things I love about Natsuki

Tomorrow Natsuki will turn 9 months old. As I think about her little life and how much she has changed our lives, I just had to take a moment to share about the cuteness that is Natsuki. I know that "cute" is an overused word but Natsuki is the epitome of cute as you will see.

I put Natsuki to sleep in her crib 3-4 times a day. When I lay her down, she stays perfectly still, like she's been glued to the mattress, and only her eyes move. They follow me as I fuss over her blanket, start her mobile and say good-bye to her. As soon as I move away from the crib, she immediately turns onto her left side, put her left thumb in her mouth and pulls the blanket up to her face with her right hand. Then, she flips her right leg up over the bumper and starts to hum to herself, even with the thumb in her mouth, before I've reached the door. A few times I've stood at the door and watched her for a bit as she lulls herself to sleep.

When she's sitting in one of the many contraptions we have for her and I come to pick her up, she always looks immediately at whatever part of my body is in front of her, be it my knees or my stomach and then follows my body up to my face. It takes her a second to recognize that it's me and then she smiles with her whole entire face. Then, and this is the cute part, she looks embaressed for a second that she smiled so big and she bends at the waist until her nose is almost touching her knees. She pops up again and smiles and if I don't pick her up right away she keeps on the with bending, up and down, up and down. Her older sisters love it when she does this.

For a long time she didn't like being on her stomach, but in the last few weeks, she's started turning over on her own and playing with whatever is in front of her. Although she's not crawling, she does move around in a circle so I do have to keep an eye on her. Since she hasn't had much practice being on her tummy and her arm muscles aren't that strong, every few minutes she'll lay down, with her face turned to one side, and tap her hands on the floor like she's bored and just waiting for someone to come and entertain her. Her hand motion kind of looks like something Ernie from Sesame Street or Fozzie Bear from The Muppet Show would do. It's so precious. I've been trying to get a video of it but everytime she sees me coming, her head pops up right away.

Natsuki loves being tickled anywhere on her body. She laughs a half courtesy laugh, half real laugh and then waits, her eyes wide with anticipation, for the next tickle. She especially likes it when I do raspberries on her neck, which usually leads to kisses all over her face. Recently she started asking for kisses by opening her mouth with her bottom lip pushed out a little bit past her top lip. She'll put her hands on both side of my face and giggle as I kiss her. Of course, now that she's teething, she also tries to bite my lips and when she gets nothing but air, she'll throw a little tantrum.

Although soon we'll need to curb the tantrums, right now they're pretty cute. We get them the most in the morning after she first wakes up and then in the evening before she goes to bed. In the morning, all she wants to do after waking up is nurse, but if she's got a poopy diaper, I have to change it first. I'll lay her down on the sofa, and she imediately plants the soles of her feet on the couch, lifts up her bum and slams it down on the couch. She'll repeat this until I come with her diaper and then once she realises that I have not forsaken her, she calms down. After this, she'll cry if I'm not getting my boobs out fast enough but once she's latched on, she's good. In the evening, when she's tired, anything can set her off and sometimes, because we're mean parents, we'll watch her for a bit and comment on how she's getting her bum up higher which has to mean that she's developing some serious muscles somewhere.

Along with the temper tantrums, we also enjoy the other ways the Natsuki has begun to express herself. She does a serious head shaking thing. Sakura thinks she's saying no, but I think she does it because she enjoys the slight disorientation that comes after. It's pretty amazing to watch her do it. Another thing she does when she's sitting in her hair chair is wiggle from side to side. It looks like she's doing a little dance but, at this point, it could be anything. On Sundays, during the worship service, she does little bob in time with the music so it could be related to this. At least I can be assured of the fact that she knows what's going on around her.

She loves Blue's Clues: Blue's Big Musical movie. When I need to get something done, I'll sit her in her bouncy chair and put it on for her. She'll be quietly watching and all of a sudden she'll laugh a little laugh, like "Oh, Steve, you're so funny". She doesn't laugh at the same place everytime so it's hard to know what is tickling her funny bone. I know she loves the music but the colors must also be very interesting for her. Her older sisters are sick of watching this movie but when Natsuki laughs, they'll try anything to get her to laugh again. She doesn't. She's saving her laughs for Blue & Steve. She's a loyal fan.

This is pretty cute too! And how could you resist this, even with the puke.

I rest my case. We've been having so much fun with Natsuki that we don't mind the fussy moments. We know that soon she'll smile and throw a little sunshine our way.