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. 

Daddy's Day

Yesterday marked my first of what should be many father’s  day celebrations. It is nice to all of a sudden have another day where breakfast should be made for me and another gift should be given. The day started like many, with a dirty diaper. Tiffany made it seem as though Natalie was was only wet, but no, Natalie’s special gift came wrapped in a diaper. Here you see me picking her up as she woke up for good on Sunday shortly before she wrapped her gift. 

After a good night of sleep, Natale is always in a good mood. If you’re thinking my hair looks wet, it was, I got doused by a sprinkler in the yard just moments before. Tiffany made me pancakes for breakfast and gave me a couple framed pictures of Natalie and me. I held Natalie up by the stove and told her to pay attention so she could do this herself one day. It will probably be a few years. 

After relaxing at home for most of the day we headed over to Tiffany’s grandparents for dinner where we had beef tenderloin, salad, mashed potatoes and peanut butter pie for desert. All in all a good day. Only 364 days until the next one.

Prunes, I knew I was in Trouble

Last night prunes made their debut on Natalie’s dinner menu. We were eating dinner and Tiffany asked me what I thought she was feeding her. It actually looked like chocolate pudding so that was my answer even though I knew we wouldn’t be giving her chocolate pudding . Tiffany started to laugh, barely able to say prunes out loud.

Immediately my mind wandered to when the last time Natalie pooped. It was overnight so not since the early morning. She rarely goes twice in a day now so I knew I would be in for a treat today. Sure enough I pick her up to put her on my lap this morning after eating breakfast and before my feet have even found a permanent spot on the ottoman, I heard a grunt and then felt a pop, a new record.

Turns out it was also a minor blowout so those jammies are heading straight to the wash. I was fortunate that Natalie was not just in a onesy because I surely would have been victimized if she was. I in fact had not intention of changing her out of her pajamas until after she did her deed. So in that respect I made out pretty good. 

Now that she’s eating solid food I work quite fast during a diaper change. The sooner that odor is down in the diaper genie the better so I don’t mess around. A couple diapers have put me on the brink of gagging, which I have never done before and I’ve been in houses that had dead dogs and cat urine all over the carpet so there you go. 

Natalie’s playing on the floor as I type. We put her on her activity mat but it’s not long until she’s rolled her way halfway across the room. She prefers sleeping on her stomach or side now and pretty much tries to flip right over anytime you put her down on her back. It will be interesting to see how far she gets when she starts crawling.

In other news, we removed the safety net from her bathtub as you can see here. She sits at one end while Tiffany washes her now and enjoys splashing around though she doesn’t enjoy getting water in her face when she does. The other picture was taken exactly at five months this past Saturday. She is growing, that’s for sure. Her current diapers say they are for 16-28 pounds, but I find that hard to believe as our friend’s child is almost 2 and still not 28 pounds. We had been told before that the weights on the diapers were pretty much useless, I would tend to agree.

Now it’s nearly time for a bottle and hopefully a nap, and one can only hope I’ve seen the last of the prunes today.

Nap no more?

Someone has decided she prefers to do all her sleeping at night now, well, at least most of it. The other night Natalie slept for almost 12 hours, going to bed shortly after 7 and waking up shortly before 7 the next morning. She has been know to take 3, even 4 hour naps in the past, but those days seem to be long gone. Over the past week, we’re lucky if she makes it 2 hours. 

She’s never taken very long naps at Nana’s house, but even yesterday while home with TIffany she took a pair of 90-minute naps.  I just finished giving her the first bottle today and she’s not looking all that tired and is still a little fussy, though somewhat content in her swing next to me at the desk. I’m not sure the 5 ounces is cutting it anymore, but the rule of thumb seems to be 2.5 ounces per pound that the baby weighs each day putting her at 32 ounces a day. That math doesn’t equate of course if you’re also feeding solid foods, which we are twice a day so I suspect she will eat a nice amount of rice cereal at lunch if in fact she is still hungry.

Tiffany’s grandparents returned to Virginia yesterday. They are scheduled to come back at Christmas if all goes well. We snapped this picture over the weekend when they came over for dinner, four generations. 

That was quick....Natalie is sleeping now, she let out one big whale, I turned to check on her and her eyes  were closed. I don’t dare move her from her swing, she might sleep for a couple hours now since her diaper is clean and she just ate. I might be able to sneak lunch in just before she wakes up, we’’ll see.

Expanding Waistline

We had a weigh-in last night and Natalie is just a hair shy of 15 pounds. We think she’s gone through a bit of a growth spurt here in the last week or so because she went from not being able to touch the bottom of her exersaucer to where now her feet are pretty much flat. The guidelines suggest that their toes should be touching. We have it on the lowest setting so I’ll be jumping that up a notch over the weekend probably. 

She’s on a steady diet of cereal and baby food now so that might be fueling her growth. As you can see here she enjoys sitting in her high chair, at least most of the time. She can get pretty vocal if you’re not shoveling in the food fast enough. It just depends how hungry she is. She rarely cries, she just has this complaining whine on occasion that lets us know she’s not pleased with what’s going on. She’ll do this sometimes while she’s eating which makes it a fun challenge to keep the cereal or fruit in her mouth.

Of course the introduction of solid foods has taken the diapers to another level. She seems to be having less wet diapers, but while the frequency of the dirty diapers hasn’t increased per say, let’s just the intensity has. On occasion I’ve been close to gagging from the smell. It’s also a lot like a paste that seems to stick to her . Cleaning her up can be all kinds of fun when she feels like rolling around while you’re doing it. Yesterday, I went through six wipes and one diaper pad while changing her though I was pleased none got on her onesy. 

On the crawling front, she seems to be making progress. Natalie has devised a system of movement that predates modern times that is not crawling. She will roll on her side and push her legs into the ground and and slide on her side a few inches at a time. She can do this several times and  when combined with rolling around, she can move a couple of feet. She still gets frustrated when she’s up on all fours and can’t crawl. She is just not supporting her midsection enough with her arms. It does appear that she’s starting to figure it out however.  Maybe she’ll be ready by father’s day.

Birthday Wishes

It was my hope that Natalie would start crawling this past Sunday, my birthday. No such luck. Truth be told, she’s probably not that close. She’s good at flipping herself over and getting up on all fours, but that is usually followed by a lot of flailing around and some verbal frustration. Either way she is starting to like to be on her activity mat more and more.

My birthday weekend did mark the beginning of Natalie sleeping in her crib at night in the nursery. On Saturday night, she even slept through the night which is getting a little more rare now that she seems to be eating more. She’s also started on solid foods, first some rice cereal and now we are mixing in some fruit. Sunday night, Tiffany’s mom was feeding her when we were all done dinner. As you can see here some visual coaching appears to help.

She’s also eating from her high chair now. I got the pleasure of putting that together on Friday or Saturday. It’s a high chair, booster seat, child seat and chair. It’s a 4-in-1 setup, not sure if I got the name of all four parts right though. Anyway, all the pieces do not get used so it made putting it together a little more complicated. It also continued a theme that I’m noticing in instructions lately. 

It seems as though some companies in a move to save time and money have stopped printing written instructions at all and have decided to just use pictures with symbols which is always a fun adventure. I suppose this saves them from writing instructions in four languages which I’ve seen, 50 pages of instructions, 8 of which are in english. I guess it’s crazy to think that if you buy a product in the United States, the instructions should be in english and english alone. Likewise, if you live in France or Mexico, the directions should be in french or spanish respectively. I know, crazy. I knew things were going down a bad path when the circulars here started having coupons that were both in english and spanish. I guess I should be thanking these companies, it’s pretty easy to learn Spanish when you have the English translation right next to it. That’s probably why they print them in both so hispanic folks can work on their english while putting together their bookcase from IKEA. Some might say that if you don’t offer the spanish option, folks might actually have to learn english and become better assimilated...Another crazy thought...But i digress.

Tiffany’s aunt headed to the airport today, but her grandparents remain in town for now. As retirees they have no set time to return to Virginia so hopefully they will spend another week or two. Her aunt seemed to have a good time. She got to use our guest level (the second floor) and seemed comfortable. Chase enjoyed her company as well. 

A sad development is that today appears to be the last day afloat for the “It’s a Girl” giant foot balloon I got at the hospital gift shop the day after Natalie was born. It was purchased on January 12, it appears it will be laid to rest on May 25, that’s 132 days for those keeping score.  A pretty good life span as far as a mylar balloon is concerned. 

Mouthy Martha

When Natalie started to verbalize her needs with chatter and baby talk that I don’t think she even understood, I began to call her Chatty Cathy. She’s now graduated to Mouthy Martha because she will put pretty much anything she can get her hands on into her mouth.

She doesn’t appear to have any teeth coming in yet, but she is sticking her finger in her mouth all the time to feel her gums so she very well could be teething. This weekend we tried some rice cereal for the first time. She was not a fan. She had a look on her face that said something like, “Umm, Mommy, Daddy, this milk has gone bad, it has chunks in it.” 

She was taking it in her mouth, but it would end up back on the spoon or her bib. Yesterday there was a breakthrough, however. Not only was she eating the rice cereal, she began to grab the spoon from Tiffany and pull it back toward her mouth. We have some video that I’ll post at some point soon. 

Natalie will also be having some more guests this weekend. Her great-grandparents and great aunt will be visiting from VIrginia. This is of course is their first chance to see Natalie in person. It’s also my birthday on Sunday so it should be a busy weekend.

4 Months

Our little girl turned 4 months old today and had her routine checkup this morning. Tiffany took her in for two sets of shots and some drops in her mouth. She seems to have reacted okay to them, but is sporting a sizable silver band aid on each thigh. She weighed in at just under 13 pounds 3 ounces and is already over 2 feet tall at 2 feet, 1 and a quarter inch. She’s in the 85th percentile for height and the 40th percentile for weight so I guess we have a long “skinny” baby.

Her height explains why she’s been powering through clothes as of late. Every store/brand seems like they have different standards for what “3 months” should be as far as a size is concerned. It’s not as if we’re talking about a 30-year size where there’s decades of time for a person to grow to a different size and shape than someone else. We’re talking about 90 days, how can one outfit be too big and the other skin tight, I don’t get it. Anyway, now at 4 months, she’s firmly entrenched in the 6-month size and the stockpile of clothes to be stored is growing. 

It seems like there could be a Netflix like business where you could send back baby clothes that don’t fit for the next size up. You could send them back dirty and get the next size back laundered. It would probably be too expensive, but I would guess that at least 20% of all landfills are baby related items, including clothes.

Mother's Day

Tiffany enjoyed her first mother’s day yesterday. Natalie got her a long three and half hour nap yesterday morning and a gift certificate for a manicure and pedicure at a local nail place. I got her a balloon and a chain to put a charm on that TIffany’s grandmother had gotten her. It’s a small baby bootie with Natalie’s name and birthdate on the bottom of the foot. I do think that she was more excited to see the bag that the chain came in (Gordon’s Jewelers) than the chain itself, though she won’t admit that.

For breakfast I made waffles and then Tiffany’s parents and brothers and sisters came over for lunch which was prepared by her dad, her grandmother (who was also visiting with her aunt and grandfather) and myself. I must admit that the only “cooking” I did was buttering about half the english muffins which were the base of the eggs benedict. I did take command on cleanup though and there were plenty of dishes to wash.

Mom and Daughter on their first mother's day

Since Natalie was well rested she was a very good mood most of the afternoon. She did get talkative as the last folks were getting ready to leave which is usually an indication she is tired, but a good afternoon nonetheless. The streak was also continued yesterday, and again this morning, of her only doing number 2 while I hold her. It’s been about three weeks since anyone else has had the unique pleasure and I’ve changed every one of those diapers except one, lucky me.

Also word came last week that TIffany’s grandparents and aunt in Virginia will be coming to visit the weekend of May 19th. This is their first great grandchild and great niece so they are looking forward to meeting Natalie and I guess visiting with us.Her aunt will stay with us from Thursday-Tuesday before heading home and her grandparents will stay down the street with Tiffany’s parents. They have not planned a return trip yet so they should be here for a nice long visit. 

Laughing at Daddy

Tiffany got Natalie to laugh yesterday for the first time. She was kissing her neck while she laid on our bed. We both enjoyed it though I think in reality she was probably laughing at me for something that happened earlier in the day. 

I’ve mentioned before how Natalie likes to do her “business” on my lap. That has not changed, but the frequency has. She’s started to go about every three days, which is not unusual for breast fed babies. Yesterday morning we were sitting on the couch, beginning a third day without a “dirty” diaper despite the fact she has no problem filling them up with number 1. 

As a byproduct of her not going as often, Natalie has started to pass more gas. It’s loud and it smells which historically indicated a diaper change was in order. That’s no longer the case as both Tiffany and I have both been duped into thinking she needed a diaper change only to take the diaper off and discover nothing.

So yesterday while she sat on my lap and started playing the butt flute, I didn’t assume anything. However, when they started to sound more, let’s say substantial, I knew this could be the main event.

Not wanting to get caught in the line of fire I wanted to wait to make sure she had completed her business before changing her diaper. About five minutes later and a few more toots I decided to place my hand under her bum to see if there was any warmth...Mistake.

There was warmth and plenty of poo. She had busted out on both sides of the diaper and the bottom of her pajamas was soaked almost all the way through and of course, my shirt was victimized.  I immediately called for help, but Tiffany was paralyzed with laughter so I sat there for a few moments with a damp hand and soiled shirt. 

Once we got her to the changing table we saw her handy work. Without getting too graphic, let’s just say that the diaper had reached it’s saturation point and would not take any more. Tiffany gagged, I stepped away, a few minutes later it was all over. I suggested we just throw that pair of pajamas out....I’m not sure what’s to become of them, but they have certainly seen better days.

Easter

It’s been a busy couple weeks with Tiffany’s aunt and my mom visiting. Natalie has certainly had her fair share of attention. These two pics are from Sunday celebrating Easter with her grandparents. On Monday both Tiffany and I went to work and my mom stayed home with Natalie. That turned out to be pretty uneventful as she took two pretty long naps.

The biggest change lately has been, well, shall we say her digestion. She’s not producing has many diapers as she was, at least the extra dirty kind if you get my drift. We have read that it’s not all that uncommon for breast fed babies to go two or three days between “dirty diapers”. Over the past couple weeks she has skipped a day pretty regularly but yesterday by 6 in the evening she was approaching day 3. Just as I was trying to figure out exactly when the last time she went was, I felt a rumble beneath my hand (she was sitting on my lap on the couch). Well, it wasn’t long before she was playing the butt flute load and proud and for everyone in a three block radius to here. 

Since Tiffany was making dinner, dear old dad got to discover what her musical interlude had produced. Without getting too specific, let’s just say it was extra special and that it looks like we’ve taken a turn to another level of waste production. Of course this happened on my lap so I was sure to check my shirt and shorts to make sure I was not victimized again. I was in the clear, but Natalie enjoyed my reaction as I changed her, laughing and giggling the entire time. 

Natalie’s collection of toys and apparatus is growing. We added the activity mat a few weeks back if you remember and before Grandma left she purchased the exersaucer. I’m not sure if that’s how you spell it but basically the child sits in it and can turn the seat all the way around to play with different things. Anyway, it’s sitting in the corner of our office right now since she is still a little too young for it.  

Of course Mother’s Day is approaching and the questions have started to come in as to what Natalie will be getting her mom. My response is usually that she doesn’t have too much in her piggy bank so probably nothing that spectacular. :)

Back to Normal

So after a couple of weeks of some awkward nights, Natalie is back to sleeping through the night again. She seems use to sleeping flat on her back now so the next stop is the crib in her nursery. “We” have not set a time frame for that, and by we, I of course mean Tiffany. 

Tiffany’s Aunt and her cousins have been in town the past few days so they have been assisting with the daycare duties. They are enjoying their time with Natalie. My mom arrives tomorrow and will be here for Easter and will leave Tuesday morning so it will be a busy week of visiting for Natalie.

I’m starting to call Natalie “Chatty Kathy” because there are times she just starts making noise and rambling for little or any reason. I would love to know what she’s saying because if you look in her eyes you can tell she KNOWS what she’s saying. She seems to like it when you make the same noises back. I’ve also started to clap her feet together and she can’t seem to get enough of that, that always puts a smile on her face.

My lap continues to be the toilet of sorts. I’d say 75% of the time when she goes number 2, it’s while sitting on my lap. Sometimes I wonder if she holds it all day so she can do it on my lap later. 

She’s also starting to grow out of her 3-month size clothes. Some still fit comfortably, some are way too small. You would think there was a universal size of some sort but it doesn’t appear that way. You’ve got your 3 month clothes, your 3-6 month size and 6 months...it makes very little sense. 

Rough Morning

Home again today for daddy daycare. It hasn’t been the best start to the day. Natalie woke up at about 3 this morning hungry so TIffany fed her and we all went back to sleep. Before Tiffany left, she woke Natalie up to try to feed her again. She wasn’t hungry, but was in a very good mood. This all changed about 40 minutes later when she decided she was in fact hungry. 

Sometimes that bottle can’t warm up fast enough because she can really work herself up in three minutes. Then you’re faced with the problem of trying to feed her as she calms down so there is constant breaks and “panic breathing” by her while she’s eating. It’s not a fun experience for anyone involved. Normally she would have eaten around 6, gone back to sleep and woke up at about 9 or 10 at which time I would have had a bottle ready.

Anyway, after I fed her she did calm down and was back in a good mood. I could tell she was tired though and I put her in her napper/rocker in the nursery around 8. She was asleep in about 5 minutes. She started stirring about an hour later which made me quite nervous, but after sucking on her hand for about 5 minutes she went back to sleep and she’s stirring a little now (10:40)...

At this point, she could be ready for another bottle. It will be almost three hours so at 11, whether she’s awake or not, I’ll have everything in place to warm the bottle up so by the time I am done changing her, after she does wake up, the bottle will be ready. That’s the plan anyway.

We’re on a bit of a streak too of fussiness as I came home yesterday only to be thrown up on 4 times within an hour. Needless to say those shorts and t-shirt are now in the wash.

This week we also reached the 3-month mark, the time is flying by. One of her balloons from the hospital still has life too, pretty impressive.

These are some pretty recent pictures. You’ll notice we did get the activity mat. Tiffany went to Target on Saturday and picked that up so we are utilizing that when we can, though nothing seems to hold her interest quite like a ceiling fan going around. She get’s memorized by it.

I better cut this here as time is running short on her nap...

Is that poop?

It’s amazing how unaware you and others around you can become when there’s a baby around. A good example of this came yesterday while I was home with Natalie during the afternoon. Luckily for me Natalie had two of what we like to call “blowouts”. I’m sure you can finger this out, but let’s say it’s when the diaper is no  match for her hiny.

Of course when you have a blowout, there is some hand washing of the victimized clothes to be done. Tiffany’s siblings were also visiting so Emma, the oldest, kept an eye on Natalie each time I started scrubbing the onesies. After the first stain, I decided to keep her pants off. It was warm enough in the house I thought and I had planned on feeding her soon after.

Well the pants stayed off and the second blowout happened sitting on my lap facing me, probably her favorite position to take care of her business. I think when it comes time to potty train her, I’ll paint the toilet seat like a pair of my mesh shorts.

Anyway, I could tell that she went, this was confirmed audibly and by an extra special scent that entered the air. I changed her, scrubbed the onesy that was victimized and we went about our day.

A few HOURS later I’m brushing my teeth after dinner when I notice something on my shirt in the mirror. It was an old t-shirt and the stain appeared to be in a spot where I had a previous stain, but I still said aloud, “Is that poop?” Tiffany asked what I said and when I repeated it she immediately started to laugh. 

I didn’t think this was possible. Five people had seen me that afternoon and my shirt and no one had said anything. So I lifted the shirt to my nose and took a whiff....nothing. I felt pretty sure that it was an old pasta sauce stain or something. Well Tiffany decided to find out for sure and took a wet tissue and wiped it on my shirt. If something came off on the tissue, well suffice to say, we would know the stain was new.

It was poop. Meanwhile I had almost shoved my shirt entirely up my nose. I’m not sure if I was more irritated that I had done that or that  NO ONE NOTICED I HAD POOP ON MY SHIRT ALL AFTERNOON. On Sunday I had shaved and Tiffany asked me at one point in the early afternoon, “Did you shave today?” I answered back from our bedroom (she was in the living room), “Yeah, can’t you tell?” She hadn’t noticed at all, she was holding Natalie and smelled my aftershave on her and was wondering why. 

I’m beginning to wonder if I gained 20 pounds if anyone would notice. 

Not so fast my friend...

So the easy nights appear to be over for the time being. Currently, we’re transitioning Natalie from the Fisher Price Rocker Sleeper to a more flat position. The rocker keeps her pretty snug and slightly upright. She’s been in that for a while and has slept through the night every night since about she was 6 weeks old. We’re one for three now in the new position (one night of uninterrupted sleep), which is still slightly upright in a bassinet....still in our room.

The goal is to get her to her crib in her room by her 3-month birthday. Hopefully it starts to go better. She’s weighing in at about 11.5 pounds, just a half pound short of the next size diaper. I mention this because we already have over 300 size 2 diapers while our supply of size 1 is almost completely depleted. So we’re of course wondering if we go ahead and buy some more size 1 diapers or switch to the size 2 when we are out of the size 1 diapers. I’m not real interested in getting stuck with a bunch of diapers that don’t fit anymore. I’m thinking we’ll just switch to size 2 when we’re out of size 1 diapers.

Natalie is getting more active by the day. She likes to hold hands while she pushes and pulls herself up. One of us will sit her on our lap and and let her grab our fingers and we’ll say “up” and she starts to pull and push off with her legs until she’s standing on our thighs. She’ll start to wobble sometimes but she likes to look over our shoulder to see what’s going on, especially if she’s with me and Tiffany’s in the kitchen behind us. 

Tomorrow is my day to work out of the house and it’s month end for Tiffany so it will be a loooooong day, but a good one. Hopefully we don’t run out of bottles.

I have legs!

Natalie has been moving her legs since she was born obviously, but she’s gotten more and more interested in their capabilities in the last week. We actually hold her hands and she can stand up for a few seconds. More interestingly, and worrying, depending on how you look at it is that she’ll stand up in her bouncer. Last night during dinner I look over and her legs are fully extended with her feet pushing off the base of the bouncer. I understand now why you need to strap babies in to these things. 

She’ll also do what I call her crunches where she pulls her feet and hips back to where her foot can almost go in her mouth. This is particularly helpful when changing a diaper and if I didn’t know better I’d say she was doing it on purpose because when I wipe her butt she’ll smile as she pulls her legs up to her face.  She’s also got the leg portion of crawling down very well. Granted she’s not crawling because she hasn’t figured out that her arms need to move too. There’s a lot of kicking and digging into the rug or my chest and she will move a little but only a few inches before her arms give way since they don’t move in conjunction with the legs.

I’ve also found that I’ve grown to use to the “wetness indicator” on the diapers. Our latest box of diapers don’t have them. It’s a stripe that turns from yellow to blue when the diaper is wet. Seems to me the color change would make more sense the other way, but I digress. Anyway, for some reason even though I bought the same exact box and brand, no wetness indicator. It boggles the mind how many variations of the same diaper you can have from the same company. I’m not going to take the time to count them, but take a look the next time you’re at the store. Check to see how many varieties of Pampers there are in a particular size.

I will say this, whoever came up with the rib that goes around the legs is an absolute genius. That has saved us on numerous occasions from having blowouts. Despite the mind numbing number of choices, the actual design of diapers today is pretty amazing. There’s some sort of technology that pulls the wetness away from them to where it’s barely even touching. This can make it hard to tell when they need to be changed though because Natalie can be dirty for a while before making a fuss. This is where the wetness indicator comes in handy even though there are diapers that are clearly dirty just by looking and feeling, or in some very special cases...smelling. At one point Tiffany’s mom had floated the idea of using cloth diapers....what a horrible, horrible mistake that would have been .

Pretty soon she’ll be ready to graduate from her tummy time mat to an exercise mat. We don’t have one yet and I have mixed feelings about getting one. It’s not that I don’t want to spend the money, it’s that I know that a lot of these toys get used for like 2 months and then you are stuck storing them for the next X years.

Natalie’s been down for a nice nap for already well over an hour so my time here is probably running out. She’s got in the habit of going back to sleep after eating breakfast...wouldn’t we like to all do that? So that’s it for now.

Happy St. Patrick's Day

It occurred to me this morning that this time last year we were in Las Vegas. Not a bad time to be in Las Vegas, St. Patrick’s Day, beginning of the NCAA tournament, anyway, obviously trips like that are not in our future anytime soon.

Natalie and I are preparing for a busy day. I’m doing some work, she’s enjoying a nap. If you don’t know, for the first time ever, every NCAA tournament game is being broadcast in its entirety live. I’ve been stretching my thumb for weeks in anticipation.

Anyway, lucky for Natalie that the Penn State vs. Temple game will be broadcast down here in Texas at 1 local time. I don’t think it’s particularly good draw for our Nittany Lions and Natalie agrees. At 5:45, Florida tips off so we have a double header of sorts. We’ll fill the gap with some feedings and diaper changing. Some friends that are also Penn State alums sent some PSU gear, but it’s still a little big. It will be perfect for football season and she has her outfit for today anyway, as you see here. (I took the picture after she woke up and ate and I changed her). 

Tiffany returned to work yesterday for good and will start her schedule of being in the office four days and home one next week. She will be home Wednesday’s and I will be home Thursday’s. Monday, Tuesday and Friday Natalie will have some time at Nana’s down the street. We hope this is a good mix of not overburdening Tiffany’s parents and also having some time with her ourselves. We’re obviously very fortunate to be able to have such a schedule and adjust our time at home accordingly.

People keep saying that Natalie is extremely alert for a two-month old and doing a good job with her neck. I’ve never been around a newborn for this long before so I couldn’t tell you if they are just being nice or if in fact this is true. Her hair and facial expressions do give her an older appearance though. She still has a lot of hair so we’re pretty sure that’s not going anywhere.

Yesterday we set a record for diapers within a given time span. I picked her up at Nana’s around 5 and came home and changed her and fed her soon after. By 7, we were on to diaper number four since arriving at the house. They were all also what I call “combo platters”, I’m sure you can figure that out. Anyway, her kidneys and digestive tract are obviously working fine.

Natalie continues to sleep through the night. We wake up before she does every morning, including the weekends and when she does wake up she rarely cries. Tiffany sometimes has to wake her up to feed her before she leaves for work. I’m sure if we left her alone long enough she probably would start to cry. Other parents seem somewhat irritated that she is such a good sleeper. During the day is a different story. She isn’t a big napper so if she takes a nap for 2 hours, that’s usually pretty good. Typically, she takes a lot of cat naps, so by the end of the day she looks kind of tired and is pretty cranky. After about 5, if she’s not being fed or changed, she’s usually not in the best mood. She’ll be waking up shortly and will probably be ready to eat again so I better prepare for that. She has FAR less patience when I feed her than when Tiffany does so the sooner that bottle is ready, the better.

Rub-a-dub

Natalie enjoyed her first official bath over the weekend. If you have a few minutes, you can enjoy some highlights here.....

Tiffany and I are both home today. She took some more time off after her training ended last week at the office. She’ll go back Wednesday and start working from home one day a week beginning the week following. I’ll stay home on Thursday’s and Tiffany will stay home either Tuesday or Wednesday most likely.

Natalie is starting to make more and more noises. We of course call this talking, or at least Tiffany does. She is also smiling all the time now which is nice. It’s hard to believe how many clothes she’s gone through already. I’ll ask Tiffany why she hasn’t worn a particular outfit for a while and she then tells me it doesn’t fit anymore.  I’m sure there are things that don’t fit that never got worn which is a shame.

Tiffany took Natalie to the mall yesterday, quite the outing, they were gone over 5 hours but did return home with a dress for Easter and some portraits from the “Picture People”..I’m not sure why they needed to go there when we have a nice camera here, but I wasn’t with them ;). Sunday is Tiffany’s birthday so that will be Natalie’s first trip (of many I’m sure) to Maime’s, Tiffany’s grandmother. Natalie hasn’t decided what she’s going to get her mommy yet so I’ll probably just put her name on my gift...once I get one....unless I already have.....