Monday, February 7, 2011

18 months

Charlotte recently passed the 18 month mark. Our little baby girl is now closer to 2 than 1. I am in disbelief and if I could freeze time for just a few months, I would. I am loving the age she is at right now. She is at such a sweet age...no longer a baby, but not quite kid.

02.05 (18)

She is communicating like crazy and has SO much to say. She repeats everything we say and we can understand nearly everything that she wants. She loves to sing and knows the words to several songs. My personal favorites of hers are 'Twinkle Twinkle', and 'Row, Row, Row your Boat'.

02.04 (27)

She loves to play independently. Often times she will wander off into her room to look at books or play with other toys. Completely content to hang out with herself. She continues to love to read...her favorite book lately is Silly Sally. She giggles with delight every time. She has been more interested in puzzles and is pretty good at the peg-style ones. Of course that doesn't prevent her from taking all the pieces out of Claire's and leaving them for someone else to put back together. Good thing Claire likes puzzles too.
She loves following her sister around and wants to do everything that Claire does. Whether its painting or playing games or helping cook in the kitchen we have learned that it is much easier to give in and let her participate.

1.14 (21)
She is a friendly little girl that loves other kids, especially babies. She is sweet and happy, and LOVES to cuddle. If she had it her way she would take every nap on Mom or Dad's chest. While she sleeps fine through the night, sleeping is definitely not her favorite activity. She has a hard time settling down at nap and bedtime and often needs a little reassurance before she finally drifts off. We're pretty sure Claire sleeps more than her, but can't complain as she is usually in a pretty good mood.

She has recently starting going on the potty, which I find hilarious. She started going at school first. When her teachers told me that she was going at least once a day in the potty, I didn't believe them. We started putting her on at home and she has actually been pretty successful. And while we are no where near ready to potty train, we are pretty proud.
02.04 (13)

While she has been pretty healthy this winter, we are still struggling with her ears. She has probably had about 5 infections this winter...2 of which we needed antibiotics to clear. The good thing is that her tubes allow the fluid to drain, so she isn't in pain. We are headed back to the ENT in a few weeks, so we will see if he has any suggestions. We had her 18 month appointment today and everything else checked out great. She now weighs in at 21 lbs 14 oz (14th %) and is 31.5 inches tall (42nd %) - still a little peanut.
Happy 18 months Charlotte!

Saturday, February 5, 2011

Friday, February 4, 2011

Grump

Claire decided she didn't need a nap today and was a little irritable this afternoon. I asked her to give me her grumpy face and this is what I got...
02.04 (38)

She eventually snapped out of her little mood and we headed outside this afternoon. It was beautiful outside. The sunny was shining, there was little to no wind and temps were over 30 degrees. We walked up to the park and the girls had a great time swinging, going down the slides and just exploring. Spring cannot come soon enough.

Heres a few more of Claire from this afternoon. Happy weekend!
02.04 (14)

02.04 (4)

Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Our Littlest Reader

Charlotte had no interest in books for the first 12 months of her life. Any time we tried to read to her, she would squirm out of our laps. She could have cared less about the bright colors of the pages or the rhyming words. There were much more interesting things to explore. Around the time she turned one all of this changed. Our little girl seemed to become a bookworm overnight. She loves to read. She likes looking at the pictures and turning the pages by herself just as much as she enjoys being read to. One of her favorites for the last month or so is a Happy Birthday book. She usually grabs it off her shelves and if she can't find it she says, "happy, happy, happy" over and over again until we find it. At the end of the book we always sing Happy Birthday and she moves her little body from side to side, loving every minute. Our littlest reader has finally arrived. 01.09 (4)

Sunday, January 16, 2011

Fridays

Work has been crazy lately. I have been super busy and feel like I am never going to catch up. I have been working at night and on the weekends and have been wondering whether I would be better off just working on Fridays again. But then Friday comes and I realize just how important having a day with the girls is to me...especially at the ages they are at. We went to the Children's Museum on Friday morning and they had such a great time. They love getting out of the house and going places and it is so much fun experiencing everything with them. So for now, I'm going to do everything I can to keep my Fridays.
1.14 (19)
1.14 (6)

1.14 (8)
1.14 (16)

Sunday, January 9, 2011

Snow Fort

Art built the girls a little snow fort in the backyard this weekend. Claire was super excited about it. She has loved playing in the snow this winter...I think she is finally big enough where she doesn't feel like she is going to fall over in all her gear! Charlotte was amused for a few minutes, but was then ready to head inside. I'm guessing Claire will be spending a lot more time in the fort the rest of the winter.
01.09 (21)
01.09 (16)
01.09 (22)

Friday, January 7, 2011

Picture Day

I have been terrible at taking pictures lately. I'm not sure why. Maybe its the fact that it is the middle of winter, everyone is pasty white and the lighting is terrible...or maybe its because this is the response I usually get from Claire when I break out the camera.
01.07 (7)

01.07 (3)


Such a grump. Usually I would just give up and put the camera away, but this morning I was determined. Claire has to make homemade Valentines for preschool and I have grand plans of pasting a mini photo of her on each one (along with several other crafty ideas that I'm sure will fail miserably...more on that in upcoming weeks). Anyway, she eventually came around and we got a couple of decent shots.

01.07 (20)


01.07 (12)

Of course I had to take a few shots of Charlotte as well. These days she is more than happy to partake in my mini photo shoots. She would have looked at the camera and said "cheese" all day long if I wanted her to. I guess I'll enjoy it while it lasts. I'm sure the exaggerated fake smile will make an appearance at some point.

01.07 (19)
01.07 (2)