Natalie & Ryan: Stairs, Park, and Mac & Cheese

I'm a little behind in my blogging, so prepare yourselves for several back-to-back posts.

I'll start with Friday's fun. I babysat, as I do every Friday. And, as is customary, Lilly tried a few new things. First was her apparent love of stairs. If I let her, she'll climb all the way up the stairs. If I distract her or call out, she'll try to turn around to look at me, and fall down, so I just don't allow stair climbing. So, instead of climbing the stairs, she's decided that they make a good seat. All day, she would stop what she was doing and walk over to the stairs to have a seat. Usually it entailed having her back against the wall, legs outstretched, feet crossed. Once in a while she'd let them dangle, and just kick her feet. It was cute.

When it was time for her nap, she did something I didn't expect. She had been sitting on me, watching TV for a bit, when I could tell that she was super tired. I gave her her blankie and she laid down and fell asleep on me. She never sleeps on people anymore...well, not never. It's actually starting to increase. I love it!

Another first was my allowing her to "run" freely in the grass. She really loved it. But somehow she always managed to find her way over to either the tree, the garden, or the street. I had to keep putting her back into the center of the grass.

After babysitting, Ryan took us out to dinner. We picked IHOP, randomly. This was the first time that we were able to order food for her. She got mac & cheese! Ryan got a big plate of meat, and I got a salad. I literally only ate one half of a hard-boiled egg and a few pieces of the chicken before I was full. The waitress actually felt bad that I didn't eat it all, like it was her fault, but I didn't know how to emphasize that it was just how much my tummy could handle.