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.