Crazy week

It's been a heck of a week (and it's only Wednesday)! I'm writing a quick update from work, so I don't have my photos with me (they're on my home computer), so photos will have to wait. And this post will primarily be focused on me, not Natalie.

Saturday:
I hosted and co-threw a baby shower for our friends (from college) Chris & Renee. I think we reached maximum capacity for our house! Had a ton of people there (close to 30), but lots of fun was had by all. Good food, games, cake, and adorable baby gifts (they're having a boy). Exhausting, but worth it.

Sunday:
Cleaned up, started packing for Australia (we leave this sunday!). Laid out lots of clothes on the guest bed; need to sort through and leave some home as have put out way too much! We also ran to Borders to find a couple of books each to take on the plane. I think we got winners (Me: "It" by Stephen King (re-reading) and a sci-fi/fantasy thing Evan found; Evan: same sci-fi/fantasy book, and another VERY sci-fi book "Matter"). I'm hoping being on a plane and in beautiful Australia will prevent "it" from scaring me too much...

Monday:
Woke up feeling like hell. And crap. All rolled into one. Headache, chills, nauseau. But, had testing to do and papers to work on, so off to work I went. Managed to stay until ~3pm, about to head home but checked work email one more time. Good thing cause...
I got an interview at a university that I applied to for a faculty position! It will likely be week of April 13, but don't have details yet. I'm super excited; I think I'm going to be a very good fit there, and while it would require moving, it's still in VA. More news as I get it.
I then headed home. Got home, fell into bed by 4pm. Slept. A lot. Stayed in bedroom until 5:30am next morning. Evan was great; took care of Natalie for me so I could rest up. Hated not seeing her, but felt so bad I could not have played with her as she wanted. Ended up throwing up at 12:30am; felt a little better.

Tuesday:
Woke up feeling crappy again. This time just nausea. Got some juice in me; headed off to work. Got two papers finished (yay!); sent one back to journal and one to boss. Threw up juice ~10:30am. Sucked. Ended up leaving ~2pm after finished testing. Didn't go to bed, but relaxed on couch. Ate some toast ~5pm; kept it and juice down! yay! Played with Natalie, had normal evening.

Today:
Woke up feeling MUCH better. Ate more toast. Have had good full day at work. About to go meet with boss about paper I gave him yesterday. Freaking out a little b/c tomorrow is my last day at work before we head off on our big vacation. There's too much to do! Gotta make a plan...

15 month checkup!

Last thursday was Natalie's 15 month checkup. She did very well: got a clean bill of health, and I was able to answer "yes" to every single question the doctor asked me along the lines of "can Natalie do...", with the exception of "does she feed herself with a utensil yet?". That she doesn't do, but I know she'll get there.

Height: 31 inches
Weight: 20 lbs, 8 oz

This picture was taken later that day...

The doctor told me that apparently for babies, pizza is "healthy" as they can get lots of calcium from the cheese. I have my doubts, but since we had workmen at the house last night (installing our new front doors and fixing our dining room ceiling), we made frozen pizza. Natalie LOVED it.

And last weekend Evan's parents came to visit to see Natalie before we head off to Australia. We had a nice time, even though the weather was kind of crummy! On Saturday we took care of some things around the house, and then went over to the Leesburg Outlets for a while (always fun!). On Sunday we went to brunch at a place we hadn't tried before; it was ok, but I think we'll try somewhere else next time. Here's Natalie all ready to go out!

Great new videos

It's become harder to take good photos of Natalie since she's become so mobile. I'm noticing as I look through my "Natalie" folder on my computer that I take far fewer than I used to! However, I've been taking more videos as she gets bigger, and I think we've got some cute ones.

This first one is from last week when she was finally able to climb up onto the couch (with the assistance of some pillows)! I think her getting back down is the best part:

This one is from last Tuesday after we had worked with Natalie on labelling some body parts, specifically the nose & eyes:

Finally, this one is from yesterday. Check out Natalie showing off her seated dance moves! Also, notice how at the end she definitely knows how to make the music go, but isn't quite able to push hard enough!