Mom's Day...

Happy Mother's Day to everyone. Kaija woke up to a couple of cards and an appointment at the local spa for a pedicure and manicure. For all of the hard work she has put in the past 10 months this was the least dad and Natalie could do.

Natalie has also started a new game in the household. This game is one that mom and dad enjoy playing for the most part. We call it the 'Thank You' game. Natalie will extend her hand to give us a toy after which she waits until we say THANK YOU. After we say those words she expects the toy back and then she extends her arm again...you get the idea.

Two more teeth have appeared. On Friday Kaija noticed that Natalies two upper teeth have popped through. Hopefully this will lead to her eating some solid table food.

One fine day...

Since Natalie is crawling we have decided to expand our playground activities from the swing and the slide. The local playground has a crawling tunnel in between two slides. Natalie seemed very confused as to what she was supposed to do so she basically sat still and people watched through the airplane-type windows. Here are some pictures of her day.

Dont confuse pink eye with Ping i's...

Natalie has been out with pink eye for the past couple of days. In bad parent fashion we self-diagnosed Natalie with allergies to pollen like her dad (same signs--watery eyes with some discharge). Needless to say, we were wrong. We even took her to one of her buddies 1st birthday party on Sunday. So far it appears that the pink eye has not spread to any of her friends. There is some good news within all of this...Natalie doesn't seem to have allergies to pollen.

In other news, we have started to give Natalie her baths in the big-girl bath tub. It was long overdue as she had long outgrown her infant tub. After seeing how much more she enjoys the big-girl tub we wish we had changed over to this long ago. She enjoys scooting around in the tub and splashing around.

Lions for lambs...

Forget crawling!! Natalie has found the next great form of mobility...walking. Grandma and Grandpa J purchased the walking lion and every day since Natalie has become more and more comfortable walking behind the lion. Although, we must admit, her favorite part of the lion is his nose which plays music every time you push it in. In fact, Natalie will sit in front of the lion and just continuously press in the nose for, seemingly, hours at a time. Here are a few pictures of Natalie in action...as you can see Natalie has figured out how to walk and wave at the same time.

Sound of Music...

Natalie started her music class at Gymboree and, so far, is having a really fun time. We are hoping she is more musically gifted than her mom and dad. Basically the kids sit in a circle and play different instruments while the instructor and moms sing songs. The class provides an opportunity to practice with different instruments as well as a few props. So far Natalie's favorite appears to be the rattles and the scarf. To keep the class fun a new theme is selected every third week. The theme for the first couple of weeks was Irish Folk music which moved into Broadway for the past couple of weeks. Next up, Reggae. If only Natalie had long enough hair for dreadlocks. Fortunately, Natalie has had both sets of grandparents come up to watch their American Idol in action.

Playdates!

We had a weekend full of fun times with friends!

On Saturday afternoon we met up with Maggie, Chris, Sydney, Allison and Grayson at "Springfest" in Fairfax and then went to the park. It was great to be outside in the 65 degree weather! Sunday afternoon we had a playdate at our house with Minta, Darren and Evan and Retta, Austin and their twins, Jackson and Matthew. All the kids were born within 2 months of each other, so it was fun to watch them interact (okay, crawl all over each other). Hopefully we'll be able to get together with all our friends again soon!

Night Crawler

She did it! After working towards it for several weeks and a couple false starts, Natalie is on the move. At first it was just a couple of movements forward an then a belly flop, now she can make it from the family room to the kitchen in no time flat. Her usual target is Hokie, unfortunately he wants nothing to do her, so he keeps just out of reach. The chase continues until something else catches her eye, usually a small speck on the floor or an item she shouldn't be getting into. The real workout comes on the hardwood floors where she slides around, going backward more than forward. The good news is, we no longer have to fetch toys for Natalie to play with. The bad news is, we need to further child proof our house!

Otherwise, we started taking a Gymboree Music class on Sunday mornings. Natalie seems to enjoy the singing and playing with instruments in addition to the free gym time where she can crawl around and go down the slide.

Easter in Danville...

Easter Weekend was spent with Grandma and Grandpa J in Danville. Josh was really dreading the drive since A) the drive stinks and B) we had another addition that will probably require several stops. After driving back and forth we can safely say that while the drive did indeed stink, Natalie was an angel. In fact, she slept the entire 4 hour drive down and all but 15 minutes the way back.

Easter morning started out with Grandma J outfitting Natalie with an Easter Egg headband. Luckily, Natalie didn't seem to mind and stayed still for the photo opportunity. Next Kaija thought it would be a good idea for Natalie to wake up Josh with a "Happy Easter". Unfortunately, when she put Natalie on the bed, Natalie proceeded to throw up all over the place - Good Morning Daddy! Anyway, that canceled our church plans, but we were still able to put Natalie in her beautiful Easter dress and open Easter baskets. Natalie enjoyed pulling every item out, including books, CD's, stuffed animals and bubbles! Eventually she got down to her favorite item in the whole basket...the plastic green grass. We literally had to pry it out of her hands, which of course, made her cry. Danville provided a lot of R&R which was just what Josh and Kaija needed. Enjoy the pictures of Natalie in her Easter dress.
Upon our return home, we realized that it was finally time to upgrade Natalie to her big girl car seat. She seems to be enjoying them so far and Kaija and Josh are enjoying not having to lug around the baby carrier anymore. Now we are just counting down the time to her first birthday so she can face forward!

Another tooth also poked through this weekend. Now she has two bottom teeth, so hopefully the ones on the top will come through soon. Unfortunately, this has not increased her interest in eating table food, but she still loves her baby food. We've eaten through most fruits and vegetables and have now introduced yogurt and strained meats (doesn't that sound tasty?).

Trip to New York and a Toothie!

We delayed the inevitable as long as possible..okay 9 months, but whose counting? Anyway, on Thursday evening we embarked on the journey to Rochester to visit Kaija's family. 7 1/2 hours later at midnight we pulled into the driveway unscathed. Natalie did amazing on the trip - made it through a traffic jam, ate dinner in her car seat and only required one stop for a diaper change/feeding before falling asleep for the last 3 hours of the trip. Friday we spent a lazy day around the house before going out to dinner to celebrate Uncle Cole's 25th birthday and then back home for Grandma D's amazing homemade chocolate cake. Saturday morning we got quite the surprise while playing with Natalie..she was laughing when Josh caught sight of something. After prying her lip down, it was confirmed, Natalie's lower center tooth had broken through! A little later, while looking at the first tooth, we noticed a second tooth had slightly broken through although not as noticeable as the first. Later that afternoon the entire Dinse clan came over to meet Natalie. Of course, she loved being the center of attention as usual and especially loves her new Laugh N Learn Purse from her cousin Izzy. Sunday morning we packed up again after too short of a visit and made it back to Ashburn in a record 6 hours. See you in April Grandpa and Grandma D! However, no rest for the weary as we plan on heading to Danville Easter weekend.

You have to crawl before you can walk

Its about that time. Natalie is on the verge of crawling. This is going to be a bitter sweet triumph for mom and dad. On one hand, she'll be crawling and be more independent. On the other hand our days and evenings are going to be a lot busier...but we digress. The scenario, from a seating position, Natalie will go onto her knees and rock back and forth a little. She has not fully grasped moving both her hands and knees simultaneously. However, we are certain it is just a matter of time. Check out her new video on the right of her near feat.

A Smile and a Hi...

Banging blocks and clapping doesn't seem to get the same reaction from mom and dad anymore. So, Natalie has learned to wave and occasionally say, Hi. Its not phonetically perfect but she is definitely saying Hi. Mom and dad are back to giving the 'something new' and 'its so cute' smiles. Luckily Grandma and Grandpa J were in town to hear the start of Natalie's new found talent. Natalie's favorite thing to wave to...Hokie Cat. Fortunately Hokie generally turns his back and walks into another room and Natalie will start waving to mom and dad. Her favorite time to wave is after a nap. We don't have pictures of Natalie waving but we'll post some video sometime soon.

Hand and Eye Coordination...

Last week we blogged about Natalie banging blocks together. Well, we are happy to post that she has now dropped the blocks and learned to clap her hands. Natalies hand eye coordination is amazing. Josh likes to think his days of playing Nintendo and Sega Genesis had something to do with that. Anyway, she claps when she's happy, she claps when she eats, she claps when she plays, she claps when she gets her diaper changed. Quite frankly, she is a clapping machine. Its very cute and she seems to enjoy herself as she claps. Here is a picture of Natalie with Grandma J as they stroll around the kitchen...Grandma singing and Natalie clapping.