Natalie - 11 Months

I'm 10 days late writing this, which means that in just 3 weeks, Natalie will be one year old. 

What?!

Time flies when you're having fun, and Natalie is having tons of baby fun! Climbing the stairs & furniture, cruising along all of the furniture, bear-crawling & making early attempts at standing up unassisted, clapping, waving, shaking her head 'no,' dancing, giggling, and jabbering all day --- it's exhausting! 

I'm jinxing myself by mentioning it, but Natalie's sleep has gotten better - still taking 2 naps, usually about an hour long each. She sleeps all night (10-11 hours) maybe 50% of the time? 

She still only has the two bottom teeth, but I think we may see the top two chompers by her birthday. She continues to eat nearly everything in sight - her current favorite foods being blueberries & oyster crackers. She also loves drinking milk from a straw cup! 

3 weeks until your birthday. Oh boy. 

Natalie is such a sweet baby - lots of smiles & charm, curiosity & determination, adventure & spunk. I can't wait to see what the future holds for you, baby girl! 

St. Louis Mini Vacation

We took our first little overnight trip as a family of four this week. We went to Saint Louis with loose plans & go-with-the flow attitudes. The trip down went pretty smoothly - Charlotte & Natalie played, chatted, & dozed off. We stopped twice along the way - once for a restroom & wiggle break... 

 

And again for lunch. Charlotte wasn't a huge fan of the food at Penn Station, but she loved the cottonwood seeds floating around outside! 

We spent the afternoon at The Magic House - a huuuuuge children's museum. We spent about 4 hours there and probably only saw one-third or one-fourth of the whole place. Charlotte's favorite spots were a huge outdoor sandbox & a Sid the Science Kid exhibit. Natalie's favorite part was the water table that had baby seats! 

 

Our hotel was about a 5 minute drive from The Magic House. Both kids were out cold before we even got to the check-in counter.

After a yummy dinner at Denny's :o) we put on swimsuits and prepared for tons of fun at the hotel pool. After hyping it all day, Charlotte decided within a couple of minutes that the pool was not her favorite. We stuck it out for maybe 20 minutes or so, since Natalie was having so much fun in the water. She was squealing and laughing as we swooped her through the water & bobbed her up and down. She'll be our little fishy :o) 

 Luckily, the hotel had an indoor playground! Charlotte and Natalie both LOVED climbing and playing on all of the equipment. We probably ended up playing on the playground about 6 times all together. 

We made reservations for a 10:20 ride up to the top of the Gateway Arch the next morning. Of course we got held up by some road construction and entered the building at about 10:30. The lovely people at the Arch put us on the next available tour, starting at 11:30, so we had some time to check out the Westward Expansion museum in the base of the Arch. Natalie liked getting down & burning some energy, since she'd been held most of the morning until then. 

At 11:30, we thought we were finally on our way to the top of the Arch. Nope. More waiting. At least 30 minutes more. And when it's lunchtime and two little ones have already been waiting for over 90 minutes, it started to look like things might get hairy. Charlotte's feet hurt, she didn't want to walk, didn't even want to stand in line, began to whimper about wanting to go home, that she was hungry, etc. etc. etc. Natalie was squirmy, not wanting to be held anymore. But somehow, FINALLY, it was time to get into the tram to get to the top. It all turned out OK & Charlotte really liked looking out of the little windows down into the "Mississippi Water" and all the boats below. 

Waiting to get into the tram

Finally on our way up to the top!

The plan after the Arch was to have the kids nap in the car while we drove over to the St Louis Zoo, finding a place to eat lunch nearby. The kids fell asleep in the car right away (whew!), but we hit a snag when the zoo was packed. We pulled into the property before finding a lunch place, and it took us almost an hour to get back off of zoo property. With Charlotte having refused to walk most of the time we were at the Arch, we figured that day would not be the best day to fight the massive crowd with a little one not in the best mood. So we made the decision to skip the zoo, and stay another night instead. We ended up eating lunch at Einstein Bagels & then getting frozen yogurt at Orange Leaf, then checked back into the hotel, swam some more, played on the playground again, ordered pizza, and the girls just played played played in the hotel until it was time for bed. It was so cute watching them explore something new. At one point, while we were eating dinner, Charlotte said in a very sad voice, "I'm gonna miss Donny and Marie." I think she thought we were going to live in that hotel from then on & we just left the cats at home! :o) 

The ride home this morning was a little longer than planned - Charlotte asked to stop to use the bathroom 3 or 4 times. The kids still did very, very well entertaining themselves & each other. Taking a "vacation" with two little kids is a lot more work than it is with just two adults, but we all had fun. I think we're all happy to be back in our own beds tonight, too. :o) 

Good News!! ... Oh wait.

I was all set to boast, brag, toot my own horn, do a little victory dance on my blog. You see, something happened here tonight that hasn't happened in at least 7 months. 

Natalie put herself to sleep without any fuss. 

She had a full tummy, dark room, and was utterly exhausted from a full day of playing at Grandma's house. But as I tried rocking her, she kept squirming, tossing & turning, swinging her little paws at my head. I decided to put her in her crib & walk out to change into my pjs, preparing myself mentally & physically for what is often an ugly struggle - getting an overtired baby to sleep. 

But she never cried, never whined, didn't make a peep. On her video monitor, I could see her rolling around in her bed, grabbing her stuffed animals. I decided to wait it out. And before I realized it, I'd burned 20 minutes catching up on Facebook & sweet little Natalie was sound asleep. 

I came downstairs & said to Ben, "Guess what your daughter did? She put herself to sleep!" and showed him the video monitor evidence. While he picked up the toys from the living room, I cleaned all the dishes in the sink - thinking "I'm going to mark this day in history on my blog!" 

So when the dishes were done, I took my phone & crept into her room to capture a photo of this sweet baby. But as soon as I opened the door to her room, the smile faded from my face. Instantly, there was no mistaking it... 

She'd pooped.

I knew I wouldn't be able to just shut the door & pretended I hadn't noticed. She'd need to be changed. But she was sleeping! And had gone to sleep by herself!!! Oh cruel, cruel parenting world! 

But! With a clean tush in under 2 minutes, you were back to dreamland in no time! 

I'm still proud of you, Natalie! Congratulations on putting yourself to sleep peacefully! What a big accomplishment! And, pooping yourself to sleep seems to have been much easier on me than your normal pooping yourself awake. It's much harder to get you back to sleep when that happens (and it happens a lot around here). 

Mommy Night at Preschool

About 6 weeks ago, I took Charlotte on a tour of a preschool. We had been thinking about starting her with a couple mornings a week this summer, after her 3rd birthday. With dozens to choose from in the area, I narrowed my search by proximity, price, philosophy, and age cut-offs. During our visit, I was looking mostly for Charlotte's comfort level, and also the experience and qualifications of the teachers. Both of us felt right at home during our visit. I was eager to fill out the application to get her signed up for August when the director told me there was actually an immediate opening in the 2-year-old room - - someone had just moved away that morning. So we went to visit with the 2-year-old class teachers and I made the decision to get her in then. It has been such a great experience for her! She loves playing with her new friends, exploring the toys and play stations in her classroom & the school's gym - the "Muscle Room." She's also in love with the playground, although the long winter and wet spring have only allowed them outside two or three times so far. What I'm most happy about, though, is how much Charlotte loves her teachers. She talks about them more than she talks about any of the other kids, is very eager to see them on preschool mornings, can't wait to tell them stories or show them things. I'm so glad that Charlotte's first experience with "school" has been so positive.

Tuesday night, Charlotte & I went to her class's "Mommy & Me" night. She showed me all around her classroom, we made stamp art, dug around in the sensory table (Easter grass!!), played in the pretend beauty parlor, burned some energy in the Muscle Room, and had a snack before singing some songs and going home. It was so much fun seeing the excitement she has for her preschool - and it was fun to get away on an adventure just the two of us (Daddy stayed home with Natalie).

Sensory bin with list of critters to find

We found a snake!

Building a wall

Oops, Charlotte was asked to only climb on the *inside*

She loves the Sit n Spin

Singing a song for the moms!