Random October Pictures

October 2011

enjoying new books

Madoc entertaining Charlotte

morning Charlotte

asleep again

the new suit that was his birthday/Christmas present

General Conference Weekend

Saturday

One of Charlotte's first walking videos

 Sunday

I'm just clearing out the picture queue. Here are some old ones.

August 2011

 A very young, dirty Charlotte face

Neil unhooking the fridge to clean underneath it

a very sleepy lunch

September 2011

 One of the many volunteer watermelons in our garden this year. It was huge and amazingly edible.

playing with the bells

Hide n Seek

Remember when we posted about how we rearranged the furniture so that Charlotte can't escape the family room? Well, one day Neil put Charlotte in there while he was cleaning the kitchen. Later he heard her whining and cranky and went to get her. But he couldn't see her anywhere - just hear her. He finally realized that she had climbed into the bottom of the armoire and couldn't get back out. Now she climbs right in whenever we leave the door open. And the big kids have started to join her.

The Stinky, Nasty Formula is Back

We finally had to give up nursing Charlotte and she's exclusively on bottles now. I hate formula but at least we know that if she's not eating it's her own fault. At her nine month appointment she weighed 13 pounds 12 ounces. She's so tiny and it's no wonder. We can hardly ever get her to finish a 4 oz bottle!

A Tiny Baseball Fan

Neil needed proof that Cardinals paraphernalia could look good in pink. He called, asking for a picture, just as I had got Charlotte dressed for the day and was putting her down for a nap. She was not at all happy about changing or posing for pictures. This was the best I got. 

Apples and Charlotte

For my mother, who called just to tell me that I needed to post on my blog. I didn't have anything to post about so I took some pictures of ordinary stuff yesterday. Here we go.

I was eating apple slices yesterday morning and Charlotte was enthralled. She followed my movements with her whole head, mouth wide open and tongue hanging out. I decided to giver her a slice just to play with. She was so happy with that idea. She was especially happy once I put her up on the kitchen table to take a picture. She sat there gnawing on her apple and slowly turning in a circle as she pushed herself around with her feet. So happy.

Pictures from today

 My family room looks like this nowadays.And despite all this someone still managed to get out of her corral

and decided to help me with the dishes.

 Madoc found all the pillows in the house (minus just two) and built himself a cheetah nest.

Charlotte is growing a little too fast

Charlotte is a tiny, sweet thing. She'll be eight months old in a few days. While we were in Indiana a month ago she finally started eating solid foods (yay bananas!) and she pulled herself up for the first time. She had just barely started sitting on her own before we got there. But that was only the beginning. In the course of two weeks she went from completely immobile to walking around furniture. None of my babies progressed so fast. She learned to crawl quickly. It started out as a modified army crawl where she would get up on her knees every third step or so and propel herself forward. It was only a few days before she was all hands and knees. She also learned how to get back into a sitting position, pull up on anything and walk around it, and go up the stairs. I hope she doesn't want to start walking anytime soon.

 Pulling up on the coffee table

 Madoc feeding her a bottle

 Ruffle bum - the outfit was mine as a baby

Sitting in the grass out in the backyard

Four steps up is a bit high

My seven and a half month old baby just climbed the stairs. Awesome.

6 months

Charlotte turned six months old last week. We went in to the pediatrician's office today for her six month check-up. Her height is still right  on track and her weight finally took a (small) upward jump. She's still a tiny little thing but she's growing! She weighed 11 pounds 13 ounces. 

Of all my children Charlotte is the most ready to smile. Her face lights up whenever someone pays her any attention. She's almost "officially" sitting on her own. She prefers to stand than sit and has been standing since she was a month old - she's so strong! She has her favorite toys (including Neil's iPod headphones) and loves to splash in the bathtub with the big kids. They fight over whose turn it is to bathe with Charlotte.

We still can't get her to eat solids. She's had rice cereal, pears, and bananas but she spits them all out and clamps her mouth shut when she sees the spoon. Hopefully that will change soon because she needs the calories.

Unfortunately she's already preferring mama to anyone else. The Young Women kept wanting to hold her at mutual last Wednesday but she screamed like a banshee every time they picked her up.

Neil says I pushed her over with the zoom.

Another Milestone

Charlotte recently started solid food. She's had rice cereal and pears so far. She's not a huge fan of the cereal and the jury's still out on the pears. She's a tiny little squirt so hopefully she'll take a liking to food soon.

He's just being nice

Madoc has this yucky little habit of sucking on his blanket and Charlotte sucks on everything these days so they were sharing.

Sometimes eating makes us sleepy...

Charlotte generally eats as soon as she wakes up from naps. This particular day last week she woke up from a long nap, ate her lunch, and promptly fell asleep again. I didn't know eating was such hard work.

They really love each other.

Charlotte

I don't talk about her very often but she is absolutely the sweetest thing in our house right now. Here's just a bit about her.

She's about three and a half months right now. I finally have a baby with brown eyes and boy are they big! I think I get more compliments on how beautiful her eyes are than anything else. And she is often compared to a dainty little doll. She's so small! There were about five baby girls all born within a month or two. Charlotte's due date was first and she was born third and she's the smallest of all!

I think that months 2 to 3 are always hard with my babies (are yours?) but we're finally past that. We had a few rough weeks of no sleep which were very disappointing because she used to go til 3 am! But now she goes til one or two o'clock and then wakes every two hours or so. Not perfect but we can manage. And she always goes to sleep on her own. Yay for that! Some naps are 30 minutes, some are close to three hours. She's totally unpredictable.

This little girl is very alert. She's either asleep or taking everything in. People always comment on this too. The big eyes probably help her look so alert. She loves to stand. I can't really wear her in the baby sling because she is always standing up in it. She is very strong and can hold her head very still. We can't leave her anywhere high anymore because she's already scooting. One day she actually managed to slide down into the bathroom sink! She rolled when only a few weeks old with the help of an incline but she did it all on her own earlier this month. I've been trying to catch it on video and I finally got this tiny little clip.

This is an attempt at getting her to roll again so I could catch the whole thing. I was unsuccessful but it's cute anyway.

This is Madoc playing Patty Cake with her. She loves this game and will laugh when we play. She has a very cute little laugh but we don't hear full on giggles too often. I'm always tempted to get her giggling but it always gives her hiccups that last an hour.

Cute Baby

Happy St. Patrick's Day

The Crapo kids on March 17, 2011

Cooing on the Couch

Amidst crying, eating, spitting up, and sleeping, Charlotte occasionally has time to play and be happy.

Charlotte's Blessing

We had lots of family here a few weeks ago. Both sets of grandparents, John and Becky, and my sisters, Abby and Chelsie came for the blessing. The kids loved all the extra attention. And of course the treats. Why can't grandmas come without treats?Neil's family
My family

Charlotte wore the same dress as Sadie. It was made by my aunt who also made my wedding dress and its style mimics my dress.
the blessing circle