14 Months Old

Natalie weighs 23.5 lbs. and is still 31" tall. And she finally got her first molar! There are 2 others just starting to cut through, too. We think this is why her nose has been so runny recently. We went through A LOT of Boogy Wipes! But since that tooth finished breaking all the way through, her nose stopped running.

She wears pigtails almost every day now that her hair is long enough. Her hair is also starting to get into her eyes, so I'm debating whether or not to give her bangs...

We are taking her into our pool about twice a week to teach her to swim. Mostly we just have fun playing with her in the water, but she can jump-in/fall-in on cue, hang on the side, climb out of the pool, glide through the water, and we pass her back and forth. We're currently working on kicking and blowing bubbles. It totally brings me back 13 years ago when I used to teach swimming lessons. I would tell my students that the pool was full of multi-colored fish and their challenge was to spot them all (as motivation to get them to open their eyes under water). When they were done, they told me about all the fantastic things they "saw," like whales, dolphins, and dinosaurs - ha! Cute.

Natalie is also climbing up onto everything! She's so tall, she even holds the handrail while going up/down the stairs! Brian also taught her a cute little sit-n-scoot that she does to go safely down the stairs. She has also learned to get off of couches and chairs feet first after turning onto her tummy. Since we can't stop her from climbing onto everything, we are teaching her to at least stay seated when she's on the couch, etc. She's getting better!

Unfortunately, the tantrums are starting. If she doesn't get her way, she kicks and flails with the tears. She's also become very attached to her pacifier, but we've found that if we ASK her to give it to us, she almost always does it and has no problem. We're still trying to restrict it to nap and bedtime use, but while she was teething we just felt so bad for her and let her have it more often. Oops? Oh, well, as long as we can get rid of it before her permanent teeth start coming in, right?  ;)