So Thankful

I have SO many things to be thankful for this Thanksgiving. I have never been more blessed in my life. I am first and foremost thankful to my Lord and Savior for forgiving my daily transgressions and filling me with hope, joy, and peace. Everything I have comes from You and may I always praise Your Name!I have never been more in love with my amazing husband. Watching you become a Daddy has been the most amazing experience. I love sharing our little girl together. I don't know what I would do without you to share my journey through life. You make me laugh and hold me when I cry. Thank you for loving our family so much.

Oh, sweet Charlotte, there could not be prouder Mama. You are such a joy. You make your Daddy and me laugh and smile constantly. I could never had imagined how much I would love watching you grow and learn. You change on a daily basis. Slow down! Your smiles and laughter bring joy to my heart.

I am so thankful for all of our family. We have so many people who love us and care for us. Who could ask for more?

Finally, to our friends and church family, thank you for sharing in our daily lives. We love you all!

Not good

This is what happens when a little girl gets a stomach bug. She cuddles with Mommy and Daddy all day.
Charlotte is smiling even though she was definitely feeling bad. When we got her out of bed on Saturday morning we discovered that she had thrown up sometime during the night and then slept in it all night. Poor baby! I immediately gave her a bath because she was smelly. We were trying to decide if it was just a fluke, or an illness. When she started to lay around on her Daddy the answer of "illness" was confirmed. Our little girl is not a cuddler, so that was very abnormal. Later that day, we heard from her babysitter and she and her daughter both had the stomach bug as well.
Luckily, Charlotte only threw up one other time that evening. I totally reacted like a Mom. She threw up all over me. Instead of being upset about being covered in throw up, I started crying because I was so sad that she felt that bad.
On Sunday night I came down with the stomach bug. Again, my first reaction was to think, "I can't believe Charlotte felt this bad." I just felt so horrible that she had to suffer through what I was suffering through at that moment. I am feeling a lot better and Charlotte is mostly back to herself. She is just more tired and wants to eat less than normal. Our first stomach bug is out of the way and I hope it doesn't come back for a VERY long time!

On the move

This is what has been happening lately at our house!

7 months old

Charlotte is 7 months old! We went to the doctor for a check up today and got her stats:

Weight: 17 lbs. 11 oz. (50%)

Height: 26 1/2 inches (50 %)

Head: 26 1/2 inches (75%)

Charlotte is such a happy and fun baby! She love to smile and laugh. Her neck is very ticklish and she loves blowing raspberries. She has the best smile for Mommy and Daddy when she sees us. We love our little girl and are so blessed to be her parents. She brings so much joy, love, and laughter to our lives.
Here are some things about Charlotte at 7 months:

- She can crawl! She is off to the races - well sort of. She has the perfect crawling technique, but does it slowly. She gets a little faster every day

- She can almost go from crawling to a sitting position, but not quite

- She pulled herself up to standing all on her own two times last night! Aaaa!

- Char goes to bed at 7:30 and usually sleeps about 10-11 hours through the night. She usually takes 2 naps a day and sometimes we can get her to take another short early evening/later afternoon nap.

- Her favorite toys are her balls from her monkey toy, her little musical laptop, and our cat, Oreo!

- She still loves jumping in her jumparoo. She will jump for 20 minutes straight!

- In the car she loves to play with her car seat toys and talk to herself.

- Things don't stay on her feet very well. She loves to pull off her shoes and socks.

- She eats oatmeal, green beans, peas, avocado, squash, carrots and sweet potatoes. We will introduce fruit very soon! She is picky about texture so she seems to like the Gerber food better than the homemade food I have made because it is smoother.

- She is completely on formula now.

Happy Halloween 2010

We had a wonderful Halloween this year! I LOVE Halloween. As a kid, there was just nothing better than playing dress-up and getting lots of candy. So, I was excited for Charlotte's first Halloween. We had several different Halloween shirts to celebrate. I will let the pictures tell the story of our Halloween.

"I love my Mummy"

So excited to be a "Little Pumpkin"

"My First Halloween"

Charlotte loves Oreo SO much!

Charlotte was a little ladybug

Sitting outside handing out candy

She looks very concerned that I am going to take her toys away.

Mama and baby ladybugs.

A few days before Halloween, our small group had a costume party. Here is our family:

Somehow we ended up with a garden theme that we didn't plan! We always keep costumes a surprise until the party. Charlotte is a lady bug, Jake and Mal are garden gnomes, and Emmie is a bee.

A bee and her beekeeper (Emmie and Cari)

A gardener, rosebush and bud, and two garden gnomes (Justin, Alli, Jake, Mal, and little Beau)

Liz Lemon and Frank from 30 Rock (Jenn and Jacob)

A sheriff and wanted criminal (Haley and Brian in spirit)

Iron Man and Peek-a-boo (Eric, Summer, and baby boy)

Anything for the kids!

This week at school we are celebrating Red Ribbon Week. We always have one big program during the week. This year we have BMX bikers come to the school to perform and talk about being drug free. One of the stunts they did was jump over teachers. As usual, I got chosen to participate. I don't know what it is, but the performers that come to schools always choose me to help participate. Well, it turned out to be pretty cool. I was a little scared, but figured they knew what they were doing. So, I made myself promise to keep my eyes open, because this may never happen again in my life. Two bikers jumped us, one after the other. The picture below is the first biker. I am the one in red at the far end. Zoom in and see the faces of the teachers and the kids. It is pretty priceless! Later, our principal was up on the ramp, sitting up, and a biker did a back flip over her. That took a lot more courage!

NOT ready for this!

It begins . . .

I walked away from Charlotte's high chair for a moment yesterday and made one fatal mistake - I left her oatmeal bowl on the tray. It only took a second and this is what I found. I won't do that again!

Kindermusik

I got to take Charlotte to Kindermusik on Saturday morning! She has been attending Kindermusik classes with her Grammy for about 6 weeks now, but that was the first time I got to go. They normally go on Wednesday afternoon. Because of a missed class a few weeks ago, I was given the opportunity to take her to the make-up class on Saturday. For those of you who don't know, Kindermusik is a musical enrichment class/program for kids birth-6 years of age, or maybe a little older. At this age, it is all about exposing them to music, beats, interaction with others, and cognitive development. My sister-in-law, Emily, has been a Kindermusik teacher for many years now. Our niece and nephew, Anna and Ben, have always attended classes and we have really seen the benefit of it in their lives. I had a wonderful time with Charlotte. She really is such a social baby and loves this type of thing. She was so happy and smiley the whole time. One of Charlotte's wonderful character traits is she is willing to try just about anything! I hope this continues as she gets older. Thank you so much to Nancy for taking her each week. I know that it is a very special time for Charlotte to get to share with her Grammy. Also, thank you to Emily for continuing to encourage us to enroll Charlotte in classes and going the extra step to contact the right person for us. I didn't take any pictures at Kindermusik, so I will just include some recent ones!

Rub-a-dub in the tub!

Charlotte loves her bath time. She has always been happy during baths, but now that she can sit up and play, she really enjoys it. She loves playing with her toys and making big splashes. The duck tub also makes quacking noises when you press its bill, which she finds quite amusing. This small duck tub has turned out to be the perfect thing for her to bathe in. It is just the right size and has a no slip seat so she is pretty secure. We want to say thank you to our friend, Katie, for the wonderful tub!

From last week:

From tonight:

6 months old

Charlotte Ruth is 6 months old! Here are her stats:

weight: 16 lbs. 9 oz. (50-75%)

height: 25 inches (10-20%)
Can I keep her at this age forever? Charlotte is SO much fun! She is so happy and loves to smile all of the time. Here are some things about her at this age:

- she can sit on her own! Yay!

- she loves to smile and giggle all the time. The things that usually make her laugh are blowing raspberries, jumping, swinging, and herself. She thinks she is hilarious!

- she loves to sit and play with her soft clothe blocks. We think she likes these so much because she can easily grab them

- started figuring out her toys. For example, she has a toy laptop that has buttons that make noise when you push them. She tries to push them but can't quite get them pushed correctly but keeps trying. However, she figured out it makes noise when it opens and closes. She spent five minutes tonight just opening and closing it over and over again.

- LOVES jumping in her jumparoo. Whenever she is fussy we can put her in the jumparoo and she will immediately become happy again :)

- She loves to swing. We bought an infant swing for our house and she smiles the whole time she swings.

- She can scoot backwards and sideways very well.

- She has been rocking on her hands and knees for about 3 weeks now. She tries to reach for toys in front of her, but just ends up scooting backwards. I predict she will be crawling by the end of October.

- She is teething. She reaches for everything around her and then wants to put it in her mouth. She isn't cutting teeth yet, but definitely teething.

- Loves the outdoors - She loves going for walks around the neighborhood.

- eat oatmeal and just started green beans this week

- takes 8 oz. bottles of formula during the day; still nurses in the morning and evening

- just started putting herself to sleep and sleeping through the night!!! Yay!!!

Here are some recent firsts:

New ducky bathtub

Sits by herself

Tried green beans for the first time and liked them

Can sit like a big girl in the Target cart

This isn't a first, but was too cute not to post!

Like a rock star!

Charlotte took to sleep training like a rock star! We started sleep training on Friday, Oct. 1. We wanted to start it on a weekend because we didn't know how well she would do. So, on that Friday we put in her bed for bedtime without a swaddle and still awake. For nighttime, we use a sleep sack. This is a blanket that zips up, so it will stay on her, but allows her arms to be free. We also laid her on her stomach. She started crying. We let her cry for 5 minutes and then went in to pat her on the back. After 10 minutes we went in again. Then, after 15 minutes we went in again. Very soon after that, she feel asleep on her own. She woke up several times during the night that first night, but only twice did we actually have to get up and put her pacifier back in.
Every night since then she has slept 11+ hours straight through the night! Most mornings I have to wake her up to get her fed and ready for daycare. On Saturday, Mark and I got to "sleep in" all the way until 6:30! We are both just so shocked at how wonderful she has been doing. I am also now obsessed with taking sleeping pictures. Every morning when I walk into her room to get her up I have to refrain for taking another picture. She's just so cute!

Naps did not come as easily as nighttime sleep. It took her almost the full week to start to go to sleep with no crying or just a little crying. Of course, that changes from day to day. This past Saturday she didn't cry for any naps but then on Sunday she cried for 20 minutes when I put her down for each of her naps.

I know that there will be things to disrupt her sleep in the future, but for now Mark and I are loving getting a full-night's sleep!

Pumpkins, pumpkins, everywhere . . .

Today we made our way to the Dallas Arboretum. Every year they have a big display of pumpkins for the Fall season, but we have never been able to attend. It was super crowded, but it was still so incredible to see of the pumpkin creations. The only thing I would have changed was the weather - it was a little too warm for October! We got a ton of cute pictures of Charlotte, it was hard to narrow them down. Her Daddy is a great photographer and of course, he had a really good subject to capture!

The pumpkins everywhere we so interesting to look at! There were thousands of pumpkins!