Dollies

Over the past week or so Claire has become obsessed with these two little dolls that used to be her cousin Ella's. She has named them Eliza and Fiona (two of her friends at school) and carts them all over the house with her. They eat breakfast with her, she sings songs to them, and they even go potty with her. It is so fun to watch her imagination at work.
Claire was sent home around 11am yesterday with a fever, so we had a little photo shoot with her 'dollies' yesterday afternoon. She ended up having another ear infection and is doing much better today.

Cakecups!

Claire and I made cupcakes (or cakecups as she calls them) yesterday for my dad's birthday (which is today). From stealing licks of batter from the spoon, to more of the frosting ending up in her mouth than on the cupcakes, to pouring no fewer than 300 sprinkles on each cupcake...Claire had a blast. Boy does my little girl have a sweet tooth! Wonder where she gets that from! :)

Evening Fun

Here are a few videos from tonight.

In the first one Charlotte is trying desperately to crawl and hasn't quite figured it out. She can get up on all fours, but hasn't figured out how to move forward in the crawling position.

In the second one Claire is tickling Charlotte. Claire continues to love her little sister and is particularly skilled at getting her to laugh.

Little Miss Scoots

Over the last week Charlotte has figured out how to move. She's not very fast and she can't go very far, but she has definitely learned how to scoot when she wants something. She is particularly skilled at scooting backward and has gotten on all fours on occasion. We really thought that she would be slower to move than Claire, but I guess she didn't want to be shown up by her big sister. Things are about to get really busy around here...

New Year's Day Playdate

The Wannings came over yesterday afternoon for a play and pizza date. Claire and Whitney weren't sure what to think of each other at first, but by the end of the night they were "sweeping the floor" (see picture below), dancing and laughing together. As they get older it gets more and more fun to watch them interact. Hopefully they will continue to be good friends. Thanks for coming over - lets do it again soon!

Five Months Old

I cannot believe that in one more month, Charlotte will be halfway to the 1 year mark. Time definitely goes by faster with two kids. We are having a blast watching Charlotte learn new things and love all the attention that Claire gives her.

At 5 months old, Charlotte:

• is a rolling machine. She rarely stays on her back for long and diaper changes are becoming more challenging every day.
• has decided that rolling over onto her tummy to sleep is preferred. She started this about a week ago and we fought it for the first couple of days before eventually giving up. We would roll her onto her back and within minutes she was back on her tummy.
• is done with swaddling...we had a little scare a couple of weeks ago when she managed to flip onto her tummy with her arms still swaddled in (the girl is strong). After that, we packed the swaddle away and broke out the sleep sack. The transition went surprisingly well.
• still refuses to sleep through the night. She goes down between 7:00-7:30pm and usually sleeps until 7:00am, waking up once to eat. On a good night she makes it until about 4:30am...on a bad night it is more like 2:00am. It's frustrating, but I am finding that I am much more tolerant the second time around.
• can sit up for small periods of time (probably about a minute). She is still pretty wobbly and hunches forward quite a bit.
• has a contagious little belly laugh.
• loves her big sister. The moment Claire comes over to give her kisses and hugs, Charlotte's face lights up and a smile crosses her face. I keep crossing my fingers that they will be good friends.
• is starting to get a little more particular about who holds her...maybe a little touch of stranger anxiety (although no where near as bad as Claire had it).
• loves to grab and reach for things. Her hand-eye coordination has really developed over the last month.
• has cheeks that continue to grow bigger by the week. I absolutely love them!! :)
• loves being held and cuddled. I am really going to miss when she grows out of this stage.

Charlotte, you are a great addition to our family and we are so happy to have you!

Here Comes Santa Claus...

I'm not sure if Claire completely understood the whole Santa concept, but she at least pretended to be slightly amused. We left some cookies and carrots out on Christmas Eve for Santa and his reindeer and Claire insisted that we leave them underneath the tree. In the morning I asked her if she thought Santa ate all the cookies and she said "no". She seemed a bit confused/surprised when we went downstairs and found a plate full of crumbs...I think she was hoping he left a few for her. Anyway, Santa left this great easel for her and she has been having a blast coloring and finger painting on it. I think we are going to get a lot of use out of this!