Natalie: Ten Months

Vital Stats


Natalie is over 20 pounds and is getting very tall! She hasn’t been weight or measured since her 9-month checkup. She still is in 9-12 month clothing. Her pj’s are only 12-month now; those 9-month are too short!

Milestones This Month

Natalie walks! She started walking two weeks ago and hasn’t stopped. She doesn’t crawl. Ever. She loves to practice walking, although she falls down quite a bit. She’s such a trooper; just hops back up and keeps on going. Since she has started wearing shoes, she likes to walk outside in the lawn. There is so much room to move around!

Natalie likes to stomp her feet. She thinks it’s very funny when Mommy or Daddy come up to her and stomp their feet, saying “Stomp, stomp, stomp!” She tries to stomp her feet as well but walking in place very quickly. Sometimes she falls over, but always with a smile on her face.

Sleeping

Natalie is a sleeping champ. She takes good naps and sleeps great at night. Her morning naps can be shorter on occasion, and sometimes she takes a longer afternoon nap. Before too many more months go by she will be heading towards one nap a day. Mommy can’t decide whether she’s happy or sad about that…


Eating

Who needs baby food?! Natalie rarely eats baby purees anymore; she mostly eats finger foods. She loves all her snack foods, especially Goldfish and fruit. Some of her favorite meals are chicken fettucine alfredo and Perkins chicken crunch breadbowl salad. She loves her carbs! Natalie has tried ice cream twice. Both times she has cried with Mommy/Daddy refused to give her anymore. We have a little sweet tooth!

Natalie can drink out of any glass with a straw, which is great when she goes out to eat.

Communication

Natalie clearly understands the word “no” and has occasionally obeyed, which makes Mommy very happy. She has finally started babbling, and says “mamamama,” “dadadadada,” and “bababababa.” Mommy keeps trying to get her to say “mama” but so far it’s a no-go.

Play Time

Now that Natalie walks her favorite thing to do is get into everything. She prefers kitchen cabinets over her toys and Mommy’s magazines over her own books. She likes to pull the toilet paper off the roll. She loves to rip up paper products and put them in her mouth.

Outside is still a favorite; she always has the biggest smile on her face when she’s out and about. She loves to walk around in the yard at Grandpa and Grandma’s. Daddy said she was kicking a soccer ball around yesterday.

Natalie still enjoys games like "patty cake" and "the bumblebee." She understands when Mommy starts that the bumblebee will tickle her in the end, and starts smiling even before it gets her.

Starting and Maintaining an Emergency Fund

If you know me in real life, you know I'm very involved in tracking the money we spend, moving funds around, and maintaining seven different bank accounts.

No joke. Seven. Plus a CD.

Having so many accounts helps me separate and track money used for different purposes. One of our savings accounts is our "emergency fund."

I think an emergency fund is one of the most brilliant idea ever concocted. Funds go in and DO NOT GET TOUCHED, except in the case of an emergency, obviously.

Now, "emergency" can mean different things to different people. For some, it may mean "replacing the water heater" or "medical bills" or "my husband lost his job and I need to buy groceries."

For me, emergency means "I have NOTHING left." That is when I will dip into our emergency fund.

Popular recommendations are to have enough money in an emergency fund to cover 3-6 months of typical living expenses. That's a lot.

Not everyone has $10,000 sitting around they can just stick into a savings account and never touch. I don't. So here's what I do: I set up automatic deposits on a monthly basis, where my bank transfers $100 on the first Monday of each month from our checking account to our emergency fund savings account. That's it. That extra $100 a month adds up over time. I started this about the time we got married and right now we have enough in our emergency fund to cover two months of living expenses, easily. Three months if we were tight with it, which we would be, since it would be all the money we had left to our name.

Setting up and maintaining an emergency fund takes time and patience. Making monthly deposits is, for me, easier than throwing a big chunk of change in there and knowing I can't touch in. Somehow, I just don't miss $100 a month. The trick is to not dip into the account when you want to buy something fun. Since we started our emergency fund, we have never made a withdrawal, and our balance is slowly, but surely, climbing.

My goal is to have enough money in our emergency fund to cover six months of living expenses, easily. At that point I will stop depositing money and the funds will sit there, until such a time they need to be used. Hopefully never. Then when we die our children can inherit them.

So, if you don't have an emergency fund, there's no time like the present to begin!

Natalie: Nine Months

Vital Stats
Natalie is 19.5 pounds and 28.75 inches long. She still is in 9-12 month clothing, although she has worn 18-month on occasion!


Milestones This Month
Natalie is the queen of cruising. She will walk around furniture like nobody’s business. In the last week she has started trying to walk. Her record so far is seven steps. She thinks it’s funny to collide into people when she falls down while trying to walk. And of course she loves the applause she gets! So far Mommy hasn't been able to get a video, because Natalie seems to think it's funny to sit and stare at the camera instead of walking to Mommy.


Sleeping
Natalie sleeps later at home, where it’s darker, than she does when we’re visiting family. We had a couple earlier mornings last weekend while she had a little cold, but we are back to normal now. She still sleeps about the same; naps are maybe slightly shorter. Teddy is still Natalie’s favorite lovey. Mommy tried to sub another animal the other night while teddy was drying after being washed, but she would have none of it!



Eating
Natalie still loves, loves, loves finger foods. She gets very excited when she sees Cheerios. She has a Cheerio snack time book (to play with Cheerios while eating) and sometimes tries to grab the pictures of the Cheerios on the book. She tried yogurt the other day and it was a big hit. She also likes her “cheesy poofs” (essentially baby puffy Cheetos). Natalie has started begging Mommy and Daddy when they are eating.

Natalie has mastered drinking out of a straw sippy cup, but is still working on regular sippy cups. She doesn’t understand that she has to tip the cup back.


Communication
Natalie is better at understanding Mommy and Daddy. Phrases she can comprehend are “Come to Mommy/Daddy,” “Mommy/Daddy is going to get you,” “Where’s Teddy?” “No,” “Do you want some milk?” and “It’s bath time.” Mommy can’t tell if she understands “outside” yet, but she sure loves to go out there!


Play Time
Natalie still likes to read her books. She loves to just sit and turn the pages. She pays attention pretty well when Mommy or Daddy is reading to her.

Natalie’s new favorite game is a chasing game. She LOVES when Mommy or Daddy chase her around and tickle her. Sometimes she will chase Mommy or Daddy. She also loves to walk with her walking toys.

Another favorite of Natalie’s is to pull all of her clothes out of the drawer. She enjoys it when Mommy leaves her drawers open. She also likes to pull the folded laundry off the couch before it’s put away. Destroying Mommy’s neat piles is fun!

busy

I can tell it's summer. Life is crazy. Crazy busy.

My calendar looks like three different colored pens threw up on it. Every single day has something written on it. My mind goes berserk trying to remember every minute detail.

It's nice to be busy. I can't stand to be bored. I couldn't even tell you the last time I was bored. Definitely not since Natalie has been born. Between her, work, Darren's crazy schedule, and my various commitments, we are one busy, busy family.

I think it would be awesome to have a week off, just to myself. I'm pretty sure I could occupy myself 100% of the time with all the things I want to get done.

Why I Love...

...Amazon Prime.

1. I'm impatient. Two-day shipping? Yes, please.
2. I'm cheap. FREE two-day shipping? Where do I sign up?
3. I love movies. Instant access to hundreds of movies, available to stream at no cost to me? Wow, this is a great deal.
4. I love books. One free book to borrow from the amazon electronic library a month = me saving the cost of gas and waste of time it takes to drive to the public library.

Because, yeah, I think about things like that.

Amazon Prime is $79 per year, with your first month free. So far, since signing up, I have placed four orders on Amazon (yes, in like two weeks). I have saved myself almost $30 in shipping. BUT WAIT, you say, I never pay shipping anyway, because I always order the $25 limit which qualifies me for free shipping.

Well, my friend, that was me, too. That was me. But how many items did I spend money on just to reach that magical $25 limit? Too many, dear, too many.

Amazon Prime. Give it a try. It's free for 30 days.

did you know?

You can view sheet music on an iPad?

A couple weeks ago in church I noticed something. Something so crazy I almost didn't believe it at first.

SHEET MUSIC. ON AN iPAD.

Unheard of. At least by me.

What happened to turning the pages yourself? And trying to make the book stay open to the appropriate page? And the memorization required and the beginning and end of every page, as you needed all your concentration to turn the page without missing notes? And the not-always-imperceptible slowing of the music as you reached that precarious moment, where your left hand suspended in mid air, while your right carried on the tune?

Am I the only one who suffered terribly with this? Now, with the merest touch of the screen, your iPad will turn the page for you.

Musicians have it so easy these days.

Blueberry Crumb Muffins

I couldn't even tell you for sure where this recipe came from. I don't remember.

What I do know is that these muffins are very, very delicious.

You definitely need to have fresh blueberries. These were fresh once, last summer. I love to buy blueberries in the summer when they taste better. And are cheaper. I have two full containers of frozen blueberries in my freezer, just waiting to be used in muffins, pancakes, or a pie.

You will also need flour, sugar, salt, baking powder, oil, milk, an egg, butter, and cinnamon.

Start by combining the following:

1 1/2 cups flour

3/4 cup sugar

1/2 tsp salt

2 tsp baking powder



In a one-cup measuring cup, place 1/3 cup oil. (This will make sense in a moment.)

Crack an egg in the oil. Fill the remainder of the cup with milk.

Mix the egg/milk/oil mixture into the flour mixture, mixing just until blended. Gently fold in the blueberries. Unless you like purple muffins. Then just beat the stink out of them.

Grease or line a muffin tin with paper cups.

Can I just take a moment to give a shout-out to the person who invented paper muffin cups? GENIUS.

Fill them about 2/3 full. This recipe will make 12 muffins.

And now, the moment you've been waiting for...drumroll...the CRUMB TOPPING.

It's what makes the muffin, people.

In a small bowl, mix:

1/2 cup sugar

1/3 cup flour

1/4 cup softened butter

1 1/2 tsp cinnamon

Note: I have found that halving this amount provides more than enough topping. But if you're wild and crazy and you love your crumb topping, go ahead and make the whole thing.

If you're like me, you love cinnamon so much you never measure it, and instead just generously sprinkle it into whatever recipe you're making. You also make your daughter a play on apple crisp by mixing cinnamon into her baby apples and oatmeal.

She's not a huge fan. Yet. So you finish it off yourself.

That may or may not have happened in this household.

Use a pastry blender to cut the butter into everything else, until it's nice and crumbly.

Or, if you're too lazy to open the drawer and dig out the pastry blender, a fork works just as well.

 Sprinkle the cinnamon deliciousness onto the muffins.

Bake for 15-20 minutes at 400 degrees. Cool a while, then remove from pan.

Definition of "a while:" as long as you can stand smelling the blueberry-cinnamon wonder without tasting it. OR, five minutes.

Enjoy!