8 Months Old

Here she is folks! A whole 8 months old and playing with Annabelle, my childhood babydoll. Hang in there Annabelle!

Clean Clean Clean

Did I mention that the house is CLEAN? I mean really, really clean? I think it's the first time the house has been this clean since the Sunday before we had Charlotte. It took two weeks to get it this way and it was worth it.

FYI: Stevens and I have agreed that once Charlotte is done with formula we are hiring a cleaning service. Sooo excited. Not excited for her to grow up and be off formula but excited about having a clean house and not having to do the work to get it that way. Oh! So wonderful!

Tough Night

Whew. Last night was a tough one. Not sure what was wrong, maybe her teeth? Charlotte went down pretty easy 'bout 8:30ish, then was up at 11:30 for about an hour and then again from 4 to 5:30. Lots of crying. She and I ended up sleeping in the guest room. Nights like last remind me how lucky we have it. Lots of little ones still don't make it through the whole night at this point. Charlotte usually gets 10-12 hours a night - WITHOUT waking. I am beat.

"Mama"

Yesterday Charlotte said, as plain as day, "Mama." It was in the midst of her usual jibber-jabber but, she said it. Made me stop and drop what I was doing. Of course, she had no clue what she said because everything else was just Charlotte-speak. But, man, it gave me chills.

New Car Seat(s)

Stevens installed Charlotte's new car seats today. We actually bought them a month or so ago — I think we were in denial - she is getting so big - and procrastinated installation. The other day she really looked squished. Poor thing. But, all is well now. She is riding in style in her new Britax Diplomat convertible. Had to get two since convertibles don't have interchangeable bases like infants seats. Things just had to get more difficult, huh?

Eye Surgery

Charlotte had eye surgery today and all went very well. Remember I mentioned that her tear duct was clogged (at two weeks old)? Well, most of the time such a thing clears up on its own by 4-6 months; Charlotte's did not. So, the pediatric opthamologist recommended that we surgically unclog the duct to make everything better. So far so good. Keep your fingers crossed!

Here is a pic of her waiting to go in to the operating room. She wore the teensiest hospital gown complete with ties in the back. And, they put a smiley face above her left eye to make sure the correct eye was operated on. The surgery was simple - she was in and out in 10 minutes. There are a couple more pics here.

Super-Duper Update

Ok. I'll be the first to admit it - I have been awful with the blog. So sorry. I promise to be better. I swear. That being said, there has been a ton of stuff going on since the last post. I contemplated writing millions of separate posts but, that will take forever. So, just this once, I 'm gonna go all-in-one on you (this accounts for the entire 7 month period). Here goes...

• reaches up to you when she wants to be picked up, and sometimes just because you walked by the exersaucer
• knows exactly what her pacifier is - we can bury it in a pile of toys, she will pick it out and put it right in her mouth while she plays
• first vacation - trip to Bethany Beach with ENTIRE family; pics are here
  
• she loves to 'dance' - shakes her head back and forth, waits for you to do it and then she repeats
• scoots herself backwards (with arms) when on tummy - she still isn't too sure what those little legs are for
• 'practices' consonants; jabbers & babbles
• sits very well without support
• starting to clap hands together and wave bye-bye
• lunges forward to reach objects and toys
• sleeping on tummy though she most always flips herself over in the middle of the night
• gets very upset when mommy or daddy leaves the room

Can you believe all of this?