Charlotte's Baptism

Charlotte was baptized on January 21st at 10:00 A.M. at St. Luke's by Reverend Richmond Webster.  Because our schedules have been so difficult to coordinate, we did a private baptism.  It was a wonderful event!  The weather, however, was not so wonderful ... but we managed to keep everyone dry.

Charlotte and her godparents, Corinne and Daniel Vrazel  

With Corinne and Daniel in the hospital

Charlotte was baptized in the same dress I wore 26 years ago!

Charlotte was really good for the actually ceremony, but was not in the mood to take pictures!

Exhausted, on the way to our celebratory brunch 

Charlotte was ready to dig into this cake!

6 Months!

{ Getting later and later on these posts!  I actually typed this out back on the 6th, but am just now posting it because I have had no time to upload the pictures ... }
I can't believe half a year has passed since Charlotte was born!  What a crazy 6 months it has been.  Charlotte's little personality is really coming out.  She is very strong-willed and not quite as laid back as I once thought she was.  She certainly knows how to make her needs known!  At the same time, she is quite adaptable and handles a schedule that changes on a daily basis as well as could be expected.  As long as she has what she wants, she is a very smiley, happy, and content baby.

Hard to get this little one to sit still anymore!!  She isn't crawling yet, but is constantly on the move ...

*Weight - 14 lb 9 oz
*Height - 25 inches
*Diaper size - size 2
*Clothing size - mostly 6 months, a few 3-6 months still fit

*Eats - mostly formula now.  I breastfeed her in the mornings and at night.  She is taking anywhere from 5-7 oz per feed, but still isn't on a good schedule in terms of her bottles.  This month we have introduced her to apples and squash.  She loved apples the first time we fed them to her, and did okay with the squash.  However, in the past week she has seemed uninterested in eating solid food.  She gets easily distracted and just wants to eat her bib.  On the other hand, she loves taking her bottle.  She can now hold it herself.  We will continue to practice with solid foods and eating from a spoon!

*Sleep - Her sleeping has regressed a little.  She goes to bed around 8 PM and wakes up around 6 AM to eat.  Throughout the night, she wakes up multiple times requiring us to put her pacifier back in.  Even though this gets to be exhausting and I really want a solid night's sleep, I can't complain too much because we never have to feed her in the middle of the night.  She quickly settles down.  This next month we plan to move her to her own room in her crib.  I think what has held this transition up is the fact that she still wakes up multiple times per night and it is so easy to put her paci back in because she is right next to our bed.  But I think it is time she learns to sleep in her crib and in her own room.  The longer the wait the harder the transition will be.

In the high chair she got for Christmas!

*Likes - dogs!  Nothing makes her laugh and giggle like dogs.  She loves them.  She also loves rolling across the room, her jumparoo, holding her bottle, baths, and walks in the stroller.
*Dislikes - when we try to lie her down for a nap ... she only likes to nap in someone's arms (which is becoming problematic), her car seat
*Our best attempt at a family picture this month (lighting wasn't ideal, but it captures the moment)

*First trip to the E.R.

On December 8th, we got a call from the daycare saying Charlotte's toe looked red.  We thought nothing of it, and were actually a little annoyed that the daycare called us at work about something so minor.  Later than night when I got home, I looked at her toe and it was the most unusual looking thing ... there looked like there was a tiny line / indentation wrapping around her toe and everything distal to that was red and swollen.  I went to my handy friend Google searched "baby red toe" and got all these pictures that looked just like Charlotte's toe.  She had a hair tourniquet which is an emergency because she could lose blood supply to her toe!  So Brandon had to take her to the Children's ER where they rushed her back to a room and numbed up her toe in preparation for taking a scalpel to the side of it to release a hair that none of us could see.  Thankfully, they were able to poke and prod at it and release a hair.  Now I compulsively check her toes for loose hairs!  The pediatrician Brandon saw the following day said in 10 years of practice this is only the second case she has seen ... continuing our trend of defying the odds for 2011
*Charlotte's First Christmas
So it wasn't exactly how I imagined it ... one by one we all got taken down by a killer GI bug, accompanied by fever, chills, and muscle aches.  But we made the best of it, and the best part of it was that somehow Charlotte never got sick even though everyone held her and her hands are constantly in her mouth!  I worked the week of Christmas and Brandon was scheduled to work Christmas Eve and Day, but had to take Christmas Day off because he was sick.  Thankfully I just had to go round both mornings and our service was really light.  The week of New Years I had off ... it was a MUCH needed break!

Getting her tights on for church

Family picture (minus Brandon ... who was the first victim of the GI bug)

Christmas morning

Our little tree at home with the few presents we managed to get wrapped before we all got sick

Charlotte reminded us of A Christmas Story ... a mix between Ralphie and his pink bunny suit and his little brother bundled up to the point where he couldn't move earlier in the movie