Talking and Sleeping

I just love listening to Natalie talk.  Well, most of the time.  There are times when she talks and I still have no idea what she is saying.  She'll be so adement about a word and I'll just be clueless.  But most of the time I am the one who is listening to her most closely and can figure out what she is saying.  Like this morning I couldn't intially figure out if she was saying shoes or juice and figured out it was orange juice. 

One of the disappointing things about Natalie talking is that most often when she starts a conversation with someone, she talks about TV.  She usually says something like "watch gabba gabba TV."  Meanwhile, most people have no idea what she is saying.  But, listening to Natalie at the library today she said some cool things. 

She was trying really hard to get her toddler friend to play with her.  She showed her William sleeping in the stroller and said "Baby William sleeping."  This was most cool because she was excited to show him to her friend. 

When we went to leave, we shared the elevator with a girl with her little brother in a stroller.  She said to her: Hi, Girl, how's it going?  Down elevator.  Splash puddles rain boots."  That last pit she picked up her foot and showed off her boot. 

Natalie has lots of phrases she says all together a lot (things like "I can't do it," "I did it," "Good night sleep tight," "Okay, I try it," "Momma, get up"), but its way cooler to hear her put things together more like a conversation.  One of her newest things is repeating things she's heard on TV, particularlly YGG.  She talks about best friends.  She's called each of us her BF as well as kitty, but she also says that two of her toys are BF.  Same with family.  She's also sat in my lap or hugged me and said she loves her family.  One I know came from that same YGG family episode and not from us is "nice to meet you" and shaking hands. 

Meanwhile, things seems to be going more smoothly with William.  Its possible a bit of a sleeping and eating schedule is starting up.  He's going longer stretches without eating because he is asleep.  Last night he went from nursing starting at 630, to falling asleep around 8, to waking up at 1230!  He then went until 3, then woke up quickly because he got unswaddled.  Yesterday morning he also went a long time without eating.  I fed him around 730 because we had a check up for Natalie at 830, then we went to play group.  He was awake at the doctor's office, but slept through play group and Natalie's lunch, and still longer!  I'm thinking these gas drops we've started using are helping him out.  Also, I've realized that I'm not holding him up high enough on my shoulder to burp him, and if I have his arms draped over my shoulder, he's much more likely to burp.  I ran into one of my book club moms at the library and she seemed surprised that we are having gas problems when we are nursing, but not when I told her that my let down is so forceful.  I would have had the same reaction, too.  Another benefit of this new almost routine with William is that we are getting more happy alert time.  Even still, yesterday he was really grouchy with me for about an hour in the afternoon and I could only keep him happy holding him one particularly way.  Then this morning he was fussy, but I think he might have been sleepy and hungry, because he then ate on both sides and fell asleep quickly in the car.