Natalie’s Monster Drawing Complete with arms, hands, legs, feet, a body, a head, and hair.

Natalie has always enjoyed art projects of all kinds including crayons, markers, watercolors, stamps, finger paints.

We usually exude enthusiasm for her art, but try to avoid overtly praising the finished work. For children, art is about process, not product, so instead we engage her with questions like “Wow, look at all those colors you used. Can you tell me about them?” Even from a young age when her drawings appeared to be just scribbles, Natalie would point out different areas that she intended to represent certain things or people.

In general, praising her effort helps build her self-image and confidence. Instead of telling her she’s a great artist we’ll just say “Look at all those squiggles, it looks like you worked really hard on that.”

Lately, her drawings have started to become more recognizable—like in this drawing of a monster she drew over the weekend. We were both really impressed with her rendering, but instead one of us just said something simple and observational like “Look at that monster you made!”

Natalie grinned widely and replied, “I’m so proud of myself!!!”

“OMG Where am I?” Moments after birth.

“OK, I Guess This Isn’t So Bad” Lots of blond, curly hair just like her big sister.

Miranda & Mom

Under the Bright Lights

Weighing In At 8lbs, 10oz

Miranda & Dad

“Hello Little Sister” Natalie meets Miranda for the first time.

Miranda, Natalie & Mom

Natalie, Meema, and Miranda Not so sure about this!

She’s So Tiny!

Love

Natalie, Grandma & Miranda

Kiss

Day Two Catching up on sleep.

[This entry is written by Chris]

Natalie turned 13 months-old this past Monday. Over the past few weeks she’s been practicing walking a lot, taking a few unassisted steps every day, but usually while clutching one of our fingers or pushing her walker. Before Monday, she’d been very reluctant to walk on her own.

When I got home from work on Monday night, it was like a whole month had gone by. She was walking all over, very deliberately and with much more skill. She toddled over to me with a book and held it out for me to read.

When I asked, “do you want to sit in my lap?”, she climbed right into my lap. She’s always liked sitting in my lap, but I usually have to pick her up and place her there. Then she practically read Moo, Baa, La La La to me, pointing at the animals and making all the right noises. It was surreal to witness such an enormous developmental leap in that short a period of time.

Here’s a video Amy and I put together showing her walking progress over the last few months:

Since we made this video her walking skills have been accelerating exponentially. She’s now much more independent and pushes us away when we try to hold her hand while walking.

When Natalie falls or gets hurt, she usually only wants Amy. Try as I might to comfort her, there’s nothing like Mommy-love.

But a surprising thing happened this morning after Natalie fell and bumped her head. Amy picked her up, but she reached for me instead! And I got her to stop crying!

Score one for Dad!

(This picture was taken on Father’s Day.)

I decided that even though it was only 7:30 I’d try to get her to bed, since she was obviously tired, and there wasn’t much else to do with her in this state. Usually Amy nurses Natalie to sleep, so I wasn’t sure if she would go to sleep without Mom.

I took Natalie up to her room to get ready for bed, and she was her usual happy self on the changing table. The festivities were short-lived however—when I swaddled her up she started crying hysterically, not at all pleased to be in a baby straight-jacket. I tried for a while to give her another bottle, but she flat-out refused. Finally, in desperation, I removed her from the swaddle and laid her back down on the changing table. She calmed down immediately, but it was quite apparent she did not want to go to bed.

At this point Amy called and said that they hadn’t even ordered yet. She would either have to leave right then and come home, or I would have to get Natalie to sleep. I was so close to telling her: “I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT I’M DOING PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE COME HOME RIGHT NOW!!!” but for some reason I told her I’d keep trying to get Natalie to sleep so that she could stay out.

After we hung up the situation deteriorated quickly. I instantly regretted telling Amy to stay out and contemplated calling her back. But I pressed on, though it became harder and harder to distract Natalie from crying and no matter what I did she wouldn’t take the bottle. Finally, when she was really having at it, I decided to swaddle her again, figuring if she was crying anyway, why not?

Once swaddled, I tried rocking her to sleep in my arms. It worked in the hospital three and a half months ago, but she didn’t seem to remember. Then I turned out all the lights, put her over my shoulder, and paced back and forth in her room singing softly to comfort us both. After what seemed like an eternity, but was probably only five minutes, she stopped screaming. I continued pacing for about 10 minutes (while Natalie sniffled and gurgled reluctantly) and then sat down and stuck a bottle of breast milk (my secret weapon) in her mouth. She started drinking it immediately.

Holy crap was I excited, but I stayed calm and let her eat. After a few minutes she started sucking intermittently and I suspected she might be falling asleep. The only problem was, the lights were still out and I couldn’t see a thing. I pondered my fate for a few moments, and decided I would need to have the light on if I had any hope figuring out her state and getting her into the crib. If I was going to disturb her it would be better to do it sooner than later.

As carefully as possible, I held her, with the bottle still in her mouth, against my body with my left arm and stood up just far enough that I could flick on the light switch (the light was already dimmed) with my out-stretched right arm.

I managed to pull off my maneuver without her tumbling onto the floor, and she was still sleepy-eyed by the time I sat down. I let her finish the bottle, and then gently removed it from her mouth. Her eyes stayed closed for a good five minutes before I called Amy to brag. After hanging up I sat with Natalie for another 10 minutes to make sure she was good and asleep, and then quickly popped her in the crib.

When Amy came home, I told her I had a whole new respect for her job. The next morning, Amy happily reported that Natalie didn’t wake up to nurse until 3 am, meaning she slept 7 hours straight—a new record. Then she said that I should be in charge of putting Natalie to sleep every night. Uh oh… perhaps I shouldn’t have been quite so successful!

This picture is actually from Wednesday night, but Amy thinks it’s cute and made me post it: