Crawling along

Summer is officially winding down and the days just keep crawling along.  How is it September already?

Our little family has been pretty busy.  A few weekends ago I headed north with Natalie for a busy weekend.  I had a bachelorette party in northeast Iowa so I decided to give Daddy the weekend off and took Natalie up to Grandma and Grandpa's.  We headed up Friday night and Saturday morning we walked with Grandma in a local parade to promote ISU Extension.  Natalie loved it.  I left her with Grandma for her first overnight sans parents and headed to my girls' night.  It was so great to be with those lovely ladies from college--can't wait to see them again at the wedding.

 Sunday I headed back to my parents' on very little sleep to catch up with Jane and Robin.  They had been in Iowa for the whole month of August, but the weekend that worked the best for us together was the weekend that our little family came down with that terrible flu.  They were passing through to visit some friends so they stopped by my parents' house for a visit and a pit stop.  It was so good to see them!  My sister and Kendall stopped by just before Jane and Robin were about to leave, so we got a picture of the three girls (and another one with the mommies too).  What cute little friends!

 I decided that Natalie should be left at Grandma's more often.  Not only did she have fun and apparently behave herself appropriately, but Grandma had given her a bath too!  Full-service station!  She had a good time going for wagon rides too.

 Our little girl is now 8 months old.  The top teeth coming in turned out to be 4 teeth at once and she's been a bit fussy, but she's doing her best.  Last weekend Natalie also figured out crawling.  She never scooted or creeped; she was going to crawl the traditional way or not at all.  Even though she's only been crawling for a week, she has really improved her speed and agility.  She's all over the place!  And now that she has mastered belly-to-sitting, pulling up, and apparently rolling over in her sleep, we had to move her mattress down in her crib to prevent escapes.  Rick and I have never bolted out of bed as fast as we did on Sunday morning when we saw her pulling up in her crib with the mattress in the highest position...

 This past weekend Rick's parents came to visit, and we had a very nice time.  Natalie was pretty well-behaved and loved showing off her new tricks.  She especially loved it when we decided to brave Olive Garden with a newly-mobile baby.  It was hard to enjoy my meal while keeping her from destroying the table and impossible to carry on a conversation.  Rick's folks babysat for us while we headed to the first football game of the season and I hear Natalie behaved herself.

Papaw and Nanny always bring nice gifts for their favorite (and only) granddaughter.  A few weeks ago they asked if Natalie had a Halloween costume because they had found one for her.  I will save that surprise for later (it is adorable), but we did have a costume in reserves in case we didn't find something else.  It was a hot dog costume thrown in free from the neighbor's garage sale last summer.  Since I knew this new costume was on order I thought we'd try on the baby hot dog suit, and I can't tell you the last time that Rick and I laughed so hard.  Natalie seemed to love it too.  Even Darby was excited and didn't know what to do.  It got funnier when we propped her up and she was a sitting/trying to crawl hot dog.  It was hilarious.  Well worth wrangling her into the costume, but the new costume will be better for all-day wear.  Now what will a baby do with all that candy?