Firsts

Here's another informational update about how Natalie has been doing.

I supposed with all the waiting for teeth Natalie decided to show us all and do THREE firsts within about three weeks.

FIRST TOOTH!
           After months of waiting Natalie finally got her first tooth (lower front, right) on November 18th.  The darn thing had been imminent for days and one Friday it was discovered that it was through the gum when Natalie put Ms. Debbie's finger in her mouth and bit her.  No harm done but it was a good story!  She (today!) got the second bottom tooth and it appears that more on the top will be coming in soon.  Teething with a vengeance now.

FIRST WORD!
          Natalie has been doing the Mama, Dada thing for a while - and we LOVE it. She babbles all the time, and in seemingly complete phrases but we have no idea what she's saying - only that she is serious about it.  But while we were in North Carolina, with all the baby talk to Katherine, Graham etc, she learned and used correctly the word BABY.  On November 24th she looked right at Graham Paul Thomas and said "baby" when we introduced them.
She's chatting up a storm now with a very clear "bye-bye" and other phrases (Mama, Dada, Hey) and she's working hard on "pretty" - since that's what we say about the Christmas tree and all the beautiful Christmas lights around the neighborhood.

FIRST STEPS!
           We have all felt that Natalie would be walking early - even earlier than now, to tell you the truth, but happily she's been content to crawl and surf around furniture.  Until November 28th when it seemed like she was in an especially adventuresome mood.  Jon and I got down in the floor with her (video camera in hand) and coaxed a few wobbly steps out of her.  We (kindof) got it on video - she was moving towards Jon who was more concerned with the imminent fall than the video (GOOD DADDY!) - and will continue to capture more of those adorable Frankenstein-like steps in the coming days.  Hopefully I'll figure out how to post a video so you can all see.

Wow.  This is happening too fast - and my sweet little angel will be ONE YEAR OLD in less than a month.  Without a doubt this has been the fastest and best year of my life.