Happy Birthday, dear Natalie...

Today marks Natalie Jean's 2 month birthday. It was a great excuse to bake chocolate cupcakes in her honor! I can't believe how fast the time has flown (and yes, I'm already a nervous wreck about heading back to work in a mere 3 weeks!) and how much Natalie has grown and developed. From a sleeping "blob" (albeit a cute blob!) to an active baby that smiles, coos, bats at toys, observes everything, splashes in the bath, sleeps in her own crib--all in just 9 weeks of life. You've come a long way, baby! It truly is an amazing experience to be a part of...

I spent several hours tonight reading manuals, installing software, restarting the computer, etc., but I think I finally am ready to upload our first ever movie starring, (who else?) Natalie Jean Yost. Thanks again to Grandma and Grandpa Walters for the fancy video camera. Now that I have it figured out, we'll use it more often to share precious moments, I promise!

Anyway, the movie below is of Nat's bath tonight. I tried to make her smile, but she just wouldn't do it (by this time of night, she's pretty pooped). But we agree that we have some great blackmail material for when she's a teenager! So, break out the popcorn and enjoy (and marvel in my new-found movie producing skills)! (Make sure your sound is turned on!)

Natalie News...

I apologize for not posting more photos lately. But here is a cute one that I snapped the other night right before bed time. She's in her pj's with her "sleepy bear". Makes me yawn just looking at it!

Here's a brief update on what we've been up to lately:

• One major milestone (since we're on the subject of sleep) is that Natalie now sleeps in her own room, in her own crib, usually for 8 hours straight! She's great at going to sleep at night. We're still working on daytime naps. She gets very sleepy during the day and if she doesn't take at least a short nap every 2-3 hours, she gets cranky--and that's not a pretty sight.
• We've been working on the bottle thing (since I'm going to back to work in a month!). We've gone through 3 different types of bottles but she just plain doesn't want to have anything to do with it! Nothing compares to mommy I guess... I've researched some tips from other moms who've been there and I hope we can make some progress this week. Wish us luck!
• She's smiling more and more. Today she had a record number of smiles which was great because we were visiting Grandma and Grandpa Yost so they got to see her smile at them. She's also loving her "jungle gym" I told you about earlier and able to bat at the hanging toys and even get the music to play! She couldn't do that a week ago...
• This weekend we went to Monmouth to visit the Yost/Vyers clan. The whole family came to meet Natalie including her her great aunts Jane and Tammi, great uncle Jimmy and Char (and Char's great grandson Jackson), Aunt Shawna with cousins Jared and Chloe, daddy's cousin Brandy, and of course Grandma and Grandpa Yost. It was so fun to see everyone! We celebrated with a family baby shower and boy was she showered! Lots of cute outfits and necessities, even a new stroller! Unfortunately, we missed the Curtis Salgado concert down the street due to a blow out diaper and then a mini meltdown from all the excitement. She was much happier on Sunday though.
• Nat and I are going to attend our second "Baby & Me Pilates Class" this Thursday. We went last week and while I struggled to make my abs work again, Nat was content to lay by my side, obviously entertained by my lack of grace, strength and coordination. There were a dozen or so moms and babies in the class and while most of them cried, she was an angel the entire hour. She liked looking around at her new environment and at new people.
• Nat is scheduled for her 2 month check up at the doctor's next week. She hasn't been weighed since her 2 week check up, but I often get asked how much she weighs now. If I remember this week I'll attempt to weigh her on my scale. I think I'll have to hold her and subtract my weight which involves math, so who knows how accurate that will be! She's definitely getting chubbier, mostly in the thighs and cheeks. When I look back at her early baby pictures, it's amazing to see how much she's grown and matured in 7 short weeks!

Whew! That was a longer update than I anticipated sharing, but now you know what we've been up to. I have been testing out the video camera and once I figure out how to upload videos, I'll share a few with you.

xoxo

Natalie visits the rain forest!

While at Target the other day, Jeramy and I couldn't resist picking up this little present for Natalie. It's a Rain Forest Play Gym that has hanging butterflies, a toucan bird in a palm tree and giraffe for her to look at and play with (once that hand/eye coordination thing gets a little better!). It also has a black and white striped kitty (does anyone else find that odd in the rain forest?) that plays jungle music. There are even more things she can play with while she's on her tummy. Right now she's pretty intrigued with it, but still a little young to play with it by herself. We have fun watching her learn and observe. You can see those little wheels turning up there! She really likes those colorful butterflies... Until next time!

Wishing Auntie Ione a Happy 85th!

Last weekend, Natalie and I traveled to Salem with Grandma and Grandpa to help our Auntie Ione celebrate her 85th birthday. Natalie wore her best party dress to meet Ione for the first time on this special occasion! Onie was Great Grandma Jean's best friend, so it was fun to introduce her to Natalie Jean.

Here are a few more pictures from last weekend that turned out pretty cute...

Smiles!

In the last few days, we thought Natalie had been giving a few small smiles in response to kisses and silly things we'd do to her. But today, she gave me the biggest grins and I was positive they were a sign of love and happiness at the affection I was giving her--not just gas! What an amazing feeling... To have your child smile at YOU for the very first time. All day long I tried to prompt her to smile again, but luckily, she chose to smile the second time today after Jeramy got home from work. It made our day. Hopefully I'll get a picture of her beautiful grin to post and show you all soon .