Daily Wanderings, Lifetime Wonderings: August 2009

We can't believe that today (yesterday) we have a five month old; it just doesn't seem possible! She is getting stronger every day, loving to sit or stand whenever possible. She started tripodding about 3 weeks ago and just this week has started sitting up by herself. The longest she has gone has been about 10 seconds and we never leave her alone, but she always looks so proud of herself!

I've been asked how the dogs are doing; they're doing great! She is noticing them all the time now. She recognizes the sound of their tags rattling and their nails on the wood floor as they walk around. We go outside twice a day and sit on the living room floor about twice a day and play ball with Colby (Zoe just runs around barking at Colby, it's the annoying little sister in her). We have been working on the dogs' tolerance with Charlotte. Both dogs now let her grab, pet, hit and pull on them. Zoe just rolls over and lets C do whatever to her, including her ears and nose. Colby has even had his nose grabbed! He just moved away but no growling or anything. We've been really proud of both dogs! C will even hold their little milk bones and feed it to them. Zoe just about took a finger off grabbing it the first time, while Colby was very delicate and wouldn't pull at all. One of the pictures attached is Colby and Charlotte sharing some ball time.

This past month included a trip to Tulsa for a wedding, seeing Scott's side of the family while there, introducing cereals, veggies and fruits, her first trip to the zoo, discovering the toes can reach the mouth, swimming for the first time, and a whole new set of clothes - she is now totally in 3-6mo clothes! There were 3 babies her age at the Lake Day party so it was fun having other little bitties around in the pool. So far, Charlotte has had rice cereal, oatmeal, green beans, sweet potatoes, plums, bananas, carrots and butternut squash. The only ones she really dislikes is rice cereal (now, she liked it at first) and green beans. Bananas and plum together is a favorite! She had a few days of severe crankiness, leading us to wonder when teeth might appear. Today, the drooling had kept the whole family soaked!

Sorry there are so many pictures, I couldn't decide which ones were best, so you get them all! Also, there are a few new videos on youtube if you're interested. Go to youtube.com and search sjhovis.

PS: I sat her up facing me today with her dresser to her back and she sat up for almost 2 minutes playing with a toy with me! She only leaned back to her dresser once that whole time! What a big girl!