A Little Bit Rotten...

It seems like ages since I last posted anything on the blog! I will try to play a little "catch up" here and post a few at once. Now that Natalie has really started toddling around the house, she has started showing us her "rotten" side...and whew does she have one! We have officially entered the world of "no" and she is quickly learning the meaning of the word. Even more quickly, though, she is learning to evade her parents' watchful eyes and sneak past the baby gates with lightening speed. With Gavin going in and out of the gates throughout the day, he sometimes forgets to shut them. Smart little Natalie has learned to lie-in-wait until Gavin opens a gate so that she can slip out of bounds. Here are a few of the exploratory adventures we've caught her taking...

The bathroom is a world of fun! She should win an award for quickest toilet paper un-roller.

As for the toilet bowl...YUCK.

She has found the dog bowls...(gross)

note: the dog looks a little peeved here...

mmmm....yummy.

really, we do feed her

And eating has become a whole new battle ground. Natalie desperately wants to feed herself. Some nights now we get this response if we try to help...

Her favorite method of getting food efficiently into her mouth is to get the food to stick to her hands and licking them off...

Part of this method also involves rubbing her hands on her face and in her hair in between bites.

If she's in a good mood, she'll let us put a piece of food on the fork if she can then put the fork in her mouth herself

And as for the baby spoons...their days are over. Her newest trick is to bite down as hard a possible when you put it in her mouth so that you can't get it out. She thinks this is the funniest party trick ever invented, and she laughs and smiles at my frustration...all while holding steadfastly to the spoon.