10 Months

Natalie has been very busy the past few months with our anniversary, Christmas, and getting ready for her big Relief Society activity (going on right now), which leaves the duty of updating our blog to me.

Well, in our last post Alana was just figuring out how to crawl, but it wasn't long after that that she discovered standing up. Then it was scooting along the couch. Now she is a crawling machine and when she gets where she wants to go, she pulls herself up and has a look around. Unfortunately her new found gifts have led her mostly to grabbing books off the bookshelf, following Natalie around incessantly, and generally getting into everything we want her NOT to get into. What we have found is that the following around she gets from me, though I think I have a younger brother to blame for her general, 'getting-into-it-ness.'

The difficult thing is we can't even be mad at her. I mean, just look at her. Even when she is knocking over all your old Nintendo games, trying to destroy your TV, or eating your remote control (or cell phone) she is just too darn cute. She sure doesn't get it from me (as you will see later on...).


She also had her 9 month well child visit since our last post and I am proud to announce that she is an AMAZON!!! She measured in the 96th percentile in head circumference (definitely from me) and in the 94th percentile in height (definitely NOT from her Grandpa Salt or Aunt Sarah).

In November Natalie went against her better judgment and allowed me participate in Movember. During November each year, Movember is responsible for the sprouting of moustaches on thousands of men’s faces, in the US and around the world. With their Mo’s, these men raise vital funds and awareness for men’s health, specifically prostate cancer and other cancers that affect men. I was not a successful fund raiser, but I must say that my mustache was quite impressive. What do you think, should it make a comeback in February?



Perhaps needless to say, Natalie was not thrilled about it on our anniversary. Well, I figure if having a mustache for a few months across three years of marriage is the worst of it, then she must have it pretty good. Natalie and I have been happily married now for three years and I can honestly say that I love her more today than I did the day we got married.

Then came December. My work travel is picking up, but we were able to find time make a visit to Des Moines to see Nanna Jo and Grandpa Jo (you can't really want to be called that can you?) and the rest of the Smith gang (longer for Natalie than for me). Then came Christmas and Grammy and Grampy Salt made the trip to Madison with the rest of the Salt clan which made for a lot of noise if nothing else. During their stay we took family photos, saw Sherlock Holmes, played Wii Sports, watched The Muppet Christmas Carol, watched Alana enjoy the wrapping paper more than the presents, celebrated the birthday of my brother-in-law with the most amazing cake ever created, enjoyed new family stocking made by my talented wife, took pictures with Santa, played Santa, and ate our weight in Ferrero Rochet and Bluebird chocolates. A successful holiday if I have ever seen one.


Which brings us to the new year. Resolutions abound, but my goal was to get us up through Christmas and I have done it. Now, enjoy our (almost) monthly photos of Alana and our Bang! card game container while you wait for our next installment (pins and needles, I am sure).

November

December

8 Months

Where has time gone? It doesn't seem possible that it has been 8 months already, well, except for the days when it feels like it has been much longer than that... : ) Alana is learning new tricks every day. This Sunday she decided she knew how to get herself into a sitting position from a laying down one. Nathan even saw her do it before me. (What a rude kid I have!)

These are the things that this 8 month old can do:
Sit
Stand with assistance
Almost pull up on something by herself
Get into a sitting position from a laying down one
AND......


CRAWL! Yep, We now have a crawler on our hands. She's not real consistent yet, but she gets better and faster every day. Granted that she just started crawling on Tuesday...


She also eats a variety of foods:
Squash
Sweet Potato
Apple
Pear
Cherry
Banana
Spinach
Carrot
Peas
Green Beans
Corn
Plum
Peach
Nectarine
Puffs
Mum-Mums in Vegetable flavor

This baby isn't consistent at sleeping through the night yet...but I just know one day it will. Now all I can do is wait!!!


Now for cuteness overload!!!!

Our Apartment (part 1)

I know that you have all been DYING to see pictures of our apartment. Well, we've been cleaning and I've been taking pictures. So here is what we have so far. I still have a couple more rooms to take pictures of...but I'm not done cleaning them yet...

Alana's Room

Kitchen

Bathroom

Living Room

There you have it. Half of our apartment.

6 months!

Alana had her six month appointment last week. Here are the stats:
Weight: 16 lbs 10 0z
Height: 27"
Head: 45 cm

She is around the 90% for height and the 50 % for weight. Nathan is so proud of his tall baby : )

Alana is starting to get the hang of eating baby food. So far we've been successful with sweet potatoes, squash, bananas, and right now she's eating pears. It's so fun to see her try new things and the usually concerned face that she has.

Alana is also getting great at sitting by herself! She still is a little wobbly at times and after a few minutes she ends up pretty much laying down, but she's doing a great job!

Sleep has been hit or miss. For the past week she thinks it is a good idea to get up at 12, 3, 6 and stay up for the day, so it's been a little tiring. Last night she only got up at 3, but was still ready to go at 6. Hopefully this is a phase that will quickly pass.

We have been going on walks a lot recently and Alana loves to be outside. She is always so calm that I think she's asleep, but she just really enjoys being in the stroller and having new things to look at.

Now to the pictures:

Alana's first football game outfit

Her Sunday outfit (thanks Tyler and Andrea!)

Her super cute standing picture

Her outfit from her Auntie Meg

Her awesome sitting skills

Oh, and a shout out to Sara and Aaron Christensen. Congrats on their baby on the way. March is definitely the best month for babies!!!

We've got....

A Roller!!!!



She is very proficient in rolling onto her stomach. She does it pretty much every time you lay her down. She used to always get really mad about being on her stomach, but now she is mellowing out (Thank goodness!!!)

This is how I put her down for her nap.

And this is how I found her when she woke up!

Her big eyes. I love this outfit : )

The bow I made to match.
Her lion rattle my mom got her. She LOVES it! I'll have to post a video of her face when you give it to her. It is SO funny!
She is slowly getting stronger and can sit for a few seconds!
A pretty common face:

Loving her Jumperoo

Move sitting

None baby related, but there was a huge Lands End outlet clerence event that Nathan and I and the Buffingtons went to. We got lots of clothes for great deals! One of which is the shirt below. You may notice that Nathan does not have the initials of CEL. Fortunately for my AMAZING seam ripping abilities...
You can't even tell they were ever there!!!

ALSO, It was my birthday on Sunday. Hooray! It was great! We went to Iowa for the weekend and my mom made all sorts of my favorite foods for dinner. And we had delicious peach shortcake and butterfinger ice cream! Oh yum! This is my loot: (the foot is in there because Abby gave me a foot massage. ha ha)And here is my newest addition to my sewing corner of our room. I haven't actually hung it up yet... but soon! Also, as soon as I get our place clean... I'll post some pictures of our place! (let's see if that ever happens :D)

Happy 24th Birthday!

It was Nathan's birthday on the 23rd. It wasn't too exciting, but I did make a cute birthday cake : )


Nathan is pretty awesome. I like him a lot. I'm not too much for mushiness... but I have the greatest husband ever! He is really is wonderful. He is patient, mellow, and loving. He is great with the baby, even if she really does love me best! ; ) I'm so glad he's mine! Happy Birthday Nathan!!!

Alana lately

Well, she's 4 MONTHS now!!! And such a cutie! : ) We had her 4 month appointment today. She is now 14lbs and 3 oz. That means she is almost twice her birth weight. She didn't enjoy her shots very much, but she got over it. And tonight we tried rice cereal for the first time! You'll see how it went below : )




We had a good fourth of July. I made Alana an outfit and her hair bow so we took family pictures!
Here is her crabby picture:
Some shoes I made:
Alana in a cute outfit from my grandma:
Here she is ALMOST rolling over. She's getting closer everyday!