Last Thursday this little baby turned One!

I hardly believe it. How far we’ve come!

We had an awesome party on Saturday, thrown my my amazing mom, Natalie’s Grammy. It was lots of fun, full of family and a few friends. She loved having everyone sing to her! It was so funny to watch her notice that they were all singing, TO HER, TOGETHER! she loved loved loved it.

And she even ate a little bit of her low-sugar cake thingy (more like a frosted pancake, perhaps? It wasn’t bad, though) that I made for her (we made traditional cake for everyone else, but she’s still not had much sugar so I thought I’d keep it that way a little while longer!).

She also loved opening presents. We were sure she’d only open a few and get distracted, but she was all like “what’s next?” That is, until she opened a doll stroller. ALL SHE EVER WANTED. Once it was set up she practically jumped over me to get to it and start pushing it around! Too cute. She kind of wants to push it from the front most of the time, but who am I to judge?

Our babybear is growing up so fast!

I made a little list not long ago on the other blog of things she can say, but now that she’s officially one, here’s a list of her accomplishments thus far:

• Things she can say: hi, Dada, Mama, meow, arf-arf, kitty, doggie, baby (bebe), na-na (i.e. Natalie, or “give it to me/Natalie”), me-me (”Grammy”), duck, owl, down, no, yessss, that.

• Other sound effects: mmm (”moo”), brmm (tractor, car), wee-wee (as in “this little piggy went to market”), an awesome pig snort, a slurping pretend drinking sound, lip-smacking pretend eating sound, a horse-foot clicking/clopping sound, and she bounces up and down like she’s riding a horse when she sees one.

• Sign-language signs: milk, more, food/eat, water, baby, sleep, waves hi and bye, and she points all the time.

• Record # of hours slept at once: 13

• She has been feeding herself since she was 7 months old. She hasn’t mastered the spoon yet, but can get tiny pieces and big pieces and all in-between. She loves most things she’s tried, but her favorites are broccoli, cucumber, bread, banana and pasta (a girl after her Dada’s heart!). She is not fond of cheese and I’m ok with that (cheese being one of my weaknesses, something I’m working on giving up!). She also loves graham crackers, well really any kind of cracker, pizza crust and tiny sips of green juice. She drinks water from her straw cup, and gets really mad at any kind of non-chewy sippy cup spout or having to tip a sippy cup too high. Can’t blame her.

• No crawling, lots of walking — almost running now. She can roll both ways like a champ, and almost does a somersault when she falls sometimes, but not on purpose! The day she got her stitches she learned to get herself up from the floor to walking. She can climb small steps but hasn’t even tried the stairs (thank goodness!).

• She likes to use her imagination and feeds her toy animals and dolls all the time. She’s also started trying to dress and undress the dolls, and has been trying to help dress herself for a while now.

It’s kind of like she’s a KID. Unbelievable. hehe.

my mom's amazing garden

things i’m thinking about today, things I have been meaning to post about, things I will maybe someday devote entire posts to:

• FALL!

• editing Natalie’s birth story to post for you

• finally making a before/after post for our basement renovation project

• food — specifically introducing solid foods to an infant. And the school lunch program and our nation’s epidemic of STUPID when it comes to nutrition. Including our Doctors. I love our new pediatrician, though, who told me “meat is overrated” when I asked if I had to think about making sure our wee babe got enough protein when she’s finally eating solid foods. I kind of wanted to hug him.

• Naps. Or lack thereof. Natalie is a classic “nap resister” who doesn’t want to miss anything. The No-Cry Nap Solution is helping, though.

• Elimination Communication, AKA “The Diaper-Free Baby”. This is a whole series of posts-worth of content, but let’s just say I’m getting over the feeling of being CRAZY for wanting to try this, and really enjoying the JOY on N’s face when she uses her tiny potty. SHE LOVES IT. I AM NOT CRAZY. And yes, she is not quite even 5 months old.

I just had to pop in and finally announce the arrival of our daughter, Natalie May Coyle!
She came into the wold with an early morning waterbirth at home, with the help of an amazing team of midwives and friends, last Wednesday May 12th at 1:23 am. She has sparkly big eyes and her papa’s brown hair; 8lbs 6oz, 22 inches. She was 13 days late, and is already surprising us with smiles and coos, and gazing back at us from her first moments.

We are now spending our days and sleepless nights gazing at the adorableness of this starry-eyed little one, mostly in disbelief, really, that we created her. I’m sure I’ll be back soon enough with more stories; I promise I will share some of the story of her birth eventually, which was definitely the most amazing, intense, challenging and profound experience of my life. I must say that I am so beyond happy that we chose to have her at home, and I think a tub full of warm water is a wonderful place to come into the world.

(we're so in love with this hat from Cloo Gifts Etsy shop)

With lots of blissed out love,
xoxo
Laurie

needing some distractions…

today is our “due date” — but no real signs of this baby coming our way soon, so I’ve decided I need a little distraction, and I also decided it needs to be positive and send goodness into the universe, so here’s a little grateful list for today, Thursday April 29, 2010, in no particular order:

• the fact that I am about to become a Mama any day now

• having had a healthy and easy pregnancy, the prospect of a healthy and easy birth

• a gorgeous new nursery and new studio, all ready and waiting to be used

• a green couch!

• the beautiful washer and dryer in our new basement bathroom (and the washer works on hot AND cold water!)

• birds, bears, bunnies and other creatures of spring

• leaves on the trees, even tiny ones

• our Curly Willow tree that has grown from a twig to a 15-foot tree in 4 years

• daffodil bouquets from my hubby

• offers for distraction and fun from friends

• HappyDog’s unbridled passion for squeaky toys

• sea-salt brownies (I KNOW, right?)

• pre-sliced mangoes and pineapple

• imagining my hubby as a papa — and all the joy he will bring to this little one’s life

• imagining our HappyDog and the little one as best friends; we imagine it is inevitable.

I also want to thank you for holding us in your thoughts today, on our official due date, and for hanging in there with us as we stay patient and wait for the little one to decide when she (or he!) is ready to greet the world. We will of course keep you updated, and will post something here soon after the birth. {But, you know, not too soon. We are planning to take it easy and revel in the beauty of this new life; thanks, I knew you’d understand}