Archive for October, 2007
Grounds for Sculpture
Natalie had a blast at the Grounds for Sculpture this Sunday. Grandpa, Cora, and Aunt Kary came and we all enjoyed walking amongst the sculptures and listening to recorders, harpsichords, sackbuts, and viols at the Early Music Festival. We took about a million pictures of Natalie. Here are the highlights:
New Teeth: Numbers 7 and 8!
Judging by the amount of drool and hand-chewing that’s going on around here, there may be even more teeth coming soon. Numbers 7 & 8 made their appearance last week, as you can see in this photo:
This is the best picture we’ve got. It’s not so easy to get close to the teeth with the macro mode when Natalie is trying to bite/lick/kiss and grab the camera.
Sleep Progress?
We’ve had a couple of incidents that give us hope that putting Natalie to sleep won’t always be so much of a project.
Earlier this week, I had nursed Natalie into a deep sleep in our new glider. We test her level of sleep by performing the “arm test.” The test is picking up her arm and dropping it. If it’s completely limp, she’s out. If she resists at all, she’s still in a light sleep. Apparently the test isn’t always fool-proof, because when I put her down, she woke up. But instead of nursing her or getting Chris to walk her, I decided to try rubbing her back. When I’ve tried this in the past, she usually revs up into full-blown crying and I end up nursing her. This time, Natalie got up and flopped herself face-first into the mattress a few times before settling on a comfortable position. I rubbed her back slowly for 5 minutes (I watched the clock) then sat next to her for a few minutes to make sure she was really asleep, and then gleefully walked out of the room!
Then a couple of nights later, she stopped nursing while she was still awake and fell asleep just rocking in the glider! I made myself rock another 10 minutes, did the arm test and then put her down—she didn’t move a muscle!
Baby steps…but I can see light at the end of the tunnel. One day, we’ll be able to read Natalie a bedtime story and leave her to fall asleep on her own. Hopefully by the time she’s 5. I like to keep my expectations low.
Words!
Natalie has added a couple of words to her vocabulary! Around the time Natalie was 9 months, she started saying “baby.” We have yet to get it on film, so you’ll have to take our word (ha!) for it. She has said “baby” looking at other babies, seeing pictures of babies in books, and looking at herself in the mirror.
Her next word is…”cat.” No surprise there, since Natalie loves the cats and we label them several times a day. She can’t quite make the “kuh” sound, so it sounds more like “Dah,” but she clearly means “cat” when she says it.
Natalie with one of her favorite buddies, who inspired her fourth word:
