7 Months

I think we had our first official “Da-Da” yesterday. I was picking Natalie up over at Nana’s after work and she looked right at me and said Da-Da, pretty loudly. There were several witnesses so even though I’ve heard her say it a couple of times, there were others who can verify my story now. I do think she was probably saying it by accident before but yesterday seemed pretty legitimate.

Nana has erected a “cage” at her house too. Natalie is not a big fan of being put in these play yards for very long by herself. She doesn’t like to be contained at all in anything for very long and will just start to squeal when she wants out. She sort of tests the play yards for weak spots kind of like the raptors in Jurassic Park. 

In our one room I use the couch to corral her and put part of the play yard up to block the TV and stand. She’’ll work her way around the perimeter and actually found her way out one time when I had a gap that was big enough for her to crawl through between the couch and ottoman.

I definitely think she will be walking by 10 months because she’s already able to get up on all fours without any help and tries a crab walk of sorts as it is. She pulls herself up on furniture and can move around pretty well. 

Natalie has also developed a fascination with chords. She LOVES unplugging my laptop . If someone can come up with an infant toy that’s safe and incorporates cell phones and chords, that’s a million dollar product. She also likes to suck on doorstops if she can get to them. The 40 toys that are laid out don’t match the interest of a doorstop I guess. 

These monthly pictures are getting to be quite the ordeal. She’s not real interested in sitting still very long so getting a good shot can be a challenge. This was taken just after her morning nap. Shortly before this, she pottied all over me as I changed her diaper. I thought she was being a little “too” calm but she was dirty so I changed her. That’s why you keep washable pads on the changing table pad.

Monkey Business

Since getting back from our trip Natalie has become more and more active. Seen here in her “cage” as Tiffany calls it, she could probably crawl the length of our house in a shade under two minutes. She’s becoming quite the little monkey, pulling herself up on things (i.e. the couch, chairs, the cage) and making us wonder how long it will be until she is walking.

It seems really early to think she’s going to be walking soon, but she stands up pretty well and only sits when she’s out of gas. Personally, I wish she would sit still a little more often. If we’re outside the house, she’ll have no problem sitting on our lap for extended periods of time, but at home, forget it. 

Currently, she’s pulled herself up and is standing inside the cage whining despite the fact that she has plenty of toys in there. It’s getting close to a morning snack as well. She woke up last night at about 2. That’s pretty rare but she’ll do that a couple of times a month. I think it might be when she’s going through a growth spurt. 

We recently invested in some padded color squares for Natalie to play on as well. Area rugs don’t provide much cushion for a toddler falling all over themselves and we had heard enough thuds to know we were only going to avoid a somewhat serious injury so long. The issue is that it’s not incased so she’ll crawl right off and go for the baskets under the TV or pretty much anything else we don’t want her to mess with, hence the need for the cage.

She’s also about had it with her activity center in which she stands. She’ll even do leg lifts to avoid being put down in it. It’s pretty impressive actually. She will show some patience in her high chair while Tiffany prepares dinner so that’s nice. I think she knows it’s because she’s about to be fed. We have to be careful there though because she will only wait so long. After about 10 minutes she’ll start “chatting” as if to say, “I’m waiting over here.” Then after dinner she can get a little fussy if we don’t get her in her bath relatively quickly.

I think she’s ready for her morning bottle so that will be all for now.

We Made It

Natalie’s Northeast Tour 2011 came to a close yesterday and went about as smoothly as I could have hoped for. On departure day, it decided to rain all day despite the fact we are in the midst of the worst draught in 100 years. I wasn’t concerned about the rain delaying the flight, but I wasn’t looking forward to getting wet during the transfer from the parking lot to the terminal. Things took a turn though and the weather cleared up just as we were leaving for the airport.

Once we dropped the car off and got to the terminal we found our way to the bag drop off for Continental. We were the ONLY people in line so folks were falling all over themselves to help us making our first check-in with baby, car seat and stroller in-toe pretty easy.

I was also dreading the security line, but again, we were pretty much the only folks in line though we found out on the way back that the family line is not so bad. It’s kind of like having someone with a wheelchair at Disney World, you get to bypass the long line and go to your very own. I actually had the body scanner on the way out so I had to empty EVERYTHING out of my pockets, not just metal objects. They should probably put a sign up telling people that before they get up there.

Also, I noticed pretty quick that the security people pretty much give you a pass if you have a small child. At the bag check, I had to offer our picture id’s to the attendant, she never asked and then only glanced at them both times. Of course we also got to board early though when you have assigned seats, i don’t see it as a big deal especially since Continental boards first class, elite frequent flyers and then people with small children.

When we landed we got our bags no problem, but had to wait about 10 minutes for the hotel shuttle to the Courtyard Marriot. At this point Natalie was wide awake and ready to play. It did take Tiffany a little while to get her down to sleep and when we woke up the next day around 7:30, Tiffany had a little under five hours of sleep in her.

Tiffany headed out on the 8:30 shuttle from the hotel to the airport to pick up our rental car. It was cheaper to pick it up the next day as opposed to the night before and since we weren’t really going anywhere, it made sense to wait until morning. I hung out with Natalie and finished getting ready because the reservation was in Tiffany’s name so she HAD to go to pick it up even though I was going to be the driver.

In the Emerald Aisle she was able to get a RAV4, such a divergence from our usual (Tiffany’s car is a RAV4), but the extra space certainly helped. Once she returned I had the car packed and we headed to Valley Stream, Ny to see my grandfather.

We made it to NY in record time, never in my life had I seen less traffic. We made it to the Wal-Mart by his house in about 2 hours and 15 minutes. My personal best had been 2 hours 45 minutes before AND we stopped twice along the way.

Of course my grandfather loved Natalie and after spending the afternoon there, we took him to dinner at a local diner. After dinner we dropped him and headed to our new hotel about 20 minutes from his house. After checking in, I checked out the concierge lounge while Tiffany topped Natalie off before bed. Natalie was asleep by 7:30 and Tiffany and I were asleep by 9, trying to catch-up from the night before. Thursday morning I headed to the gym while Tiffany woke up and fed Natalie. We asked at the front desk for a recommendation for breakfast. Without hesitation “Kevin” recommended the Colony Diner, about a mile away. It was very good, and we actually returned again on Friday. 

After breakfast Thursday, we headed to my grandfather’s house and as we left I reminded him to turn the air conditioning on. He only has window units and it was HOT last week in the Northeast, approaching 100 nearly every day we were there. 

After spending an hour or so visiting we headed to the cemetery where my grandmother is buried and then it was off to my cousin Pam’s who had assembled the rest of the family in the long island area. We had a good visit there and dropped Tiffany and Natalie at the hotel on the way back to Valley Stream so Natalie could take a bath and get ready for bed. I then drove my grandfather home and returned to the hotel. It was a good two days with him.

what???

Friday we headed to Derek’s, a roommate from college. He and his wife Mairaid (I’m probably spelling it wrong) had come to see us last summer in August but we had not seen their house since they moved into it two years ago. It was about 90 minutes from the hotel upstate and we got there about 12:30 where Derek greeted us and gave us the tour. Another college roommate of mine, Steve and his wife Grace drove up from New Jersey to have dinner with us Friday and we had a good time catching up. 

Saturday we made our way back to Philadelphia to Matt and Andrea’s who were returning from the shore the same day. After stopping at WAWA for a hoagie and pretzel we got to there house at about 2:30 and met their son Finn for the first time who was born just a month before Natalie. 

Natalie is a little more active then Finn, but Finn is bigger (He is a boy and was born a month sooner). It was fun watching them interact with each other. They climbed over each other and played Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning before we left. 

Matt and Andrea treated us to Cheesteaks Saturday Night so we got our fix in just in the nick of time and I enjoyed some of Matt’s current summer ale that was on tap (he brews his own beer, quite well actually). 

Sunday we had no problems at the airport and although Natalie didn’t sleep very much on the plane, we had few problems and actually arrived in Houston 30 minutes ahead of schedule, a rarity when leaving the Philadelphia airport. 

Now the seasoned traveler, Natalie will next tour Florida coming in August. 

Leaving On a Jet Plane

We’re getting ready to accompany Natalie on her first trip outside Texas. I feel more like a pack mule than anyone going on a trip himself. Tiffany started to get things together on Saturday for this trip. Typically, we pack the night before, not days ahead, like we do do since we our only our daughter’s entourage. Natalie is probably bringing more than her own weight in food, accessories and clothing. 

Tomorrow I should he carrying my backpack, our camera bag, my suitcase, the car seat and base and potentially the stroller depending who’s holding Natalie, what she’s sitting in and how we’re moving her around. I’m working on growing another arm.Typically we like to fly early in the morning, first flight, less chance for delay. That’s not the case tomorrow.

Tomorrow we will be taking off at 7:15 PM CST or 8:15 EST so it will make for a long day, but we’re hoping that Natalie will sleep most of the flight since she is usually in bed and asleep by 7:30. Of course the later departure opens up the possibility of flight delay, especially since it looks like there is a decent chance of a heavy thunderstorm tomorrow night despite the fact that it’s rained maybe three times in the last 4 months here. I also checked the weather in the northeast for the week this morning and wouldn’t you know it, they’re going to be in the midst of heatwave this week with highs near 100 by the weekend. Just when we think we’re getting out of the Texas heat. 

Natalie must have figured out she hit 6 months last week because she is progressing pretty rapidly now. She sits up by herself all the time and is now pulling herself up on the couch and looked to be figuring out the crib so I lowered that yesterday. Her crawling is progressing as she’s starting to move better with her feet and hands in tandem. 

At her doctor’s appointment on Thursday Natalie weighed in at 16.2 pounds and measured 27 inches. That puts her at the 51st percentile in weight and 89th percentile in length so we may have a tall one on our hands. She goes back at 9 month so we’ll see if she stays on track. I think I read somewhere that a baby is suppose to be twice her body weight at birth by 6 months. That would have put her at 17 pounds so she’s definitely shy of that, but she did lose a lot of weight in the hospital before we left.

Of course with the activity level increasing, she’s starting to explore the house on her own more. I put her on the floor in her room for two minutes the other night while I got her bath ready and I turn around and she had crawled out of her room and into the bathroom. I guess she was ready for her bath. 

She has plenty of toys to play with but her favorites are any electrical chord, shoes, my cell phone and the remote control. I swear you could have 30 toys on the ground and one thing you prefer she not go for and sure enough, she’ll find that and try to stick it in her mouth. She could learn a lot from Chase. She’ll throw things at him that are her toys and he won’t go for them. He’s never bothered one of her toys, but will go crazy when he grabs one of his which we leave out less often now. Maybe she’ll pick that up from him over time. For now I’ll settle for her sleeping on the plane.

6 Months

Natalie hit the 6 month mark yesterday. She heads to the doctor on Thursday, I’ll be taking her in for the first time. Tiffany may come with us and head to work after, but I don’t think she’s decided yet.  Natalie’s mobility is improving. She’s progressed from the inch warm to more of a breast stroke to move across the floor. I’m not a swimming expert, but she seems to have good form. I’m sure it’s only  a matter of days now before she is legitimately crawling and moving along at top speed.

Here you also see her sitting. We can place her and she will sit for quite a while but for the first time this morning, she found herself in a sitting position on her own. Tiffany and I were both getting ready in the bathroom and Natalie swung her leg out and there she was sitting. I’m sure it was an accident as she was probably just trying to figure out a better way to move across the floor, but when we both got excited, she looked pretty pleased with herself. So we’ll see if she starts to do that more often.

We’re a week away now from our big trip up north. That should be an experience. Hopefully, Natalie handles the plane okay. It certainly will be a little shock to her and the time change will probably make her schedule a little haywire. I’m sure preparations will start over the weekend. The days of packing and leaving the same day are probably over. 

The Inch Worm

Natalie is crawling.....sort of. It may be a bit unfair to call what she’s doing crawling but on Saturday she did start to move forward using her hands and legs while on her knees. However, most of the forward movement is generated by her launching herself forward by rocking back and diving forward. As you can see by this picture, she is quite pleased with herself for figuring out a way to move forward. 

She can move around just enough that she doesn’t grow as frustrated and can amuse herself by flipping, rolling and rocking her way around the room. She’s still using her activity mat, for now. As you can see, she likes to tear it down and drag it around the room...I suppose that is an activity. I caught her here in the act but as she saw the camera come out she quickly took a pose as if to say, “that was like that already” and went about her business.

On Saturday Tiffany and I went out to dinner for our anniversary. I believe it was the first time we carted Natalie off to a nicer sit-down restaurant with just the two of us. It was actually the same restaurant we went out to the day before she was born. Natalie did not seem impressed by this tidbit, but seemed to enjoy her Gerber baby food just fine.

Two weeks from today we head to New York to surprise my grandfather on his 93rd birthday. I’m not particularly looking forward to dragging a 6-month old through airport security and all over New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania but it will be a nice surprise and of course be nice to visit some friends while we are in the area. By then Natalie will probably be doing more than inching along, but we’ll see.

Frustratingly Close

Natalie’s inching ever so closer to crawling, but has yet to put the final pieces together. She’ll get up on all fours and start to sway back and forth and she’ll even climb up my chest if I’m up holding her and she’s facing me, but she can’t seem to put that together on the floor.

Meanwhile, she’ll still try. After a few minutes of effort she’ll get pretty frustrated that she’s not going anywhere and begin to whine. Mind you, this doesn’t keep her from moving across the room. She’ll roll  and roll and slide and can cover ground pretty quickly. She’ll be next to the far wall in the office and a minute later be next to me at the desk, laying like she had been there the whole time. That’s probably 10-12 feet.

I’m looking forward to her beginning to crawl, but at the same time I’m sure she’ll just be motoring all over the house. Her knees are likely going to show some wear from the hardwood floors. 

On the eating front, she’s enjoying rice cereal and fruit twice a day now. We’re using the Gerber First Stage “meals”. So far Natalie is pretty partial to sweet potatoes with green beans and squash in second. She’ll eat almost any of the choices, but doesn’t like carrots at all and will be happy to tell you that if you try to give them to her. She doesn’t even complain about prunes, though we have found that giving her prunes is akin to setting a bomb off in her intestinal tract. It creates some extra special diapers the next day. 

We weighed her a few days ago and she was 16 pounds on the nose so that puts her right on track for 6 months. I believe a child is supposed to be close to twice their birth weight at 6 months or so I’ve heard. We’re 2 weeks away from that appointment, perhaps she’ll be crawling by then.