VIDEO POST: 10 Steps!

I can't believe it's true, but Charlotte took 10 steps across the living room floor today! We sort of "tricked" her into doing it, but she did it! I don't know if she realized she walked... and her little baby steps are so cute! Here is a video of the occasion. She spent the rest of the day crawling and cruising along the furniture, as usual. Now that WE know she CAN do it, we're not in such a huge hurry for her to keep walking, although it is cool to be able to say, "SHE DID IT!"



Of course Celeste (our cat) had to come prancing through to try to distract Charlotte's efforts... but Charlotte has nerves of steel! Check it out. Can you tell we are soooo proud of our little baby? And doesn't Daddy make a great cheerleader? :)

Now we'll just have to wait and see how long it is before she starts walking on her own, without a dangling carrot to chase.

The Phone Girl

Charlotte just loves to pretend she's making phone calls. She's even started using remote controls as "phones." I think she wants to get a job at Grandpa's new office! She's been practicing her dialing and she'll put the phone to her ear (backwards) and say "ooooOO!" really loudly. Here she is, using our cordless phone to try to call anyone who will pick up.

She's also been REALLY into playing peek-a-boo lately. She will look for any chance to play it. Last night when she was supposed to be going to sleep, she was about to lie down in her crib, when she turned over, looked through the bars at me and I swear she said, "BOO!" and started giggling hysterically. Sometimes it's spooky how close her babbling is to real words... she yells at the cat now, almost always a two syllable "word" that sounds almost like "kitty!" ... although it's really more like "eh-eh," we are proud parents!


She just loves to laugh and play, and it's funny to see her get so excited and start scrambling around, laughing like a little maniac.

She's been getting even better about using her signs, and it's really neat when she points things out to me. As we went into the grocery store today, she started saying, "fan." I looked, but then I told her, "I don't see any fans in here... are you talking about the lights?" (because she was looking up at the ceiling, where she usually finds fans to talk about). She immediately started using the sign for light. Then, as we were going through the parking lot to go home from the store, she started signing "bird," and I didn't even notice that there were about 20 seagulls just yards away from us. They were eating dead mayflies off the pavement (ick!), and more birds just kept arriving. We stopped, watched and talked about the birds eating for a few minutes, until there were closer to 50 or 60 birds there. It was really neat, because if she hadn't said that, I probably wouldn't even have noticed the birds at all.

It's amazing how much difference one little person can make in your life. She's in love with her baby dolls right now, which is great... she will even sometimes play with her doll in the crib for over half an hour, letting me sleep in just a little bit longer. Of course, she does expect me to kiss and coo all over her babies as much as possible... she just watches me with delight when I kiss the doll's feet or make her play pat-a-cake. As soon as Charlotte gets her baby back, she gives her big hugs and sloppy kisses... sometimes even a raspberry! What a good little mommy she is!

Use the slide show feature below to see more pictures of Charlotte on the phone and using her sign for "light." (her signs for light, milk and bye-bye are all very similar, but we're learning to differentiate the nuances and context pretty easily). When she goes to tell us she's "all done" eating, she reaches her arms up so high, I want to say, "Don't shoot!" because she looks like she's a victim of a hold-up... but she's so proud, you can't help but be pleased right along with her. I'm going to try to get more of her signs on camera soon...

First Swim!

After several very hot days (for us anyways), we decided to get a little wading pool for the yard. We put just about 3 inches of water in the pool, dressed Charlotte in her swim diaper and bathing suit, and let her splash around in the water.


She wasn't sure what to think at first, but she did enjoy splashing around and playing with her ducks. She likes to squeeze the duck and squirt water. She also likes to try to drink out of the cups (of course).

She stopped to pull on her bathing suit a few times, like she couldn't figure out why she was wearing clothes in the bathtub, or why it was outside. We did add a few more toys after these pictures were taken, along with a big sun umbrella, which she made me hold up for her, while she used it as a handrail to practice standing up and crouching down to splash.





I think she really enjoyed her time in the pool, and after she was done, she even remembered to use one of her new signs to let me know what she wanted to do next: "milk." It's exciting to see her actually trying to use the signs now. She learned the sign for "light" today, and maybe "airplane," but we'll have to work on that one some more... she's not quite at the stage where she notices the planes flying over. I'm sure she will start noticing that soon, since we have an airplane and glider that go over our house for sky tours several times a day, when the weather is good.

A Growing Vocabulary

Charlotte is having a great time exploring her world, and learning to tell us about what she's thinking about. She's still taking her baths in our big kitchen sink, and loving every minute of it. These pictures show her having fun with her toys, and hamming it up for the camera... you can't tell she's been practicing!

She loves to play with her rubber duck, and some Tupperware gadgets. She's always discovering something new.

We've been using some sign language with her for the past few months, and she definitely understands what we're saying to her. She will use a sign every once in a while, but we've been waiting for her to really start signing back. We have noticed some big changes this week.

She started signing "fan" at our neighbor's house, and hasn't stopped since. Every time she sees a ceiling fan, she uses it, and she's now figured out that there are other kinds of fans too. Since it's been so hot, we have several fans going around the house, so she always has a fan to talk to us about. She will twirl her little hand in the air, and blow with her lips.

Now that she sees how we respond to her signing, she's starting to actually use more signs. She will use the sign for milk when she wants to nurse, "all done" when she wants to get out of her feeding chair (also sometimes says "ah-dah" at the same time). She's working on the sign for "drink," when she wants her water cup, and sometimes remembers to use the sign for "more," although she does resort to verbalizing frustration quite a bit too.

We were outside this evening, checking on our flowers and tomatoes, when we heard some particularly noisy crows about a block away. I started talking to her about them, and showing her the sign for bird (index finger and thumb moving like a bird's beak). She started doing it right along with me! It was actually more of a modified version of the way she tries to snap her fingers, but she definitely knew what she was saying. We walked around the neighborhood, looking at birds on telephone wires, in yards, flying all around and singing. She kept signing "bird," and looking at them... it was so much fun. Then we saw a big dog sleeping in his yard, and she did her "oof oof" bark.

Although it has it's challenges, life with Charlotte is exciting and entertaining every day. I can't believe how fast my little baby is growing up. She is just a delight!

Can you tell we are proud parents?? :) I have found a new feature that I can include in our blog, to share more pictures... a slide show! When you run your mouse over the picture below, you should see a bar appear across the bottom, allowing you to scroll through the pictures, or push play and watch them change. It stops automatically at the end of the "roll." CLICK HERE if the slide show doesn't work, and you still want to see more pictures.

10 Months Old!

On June 11, Charlotte turned 10 months old. I can't believe how fast time is flying past us!
Her weight was 17 pounds, 12 ounces, the same as her weight almost a month ago. I think she must be getting taller, because her pants are all falling off her little hips suddenly, and that's even with cloth diapers! She eats a lot, but she's obviously burning a lot of calories too.

We spent good parts of the day out in the yard. Charlotte took her babies for a stroll in the doll buggy, and stopped frequently to point at the big tractors that kept going past our house. They are redoing the drainpipes a few blocks away, so that gave her a lot to watch.

She also enjoyed seeing motorcycles, bicycles and people walking by with their dogs. Whenever she sees a dog (or sometimes a cat, bird or squirrel), she sort of "woofs" under her breath. She doesn't open her mouth, but it does sound like she's barking. She will also try to snap her little fingers, since that's the way she sees Mom & Dad get our cat, Celeste's attention.

Of course, she had to stop and check on our flowers. Here she is, checking to see if the marigolds have good strong roots. Mom really has to get busy and get these in the ground!



CLICK HERE or on the slideshow above to see more pictures from this day. The slideshow should go automatically, but if you hover your mouse on the picture, you get a bar at the bottom to scroll through the pictures...hope it works!

The Wonders of Nature

Charlotte just loves to be out in the yard. Here she is, cheering for the flowers we found on sale at the local market. We walked up there with the wagon and got all of these. While there, she was waving and greeting all the other flower- shoppers. It was a lot of fun. Now to finish planting them all... I didn't realize how many flowers there really are in a flat!

A big rainstorm came, and we played outside while we were waiting for it to start. After it started raining (huge raindrops), we all went out on the porch to watch it fall. Charlotte liked watching and feeling the raindrops hitting her little fingers.

Charlotte has another new baby now... we rescued her from the "free" bin at a yard sale. She is floppy, instead of having the hard plastic body that her other baby has. This makes it easier to tote her around and bang her feet together, etc. Charlotte seems to love her babies equally though... what a good little mommy she is!

This new baby, we are naming Dolly, also has eyes that open and shut. Perfect for the phase that Charlotte is going through now... she loves poking and playing with eyes!

She's also a great buddy for naptime!

A Quick Catch-Up

Charlotte is doing very well, and keeping us quite busy. I can't believe she's almost 10 months old already! The time really is going by so quickly.

I have some more pictures and stories to tell, but we had a small incident with my laptop, in which the power cord caught on fire... guess I was typing too fast! :) So until the new (special order, of course) power cord comes in the mail, I'll be borrowing Christopher's computer when he can spare it.

Lots of new things are happening, and Charlotte seems to be changing every day. She has been dubbed "the smiliest baby in the world," by our friends' son, Ethan Machida, because she is (almost) always ready to socialize and meet new people. I do try to only take her out in public when she's in good spirits, so this also helps her reputation... but everyone at our local grocery store really loves to see her come in.

This week, she learned to wave and say "haaaaa!" to people, when they wave and say hello to her. It is so cute! I want to try to capture it on video before she stops doing it. It's funny--I used to think I'd always remember what she did and when she did it (how could I forget?), but now I realize how fast time flies by. Even though I want to hang onto every precious moment, I have to be prepared for tomorrow, when everything changes once again, and she's amazing and challenging me all over again!

Lilac Adventures

Charlotte took her baby for a walk through our back yard a few days ago. She had fun exploring the lilac bush.

She used all her senses to learn about the flowers, and did some practicing with getting the baby out of the buggy and off the ground. She's been working really hard on her balance and coordination while she's standing.

This means she is also trying to stand up in all kinds of situations, including in her bath. The kitchen sink is too slippery for her to stand up, so she slips and gets her legs caught funny in her bath seat.

She has managed to get herself into a couple different pickles, so we can't leave her alone anywhere, even for a minute anymore. Life with a nine-month old sure is interesting... and exhausting! :)

Her smiles and giggles make it all worthwhile though!


Here she is, practicing her crouch... stooping down to get her baby again. She's getting better at this every day!

Memorial Day Weekend

We had an exciting weekend for Memorial Day.

Aunt Jennifer arrived on Friday -- she came across Lake Michigan on the SS Badger, and we picked her up in Ludington. On the way home from picking her up at the ferry dock, Charlotte finally cut her 2 front teeth. Now she has four teeth! Here she is, taking a break from the long trip. We stopped at the overlook and climbed the big staircase to enjoy the sunset view.

On Saturday, the rest of the family arrived. Here is a picture of Charlotte and Grace playing together in the cabin next door. Grandpa and Grandma rented the vacant house next door to ours. Everyone else camped out in tents in our yard, except Richard, Kathy & Emily... they arrived towing their new camper!

Grace and Charlotte had fun playing together on the playground too. Here they are playing peek-a-boo in the yellow tunnel.

View our online photo album of this weekend, CLICK HERE!
We have LOTS of great pictures!

Charlotte goes to the farm!

Charlotte went with Mom and Dad to the Herban Farms in Frankfort on May 24, 2007. We went with our Way To Grow playgroup, and had a lot of fun. Charlotte liked seeing the animals and all the kids running around. She also enjoyed the hayride through the farm and woods. In this first picture, she is sitting on a stool that makes her look like she's wearing cowboy boots...




Charlotte loves to ride in her sling to be close to Mom, and get the best view of the world. It also makes it so much easier to hold onto a wiggling 9-month old baby! Thank you, Aunt Jen!



She found this barrel in the big red barn, and couldn't resist banging on the cushion.

CLICK HERE to view even more pictures of our farm adventure!

VIDEO POST: Baby's first steps! (with support)

We took Charlotte outside for some fresh air, and to play with her baby doll buggy today. It was VERY windy, but that's normal here. She had a blast, and to our surprise and amazement, she actually PUSHED the little doll buggy back and forth across our bumpy lawn. She even managed to negotiate the bumps in our shabby-looking grass!

She really didn't want the doll to ride in the buggy though, so she decided to take her out. This led to an interesting dilemma for Charlotte... you'll have to watch the video to see what that puzzle was, and how she decided to handle it!

Enjoy! She is not as cold as she looks in this video - she's wearing a long sleeved shirt under her sweater, and we were really only outside for about 15 minutes.

VIDEO POST: Falling Asleep at the table

Charlotte was so tired at lunchtime today, she tipped right over and fell asleep. She was gnawing on her graham cracker (dessert that soothes sore gums), and was hardly able to keep her head from hitting the tray. It was so cute (and sorta sad) to watch her struggling with herself. Instead of disturbing her, I decided to let her get a little bit of rest where she found it. She slept for about 20 minutes like this. She's never been a big nap-taker, but her recent changes in sleeping habits might encourage her to catch some more sleep during the day.

We've just started sleep- training, to help her learn to fall asleep on her own. I know, we probably should have done this months ago, but at least we are doing it now. Bedtime has been emotional for everyone this week. Hopefully, it will soon pass, and Charlotte (and Mom & Dad) will get a better night's sleep. She's already sleeping longer stretches in her crib.


We have also been struggling with our first serious nursing issue. Charlotte has a case of thrush, which has been passed to me, making nursing sessions extremely painful. It's most likely brought on by her antibiotics that she takes as a prophylaxis for the urinary reflux, and it turns out this isn't something you can just take a pill for and it gets better quickly. The infection has turned a warm, comforting experience into torture for me and confusion for Charlotte. (please make it go away!)

I caught this precious event on video: her first time falling asleep while sitting up! So cute... I dare you to try to stay awake through the whole 3 minutes... I can't do it (but maybe I am just sleep-deprived!)

Charlotte had her 9-month checkup yesterday with Dr. O'. Here are her stats:

Weight: 17 pounds, 4 ounces (25th percentile)
Height: 27-3/4" (80th percentile)
Head circumference: continues to be off the charts (105th percentile)... she is one smart baby! :)
Teeth: 2 on the bottom, working on 2 on the top
Gross motor skills: Crawls, pulls to stand, stands without hands for several seconds, then sits back down and pulls herself up again. She cruises along the furniture, and is just starting to realize that she's using her feet to "walk"... she seems unafraid of falling down. She also enjoys pulling things out of boxes, cupboards, plastic tubs... she's making a bigger mess than we are now! This morning, she dumped herself face-first into the toy box, and I had to run and rescue her... feet kicking. She went right back over to try it again, of course!
Language: Says "Da-da-da" and "Ma-ma-ma," although it seems to be da-da when she's happy, and ma-ma when she's distressed... hmmm! She also tries to say kitty, but it sounds more like "iddah," and so quiet you can hardly hear it. She attempts "all-done" at the table, too. She hasn't been signing as much this week, but I think it's because she's been concentrating on her gross motor skills so much.
Fine motor skills: Picking up every teeny tiny piece of lint or paper that she can find on the floor, shredding paper napkins with glee, and she just started trying to snap her fingers (this gets the kitty to appear out of nowhere).

The doctor said she is thriving and developing very well. Her gross motor, fine motor, language and social development is right on track; he said she is doing "awesome," and that "she's a very precocious little girl." After the doctor got done inspecting her, she started waving bye-bye to him. He thought that was pretty funny, like she was asking him to leave. She really does have quite the personality.

VIDEO POST: Laughing Baby

Here is a video of Charlotte laughing every time Grandma says, "Boom!" Charlotte is trying to say "Boom!" right back at Grandma, and then starts laughing hysterically. If everyone had a nice hearty belly-laugh like this one every day, we might have a lot less stress!

9 Months Old!

Charlotte is now 9 months old (as of May 11). I can't believe how fast this first year is flying by! I will post all her stats after her checkup on May 15, but she weighed in at 17 pounds, 1 ounce on May 10. She still has just the 2 teeth that she got at four months old (bottom front teeth), but the top teeth are bulging in her gums... this has made her very drooly and a little bit clingy and emotional.

Today we went took the stroller and went to the library, and out chasing seagulls and Canada geese. We threw some stale bread, and Charlotte enjoyed watching the gulls eat, fight and fly around. After we ran out of bread, we chased some geese across the big lawn by the bay, until they flew away too. I didn't stop to take any pictures because we were having too much fun.


These pictures are from a couple days ago, when Charlotte had her first try at Spaghettios. She didn't get that messy, considering the possibilities. She enjoyed swishing her fingers inside the bowl, and trying to catch the slippery O's in her little fingers. She even managed to get a few into her mouth. It turned out that she wasn't very hungry, but she had fun playing with her food and smearing it all over her tray.


As you can see, she got pretty excited! This lunch was immediately followed by a mid-day bath and some playtime - I let her crawl around for about 10 minutes in her birthday suit. She was really having fun then!

I don't know what could be cuter, than a naked baby playing in the living room!