Digging Supervisor

We currently have a mote along one corner of our house.

Chris is working on finishing the basement, but before he can sheet rock he has to fill in the couple cracks in the foundation. He rented an excavator this weekend to do some of the digging, but he still had to do quite a bit the old-fashioned way with a shovel. Natalie and I supervised.

Relaxing

Natalie leaned back and propped her feet up last night to watch Chris and I clean up after supper. Enjoy it now, little girl. You'll have to help with the dishes too someday.

Post-Nap Photo Shoot

Now that Natalie can push herself up to sit, I find her sitting up in her crib after her naps. She was in such a good mood when she woke up the other day that I decided a photo shoot was in order.

Giggle Box

Natalie loves to laugh. She used to only laugh when I tickled her, but these days she thinks I'm pretty funny. Baby giggles are the best.

6 Months

Today is Natalie's half birthday.

Those are the only two smiling pictures I could get. Who wants to sit and smile when you could be crawling and playing?

 At six months old Natalie:

• weighs 18 pounds, 9 ounces (95th percentile), and is 27.6 inches long (97th percentile). The doctor was so proud of her for being so big and healthy. Why can't adults get praised for weighing more than all of their peers?
• jumps and laughs when she sees herself in the bathroom mirror. This has become my fail-proof Natalie-mood-changer. When nothing else seems to calm her down, we head to the bathroom to jump on the counter and laugh at the baby in the mirror. 
• has two teeth. They aren't quite all the way in yet, but the painful part of breaking through is over. I thought I would miss her gummy smile once it was gone, but I think I love the sight of those two tiny teeth even more than I loved her gummy smile.
• crawls all over the house and pushes herself up to sit.
• loves blueberry applesauce, carrots, and bananas, and hates avocados.
• gives Chris the biggest, happiest smiles when he gets home from work. 
• is slowly but surely growing her hair back. The bald spot is gone!
• pulls up to kneel and sometimes stand. Every time she pushes herself up to stand I get both proud and sad. How in the world is my baby growing up so quickly?

What a blessed six months we've had.

Crawling Favorites

I love that Natalie is crawling now. She is so much happier now that she can get to where she wants to go, and being able to crawl has made her personality even cuter. My heart melts every time she crawls onto my lap, and I absolutely love seeing her little smiling face peeking around the corner after she has followed me into the other room.

Special Delivery

We do a lot of online shopping, so the UPS man knows us well. When Natalie and I answered the door this afternoon, he said, "It's me again!" 

 

This time the package was for Natalie, and the box was many many times her size.

It required some assembly, but the girls were able to put it together without the resident engineer.

The finished product!

Play Date with Mary

Afternoon at the Park

We took Natalie on a walk to the park yesterday afternoon. She loved the swings. She probably wasn't as excited about her first ride in the swing as her obnoxious mother with the camera was, but she was excited nonetheless.

Crawling

We have a crawler! Natalie has been trying to crawl for the last couple weeks. She has been rocking back and forth on all fours and getting really mad that it hasn't been getting her anywhere. She finally figured it out this evening, and what kind of mom blog would this be if there wasn't video proof?

On a related note, we're now in the market for a new TV stand. The one we currently have is open on all sides. It doesn't have any doors. Natalie crawled up to it this evening, pushed some buttons, and turned the TV off. She made Chris, the electronics lover, proud though because with just a few more button-pushes, she had the TV back up and running.

My View

Happy Easter!

We had such a busy and blessed Easter this year. Natalie got to see 30+ family members over the course of two days and managed to only get scared a few times. I was a little worried that the whole weekend would be full of crying because she is starting to get scared of "strangers" (people other than Chris and me).

Natalie and Chris spent Holy Saturday with the O'Halloran side of the family while I was at work. Once the work day was over, they picked me up in Wichita, and we headed to YC. Erica and my dad hadn't seen Natalie for a few weeks, so she spent the evening showing off her new tricks.

Easter Sunday Mass was really nice, and Natalie even made it through the whole thing without having to be taken to the back of the church. Natalie got lots of fun things from the Easter bunny, but she liked the fake grass the best. We went to my Aunt Janie's for lunch. Natalie did really well with being passed around, and she even got some kisses from Platt.