The girl has lungs!

I showed this to my 4th graders today. That thought it was SO funny! See if you think it is as hilarious as my 10-year-olds . . .

(Click on the arrows on the bottom right of the movie to make it full screen.)

First Annual Balloon Festival

Two Fridays ago, we attended the Plano Balloon Festival. We got free tickets and decided to take advantage of them. Because of some rain, we didn't get to see the balloons launch, but we did get to see them inflated and "glowing" at night. We invited Justin and the twins to join us. Alli was out of town. We had a wonderful family night and plan on making at a yearly event.

Hanging out and eating dinner

The first balloon finally gets inflated!

The dads and their kids

Just a swinging . . .

Smooth Moves

Charlotte is becoming more and more mobile with each day that passes. No longer can I set her down in one spot and expect to find her in the same spot when I come back. She can roll and scoot backwards around the room. Here is a progression of her movements on Saturday morning.

Oreo paid a visit

All of that was in about a 5-10 minute span. In the past week she has also started to get on her hands and knees and rock back and forth. Last night, she spent a good 30 minutes rocking back and forth on the ground. I fear that she is going to be crawling WAY too soon!

Here is Charlotte in her Cowboys outfit on Sunday. We had a weekend filled with football attire!

This and that

Here is a little bit of what Charlotte has been doing the last few weeks:

Hanging out with Mimi and Papaw who came to visit us

Spending lots of time with Mama and Daddy

Doing a little bit of sleeping

Wearing some sassy outfits!

Taking walks around the neighborhood in this cooler weather.

Playing!

Playing even when we are tired!

Practicing sitting

Spending time being adored by friends

And cheering on the Longhorns!

5 months!

Our little Charlotte Ruth is 5 months old today! I can't believe how much she has grown and changed in the last month alone. It seems that even in the past two weeks she has changed so much. Here are her stats according to at-home measurements:

Weight: 16 lbs.

Height: 24 1/2 in.

Charlotte has really started to develop a personality. I am loving this age SO much. She interacts with us. She is always watching us. She even intiates smiles now. When I walk into the room she sometimes smiles as if to say, "Oh, there you are. I missed you!" It is so precious and heartwarming. She also loves our cat, Oreo. She lights up around him. When he gets close enough, she reaches out for him. Boy is he in trouble when she becomes mobile!
Here are some things I want to remember about Charlotte at 5 months:

- She loves to smile at anyone and everyone.

- She has such a wonderful temperament. She will pretty much go with the flow when we take her places.

- She loves to be social. She is always much happier in the evenings when we are with other people, like at small group, etc. She will stay content much longer is she has people to watch and interact with.

- She loves to giggle all of the time. However, she doesn't let out big laughs very often. Usually her Daddy can make her laugh or she likes it when we blow raspberries on her tummy or feet.

- She has figured out how to play with her toys a little more. On a lot of toys she has figured out how to push the buttons to make noise.

- She takes naps much better then she used to. She takes all of her naps in her crib, or her pack-n-play when she is at the babysitter's. No more swing.

- She is pretty much on a schedule now, which I knew would happen at the babysitter's! She takes naps at 8:00, 11:00, and 3:00. She sometimes falls asleep in the car on the way home, but if not, she is up until bedtime.

- We start bedtime routine at 7:45, or 7:30 if we take a bath, and she is usually asleep by 8:15. We still swaddle her. She is not a good nighttime sleeper. Every once in a while she will grace us with only waking up once in the night. However, it is usually 2-3 times. We love the days she sleeps until we get her up, but usually she wants to be up by 5:30. How did I end up with an early riser? Mark and I both love to sleep late!

- She is taking 6 oz. bottles now! I nurse her in the morning, evening, bedtime, and nighttime, but she takes bottles during the day. She eats rice cereal two times a day now.

- She sits in her Bumbo seat all the time.

- She has started being about the sit for a few seconds at a time on her own. You have to be right there though because she takes a lot of nose-dives. I know it won't be long until she is sitting all by herself!

- She LOVES her jump-a-roo! She will just jump and smile, smile, smile! Even when she is tired and upset, she still won't stop jumping.

- She is so much better in her carseat, which is a good thing since she has to go to and from the babysitter each day, which is 20 minutes one way. The only time she won't calm down is if she is really hungry.

- She can turn herself around and scoot a little. She flips from her back to her front nonstop every time you put her down. She still hasn't figured out front to back. However, when on her tummy she can turn herself around on the floor by moving her arms. Last night, I put her on her back on her blanket and went to the kitchen for a few minutes. When I came back she was on her tummy, facing the opposite direction, and about a foot off her blanket!

We are really enjoying Charlotte and love watching our baby girl grow and change. She brings us joy and laughter on a daily basis. Thank you, Lord, for our baby girl. We love her so much!

Hook 'em Horns

We are dressed and ready to cheer on our Longhorns to victory! Bring on the college football season! Charlotte's Mommy and Daddy have been talking about this time of year for a long time. During the Fall the only thing we wear on Saturdays is burnt orange. So last weekend we went to the UT coop store and stocked little Char up on UT gear! I'm super excited for her to wear all of her new outfits!

We're still here!

Hi world! I know I have been absent for a while. We have just been busy, busy with working, playing, and getting into a routine. Charlotte is almost 5 months old now. I can hardly believe it. She has been doing great at the babysitter's each day. Mark and I really enjoy spending the evenings playing with our little girl. And, of course, we very much cherish our weekends. We are headed into a 3-day weekend! Yay! Charlotte has been growing and changing. It seems like every day she does something new. She has been really into playing with her toys. She reaches for them a lot and usually figures out how to push the buttons on different toys. Her she is with her keys.

She spends a lot of the mornings before work in our room while we get ready. Here she is one morning hanging out on our bed. Click on the picture to get a better picture of her drool!

She has also become very aware of Oreo. Here they are having a staring contest. Every time she is in the room with him she smiles at him and follows him with her eyes. If he gets close enough, she reaches out for him.

She has been sleeping better. She didn't do great last night, but the previous 5 nights she only woke up once to eat and slept soundly after that until the morning. This is how I usually find her anytime she wakes up. She gets out of her swaddle, rolls over, and then is upset because she doesn't like to be on her stomach. There was one morning this week that I went to wake her up and she was on her stomach sound asleep with her arms up by her face. It was so adorable! I had to call Mark into the room to see her sweetness :)

We borrowed a jumparoo from our friends Justin and Allison. We set it up for the first time last night. We have to put a pillow under her feet because she is a little too short. But, she loved it! Yay for a new toy!

What a difference a week can make!

A week ago, Charlotte would take a bottle, but just barely. She would fuss and it would take her about an hour to get 3-4 oz. down. Then, she spent the week at the babysitter's where she had no choice but to take a bottle. So, today after church I filled a bottle up and sat down to feed her. As soon as I held the bottle to her lips, she started eating! She sat in my lap and ate, with no fussing, and finished the bottle in about 20 minutes! Wow! What a difference a week can make! I am so happy she will easily take a bottle now. It makes me much more relaxed to know that she is okay at the babysitter's. It also gives Mark and me a little more freedom because we can leave her with other people to go on dates and know that she will eat, be happy, and be okay.
Then, last night we started rice cereal for the first time. Charlotte has always been a pretty easy-going gal and this experience proved that to be true once again. She sat in her chair and let us try to feed her with a lot of patience! Not much of it actually went down. We ended up wiping most of it all of her chin! However, she was quit tolerant and we know she will become better at it with practice.

Eating makes Mommy and baby happy girls!

Charlotte eating her rice cereal for the first time.

Our first week

My absence from the blogging world is because this week was my first week back to work. I was very sad to have to go back to work. I was getting very used to staying at home with my baby girl all day! However, life must go on and we actually had a really good week!

On Monday morning, Mark took Charlotte to her babysitter for the first time. The babysitter is the wife of a coworker of mine who keeps her in their home. She will be there with the babysitter's 3 year old and another little girl who is 10 months old.

Thankfully, about a week before we had to make this transition, I found a bottle that Charlotte likes! She really likes the Playtex bottles and will now easily take them. So, my only concern was her napping, but she has been taking good naps. Actually, she has been taking great naps! She naps better for the sitter than she ever has for me.

Letting Daddy know she is tired!

I am the one who gets to pick her up at the end of the day! It is always so wonderful to see her smiling face at the end of my work day. Because she was in a new place with all new people and a whole lot of activity going on, Charlotte was exhausted at the end of every day. On Monday night she was squealing at us in exhaustion! Poor baby! The upside is she has been sleeping better :) We are SO thankful to God for leading us to the right childcare provider. She is in a place where I know she is safe and happy. I couldn't ask for more!

Here is Charlotte hanging out in her bed one morning this week before getting up.

This morning Charlotte got to hang out on Mommy and Daddy's bed for a while. We like lazy Saturday mornings! Check out that drool!

Charlotte and Oreo having a stare down. Several times today when she has been in the same room as him she has watched him and smiled at him. So cute!