Booty scootin' boogie...

Natalie is starting to scoot around now. However, her current method is very unconventional. As she sits up she will thrust her upper body back and forth while lifting up on her legs. This is allowing her to move forward. She may be moving at a snails pace, but, she is getting around. While Grandma and Grandpa J were here she scooted back and forth on her blanket several times one evening. Watching her go back and forth is hilarious and the best part...no need to child proof the house just yet. We will post a video of Natalie in scootin' action sometime soon. Until then, here are some more pics of Natalie. The first picture is of Natalie waiting at the top of the stairs while mom and dad check to see if Santa came and the other picture is dad and Natalie practicing the back stroke.

Everyone has those outfits...

Remember looking back at some of the clothes you wore as a toddler and thinking to yourself, "what were you guys thinking." Well, in 18 years or so, Natalie may look back at this outfit with the same reaction. Nah, just kidding, she'll love it just as much as mom and dad...yeah right-

Caught in the act...

While we are still waiting to post about Natalie's first Christmas experiance we figured we would show some pictures of Natalie preparing the milk and cookies for the jolly ole man. As you can see, she could hardly contain her excitement...for the cookies.

A New Point of View...

Natalie has a new favorite thing to do with her dad...sitting on his shoulders. She loves to look at herself in the mirror while riding high in the air. For those faint of heart Josh always has his arms around Natalie's back.

In other news, Natalie had her first (and probably not last), ear infection along with a runny nose, cough and chest congestion. After a couple of trips to the doctor's and a prescription for Amoxicillin she is on the road to recovery. We were supposed to make our first trip to Danville this weekend, but since Natalie is still not feeling 100%Grandma and Grandpa J are making the trek to our house again. Hopefully there will be lots of time to rest and catch up on sleep!

Fruits and Veggies...

We mentioned in a past post about Natalie starting on rice cereal. We've expanded her palate to include oatmeal, carrots, sweet potatoes, pears and apples! Apples are her favorite, but pears are her least favorite which is kind of surprsing. We figured for sure that we would have to force carrots on her, we couldn't have been more wrong, she likes them just fine. We start bananas on Sunday - Josh is hoping for success since that's his favorite fruit. After that it's onto PEAS, YUCK!!! One thing is for certain, baby food brings about a whole new concept of messy. Her new favorite activity is to blow while you try to feed her. Yup, food goes everywhere. Luckily, we still find humor in her new found activity.

Swimming Lessons!

Natalie started swimming lessons last week as part of Josh's "get ready for water" program. Natalie is by far the youngest Dolphin in the pool, since most of the kids in the class are 1 or 2 years old. However, with a trip to Florida onm the horizon this is a perfect opportunity to get her feet wet (pun intended). So far she seems to enjoy the water, although, she does seem a little confused at times...especially when she was supposed to kick as she laid on her stomach on a surf board She really seems to like a game we play, especially London Bridges, which basically involves walking around the pool in circles under a big foam noodle singing the song. Some lessons she has taken in so far include:

* Blowing bubbles in the water (teaches them not to swallow water)

* Jumping in the water from the edge (teaches them when they jump in the water to always head back to the wall to grab onto.

* Laying on her back, stomach and side in the water

* Splashing!!!!