....Five Months....

Today our Charlotte is 5 months old!

She is learning to do all kinds of new things everyday. She can now sit up on her own for a little while. Sometimes she props herself up with her hands, but she can sit unsupported and is getting better and better at it every day. Lottie has her first two teeth, they came in a few days after she turned four months old, and she loves to chew and bite. She laughs and smiles all the times and loves to "talk" to anyone that will look at her.

She is getting so much bigger too, we are phasing out her 3-6 month clothing and starting to pull out the 6-9 month wardrobe. The only problem is that all of our baby girl clothes that size are for Fall and Winter so we have to pick up a few new things to get us through August.

Here is our little Lottie in her 5 months onesie!

It is getting so hard to get pictures of her on her back because she would rather roll around or play with her toes.
And here is our Charlotte with her piggy. She is such a cutie!
Lily climbed up onto the chair to sit with her while we were taking her picture.
Lottie loves the Jumperoo and has mastered catching the parrot.
Also, a couple of days ago we started giving Charlotte cereal. She has been grabbing at everyone else's food when we sit down to eat and trying to get it into her mouth so we decided that it was time. She liked it, but did not eat much. We'll keep working with the cereal for the next few weeks and then we will start in on some veggies.
Could someone please tell father time to slow down a bit, my babies are growing up way too fast!

It's working, it's working, it's working!

Lily's therapy is really working! This afternoon for lunch I made chicken cream cheese rolls. I've made them before and last time Lily played with it a bit, eventually took a bite, but then stopped when she got to the filling. Today she played for a while, eventually took a bite, and then ate almost all of it! It was so exciting to me to watch her eat a new food item. She also ate half of a tortilla pizza a few nights ago and is playing with other food items more and more. I keep serving veggies, she only eats carrots (YAY!), but I'm not to stressed about them right now because I sneak enough veggies into her diet that she is getting the nutrients that she needs. But new protein and entrees are a big deal around here because they are the hardest to get her to eat.

Also, Lily's "Big Girl" sticker chart is working as well. Lily gets so excited to get to put a sticker on her chart when she accomplishes on her her tasks. This morning she accomplished a new on, she PEED IN THE POTTY! You know that your life is consumed by parenting when your toddler peeing in the potty is the highlight of your week. I don't mind, I'm very excited about it. We aren't hitting potty training hard this week because I'm going to be very busy, but next weekend we are diving in head first!

Why do they have to grow up so fast?

Someone needs to tell my girls that they need to slow down and take their time growing up, because they are getting way too big way too fast!

Charlotte thinks that she gets to sit up on her own now. I snapped this picture after she sat there for a couple of minutes this evening. It is just so naughty to be growing up so quickly!

We are back to trying to potty train Lily and I decided that she needs to have some more structure and a couple of little tasks that she needs to do every day. They are little tasks, like getting dressed, brushing her teeth, going potty, picking up her toys at the end of the day, things like that.
I wasn't sure how she would respond, because she has never seemed interested in things like stickers, mostly because I don't really keep them around, but when I put it up and showed it to her she was very excited. After we brushed her teeth this evening she ran to her chart and asked for the sticker. It is going to be a bit of a process getting her to understand it all, but so far so good.

We went swimming today with friends and Lily learned out to hold herself up in a tube.
Charlotte relaxed and even napped for a minute in her floating ring. I have a couple of water babies!

A Normal Week

With two little girls every day brings something new and this week we have had a lot of fun.

Lily has started playing dress-up. I'm not sure where she picked this up, she has never played dress-up anywhere, but she is loving it. Earlier this week I had her half dressed, clean shirt but she still wanted her pajama pants on, when she came to me wanting to wear her apron and matching kerchief. She was playing "mommy". This is not what mommy dresses like, I promise! I get dressed every morning, I only wear an apron occasionally, and very rarely do I wear a kerchief.

She played like this for a while.
The next day we had her appointment with her SLP and Lily insisted that with the rest of her outfit she needed this little skirt. It was actually kinda cute.

An update on our meetings with the SLP, things are going well. We have changed to going every other week because Lily is making some great advances. They seem small, but they are big steps. Lily has started to eat peanuts, almonds, and carrots. She is starting to put new foods in her mouth, she is even licking a lot of food, though not eating it yet. Her diet hasn't expanded much yet, but we are getting there. We just need to keep working on it.
Lily loves to color, she LOVES it, even at the park.
Lottie is also gaining new skills every day. Her new favorite thing is to stick her tongue out. She loves to razz and play with her tongue. She is also playing with her feet now.
Charlotte is getting more and more mobile and it is just naughty! I can lay her on the floor and she will be across the room in a minute. I snapped this picture and by the time that I stood up she was 3 feet away. She can also spin herself around and get toys that are out of reach.

I can't decide who Charlotte looks like. She isn't looking as much like Lily as she used to, she is growing into her own little person.
I LOVE watching my girls play together. Of course Charlotte doesn't play much at this point, but when she sees Lily she smiles big and watches her play. Lily loves to take care of her sister, she is always bringing her toys, blankets or anything else that she might like.

The other day I framed a little picture of the two of them and Lily carried it around with her all day. I laid Lottie on the floor to play and Lily brought the picture and put it in front of Charlotte and laid next to her.
She laid there for a while playing with her, then she would get up and do something else, and then come back to Charlotte. This was another sweet moment that I caught.
This afternoon while I was doing the dishes I turned on a movie for Lily and when I looked into the living room this is what I saw. Lily had her arm around her at first, but then switched to hold her hand.
I love how much they love each other. They are the sweetest little sisters and I hope that they grow up to be good friends. They've had a great start.

A Few Little Videos

I have cute kids. They can make me crazy sometimes, but they are sweet and sure make me laugh. Today I caught a few little moments on video.

Bath Time

Bedtime is something that I look forward to every day. I love my girls, I love playing with them and caring for them, but it can be exhausting work so when 8 o'clock rolls around I'm excited.

Part of our bedtime routine includes baths, usually, unless mommy is really tired and just not up for bathing two little girls by herself. My girls LOVE to take baths! If I need to kill 30 minutes before bedtime a long bath always does the trick. The other night I managed to take a few pictures while they played in the tub.

We piled onto Lily's bed for stories, another part of our routine, and Lily held Charlotte while I read to them.
This is probably my new favorite picture of the two of them together. They are such sweet sisters! Charlotte's face brightens up and she smiles so big when Lily plays with her, and Lily just loves to play with and help take care of her baby sister.

Independence Day!

We had a great time yesterday celebrating the 4th of July!

We went to Settlers' Park in the afternoon with friends and let the kiddos play. As always Lily had a blast in the water.
She kept trying to get a hold of this water to drink it.
Charlotte lounged in the shade with me and the other grown-ups.
She was happy though.
My little sister Hailey came with us.
Apparently to eat and apple it must first be place on a fork.
Around 9 o'clock we left the park and went to my parents' house. Their neighborhood gets together and does fireworks and shares treats. Lily needed my sunglasses I guess.
The last couple of years I had pretty much stayed home on the 4th because Tyson always has to work and going somewhere alone never appealed to me. It was so nice to get to be out with friends celebrating such a wonderful holiday.

Goofy Girls on the Go

Oh what a day this has been!

This morning Lily dug through Charlotte's closet and found a sock monkey that I made about a year ago and a tutu and decided that it was time to play. Apparently she and the sock monkey were going to go for a ride.

She then climbed into my bed and grabbed my copy of Jane Eyre and read to herself for a little while.
She then found my cell and chatted away!
This afternoon I made a hodgepodge throw everything into it smoothie and Lily loved it! 1/2 veggies and 1/2 fruit and Lily downed it.
And of course some time was spent outside playing in the yard.
Charlotte is getting so big! She has learned how to sit up on her own, she can't stay up for long, but she can hold herself up for a little while. She is way too little for this!
She is getting more interested in the play gym now and plays with it all of the time.
She also likes to be on her tummy more. Today she mastered rolling from front to back (she has been rolling from her back to her front for a little while) and now she is rolling all over the house. I can set her down and a minute later she has moved 5 feet. Again, it is WAY too early for this!
On Friday Charlotte's first tooth broke through!
The second tooth is almost through, but until it breaks through chewing on mommy's finger will have to do.