Milestone Recap

The holidays were a blur, and I wasn't very good at keeping this blog updated with all of the awesome new milestones Natalie achieved.  So, here's a quick recap of what's happened in the last few months...

October

• Natalie laughed for the first time on October 4th.  I'm pretty sure my heart exploded with pure, overwhelming joy :)

• On October 8th she had her first bites of rice cereal

• On October 23 (5 months old) she cut her first 2 teeth

And, as if these major milestones weren't keeping us busy enough in October, we also travelled to Buffalo the weekends of October 1st and 14th, and then Wisconsin/Chicago the weekend of October 21st...

November

• Natalie started army crawling when we were in Janesville for Thanksgiving

• Unfortunately, she also caught her first cold while we were in Janesville :(

December

• Unfortunately, Natalie's Thanksgiving cold hung around for a few weeks, and eventually turned into croup :(
• She cut her top 2 teeth on December 21st (7 months / 30 weeks)

• On New Year's Eve, she slept through the night for the first time (no nursing or bottles in the middle of the night!).  It was an AWESOME way to start the new year!!

January

• On January 2nd, Natalie crawled "for real" (up on all fours) for the first time while we were Skyping with my parents!  It was so great that they got to witness such an exciting milestone :)

• I turned 29 on the 5th and Marty turned 31 on the 6th; we celebrated with a fun date night while Natalie slept soundly at home with her first non-family-member babysitter (our neighbor Sommer).

• Jamie & Mark Welnick came to visit us the weekend of the 7th, and while they were here Natalie pulled herself up to standing for the first of many times

• On January 9th, Natalie cut her 5th and 6th teeth (on either side of those 2 upper teeth)

• Then on January 11th Natalie took her first plane ride, when she and I traveled to Duluth to spend the weekend with my mom, sister, aunts, uncles & cousins.  Morgan was sworn into the Duluth Police Department on Thursday (we are so proud of him!) and then on Friday, Natalie spent a day with her Great Aunt Julie while my mom, Heather and I shopped for her wedding dress.  I was a little nervous to fly alone with Natalie, but she did so much better than I ever expected!  She really is an AMAZING traveler!  She did so well on our flights, and was a happy baby all weekend.

bye bye Chicago skyline

Click here for a video of Natalie on the plane

celebrating after a successful afternoon of dress shopping!

• On January 21st, we took Natalie to the International Auto Show in downtown Detroit.  She enjoyed all of the lights, people and activity.  And, while we were there, she reached for Marty with both arms and said "Da Da!"  It was awesome :)

Christmas 2011

Christmas in Buffalo was a blur, as usual!  Unfortunately, Natalie was sick for her first Christmas :(  She came down with her first cold on the last day of our Thanksgiving vacation in Janesville, and was sick the whole month of December.  Her cold (along with teething and starting to crawl) turned into Croup the week before Christmas.  She had a horrible cough, wasn't sleeping much at night, and was pretty cranky - but that didn't stop her from having a great first Christmas!

hanging with some of the Rahill cousins

an attempt at a family photo

meeting her 2nd cousin Andy Reid

being silly with her Great-Aunt Pat Rahill

she loves her Great-Uncle Jim!

big girl!

dancing with Great Uncle Jim

with her Great Aunt Pat and Great Uncle Jim Rahill

opening gifts on Christmas morning!

Grandma Kathy spoiled her rotten :)

opening gifts with Grandma on Christmas morning!

stealing Finn's obnoxious squeaky ball

I'm so mad at myself for not taking more photos and videos.  I was too busy trying to enjoy being in the moment - and keeping our sick little girl happy & on schedule!  Hopefully other family members & friends grabbed some shots that I can steal!
We are so blessed to have such amazing family and friends in Buffalo, and look forward to next Christmas, when Natalie will be healthy and old enough to kind of know what's going on :)

Thanksgiving 2011

We spent the holiday in Janesville, with lots of family & friends.  Natalie got to spend lots of quality time with Aunt Heather, Uncle "Mo", Grandpa Jeff, Grandma Kristie, and Great-Grandma Connie.

I also got to catch-up with friends at my 10 year high school reunion.  As usual, it was a blast and my face hurt the next day from laughing so hard :)