Monday, December 27, 2010

Charlie's First Christmas


We celebrated Christmas four times this last weekend. Charlie really was a lot of fun. She really liked banging her hands on the presents and trying to eat the paper. She also has enjoyed all of her new toys.

On Christmas Eve we went over to my mom's to celebrate with her. We got there early to open presents and then we had a great meal.


We had Christmas morning all to ourselves. We woke up slightly early (when Charlie woke up) to eat breakfast and open gifts. This is the first year that we didn't have to go some where on Christmas morning. I am pretty sure this is how we will continue to do it from now on. I want to start our own family traditions.


That afternoon we went to see Tallon's family at his brother's house. We have two nieces and 3 nephews on his side of the family. So there was a lot going on and lots of gifts to open. We had a great time watching all the kids and Charlie open their presents.



The day after Christ we went over to my dad's to celebrate with him. My dad is one to go all out for Christmas (or really any holiday). He makes it last all day... and I love that. We take turns opening gifts and wraps up every little thing so there are more things to open. We arrived around 10:00am and didn't leave until almost three. The whole time we were either eating a delicious meal or opening gifts.


Charlie received SO much stuff this year. She got a ridiculous amount of new toys. She also got a ton of new clothes. I didn't realize how much clothing she got until I was putting it all away. Her closet is now full. We had to buy a new book shelf and toy box to put in her room for all of her new stuff. Her room went from looking like a little baby's room to a kids room.

Wednesday, December 15, 2010

Sitting Up and Smiling!




Charlie decided yesterday that she was going to sit independently. She seems pretty happy about it too. It is amazing how babies just decide to start doing things. One day they can't sit up and the next they can.

She is able to keep herself up pretty well. Also, when she starts to fall back she is able to stop herself and get back to sitting.

Some other cute things she has started doing include:
  • Making the raspberries sound "phphphph." It is quiet and slobbery, but it is coming along.
  • She has started making a "ba...ba...ba..." sound. She sticks out her lip to do it and it looks like she is about to cry.
  • When I pick her up from daycare and recognizes me when I enter the room. She watches me as I collect all of her things and smiles really big when I walk towards her.
  • She has started to reach out a little when someone else has her and she wants me to hold her. (this might be something that is not really happening, but that's what it looks like.
There are a lot of other things, but these seem to be favorite right now.

Now I will leave you with some more pictures....

Sitting up in the bath tub with dad

Attempting the raspberries sound


"phphphphph"


"ba... ba... ba..."


Wednesday, December 8, 2010

Foods = No Sleep


Okay... maybe not no sleep... but we have had less sleep over the past month.

Charlie took to eating foods quite well, but her tummy did not. Over the past month her sleeping patterns have changed. I thought it was growth spurt or possibly teething. As we increased the solid foods the night wakings increased. Last weekend we a few bad nights. Saturday she stayed at my mom's and around 6:00pm she started screaming. Charlie rarely cries... so when I called my mom and heard Charlie in the background I got very concerned. We rushed over there, but by that time she had calmed down enough to go to sleep. It was obvious her stomach was hurting.

On Sunday Tallon and I decided not give her any solid foods for the day... mostly to give her tiny tummy a break. That night she slept so much better. I think she only woke up once... I gave her the pacifier and rolled over and went right back to sleep for the rest of the night.

We have not given her solid foods all week... in result we have had no night wakings. She is sleeping from 7:00pm until 6:30am without even a peep. It's amazing. However, I do feel really bad for feeding her so much. She seemed to really like to eat... so I kept feeding her. I feel like I have been torturing her tummy for over a month. We decided to keep her off solid foods for a week or two and then we will start back at the beginning. I will start again with cereal. I will give her smaller portions and fewer servings. Hopefully by 6 months I will get this figured out. I want her to eat solid foods, but I really don't want her stomach to hurt - and the sleeping is good too.

Friday, December 3, 2010

5 Months Old!


It seems that Charlie is another month older again. It is all going by SO fast.

Over the past month we have started giving Charlie some solid foods. We started with rice cereal. She didn't seem to like it all that much. I even tried mashing up bananas with it, but that still didn't help. I am reading a book called Super Baby Foods and it said to try sweet potatoes. Well, she LOVED sweet potatoes. So far we have tried cereal, bananas, apples, sweet potatoes, avocados and peaches. She likes bananas, but them to upset her stomach. Apples also seem to give her a tummy ache. She shook with disgust when she tried avocados. The daycare lady said she loved peaches, but she kept her mouth clinched shut when I tried feeding them to her. So, we are sticking with sweet potatoes for a little while until we can start some other veggies. Maybe she just doesn't like fruit all that much.

Besides starting foods Charlie has started to roll over more and more. She is starting to sit up a little... very little. She talks a lot and smiles all of the time. It's really fun when she starts to laugh... she has kind of a deep voice (for a baby) so her laugh is kind of raspy. It's so cute. She has also started sucking her thumb a little more. I am actually pretty happy about that. She likes to have a pacifier while she sleeps, but when it falls out she can't always get it back in... I am hoping soon she will settle for her thumb.

She is a pretty good sleeper. Although, since Thanksgiving she hasn't been sleeping as well as I would like. She has been waking a few times a night. She is easily soothed back to sleep. She never needs a bottle in the middle of the night and if we put her in the swing she sleeps great. I am trying to avoid the swing for sleeping purposes, but when it is 4:00am and I can't get her back to sleep I put her in the swing. I am sure that will be a very hard habit to break, but some day she won't fit in the swing and we will both be forced to do other things.

Charlie is an incredibly good baby. Tallon and I love her so much! We have had so much fun over the past 5 months.