Desperate Times...

See these cute teeth? Well, there are more where they came from and its hard work getting them here!
Sometimes the "approved methods"...you know, like teething rings and wet washcloths...just don't cut it (pun intended).

So then I have to find my own creative ways of getting the job done.

This is my latest and greatest find.

What can I say??? Desperate times call for desperate measures.

8 Months

Charlotte turned 8 months old yesterday, and she continues to grow so fast! She's mastered crawling and pulling up, and even does a bit of cruising here and there. She can pull up on anything - an empty laundry basket, your pant leg, or even the wall - and she's soooo proud of herself when she does.

Her mobility has us in official "redirection mode," constantly keeping an eye out for what big people things (or 3 year old things) that she's found that she shouldn't have. Elizabeth's in on the patrol too, as yesterday she exclaimed "Danger! Danger! Danger! Charlotte's in the bathroom without any company!"

I got permission from the GI doc to start her on fruits, so she now has bananas too. She's still a good eater, although when she's done, she's done, and there's usually very little warning. She'll eat and eat and eat, and then refuse any more. I suppose she's tolerating all her foods alright, but still has outbreaks that look like she's had cows milk (which I'm doing my darnedest to avoid), so I wonder if she's having a sensitivity to another food as well. Its really hard to pinpoint anything.

She has two teeth (the two front bottom ones) and constantly gnaws away at anything she can get in her mouth.

She thinks her big sister is SOOO funny. It warms my heart to see the two of them together. Elizabeth gets downright obnoxious trying to make her laugh. My husband and I find it to be annoying at times, but find it hard to calm Elizabeth when we see how amused Charlotte is by it.

So, all in all, we're still chuggin' along with lots of laughter and smiles, a little stress and a few tears, but lots and lots of joy.

All In A Day's Work

True story. I promise. Not embellished at all by a proud mama. I promise.

In 24 hours this weekend, Charlotte:

(1) ...finally cut her first tooth. Her bottom middle left one. Now she's found it, and she spends much of her day looking like a lizard, feeling her newest form of entertainment.

(2) ...learned to crawl. She woke up from nap yesterday, and just started doing it. She never went through a stage of army crawling or scooting or anything. She just woke up and started crawling. She's much more peaceful now. It was clear that the inability to get around was causing her much frustration.

(3) This is the one that I'm gonna sound crazy about, but its true. We've started doing her baby signs with her, not really expecting her to do any of them for another month or so. We mostly focus on it at meal times. She has gotten into a habit of letting out this bossy-sounding frustrated squeal when the food isn't coming fast enough, and I've been saying, "no, how do you ask kindly?" And then I say "more, please" while showing her the sign, and then doing it with her hands. Well, Friday night, we were going through this whole scenario, and I said "how do you ask kindly?", and she totally looked me square in the eye and said "Mo." And then she did it after every bite. And she's done it every meal since. Even when we don't switch fast enough during nursing.

This is after her father came home from work and was kissing the girls hello, and she said "hi da da." Its possible that was coincidence. Possible.

But the rest is 100% true.

I promise.

7 Months

Elizabeth has been in Illinois with her Amma and Pa for the past week visiting my grandfather and cousins. The rest of the family has used this time for a mini "stay-cation", so I've been away from the computer. Nevertheless, Charlotte did turn 7 months this weekend, so here's the post, even if a little late.

- She now sits wonderfully without any support indefinitely.
- She can even get herself from her tummy to sitting and back to her tummy.
- She's starting to get mobile, as she persistently utilizes any combination of sit up/move to tummy/roll over a few times/sit up again/reach/move to tummy/reeeaaaccchh to get whatever she wants within a several foot radius. She'll throw in a bear crawl or an army crawl every now and then too.
- No teeth yet, but I swear any day. Her middle bottom gums are swollen, and every week or so she has a run of several days where she's just plain cranky about it.
- She plays really well by herself. Rusty and I were just commenting this morning that we think we probably take that for granted. Elizabeth certainly wasn't that way (I think it probably goes with the territory of being the first child). But Charlotte will sit and play with her toys all by herself for 20 or 30 minutes, depending upon the time of day.
- She's loving her solid foods. I mean loving. She now eats peas, carrots, green beans, sweet potatoes, and squash. I've kind of stalled out on introducing a new food each week because my freezer is full of these foods that she needs to eat up first. I need to call the GI to see if she's allowed to start fruit before we have our next appointment at 8 1/2 months, or if we need to stick with the veggies.
- She's learned how to do this high-pitched squeal/yell that she thinks is so funny but every adult in her life finds highly disturbing. I know it will pass as soon as she finds something new, but for now its her "thing" and we're just trying to live with it without reinforcing it too much. (Plus, I have to admit that as long as it doesn't stick around too long, I actually find it to be kind of cute.)
- She seems to have fallen into a consistent night time sleep/wake pattern, falling asleep by 6:45 or 7:00 and waking at 5:30 or 5:45. I'm not too excited about the 5:45, but it actually works out well for our family's morning routine, and it could be worse. Just her body's natural rhythms, I suppose.
- She's still as sweet as ever! Lots of talking and babbling, with "da da da" being her favorite syllable for now.

Scary Monster!

Oh no! What's the scary, scary green monster hiding under Elizabeth's bed???


Peek-a-boo! It's Charlotte!!!

And here's the monster and her partner in crime just happily lovin' on each other before their school day....

6 Months!

Didn't I just write the 5 month post, like, last week? Time sure does fly (and now I know I'm really old because only old people talk like that). Charlotte's chuggin' along, doing really well.

In the last month,

- she's successfully weaned the Miracle Blanket, a feat that was much less traumatic than I anticipated.

- she's gotten really really proficient at rolling over purposefully. We can place her on a blanket and, within seconds, she's rolled to the other side of the room. Her most common nickname currently is "roley poley".

- we've confirmed that she's still allergic to cow's milk, due to some hidden milk proteins in her rice cereal that was clearly marked "dairy free". The good news is that it was the milk proteins (which we already knew she was allergic to), and not another allergy.

- we've begun veggies in addition to her rice cereal. So far she's just had carrots, but we're looking forward to some squash this weekend. I made both of the kids' baby food, and I love it! Its such a simple hobby, but a fun way for me to rest my mind for a while and do something good for my kiddos.

- Charlotte charms everyone with her smiles. When she's happy, she's really happy, and she'll share her heart-melting grin with anyone who will eat it up.

- she's learned to talk...well, babble...but its clear she has something to say. She just woke up one morning emphatically saying profound things such as "boo, boo, BAH, bo.." The best part is that she loves to carry on nonsense conversations with us.

- she hasn't quite mastered the art of sitting on her own. (Its a really hard thing to do when your torso makes up a good 4/5 of your whole body, leaving only tiny legs to support it all!) She's working on it though. I suspect it won't be long.

- she hasn't gotten any teeth yet, but the whole teething process is sure giving her a run for her money. Soon enough, sweet girl.

- I'm guessing that her current weight is around 15 lbs., but we'll get an official number at her 6 month doctor's visit on Friday.

I LOVE that grin!

Elizabeth wanted in on the picture taking fun too. Sweet sisters.

Sleeping Beauties

Unbelievable.

Last night, Charlotte was up 4 or 5 times. About the 3rd time, we realized that she had rolled over onto her tummy - in her Miracle Blanket! Now, we're big lovers of the MB at our house, and we expected to swaddle her much longer, but I when read that tummy swaddling increases the chance of SIDS by 1200%, it was clear that we had to be done with the much-loved Miracle Blanket.

I've been fretting about this, although, surprisingly, not too terribly much, because I had a plan in place. I was braced and prepared for the two or three nights of crying (Charlotte too) because she couldn't soothe herself without the swaddle. I knew it was going to be a long few nights, and I was prepared...but if I'm honest, I was dreading the stress of it all.

Her teachers put her down without it today at school, and she did about as expected. The first nap was frantically awful. She just couldn't figure out what to do with her flailing arms. The next two naps, she finally rolled herself over onto her tummy, and then was asleep within ten minutes. The second of those - the "long" nap of the day, she was awake again within 45 minutes, but after 20 minutes of light fussing (not even crying), she was back asleep for another hour. And tonight? Well, here's a picture of her no more than 5 minutes after I put her down on her back.




Unbelievable. I hope this means good things are ahead.

Cereal Time!

So Charlotte had her first cereal this weekend. I personally wasn't sure she was ready for it (she still can't sit up on her own and the breast milk is seeming to suffice her just fine), but she's 5 1/2 months old, and her GI warned us about starting too late. Seeing as how we've already had allergy issues with her, we didn't want to wait too long. So, this weekend was her big debut! Now begins a whole new world for her, and for us!!

First bite. She didn't take right to it, but she didn't reject it either. It was more like she didn't really know what to do with it. I think I made it too runny, so we'll try to do better next time on that front. (I forgot how it keeps getting runnier the longer it sits...how quickly we forget things from the last baby!)

All and all, a success. I think more ended up on her bib than in her tummy, but hey, it was a first try!

Happy 4th of July Weekend! (A Little Late)

Our July 4th weekend was packed! The girls had the annual "4th of July Parade and Picnic" at their school, I had a final that day in my summer class, we had relatives in from out of town for Elizabeth's 3rd birthday party, regular Sunday service at my church...and, on top of all of that, the matriarch of my church died on Wednesday, so I had a funeral to conduct Friday and Saturday (2 hours away from our home, might I add). But with the help of lots of wonderful family, we pulled it all off and a great time was had by all! Happy 4th, y'all!

Oh, And By The Way...

...Here is a picture of Elizabeth at 4 weeks of age, wearing the same outfit Charlotte is wearing today!

5 Months Old

Oh, sweet Charlotte. I can't believe its been 5 months already! To me, that's kind of the cut-off between having a newborn and having a baby...4 months still sounds young, but 5 months? That's almost half a year! We're having Elizabeth's birthday party this weekend, and I remember at her party last year, I was only 8 weeks pregnant with you. We hadn't even told many people yet. And now you're here and we love you and you're such an amazing part of this family!

You've made some big strides in the last month. We weaned your pacifier two weeks ago, and moved you into your crib in your and Elizabeth's room. You're handling it pretty well! Night are great - Elizabeth doesn't even wake if you cry most times, and you're getting better and better about sleeping all the way through the night. Nap times are a little different story with Sissy in there, but such is life, right? We'll work it out.

You roll over front to back pretty consistently, but you've yet to roll back to tummy. You're so strong in everything you do though. You have been able to bear weight on your legs for months now, and in fact, its often times your preferred position. You can stand for minutes just holding on to a person's finger with one hand and chewing on the other hand...you definitely have your Pa's and your Mommy's strong legs!

You're drooling so very very much...in fact, your teachers at school tell me at least twice a week that they've never seen a baby drool so much! I think that's contributing to your lingering night-time restlessness a bit, but I'm not in too much of a hurry for those teeth to poke through...I just love your sweet, huge, gummy grin!

When you're mad you're MAD, but when you're happy you're SOOO happy. You seem to live life intensely...you remind me of myself in that way.

Elizabeth, Daddy, and I are so lucky to have you in our lives. You round out our family well. We're loving every minute of life with you, and can't wait to see how you will grow and develop your own unique spot in our lives and in this world. We love you!!

Sweet Sounds of Laughter

Charlotte laughed for the first time today. I mean really belly laughed. I had her in a standing position and was bouncing her gently on the floor, and she apparently found that to be laughter-worthy. I must say...it was music to my ears.

She Rolled Over!

So, this is the impetus for this blog.

On Saturday, May 30, my youngest daughter, Charlotte, rolled over for the first time. Well, that's not totally true. She actually rolled over when she was 5 weeks old, but it was just a fluke (even though my mommy self naturally believes that she's just that advanced). So Saturday was the first real time. She was 4 months, 1 day old. Just like the books say it should happen.

My other daughter, Elizabeth, didn't roll over consistently until she was almost 7 months old! I don't know if its because she was a large baby (10 lbs, 6 oz!), or just because she didn't really have any place she needed to go. But no worries, she was walking at 10 months.

I love that my two girls give me physical reminders of their differences. It would be so easy to only see them through their commonalities otherwise. I pray that, as they grow, I will continue to recognize and celebrate the qualites that make each of them unique, and that they will be able to do the same.