These Are A Few Of Her Favorite Things

It is so much fun for me to watch Charlotte play during the day. She has more toys than she knows what to do with, and I've noticed that she goes in cycles of which toy she plays with more. But there are a few good old standbys, each having their own time that she prefers them.

They're not bright copper kettles or warm woolen mittens, but these are a few of her favorite things...

Comfort Cross: Uncle Aaron and Aunt Brittany gave this to her for Christmas and she has been hugging and chewing on it since. It is what she cuddles with at night when we put her down to bed, and what she plays with when she's in her crib for "time out". She loves chewing on the tag and the flap that lifts up to reveal Scripture.

Easter Bunny: Uncle Chad and Aunt Amber gave her her first Easter bunny. It is the only other toy in the crib (we try to keep other toys out of there since when she's in her crib she's either in time out or supposed to be sleeping), but he's another one for night time cuddling. The material is very soft and she especially loves chewing on the ears and the tail.

Holding on tight to her Cross and bunny while sleeping


Mr. Bumble: This was another gift, though I'm not sure from who (I'm sure it's written down on one of the gift lists I have around here somewhere...). Her room is done in a bumblebee theme (the BeeAttitudes) so he matches the decor, but he actually spends most of his time being dragged around the house where ever Charlotte goes. He has a ring that is perfect for her little hand to hold on to, so he usually goes with us to the store and on walks.

Newfound Mobility

Charlotte has been squirming and scooting around for a while now, but it seems like overnight she gained a newfound ability for mobility. She's crawling everywhere and getting into everything! Some of her favorite things to try to get into are electrical outlets (we have the plastic covers on them!) and the computer cords under the desk. She also loves trying to climb onto the coffee table. Sunday afternoon I walked in the living room to find her on the bottom part of the table, reaching for the clothes hamper. The clothes weren't dumped out then, but later that evening they were strewn all over the living room. I guess it's her way of helping me to get my chores done more quickly :)

Tonight she came to a shower at the church with me and I found out we have a little kleptomaniac on our hands. All the ladies had put their purses under their seats and she kept trying to get into (or chew on) them all. Silly girl.

Sweet Baby Girl

Snuggling to stay warm after her bath

Standing up like such a big girl- Thanks Aunt Amber for the adorable outfit!

Raspberries, Kisses, and Giggles... Oh My!

Boo-Boo's

Charlotte got a boo-boo this morning :( She loves pulling herself up and trying to climb on the coffee table. This past weekend we put foam bumpers on the corners but knew that the edges could still do some damage. As she was trying to climb on the lower level she lost her balance and the table gave her a goose egg on her eyebrow... well, it's more like a robin's egg. But she still wailed and it still scared me. I checked the dilation in her eyes and it was fine, and she doesn't seem to be bothered at all by it. I think she'll have a bruise by the time her Daddy gets home, but the little knicks and dings she's gotten up to this point never last long. And she hasn't seemed to be bothered by any of them.

BFF's

Once a month Jared and I work in the nursery at church and yesterday was our day with the babies. Hannah was the first baby in with us and she and Charlotte got so excited when they saw each other. Both girls crawled over to one of the exersaucers and started playing together. How sweet!

Rollins Reunion

On Saturday we drove up to Guyton, GA (just west of Savannah) for a Rollins Reunion. Other than the immediate family, we weren't sure who all was going to be there and predicted (rightly so) that we would only know a handful of other people. We met a few relatives we didn't know before and it was great to catch up with some who we hadn't seen in a while. It was also the first time that Grandma got to meet her great-granddaughter! Jared and I are both bad about remembering to take pictures so we didn't get many, but here are a few from the day.

Jared, Aunt Judy, and Uncle Ralph (they are Jared's double second cousins... I think...)

Charlotte's brief nap in her sling

Jared catching his breath while playing soccer (the guys played for such a long time!)

Chad showing off his skills

Bye Bye Bye!

We've had a few inquiries, so I would like to report that two days ago, Jared saw the lizard running through the dining room. This time, Jared was not thwarted by Mr. Lizard's Olympic-like speed. Jared put him in the backyard, where he is most likely running from the ducks and chasing after mosquitoes. But most importantly, he's out of our house!!

And thank you for the suggestions on catching the next one that will sneak his way in!

Hysterical Giggles

Last night I was showing Jared the little dance that Charlotte was doing when I went in to get her from her nap, and Charlotte went into hysterical giggling. It was absolutely hilarious hearing her laugh so hard. Jared said the only thing funnier would be to secretly film me doing her little dance. He better not! I had the camera up on the entertainment center, which I was using to balance myself, so my fingers get in the way every now and then, but you can still see and hear how excited she was.


Oh, and we have a new pet... A very unwelcome one. A few days ago I saw a lizard running around on the wall in our living room, the next day he was in the dining room, and the past two days I've seen him in Charlotte's room. Unfortunately, only one sighting has been when Jared (the official lizard catcher of the family) was home, and the sneaky little guy managed to get away and hide somehow. If it was a spider I would chase it and kill it, but I don't want to clean up lizard guts, and I'm most certainly not going to touch him with bare hands. So for now he's getting a nice air-conditioned vacation.

Charlotte's Sweet Skills

Yesterday I was coordinating a wedding (yes, on a Sunday- very unusual!), so Charlotte got to spend the afternoon and evening playing with Daddy. When I was leaving she was supposed to be going down for her nap. But we could hear her fussing in her crib trying to fight off the sleep. Jared said that she kept fussing for a while so he went in to check on her and he said she was standing up in the corner of her crib trying to look out the window, just sobbing with big 'ol tears. He laid her back down and said that she was asleep within a few minutes. She's mastered the skill of pulling herself and standing, but I don't think she knows how to sit herself down again. She was crying out the window for someone to help her... poor thing :(

Some other cute things she's doing these days:
Sticking her tongue out... all the time!
Blowing raspberries (with tongue sticking out of course)
Giving bashful smiles

And she's loving going for walks now that we have her upright in the stroller rather than in the infant seat. When we used to go for walks, we often ended up holding her because she would get fussy, but since we've had her sitting upright, we haven't had to take her out of it at all. No, that's not true. A few times, Jared has picked her up because she was falling asleep and we didn't want her napping that close to bedtime! Car rides are much better too. I don't know if she just didn't like lying in that much of a reclined position, if it wasn't comfortable for her, or if she just likes seeing what's going on, but she seems much happier on car rides now that she is in her "big girl" car seat rather than the infant carrier. What a blessing!

4th of July Weekend

What a great weekend! It's not even over but we've already had a great time. The best part about it: we haven't done much of anything! Jared got off work early on Thursday and we took a quick swim in the pool before the rain came. Yesterday we did lots of relaxing but also managed to get some housework and officework done. Then yesterday evening we went over to Jeff & Lynn's from our church and hung out with some of the other "Young Marrieds" couples from our Sunday School class. We were there well past Charlotte's bedtime but with all the activity going on, she was not interested in sleep. But she was out cold within five minutes of leaving.

But possibly the biggest news from this weekend... Charlotte is getting her first tooh! Yesterday she was chewing on my finger and I noticed a tiny little bump on her gums. I didn't get a good look because she loves sticking her tongue out these days, but I managed to get a quick peek and saw a tiny little "hole" where a tooth will be popping in soon. She's been "gnawing" on anything and everything for months now and I have had many people share their wisdom that that means that she must be teething, so now I can finally say that she is!

She's also starting to pull herself up on things and stand herself up. She's still not quite crawling like a pro yet, but she might just skip that step altogether and go straight to walking :)

Peeking out of her crib after her nap

Getting into (or rather underneath) things she's not supposed to... she loves playing with the caster wheels on the bed in the guest room

Standing up to reach some books on the coffee table

She didn't want to cooperate and let me get a good shot of her 4th of July outfit, so here's the best I got

We grilled our favorite meal yesterday- chicken satay with yellow rice, with tortillas (faux roti canai) and curry sauce

Playtime and Bedtime

Charlotte was cracking me up this morning. We have a basket that we keep a lot of her small toys in- the rattles, teethers, stuffed animals, and such things. If we plop her down on the floor with it in front of her, she'll entertain herself with it for a while as she goes through it all. After about thirty minutes, I put everything back in the basket and the fun starts over. A lot of times I've checked on her and she's ended up laying on the floor, holding onto the string that was tied into a bow, and swinging her arms up and down. The purpose? Who knows... But this morning I was in the kitchen and peeked out to check on her, and she somehow had managed to get her little hiney into the basket. It was adorable! By the time I got the camera out she had wriggled out of it a little, but this picture should give you an idea of the cuteness that abounded. And this is a video of her talking herself to sleep last night. It lasted for probably twenty minutes or so (Jared, correct me if I'm exaggerating here). I didn't want to turn the light on and disturb her bedtime story, so there's nothing wrong with your monitor-- the video is pitch black.

Home Sweet Home

Monday marked one year since we moved into our house! It was actually the first house we looked at, and though we looked at maybe 10 more, it didn't take us long to realize this was the one we wanted. We love the location, the layout, and the lot we're on. We have a small pond in the back yard and it is so peaceful here. Like probably everyone else, we have a huge list of things to update, change, or add, but it's all mostly cosmetic stuff and things that we can just do when we get the urge (and extra cash!) to do. We go back and forth on whether to move out or to build out the attic when the family outgrows the space. We just love where we are so much that we can't decide if we would want to give it up...

And for a Charlotte update: She is getting so close to crawling! She pulls her legs underneath her, and she pushes herself forward with them but then falls onto her belly. Then she does a G.I. Jane belly crawl across the floor. She's starting to realize that if she keeps her legs tucked underneath her, she can move a little better. It's so much fun to watch her scoot around and to figure it out a little bit more each day.

And this morning I was greeted with a poopy crib to clean up. She hasn't had a dirty diaper in the morning in a long time, but this morning there was a blowout and it was all over her, the sheet, the blanket... She got a quick wipedown and then enjoyed a splash in the tub to clean her up. Oh, the joys of motherhood!