Five Little Pumpkins

We'll be back tomorrow with all the fun Charlotte's had this year for Halloween, but in the meantime, here's a short video of Charlotte reciting the poem "Five Little Pumpkins." When we were in Hawaii last week, my mom told it to Charlotte over and over again while we were driving around, so that now, she's completely memorized it!



(And the translation, in case you can't understand her)
Five little pumpkins sitting on a gate.
The first one said, "My it's getting late!"
The second one said, "There are witches in the air!"
The third one said, "We don't care."
The fourth one said, "Let's run, let's run!"
The fifth one said, "Oh, it's just Halloween fun."
Then ooooh went the wind,
And out went the light!
And five little pumpkins rolled fast out of sight.

Happy Day to You!

Okay, so I really haven't been the best blogger lately.  And frankly, I don't have the energy to write a bunch right now.  I'm not saying more than work has been challenging lately. But suffice it to say, we've been busy and enjoying each and every weekend.

This weekend is exhausting just thinking about it - dinner with friends on Friday, playgroup Saturday morning, a birthday party for one of Charlotte's daycare friends on Saturday evening, the State Fair on Sunday, and then a pool party for the Moms' Club I belong to (and sometime on Sunday I'm expected to make cookies for said pool party!). I think I need to take a nap right now just to get ready.

Anyway, since I got Chris a Flip Video Camera for Father's Day, we've been taking a lot more videos.

Here is a video of Charlotte a few weeks ago on the way to the sprayground by our house, singing Happy Birthday. It's just too cute.

The Killer Bee

Happy Halloween, Everyone!

We had a great weekend, although I have to tell you, I'm exhausted!  On Friday night, we went over to a co-worker's house for a happy hour of sorts.  They have a young Golden Retriever with a lot of energy and another co-worker brought over her French Bulldog puppy.  Charlotte adores all animals, but has a bit of an obsession for dogs these days (or, as she calls them, pup-pehs!).  These two dogs were rough housing together and at one point, they knocked Charlotte clean on her back.  Her head hit the pavement, everyone gasped audibly, and I think I was more upset than Charlotte.  Soon enough, thankfully, her sobs subsided and she went back to dancing around the living room (apparently she loves dancing to Metallica, who knew?).

Last night, we went to another co-worker's house for a housewarming/Halloween party.  Chris and I did not dress up because I couldn't convince him that he'd have made a great Will Schuester. Charlotte made a killer bumble bee though.  She even won two votes for best costume.  We had a fun time, and I won the Human Bingo because I'm uber-competitive and had no shame asking young children to sign my Bingo card: Ever danced to the Monster Mash? Great, sign my card!  Have you ever wanted to be a Ghostbuster?  Please initial here.

Today, the weather was perfect.  It has been raining the past few days, but today it was warm and sunny.  Charlotte had another tumble though.  She fell down our steep driveway and scraped up her nose, lip, and chin.  Poor thing.  She was happy and ready for Halloween after her nap though.  And I had an evil plan in mind.  We've lived in our house for 5 months, but we haven't really met any neighbors with kids yet, although I knew they lived behind and on the side of our house.  So I decided I would go Trick-or-treating with Charlotte and meet some neighbors at the same time.

Well, we hit the jackpot.  It turned out, the neighbors directly behind us were having a get-together of sorts with all of their neighbors -- we could hear the kids playing in the backyard.  The wife invited Charlotte and me inside, and we got to meet a bunch of new people.  They have two kids - 9 and 5; the neighbors next door to them (whose house also backs up against ours) have an almost-4 year old boy and 3 week old girl; the neighbor across the street from them have a young boy.  It was great.  And this house was drop-dead gorgeous.  It's the same model as ours, but they completely remodeled it two years ago and my mouth dropped seeing their amazing new kitchen.  I quickly called Chris over, and he headed over to see the really cool covered patio they installed complete with canned lights and a ceiling fan.  At that point, the kids were getting ready to trick-or-treat, but the neighbors were so nice, they let Charlotte be in their little picture of all the kids in their costumes.

It was a lot of fun, but chaotic to actually get know everyone given that the kids were itching to start their nights.  So we all said we should get together again soon.

Okay, so enough about me. Here are the pictures you've been waiting for!  Our little honey bee, who never stops moving to get a decent picture.

The little bee on the attack

Trying to pick up the Pumpkie, as she calls it

Backside view, complete with a stinger

The toddler bee

Walking down the steps

This video was taken on my phone, and isn't very good, but you can clearly see how much fun Charlotte had tonight!  The neighbors were nice enough to give Charlotte a glowing necklace, which she then used to torment Tandy.

Some Animal Sounds

Charlotte is fifteen months old.  I've now renewed the My Baby Can Talk DVD three times from the library, and I'm waiting for another one of the DVDs to be returned so we can learn more signs.  Charlotte is on a signing roll!

She can sign the following words:

• milk
• more
• hat
• cracker
• baby
• monkey
• all done
• please
• thank you
• elephant
• lion
• bye bye
• hi
• hungry (she made this one up herself - it involves patting her stomach if I ask her if she's hungry)

She also says the following words/sounds, although not consistently, other than ball and more

• ball (this is the one word that she never signs, but only says)
• more
• cup
• cracker
• pain (bread in French)
• grande (tall in French)
• meow
• an elephant sound
• doggie - I think that's what she says in the following video
• all gone
• hi
• bye bye
• Mama (only when she's upset and I'm not around)
• EIEIO (from the song Old McDonald Had a Farm)
• quack quack (sometimes?)

Most of those words are said few and far between, but she does consistently make the noises for an elephant and for cat. She also says more quite often, usually while signing more.

Of course, she understands many times more words than that. Here's a video I took just tonight while she was eating dinner.  Do you think she's saying "doggie"?



Charlotte seems to be learning more and more signs and words each day.  It's so fun to watch her learning new things.  Of course, there are drawbacks.  Right when I started this video, Chris happened to say hat, which immediately caused Charlotte to pat her head (the sign for hat) with her spaghetti-covered hands. Oh well!

I know I keep saying this, but each month is more and more fun than the one before it! We are just so damn lucky, I can hardly stand it.

Toddler Frankenstein

We're home. A great and fantastic trip.  Charlotte got better each day with her walking.  Last night as we were waiting to board the plane home, she took at least 20 steps without falling. And now that we're home she's walking over to Tandy with intensity. :)  Poor kitty.

Here's a very short video I took on my phone. Chris probably got better ones with the video camera.



This was taken on maybe the second day we were there, so I still had to entice her with objects. In this case, a brochure about Maui.

Anyway, more pictures to come once we get them onto the computer. But now must get some sleep.

A Year in Seven Minutes

June 19, 2009

June 19, 2010

And now, a video to make the grandmothers cry...

Music: "Isn't She Lovely" by Stevie Wonder

(note: first attempt at video editing)
(second note: we had a party - more on that later - as a result, we have very few pictures)

Proof Positive

I mentioned to you that Charlotte is not a fan of grass. Here is a quick video proving her dislike of grass. Notice how she will not put her feet down, and how damn uncomfortable she looks in that luscious grass!



And some pictures...

Like Kitten, Like Baby

Charlotte loves Tandy. She pretty much loves any cute, small mammal (human or otherwise), but Tandy is her pal. Tandy is the "older" sister, the one Charlotte wants most to emulate.

Never was this so clear as this past weekend. Charlotte was in her high chair, happily eating cheerios (Trader Joe's version of course). Most of them ended up in her mouth, although quite a few were scattered about the floor and in the high chair seat. When I finally set her free, I noticed she was pretty close to where we keep Tandy's bowl and water dish. And she was chewing on something, pretty hard. Chris asked me what she was chewing on, and I assumed it was a stray cheerio. But he told me that it couldn't be because she'd been chewing on it for a while and cheerios dissolve pretty quickly. I didn't think it was cat food because when Charlotte's crawling around I pick up Tandy's cat food bowl and water and place it out of reach on the counter. He picked her up and I did the mouth sweep I'd been taught. Sure enough, out came a half-chewed piece of cat food. Yumm! Protein! I guess I need to start looking at everything from a ground-level perspective. Charlotte is fast, and she is becoming quite adept at picking up the smallest bits of food in her high chair, including tiny lentils. I shouldn't be surprised that she'd be able to find a stray morsel of cat food.

And for proof, here is Charlotte about a month ago when she first encountered Tandy's domain.



On a related note, I'm wondering when Charlotte will be smarter than Tandy. Obviously, on a purely evolutionary level, Charlotte is already smarter as she has the bigger brain. But still, Tandy was 5 weeks old when we brought her home from the pound, and she was already litter box trained. I'm pretty sure that if we showed Charlotte where the litter box was, very different, much less sanitary things would go in her mouth. Tandy looks up when her name is called, and Charlotte finally does this consistently. Both Tandy and Charlotte chase after balls, although Tandy still wins that race. Let's just say that the talent gap is closing, ever so slowly. Charlotte may never be able to leap on to the dresser in a single bound, but she's already got Tandy beat by talking constantly (we just can't understand her yet!).

Coming up next: a photo of both Tandy and Charlotte begging me for bits of leftover lasagna and other table scraps! HA! Just kidding. Chris hasn't taken a picture of that yet.

Dear Charlotte,

You are seven months old today! I can hardly believe it. You continue to amaze us more and more each and every day. You’ve had a pretty eventful seventh month. You went from sitting wobbly while unsupported to sitting like a pro. You’ve learned how to crawl! I first noticed it on New Year’s Day. What a great trick to learn to ring in the New Year. You haven’t quite figured out that you can get places faster by lifting your stomach off the ground and getting up on your hands and knees, but I know you'll be there in no time. It's so cute to watch you crawl. You fixate on an object -- a ball, the newspaper, Tandy -- and with such determination you go for it.

Places You've Been this Month:

• Chicago for Christmas – you’re quite the little traveler! Five roundtrip plane rides so far in your short life (and many more to go this year -- DC in February, St. Louis in May, and Hawaii in July). You enjoyed the snow and visiting with the Berry clan.
• San Diego for the Martin Luther King holiday – in San Diego, you went to your first trip to the zoo. We stood in line to see the new baby panda, and Daddy picked you up so you could see him better than from the stroller. It was so cute to watch you track the mama panda and laugh and smile. You also got to pet a goat! But don't worry, Auntie Kristen, we didn't let her hair anywhere near that goat's mouth. :)

Fun Things You Do:

• You continue to love eating solid foods. So far, everything we've tried has been a winner. Sometimes you're so hungry we can hardly get the food in your mouth fast enough!
• You've learned to grab the spoon and shove it in your mouth. This is funny, but makes feeding you a little difficult!
• I can sit you in front of my mirrored closet doors and you're so excited! You try holding hands with that baby in the mirror, but you can never quite grab her.
• One day, you, Daddy and I sat in front of the mirror together. Daddy and I raised our hands straight in the air. You watched us do it and then you raised your hand! It was pretty exciting.
• When we hold your hands, you pull yourself up to standing. You’ve been standing up while we hold you for a long time, but now we can see just how strong your little legs are!
  
  
  
  
  

You are just such a sweet and happy little baby. I was just looking through your pictures over the past few months and can’t believe how much you’ve changed. Your hair is growing longer and filling in, and I don’t know what to do with it! I guess some barrettes are in order next since your hair is out of control! Also, where are those teeth of yours??? Everytime you're cranky or have trouble sleeping, we swear that you're getting those teeth. But no, they still remain just below the surface. Speaking of sleeping, you've been sleeping so well again -- 10 to 12 hours a night, and very rarely do we need to go in and put that pacifier back in because you find it yourself!

Overall, each day is just so much better now that you’re in it. I can’t wait to find out what your 8th month has in store for you.

Love,
Mommy

Is Anybody Out There??

Hi Friends,

This is a quick post. Apparently, today is "Official Blogger Delurking Day." I know that there are folks who read my blog, but don't comment! Today is your chance! And to steal an idea (and to sweeten the deal) from a blog that I've been lurking on (until today!), I'm going to donate $1 per comment to the local American Red Cross chapter to help victims of the earthquake in Haiti.

Did you know that Haiti is the world's oldest black republic? It won independence from France in 1804 (thank you history class on French colonialism in college!). It's also the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. The effects of the earthquake have been devastating due to the lack of infrastructure. The more I hear on NPR, the worse I feel and the more I want to help. They have no water, they have no hospitals in Port-au-Prince that are functioning. People have broken limbs (bones literally sticking out of their bodies) and Medicins Sans Frontiers (Doctors without Borders) can't do surgery.

Have I convinced you to comment yet? No?

Well, here's a very poor quality video of Charlotte army crawling on New Year's Day. We have better ones, but we're having technical difficulties downloading/uploading the videos. For now, you'll have to deal with my iPhone video.



Comment and I'll donate. I know I've had people read my blog from places like Berlin, Germany!

*Minimum of $25, I'll donate above that based on the comments!
**I realize that the publish date is for some reason yesterday, the 13th. Actual delurking day is today, the 14th. I'll make my cut off tomorrow night!

Dear Charlotte,

I can't believe how much has changed in the past six months.  You've grown from a tiny newborn (okay, a big newborn, but tiny to me nonetheless) to an alert, happy, and funny six month old.

Charlotte, less than five days old

Charlotte at the Chicago airport, six months old

You know, a lot has changed with your daddy and me since you were born.  We weren't exactly what you would call party animals, but we did enjoy going over to our friends' homes and drinking wine until the wee hours.  That's not exactly possible anymore.  You are accustomed to your routine, and even though we've tried to have you sleep over at our friends' homes while we eat and play games, you have other things in mind and let us have it that night.  But it's okay.  We can have friends over at our house because you sleep great in your crib.  Plus, your daddy and I are content to spend most of our free time just staring at you in amazement at all the wonderful things you do. You're just so cute and sweet. I truly believe we hit the baby jackpot when we got you!

I could write a lot more about how much I love you and what you mean to me, but there are so many things I don't want to forget, so I'm going to just list them out.

New and Fun Things You Do

• You love food.  In the past couple weeks or so, you've gone from having general disinterest in solids to really getting excited.  You open up your mouth wide in anticipation of your next bite, and you get so excited that Mommy has a hard time getting the spoon in your mouth.  Carrots are a big hit!
• Since we've arrived in Chicago and Grandma and Grandpa Berry's house, you've started sitting up on your own.  You're also so close to crawling. You get one leg up, but your balance still isn't the greatest.  We know you'll be crawling around in no time (and then our lives will be over!)
• You continue to smile and laugh even though you have have a horrible cold and cough since we arrived.
• You're a big flirt.  You'll smile at anybody, but you particularly love men, young and old. This is bad news for Daddy, who says "no boys until you're 30!"
• You're making a lot of noise these days.  You have your vowel sounds down, as you say "EEEEEEEEEE" and kick your legs furiously (see below video).
• We keep thinking you're getting those bottom two teeth, but they have yet to make their appearance.
• Sleeping is still up and down, but we *think* you're finally swaddle-free!  You can get that pacifier in by yourself now, so having your hands free is very helpful!  And although we're still somewhat sleep deprived, it's really no big deal (except for those nights when we have you up too late and you're just so overstimulated you can't calm yourself down enough to sleep well -- those aren't very much fun).

So Charlotte, you are such a great joy to your daddy and me. We can't wait to see what's in store for you next!

Love,
Mommy

Swinging!

Yesterday was Veterans' Day, so both Charlotte and I had the day off. Chris did not.  I'd kind of forgotten how exhausting it is to entertain a baby all day, even though I tried to keep us moving so as to not to incur bored baby wrath.  First, it was a long day.  We have given up on our swaddle weaning for now because she keeps flipping onto her tummy and waking herself up and deciding that while she's awake, she might as well eat some food.  The swaddle blanket allows for blissful sleep (she can only roll over if she manages to break free), which equals a happy mommy.  In fact, the past three nights in a row she has slept for 11 to 12 hours long - from 7PM until 6AM (6:45 this morning).  Amazing!  This, of course, means me waking up in sheer terror that something is wrong.  So we were both up at 6AM yesterday because Charlotte had had such a long sleep that she was ready for the day!

But after going grocery shopping, playing, eating, etc., I was out of ideas.  (On a side note, I tried feeding Charlotte applesauce.  She was not a fan.  But rice cereal mixed with breastmilk = yum!  I don't get it.)  Instead, I decided to go for a walk with her in her big baby stroller -- the one where she actually faces forward.  Charlotte liked this a lot because she could see everything.  Every so often, I stopped the stroller and would point things out to her like "there's a tree, there's a kitty, oooh look ducks!"  The greenbelt along which we live connects to these series of canals boarded on each side with bike trails.  The canals are just full of ducks and geese, and since it was a holiday, plenty of school-aged children feeding the ducks.  Charlotte loved hearing and seeing those ducks quacking and furiously going after bits of old bread.  This may have been the first time she's ever noticed ducks.

Anyway, we ended up at the neighborhood park about a mile and a half from our house.  There are plenty of closer ones, but Charlotte and I needed a long walk!   This park looks pretty fun, and I can't wait until Charlotte is old enough to take on the slide or the tire swing, but for now, the only equipment suitable was the baby swing.  She's still a bit small, but she really enjoyed it! I managed to capture her with the video on my iPhone, which seamlessly uploads to YouTube. Enjoy!

Rolling Over Queen!

Here is Charlotte rolling over from back to belly. Please forgive my excitement - I'm one proud Mommy!

Speaking of rolling over, weaning Charlotte from swaddling has been interesting. She's been waking up each night rolling over, and won't roll onto her back. Monday night, I held her arms down at around 2AM because every time I let go, she'd lift those legs in the air and roll over. Eventually, she calmed down and went back to sleep. Of course, it took Chris and me a long time to fall back asleep because we were just bracing ourselves for her to wake up again. Last night she managed to sleep okay, but that's because she's sleeping on her stomach, which is fine with us.

Rolling Over!

I finally captured Charlotte rolling over on video. Look at her go!

Three Months and Movin'!

Yes, it's been a while since I've posted. Charlotte's been movin' and shakin' -- we went to Carmel over Labor Day Weekend and then spent Tuesday through Sunday in San Diego for my best friend's wedding. More on all those later. For now: a video! I haven't captured Charlotte rolling over on video yet, but this shows how she's on her way to being mobile!

6 weeks old video

My first attempt at uploading a video of Charlotte. Unfortunately I didn't move quite quickly enough to capture her smiling and laughing in her bouncer, but this will have to do for now!