Natalie's First Steps!!!

This evening, at about 7:30pm, Natalie finally took her first unassisted steps! For those of you who weighed in on our blog poll, the correct answer turned out to be less than one month (from the time that we asked the question), so no one wins.

Actually, this was all somewhat unexpected. Natalie had a very eventful day and was looking kind of tired before dinner. However, after dinner, she got her second wind and spent a lot of time crawling and walking while hanging onto things. After doing this for a while, Natalie started to wonder where Mom was, so she walked with Dad towards the bedroom. Once in the room, Natalie saw her Mom and started to crawl towards her. After crawling for a little while, Natalie got a little frustrated - after all, it is difficult to crawl on a hardwood floor when you're wearing a dress. So, Natalie decided to stand up on her own (without any assistance or external support) and walk the remaining 6-7 steps over to her Mom. Once she did this, Natalie seemed happy and surprised all at once. Being obsessive parents, Mom and Dad immediately had her repeat her performance two more times. Her 3rd unassisted walk was recorded below. She's standing up on her own in the first shot and walking to Mom in the second.

Thank you Holly for lending Natalie the Reading DVD

Holly Shewmake was kind enough to lend Natalie a "Your Baby Can Read" starter DVD. So far, Natalie has really enjoyed it and she has started to participate as well. Here she is waving and touching her nose. She also loves to clap and raise her arms when prompted.

New Paint Set = New Artistic Skills

Natalie learned a fun new skill today. Mom went out and got her some beginner paint cartridges. Natalie was soon expressing and enjoying herself fully - we think her style is modern art, specifically abstract impressionism. What do you think? Seriously though, Natalie was more occupied for a longer time than usual while she was painting. Luckily, the paint cleans up with water.

Thank you Tom & Karen for the Noah's Ark play set

Tom and Karen from Downers Grove were very kind to Natalie. They purchased a Noah's Ark play set for her. Natalie loves animals and she immediately fell in love with Noah and kept kissing him. Thanks so much for such a nice gift.