Hurricane Natalie

After Natalie was born I wondered if I'd ever have the opportunity to exercise like I used to, it just didn't seem possible. To all new moms/moms-to-be who are worried about finding time to work on that baby weight: Have no fear, wait until they crawl! Natalie has perfected her technique and she's lightning fast. She's into EVERYTHING! Yesterday, while I was cooking, she pulled out every single tupperware container I own from my cabinet, stuck her hands in the dog bowl, pulled down my blinds, took everything off of the bottom shelf of my pantry, rearranged my kitchen rugs and pulled up on the drawers (note to self: lock those down IMMEDIATELY). All this took place in about a 20 minute time period. Enjoy the video of Natalie's strange crawling technique. She's a bit of a spaz, but that's OK. Mom says she crawls exactly like I did... she's my girl!

He's got the whole world in His hands

My relationship with the Lord and my faith has been tumultuous, at best. I've had to deal with a lot of death, disease and feuds... in my opinion, a lot more than most people. Needless to say, my younger self blamed God. It took many years before I realized that God didn't do it to me, as I once was certain, instead He carried me through to the other side.

My faith didn't truly return until I became pregnant with Natalie. You'd better believe the instant I found out about my baby, I said a prayer. For a long time I had been very angry with God and shut down all avenues of communication between us. I recognized how silly it seemed that suddenly I wanted something from God and therefore began talking to Him again. I knew that if I was going to truly be faithful and raise a faithful child, I would have to be open, honest, trusting and giving. So then it began... I prayed every night and everyday, and God was faithful. Natalie was born without a flaw, I survived, Chase came home safely... I was immensely grateful.


So where is this going?

Every night I pray that Natalie will have a peaceful night, and in the past week or two she's had anything but peace. I think it's been a combination of learning to crawl and stand on her own along with teething all mixed together by a massive dose of newly acquired separation anxiety. Needless to say our nights have been just swell. Every night I search the internet for solutions, harass Chase for reassurance and repeatedly call my Mom for advice. I'm so afraid of making the wrong decision and handling her nighttime issues poorly. Last night I was fed up, as she lay in her bed upstairs crying, or more like screaming, I was downstairs just as upset if not more. I said to Chase, "I just don't understand why God is doing this to me"... there's that old Leigh showing through. I guess I was incredibly worried, didn't know if I was doing the right thing and no one seemed to be able to reassure me. Suddenly, the phone rang. It was the home health nurse that the hospital provides to all newborns and their families. I had last spoken to her when Natalie was two weeks old during her house call. She was calling to check on us, and answer any questions I might have now, nearly a year later. I was stunned.

After we hung up (and I had the reassurance that I craved), I cried. I felt guilty for doubting God, it was as if He was saying "Hey! I'm still here!"

And she's off!

Natalie has been trying with all her little baby might to crawl. For weeks now she has rocked and spun and flopped and tumbled, but nothing was happening. Until this morning. I came downstairs and placed her on her play mat as usual and walked into the kitchen to fix my coffee. As I turned to get the half and half out of the fridge I noticed that Natalie had followed me into the kitchen. At first it didn't dawn on me that she had actually CRAWLED, and I just uttered a "hello Natalie". And then it hit me, SHE DID IT! She's a bit wobbly and her form is a little strange, but she's mobile! So I guess this means we've entered a whole new era in her life and I guess she's going to keep me on my toes. I'd post more but I've got some baby proofing to do!

Chase's first Father's Day!

Natalie learned how to clap today, what a neat Father's Day gift! Chase is such a great dad, Natalie is one lucky little girl! I love watching to two of them together, they're complete naturals. It's as if they've known each other for all of eternity. Chase is always right there to help me (when the Army isn't keeping him away from us) feed her, change her, bath her and of course play with her! It's obvious she's the apple of his eye, she's going to be such a Daddy's girl!

8 months already?

Now that Natalie is 8 months old, here's what she can do:

*Gets into crawling position, rocks (can even take a few "steps") and back to sitting position
*Gets into "bear crawl" position
*Pulls up on anything and everything within her reach
*Babbles with consonant and vowel sounds
*Says "Mamma" and "Da da" indiscriminately (although, I'm pretty sure she says "Mamma" correctly)
*Uses her index finger and thumb to feed herself crackers
*Is a sippy cup pro
*Understands and obeys (sometimes) "No"
*Has 3 teeth
*Waves "hello" and "bye bye"

The past 8 months have gone by so quickly, I can't believe we're only 4 months away from celebrating Natalie's FIRST birthday! Goodness! It's hard to believe how far we've come, it seems like only yesterday I had a squishy little newborn. Even though I miss newborn Natalie, I think it's pretty safe to say that in no way am I interested in another! I'm still traumatized from my pregnancy and her first 4 months!

Natalie has been trying to crawl with all her might. She can get into the crawling position and can even take a few a steps, but she gives up. I've read that crawling is only an optional skill and is not considered a milestone. Who knew? Anyway, I tend to think Natalie is going to skip the crawling thing all together. Mom tells me I graduated from scooting to cruising, so maybe this is just one more similarity that Natalie and I share. Natalie has recently been around two babies that do crawl (Graeme and Christopher) and she acts very interested in what they're doing. Maybe their influence will push her to try harder.

No forest fires here...

Words cannot express the absolute hilarity of this picture.

For some unknown reason Smokey the Bear was at Wal-Mart today. Only at Wal-Mart is it completely normal, acceptable and perhaps even expected for your shopping experience to be interrupted by a giant bear. Kids were screaming, moms were shushing, NC forest rangers were laughing and Natalie was (at first) thrilled. She waved her arms and squealed with delight when she saw Smokey. I waited for him to wade his way through a sea of tearful toddlers and when he eventually made his way over to us it all went down hill. Still, I absolutely had to have a picture.

I might look like a hot mess (which is typical for an outing to Wal-Mart) and Natalie might be screaming, but every time I look at this picture I laugh. At least Natalie looked awesome in her spiffy new outfit courtesy of Great Granny and Great Paw in CA!

What a fun day!

Today was a great day! Natalie had a friend come play with her today, and they got along so well! My friend, Cyndy, was teaching a dance camp and asked if I minded keeping her 8 month old son today while she worked. Of course, I didn't mind! Graeme is such a sweet little boy, every time I've been around him he's always been an angel! The thought did cross my mind that it would be like having twins (Graeme is about 19 days older than Natalie), but I knew that they're both awesome babes and it wouldn't be a problem. I was right.

Cyndy brought over a double jogging stroller in hopes that Graeme might nap during our walk. Poor Graeme. Natalie talked his ears off the whole walk. I mean, talk about the difference between men and women. She babbled and talked and sang. Graeme sat there with this "someone PUH-LEASE make this woman be quiet?!?!" look on his face, I couldn't help but laugh. She wanted to hold his hand, he didn't like that, so she would stroke his hair. Typical woman.

As usual we walked with our good friend Stephanie and her son Christopher. Christopher couldn't figure out how in the heck I ended up with another baby. The puzzled look on his face was priceless, he kept leaning forward out of his stroller to double check the situation. I guess he wanted to make sure he wasn't seeing things!



Later on, after she was finished tormenting Graeme, Natalie helped me cook dinner. Isn't she the most adorable sous-chef you've ever seen?

Answered Prayers

Every night before bedtime, Natalie and I say her prayers. It's a routine that I want to establish for her now so that her future relationship with God is a good one. After we say hers, I "think" mine and I always pray that God will guide me in making the best choices and decisions for Natalie.

Recently Natalie has started sleeping on her tummy, which has created horrible anxiety for me. As you know, my biggest fear is SIDS and I've done everything in my power to prevent it. When she started sleeping on her tummy I would immediately go into her room and flip her over, usually she would cry and fuss for a short while and then fall back asleep. I can still remember the panic I felt the very first time I woke up in the middle of the night and looked at the monitor only to see her face down! I dashed into her room at what felt like the speed of light and flipped her immediately. All kinds of thoughts were going through my mind "how long has she been like that?", "can she breathe?"...

At her last check up with Dr. Manzo I asked him about the tummy sleeping. He very calmly told me to let her sleep any way she wants (with a few obvious exceptions). He told me that as long as she rolls over both ways, lifts her head and her upper body and can get into the crawling position, she's totally fine. For those of you who don't know, Dr. Manzo is WONDERFUL! He is very calm and reassuring, and is first to suggest a second opinion if he feels at all uncertain about something (he did that for her hernia). I completely trust him and his opinions, and went home that night and let her sleep on her tummy.

Last night we said our prayers as usual and Natalie went to sleep on her tummy as usual. But something in me didn't feel right. I wrestled with the idea of flipping her over, and went back and forth about it with Chase. Before bed I went in to check on her and she was basically face down and her breathing sounded heavy and muffled. So I flipped her. She never cried, never made one peep. That was confirmation to me that my instinct was correct and that I had made the best decision I could for her.

I think people search for huge spectacles as proof of God's faith; I'm realizing that, just as everything else in life, it's the little things that count. I prayed for the ability to confidently make the right decisions for my daughter, and as far as I'm concerned, my prayers were answered.

Swim little fishy

Natalie got in the pool yesterday for the very first time! She was a natural! She squealed and kicked her legs, she even impressed the instructor with her awesome kicking and splashing skills! Unfortunately, Natalie had already had a big day (we went to see my good friend Cyndy and her two cherubs for a shopping/eating extravaganza) and was super tired. She got pretty cranky at the end of the lesson, and we ended up leaving about five minutes early, but I'm excited and can't wait to get her back in the pool after a good day of naps!

First swim lesson

Tonight was supposed to be Natalie's first swim lesson. In fact, it was going to be her first time in a swimming pool ever! She loves bath time, and when my friend Jeanne asked me to join her and her daughter for swim lessons, I thought it would be really fun. Unfortunately, it stormed tonight and the class was cancelled. But her bikini debut is worth a post in itself. The bikini was a Christening gift courtesy of Natalie's Fairy Godmother, Chelsea. Thanks Aunt Chelsea, you totally rock!