Smile Monster

Our new nickname for Charlotte is the Smile Monster.

But sometimes Bill is more like a monster than Charlotte. At least he gets some smiles out of it....

Notice his new super short haircut?

Duck Head

Charlotte can balance her rubber duck on her head for a good several minutes at a time. This amuses her dad way more than it amuses her.

Standing!

Charlotte has loved to stand since she was about 3 months, always holding on to someone or something. But tonight she pulled herself up to standing by herself! I think real cruising is probably just around the corner.

Puffs and bath

Charlotte had apples & bananas followed by puffs for supper tonight (as well as a bottle post bath). As you can see half the puffs end up in the baby and half the puffs end up on and around the baby.



Here she is in her new bigger bath tub. We got it for $15 off craigslist :) She still loves chewing on her rubber duck. We did bath and bedtime solo tonight-- Bill's at a choral concert at his HS tonight.

Enjoying some Independence

One last swing pic, can you tell I took a few? She was so happy outside today, but we did have a few melt downs at home. She was not fond of hair combing this morning and naps weren't great. I'm thinking (hoping) it's more teething and it will be over soon. So far the two front bottom teeth have come in.

Yep, she's mastered crawling. She's fastest when she's chasing the cat. Friskie is still a delectable treat. Thankfully Friskie is still sweet to Charlotte, mostly ignoring her. Occasionally, Friskie will snuggle up to Charlotte when she's drinking her bottle. Our theory is that's the safest time-- baby's mouth occupied and all.

She's also perfected getting from her belly when crawling to sitting up.

And the scariest thing of all is that she's started to pull herself up. She also can stand by herself for about 20 seconds holding on to the couch. Eeek! I'm not sure I'm ready for that yet! (Oh and check out the back of the mullet, this was post hair combing and it's still crazy.)

I finally figured out how to get a video from the camera uploaded. (Faster internet certainly helped.) In her video debuts, here's Charlotte from earlier today:

More fun on the swing

Happy 4th of July!

Charlotte celebrated the 4th with her first trip to the park and a go at the swings. Mommy and daddy came along to push.

We had gorgeous weather today, so we started the morning with a trip to the Farmer's Market. Charlotte enjoys seeing all the hub bub and enjoyed the band at the local coffee shop even though Daddy thought they couldn't hold a key. We also did the traditional 4th of July meal-- Indian food for lunch. Charlotte loved naan and liked Mommy's tikka masala sauce. She didn't care for Daddy's though (or maybe it was just Daddy's feeding method?)

New "big girl" car seat

We finally installed the new car seat in my car. She was getting too big for her infant seat. We still need to get the other one into Bill's car, maybe tomorrow....

Yogurt

Charlotte has been trying all sorts of new food. Anything green is yucky in her expert opinion. But blueberry yogurt is a hit. She's also a fan of carrots, sweet potatoes, tomatoes, apricots, peaches, prunes, *pickles*, puffs, baby yum yums (rice crackers), bananas, cantaloupe, and watermelon.

Notice how long her hair is getting....I'm still hoping to hold out on the first haircut until her first birthday, but I don't know if we'll be able to.

More lilies

At the garden on Friday

We took advantage of the nice weather on my day off for the holiday by visiting the botanical garden again. The day lilies are in showy bloom, Charlotte on the other hand had a rough time. Some sunscreen got in her eyes, so she wasn't in the mood for many photos....

Catching up on blogging

Yeah, we sucked and missed the whole month of June. Here's some pics to catch up.

Post bath time. This was one of her last baths in the little kitchen sink tub. She's outgrown it and moved on to her Primo Eurotub in the bathtub. She likes having more room for splashing. Daddy and Mommy miss the convenience of bathing her in the kitchen. We'll try to get pics of the new bathtub soon.

Reading her favorite magazine. Actually she likes to eat magazines more than read them. At least this one is vegetarian, right?

Charlotte with Grandpa. Since she's started to get teeth herself she really likes checking out everyone else's.

Pigtails

We took a shot at putting Charlotte's hair up in pigtails the other day. I think the subject proved photogenic.