Natalie is just so funny, as illustrated by this video.  This is her current favorite book: "The Rhyme Bible Story Book for Toddlers," also known to Natalie as "Go, go, go!"  Her favorite story in it is the one we read about Jonah, hence her title of the book.  The rhyme doesn't end where we ended it, but I thought it was so funny that she was being "bad" (she wanted the video camera) right when Jonah was bad in the story.

Oh - and her scrape on her lip and nose is due to her face's first encounter with a sidewalk.  Ouch.

Our biggest "accomplishment" recently has been weaning Natalie off of her pacifier.  We did it cold turkey, and she hasn't had it in a week.  But she does ask for it sometimes, and the hardest thing is that she's sleeping less without it.  She's still figuring out how to soothe herself...so instead of falling asleep at 7:30, it's more like 8pm; instead of waking up at 8am, it's more like 6:30am; and instead of a nice 2 hour nap, it's more typically an hour.  This has been tough.  We've been searching for a comfort object for her, knowing that she likes her blanket and a few dolls...but do you know what has been doing the trick?  Having books in bed with her.  She always wants "Go go go."  However, it's awfully hard to cuddle up to a hard back book. :)

Natalie has been getting lots of teeth all of a sudden.  For awhile, she only had 6...then a few months ago she got a bottom molar in.  Suddenly in the last 2 weeks she has gotten 4 more teeth, with another molar on the way.  I'm wondering if part of her difficulty sleeping is tooth pain.

One of the blessings and challenges of Natalie being so verbal is that she is able to ask for what she wants.  This is really helpful much of the time, as we rarely have to guess what she wants.  However, it makes her a bit demanding!  She knows what she wants, and if she can't have it, she will let us know that she is not happy about it.  She has begun to throw little tantrums by throwing herself on the floor if she is asked to "wait."  I tend to either ignore the behavior or tell her that I can't understand her and if she keeps acting like that, she will definitely not get what she is asking for.  So far, this has been effective.  I have been thinking that Natalie got Taylor's intellect and my stubbornness, which makes for  a very determined little girl!  She is so stinking cute, though, and she knows it - so when we catch her about to do something she's not supposed to, she gives us her scrunchy face grin and runs over and hugs us.  Yep, she is a very smart girl!