We are going to Spain in May, so we had to get Charlotte a passport, and this is her passport photo. She looks like she’s in some kind of police lineup or something. The passport is good for five years, which is also funny.
I got Charlotte a jumperoo a few weeks ago. My mom put it together when she was here last week and it was absolutely hilarious watching Charlotte when she first saw it. It must have been the baby equivalent of winning the lottery. Her feet don’t reach the floor when she is in it, so we have to put a pillow or something underneath for her to stand on. The novelty has worn off a little bit but she still just looks amazed when she hits something and it makes a noise.
The weather is very slowly getting nicer around here. This past weekend we took a few nice walks in the Arboretum. Charlotte hates her car seat so we have been putting her in the Bob jogging stroller without the car seat. She’s still probably a little too small for it but with some bundling it works fine. There were a few tulips and crocuses popping up on our way to and from the Arboretum.
In just the past few days Charlotte has started really holding on to her toys and pulling them toward her mouth.
Charlotte enjoyed her first St. Patrick’s Day in a cute new green shirt. She passed out after partying too hard at the cardiologist:
Everything looked pretty similar to last time–no big changes in her heart murmur, so we’ll go back for another check when she is 6 months old. Charlotte was very sociable and didn’t fuss at all through the visit, even when they pulled the EKG stickers off her skin. We were very impressed.
Brian has taken charge of Charlotte’s cultural education:
She’s a very squirmy little girl these days, and she’s been drooling up a storm too. This is my last week of maternity leave so I’m trying to enjoy my quality time with Charlotte. Today we went for a nice walk in the Arboretum with my friend Melissa, and went to the sushi place in Roslindale for lunch.
Bedtime hasn’t been so pleasant lately–Charlotte just does not like going to sleep. We moved her from the bassinet in our room to her crib a few weeks ago, and ever since she hasn’t been sleeping as long as she was in our room. We’re hoping she will start doing 6- and 7-hour stretches in her room soon.
We finally caught some of Charlotte’s smiles on camera. This week she rolled over from her stomach to her back, which was very exciting. Of course she did it on the only night I have been out without her since she was born! But Brian got to witness it and she has demonstrated a few more times for me.
It was cold and snowy earlier this week and we bundled up for a walk:
And then today and yesterday it has been beautiful, in the high 50s, so we spent a little time on the front steps in the sun today.
We got this little chair for her to practice sitting up.
On Thursday Charlotte had her 2-month doctor’s visit and she got a bunch of vaccinations. She was pretty cranky the rest of the day and had a little fever. But now we can take her on the T! Although there probably aren’t vaccines for most of the germs you find on the T.
Last night Charlotte slept from 9pm to 5am. It was amazing. She woke up hungry and I fed her, then she fell back asleep for another few hours. Yesterday she and I went to a StrollerFit class with a friend of ours and her baby. It was a good workout for me but I am really sore today.
Charlotte has been working hard on getting her hands in her mouth. She has started to like her swing more and it usually puts her to sleep.
It’s been awhile since I’ve updated our blog! Charlotte has been cranky for the past week or so and I have hardly had my hands free. Brian’s mom was here for ten days to spend time with Charlotte. We went downtown, went to my parents for dinner and had dinner out with the baby at Geoffrey’s, one of the local restaurants.
Charlotte passed the ten-pound mark recently, and she’s at about the 50th percentile for her age. This week she is getting her first shots. Charlotte has started to hate getting in her car seat. Once we get going she is usually fine. She’s definitely more interested in the world around her when we go out. She used to fall asleep and stay asleep, but now she doesn’t always fall asleep in the car or wakes up when we get to our destination. My mother’s class ended last Thursday, but we’re still planning get togethers.
Charlotte listened very attentively while Brian read her two books:
She’s getting more interested in her solar system play mat and tries to whack the spaceships and planets that hang down:
We made sugar cookies for Valentine’s Day. We break out the cow cookie cutter for every holiday when we make cookies.
Yesterday I took Charlotte to Harvard Square for the first time to hang out with the smart kids. We had lunch with my friends Jon and Kathryn and she was pretty well-behaved, although not asleep like I had hoped she would be. Charlotte has had some fussy days lately–I think she was having a little growth spurt this week. She gets overtired sometimes too and needs help falling asleep. We’ve had a few good nights with five-hour stretches of sleep, which we all enjoy. Those happen every few nights, just often enough to give me hope.
Kristin and Mike came over to babysit last night so Brian and I got to go to dinner. We took Charlotte out for dinner last weekend and she slept soundly through the whole thing while we celebrated our first night out with her with some fancy grape cosmos.
Charlotte has been smiling more and interacting more with her toys. She’s starting to grab at things and is working on getting her hand in her mouth.
We’ve had a busy past week around here. Last weekend was my birthday, and Kristin and Mike came up from Providence to babysit Charlotte while Brian and I went out for brunch. We had cake and presents too. It was such a nice day. The best part was that Charlotte slept from about 11:30 to 5am the night before my birthday!
My friend Shalon was in town for a few days this week, and we took Charlotte on her first trip downtown. Shalon watched Charlotte at the hair salon while I got a haircut and then Charlotte slept through our lunch out. The baby jogger turns out to be great for navigating sidewalks and curbs and icy snowbanks. We managed to get out for a walk Wednesday in a sleet/ice/rain storm, which Charlotte also slept through.
We have seen a few smiles here and there and Charlotte seems more interested in colorful toys, especially if they make noise. I weighed her today at my mothers’ class and she’s still gaining lots of weight. She’s up to 9 pounds now.
Charlotte has been a very hungry baby lately, which is good since she’s finally catching up on her weight gain. We went to the doctor for another check yesterday and she gained nine ounces this week! So that was a relief. Yesterday was also baby’s first trip to the mall, which went well. We met up with other mothers from my class for lunch, then we shopped a little bit.
We have seen a few little smiles from Charlotte in the past few days. She smiled at my mom this past weekend, and this morning smiled at herself in the mirror. She’s also making more non-crying noises. In general she seems to really, really like being awake. Even when she looks exhausted, with little baby bags under her eyes, she doesn’t like to fall asleep. Lately it’s around midnight to 2 a.m. that she’s really wide awake, although then she will often sleep a longer stretch till 6 or so–last night she slept almost 4 hours straight, which was so nice.
Brian and I got to have dinner out by ourselves last weekend, thanks to my parents. It was great. And Charlotte met her great grandparents and great aunt when Nana, Papa and Auntie drove down Saturday. We have been updating Flickr with more pictures, here.
