Who's who?

Here is a picture of Emily and Charlotte, both taken around 7 months in the same outfit and same spot in our house.  Can you tell who is who?!

Homemade baby food

Emily has been eating pureed baby food out of a jar for about a month now, so Mom came up to help me make some of our own.  I like knowing exactly what went into the food, but I also like being able to introduce a little texture as early as possible.  Mom also brought with her a fancy new food processor so we could get more done at a time.  Charlotte helped us prep, and before long we had every burner on the stove going and the food processor grinding.  We made apples, plums, peaches, carrots, and peas.  I think we made enough for at least a month.  Charlotte kept asking, can I have some more?!

Happy 7 months!

We have officially entered the "golden age".  Sleeping through the night, starting to show some personality, lots of smiles and giggles, but still not mobile (no chasing around!).  This really is one of my favorite stages with a baby.  Still small enough to feed and cuddle, but big enough to sit and play contentedly.  Emily has such an easy temperament.  She truly takes each day as it comes and very rarely cries.  She is enjoying all her baby food, is tolerating some finger foods, lays down for bed with a smile on her face, and wakes up again with a giggle.  She tracks me every where I go, and as long as she can still see me she is right as rain.  She is completely sitting up on her own now.  She is starting to pull things towards her to play with, and studies it for a minute before putting it in her mouth (as opposed to shoving it in her mouth with no consideration last month).   She wants to pull up to stand on everything which is a challenge for those little legs.  She has absolutely no interest in crawling or tummy time, but I swear she is about to start cruising around our furniture.  Once she is up by the couch she is already shuffling her feet.  She has started this hilarious habit of smacking her lips.  Literally like you would say "Mmmm, that was good" and smack your lips.  She does it all the time.  She also likes to babble really, really loud. (Second baby syndrome!) and if someone responds back to her it could be a good 30 minutes before she stops again.  Her favorite toy is a little weeble toy that goes around and around, and her favorite game is "peekaboo".  Not your generic hide behind your hands peekaboo though, she wants you to hide and pop up somewhere.  Charlotte can get her laughing every time!
Life at 7 months is happy!

Birthday weekend

Ah, another birthday. The age just doesn't fit with the image I have of myself, but even more than that I can't believe another year just flew by. Crazy!

Bryce's cute, cute, cute present for me. It's our family of four+doggies

My present opening helpers.

Dinner at Bonefish:

Sister fun

It's not always fun and games with these two girls....we are still working on sharing (Charlotte) and not pulling your sister's curls (Emily) but every once in awhile they will just get along so well that it makes me say "See! Having a sibling can be fun!"

Emily actually IN her toys!

Charlotte taking Emily and her toys for a ride

One of Charlotte's favorite things to do with Emily is feed her

Charlotte flipped her Dora tent upside down and filled it with balls

Add in a sister.....

And you have lots and lots of giggles!

Here Kitty Kitty!

Charlotte's favorite thing to do every evening is go "searching for kitties". Our neighbor has three cats, so she is usually rewarded in her search!

Big girl school

Big girl school has not gone as well as I anticipated. At the beginning of July we started driving by the building and pointing to it "Look, there's your new school". Then we started pulling into the parking lot, "Look, there's a playground at your school. You'll get to play there every day!". Next, we actually went in and met her teacher. We started talking about Ms. J for about a week before pre-planning started and Charlotte was really excited to be a big girl at a "real school". As much as we adore Mrs. D, I knew Charlotte was ready to move on and was so happy to see her excited about going to a school.

I had to accept that Charlotte will be one of the oldest kids in her class. She is not starting pre-k this year because of her birthday. You have to be four BEFORE September 1st in Georgia to enroll in pre-k, even in the private pre-k sectors (because you also have to be 5 before September 1st to enroll in kindergarten, 6 in first grade, etc.). So after much searching for theright place we finally settled on a place that is close to home, felt very clean and friendly, and has a class for four year olds who are also in Charlotte's situation. All the kids in her class have birthdays from September to December, and they treat it like a "pre" pre-k. I should have written a blog about my search for the right school, that is a whole post in and of itself!

So, day one comes around. At the very last minute, I ended up being the drop off person. Once Bryce realized how early he was going to have to be at school the first day of pre-planning, we decided it just wasn't fair to the girls to have them out the door that early. I should have been more mentally prepared, but I wasn't. I went to Charlotte's school for drop off first since it is the closest to our house, and from the minute we got out of the car Charlotte was attached to my hip. We went to sign in and walk back to her classroom and I was basically dragging her along with me. When it was time to say good-bye she hugged my neck so hard. I could feel her little heart beating hard and she was taking big deep breaths. The look on her face was fear but she was trying SO hard to be a big girl about it. I got out of there as fast as I could so she wouldn't see me cry. As soon as the door closed behind me it was a flood of tears down my face. I walked out of there with my head screaming "I just left my precious child with people I don't know!". I had to keep telling myself over and over again that this was the best place for her. I cried the whole way to Mrs. D's house to drop off Emily, and all the way to work. With Emily, my sadness came from knowing that I will be at work for the rest of her baby days. I will be at working while she is learning to crawl, talk, walk.....I'll have a little mini toddler by next summer. You realize how fast it all goes the second time around.

Even one week later, Charlotte is still not loving her day at big girl school. She is so verbal that it hurts my heart to hear her say she is scared, or sad, or lonely while she's at school. She's been having nightmares at night too. I know it just takes some getting used to, but man it's hard!