Meet Charli: 11 Months

By the end of June I'll be a mom to a 1yr old! Amazing! Over the last month there's been a noticeable change in Charli's appearance and interactions. She's closer to being a toddler these days than a little baby.


Hot topic: Party tricks! Charli is quickly catching on to the fact that attention is given to babies doing party tricks and is progressively adding them to her repertoire. She started with clapping and learning Pat-A-Cake from Grandma. Following closely was the addition of waving, which she has indeed mastered. She can wave with her whole arm but that gets tiring quickly when done for the duration of our trips to the grocery store so she made a plan. She figured out that waving from her wrist (Queen of England style) saves her energy a while longer thus ensuring she can wave to many many more people from her seat in the shopping cart as we go down aisles. Meany-Moms are stunned in to silence now but they cute little blonde who waves at almost everyone she sees in public.... and in private. She waves to say good morning, waves to say goodnight, waves to say she's done with her food, waves at the cat and waves when she's bored. She's begun to clap when I come into her room to get her out of her crib in the morning or after naps.

Mobility Stats: As close to running as you can get while still holding on to furniture. She moves through various rooms easily and I've started to instinctively put things out of her grasp. She's started getting better with her crawling movements too although they're still more of a belly wiggle.

Teeth Stats: TWO TEETH on the bottom center and a few more are on their way up top. Now when she chews on something hard, like a metal spoon, you can hear the 'clink clink' of her pearly whites.

Language Stats: She's not saying anthing distinctive yet but she chatters a lot in a high pitch, little girl sound.... so cute!

Favorite thing to do: Try to get to the electrical cords, computer, dishwasher, cat litter, cat food or outside before I catch her. Luckily she hasn't succeeded yet.

Easiest way to get her laughing: Doing almost any silly action that ends up with me kissing her cheek...and then doing it over and over again. 

Newest development: We can almost see her putting pieces together as she becomes more and more aware of basic concepts in social interaction.

Meet Charli (10 Months)

Ten months! The last few weeks have been busy ones with lots of traveling. Charli and I have visited NJ twice, PA once and of course driven through NY for each trip. We celebrated Easter with my Mom's side of the family and she found her first Easter egg and proceeded to stick it in her mouth. I wasn't concerned about this until two minutes later when her darling face was dyed neon pink. It was pretty fantastic but the 'mother' part of my brain figured it was not so safe so we switched the real egg for a plastic one for her to gum.

She got to see Great-Grandma and all of her grandparents, aunts and uncles this month (which is quite a feat considering some live overseas and there are 12 uncles and aunts all involved in different life stages and commitments).
The last week was spent in NJ saying goodbye to my parents and youngest sister and helping pack them up for another four years (yes, that's a long time) overseas but THAT is a post for another time. Yesterday she and I returned home to see Joel and our international student, Y, and join life here in CT again. It's always a bit chaotic stepping away and then back into 'regular' life but in the midst of it all she's been doing great.


Hot topic: Taking steps! Today she took a few steps by herself 3 separate times. I tried to get it on video the next time which ended in her face planting. Since the fall she's been a bit hesitant to try again for some reason.

Mobility Stats: Moving. Quicky! She still wants to hold on to something but takes fast steps and can often keep up with a close-to-normal walking pace.

Teeth Stats: You can see the bottom two through the skin on her gums so they're coming soon!

Language Stats: She's figured out that saying 'ma-ma-ma-ma-ma' gets her a response from me so she uses it frequently when she's hungry. Definitely going to be a singer as she's been working on varying her pitch... practicing vocal warm-ups already.

Favorite thing to do: Play with a singing, light-up chair that Grandma got her. It's in NJ and she can't wait for our next visit.

Easiest way to get her laughing: Playing with her Daddy.

Newest development: Taking steps of course!

Meet Charli (9 Months)

Nine months brings with it constant change and seems like a transitional age as she's no longer a newborn but not quite yet a toddler. Every day is a new adventure for Charli as she changes so quickly. Meet Charli at nine months old:

Hot topic: Food. She's eating 2 meals a day (which is a change from this) and goes bonkers over Cheerios and multi-grain crackers. Tonight, in between double-fisting Cheerios into her mouth, she had her first meat ever- roast chicken

Mobility Stats: She still refuses to crawl but easily scooches around furniture.

Teeth Stats: You can see the bottom two through the skin on her gums so they're c

oming soon!

Language Stats: No words yet but she's always chatting about something, making all kinds of sounds. Since she first started making sounds she's made a chirping noise when happy. Today a bird outside her window actually chirped back and forth with her a few times. It was pretty fantastic.

Favorite thing to do: We let her stand holding onto the back of a dining room chair and place another one within arms reach. She loves going back and forth between them. This usually lasts for 15 minutes and then I hear a desperate little cry as her arm inevitably gets stuck. Chair hopping of course would easily be beaten out by 'eating paper' but I'm learning to keep all paper goods out of her reach so she seldom gets that extra fiber added to her diet these days. However, in the past months her tummy has seen small amounts of Joel's business cards, an electric bill, The Economist, Family Circle and tissue paper (yes, the kind you wrap prezzies with and yes, it melts incredibly fast when wet).

Easiest way to get her laughing: Playing with her Daddy.

Newest development: Snuggling. She's always loved contact with people but she's usually such a squiggle bug. Right before naps and putting her to bed though, she's starting to like just being held by us. Best feeling ever!

Sit, stand, then lay down and cry about it

Charli started sitting up around 3 months. She wanted to sit at 2 but simply couldn't straighten her back for very long. By 4 months I'd plop her on the floor and could do something that needed doing. She started rolling over a few months ago and though I still plop her on the floor, I also have to clear the floor of anything I don't want her to have and if I walk into the next room I can't be gone long as she'll inevitably become insanely curious about something like the power cord I tucked beneath the couch. (Seriously, the girl has Joel's energy and my willpower. It is a great combo... that needs eternal supervision) At six months she began holding onto the edge of a sofa or bed and standing on her own. She still reeeeally likes to hang onto the rungs on the back of our dining room chairs. Over a month ago she learned to get herself on all fours and has an increasing desire to move forward. All this time later she is still getting on all fours, looking at the object of her desire and then laying down on her tummy to either roll to it or cry it out.

Maybe I should be worried that my daughter who was initially such a quick student on mobility has now seemed to hit a wall. Other mothers with 9 month old babies who have cut teeth or babies who are crawling holes in their carpets have certainly seemed to suggest so. I've noticed that the majority of these mothers hang out at the grocery store. They are there every time I go even though I never go at the same time or weekday.

There's this unwritten set of rules that all new parents instinctively know. When you see another young parent, stop. Say hi. Then talk about your babies; names, ages and what ability they've just aquired.

The first few times other mothers seemed to be concerned for Charli, I got a bit flustered. Then I took a deep breath, realized these women have no more experience than I do in child raising and I looked at the people around me. Almost everyone I saw was walking. Chances are Charli will figure out the whole one-foot-in-front-of-the-other sooner rather than later. If nothing else, she'll figure it out on her first day of school when she experiences peer pressure. In the meantime, I can still get a few things done around the house because I'm not chasing my child around.

Now, should I happen upon a self-righteous mother-of-a-walking-talking-infant, I don't pay too much attention to the way their face looks after chatting with me about what Charli's up to. She'll most likely get that politely concerned look on her face because Charli's not crawling yet. And I'll have a smile on mine.... because Charli's not crawling yet.

Food fight

Take a look at the picture to your left. What do you see?Yes, you see a cutie pie. Yes, you can observe her pink shirt, blue bib and button nose. Yes, she can hold a bowl by herself. What you are really looking at though, is victory! It's in the bowl! There's nothing to see and that right there is what I'm so excited about.

For 3 months I have tried to get Charli to eat solids. I have tried being funny, tried clapping, tried begging, singing, shoving, jumping, tricking and I even prayed. She would have none of it.

Clearly, she inherited my stubbornness. And the only way to win against that is sheer, defiant will power. Which is a problem for me. Don't get me wrong, I'm used to winning the battle of the wills but I'm also used to having a REM cycle or two to help with staying power. The last few months have been full days and short nights with interruptions every 2.5 hours.

I have had to motivate myself to pick the fight with food by reminding myself that I can wean her as soon as real food can sustain her. And once she's weaned, I can go out alone spontaneously again. No more planning a week ahead to make sure a bottle is ready and then racing home before the next feeding. No matter how much I hate this food fight and no matter how sleep deprived my little brain might be, I still know that it would be stupid stupid stupid to give up. So I have trudged for three months, asking for advice, handing the duty off to my Mom and sister when I can and trying to make Charli jealous of all the fun we have at dinner eating real food by looking at her and smiling every time I take a bite (okay, not really on the creepy dinner eating but maybe I should have tried it).

All that work with no success until last week when we sat down to do battle and she opened her mouth right up. She did it over and over again until the bowl was cleaned out. I wanted to be frustrated at the sudden switch but relief won out. I literally cheered. She liked that. Then I took a picture. I felt good about that. Now each night when I feed her, she eats and I cheer.... but I figured one empty bowl picture is enough.

Peek-a-boo...where am I?

Here I am! I find myself playing that game increasingly... not only with Charli but with everything else in life. The last few months changes in Charli, combined with the holiday marathon season meant that most areas of my life got compartmentalized and put away for a while. Now I find myself pulling out those boxes and dusting them off, including the one that had this blog in it.

If you haven't been around to actually spend time with us in the last few months, you've missed A LOT. Right before Christmas Charli was pretty good at sitting on her own. Here's an update since then:

-Charli figured out how to roll over but didn't ever do it because it meant being on her stomach and she hates that.

-She then became a flipping machine once she realized she could go places with it.

-She now has found flipping across the floor to be too slow and is trying to figure out how to move her knees once she gets on all fours. (However, she can pull herself to standing and is starting to take steps)

-Joel has a new job. No more '2 jobs, one working week'... thank the Lord!

-Between Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year's and 'just because' times, we have driven between NJ and CT more than I can count.

-Charli was dedicated in church.

-I went to a wedding in Missouri- my first time spending 4 days with just Charli and no Joel, Charli's first airplane flight.

-And as if we didn't have enough excitement and change in our lives, we had an international student come live with us from Jan-June. This of course included some room changes and moving of many things that have yet to be organized and put in a home.

But not everything has changed:

-Charli still won't eat solids

- Chelsea Football Club (the cat) still wines like a baby when Charli is crying or singing... and it still results in me throwing him outside.

Probably doesn't sound like a whole lot in there but it's been exhausting and wonderful and I think I am almost done playing catch-up on life. On that note, Merry Christmas, Happy New Year and Happy Valentine's Day!

Mommy Mishap

This is what happens when you assume you'll remember the Nuks you're sterilizing in boiling in water... 45 minutes later you smell burning plastic.