Natalie Eats With A Fork

Abbe had to work late tonight, so Dad got to spend some time with his little girl. It was a lot of fun. At dinner, I discovered my daughter has a new skill. Apparently, she's discovered how to feed herself with a fork. Look I even got video.



And just for fun, a couple more videos from the past couple weeks.

Here's Natalie enjoying Abbe playing the Piccolo.



And playing with Abbe on the couch.

Weekend at Lake Anna

This past weekend was kind of a tough one. Last Friday would have been my late friend Jess's 32nd birthday. And Monday June 22 marks one year since she was hit by a car while riding her bike (you can read my post about that if you look through the archives; i'm too lazy to make a link right now). [I found and added the link - Evan

In order to attempt to avoid being ridiculously sad over that weekend, a few of us closest to her got together. We met up at Lake Anna (in Louisa Co, VA; not too far south of Fredericksburg, but really in the middle of nowhere!). None of us had been there before - it was very pretty (the lake is huge and there are just beautiful houses surrounding). The house we stayed in was very nice (albeit oddly large, with a very strange use of space). Mostly, it was just nice to get to all be together. There were 9 of us adults (me, Evan, Beth, Jason, Beta, Beaker, Kathy, Eric & Rachel), plus Natalie and Zabby.

We hung out, swam in the lake, rented a boat on Sunday, ate a TON of food, played some games, watched some movies, and watched the girls run around together (oh yes, Natalie learned to run over the weekend!). It was very nice, and we all ended up with far more fun than tears.

I do have pics, but this video sums up very nicely the fun we had in the lake. Natalie did so well! She loves the water.

On Monday, on our way home, we all stopped by the headquarters of the Friends of the Rappahannock, a group that Jess had joined not long before she died. They planted a flowering dogwood tree in front of their building, so we all gathered around that and thought of her for a bit. It's hard to share, as she meant something so different to every single one of us. For me personally, I look at Natalie and think how much Jess would have loved seeing her goddaughter grow up, and how much fun she would have playing with her now. Natalie was only 6 months old when Jess died, so she never got to see these fun moments. It makes me sad, but I know we will keep her alive in our hearts, and for Natalie when she's old enough to understand.

Signed up for the Gym!

In my last post, I described our free class at Little Gym. However, there were two major drawbacks to Little Gym. 1) Price. It was WAY more expensive than I really felt like paying, considering the $270 only paid for 11 45-minute classes. 2) Availability. Turns out so it filled up before I could sign us up! So, no go. Instead, I found a place called My Gym right here in Leesburg. We went to the first class of the new session today at 4pm for free. It was AMAZING! We've signed Natalie up. Here's how it was better.

1) Price. They charge a one-time, lifetime membership of $50, and then it's $170 for a 10 week session. However, the first class was free, so they only charge for 9, so it was ~$155. AND, we get 2 classes per week - one structured class (that was today), and one time to come to a "free play" session (there's one every day of the week), where your child can just run around. So, $100 less, with twice as many sessions!
2) Teachers. There were two teachers versus only one at Little Gym.
3) Kids. The class had 4 kids, and Natalie was the second oldest. At Little Gym, she was the youngest one in a class of almost 20. It was WAY more crowded, and a little advanced for her.
4) Structure. I LOVED the structure of the My Gym class, versus the other one. We had a little warm up time in a circle, and then the rest of the time was run around & play with structured activites the kids could do or not do. I just liked how the teachers interacted with the kids so much better, and the activities were way more up Natalie's alley!

So we had a great time. I did manage to get a couple of pictures of Natalie at the beginning of the session, but nothing else. Maybe if Evan can come next time we can get some of Natalie swinging from the trapeze bar (which was her favorite thing to do!).

Little Gym

Last night I took Natalie to a free trial class at the Little Gym. She's in the 18 month to 3 1/2 year class, so she's definitely on the young side, which I was a little worried about (in fact, she turned out to be the youngest in there, with most of the kids being in the 2-2.5 year age range). But before our class was the younger class, and Natalie definitely would've been out of place there, so I'm glad I chose to bump her to the older class.

Anyway, Natalie loved it! They start the class off with "group" activities on the floor. Natalie was FAR more interested in exploring the mats, climbing stuff, bars, etc (as were some of the other kids), but I managed to get her to do some of it, especially the parachute (remember those from elementary school?)! She really liked playing with that. We then had lots of time to explore all of the equipment - I think Natalie's favorite piece of equipment was a bar that she could hang from, have me help her swing, and then fall onto the mat.

The teacher (miss katherine) had the kids crawl through a big circular mat, and then stand on a piece of tape, and showed them how to put their hands down in front of them (on more pieces of tape), tuck their heads and do a forward somersault down the mat. Natalie let the teacher help her, which was more than some of the other kids did! I was glad to see her being willing to do that.

The class ended with some ball time, followed by bubbles! We were supposed to sit opposite our children, and practice rolling the ball back and forth. As you can guess, there were NO children sitting on the floor - they were all running around after the balls, kicking them, throwing them a bit. As a ball is one of her favorite toys, Natalie liked this part. Then bubble time was fun - the kids loved chasing around after them.

All in all, I liked the class. I think Natalie will enjoy going!

DC Pride Parade!

Last night (Saturday) I did something I'd never done before: marched in a gay pride parade!

My aunt Jacki and her partner Leslie perform with the Big Apple Corps, a lesbian & gay band out of NYC. Leslie is head of the drum line, while Jacki is head of the "band aids", the helpers that basically run the behind-the-scenes action (and helpfully provide water to those walking in the parade). The Corps was in DC for the DC pride parade, and I was able to go and perform with them!

I really had a ton of fun. I hadn't played my piccolo in about 3 years or so, and I haven't been in a parade since college. The members of the band are wonderfully sweet people, and fully welcomed me. The crowd was amazing - full of energy, and LOVED our group. I had so much fun; it's making me want to play more!

Here are Jacki and I:

And me in my uniform. The worst part was the hat: it was white plastic, and there were none that really fit my head well, so my hair was a gross sweaty mess. But it was still fun!

More words

So after creating my list of all of Natalie's words, I realized that I left out a TON of them. Here are the rest of the words that Evan and I could think of tonight. Again, these are words that Natalie will say and obviously knows the meaning of (there are plenty more things that we will say to her that she obviously understands, but doesn't say them herself)

Items: phone; vacuum; stairs; bath; bed; chair; pillow; rope; ball; blankie; baby; bird; plane; squirrel (she says "quil")
Actions: down; dancing; rocking; c'mon; barking; close; open; push; pee
Manners: hi; bye-bye
Names: Rizzo; and almost all of the kids at daycare (about 8 more names)
Phrases: wash hands; brush teeth; night-night


So, all told, she's got well over 50 words/phrases. Right on track for where she should be!

Staying at NIH

Well, I officially did not get hired by CNU for next fall. There was a letter in my mailbox at work today from their Director of Faculty Recruitment telling me so.

I had assumed that would be the case, as two weeks after my interview (about a month ago), I was told when I inquired that the search committee had made their decision. As within a week or two after that I still hadn't heard anything positive, I assumed they offered the position to one of the other two people interviewed. So, I had mentally prepared myself for a rejection, but it still stinks to see it in print.

Oh well. The experiments that I'm currently working on are yielding some very interesting results, so I'm glad for the opportunity to see them to completion, as opposed to having to abandon them (even temporarily) while getting settled into a faculty position this fall.

Also, I forgot to mention this when it happened a couple of weeks ago, but I had a paper accepted in Genes, Brain & Behavior (a really good journal for publishing behavioral data in). I'm first author (that's the important bit for me - it says that I'm the one who did most/all of the work, wrote the paper, etc). It's an extensive project I spent over a year on, developing a novel methodology for testing social memory in rodents, and investigating the contribution of oxytocin and the oxytocin receptor for memory of individuals (turns out, pretty important, at least in rodents). I'm happy it's out there, and now I can focus on revising two other papers I'm also first author on. Those revisions shouldn't be *too* difficult, and hopefully I can get the one resubmitted in the next week or two - it's to Nature Protocols, which would be GREAT to get an article in!

I'm 18 months old!

I can't believe Natalie is 18 months old already. It just doesn't seem possible.
I don't have height/weight info on her yet, as I couldn't get an appointment for her until June 30. So, I'll have that info then.

Dislikes:
1. Going inside
2. Not getting to grab/hold/carry around things we don't like her to
3. certain foods, including most kinds of potatoes, and anything similar to mashed potatoes in consistency

Likes:
1. Water
2. Calla
3. Going outside
4. Eating
5. Climbing on things, including us
6. Taking things out, and putting them back; also closing & opening doors
7. Bath time
8. Her binky (although we're slowly weaning her off of it)
9. Talking!! I'm sitting here trying to think of all the words she knows, and will say herself. I've come up with this list. These are all words that she will say unsolicited while talking to us:
Food: milk juice cracker water chicken apple banana ("nana")
Animals: doggie cow woof
Items/toys: car truck toy book shoe binky blocks window
Body parts: belly ear nose mouth eye
Actions: raining walk doing get it going/go outside/out up eat dancing
Manners: please thank you welcome
Names: Calla, Mama, Dada, Carrie, Essie, Kathy
Phrases: what's that? I want...

Honestly, her list of likes could go on & on - she's a pretty happy kid! I should've taken a picture of her today to mark her 18 months, but we were doing other things tonight. So, no pics - just details about my beautiful girl.

Pool Time!

We had such a great day Sunday! We had some fun playtime on Sunday, including piggy-back rides!

We then took Natalie to the pool in the afternoon. She LOVES the water! We went in the big pool first, which has a nice sloping entry shallow area, so Natalie could walk around in there all she wanted.

We then noticed that Natalie was shivering (the big pool was kind of chilly!), so we took her over to the kiddie/wading pool, and hung out there for a while!

I of course have TONS more pictures, but these are some of my favorites.
We also have this short video:

Natalie talking, Take 2

Ok, let's try to upload this video for real! Woo, it worked! Enjoy.

VIdeo of Talking

When I gave the update of Natalie's talking abilities last week, my friend Becky asked for video proof of Natalie's vocal stylings. So, here it is! This video is from yesterday (Sunday) morning:

[Apparently the video doesn't work if you don't have facebook. Indeed, it doesn't show up at all while I'm at work, as they've blocked facebook & all related apps at work. So, I took it off and will try to upload directly tonight when I get home. sorry about that!]

Saturday in Central Virginia

After the wedding Friday night, we started to head home. But first, we made three stops.
1. I knew that a friend of mine from high school's family owns a winery (near Veritas, where the wedding was) called Afton Mountain Vineyard. Having been too young to enjoy wine when in high school, I thought we could go by and try their wine! We did; it was excellent (I bought a bottle of their sweet red - I love sweet wines!). I also got to see my friend Robbie, whose family actually sold the winery just a few weeks ago, but they've kept him on to run the place. It was nice to catch up for a few moments.

2. We then stopped by the house I grew up in, as it was only a short drive away, and on our way to Charlottesville. It's so weird to drive all of these roads, and have all of the memories rise up! So much looks the same, but at the same time so much of Nelson County has been built up. I suppose it's inevitable...
but here are Natalie and I in front of the old house in Afton:

3. We then headed on to Charlottesville, and had planned on going straight home. But the weather was so nice that we decided to stop at the Downtown Mall, walk around a bit, and have some lunch! I actually called my old friend Bill (from when I worked at the Regal Cinemas there in high school & college), and we met him & his girlfriend for lunch. Hadn't seen him in years either, so it was really great to catch up.

Here are Evan and Natalie on the downtown mall:

And Natalie strolling along:

This was the longest she ever voluntarily kept her sunglasses on - I guess she's finally getting used to them!

A wedding in Afton

Last night (friday, June 5) our friends Robert & Kristina were married at Veritas Vineyard in Afton, Va. In an interesting coincidence, this vineyard happens to be about 2 miles from the house I grew up in! In fact, it didn't even exist while I lived in Afton (I remember the site as being open farmland). It was interesting to be back where I grew up, and see the changes all these years later! The vineyard is beautiful, and while the weather was terrible all day, it cleared up about 30 minutes before the wedding, allowing them to have it outside as planned.

Natalie was the only young kid there (the next youngest were probably 10 or so), and was the hit of the wedding (particularly her shoes, as you'll see below). She made some noise during the ceremony, but only talking, no crying (and it made people laugh). She enjoyed the musicians who were near us, playing for the ceremony. She basically spent the evening walking, and walking, and walking! Here are some good pics during cocktail time before the reception:
[Yes, she had this straw almost the entire evening (it made her happy), so it's in many of the pictures!]

Evan played this "spinning" game with her for a while; she loved it!

Natalie did well during the reception, considering it didn't start until after 8pm! She ate pretty well, and was very well behaved!
[Yes, some of you may notice: I cut my hair again! Just yesterday morning, so I'm still getting used to it being so short, but I think it's good!]

Natalie in the middle of a dance circle (she did boogie a little!)

The beautiful reception hall at Veritas Vineyard

Natalie probably spent the last hour we were there (until about 10:45 or so) just walking around and around the room. She never really fussed; she just wanted to be on her own, exploring the whole area. This was her first wedding; I was so proud of her! We have such a good little girl.

She finally got to bed about 11:30pm in our hotel room; woke up around 1:30 and I put her in bed with us where she slept (surprisingly; normally she won't sleep while with us) until about 7:30 this morning. Needless to say, she went to bed before 7pm tonight, being a bit sleep deprived!

[Note: if you want to see more pictures, click here]

More Talking!

I can't believe I keep forgetting to post about this. Over the past few weeks, Natalie has started speaking in phrases, and now sentences!

Her first two-word phrase was "Up, please". She would always come to us, lift her hands, and say "up". We would say "up please" and make her repeat it before picking her up. About 2 weeks ago, she came over and said it! Now she always says it, so she knows she has to say please. However, she may think it's specific to "up" as she doesn't say it with other things. So, we always make her say "please" whenever she asks for anything - eventually she'll get it!

Natalie's second two-word phrase was "What's that?" which she started around the same time. She says it for EVERYTHING! She'll point at something and say "what's that?" and then we answer her. Most of the time she'll try to repeat the word we say (remote, window, candle, for example), indicating she really is trying to figure out words.

Then about 3 nights ago we were playing in the living room and she looked at her toys and said "I want the blocks"!!! Evan and I were shocked - a whole sentence! She's said it again since then, and has added another ("I want some water"). It's amazing! I know she says "i want some water" because I always ask her "Do you want some water" so she's repeating it as she hears it. But I still didn't expect her to say a phrase like that yet!

It's so great to get to communicate with her now. We don't always know what she's saying (she'll spill out a bunch of gobbledy-gook and look at us like "why don't you understand me?"), but we're working hard at getting her to use words to ask for what she wants. She learns so quickly!

Good product

My friend Becky wrote on her blog about some of her favorite products she's used for her son. One of them (below) looks really great for our next kid:

The spoon is by Boon. Basically, you put a jar of baby food in the "handle" portion, and feed your child all with one thing. She said it works great (especially when out in public - way less mess), and I can't wait to try it when we have another infant.





And no, this is not my way of saying I'm pregnant - I'm NOT! But it never hurts to look for new things to make life easier with the next one.

Anyway, while I was on amazon.com looking at the above, I found another product by Boon, which we went ahead and got. It's WONDERFUL! You place it over the bath faucet; it protects the child's head in case she bumps into the faucet (which Natalie does). We had tried one from Target (a cute duck), but it didn't have any way to pull the shower pull up, so it had to be taken on & off repeatedly - highly obnoxious. So, we returned it, and as most were like that, I figured I'd not find anything good. Lo and behold, this one is perfect!

AND, the white part under the faucet causes the water to come out in a waterfall, which Natalie thinks is SUPER fun to play in (putting her toys in & out of the stream). PLUS, she lets us lay her under the stream to rinse the shampoo out of her hair! It has made rinsing her hair SO much easier (that used to be the hardest part of bath time). So, I highly recommend.