Spring Photoshoot!

We were lucky enough to have a beautiful cool spring this year (though summer has now come on with a bang) and Todd was able to get some great shots of Charlotte in our front yard.

 My Baldy!

8 Months Old!

Now that Charlotte is almost 9 months I guess I should get around to writing about her 8th month.

Charlotte is 8 months old and despite the lack of both hair and any teeth she seems to be learning new things everyday or at least mastering the things she kind of did by accident before.

 

Rolling

She now can roll without the huge effort that wore her out just flipping over once before. She hasn't quite figured out that this means she could actually get around the whole house easily (which we don't mind) but has started to roll a few feet out from where we put her.

 It does mean that she now rolls over to her stomach and back in her crib quite often. Once Todd and I got used to this and stopped overreacting and going in to flip her back over to her back (stomach sleeping for little babies is a major no-no that is drilled in to our heads at every turn) we realized not only is she fine sleeping on her stomach but it seems to help because...Charlotte now sleeps!!!!!!!! Not exactly through the night but she goes to sleep without any problems and usually only wakes up to eat once in the night which I can totally handle. It has been heaven. (Sneek peak to month 9...this has gotten even better! ) After waking up basically every hour during month 7 we knew something needed to change and after reading a couple sleep training books we implemented a few suggestions and it worked miraculously easily.  A few tears but after just one night where she only cried for about 5-7 minutes she figured it out. 

Now that she sleeps so well she has plenty of energy for her absolute favorite thing to do which is stand up and walk with assistance. If we are anywhere near her she will grab each of our hands with her own and then insist that we brace her while she stands and then holding onto our hands she likes to walk the house. She is still wobbly of course but she is getting pretty good. I don't know how it's possible but we don't have any pictures of this. That is definitely a first.

 

Other than that it is just play play play all the time...so many toys so little time!

  

One last picture of my happy girl! That smile never gets old.

7 Months Old

We are now closer to the big birthday than we are to her actual day of birth which is just insane to me. It makes me excited and then feel like crying basically all  in the same second. I wonder if I will ever do a monthly post and not start with saying how fast time has been going. I kind of think not.

The cuteness factor is now in overload. Charlotte can now sit up on her own without tipping and just plays and plays and plays with her toys. Her favorite toy right now is the shape blocks and box that the Easter Bunny brought for her. The blocks are the perfect size for her little hands and one of them is always sticking them in her mouth. She likes to knock over the tower of blocks we build and she also will "bang" the blocks together with one in each hand. It is so cute. She also really likes her bouncer and is getting more into playing with the toys on it as well as bouncing.

We have had some development in the rolling department. Charlotte can roll...with the proper motivation such as the ipod. See...

But Charlotte does not want to roll. She likes to sit up and probably just thinks that rolling is for babies or something. She finds other ways to get to her toys such as stretching and even a little scooting. She tries so hard to crawl but it doesn't quite work yet but soon for sure. :-)

After our busy Easter weekend we have had a pretty low key month just hanging around in town which has been nice. I did have a wonderful lowkey first Mother's Day. We went out to dinner together the night before so we could avoid the crowds and long waits. On Mother's Day Todd and Charlotte got me cards, flowers, and tickets to go see Les Miserable in July. Can't wait!

First Mother's Day

 Bouncer

Playing with her favorite toy

First Easter

We had a great Easter weekend! I had Friday off of work so we left Thursday night and headed to the Moog's house up in Santa Clara. We left after doing Charlotte's nighttime routine and she slept for the majority of the trip. We stayed in a hotel which happened to be Charlotte's first hotel stay. It didn't seem to phase her really, she slept just as poorly there as at home. :-) We are still inexperienced travelers with a baby and basically packed everything Charlotte owns, luckily we have a big car. Hopefully as we travel more we will get better about bringing less.

We all loved hanging out with Katie, Jon, Morgan and Zach and can't wait to do it again soon!

Here are the weekend highlights...

Chilling on the hotel bed

 Zach's t-ball game which was so fun and adorable.

Seeing what the Easter Bunny left for Charlotte

Happy Hollow and Charlotte's first Amusement Park ride

 One of the sweetest pictures ever in my opinion

First Petting Zoo experience

Royal Wedding

I told Charlotte it was not necessary for her to get up and keep me company during the Royal Wedding but she just didn't want to miss it. I guess she wants to be able to tell her future in laws she saw them get married. (She is hoping they have a boy first so she is not too much older than him) ;-)

6 Months Old!!!!!!

Charlotte is now half a year old! Where has the time gone? We had her sixth month doctor's appointment and she now weighs 16 pounds 2 ounces and is 26 inches long. She had to have a bunch of shots which is always sad but luckily doesn't have to have anymore until her 12 month appointment. Hooray.

It has been a fun month with Charlotte being a bundle of energy. She is happy the majority of the time and smiles and laughs all the time. Her sleep is still hit and miss. She has good weeks and bad weeks and there doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to explain whether she wakes up only once or multiple times. I tend to always blame the bad nights on teething but the excuse is getting a little worn out as we still have yet to see any actual teeth peeking through those gums.

Charlotte's biggest accomplishment this month is that she can sit up on her own. It doesn't always last that long and she still loses her balance fairly easily but still she can sit as you can see in this video.

She also will lunge forward for a toy and land on her stomach. If she still can't reach it she tries so incredibly hard to scoot herself forward but just can't go anywhere. The way she pulls her knees up under her in her attempts to propel towards the toy makes me think that scooting/crawling are not far away. The funny thing is she doesn't roll yet. She can technically roll from her tummy to her back but rairly does and the attempt to roll from back to tummy always ends on her side. I am thinking that she might just skip this milestone altogether.

Some things Charlotte enjoyed during her 6th month

Hanging with Dad while he played Angry Birds on the IPod

A Few Trips to the Park

 She was very jealous of my blue popsicle. Someday Charlotte.

Tylers Birthday Party

Things to look forward to!

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Let's Eat

Wow April sure is a crazy month for birthdays! In the midst of all that celebrating Charlotte began solid foods! It's unbelievable that she is old enough for this but she is and she mainly enjoys her new food. She doesn't eat much yet but we have tried a few different items so far. I have been making her food from fresh fruit and veggies, cooking, pureeing and then freezing them to have them on hand when needed. It's really easy and I enjoy doing it and it should save money avoiding all the jars of food.

We began with a little rice cereal for the first feeding. She couldn't quite figure out what we wanted her to do with it and spit it all out again.

 She was excited about it and thought it was a good game we were playing. We tried the cereal for a few more days with the same results.

We figured since the cereal wasn't a huge success we would try some of the butternut squash and she loved it! Eating it all up without a problem. After a few days of that we tried some sweet potato which she also liked.

Yesterday and today I tried avocado which didn't go over as well. She ate some but not all of it. Hopefully she will learn to like it better because it is so healthy for her.