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.

Hats, hats, hats

In the words of my teaching partner, hats can make something that is kind of boring into something very amusing. On the same night we did a hat activity with the students at school, Natalia also experienced the joy of hats.

Halloween-Natalia dressed as a Chinese acrobat

The original plan to dress Natalia as a gnome did not come to fruition due to a variety of factors. Probably the most important was that we were just too busy to get her costume together. However, we did find a great Chinese acrobat costume-the only thing missing is the hat. It is quite charming and only trips her up a little bit.

A lovely fall walk in the park.....

Natalia loves to go for walks, especially if it can be in the Baby Bjorn. She will also reluctantly accept the stroller. She is often completely entranced during a walk, observing everything around her, wide-eyed. She loves to watch the geese and the ducks that we can see at the park. She also will happily wave a leaf around, enjoying the color. These pictures are from a lovely day in October where our little family enjoyed a walk around the lagoon.

A fall trip to visit Ana, Maryza, and Josh

We made the trip out to Cedarburg just before Halloween to visit our family out there. We were treated to a delicious lunch and a fun time with Ana, Josh, and Maryza. Natalia enjoyed playing and joking with them. We also went for a walk and saw the beautiful fall color. Natalia was completely fascinated with a maple leaf that we gave her.