Memorial Day Weekend

Here's a picture of Natalie and the dog from last week.
What's that you say? Reese is a *cat*, not a dog? Well, you could've fooled her. She eats the little bits of chicken that Natalie throws on the floor. It's so handy having someone to clean up around here!
Someone decided that she didn't feel like eating any more spinach & potatoes.
We don't often allow Natalie in the dining room, since she is very clear on the main attraction - Reese's food bowl! As soon as she sees that she can get in the dining room, she heads over to the food bowl like a baby on a mission. Sometimes I can sidetrack her by letting her pull the books off the shelf, but sooner or later she always, always, always heads to Reese's bowl. And yes, Reese defends her food like a dog. As soon as she sees Natalie heading that way, she bolts over to the food bowl to make sure that nobody is eating her food.

We had a ton of fun over the long weekend. On Saturday we saw the Youngs family and met Oceanne Sarrazin (le petit croissant) for the first time! What a little peanut! She's a normal size baby - maybe just a little under 8 lbs - but she seemed tres petite to me. I think my sense of baby sizes is totally off since Natalie arrived at 8 lbs 14 oz.

Then on Sunday we drove to Sacramento to see the Damrells. We had such a good time enjoying the day at their country club. We also got to watch Jack and Natalie play together, and Lauri and I even made time for a quick baby shopping trip! It very much reminded us of last year and one of the first times the babies "met" each other - when they were still just twinkles in our eyes and bumps in our tummies.

You can see how the babies played together. Jack is intrigued by the toys in front of him, so he stays put. Natalie is always on the go looking for trouble, so she heads for the worst possible thing in the room - in this case, the video camera and tripod.
Finally we convinced Natalie to stay still for the camera. She was getting a little fresh with Jack, don't you think?
She loves his new phone.
Yesterday we had a nice walk with our friend JT. Then Natalie got some reading done.
Finally, after a long weekend, it was time for snuggles with my puppy (errr, I mean, kitty)!

Nine Months

This is a picture of Natalie wine-tasting in Napa Valley last weekend. Her palate is extraordinary! She only selects the finest grass to eat.

Grandma Kathy and Grandpa Geoff were here to visit, so we took the opportunity to escape San Francisco in search of warmth. We had such a nice time while they were here last weekend.
And this weekend, Natalie turned nine months old!

Here she is with her friend Connor yesterday (5/17). Isn't he a handsome boy? He's as big as her - but *three months younger*. We think he's awesome. We had the Foys over for a barbecue yesterday.


Natalie still only has two teeth (bottom two) though the top two are close to popping through. She is eating all sorts of food. She likes chicken, O's, mango, kiwi, pears, veggie chips from Trader Joe's, and carrots. She tolerates sweet potato, avocado, egg yolk, watermelon, tofu, and peas- and all sorts of other foods. She has had a little bit of wheat bread and yogurt now and then. In fact, last night for dinner I had a ground chicken burger and salad - and she was able to eat off my plate because she'd tried everything on it before! That was a first for us.

And here is Natalie today (5/18) on her nine-month birthday. You might think that she's truly crawling based on the fact that she's on her hands and knees in the below picture - but you'd be wrong. She pops up onto her hands and knees, then flops onto her tummy and army-crawls all over the house. She makes it from one side of the house to another in a few seconds flat! (Granted our house isn't very big.) She weighs almost 19 lbs and is somewhere around 29" tall. Natalie is also practicing standing! Rose (her fabulous nanny) found her standing in the crib the other day, in fact. As a result, Daddy had to lower her crib again this weekend.
After a serious heat wave last week (95 degrees at our house near the ocean in San Francisco), it has turned seasonably cool. We enjoyed the weather this weekend nonetheless by taking a long walk, doing some gardening, and going to the park. You can tell that she's been building her strength over the last few weeks - all of a sudden she holds herself in the swing differently from before! Doesn't she look bigger? She likes us to push her faster and higher, and laughs and laughs. It's really fun.
Here she is kneeling. This is the new trick she rolled out for her nine-month birthday. Now we just chase her around the house checking what she picks up off the floor, and making sure isn't going to pull things over onto herself.

We are so proud of Natalie, and more in love with her than ever before. It's really fun to see her developing her own likes and dislikes! She stops anything she's doing to watch Reese-the-cat walk by, and one of her favorite pastimes is watching Reese chase toys! We've reached the stage where Natalie thinks Reese's toys are hers, and Reese also thinks Natalie's toys are just excellent. Luckily Reese is an indoor cat so we don't have to worry *too* much about germs (but we do anyway).

All in all, our little family of four is quite happy!

Guest Appearance

Very, very cute pictures posted on the Dempsey's blog from our Saturday picnic to the Legion of Honor.

I am crazy about the picture of Natalie! That's Natalie's "SO BIG!" pose, with added grass in the hands for effect. She likes to use props when she plays the So Big game.

Let the babbling begin!

After a very long week for all of us, we had a nice and mellow weekend at home as a family. Natalie has begun stringing a few consonants together so "AAAAA" is now "BABABABABA", "MAMAMAMAMA" and "GAGAGAGAGA". The babbling is usually at its finest at mealtimes but she was caught in the act Saturday afternoon. Our girl sure is growing up fast!

PS from Julie: The very, very beautiful Oceanne Marie Sarrazin (le petit croissant herself) was born this morning! Check out this link from Sarah for some pictures of the gorgeous girl. We can't wait to meet her.