as I leave for work an hour before it opens. This week, I needed to get her there. So, Wed I went into work late, and Thursday they let me bring her early as I had a talk to give (it rocked- lots of great feedback on my study), then Friday I worked from home. So that all turned out pretty well!

The weather here has FINALLY become nice, just in time for Memorial Day weekend! Yesterday (sat) we spent a lot of time cleaning the house, as we have a ton of guests coming next weekend for Natalie's baptism. We also ran some errands, as there was no food in the house! After all that hard work, we decided to take Natalie and Calla on a nice walk around the neighborhood. Because of the sun, Natalie needed to be protected.

Here is a picture of her in her hat:

And in just her sunglasses:


And going "incognito" in both:

Then today we started with a Home Depot trip to pick up some things to spruce up the outside of the house. Since it was shady in the front yard, Natalie came out to join us while we worked.

Here's Natalie looking up at the trees from her blanket:

And here's Natalie after rolling onto her belly:

All in all, a pretty good weekend so far, and Memorial Day isn't even here yet! We may try the pool tomorrow, if it gets as warm as they say. We're also going to our neighbor's house for a BBQ tomorrow evening, so I'm sure I'll have cute pics of Natalie all dressed up for that. Hope everyone has a great holiday weekend!

Feeling punky

The biggest news from the past week is that both Natalie and I got a little sick, although not with the same thing. I picked up a flu bug from somewhere, that left me with a fever Monday night and most of the day Tuesday. Luckily it broke, and even though I saw the doctor there wasn't anything they could do. Feeling better now, just waiting for my nose to get completely unclogged! Natalie picked up a little bit of a cold; no fever, just been stuffed up. It's made sleeping this week difficult, but she's just about over it now and is sleeping much better. For the duration of her cold, the pediatrician told us to hold off on solid foods, as that might have been contributing to her not sleeping well. We tried again yesterday, but she's not seeming very interested in the cereal yet, so we're going to wait another week. Breastmilk and formula seem enough for now, so we're not going to push it.

Otherwise, it's been an uneventful week. We've had some good playtimes this week, so here are some photos of Natalie enjoying herself. The first one is Natalie sitting up in my Boppy pillow - she's able to actually sit, supported, for a couple of minutes now!

This one is Natalie having some tummy time while wearing her cute shirt, skirt, and tights (the top & skirt were bought by Aunt Carrie!):

Finally, this picture is from this morning. Natalie was playing on the floor, and I went upstairs for a moment. When I came back down, she looked like this! She's obviously getting better at moving objects around.

A new toy!

Our friends Bryan and Erin had gotten Natalie a great jumper/exerciser as a present before she was born. Unfortunately, Natalie has been too small to fit into it until now, as her feet didn't touch the ground while sitting in it, which is a big no-no (safety risk). However, her feet now touch the ground (although sometimes we stick something under her feet to help her balance)! So, Natalie is now able to jump around in it and have some playtime. It's really really fun to watch, and we thought you all might enjoy it too.

Happy Mother's Day from a 5 month old

I hope all of you mothers out there had a wonderful Mother's Day, and the rest of you made sure to at least call your mothers. :)

Yesterday Natalie turned 5 months old! We had a good day. She ate some rice cereal, went to Target with Mommy for a while, and hung out with Uncle Scott, who was in DC for the weekend and came to visit us for the day. Here are some pictures of Natalie from yesterday:

Evan and Natalie really made my first Mother's Day great. We went out to breakfast this morning at Mimi's Cafe, a relatively new restaurant near the Dulles Town Center. Not bad! I would definitely go there again. We then ended up spending some time at Babies R Us (needed some stuff to help with teething!) and the mall. Natalie slept for almost 4 hours! She woke up a couple of times, but just seemed so comfortable in her stroller. It let Evan and I get some good shopping time in. Always fun!

We think Natalie may not be feeling very well. She doesn't have a fever, but she has been stuffed up a bit in addition to dealing with teething pain. We're going to keep an eye on her, but I don't think anything is seriously wrong. Maybe she takes after her mother and sleeps when she doesn't feel great. One plus of her sleeping is she took a wonderful nap curled up on my chest not too long ago, which is the absolute best. Here is Natalie all snuggly with me earlier today:

New videos

This week has been eventful. First off, Natalie has really started laughing, particularly when you tickle her belly/chest! It's adorable. See for yourself:

Second, we started "solid" foods: pretty liquid-y rice cereal. We've done it for 3 days now, and today was definitely the best. We just need a better spoon, so she can get the cereal off of it more easily. And today she even managed to swallow some, and not have all of it go down her bib! Here's a video of her first tries at eating the other night:

Third, Natalie has REALLY started to enjoy mirrors. Here's a video of her from after her bath last night, staring at herself in the mirror:

And finally.... teething has started! Most of this week, Natalie has woken up about 2 hours after she goes to sleep, just crying and crying. Not hungry, not wet, and it takes her a while to get back to sleep. I'm going to be buying some baby Orajel to help with the gum pain, but tonight we gave her a little bit of baby Tylenol, which did the trick: the pain seemed to stop, and she was able to get back to sleep. I hate that she's in pain! The teething process is just not fun. Hopefully it won't be too many nights with her in distress.

Some new photos

Not much time, so just wanted to post up these new pictures of Natalie from the past week or so. I have a few topics that I'm planning on writing more on soon, so please check back!

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Our anniversary weekend!

Wow, what a busy weekend! Come to think of it, all of our weekends lately have been busy. Such is life!

On Friday night, my sister Carrie came up to visit from Richmond. She and I went out after Natalie went to bed for dessert and a drink to catch up for a bit. Here we are before we went out:

Then on Saturday we took Natalie to the mall for a while, and got some fun sister time in shopping. We then went and got haircuts at Cloud Nine Salon (if you're in Leesburg, I recommend them). We're both VERY happy with our hair. Unfortunately, we didn't take an after shot of both of us, but you'll see my new hair below.

Then, the reason Carrie really came up was that Saturday was my & Evan's 5 year anniversary! And what great years they've been. So, Carrie babysat for us while Evan and I went to dinner and a movie. Here we are before we left:

An adult evening - what a treat! We ate at Eiffel Tower Cafe, a WONDERFUL little French restaurant we found in downtown Leesburg. It was expensive, but since we never go out anymore one splurge is ok. And the food was delicious! We then went to the movies for the first time in months, which was really nice. Carrie took great care of her little niece, so we'll definitely be asking her to do that again. :)

Then today, after yummy breakfast (thanks Evan!), Carrie had to head home. Natalie and I then got all dressed up and went to our friend Alison's baby shower (her little boy is due June 30). We had a really good time, and Natalie was so good. Everyone commented on how she never cried, not once in over 2 hours. Apparently that's unusual in general, but I have to say that it's pretty normal for Natalie. We know we are so lucky to have such a good baby. I have a few pictures here from the shower, but unfortunately my camera battery died so I couldn't get many.