15 Months

Today we had Charlotte's 15 month check-up, which was technically 15 months and 1 week, but close enough!

Here are the latest stats -

Height - 32.5 inches, 95% (I was surprised by how tall she is, and commented to the doctor that I had no idea where that came from. She said that genetics in that area will kick in around age 2)

Weight - 24 lbs 5 oz, 75% (I thought she would be more than this, but I guess since the last appointment she has been moving around a lot, thus slimming a bit since her 1st birthday)

Head - 48cm, 95%

Dr. Killian gave Charlotte a tongue depressor to play with.distract her with while she was doing the exam...worked like a charm!



Playing at the princess table (we always seem to end up in the princess room...great!)

Cousins!

A few days after we got back from San Diego, Steve's Mom, Aunt and Cousins were in town visiting from Canada and Shanghai. I had never met Steve's Cousin, Howcy, or her 2 kids, Kara (age 5) and Gabrielle (age 2.5). Charlotte had a great time playing with them. She was just "talking" away to both the girls. We played for a while at home and then headed to the kid-friendliest place we know, Red Robin, for dinner! My parents also came along to visit with everyone.

Gabby

Kara

Play time!



All of the girls were excited about the balloons, which we usually grab for Charlotte on the way out since she doesn't know any different. This time, we had to get it first! :) Everyone enjoyed their dinner and then we had some fun outside before everyone went their separate ways.

Charlotte thought Kara was really funny!

The Journey Home

We were once again up early for our return flight home! We had a great time on our trip, but it is always nice to get back to your own bed and "stuff". I felt more confident getting the car seat installed in the plane and was able to get a seatbelt extender this time to make it even easier.

Charlotte slept only about 45 minutes on this flight. We used all the same tricks to keep her entertained as on the way over - new toys, books, snacks, iPhone/Elmo. One added entertainment feature - Sky Mall magazine!



About 30 minutes from landing at Dulles we hit some pretty heavy turbulence. I knew it wasn't good when few minutes earlier the pilot came over the PA and told the flight attendants to sit down. I admit I was pretty scared, gripping onto Steve's hand and Charlotte's car seat. Charlotte on the other hand was laughing and clapping. You've gotta love the innocence of a toddler! We obviously landed safely, grabbed our bags, and my Dad was there waiting to pick us up.

Home again, home again!

San Diego Adventure - Day 5

Ah, our last full day in San Diego! Since we had the 3 for 1 tickets to the zoo/sea world/wild animal park, we decided to head back to the zoo to check out some things we missed and to re-visit our favorite exhibits. We had asked the concierge about the Wild Animal Park, but she said that Charlotte would probably be bored because the animals would be in a safari like setting and she might not be able to see things very well. Since we loved the zoo so much we thought it would be perfect to end our trip going back there.

Our plan was to go to the spots that we went to last on Tuesday, first this time, so hopefully they wouldn't be as crowded and Charlotte could get a better look. The first stop was the Orangutans. It was not crowded at all and Charlotte was able to stand right up at the glass and watch as the orangutans played and snacked on their popcorn...apparently, orangutan LOVE popcorn! I've always loved these animals and I think they are so cute, so was excited to get such a great look at them this time.

One of the orangutans was rolling back and forth in front of the grass. Charlotte was excited at first, but was soon distracted by her all time favorite pass time - people watching.

This is my favorite picture from this part of our day -


Then we headed over to the gorillas to see what they were up to. On Tuesday they had been far away from the glass up on the hill, but today there were right by the glass so we could get a great look at them. Holy cow, the "daddy" was HUGE!!



After the gorillas, we made our way up a ridiculously enormous hill (I mean, it had a warning sign at the bottom!) to the "Polar Rim" section of the zoo. I'm not sure why we thought this was necessary, but we just didn't want to miss anything! The polar bears were impossible to see because they were way back in the exhibit. Oh well, the climb up the hill was all for not :( After a stop for a few bottled waters, we headed back down to make a quick run through the rest of the zoo.

Although we had not had good luck with the Shamu show at Sea World, we decided to try out the Sea Lion show at the zoo. We found a shady spot to sit and there was more room between the bleachers that Charlotte could stand up and still see. She enjoyed dancing to the music during the pre-show and was interested in looking at the sea lions and other animals during the show. Yeah...success!

Before we could call it a day, we felt compelled to have some soft serve ice cream! Typically Charlotte is not interested in ice cream (please refer to the yogurt video). However, she REALLY wanted to hold onto my cone. So I quickly ate most of the ice cream off the top and then handed it over.



After another quick stop in the gift shop it was time to head back to the hotel! Charlotte was definitely ready for a nap...




The rest of our last day was low key. Charlotte had her afternoon nap, during which I began packing up our suitcases for our early morning flight the next day, then we headed back over to Seaport Village to grab dinner. Once again we had issues with birds, but we made it through another meal relatively calmly.

San Diego Adventure - Day 4

On Thursday we decided to drive over to Coronado to check it out and maybe have some time at the beach. It was quite overcast, but we packed up the car and headed out after breakfast. We made it over the bridge and just took a scenic drive to see what we could see and try to find a place to stop. We spotted a big playground, so we stopped so Charlotte could play a bit.

This was Charlotte's first time on the swings!





View of the Coronado Bridge from the playground


The weather still wasn't that great, and we didn't think it was too beach worthy, so we just drove around a bit more on Coronado then headed back across the bridge and back to the hotel. We put Charlotte in the stroller and headed a few blocks to check out the Children's Museum. This museum was interesting, but not that engaging for toddlers. It is very new age looking and sparsely decorated, you know, for those "California types." :) And, it was $10 admission! Luckily the lady gave us a break and let Charlotte in free (kids under 1 are free, but since she was only 14 months she let us slide). We wandered around for about 15 minutes and then spent a little while in the Toddler Forest (the one tiny space geared towards younger kids).




After the museum, we headed over to the local mall to grab lunch at O'Brothers Burgers (http://www.obrothersburgers.com/), which Steve had researched before we traveled to San Diego. It was a simple place, but pretty good food. After lunch it was time to head back to the hotel for Charlotte's much needed afternoon nap!

After nap we once again headed out on the town. This time we went up Harbor Drive to check out the USS Midway and grab dinner at The Fish Market (http://www.thefishmarket.com/). We were thinking about going inside the Midway Museum, but since we wouldn't be able to bring the stroller, we thought it would be too much to carry her through and if she happened to get antsy in the middle of an aircraft carrier, it wouldn't be too easy to make a quick getaway. So, we settled for viewing it from land.




There are several statues and monuments on the grounds around the Midway.


Charlotte giving Bob Hope some love


It was still a little early for dinner (or so we thought) so we waited outside the restaurant for a few minutes and Steve took a few pictures of Charlotte playing in the grass. Notice the scrunched nose look - this is her latest "thing"





Then we headed inside The Fish Market to get a table for dinner. The hostess asked if we'd like inside or the glass enclosed patio. I asked about an outside table and she said it'd be about a 20 minute wait. We put our names in to wait for the outside table because we wanted a good view AND inside the restaurant it was hot! Yes, San Diego has lovely weather and it is nice and breezy outside, but most places do not believe in turning on the A/C inside...I do not agree with this philosophy! We ended up having to wait about 40 minutes, but Charlotte was good while we were waiting. During dinner she was not as well behaved...combination of hunger, being tired, and the BIRDS!!!




We skipped dessert at the restaurant, as Steve promised to walk over to Ben & Jerry's at Seaport Village after Charlotte was in bed to get us a treat! Phew...it was another busy but fun San Diego day.

San Diego Adventure - Day 3

Charlotte had another good night and we were ready for another great day in San Diego! On the agenda for this day - Sea World. We did the usual morning routine - breakfast, pack up the diaper bag, grab the car and head out. This time we remembered the tickets. :)

We pulled into the parking lot with perfect timing, as the park was just opening. We walked in and planned our strategy. There was a Shamu show at 11 that we wanted to try to catch, so we had about 90 minutes to see some of the other exhibits before we went to find seats for the show. Whereas the zoo had back to back exhibits and there was always something to see, Sea World was divided in different buildings and there was a lot of "dead space" which was fine for us, but Charlotte was not as entertained as she was at the zoo. We made quick work of the penguin house and then had probably the best time going through the Wild Arctic building seeing the polar bears, walrus and beluga whales.



There were a few other buildings and exhibits that we made our way through rather quickly and we still had quite a bit of time before the Shamu show. They have a relatively new area of the park called Sesame Street Bay of Play with various activities and rides for the little ones. Since Charlotte is not walking yet, most of the activities were not accessible for her, but she still had a good time. We tried to go on one of the rides - Abby's Sea Star Spin - which was very similar to the Tea Cup ride at Disney. The sign said "no handheld infants allowed." Ok, so I don't have to hold her, she can sit on the seat, so we should be good, right? We get up to the front of the line and the attendant asks "can she walk?" And I just said "yes" thinking we could just walk on by and get on the ride. She said "I need to see her take 3 independent steps" What?! You aren't allowed to stand on the ride, so why the heck does she have to take 3 steps?! Oh well, I put her down and hoped maybe she would be inspired to walk, but no go. We had to get out of line and couldn't ride :( I'm just glad Charlotte is of the age where she didn't know what we were missing out on, so no harm was done.



After some play time, we headed over to Shamu Stadium to grab seats for the show. People must come into the park and go straight there to get seats FAR in advance because 20 minutes before the start of the show it was almost full! We had already planned to get a seat near the exit, but we had no choice in the matter anyway. There wasn't much room for Charlotte to stand or move around, so we had to hold her in our laps. We busted out the water cup and snacks to keep her occupied. She kept reaching for other kid's snacks and stuffed shamus and was getting pretty antsy. The show finally started and she oohed and ahhed a few times at the jumping and splashing, but after a while of this and the loud music and cheering, she was just done. We scooted out of the stands and watched a few more minutes from the outskirts, then headed back to Sesame Street to hopefully meet some of the characters. They were scheduled to appear at 11:45 for a photo opp. It was only about 11:20 at this point and Charlotte was just not having a great time, so we decided to skip it and head back to the hotel and have lunch.

We went back to Seaport Village for lunch, which didn't last long because Charlotte was really fussy and needed a nap. After her nap we headed down to the Gaslamp Quarter where there are tons of restaurants and shops. We had reservations at La Fiesta and were excited for some authentic Mexican food (and margaritas)! After walking up the street a few blocks and looking at a few shops we headed to dinner. We got a nice table outside so Charlotte could be entertained by the passersby. It was a really good meal, and Charlotte had a great time people watching, as usual!

I had spied a Ghiradelli ice cream store across the street from the restaurant, so we passed on La Fiesta dessert and headed across the street! This was an awesome place...you ordered at the counter and they brought the ice cream to you like a "real" restaurant...very cool! You could get lots of cool toppings and sauces. Yumm-o. Charlotte just sat nicely in her stroller reading her book while we enjoyed our ice cream. After our treat we headed back to the hotel to call it a night!

San Diego Adventure - Day 2

Before leaving VA, we had basically charted out our schedule for the week. Our first full day in San Diego was going to be spent at the zoo! Charlotte woke up at a decent time - around 6 I think. We got up, got showered and dressed and headed down for the "free" buffet breakfast. Yum!! Charlotte enjoyed her typical breakfast of a banana and 1 of 3 starches (pancake, french toast or regular toast). We had already decided that we'd skip trying a morning nap and just head out to the zoo, which opened at 9am.

The hotel where we stayed was so convenient, it was only about a 10 minute drive to the zoo. We pulled into the parking lot and in my typical fashion of asking questions that should have been asked before we left, "do we have the tickets?" Uh Oh! We forgot the tickets that we had printed out at home in the hotel room! No worries, we had the confirmation email and were able to go to guest services and get new tickets printed. Phew! We had purchased the 3 for 1 ticket which you could use at the zoo, sea world and the wild animal park and could come and go as many times as you wanted to all three places during a 5 day span.

We got through the gates right as they were opening the zoo and started studying the map. We covered as much of the zoo as we could. This zoo is absolutely amazing (in our opinion), there is so much stuff to see and you can really get up close and personal with everything. The paths wind through beautiful greenery and there is something around every turn. I was so happy that things were also able to be seen from Charlotte's level so she really enjoyed the view just riding in her stroller! Oh, and the awesome weather made it even better....mid 70s and a cool breeze!

We wandered around for several hours, grabbed lunch and then went to the children's zoo where they have an area where you can pet goats and other farm animals. By this time we were all getting a bit tired - we had done a lot of walking! So we decided to hit up the gift shop and then head back to the hotel for Charlotte's nap.

Here are some of our favorite pictures from the zoo adventure: (some of these are actually from our 2nd trip to the zoo on Friday...we decided to go back to get a better look at some of the exhibits that were more crowded on our first visit - the orangutans and gorillas, as well as to see our favorite part of the zoo again - the elephant odyssey)





After Charlotte's nap we decided to walk on down to Seaport Village, a shopping and restaurant area right on the water and very close to our hotel. They have an old fashioned carousel that I decided Charlotte needed to ride! Steve was nervous about this idea (I don't know how he is going to make it through her teenage years if he is nervous about her riding a carousel with me holding her the whole time!) :) She seemed to have a fun time, and I think I realized that I am just not cut out for these "spinny" rides anymore...at least not on a regular basis!



We strolled around a bit and looked at some of the shops and then decided to have dinner at one of the restaurants there - Edgewater Grill. It was a lovely view of the water, but eventually got pretty chilly with the breeze as it had turned a bit overcast. I had of course forgotten any sort of long sleeve shirt for Charlotte that evening, but she ended up being fine. This was the evening that we discovered he developing fear of small birds though (those little ones that hop around...sparrows maybe, and pigeons). Problem with outdoor dining - birds at your feet! Problem with San Diego - there is lots of outdoor dining! Luckily we were able to distract her enough and the meal was relatively calm (as the week progressed, this was not always the case).

Our view from the table -

Coronado bridge in the background -


After a little more wandering, we headed back up to the hotel to call it a day. Overall a fantastic day in beautiful San Diego!

San Diego Adventure - Day 1

Our Monday began very early - 4:45 am. We got up, got showered and dressed, brought the bags down and loaded them in the car. My plan was to get Charlotte up about 5:45, change her into another pair of pajamas so she would be comfy on the plane, and then head to the airport. My Dad was coming to drive us so we wouldn't have to drag all of our stuff to the terminal from the parking garage. What a huge help!

Luckily the line to check our bags wasn't long, and we were on our way to the security line in no time. This was the part I was dreading most. The TSA lady must have seen the look of stress in my eyes and she let us in a separate line where there was no one else waiting at the time...thank goodness! Charlotte was riding in her car seat with the GoGoBaby wheels attached. I had to get her out, take the wheels off and then put the seat through the x-ray machine. We hadn't practiced enough evidently because it took a long while to detach the wheels. I then tried to put the seat on the belt...it didn't fit and someone had to hand check it (this was after another lady was like "are you sure it doesn't fit?"). We finally got through security, put all of our stuff back together and made our way to the gate. We sat down and I got Charlotte set up with her breakfast. Despite all the effort exerted checking in and going through security, we still had about an hour before boarding, so we had to let Charlotte move around a bit since she wouldn't be able to for a while. I wasn't too keen on her crawling around on the airport floor, but hey, you do what you gotta do!

We boarded the plane, I wrestled with the car seat to get it installed and we were on our way. I was worried because Charlotte's feet could touch the seat in front of her and she had discovered it was fun to push and kick on the seat. I premptively apologized to the person sitting in front of us and hoped for the best. Luckily Charlotte fell asleep a little while after take-off and slept about an hour. I was hoping she'd sleep a bit longer, but oh well. She was a good girl the whole flight. Once the seatbelt sign had been off for a while, we decided to get her out and hold her a while. She enjoyed people watching and smiling at sleeping passengers :) She eventually crawled back into her seat and we gave her milk and a snack.

We heard the flight attendant mention we still had about an hour and a half left of flying time. We were all getting a bit antsy, so we started pulling out new toys from our "bag of tricks". After those were exhausted, out came the iPhone! Steve had put a few episodes of Elmo's World on his phone so we could entertain Charlotte a bit.

Here she is with the iPhone, very focused!



After a little while longer we had landed at the airport. We decided to wait until most everyone was off the plane to attempt to get out ourselves since we had to undo the car seat and get a whole bunch of stuff down the aisle. The seat was a bit tricky to detach as the buckle was behind the seat and there wasn't much room to get my arm back there. When we finally got off the plane we didn't see our stroller that we had gate checked. The flight attendant called down and it had actually been taken with all the other luggage to the baggage claim area. Hmmm...so much for the convenience of the gate check! Oh well. We had to wait a little while longer in the gate area because there was a fire alarm somewhere in the airport and they were holding everyone back until they got it cleared up. Finally we arrived at baggage claim and retrieved all of our stuff (including the stroller). We headed outside and over the skybridge to get on the rental car shuttle.

Here is a pic of Charlotte in her ride waiting for the shuttle (notice the mismatched outfit - she spit up at Dulles airport before boarding so I changed her shirt)



We got the rental car, loaded everything up, installed the car seat and were off! I had called the hotel while waiting to get the car to see if our room was ready or if we should go somewhere else first to grab lunch. Luckily a room was ready so we went to the hotel first. After freshening up a bit, we ate lunch at the hotel restaurant and then headed back up to the room so we could try and get Charlotte a nap. She fussed for a while but eventually fell asleep.

After her nap we headed up the road to the local grocery store - Ralph's - to pick up a few things to have in the room. We were able to keep Charlotte up until about 6pm (9 pm east coast time, and 15 hours after she had woken up that morning). We were in bed not too long after! Overall not a bad travel day.