New Natalie pictures!

I know I haven't posted any pictures this week, so I thought I'd finally get them off of my camera and throw some up here. I don't really have any news, as I posted that yesterday, so just enjoy the pictures!

Natalie playing in her high chair:


Natalie in a sea of toys:


Mommy and Natalie after a bath:


Natalie sitting pretty in her dress:

And in black and white:


Daddy lifting Natalie up!


Mommy and Natalie making eye contact:

A Natalie update

A few things have happened over the past two weeks that are new for us, and more specifically new for Natalie! So, I thought I'd do a quick post to tell you all about them.

1. A few weeks ago, we started giving Natalie some water in a sippy cup every day. She really likes drinking from it and playing with it, and can now bring it to her mouth and drink by herself!
2. We got her a strap-on high chair for our dining room table, which she loves sitting in banging toys against the tray (particularly wooden spoons). And it works great for feeding her in.
3. She held a bottle by herself (pushed Evan's arms away!) while we were feeding her the other night. Only briefly, but still cool.
4. She's getting teeth! I found them on Sunday when she shoved my finger in her mouth and I got poked. The bottom two front teeth are coming in; barely there, but you can see them. Amazingly, she's not had pain, and for now is still sleeping great (about 11 hours/night!)

Finally, Natalie REALLY wants to crawl. She can get her knees under her for a couple of seconds, but can't quite keep them there, so she goes back down flat on the floor. It's kind of cute, but I feel so bad for her - she just gets so frustrated that she can't move around the way she wants to. But I know it'll won't happen until her body is able to support her, so for now we're just encouraging her to roll & scoot around on the floor!

A weekend in NJ

Last Friday Evan, Natalie and I headed up to NJ to visit Evan's parents for the weekend. We had a really great time, despite getting caught in traffic on the way up, and Natalie needing multiple stops on the way back!

Saturday was just a really fun day. We started by heading over to Evan's mom's work so she could show Natalie off to her coworkers (isn't that what everyone would want to do?). They loved her, of course. She was wearing a super adorable dress given to her by Grandma Lynn at my baby shower; here she is showing it off with her grandparents:

We then had some fun shopping, picking up some clothes for Natalie for the winter (she has a TON of clothing for the summer, given to us by amazingly thoughtful friends & family, but almost nothing for this coming winter!). Yay Macy's for having a sale, and Lynn for coupons! We also got Evan some much-needed shorts, and myself some (less-needed, but still useful) shirts for work.

Evan's parents still had the old high chair that he and his brothers used when they were little, so we thought we'd give it a try with Natalie. She did great in it! Worked very nicely for feeding her, and she had a great time playing with various toys in it:

We then had a great cookout Saturday night, and just enjoyed hanging out together. Unfortunately, the time always goes too fast, and then we had to head home Sunday.

Here are some pictures from the weekend:

Pool party with friends

Last Saturday, we had a group of friends over for a pool party, barbeque, and general merriment later that night. It was a great time! Our friends Beth & Jason came up from Williamsburg, Cody came from Fredericksburg, Will & Jon came from Alexandria, Rachel came from D.C., and Cody's sister Emma came from Silver Spring.

We headed over to our community pool and spent almost 2 hours there. It was a great time (especially during "adult swim" time when all of the young children and teenagers have to leave the pool!). Natalie had a ton of fun, floating around in her raft. Here are some pictures of us having fun in the pool:

We then headed back to the house and had a yummy cookout. Burgers, hotdogs, steak, shrimp on the grill; corn on the cob; macaroni salad; tons of desserts. We ate, Natalie ate (carrots, I believe!) - good times.

After Natalie was in bed (took about 5 minutes, as she was tired out from the pool!), we all hung out for the evening, mostly playing old Nintendo games on Evan's original 8-bit Nintendo (who still has that? We do, apparently!) and chatting. Natalie must've been completely exhausted - we weren't being overly loud, but with 9 adults in the house there's definitely some noise. She didn't make a peep! And slept for 12 hours straight. Amazing! I guess to get her sleeping really solidly, we need to spend 1.5 hours at the pool everyday. Oh, that's all it takes? Piece of cake! :)

A sweet first

Ah, Monday mornings. Never fun, right? Well, this morning was an amazing Monday for me. Natalie was still asleep when I got up, so I showered, dressed, and got ready to take Calla for a walk. Of course, as I'm about walk Calla when I hear crying. I go back upstairs, and Evan tells me he'll get Natalie, so I walk Calla. I come back in, and don't hear any crying (yay!). I go upstairs to check on Natalie/see if Evan needs help. Evan has Natalie against his shoulder, slowly walking her around a bit to try and get her back to sleep after he changed her diaper. I go to leave, so she won't see me, but he motions me in, as she is awake.

Now here's the good part:
I give her a kiss goodbye, and she turns her head, looks at me, turns towards me, and holds her arms out to me for me to pick her up!

That's the first time that Natalie has ever deliberately made any motion for me to pick her up/hold her. It was so wonderfully sweet. What an amazing way to start the morning, and the week. (Note: I did get her to go back to sleep in the crib; I guess all she needed was Mommy!).

It was a wonderful feeling, but also a little scary. It really drove home that when she's older, she'll need me to comfort her the way I needed my mom, and we all needed our moms!

Outer Banks vacation

Evan, Natalie, Calla, and I headed down to the Outer Banks on July 2 to spend a week enjoying the beach and trying to get a little relaxation in after attending Jess's memorial the weekend before. We had a great time, and were lucky enough to have very beach-friendly weather almost every day. Doesn't Natalie look cute in her beach outfit?

We made it to the beach 4 times, and the ocean was fairly calm every time we went, allowing Natalie to go in the water twice! She did really well - Evan held her, and she seemed to enjoy feeling the water lapping around her. All that time in the sun (don't worry, she had 50 SPF on!), and looking at everything on the beach, and splashing in the water, made her very sleepy:

We borrowed this great "baby beach cabana" from our daycare, and it worked really well as a safe place for Natalie to rest in on the beach. We'll be using it again next month when we head to the beach with friends!

On Monday, I was able to get this video of Natalie playing in the cabana:


On the 4th of July we had a cookout. My aunt Linda came to the house for the day, and so we all got to hang out together. Natalie had fun showing her patriotic colors:

Then over the weekend my sister Carrie was able to come down for a night, which was really wonderful, as I hadn't gotten to see her in a while. We had fun together, even if only for one night! Here are pictures of various family members with Natalie:

Finally, we discovered a new way to keep Natalie occupied: utensils! She really enjoys chewing on them:

Hey, whatever keeps her occupied so we can eat dinner, right? :)

A great vacation

Hi all! Sorry for not posting for a week; we've been busy here at the Outer Banks, and I haven't had a chance to get onto the internet very often! We got here last Wednesday, and unfortunately have to leave tomorrow. It was a very nice week, though, even though vacations never last as long as you would like them to!

I will be posting some details about our week once we get home, as well as pictures of Natalie at the beach, and celebrating July 4th. I hope to do that by Thursday, so check back then for stories and pics!

Some Natalie photos

Here are some photos of Natalie taken over the past two weeks. Sorry that I didn't get them up sooner; I think you are all aware that we had other important events to get through first.

We will be heading down to the beach tomorrow to celebrate July 4th; I hope over the weekend to post pictures of Natalie celebrating her first 4th of July!