Natalie's Milestones

Here's a more informational update on what Natalie has been up to lately.

She is quite skilled at crawling and has started to "speed crawl" when she knows you are after her.  This is one of Jon and my favorite new things.  Jon has always looked forward to chasing Natalie and it looks like now he's going to really get the chance! 

She is also "cruising" around furniture.  She will pull up and hold on, walking across the front of the sofa or around her jumper to see new things or more likely to reach something new.  She will let go and stand, momentarily, but she isn't interested in striking out walking on her own, yet.

Sporting her vest from Mamaw and Papaw

 

She eats most anything now - 99% of which I am making.  So lots of bananas, applesauce (thanks Pops for the delicious apples), peas (she really does love them now), and brown rice - and many, many combinations of other fruits and vegetables.  She's also warming up to oatmeal, as long as it is mixed with fruit and LOVES graham crackers.  We've tried grits and they weren't her favorite but we will come back to those - no child with Schenk blood can go without eating grits!

The most interesting news on the eating front is that we still don't have ANY teeth!  At her 9 month check up the doctor said she looked great, is growing right in line with her growth chart (a petite 25% for weight and 45% for height) but that there were no signs of teeth yet.  It is clear to anyone who has seen Natalie eat that she doesn't let her lack of teeth slow her down.  And we're good with no teeth.  That just means we can enjoy the very sweet gummy grins a little longer.

(At the risk of jinxing ourselves) She has become a wonderful sleeper.  She goes to bed around 8:30-9:00PM and if she wakes in the night she usually entertains herself and goes back to sleep all on her own.  She wakes up around 6:30 or 7:00 AM with a BIG beautiful smile.

She is the best thing about every day and we feel so fortunate to have such a happy, healthy, beautiful little girl.

We have lots of travel scheduled for the rest of October, November and even December.  We are very much looking forward to seeing all our family and as many friends as we can along the way.