27 Month Quarterly Report (UPDATED!!)
Rather than doing a monthly update, I’ve decided to write quarterly reports. Can you believe Natalie is already 2¼????
Natalie is learning at such a rate it’s hard to keep up. She uses words like “fragile,” “underneath,” “carefully,” “pretend,” and “gently” in the right contexts. During dinner, she almost invariably says, “Thank you for making such a delicious dinner, Mommy!” (or sometimes Daddy). She can sing along to every word of the entire album Whaddya Think of That? by Laurie Berkner. She can spell the words Natalie, Mommy, and Daddy. She can write the letter N.
In terms of her physical development, Natalie learned to gallop like a horse. We are always amazed at her strength in terms of how much she can carry around.
Natalie drew this picture of Meema, complete with eyes, a nose (a letter N), hair, cheeks (straight lines on either side of the eyes), a mouth, and a neck (line going down the middle):
Since giving up her precious baba a few days ago, Natalie’s been eating like crazy! We’re happy that she’s getting more of a variety of nutrients from food rather than filling up on milk. The downside of giving up the baba is that she’s having trouble falling asleep at night. And she’s still getting up in the middle of the night. Chris has taken over all the nighttime parenting, and we think we’re moving in the right direction. Someday she’s gotta sleep through the night!
UPDATE: Natalie slept in her own bed from 9:30 to 6:30 last night!!!! Too bad I kept waking up thinking something was terribly wrong…but I stopped myself from checking on her and waking her up. Not going to make that mistake again!
Natalie eating breakfast, something she was never really interested in doing before we took away the baba. Mmmmmm, apples:
Natalie’s sense of humor is growing more complex. This week Natalie pointed to me and exclaimed, “You’re Natalie!” Then she pointed to herself and said, “And I’m Mommy!” She also likes to look at me with authority and say “Can you say [nonsense word]??”
One of her favorite things to do lately is sing Happy Birthday. She sings to everyone in the room at that moment, then moves on to singing to family and friends, then insists we sing to inanimate objects. So far, we’ve sung Happy Birthday to Natalie’s blue hat, her black beans, her red peppers, and her water. When the song is over, she offers whoever she sang to some cake to eat. The video is dark because before she sings, she has to turn the lights off, of course!
Happy Birthday, dear red peppers! from nataliecaroline on Vimeo.
Happy 2¼ Birthday, Natalie! We love you!
So cute! Ellie would be overjoyed if Natalie sang “Happy Birthday” to her several times a day!
And, will Natalie actually eat those red peppers?
I chuckled to myself when I read your post about Ellie singing happy birthday to herself….just wait until she decides it’s Dora’s birthday!! (I still get an error message when I try to comment on Ellie’s blog).
Natalie ate 3/4 of the red pepper, and it seemed like she enjoyed it (much to my surprise). Then she spit out the last bite and said, “I don’t like this!”
She also included my curly hair in her portrait of me!