ALL ABOARD

Ever since I've been involved in Katie's life, and even before I was around, Scott has gone into Katie's room each morning to wake her for school and then re-appeared moments later with Katie on his back.  She gets a piggy-back ride to the kitchen and into her special breakfast chair at the island each morning for breakfast where a bowl of cereal, oatmeal or yogurt and granola is ready and waiting.

And now that Natalie is around and not quite so fragi-le (it must be French), Scott plucks her out of her crib in the morning (she's usually standing there waiting for you to get her) and then goes into Katie's room to wake Katie.

This morning, I was finally ready and waiting with the camera in hand for the Daddy breakfast train to come down the hallway...

Next stop, BREAKFAST!

Flashback to 5 year old Katie

While hanging around the house one day, Scott said Katie was in a grumpy mood and throwing a small fit.  So he whipped out the camera and took a few pictures of her to show to her how silly she looked. 

These are priceless pictures that every parent should take and cherish.

After he showed her how silly she looked when she was pouting, they took a picture together of their best grumpy faces...

They laughed at the pictures and, like magic, her grumpy mood/fit was over.

Reading with Grandpa

Lil Miss Natalie loves books. She loves it when you read to her.  She loves to chew on books.  She loves to just look at the pictures. And recently, she has started reading them out loud to anyone who will listen to her.  Lucky for her, Grandpa Schwisow loves to listen...

Natalie is now standing and walking with assistance.  Her balance is improving more and more every day.  She dropped her book off the coffee table, exclaimed "uh-oh" and here is trying to figure out how to reach over and pick it up herself.  She couldn't quite get it on her own, but she is close.  And she loves trying.

10 months old!

Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhh boy ---- today is my 10-month birthday!!!! YAY!  And as an extra special treat, Grandpa and Grandma Schwisow are here to help me celebrate.  Mom tried to take my picture this morning with Marty to see how much I've grown, but I was not interested in this.  I am 10-months old now and I have things to do.  Places to go.  People to see.  Toys to play with.  Cheerios to eat.  So many things that I just cannot be bothered to lay in my crib and pose for silly pictures anymore.


 So, this is what you get...

Me and Marty on February 20, 2012

Since last month, I've started doing LOTS of new things.

TALK:  I love to talk and I do it all the time.  I have a few words that mom and dad seem to understand but the rest of my vocabulary consists of words that I made up - which is great because it's like talking to myself out loud and everyone smiles because they think it is very cute.  I can say "doggie," "momma," "daddy," "thank you," "uh-oh," and "Katie."  I say Katie whenever I see her or even see a picture of her.  I like to wave and give her big smiles too.

EAT:  Momma always tells me what a good eater I am.  I'm not sure what that means, but I sure do love my bottle and cereal.  I have started to try lots of new big-kid foods like chicken, ham, mashed potatoes, green beans, bananas ("na-na"), apples, Cheerios, Life cereal, bagels with cream cheese, Mac and Cheese and even small bites of cupcakes at school when one of my friends has a birthday.  I enjoy finger foods because I can get really messy and I can do it myself at my own speed.  I don't have to wait for someone else to spoon feed me like I did when I was a little baby.

February 20, 2012

MOVE:  I finally gave up on army-style crawling and started crawling like a big kid.  At first it was slower than army-style, but now I am very good at it and I can go very very fast.  And I can pull up on things like the coffee table, the couch and all the kitchen chairs.  Sometimes I even try to pull up on my doggie, Gus.  He sits still like a good boy and lets me try.  I love Gus a lot.

I can stand up on my own in my crib now too.  I like to wake up in the morning and pull all my stuffed animal "friends" into my crib with me and then sit and talk to them.  After a while, sometimes I stand up and grab the book off the bookshelf right next to my crib and read it to myself and my friends.  I think they really like that.  But sometimes when I stand up in my crib, I like to chew on it.  Last week though, daddy came home with some stuff that you put on the crib to keep me from chewing on it.  Bummer.  It's ok though because I can still chew on the thing he put on my crib to keep me from chewing on the crib itself.

The day Grandpa and Grandma got here I decided that I wanted to walk by myself with my push toy.  Grandpa helps me turn the corners and then I can go around and around and around the coffee table while everyone watches me and encourages me to keep going.  I am getting faster and faster every day.  Grandpa has predicted that I will be walking on my own by 11-months.  We'll see...

DEVELOP:  Over the past month, momma says I've developed my own little personality.  I like do to things the way I like to do them and sometimes I get really upset when people don't do them my way.  I am not going to school every day like I used to, but I still get to go twice a week and play with my friends.  My teachers say that I am a little more leary of new adult faces and that I am developing a healthy level of "stranger danger."  Not sure what that means, but I sure do love my momma and daddy and sometimes I really don't understand why they leave me with other people.

Well that's all for now, Grandpa is going to take me for a walk around the neighborhood in my stroller.  I really love to go for walks outside because I can feel the wind in my hair, watch and listen to the birdies flying around and singing, smell new things and listen to all the noises that go on outside the house.  I often don't make a peep the whole time I'm out for a walk but I usually never fall asleep either.  I just love to look.

Hugs and kisses to everyone!

Love, Natalie Jane

Intro to babysitting and dress-up

Last weekend, Katie was in charge of watching Natalie for a half-hour (in exchange for $3) while Scott and I did some heavy-duty furniture deconstruction and furniture re-arranging in what will soon be our "study."  They stayed in the family room so we were obviously very aware of what was going on.  We heard lots of giggles and arrived to find this scene...

Gus mainly appeared simply to tolerate it with hopes that he'd get to chew on the dress up items once Katie took them off.  He was disappointed.  But man, he was a good sport.

Natalie seemed to have fun and enjoy dressing up with Katie (although she hates hats). 

 

Katie tried to make Natalie a princess, but she was much more interested in eating her tiarra than wearing it.