Swinging

April 2008 May 2008
August 2008

(Yes, we have weird weather in San Francisco - sundress in April, winter coat and hat in May, and sweatshirt in August)

One Year Old - Two Birthday Parties... Both Cancelled...

Here is our girl on her birthday. She was still recovering from the Great Fever of August 16th, but was doing much better! I took the day off from work, and Tyler worked from home, so we could be with her on her special day.

Natalie and I went to a birthday lunch at Park Chalet (a restaurant near our house) with Kearsley and Maya. Natalie's not all that into birthday cake (see former post) so we let her go wild with strawberries instead.
Here is the fabulous, well-behaved girl Maya. Eating daintily out of her bowl, as Natalie threw food all over the entire seating area of the restaurant (don't worry, we were outside on the patio, so it didn't matter).
We are huge fans of Maya and Kearsley!
They gave us this fabulous tractor for Natalie's birthday. I say "us" because Tyler and I love it almost as much as Natalie - it's not uncommon for us to play with the toy even more than she does.
The birthday girl herself.

Tickles from Dad!

We tried to reschedule Natalie's birthday party for August 23rd, after we had to cancel her first one on the 16th. Wouldn't you know it, on Wednesday night before the party she got sick again (a cold this time)... maybe they were related, maybe they weren't, who knows... all we know is that we had to cancel her NEXT birthday party as well, because we didn't want to subject any of our baby friends to the plague.

So, we had to console ourselves with a trip to the zoo! Natalie was doing much, much better by this weekend (if still sniffly).
She LOVES the backpack. Thinks it's the best. She and Tyler had a great time wandering around the entire zoo together! Other firsts: she took a few steps by herself (a very few)... she is so long and skinny that she needs a lot more practice to take more steps, but she's trying! She also went out to breakfast with Mama and Dada on Sunday and was really excited by eating breakfast out and about!

Hopefully she will take to daycare in two weeks as well as she's taken to all the other firsts which have come with being one year old...

Birthday Party: Or Lack Thereof

Saturday was to be Natalie's one year birthday bash. We eschewed the advice of all who said "just let her have a quiet first birthday, with no hoopla - she is too young for the hoopla!" We planned a nice birthday party here at home with all her (and our) friends. Her grandma and grandpa even flew down from Seattle for the party!

And then, five hours before the party was to start - cake made, flowers purchased, balloons in hand, house cleaned, food ready to go - Natalie developed a biiiiiig fever.

So, while I was in mommy mode (lukewarm bath, tylenol, snuggles), Tyler made phone calls cancelling the party. *sigh*

Here is a picture from Friday night (pre-fever) opening presents from Grandma, Grandpa, and Great Grandma.

And below, Natalie's modified birthday party! After she went to bed, Tyler's cousins and our friends Cheryl and Adam came over to eat some of the food we had prepared. Here is Tyler cutting Natalie's birthday cake.
She was served some cake leftovers yesterday. Her appetite is not what one would hope (when is it ever?) but she had one bite and one lick of frosting. She didn't throw much on the floor which is actually a ringing endorsement!
Today is her actual birthday. I took the day off from work and Tyler is working from home so that we can enjoy her special day. Her little viral infection (or whatever it is) is improving!

Here We Go!

Sorry we haven't posted in so long! We've been up to no good, no good at all. Just kidding, we've been doing *some* good.
Like a couple of weeks ago we babysat for Olen while his parents got to enjoy a date night!
King Olen, laying claim to all the toys and books in Natalie's room.
Here is our girl, who is very focused on learning how to walk. It's an all-consuming passion.

All that learning to walk gets a body tired, though... sometimes she just reaches into her crib for her paci and her doggy snuggle blanket, and practically asks to be put to bed. She's her mama's daughter, as Carroll family lore reports that I often put myself to bed as a child, even before my bedtime.

This picture, more than any other, is indicative of what's been going on around the house though. She is just learning so much about what she wants - and learning to ask for it! Like today for dinner, she refused to eat anything from a spoon. Ultimately I gave her the spoon with squash on it to see what she would do. The result? Squash flung to all four corners of the room, but a fair bit in her mouth as well. We've tried to give her the spoon before and she has refused to take it. Her dad said it's almost like she woke up this morning and thought "I want to learn how to use a spoon today." This week she's also learned to drink from a sippy cup with a straw (thanks, Connor, for giving us one of those)!

She's doing well with learning her words, but sometimes you have to trick it out of her! The other day, I was pointing to Kai's sock and asking him what it was. Finally Natalie turned away from the book she was reading and said "SOCK" and then went back to reading. Will she do that for her own sock, if I ask her? She will not. And today I asked Kai "where's the ball?" and she went and got the ball and brought it to me. But if I ask *her* to get the ball - will she? Again, the answer is, we are learning that she is a willful child who does exactly what she wants to do.

Anna let us borrow her walker... at first (Sunday) Natalie wasn't sure what to do with it, but the video below shows that she gets it now! She laughs uproariously while she's walking behind it!

This Saturday we're having a birthday party for our girl, two days ahead of the big day. I can't believe she's turning a year old. I can't begin to describe all that this year has brought to us.