I am happy to report that Natasha has overcome her stranger anxiety. At least it has gotten a lot better. A few months ago she would burst into tears and hysterics whenever a stranger talked to her or made silly faces at her, but lately all she does is smile back at them. Like today when we made three trips downstairs to do her load of laundry, a bunch of people acknowledged her in both the elevator and laundry room and she just smiled and squeaked at them, which is a good improvement, I think. There are two odd exceptions to this and they are my father and my father-in-law - her two grandfathers. I am not sure why, but whenever she sees either of them and they try to talk to her or pick her up she makes a sour face and starts crying. She quickly calms down, so it's not a huge deal, but I am not sure why it's the two of them that she reacts differently to.

The other typical behaviour she hasn't developed yet is separation anxiety. Natasha has no problem being left alone with my parents, or she has no problem staying with Matthew if I need to go somewhere. Separation anxiety is usually separation from the mother or the primary caregiver, which in our case is me, of course. It usually begins around 10-12 months of age so she can still develop it but I am crossing my fingers she won't. She's always been a more independent, not so clingy baby, so hopefully she'll skip it as I hear it can be very tiring and draining!