Charlotte's Web

From Month 9

Month 9 flew by. Our family is starting to find its rhythm in our daily routines. Charlotte's repertoire of "party tricks" has grown exponentially and she absolutely loves showing them off to anyone she meets. She now waves hello and goodbye and even tries to "blow kisses" when I leave (but this really looks like she is just hitting herself in the face). She has the best smile which is accentuated by her great cheeks which are definitely pinching magnets!

Charlotte has always been a very social baby and as she develops more skills to interact with people you can see her personality shine through even more. She has started using signs from her baby sign class which is great. She started with signs for "more", "eat", "water", "duck" and "cheese" and has more recently perfected the signs for "poop", diaper "change", "dog", "milk", "hat", "head", "ball", and the newest "airplane" complete with sound effect. She is currently working on "turtle" which comes with the cutest "tuh-tuh" sound, "book", "tree" and "fan". She seems very, very interested in signing which may be because we have done a lot to incorporate it into her entire day. From mealtime, playtime, bath time, and even bedtime. When we read "Goodnight Moon" Rick signs the book, and he even learned the book "Brown Bear, Brown Bear" which is a favorite of Charlotte.

In the middle of April Rick and Charlotte were shopping at Draeger's Market and there was a lady who was handing out samples of cheese, from a few aisles away Charlotte heard the magic "C-word" and quickly started doing her baby sign for cheese. Rick said it was so adorable he couldn't help but let her have a piece. Cheese is her favorite snack, it quickly surpassed the cheerios when she realized by doing her sign we would keep giving her cheese.

Her babbling continues to increase and I am very pleased to announce she says "Ma-ma"!!! It was my first Mother's Day present from Charlotte and I loved it! I will clarify, however, that before coming around to blessing me with vocal recognition she first said "duh" for duck and "nana" for nana. When we are out she likes to hear her own voice, especially in quiet places that echo! In the car she will go on and on talking to her baby doll Ava or the monkey or just out loud to herself. I've tried to get her to talk to people on the phone but she is still more interested in getting the phone in her mouth than talking to it.

Speaking of mouths.... She has just broken 2 teeth in the last few weeks. They are the bottom, middle ones and even though we can tell that they are giving her some discomfort she seems to handling them pretty well. Her drool has quadrupled and her fingers are always in her mouth, but (knock on wood) there have been no nursing incidents...

As far as foods, Charlotte is still trying new foods and typically likes anything we give her - except one bad batch of apricots that I made. The face she made was very unique - until Rick tried them and made the same face - I guess I don't do apricots well... We will try them again. A few days ago she decided that she only wanted to eat food that she could put in her mouth herself. This caused a minor problem because our freezer is packed full of a variety of purees that I tirelessly worked to make for her. My temporary solution was to use the toasted bread as a base and to put the purees on top so she felt she was "doing it herself." This worked for a meal or so... Now I have to figure out how to make and freeze "finger foods."

Charlotte enjoys going to the park to play with her friends. The park near us has a dog area and she has to spend a good amount of time watching the dogs chase after balls and run around. From the moment we walk up to the fence she starts patting her leg and saying "doh-doh". Sometimes she even sees the balls being thorn and says "bah-bah". At the park she enjoys swinging (the higher the better!), crawling through the tunnels, sliding down the slide and more recently pushing around a little radio flyer walker wagon we are borrowing from her friend Emma. For her 9month birthday I got her theses adorable pink shoes and we let her "walk" outside and she LOVED it. Her first few steps behind the wagon both Rick and I had the look of "Whoa, I didn't know she could do that!"

A final major change this month is her hair! It was as if one morning she woke up and had spent the whole night growing hair. Unfortunately she seems to have inherited my "crazy" hair, which Rick tirelessy tries to calm down into some semblance of control. But, what that means is that now she can wear cutesy hair clips! One more potential choking hazard to be vigilant of :)

Charlotte, Charlotte, I can't believe you have been on the outside as long as you were on the inside (well, almost - you didn't want to come out of mama). You are a very special little girl and mommy and daddy love watching you grow, develop and explore we look forward to everyday we get to spend with you. You are our little Pumpkin and our baby Turtle.