The beach: friend or foe?

Here in Southern Ca the beach is a pretty big deal. Everyone is just waiting for the weather to cooperate to flock the beaches. So it’s amazing that last Sunday was Natalia’s first day at the beach. This was the first time that the weather was beach worthy and Natalia was 100% healthy. It really wasn’t planned, we went for brunch to Candela’s in Coronado Bay, which has gorgeous views of the San Diego skyline and bay…and spur of the moment we just thought we’d go for it. We didn't know what to expect.At first we let her feel the sand and then walk on it, she didn’t seem to like it much at first but warmed up to it pretty well. After a while of playing in the sand we decided to walk to the shore.

Uh oh! That was a real shocker for Natalia! She tried to take it all in and just as she was getting her head around the idea of the sea a tiny ripple of wave came up and wet her tiny feet. It was cold. Pandemonium broke loose and she wanted out NOW!

We left in a hurry… but we’ll be back soon to try again.

A few of her favorite things

Natlaia's likes and dislikes are constantly changing... she has no trouble letting us know what she's into. Right now she L O V E S:

Chewing anything she gets her hands on

Pulling curtains

This combo: one hand on temple and one in mouth

Exploring her surroundings

Standing independantly (or trying to)

Blowing rasberries
Her #1 Favorite ???

HER DADDY!!!!

Family Outing

We had a great weekend. We took Natalia to Balboa Park “the nation’s largest urban cultural park”, this park is amazing and it brings back fun childhood memories for me.



We took along Naty´s walker so she could walk around freely in a large area. She took to that instantly and walked all around a huge fountain, stopping here and there to observe the other people around who were equally curious at the peanut in the walker.



I asked someone to take this picture, Í'm rarely in any photo since I'm always the one taking them...
Here's another one. You can´t really see but there are some beautiful water lilies in the pond
It was a gorgeous sunny day so we got her these cool shades... which she didn't like very much. Oh well, another 6 bucks down the drain. We had to hold her arms to take this.When Natalia was all pooped out we went to Trophy’s for dinner, and there she got her second wind and had a blast with the crayons and toys… actually she was a little loud- I’m glad Trophy’s isn’t particularly known to be a quiet dinner scene.

We are making it a point to have more outings with Natalia, she loves to observe people and explore her surroundings, home is getting pretty boring for her now... and going out is sooo much fun! Hurray for summer!

This + that

I can’t believe more than a month has flown by with no posting! Well, Natalia’s been keeping me busy. She has a ton of energy! I remember thinking a few months back that maybe she would always behave like a cuddly baby. But slowly but surely, like everything she does, she has developed this cool little personality. She now D E M A N D S attention.

She has also found out the great power of reaching her arms. She never used to reach her arms as a sign of something she wanted, and now she reaches her arms and knows she can get someone to carry her or to move towards something she wants. I think it's great until I try to get her to play by herself and she throws a tantrum because she's not getting her way.

Defying her therapists’ advice, I got her a walker. She absolutely loves the freedom it gives her. When I assembled it I purposely didn’t attach the toy that went in front with the thought that she actually used it as a walker and not a toy. That way she has a clear view of where she can go. It took her a day to find out the difference between it and her excersaucer but now she moves all around the house and enjoys reaching and touching everything. Natalia also had her aunt Laura and cousin Coco come and meet her from Cozumel, Mexico. We loved having them and they fell in love with our peanut.

As far as signing, I finished my ALS for Infants and Toddlers course and loved every minute of it. It was great to be amongst adults and have extra activities; I didn’t realize how I missed that since I stopped working.
I’ve started to use the signs for “eat” and “more” consistently with Natalia since I started the class. She will look at the signs curiously and keep on doing whatever she doing. No indication that she’s connecting the sign to the concept yet… but I’ll keep you posted.

Here's a link in case you want to take a peek at an ASL video dictionary. It was a lifesaver for my class.

I find myself signing randomly pretty often to her; colors, food, animals, whatever. This class opened a wonderful new way of communication for all of our family and we hope it can help our peanut communicate and understand her surroundings. For now I'm just trying to keep it interesting for Naty and hope some day she'll sign back.

My First Review

As I’ve stated before: Natalia is a ceiling fan inspector. If she’s in a position where she can throw herself back she’ll do it, no matter where we are and if there is hard or soft surfaces to catch her. My girl has no fear. A little has rubbed off on me from her Physical Therapist so we know that extending backwards makes those muscles over developed and that only makes her want to extend backwards more, which is a no- no for PT. So we usually try to correct her posture and make her to extend forward and "find her center".

Well, when I went to the store with Natalia I usually kept her in her baby car seat where she is in an almost lying position. But now Miss Natalia thinks she is too grown up to be in a baby chair (same as her friend Ben ;) ) so one of 2 things happen when we go to a store: either I leave her in the baby seat and put up with Natalia making a fit because she wants to be more upright or I seat her in the child seat of the super market carts and have to hold her with one hand to prevent a ceiling seeking accident.
Until I found this contraption:



This thing makes my ventures to Target and Wal-Mart pleasant again. It keeps Natalia in her seat upright. If she gets wobbly and tilts to one side it lends her gentle support so she can find her center again. It also holds her down on her seat so if she wants to inspect ceiling fans she has to fight the contraption.

Few things I buy are so useful… this was heaven-sent.

Here is a back view, Velcro is the true hero. You can Velcro it as tight or loose as needed. It has also come pretty handy in restaurant high chairs. It’s not so useful if your priority is keeping germs off since it doesn’t cover the whole cart, but it does give great support. And it only cost me 16dlls!

It’s from a brand called NoJo and it’s called Secure-Me Seat. Here is a link.

PS, I had N E V E R reviewed anything before, but I just loved this. ;)
And Natalia seemed to enjoy feeling in control too.

Uneventful Events

Aren’t you thankful for days that just sort of zip by completely uneventful? It may seem weird to appreciate this, but once you’ve had unexpected and stressful “eventfulness” in your life I guess it’s normal to be thrilled when you your days are completely Ho Hum.

That’s what all these days have been like for me. I finally feel the dust has settled since I stopped working. There have been a few moments that I miss my office but mostly I'm really thankful I have the opportunity to stay at home with Natalia. We have kept busy though. Here’s a rundown of events:

FINALLY she had tubes placed in. This event majored in uneventfulness Thank God!!

She had her 18 month well check and everything went great,she weighed 16.8lbs and 27". Thank goodness she’s a healthy lil peanut.

We are still going to OT and PT. Both are going great.

The bad news is since Natalia discovered standing and walking she resists tummy time with all her might.

She has developed an A T T I T U D E !!!

In other events: I’ve already attended 2 classes of ASL for infants & Toddler. It is AWSOME !! The catch? It’s not as easy as I thought it would be… I got a B+ on my first quiz… :(

Now BEWARE an overdose of uneventfulness can result in:

Dancing Queen

Here's a little of what Natalia's been up to, she has been so active lately, she practically demands we go outside and play...I love it!