Dinner Out

We had planned to meet some friends for happy hour/dinner at Rio Grande/Uncle Julio's this afternoon. Luckily our friends are willing to be early birds to accomodate Charlotte's schedule, and also luckily, Charlotte took a nice long afternoon nap so she would be in a good mood while we were out.

I had the diaper bag loaded with all of the necessary distractions - book, stuffed toy, rings, puffs, oatmeal and veggies. Even though I had brought Charlotte's dinner with me, I decided to order her something from the kids's menu since we are trying to incorporate more finger foods. So I ordered her a kid's quesadilla! This was Charlotte's very first time with real restaurant food!! Exciting, right? The quesadilla also came with a little cup of fruit - cantaloupe, pineapple and grapes. We steered clear of the pineapple and grapes, but cut up the cantaloupe and she seemed to like it. Although when I picked her up at the end of the meal a lot of cantaloupe (along with puffs and a wagon wheel) fell to the floor. I'm guessing she got at least a few pieces! She also seemed to really like the quesadilla - pulled apart into the tiniest pieces - I am so paranoid about choking. She can probably barely taste them they are so small!

I took a picture of Charlotte's first kid's menu order -


And here she is at the restaurant!




Charlotte was such a good girl at the restaurant. We were there for nearly 2 hours and she was just great the whole time. She enjoyed looking at everyone and interacting with our friends. I think she is finally opening up to them - it takes her a few times seeing someone before she will really smile and play. Oh, and as usual everyone and everything she looked at was "da-da" :)

Portrait Innovations

Since Charlotte is now 9 months old, it was time to head back to Portrait Innovations! Well, it's not like we HAD to go back for 9 month pictures, but 3 month intervals seemed like the thing to do as a first time Mom :) Last time we went it was for 6 month/Christmas pictures and Charlotte wasn't able to sit up on her own, so I thought this time it would be easier. Hmmm...think again!

I thought I had the perfect timing for our appointment - after morning nap and before lunch. The studio was surprisingly not busy so we got started pretty much right away - that is after I had to change a dirty diaper. Charlotte always has the best timing with these things! I sat her down on the first backdrop and she was not very happy to be there. The photographer, Steve and I went through all of our "get the baby to smile" tricks with not a whole lot of success. We tried to get her to stand up holding onto one of their many props...that didn't work at all (we are still very shaky with this skill anyway). We had one outfit and background change, but not much change in mood. We decided to just stop and see what we had because at this point we were creeping towards lunch time and I knew that Charlotte's mood would only get worse!

So, they loaded up the pictures on the screen. Surprisingly the photographer had managed to get over 50 shots, and there were actually some pretty darn cute ones! Steve made Charlotte's bottle and fed her while we were looking and making our choices. We managed to spend less than we did during our Christmas visit, but not dramatically less! We scheduled this session on a weekend because Steve wanted to come along and "keep costs down," but we all knew that he would have just as hard of a time turning down pictures of our beautiful little girl!!

Here are a few of the poses that we ended up choosing. There are much cuter ones, but for some reason blogger is posting them sideways and I can't figure out why.





And here are a few of the ones we didn't...but of course we purchased enough to get the CD so we can have all the pics :)

This girl looks pretty pitiful huh?




"Didn't you get the hint...I am NOT happy!"

Big Laughs

Apparently Charlotte was in the mood to laugh today! I opened a "new" toy for her. We have been rationing her Christmas toys and open a new one every now and then. Today it was the Busy Ball Popper. Thanks Marie, Martin and Jack!! Take a look at this video and let me know if you think Charlotte likes her new toy...


Charlotte was also very amused by Peyton the Cat today for some reason. He wasn't doing anything in particular, just doing what he does best - sitting around and being lazy.

Valentine's Weekend

This weekend was pretty jam packed with activity! Saturday morning I was to go to my Nana's house and help my Mom and Jacki with sorting through stuff and picking out a few things I wanted to keep while Steve watched Charlotte. Well, Friday night Steve had a fever so we decided it wouldn't be the best idea for Charlotte to be around him too much. So, I took Charlotte with me to Nana's house - this meant no morning nap! It was also a completely new environment so Charlotte was not thrilled to be put down for even a second. So I was basically no help in the sorting process, but did manage to make a little pile of stuff to keep!

When we got back home Steve was feeling much better so we decided to keep our evening plans. We had planned to go to an early bird dinner at Carrabbas with Kathleen and her friend Graig, and then they were going to stay at the house and "watch Charlotte" (aka listen to the monitor) while we went to
a movie. We loaded up in the car and arrived at Carrabbas before 5pm only to find out there was already a 2 hour wait! Needless to say we did not wait, and instead headed over to IHOP :) And again, needless to say it was NOT crowded. Just a few other families with small kids. We got our fill of pancakes etc and headed back home. Charlotte was a champ despite the runaround to find a place to eat. We gave her a quick bath, she drank her bottle and was fast asleep. Then we got to go see our movie - He's Just Not That Into You. We both liked it, even though it was a chick flick :)

Since Steve had recovered from his short illness, I was able to keep my hair appointment for Sunday. Then, we decided to try another dinner out. We headed back to Carrabbas, and this time we got right in. Charlotte enjoyed people watching, and we were right near the open kitchen so she was fascinated by the fire. Lots of little old ladies came over and said how cute she was. This reminded me of Nana - I remember every time I went out to eat with her she would have to go over to any table with babies and talk to them! Another successful dinner out. It's a good thing this girl is good at restaurants, because it would put a serious cramp on our eating if she wasn't. Hmmm...maybe we could stand to miss a few meals though :)


What? A 2 hour wait??

9 Months Old!

Today is Charlotte's 9 month birthday! We are continually amazed by how much she is learning literally every day. Just a few short days ago she stared at the Gerber fruit puffs as if they were aliens, and would only eat them if I placed them in her mouth. Today she is shoveling them in her mouth like it is her last meal! For the past few months i've been giving her various styles of sippy cup to try and she showed absolutely no interest. Today I filled up her cup with water and she sucked it right down! Craziness I tell you.

We went to the pediatrician for her check up this morning and here are the latest stats:

Weight: 20lbs 11oz (75-90%)
Height: 28.5 inches (75%)
Head Circumference: 45.5 cm (75-90%)

I was happy to be able to check "yes" next to all of the developmental items on the doctor's questionnaire today. Another good thing about this appointment - no vaccinations! Well, she could have gotten her hepatitis shot today, but the doctor said we could also just push it to the 12 month so we decided on that. Charlotte did have to get her finger stuck for a few drops of blood to do the anemia test and of course let out a cry, but immediately stopped. She continues to be very low key about most situations.

We still have no teeth, but the doctor said she'd just like to see one tooth before the age of 15 months, so we aren't going to stress about that. Also, she said that from what Charlotte is able to do so far, she wouldn't be surprised if crawling is in our near future. I just need to work with her on getting both the front and back halves of her body in the air at the same time! Doctor asked about baby proofing and I was proud to say that we had already installed gates, magnet locks on the kitchen cabinets and outlet covers. She said once she starts moving we'll notice a bunch more stuff too!

Here is our not so little anymore 9 month old in one of her many Valentine outfits. This is also her new favorite thing to do with her tongue.

Random Tidbits

Here are a few random pictures...

Charlotte sitting in her very own chair!




The extreme mess that results from "eating" a piece of Zweibak toast.




An artistic shot of Charlotte playing...

A day at the park...

...Make that a few minutes at the tiny neighborhood playground!

Since the weather was so nice again yesterday, we decided to go out on another walk. This time we headed the other direction up the street to the little playground set by the pool and tennis courts (which were being taken over by a group of crazy high schoolers jumping the fence and daring each other to walk over the pool cover). Obviously Charlotte is not old enough to actually play on any of the equipment, but of course we were able to take some pretty cute pictures!





I tried to get her to hold on to the monkey bars, but she wanted no part of that, so it was back to the slide for some more pictures. This was quite possibly the narrowest slide I have ever seen...I mean, I don't think the chubby kid in class could fit down this thing (meaning me when I was playground age). It was a little painful to sit on for the pictures, but we managed. Darn these hips!

Charlotte and her Daddy...she really was in a good mood, just happened to capture a cute pout in this pic. This is the only one where both of them were looking at the camera!



I like this one, except for my schnoz protruding in from the right.






I know it's blurry, but thought the face was pretty cute!


And here are my favorites...

Skills Update and Shout Out

Here is an update on the latest skills that Charlotte has acquired.

We have been working on this skill for a while but I have not been able to catch it on video until now. Charlotte usually goes all godzilla on the camera and trys to grab it!
t

Here is a clip of Charlotte saying her first "word."



We also discovered today that Charlotte is able to go from a sitting position to her tummy. This is still a skill in progress however because she is still working on getting her legs and arms unstuck. Sorry, no video of this.

...

Finally, here is a shout out to one of our loyal blog followers. Although Charlotte is a Tar Heel fan, she can sometimes be convinced to cheer on the Hokies. Thanks for reading, Izaak!

Huh? What's a Hokie? Wait a minute, what's a Tar Heel?

This is February right?

The weather here is a little wacky these days. We go from one day of 20 degree temperatures, to today which was about 60 or so. And the rest of the week looks like it will be above 50! So...after a trip out to pick up Charlotte's new car seat (we aren't putting it in the car yet, but we wanted to get one while we had a 20% coupon) and lunch at Spartan's, we decided to take a walk.

I was worried about the sun being in Charlotte's eyes, so I had Steve go to her room and find her hat. Thanks to Dawn and Brittany for this super cool hat!



Flavor-Flav!


Then we were off on our walk!

It was a little bright at first...

Mommy had trouble getting me buckled in...we are not used to using this stroller yet!

Is this supposed to be fun?

We walked from our house "all the way" to the shopping center to pick up a movie from the RedBox. We are not sure how long this trek really is, but for us it was probably the most exercise we had gotten in a long while, so it was good! Apparently it was far enough to take a nice nap in the fresh air.

I guess that was pretty fun after all!

Superbowl...and a card from China!

Charlotte experienced her first Superbowl this year. We didn't really have a dog in the fight as they say, but Steve was cheering for the Steelers because of Mike Tomlin and his Tribe Pride. I had a soft spot in my heart for the Cardinals because Kurt Warner had played well for me in Fantasy Football, but really I was just in in for the food! :) Kathleen and her friend Graig came over and we made lots of yummy junk food perfectly suitable for football watching. Unfortunately we only have one picture of this event, and it is not of Charlotte. We continue with Steve's love of taking pictures of food...

Behold the mini potato skins!


In other news...
Charlotte's Grandma (Steve's Mom) is traveling overseas for the next few months. But that doesn't mean she can't send a card to Ms. Charlotte for her first Chinese New Year! Here is Charlotte admiring her card from Grandma.



Oooooh, that is one cool dragon!