Happy 7 month birthday Natalie!

Today is Natalie's 7 month birthday. We love you baby girl! She had her well baby check-up and immunizations on Friday (poor baby!). She now weighs 18 lbs, 3 oz. and is in the 75th percentile. She seems so big to me, but then I remember and it is hard for me to comprehend that Will weighed about 23 pounds at this point. Natalie is much more delicate than him (as she should be), but she is very, very strong!
I have been accused of focusing too much of my blog on Will and not enough on Natalie. I take a zillion pictures of her but don't usually have a specific story behind them so don't post them all. I guess I need to be better about sharing the little details of Natalie's life. Let's see, what is she up to these days?
1. She sits up entirely on her own. She can get there from crawling position and actually did not master this until after she mastered crawling.
2. She gets super excited and copies her mama. I have always had this over-excitement where I clench my hands to my face and shake all over when I cannot contain myself. Natalie has started imitating me. She clenches her fists and shakes and makes the funniest face. Then she just grins as if to say, "hey! I am too cute for words, right?"
3. She won't play with her baby toys. She only wants Will's miscellaneous toys such as train tracks to chew on or the door to Noah's ark. She absolutely loves his matchbox cars which makes me very nervous lest any small parts come off!
4. She crawls on all fours now. Just a few days ago she came off the military crawl into a full fledged knees and hands crawl. She is so fast and can find me in any room of the house now!

5. She attacks Will regularly. She really likes his blonde curls. She grabs his hair with both hands and then tries to eat his head. I think she is trying to wrestle him actually!

6. She often cries in the car unless we play Will's old Kindermusik CD. Then she listens intently while staring out the window. I wonder what she is thinking?

7. She sleeps 9-10 hours straight at night. She goes to bed at 7:20ish and wakes up for a feeding between 4-6 a.m. She is a much better sleeper than her brother! She also takes 2 very long naps each day. Will never did that! In this way Natalie is clearly like her mama, and Will is clearly like his father.

8. Natalie never gets to play in peace. Her brother always tries to steal the show or take her toys. Whatever she has seems much more interesting to him. I spend my entire day defending her. If she learns nothing else from this exercise, she will KNOW how much her mommy loves her and is trying to protect her. She never seems phased by Will though. I think she is just entertained by him.

9. She loves to eat her solid foods, but her stomach does not seem to tolerate too much of it. She spits up alot which is a bummer because I think she would probably like to eat more. We are still nursing and that is going really well. She eats like a champ!

10. She has been the most amazing addition to our family! I can't even imagine life without her. I realized today that parenting her does not even feel like work, because it really isn't. She is just easy, never complains and brings a ton of joy to our lives. I don't think I am worrying about things as much this time around, and it just seems to be so much easier as a result. Poor Will has to deal with an OCD mother and Natalie is enjoying a laid back one. I am working on it Will, really I am!

I am sure there are many, many more achievements I could list such as putting pieces of banana in her mouth and always trying to drown in the tub. (not really, but she does think she can crawl in the bath and tries to put her face in....scares me half to death). I will close this for now, but will keep you posted!

Have a good one...