....Four Months....

Today our little Lottie is 4 months old!

Her doctor appointment isn't for another week so I won't get her stats until then, but she is sure getting big. Her 3-6 month onesies are getting a little tight already.

Charlotte is such a happy girl and she is very interactive. She loves faces and she smiles at anyone that will smile at her.

As she gets bigger and bigger she looks less and less like her big sister. She is her own little person with her own little personality.
She holds herself up really well and is sure a mover. She is very proficient at rolling herself from back to front. She has rolled from front to back a few times, but she hasn't mastered it yet.
Charlotte is also working on her first two teeth. The will be breaking through any day now and we will all be happier when they finally do.
Lottie and her piggy!

Charlotte loves to be upright so we set up the Jumperoo and she loves it already! She moves around in it quite a bit and Lily stands in front of it and plays with her.
This baby girl is just growing up so quickly. We are already 1/3 of the way through her first year and time just seems to keep speeding up.

*UPDATE* Charlotte's 4 month stats (10 days late) 15 lbs 6 oz and 25-3/4 in long.

Lily Ate Pizza!

Today at lunch Lily ate 1/2 slice of pizza!!!

It is kinda sad just how excited Tyson and I were as we sat at the table with her and watched her eat her lunch. She also ate a bite of carrot, only a bite, but she ate it and didn't spit it out so a big success. Maybe these therapy sessions are doing some good after all!

She was so proud of herself! Jennifer, her therapist, has us cheer for her and she loves to join in.

Finger Painting and a Trip to the Lake

I bought some new finger paints the other day. I've been looking for activities to keep Lily busy. The more that I can keep her occupied the happier she is. I've discovered that most of her tantrums stem from boredom so we are trying to avoid that.

I draped Lily in one of her dad's ratty old shirts and set everything up outside on the patio (no point having this mess in the house) and let her go at it.

She dove right in. No fingers here, full hands playing in paint.

She had as much fun painting her palate as her paper.
So to wash up, I changed her into her swimming suit and handed her the hose.
Today we decided to head to the lake for the afternoon. Of course we chose the coolest day of the week to go, and it was rather breezy, but we still had a great time.

Charlotte was happy the entire time that we were there, which was awesome, so that made everything better.

We have learned that grapes trump water with Lily. Lesson learned. When I want to get Lily to come in out of the pool should offer her a few grapes and I'll get her out of the water without tears.


I'm pretty sure that this will be an activity often repeated this summer.

Sweet Sisters

Lily loves to be a big sister and she REALLY loves to hold her baby sister. At least once every day Lily either climbs up into my chair or sits down on the floor and sticks her arms out. This is how she tells me that she would like to hold Charlotte.

I place Charlotte in her lap and Lily usually gives her a kiss.

And then a good cuddle.
Or two...
She usually gets tired of holding her and then releases her. When I pick Charlotte back up Lily puts her arms out again and we repeat the process.
I have the sweetest little girls and they just love each other!

Summer is finally here!

And not a day too soon, well I guess it came one day early as tomorrow is the official start of summer. But if the weatherman is to be believed (which honestly he never is) this next week should be full of beautiful warm weather.

Now that the weather is nice we have been spending our mornings at the park with friends and then our afternoons are usually spent at home, but we have the occasional outing. Last week we went with our playgroup to the zoo and today I took the girls to Lakeview Water Park in Nampa. I was very proud of myself for taking both girls swimming all by myself. I'd be lying if I didn't say that I was scared to death to do it, but we all survived and had a great time. I didn't get any pictures there because, well, my hands were full.

But we came home and continued with the water play on the back patio and I did manage to get a few pictures of that.

Charlotte is turning into such a big girl! I can't believe that she will be 4 months old in just one week.

She loves to be outside, but she gets very upset when the sun is in her eyes.
Lily loves to be outside as well, and she especially loves to wear her sunglasses.
She also loves the flowers. I made the mistake of letter her pick a bachelor button a few weeks back and now she wants to pick every flower.
I love my girl and her big pink ball.
Being outdoors has been so wonderful for the girl, but I think that I enjoy it even more than they do. It is amazing what some sunshine and exercise can do to improve your mood.

Getting Outside

It was another beautiful day! I don't want to jinx it, but I think that Spring might have finally shown up in Idaho, and not a moment too soon given that next week summer technically begins. Anyway, the nice weather means more time spent outdoors. We spent the morning at the park with our playgroup and then the afternoon was spent playing in the yard.

I snapped a few pictures this afternoon because, well, because I do that. I love to have pictures and my camera is always near me so it doesn't really take much effort.

I didn't put the stroller away right away which meant that it was the perfect seat for her to relax in.

Oscar killed Lily's last ball so we picked up a new one this afternoon and it is almost as big as she it!
She has really figured out kicking and kicks it all around the yard. Apparently this afternoon Lily could not do anything without keeping a firm grip on a puzzle piece.
Lily climbed up and asked to hold Lottie. She's getting better at it, but Charlotte still gets worried.
Our little blue-eyed girl! I'm amazed how well she tolerates lying in the grass.
She preferred when I helped her sit up though.
Baby toes!

Tomorrow promises to be another busy and fun day.

ABC Quiet Book

I finally finished my ABC quiet book! I made it for the girls, though Charlotte is a little young yet, to take to church and help keep them entertained and quiet through the meeting.

The cover here is a green microsuede.

A is for apple and it has a flap that they can lift to expose the inside of the apple. B is for butterflies and they can be removed from the net.
C is for clock and D is for Dress-up.
The E is for elephant. The ear is stuffed and a flap and made from denim. F is for flowers and they button on.
G is for grapes and they assemble to bunch of grapes. H is for hair. The bows at the bottom are removable so they can learn to braid.
For the I they can build ice cream cones. J is for Jack-in-the-box.
K is for kite and the bows are removable. L is for lollipop. This page is about matching colors.
Mail is for mailbox with a flag that moves and a box that opens. N is probably my favorite page. It has a nest with little red birds that come out of the eggs.
O is for owl with eyes that spin and a beak and wings that open. P is for puzzle. The pieces stay in a little pouch on the page.
A stretch but Q is for quack and the duck are buttoned on. R is for rainbow and if they lift up the little hill there is a pot of gold at the end. The rainbow is even accurate. I still remember ROYGBIV from grade school.
The S page has a shoe for learning how to tie. And T has a tic tac toe board that folds up with a pouch containing playing pieces.
U is undersea. There is a large blue flap that they can lift up to see a fish, octopus and starfish. V is a basket full of vegetables.
W is for weave with strips of felt for them to practice weaving with. The X is for xylophone. It doesn't do anything, but not a lot of fun things start with X.
Y is for yak and it is just a texture page, soft and fuzzy And the Z is for zipper. The little pouch has a few crayons and a small notebook.
It is FINALLY finished! I'm not letting Lily play with it at home, mostly because there are a lot of little pieces and I want it to be a special toy for church so that she is more interested in it when I give it to her. So I guess that we will see how she likes it on Sunday.

Charlotte Talking

I thought that I would share a short video of Charlotte talking. It is hard to get it on film because once she sees the camera she goes silent and just stares at the camera. Charlotte has also discovered her giggle, but it is also hard to get on film. When I get it I'll share.

Fun in the Sun!

We finally got some warm weather around here this weekend so we took full advantage of it. Saturday afternoon the girls and I went to Settlers' Park in Meridian. It is the best park, they have several HUGE playgrounds and splash pad that runs all summer long. I brought Lily a couple of times last year, but she was a little nervous about it last year, but this time she really enjoyed it.

Charlotte hates the sun in her eyes and was a little fussy so I wasn't really able to get any cute pictures of her.

Lily stuck with the smaller fountains, but even with the smaller fountains, she got more and more adventurous as time went on.

After playing in the water for a while Lily wandered over to the playground. This playground is AWESOME! The ground is recycled tires, but there is something soft underneath it so it is kinda bouncy.
She thought that this was a solid walkway and was unsure when it started wobbling.
Lily ran and ran all along these walkways for quite a while and was not thrilled about having to leave to go home.
Here's a short little video of Lily playing in the water. Maybe next time we go she will venture away from her one little fountain.