Good Morning from Natalie

Miss Natalie was in such a good mood this morning! I took this little video of her showing me how happy she was:



And now she's actually taking a morning nap (those are few and far between lately)!

Natalie's First Christmas

Natalie's first Christmas was a success! We went to South Carolina to see Jeremy's family. We watched the weather all day in anticipation of snow and the fat, glorious flakes finally started to fall around 7pm. A white Christmas for her first Christmas! It's just too darn exciting. Of course I dressed her up as a snow bear for some outdoor fun.





We're looking forward to celebrating Christmas with the Hodgins the second weekend of January!

Six Weeks Old

Natalie is six weeks old - and feeling fancy in her cardigan!



She's a big-time smiler now. I think my favorite is when she wakes up in the morning and she's all smiles in her crib! It definitely beats waking up grumpy (which also happens sometimes).

I can't believe how quickly she's changing. When I look at the pictures from her first few weeks, she looks so different! Her cheeks keep growing and we can tell her hands and feet have grown, too. I need to get a picture of her hand on mine so I can remember how tiny they are right now. Her hair has started growing too, which I only notice when I look at pictures of her. She had pretty much rubbed it off of the sides of her head, but it's beginning to grow back now.

Things we know about Natalie:

1. She prefers Jingle Bells over all other songs.
2. She doesn't particularly like to be swaddled, but she can't stay asleep without being swaddled (we're looking forward to that ending!).
3. She loves her pacifiers.
4. She's very quiet when she's in a crowd.
5. She is very squirmy.
6. When she's tired and we hold her over our shoulder, she rubs her head back and forth over and over again (this is how she rubbed the hair off the sides of her head).
7. She likes it when I read to her. Last night she sat in my lap while I read three board books to her, and she stared up at me the whole time with big eyes and a big smile. So cute.
8. She's a VERY good, sweet baby (knock on wood)!

Melt-Your-Heart-Smiles

Natalie has started smiling at us! It's the cutest darn thing. I took several adorable videos of her smiling today (one of them ended with Milly licking her on the top of her head) and then, sadly, I accidentally deleted them. I tried again and got a couple of good smiles out of her. Check out the videos:

One Month Old!

Natalie is one month old!!



She had a 1-month checkup today and was weighed. On our way to the doctor's office, Jeremy and I tried to guess how much she weighs - I guessed high 7 lbs and Jeremy guessed low 8 lbs. We were both surprised to find out that she weighs 9 lbs 4 oz!! She's in the 50th percentile for weight, and 50th to 75th percentile for height (she is now 21.25 inches). I can't imagine that she'll be "tall" for long, considering that we are both shorties, but I guess she could have gotten some of the tall genes from my family.

There are some decidedly unexciting aspects of being one month old, like baby acne, dry, flaky skin on the forehead and head (I can't remember the medical term), congestion, and increased fussiness. So far, Natalie has experienced the first three. They say babies are at their fussiest (if that's a word) from four to six weeks, so we have some fun to look forward to with that. Right now she's only occasionally fussy for what seems like no reason, and it doesn't last long. Obviously we're hoping this will keep up rather than the introduction of a grumpy baby!

We had our first family outing over the weekend - we all went to Target to buy ornaments for our first Christmas tree:



We thought Natalie deserved a tree for her first Christmas!