Dear Charlotte,

Charlotte you are 10 months old today and I'm not quite sure how to explain how it feels to say that. In so many ways, I feel like you've been part of "us" for so long, but in others it feels like you just arrived. Your precious personality is revealing itself more and more each passing day. You are a joy to be around, happy and smiling most of your waking moments. You love to laugh, to be tickled, to listen to music, to crawl around the house exploring all that you aren't supposed to get into. Caroline's toys are a constant point of interest for your little eyes and hands. If she is in the room, your toys take a back seat to whatever it is she's playing with, especially if it's something like her tiny Disney princesses. In fact, anything to do with Caroline is your number one priority. She can make you laugh like no one else and she can play rough with you in ways that you would never allow anyone else. I can't tell you how much joy that brings to me and your Papa, seeing our girls love on one another is truly an amazing blessing.



You love to snuggle with me and Papa when we hold you, burying your head in our shoulders, hanging on tightly to your blankie. You love to hear yourself "talk". In the car or sitting in your high chair, the refrain from you is often, "Ba, ba, ba. Da, da, da." This morning I think you were trying to sing on the way to school; you starting saying, "ah" very softly and slowly getting a little louder and higher in pitch until I was literally laughing out loud at how high and loud you got.
I cherish every moment with you sweet Charlotte girl!
Love,
Mama

Blue sky day

We spent some time outside this afternoon with the girls. Caroline and Jeff went rode their bikes and I pushed Charlotte in the stroller. It was a beautiful afternoon, blue skies, bright sun, and a little breeze. The girls are great; Charlotte has recovered nicely from her surgery and we'll go back Tuesday to see how everything looks!

And we're back

Yes, we're still alive and well. I'm not sure what has happened to the past two weeks, so I won't attempt to explain my absence. But, I'll give a quick rundown: Jeff was out of town for a week, Charlotte has been sick (ears), and I've been busy at work, so when I get home the last place I want to be is on the computer.

In other good news, Drew and Amelia had their baby, a precious boy named Asher Andrew. I wish I could kiss those cheeks right now! Isn't he beautiful? There is something really special about seeing my brother become a father, something I really feel he was born to do. Drew is patient and kind and level-headed, all wonderful attributes when it comes to caring for a newborn. Or a teenager. Amelia is a beautiful mother and I know this boy will easily live up to his name with the two of them guiding his way.



Charlotte is actually getting tubes tomorrow, so we're gearing up for that. Thankfully we've been through this once before with Caroline. The recovery for her was a matter of hours, so I'm predicting by Monday afternoon we'll be back to normal over here. The worst part of for Charlotte should be waking up and not being able to eat until after the surgery. Have I mentioned before how much Charlotte loves to eat? Should be interesting.

Caroline is doing well in school; she's been on a writing kick these past few weeks. She wants to write everyone's name, so I'm busy writing sheets full of people's names so she can copy them. It's fun to see her progress in her writing skills even over a short amount of time. I'm not sure where she gets it from (ha.), but she can be a little obsessive about these types of things. I'm just relishing the time now when she is obsessed with something like writing letters.
Building with her Dora house set. This was called "pincher house".


Jeff and Caroline made masks the other morning. Caroline had so much fun.


Cheering on the Tigers!

This afternoon when we got home from church, I was feeding Charlotte her lunch and Caroline was in her room listening to the Little Mermaid soundtrack. I heard her singing and when I went to go peek in her room to see how she was doing, I saw that she was using her bed as a little stage to perform along with Ariel. I caught part of it on camera; here you go!

Swimming girls

We've been trying to make it a point to spend some time at the pool in the afternoons and evenings as the summer winds down. Caroline has gotten to be a pretty good little swimmer, though her bravery is still bigger than her skill right now. But, I like that she is confident and enjoys being in the water. Charlotte loves to be in the pool too and it is such a joy to watch her splash and kick and smile and laugh at herself.

Jeff and I both have really good memories of being young spending time at the pool in the summers. I have especially fond memories of those summer mornings at the pool with friends followed by the afternoon thunderstorms. We'd run for the car and stop by 7-Eleven and the movie store on the way home. There's nothing like drinking an Icee with your hair still wet from swimming, cuddled up on the couch in your towel watching a movie. When I think back about those days I can almost smell the chlorine and sunscreen.





Here's a glimpse at our girl's bravery in action:

Looking back

While looking for pictures on our old hard drive, Jeff unearthed a couple of old of Caroline as a baby. They don't have any sound b/c the digital camera we had back then only took silent short videos, but they really made me realize (yet again) how our little girl has grown. We're getting into the applying for kindergarten season and honestly I don't think the realization has truly sunk in that SHE WILL BE IN KINDERGARTEN NEXT YEAR. Maybe if I keep typing that sentence in all caps I'll get it (?).

So apparently Caroline's head cannot win lately; she had another mishap the other night, this time involving insects instead of furniture. On Sunday evening, Jeff and and Caroline were outside, and Jeff was pushing Caroline in our wheelbarrow. He stepped on a pile of sticks and palm branches and a huge, angry swarm of bees came flying out and attacked them. Caroline got the worst of it: four stings, three to the face. She is fine now, but she was scared after it happened, mostly because Jeff grabbed her and ran away as fast as he could. After they came inside and Jeff explained to me what happened, Caroline added her version of the story. She said, "We were playing outside and having fun and then Papa stepped on a pile of stuff and that was not a great idea!" She's doing fine now though and only one of the stings is swollen.

In other illness-related news: Charlotte had a high fever last week for a few days (one night getting up to 105.3), so I was silently resigning myself to the fact that she had the flu and it would pass along to Caroline and perhaps to us as well. I hate to say it, but I was never happier to see a red rash than I was on Sunday when Charlotte's little body was covered! Not the flu, but Roseola! She is fine too and after my post on her height and weight stats, I have to report that due to the fever she was not interested in eating for about three days, so we're now down another pound. Hopefully that hungry baby will rev back up and put on lbs soon!

Finally, here are the little videos of Caroline - enjoy!

First, this is one of her in her high chair clapping and playing "So Big". She's 10 months old.


And this is one I took of her the week she learned to walk; she had just turned 1.