Bath Time

We have known for a while that Natalie loves to have her hair washed. When she was getting sponge baths, we washed her hair under the faucet and she would arch her back and lean back into the water. She loves it so much, when she gets really upset, we sometimes use it as a trick to to calm her down and make her stop crying. Now that the last of her umbilical cord has fallen off, she can take regular baths in her baby bath-tub, and she loves that just as much. Here's a couple of pictures from her first real baths. Notice that Ally is still always right in the middle of the action.

A Trip to the Gardens

Since the the weather was so nice this weekend, we took Natalie to the Birmingham Botanical Gardens for a walk and to take some pictures. It made for a great opportunity to try out her fancy jogging stroller, since we have only really used it walking around the neighborhood. We walked around for about an hour before she decided it was time for lunch. When we tried to see a little more after that, she decide that a nap would be more interesting. A lot of the flowers are just starting to bloom, so I think we will try and make another trip in the next couple of weeks to take some more pictures.

Aunt Amy and Aunt Darlene

Aunt Amy and Aunt Darlene are here visiting this weekend and Natalie seems to be having lots of fun. Today, she went on her first big shopping trip as we walked around Soho (South Homewood, for those outside of the Birmingham area) and then made stops at the Vulcan, the Summit, and Edgars bakery.

Here are a couple of pictures and a video of Natalie playing with Aunt Amy.

It's clear that Natalie already has a favorite toy. It's a little dragonfly that has flashing lights and makes noise when you pull its tail. You can hear her squealing at it in this video with Aunt Amy. She has a couple other toys that make noise and light up, but they don't get the same response.

Here are a couple of pictures of Natalie having fun with Aunt Darlene

It's possible there will be snow in Alabama tonight and into tomorrow. Sadly, a pair of snow boots is one of the few items that didn't find their way into to Natalie's enormous wardrobe. If it does snow though, we will definitely have to get at least a couple of pictures. Maybe we'll just have to dress her in a newborn outfit, put a 3-6months over top, and then add one of her 6-9months outfits. That should keep her warm at least long enough to take a picture. We'll just pretend she was born up "North", where every little kid plays this trick with jeans and sweatpants when their snowsuit is still wet from playing in the snow earlier in the day.

Pictures of Natalie

After showing off the new blog today, I realized that we haven't posted that many pictures of just Natalie. Here's a couple of recent pictures.

Reading with Uncle Tommy

Last week, Uncle Tommy sent Natalie a giant box of books that he had picked out. When he visited this week, he spent part of his time reading to her. The video below shows a part of his rendition of a book about John Hancock, Paul Revere, George Washington, and Benjamin Franklin called "John, Paul, George, and Ben"(He's a history teacher).

Aunt Tricia

Now that the Grandparents have made their way back home, Aunt Tricia was the first of the Aunts and Uncles to come visit Natalie. She was a big help around the house and says that Natalie is "the least boring newborn she has been around."

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