Milestones and accomplishments

Obsession with her pink shoes -- she'll sleep in them if we let her (mid January)

Playing her baby guitar and singing (early January)

Inventing a joke: She says "Hattie Rooks" no matter how many times we tell her it's "Hattie Miller" (late December)

Saying her name: Natalie Rooks (early December)

Saying three-word sentences, her earliest had "too" on the end: "Baby bowl too" or "pink shoes too" (December)

Sleeping through the night (mid December)

Singing: "Row, Row, Row Your Boat," and "Ring Around the Rosie" (early December; early January)

Jumping (early December)

Occasionally asking to pee in the potty and actually doing so (Nov. 6)

Counting -- to 12 with help; to 5 pretty well on her own (November/December)

Putting two words together: "water cold" "blue barrette" (Oct. 20)

Saying "apple juice" with amazing clarity. We don't know where she picked up "apple juice" -- we don't usually have it (Oct. 16)

New animal noises and words: turkey (gobble gobble), rat/mouse (squeek) (early October)

Saying "bless you" ("ow witz") after someone sneezes, and saying "excuse me" (when prompted) when she burps or passes gas (early October)

Select new words: milk, pumpkin, straw, run, park, elephant (well, we know what she means), sit, Cars (she asks for the Pixar movie by name) (end of September/early October)

Pretending to sleep--she asks for a blanket ("beckekt") and then curls up on it and very deliberately closes her eyes. She also puts her toys to bed. (early October)

Finding Gold Bug in Richard Scarry's "Cars and Trucks and Things that Go," which was a childhood favorite of mine (Sept. 19)

Pointing out the letter C and the number 8 (Sept. 19 and 20, respectively)

Shooing flies and other bugs (early September)

More select words: blue, red, bug, ants, yay, shoes, barrette ("bret"), bed, breakfast (that one took me a while to figure out), bath, bubbles (she's crazy about "bubbos") (late August, early September)

Expressing interest in certain letters of the alphabet (she often asks me to write them for her): O, E, M, N, S, Y (starting in August)

Natalie's first sentence (a combination of signs and spoken words): "Please more Muppets." (late August)

Newest words include: yeah, yellow ("rerow"), muppets ("buppies" or "buppets"), salsa , chips, water ("ah-gee"), cracker (late July and early August)

Obsession with balloons and airplanes (early August)

New words include: baby (and pointing to herself if we ask where the baby is in the family), balloon ("billew"), airplane ("ay-pee" or "ee-bee"), moon, "buh buh" for the noise a chicken makes (late July/early August)

Twirling (July 17)

Walking down the hall to the bedroom saying "mommy, mommy" when she wants to go to bed (July 15)

New words include: "bee," "beads," "cookie," "click" (for getting in and out of the car seat), "Amelie," "clock," "light," and "Elmo" (early July)

New animal noises: monkey, lion/tiger/bear, cat (now it's "meow" as opposed to "beow") (throughout June)

Saying "up" as she climbs stairs and bookcases (June 29)

Signing "grapes," "all done," and "book" (end of June)

Saying "no, no, no" (June 15)

Asking to be read to (often) (June)

Paying attention through the duration of a book being read to her (June)

Teeth Nos. 13 & 14 (May 11 through May 18)

Saying "mama" again! She stopped saying it for months... It was her joke to say "dada" every time I'd ask her to say "mama" (May 5)

Sticking out her tongue when asked where her tongue is (May 3)

Signing "please" and "thank you" (April 19 and 22, respectively)

Walking! (including picking herself up again, and changing direction) (April 12)Scribbling with a pencil between her thumb and first two fingers (April 4)

Pointing to her hair, her nose, and her eyes when asked where each are (April 3)

Taking four steps to mama (April 2)

Pointing to belly button when asked, "Natalie, where is your belly button?" (sometimes she points to her chest or her head) (March 22)

Teeth Nos. 9, 10, 11, and 12 (throughout early March)

First step (March 8)

Saying several words: hi, hello, cow, dog, duck, and Hat (in reference to Hattie Miller) in addition to mama and dada (intelligible words starting in late February; "Hat" said for the first time March 5)

First "step" (it was a lunge step between the futon and couch in our living room) (Feb. 29)

Free standing (after pulling up on something/standing up from a squat) (getting better since early January)

Walking with the push cart (on and off since Jan. 14)

Using the sign for "more" (usually for food) (Jan. 8)

Pointing at everything (Dec. 24)

Giving things to people (Dec. 22)

Pointing at daddy and saying, "dada" (Dec. 20)

Waving and saying "hi" (Dec. 18)

Tooth No. 8 (Dec. 7)

Saying "da da da da" (Dec. 5)

Opening the cupboard under the kitchen sink (Nov. 8)

Blowing raspberries on my bare skin (Nov. 7)

Obsession with clapping (she makes noise by clapping now)

Tooth No. 7 (Nov. 3)

Pulling up to stand and walk (Oct. 15)

Crawling (Sept. 11)