Since the weather has gotten warmer, Natalia has taken a tremendous interest in the park. She particularly enjoys climbing, and occasionally the slide. With each passing week she has grown more confident on her feet, even becoming a bit of a daredevil.

Easter trip to Madison

So, this is from quite a while ago now, but better late than never! For Easter weekend, we traveled to Madison, Wisconsin together. We stayed in a hotel that had a window view of the pool-which, as you can imagine, led to hysteria on every sighting by Natalia. There was an Easter March on Saturday at Genna's downtown that ended in a semi-meltdown. Then, an Easter Sunday breakfast with Mami, Papi, and Nana.

We even managed to wrestle a bow into her hair!

A few of my favorite things to do.....

Climb the stairs, run into rooms where I can get into all kinds of interesting things, and pretend I am the Hulk.

Sledding

Natalia loves to be outside, even when it is cold. We used to be reluctant to take her out because she was so little, but we have discovered she really loves it and does not mind the cold very much.
These are pictures from her first time in her sled.

Baby in a box

Natalia was absolutely delighted when she was able to climb in the box. Once inside, she quickly realized why she hadn't seen anyone else climbing in there.

Natalia and her books

Natalia is extremely fond of her growing collection of books. At first this seemed to be just to have them, but now she is taking more and more time looking at them and asking for certain books to be read to her. She recognizes certain parts of books, too. Her favorites are animal books.

Natalia's birthday at Nana Julie's house

Natalia celebrated her birthday at her Nana Julie's house with Jimmy, Noah, and Mami. A good time was had by all, including a traditional birthday wrestling match with Jimmy.

December 8, 2008-Natalia with friends and family

December 8, 2008-Natalia turns one!

It was a snowy Monday night on Natalia's birthday. We went out for pizza and had cupcakes together. The party was simple but grand, especially for Natalia. She had a great time joking with everybody at the party. She also bounced up and down and clapped her hands during her birthday song, quite pleased. It is hard to believe a year has gone by-slowly in some ways but in others it has really flown by!

Visit from Grandpa, Grandma Jane, and Alexis '08

Grandpa, Grandma Jane and Alexis visited us a few days after Christmas. We had a lot of fun seeing the town and just hanging out. Natalia is really getting around on her feet, drunken sailor style. She also introduced Alexis to the game of "take the puzzle apart", which was quite entertaining to both.

The end of Thanksgiving-and the trip home....

Here is one more picture of the family from Thanksgiving-we did not get enough with baby shots.

On the way home, we were waylaid to a different airport. After all the hullabaloo, we ended up getting home a full 24 hours after we had started out. This included a hotel stay and many, many hours sitting around and waiting. Natalia was great-we felt truly lucky that she was managed to be the most even-tempered of everyone through the plane rides, bus rides, interruptions in sleep schedules, and things that can possibly disrupt a baby's sense of inner harmony.

Thanksgiving in Phoenix

We all had a great Thanksgiving together in Phoenix-Natalia, Holt, Miriam, Ciera, Donovon, Tia Gloria, Melinda, Sylvia, Mykala, Anaya, Jaelyn, Marco, Daniel, Amado, and Militza, and, of course, many dogs. Natalia had a great time crawling around and exploring and getting her hands on everything she possibly could. It was a great workout. She even tested the ground a little bit on taking some steps, but still seems to prefer the 4-limbed motoring at this time.