here she is as promised

I do a lot of talking on this video! Charlotte tends to get distracted when she sees the camera so I was just trying to encourage her to keep crawling. :)

mobility update

Well, she's on the move! :)

On Sunday afternoon, Charlotte surprised us by getting up on her hands and knees and doing some "proper" crawling. She can also pull herself to standing on any stationary (or assumed to be stationary) object. So, needless to say, the head bumps have begun! Poor girl. I'm trying to keep a step ahead of her and move objects that she shouldn't have up to about 3 feet or higher... but she is still finding them. She seems to really enjoy her independence- and I am glad about that- but it's wearing me out! ;)

Our little Peanut also has a new nickname- "Tout de suite." For you non-francophiles out there, it is pronounced kinda like "toot sweet" and means "right now" or "immediately." Which is exactly how Charlotte wants everything. Incidentally, "toot sweets" were the candy invention in the movie Chitty chitty bang bang and there is a song that goes along. (Much to my joy and Rob's chagrin!)

You can watch it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jiKjAiK7yII

(Although, personally my favorite song from this movie is here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=thJOfavJLeA ) Awww... how could anyone not love Dick Van Dyke? :)

Anyway, we'll try to post a little crawling video over the weekend- so be sure to check back soon!

Enjoying a sunny day in the front yard.

8 is great!

Charlotte is eight months old today! So what's new?


*She is as friendly and sociable as ever, although she needs to know where mom and dad are at all times, and she cries if anyone leaves the room- even if she just met them.

*She likes going to Storytime at the Library on Tuesdays and is quickly learning to clap and dance along with the other babies (up to 24 months.)

*She has an affinity for shoes, and I struggle to keep our dirty ones away from her as she scoots and rolls around the house.

*She is eating lots of solids and some finger foods- little bits of macaroni, soft veggies and berries especially.

*She desperately wants to walk on her own, but still needs someone to hold at least one hand.

*She is starting to repeat sounds that we make... we call them "words" but we know they wouldn't be recognizable to anyone but us. ;) For example, "uffff" is "love" and "ap, bap, bap" is "clap, clap, clap."

SOMEBODY decided to let Charlotte taste chocolate on Father's Day!

(Yup, she loved it.)

Standing with support from the drying rack.

Happy 8 months baby!

Mama's got a brand new ride

This past weekend Rob, Charlotte and I went to look at cars. The air conditioner went on the Rodeo about 3 months ago and the estimate we got to fix it was $1500-- which isn't much less than what the Rodeo is worth! So, we decided to put that money into a new car instead and become a 2 car family again. :)

We were kinda focusing on the Honda Civic and went and test drove one of those first- but weren't really impressed with it. So we decided to stop by the Toyota dealer and we saw this green 2004 Nissan Altima that had just been marked down. We didn't believe him at first that it had just been marked down- but after a call to Pam to check the Blue Book value for us we learned that it was priced just below that! Yay! It had previously been used as a driver's ed car and has really low mileage and we figure has probably never been taken much over the speed limit. We also checked Consumer Reports and found that the '04 Altima had top marks in most categories. We were sold! So here are a couple of shots of our new family car.



I especially am very excited to have 2 cars again! Now the Rodeo can sit at the park-n-ride while Rob's at work and Charlotte and I can get to the library, grocery store, park, etc. whenever we want!

Hiking the Falls Trail

This past weekend we visited Rickett's Glen State Park with the Haydt family. While there, we all hiked the 7-ish mile Falls Trail- which is gorgeous! If you ever get a chance to go there, don't miss it! I'll spare you from pictures of all 21 of the waterfalls that we saw, but here are a few of our favorites...

Mark, Connor & Pam

Rob & Charlotte

(Thanks for lending us the baby backpack Spiveys!)

Mark, Leah & Pam

Yup, that's Rob and Charlotte down in the front.

Camping Out

We had a lot of fun in addition to the hiking that we did. We told scary stories around the campfire (but not TOO scary,) we went swimming and got ice cream at the beach, we caught tadpoles and a salamander that Connor named Spiderman, we had a funeral for Spiderman, and we had an enormous raccoon come to our campsite and peek in the tents and open the cooler (while we were all there! Apparently raccoons are no longer nocturnal at Rickett's Glen because they have learned that food is out during the day. The Brownie troop next to us said he stole their chocolate out of a tupperware container.)

Anyway, here a few pictures from our time at the campground:

Charlotte at Lake Jean. She loved eating the sand and banging the shovel on things.

(She's better at manuevering a sippy cup than a water bottle.)

Connor and Charlotte at the campsite.

A very tired Julie and Rob at the campsite...

Charlotte didn't let us get much sleep the first night!

Cooking breakfast... I LOVE campfire cooking!

Connor near Lake Jean.