Ten Months Old, Ten Weeks Along

My sweet baby girl is growing too quickly! It is flying by!
-Her top two teeth are in. No signs of others quite yet.
- She has mastered "If You're Happy and You Know It," and actually waits until you say "clap your hands" to clap her hands. One day, she was so mad about something and not only was she screaming but both tears and snot were running down her face. So I started singing "If you're Happy...", and she clapped her hands angrily together as if she was saying, "I am NOT happy." It was hilarious. A little lesson of irony. Of course she quit when I got out the video camera.
-Finger foods are the norm now. Banana, Cheerios, Cheese, Peas, Avocado, Chicken, Ground Beef, etc. She also loves yogurt and cottage cheese. Yes, cottage cheese. I like it too... I know there is a group of cottage cheese haters out there.
-She had a runny nose pretty much all of February. I'm pretty sure that three different colds were to blame. It was such a pain, and I felt so bad for her, but we made it through without any infections, so that is a huge blessing.
-Charley thinks it's hilarious to put her paci in our mouths. When we are reading to her before bed, she will pull out her paci and stick it up towards our mouth, and she will totally crack up. Yes, we put it in backwards, so she doesn't get our germs. :) It is pictured above.
-She learned how to sit up in her crib, so now, if I put her down for a nap and she's not quite tired, she will sit up and play. Then when I go in to check on her, she cracks up laughing. She can't sit up anywhere else on her own though...she uses the rails of the crib to pull herself up.
-We're getting a little bit closer to crawling. She is finally, as of this week, getting up on her knees a little bit, but no rocking. She also LOVES standing, and would prefer to stand and play. When we try to put her on her bottom in front of some toys, she turns into a pencil and refuses to sit. Most the time, I put her down anyway, which means she's basically laying down (and screaming of course). Other times, I will put her up by the coffee table or a stand-up-toy, and she will hold herself up and play. But, she doesn't really get the concept of moving her legs, so wherever they land, is where they stay, which leads to awkwardness and falling, but overall she does a great job. She actually took five steps today with Donald holding her hands. This was the first time she took the initiative to move her little legs and feet on her own. It was really cute.

We went to Atlanta with D's family Valentine's weekend, and visited the aquarium. Charley loved it!

So, yes, we are expecting number two in September! We are very excited, although I am a little anxious about the adventure of having two under two. They will be just under 17 months apart...Pretty sure our house will be a little chaotic for the next few years! We have been surrounded by tragedy and mystery with some close friends losing pregnancies and others trying to become pregnant. Of course we are joyous about our upcoming arrival, but it definitely is hard to be overwhelmed with joy when we see such sadness around us and their pain is so real to us. However, our friends have hope...they are not full of despair. They are assured by a hope bigger than what our dreams and plans are...that the Lord doesn't make mistakes and He knows what is going on and what is to come. I am encouraged by their faith.

This is how we told my sisters that I was pregnant:
Charley experienced her first SNOW last night and this morning. I hope to post pictures sometime soon!

Nine Months!

Charley is now nine months old. Like I say every month: can't believe it.

• She is a pro at sitting up, and is content sitting still, with little attempts at crawling. She is very squirmy though, and likes to lunge out of our laps or on the floor after toys.
• Her first word is officially, "hi." She usually says it while waving, but sometimes if you answer the phone "hello," she will echo you with a loud "hi!" She also frequently says "dada" and even more frequently "hi dada." However, she tells many people, "hi dada," although she mainly says it to Donald or if she hears the word "daddy." My first words were also "hi" and "dada." (Charley and I also got our first two teeth the same week in November, just 28 years apart. I hope she doesn't mimic me with walking! I didn't walk 'til 16 months!).
  
• Her top middle teeth are working their way in. We noticed them early last week, but they are taking their sweet time. She usually bites the fire out of me with her bottom teeth when I try to feel if the top ones have poked through.
• Charley had her first really bad cold this week. Her fever got up to 103.6 yesterday, which of course scared us to death, so we took her to the doctor. They said it was a virus and just to keep her doped up on medicine. Today she is doing much better, and her little personality is coming back after feeling so bad yesterday.
• We are starting to give her more finger foods now. She has mastered picking up Cheerios, but has a little trouble with fruits b/c they are so slippery. We are also working on sippy cups. It took a few weeks, but she now can drink out of them without most of it dripping down her chin, so now we are working on holding it. She doesn't understand the tipping it up part and will usually just chew on the spout.
• She weighs about 21 lbs, so we had to bite the bullet today and by her the next stage car seat. It will supposedly last until she's six.
• As you can see in the first pic above, Charley is now a nose-scruncher smiler. It's too cute. This has just developed in the last month or so.
  
• Two of Charley's best friends, Brady and Maggie, are turning ONE this week, or 12 months, as Amanda likes to say (one sounds too old!). They have had a very blessed year! And Maggie is going to be a big sister sometime this week too! (yes, they will be 12 months apart!!). We are praying for your safe arrival, baby Emma!