Month 6

A Day in the Life of Charlotte:

7am: Rise and shine! The familiar strains of the child's cries drag me out of bed.

Oftentimes, said child, is still a little worn out from "sleeping." See below.

What cuteness to wake up to though, right?

7am-9am: Charlotte eats, gets a diaper change, and chooses out an outfit. She often requests matching accessories. Who knew babies were so particular?

Sometimes diaper leakage requires a change in outfit(s). Tummy time is also on the morning's agenda.

Side-note: ruffled bum? Yes please!

9 am-11am?: First nap. Length may or may not be napworthy, depending on Charlotte's mood. In case you are worried there is no consistency in her life, fear not! Although we cannot plan on time or length of naps, we can always count on Charlotte waking up with a fuzzy little rat's nest on the back of her head.

And on an abundant measure of cuteness. That is definitely a given.

Mini-series: "20 expressions in 5 minutes"

Noon: Dad comes home. Charlotte gets some good time in the bouncy. More eating. Smiles all around.

Her new "cheesy" grin. We've gotten several comments that this smile makes her look like a little Asian baby. Thanks for passing on the good genes Aunt Kay! :)

1pm: Head out on a walk for nap #2. How novel it is not to have to be completely bundled up to go outside!

Mid-afternoon: Get home. Help with dinner. Spend more time playing with toys or jumping (if you based it on the pictures I've taken, Charlotte spent 90% of her time in the bouncy...I must have felt the need this month to document her jumping skills).

She's actually chewing on that pacifier. For some reason, she decided the green pacifiers were OUT! Now she will only take one kind, all the others have become toys...okay, that works too!

4-5ish: Short evening nap.

7pm: Bath, food, book, lullabies.

After her bath, Charlotte enjoys seeing "towel baby" in the mirror.

8pm: Bedtime!!!

Things of Note:

Charlotte's two bottom teeth both have popped through and up (they're sharp!) giving Charlotte a cute little toothy grin.

The early days of two-teethdom.

Charlotte enjoyed Skyping for the first time this month! Once with Grandpa and Nana, the other with Aunt Chantelle and cousin Ava (Charlotte was fascinated/entranced with Chantelle. She even interacted with her when Chantelle started singing to her--it was really cute to see the big smiles on Charlotte's part).

Her favorite songs are BINGO and Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. It is so interesting to see actual preferences begin to emerge. Whenever I start singing BINGO, she will get a big happy grin on her face.

Sleep has continued to be an issue. The first half of this month we were making SO much progress. Bed time routine was in place, she was going down hardly without a single peep of crying. We used the bouncy chair (not the jumpy one! haha) and she slept in that a lot. Then we started transitioning over to the crib--again, that went well. We even started weaning her from her swaddle, leaving one arm out. And then, the last week or so of this "month"--HUGE regression. Much screaming and waking up every 15 minutes. So, we're back re-evaluating and trying to understand our little girl (teething? ear infection? maybe she just doesn't like sleeping!).

Charlotte is so interested in everything and anything. She will try and grab whatever she can (and she is pretty good at lunging forward to grab it when she is sitting on your lap!). Particularly, she tries grabbing plates off the table, utensils, cups, food off your plate (she succeeded twice so far, once with a big handful of spagetti noodles and the other with a handful of dad's potato casserole). But she is just so interested in all the little things--things that we wouldn't even notice: buttons on my jacket, magazines, wipe containers, etc. (and she wants to bring all of it to her mouth).

She is very tactile. Her little fingers are often "scratching" at things. The ridges on the couch upholstery. The scratchy, industrial carpet in our apartment, different clothing that I wear (like the Hard Rock Cafe embroidery on my sweatshirt), her diaper, and more.

The big "developmental milestone" of this period was learning to sit up! First she sat in the "tripod" position, and by the end of this month she was able to sit without help from us and also without holding herself up with her hands. I love it that she can sit up--it makes playing with toys more fun for her, she can sit on our laps, or next to us on the couch--I think it is a lot of fun. It is neat that I can leave her sitting up without worrying that she will fall over (she still sometimes does, but as long as she doesn't fall backwards she can catch herself--so I usually put a pillow behind her to keep her head from hitting the ground too hard).

Month 7 in Review

Mini Series Pt. II: "12 expressions in 6 minutes"

Just woken up from a nap. Verdict: sweaty but happy.

Thanks for the flower robe Aunt Katie!

This month, Charlotte discovered her TONGUE! It is crazy--she can twist it practically upside down (I have no idea how, but Mitch can do it too, so we know where she gets it from) and is constantly playing with it. It often looks like she found something and stuck it in her mouth and is chewing on it....nope! just her tongue!

She started blowing bubbles and buzzing her lips. Sometimes at night when she wakes up I will hear her making noises with her mouth.

Getting ready for stake dances. Here she is practicing the "sprinkler."

Guess who scratched herself?

Bath hair!

Easter Family

Home from a nap/walk with Dad.

Grass and sun! What are these things?

We're still having bad luck in the sleep department...3 hours is a GOOD stretch. BUT, the good news is, naps seem to be making more sense to her. Baby steps, right? She is very pleasant during the day, so that is nice, even if I do have to wake up so many times throughout the night. I've taken to keeping a sleeping bag and pillow in her room, so that when it hits usually around midnight to 3am and I can't take the up and down anymore, I just pull it out and camp out on her floor.

Her favorite toy is a cool whip container which we put some pacifiers that she doesn't like and she has fun dumping them out and picking them up, chewing on them, etc.

We started putting Charlotte in the high chair at dinner time. I think she enjoys sitting up at the table with us (and we enjoy her not being in reach of our food). We eat, she plays with toys....errr, she drops toys on the floor.

Charlotte LOVES tags. If there is a tag, she WILL find it and contort herself in any possible way to reach it (example: her changing mat that has a big tag, she will twist and turn to pull it up and try and get it into her mouth). Other things that have tags on them she loves: her bibs, her stuffed animals and other toys, and anything else that has a tag!

And the best news of all, HOLY CUTENESS BATMAN!

Holidays

Valentine's Day

I baked up some cookies for Mitch (even though I ended up consuming a large portion of them myself).

Charlotte's card for Mitch

"His" and "Hers"
It's the thought that counts, right? (Sorry, sweetie! :)

Pi Day

When it comes to sweets, we are a perfect pair--
German chocolate cake, almond joys, pumpkin pie....

St. Patrick's Day

Charlotte made sure to wear green so Daddy wouldn't pinch her when he got home from work.
AND the leprechauns played some mischief and turned our potato soup, rolls, cupcakes and water green! Those silly little buddies!

Easter

The Easter bunny surprised Charlotte with a basket full of goodies. (Since Charlotte is too little to enjoy them, Mitch and I "manned up" and ate them so Mr. Bunny's feelings wouldn't be hurt).

I had fun making these edible place settings for Easter dinner at my parent's. White chocolate, vanilla pudding, and a piece of a peach!

Charlotte wearing/eating her Easter dress.


May Day

"Daaaad, your face is scratchy!"
Crazy hair after a long day at church.


That's more like it!


Mother's Day

We had my mother, grandmother, sisters, and dad over for Mother's Day desserts. YUM!

And I thought it meant Spring

Well, apparently the old adage is true...and it doesn't apply to the weather. Because, boy oh boy, did Month 5 come in like a LION!

It started on February 15th with the night of all nights. Thanks to my dear friend Google, I blearily read up on the "19 week sleep regression" in between hourly wakings. Eeesh, at least I could take comfort that I wasn't alone.

I quickly realized that something would have to change. So I asked Mitch to stop by the library on the way home from work, and home he came that day armed with books claiming to be the solution to all my woes.

And so I read and read and then hit it hard! I was going to be triumphant in my quest to teach Charlotte how to successfully self-soothe and enter the joyous realm of sleepdom. So I sleep-logged, set the bedtime routine in stone (complete with sleep words, lullaby lyrics printed out, and a "lovey"), and set out on a mission.

Unfortunately, I forgot one important element: it takes two to tango. (My, aren't I just full of cliche phrases today?) So, I toned it down a notch or two, got some good advice from sisters, and used the books as reference guides rather than Bibles. And then, it became (and still is), all about trial-and-error.

This, as you can probably guess, was a good day.

Then on February 25th came 4-month shots. Charlotte had no problem with her 2-month shots, so I didn't expect anything to be different this time. Not so! Poor little girl, by that night, she was feverish and sad. I could tell something was out of the ordinary because she was letting out pitiful sounding cries--more like higher-pitched, intermittent moans--rather than her normal "I'm tired" cries. Luckily, after a little bit of medicine, her temperature came down and she was able to get some rest.

Maybe they were worth it though.
I mean, how cute do those band-aids look on such chubby legs?

And if it wasn't one thing, it was the another. Cue the teething!

Poor Charlotte (and poor us!). We just couldn't catch a break. It all came to a head with three days of fever, combined with congestion and drool by the gallon. She was so miserable she would only sleep in my arms--so we spent a few nights on the couch and lots of time in my arms or the sling during the day.

Sad teething little girl.

A temporary cure.

Charlotte would often make little moaning sounds while nursing and tug at her ears a lot--the pain from teething can often radiate out towards the ears and worsen while sucking.

And the drool. Did I mention the drool? She soaked multiple bibs a day and we had such a time trying to keep her dry. I didn't do a very good job, because she got a rash all under her chin and at the top of her chest due to the constant wetness.

The faucet starting to turn on.

But in the end, it was all worth it. Check out that beaut'! And right on her 5-month birthday at that!

I promise, it really is there--just look closely.

Other notables:

Charlotte started sticking out her tongue and will copy us if we do it. Her stranger anxiety continued to worsen, making for some disappointed admirers. She has much more coordination in picking up things and can now scoot around on her back in a circle to get toys. She gets frustrated sometimes when chewing on things if she can't quite get them into her mouth the way she wants. She also started making a high-pitched scream that is more of a "I'm tired!" or "Come pay attention to me!" as opposed to her "needs-based" cries.


We made a trip to the museum. Mit..I mean, uh, Charlotte, loved the kids section.

Dads on baby-duty.

It's a painting. I know! Believe it or not!

Charlotte can roll over front to back, but not back to front yet (and it is still more of accident than on purpose). She has been enjoying the Bumbo and her Jumper (which Mitch dubbed the "spring-loaded chair"). We have been taking walks for naps, since Charlotte seems to sleep better in the stroller. She loves her nightly bath and kicks around like crazy.


Charlotte is getting to be so big! I can't believe how much she has already grown, it is amazing. AND she is getting so cute (not that she wasn't already). It's a good thing she doesn't understand a lot, otherwise all the compliments she gets at church would have given her a big head by now (Mom doesn't mind hearing them though :)

And if month 5 came in like a lion, it definitely went out like a lamb. Charlotte is sleeping better (still not perfectly, but a routine and more attention to her amounts of sleep on my part helped a lot), with no signs of fever, and her first tooth proudly gleaming.

What a relief. We have our happy baby back!