playing and gardening

Over the weekend we had a nice visit with the Spiveys and we were so excited to see Josh and Charlotte finally interacting a little bit with each other. Josh gave Charlotte her first taste of papaya and she ate the whole jar! Oh, and Kris and Lindsay, you can beat us at Settlers anytime. ;)

We love that Charlotte has a buddy who lives nearby and is almost exactly the same size as her. :)
Charlotte kept trying to check out Josh's pacifier...

but of course she'll never take one from us.

Josh was kind enough to let her see it, although I think he's looking for Rob to intervene here. (Check out those muscle-y arms!)

Also on Saturday we got a few veggies planted in the backyard- tomatoes, onions and broccoli so far. I just bought a couple of pepper plants today to add to our garden and Rob has been talking about a melon of some sort... but we'll see about that- those vines can be crazy.

That brown blob in the middle of this picture is the rather large groundhog living under our neighbor's shed. He better keep away from my broccoli! (We see an amazing amount of wildlife for having a 20' x 50' yard- or whatever it is- I don't estimate well.)

Rob took these pictures of Charlotte "gardening."

After these photos, we had a hard time getting her out of her Bumbo seat. Poor girl, her thighs were stuck and she looked a little bewildered!

6 months old yesterday!

Wow... we can't get over how quickly Charlotte is growing. At her check-up yesterday she was 17 lbs (75th percentile) and 27.5 inches long (95th percentile!!)

The most noticeable changes to us though have been in her behaviors... She LOVES when Rob throws her in the air and swings her around. She laughs now when we laugh- even when we're sure she didn't get the joke. She eats everything that we give her (she must take after Rob there- I've never been that adventurous of an eater.) And she makes us laugh with her jabbering and squealing (as long as it's not too close to our ears.)

Happy 1/2 Birthday baby!

Upside down girl strikes again!

Mmmm... watered down grape juice

Hey Mikey, I think she likes it

All tuckered out (go Cougars volleyball!)

pictures from Max's birthday

Josh has posted a few pictures from Max's first birthday on his blog at http://spiveyfamily.blogspot.com/2007/04/party-like-its-your-birthday.html

(There is a very cute one of Charlotte and Josh!)

And of course, Max has pictures on his blog at http://sunserver.homelinux.org:8080/index.php?/archives/99-Maxs-1st-Birthday-and-His-party.html

Enjoy! :)

Happy Easter!

We hope you all had a nice Easter weekend!

We had a great time taking Charlotte to her first birthday party on Saturday- for her buddy Max who turned 1. We also enjoyed eating out at the Bombay Peacock to celebrate Rob's birthday and our 18 month anniversary. :) Of course we forgot our camera- but here are some pictures from Charlotte's first Easter at our house...

This is Hazel. I couldn't get very close to take a picture, but she has enjoyed eating lunch in our backyard most days since we moved in. Rob named her after the chief bunny in the book Watership Down. I think maybe she works for the Easter Bunny.

These were our Easter baskets- one for Charlotte and one for Mom and Dad.

Charlotte enjoyed that everything in her Easter basket could go in her mouth. This picture makes me think of Elvis... I guess it's the combination of the raised lip and the jammies.

All dressed up for church.

Charlotte and her Daddy. Happy Birthday Rob!!!

We love you. :)

some random photos from this week

We've been having some beautiful Spring weather and Rob, Charlotte and I have all been enjoying walks around our neighborhood.

We dyed Easter eggs this week... we knew the concept would be pretty much lost on our Peanut, but Rob humored me and we did it anyway. This egg says "Charlotte" in Arabic. ;)

"Can I eat it?"

And lastly, Charlotte has developed some new eating habits lately that we're not thrilled about. She likes to chew on her bib between bites (especially if she thinks the service is too slow) and she sticks her tongue out a lot. Rob's theory is that she's discovered her tongue is what does the tasting... I dunno.

a bit of news...

Hi all! We just wanted to share our happy news that we are once again expecting a baby!!! Baby Anderson should be arriving in October- boy, we just love October- our 2 year anniversary, Charlotte's first birthday and a new addition to our little family all at once! :)

We hope that this news finds you all well and enjoying this beautiful first day of April. ;)
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APRIL FOOLS!

Peek-a-boo

Charlotte thinks peek-a-boo is "TheBomb.com"

daddy-daughter playtime

Rob does stretches to help keep his back strong and Charlotte does stretches because she wants to be just like her Daddy. :)

"I can do this one easy, Dad."

"And up we go!"

"My toes aren't that far away."

"See how tall I am already?"

"I like the rides that go FAST!"

"Swing me higher!"

"Whew! That was good exercise."

Bear Branch

This past weekend the Haydts came to visit us and on Saturday we all went to Bear Branch Nature Center. This is one of our favorite little places to spend time... they have fun educational stuff for kids inside and some nice trails for hiking outside. We even saw a bald eagle this time. When YOU come to visit us we can take you there too! :)

our "deer" Charlotte, Leah the clever fox, and Connor the rascally raccoon

How did Charlotte get so smart?

We have fully ventured into the land of baby food now! So far, green beans and peas are yucky and carrots and bananas are yummy. She has eaten all of them though, even when she isn't a big fan.

The princess and the peas... okay, so it's really green beans.

Also this week, Charlotte put on her stripey green outfit and I introduced her to Steve for the first time. :) I have had this Steve doll (from Blues Clues) for at least 7 years now. He was originally a birthday gift from my BYU roomies (there's a story there, but I'm not getting into it.) Anyway, he has spent a lot of time sitting in closets, and being tossed in boxes over the years, so he was really happy to have Charlotte to play with now. After all this time, he still talks and he had some very nice things to say to our Peanut...

"You are such a great friend."

"How did you get so smart?"

out on the town

This past Saturday we went to the mall, Target, and Joann's running errands. Charlotte was such a good girl that we decided to take her to Red Robin for dinner. :)

Charlotte and Daddy colored the maze on her paper.

Mommy let Charlotte drink some water from a glass.

(This is one of her favorite things to do lately. )

Then we went to Annie & BJ's house for the evening. Charlotte, Max and Babesie had a pajama party- they are both mobile and Charlotte was VERY impressed. She just talked and talked and talked to them. Rob got to play Wii and Nintendo with the other fellas. And I got to chit chat with the girls. So, as you can see, a good time was had by all. :)

book tag

I got tagged by Lindsay :)

The rules of the game:
1. Find the nearest book to you.
2. Name the book and author.
3. Turn to page 123.
4. Go to the fifth sentence on the page.
5. Copy out the next 3 sentences and post to your blog.
6. Tag three other people.

Book: The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11

Author: Lawrence Wright

"The heresy of takfir, or excommunication, has been a problem in Islam since its early days. In the mid seventh century a group known as the Kharijites revolted against the rule of Ali, the fourth caliph. The particular issue that triggered their rebellion was Ali's decision to compromise with a political opponent rather than to wage a fratricidal war."

Rob borrowed this book from a co-worker and I read it and now he is reading it. It sounds dry I guess, but is REALLY interesting.

So I guess I'm supposed to "tag" 3 people now... I choose Felicity, Tiffany and my mom.

healthy, happy and hungry

Charlotte had her four-month check-up with Dr. Vento today, and she is doing very well. She is now 25 inches long and weighs 15 pounds exactly. Rob and I had been wagering on her weight beforehand... yeah, we weren't even close! Anyway, we were glad to hear that all is well with her health and maybe this week we will venture into oatmeal and maybe even an exciting vegetable. Woo-hoo! :)

Okay, with that last sentence some of you probably re-affirmed that stay-at-home motherhood is definitely not for you, but I will have you know that this week I actually feel like I'm hitting my stride--- I'm finally starting to do those things that I said I was going to do "being home all day." I have been baking apple nut bread, taking Charlotte for walks in the stroller, scraping the textured junk off our bedroom ceiling (in prep for fresh paint) and I even returned to a quilt that I haven't worked on since about this time last year. Overall, I'm really enjoying having this time in my life to focus on being a wife and a mother. :)

Baby, you can drive my car

My family :)

We are livin' in a cereal world...

... and Charlotte is a cereal girl!

Okay, so I have no patience when it comes to fun things. :) I've been dying to let Charlotte try rice cereal for the first time, and since we were snowed in yesterday for Valentine's Day we decided to see how she liked it (even though I had previously said we'd wait until after her 4 month check-up next week.) Well Mikey, she likes it!

We used my mom's silver baby spoon for Charlotte's first bites just so we could tell her that she was fed with a silver spoon (clearly, the bowl we used is not so fancy.) ;)

"Mmmm... here Dad, let me help you with that."

106 candles!!!

That's how many should've been on this cake for Pam, Melissa and I to celebrate our birthdays together this year. Three was a much more manageable number. (All of our birthdays are within a month of each other.)

Happy birthday to Linda as well this week... Charlotte had to warm up to Pop-Pop a little bit, but he had her making faces and sticking her tongue out before too long.

Rob even took a few runs down the hill on a sled at the Haydt's.

It was great to see everyone and have a nice visit to PA... now you'll have to come visit us for a weekend sometime!

a week of firsts

This week has been very busy and exciting!

As previously mentioned, Rob & I went on our first BIG date since Charlotte was born...

I was so excited to see Wicked at the Hippodrome in Baltimore and also just to spend the evening with my handsome husband.

It was great to spend time with some of our old friends as well- like Owen and Laura... congrats to Laura & Peter on your engagement!

Also in the past few days,

*Charlotte has learned to roll from her tummy to her back. I'm afraid she's going to be mobile before we're ready for it... we better finish that childproofing stuff!

*I accidentally cut Charlotte's finger while trimming her nails. I realize it's about impossible to see in this picture, but it was traumatic- more for me than for her I think. She was over the pain fairly quickly but I made frantic phone calls to both my sister and Rob and apologised to Charlotte for about 24 hours afterward.

* And last, but definitely not least, Charlotte slept last night for SEVEN HOURS in a row!!! This makes for a very happy mommy.

In other news...

While we were being Wicked in Baltimore, Charlotte had a play date chez Hancock...

http://nathanielandfelicity.blogspot.com/2007/01/baby-test-drive.html

1-2-3 months old!

Yeah, sometimes we aren't happy about getting older either... but we sure are enjoying all of the expressions that Charlotte makes now! Whenever she gets that lower lip WAY out there it just makes Rob and I laugh- which I'm sure is not the desired effect, but oh well.

Charlotte is generally a very happy girl these days- although she seems to spend a lot of time thinking about things and studying people's faces. She loves to show us how strong she is- standing (with our support) or lifting her head up when she's lying down on her back. And I suspect she is starting to teethe, as she chews on everything she can get her hands on.

Happy Birthday little girl! :)

Charlotte, giving moral support

...while Mom does Tae-bo.

update

Charlotte has fully recovered from her illness, yay!! Since she is a well baby again, she finally had her two month check-up and shots this week. She is 12 weeks old today and weighs 11 lbs 10 oz and is 24 in. long. She'd also like to show you some of the neat things she's learning to do...

This is Charlotte doing yoga- her cobra pose is awesome.

She likes to talk to her friend Lambert while she exercises.

She has come up with her own original method of using a pacifier- apparently it's very soothing to hold onto the handle while you suck on your hand. (We just love those big brown eyes!)

There's no place like home!

Well, what a week.

On Monday we had planned to go to the Spiveys' to watch football, but Charlotte had been fighting this nasty cold since Saturday and we didn't want to get Josh sick, so we decided to stay home. That was a good decision! Charlotte got much worse on Monday evening and it became clear that she was having a tough time breathing, so Rob gave her a blessing and I called the doctor's office. I left a message and the on-call physician called me right back and told me to take her to the hospital right away, which we did.

The emergency room was amazingly empty for New Year's Day we thought, and we were able to be seen right away. They determined that Charlotte had RSV (http://www.rsvinfo.com/) which is basically a common cold that in an infant has attacked the lungs and made a great big mess since they are still developing. They gave Charlotte 3 "breathing treatments" but she still wasn't getting enough oxygen so they admitted her around 2 am Tuesday. We just got home from the hospital at 6 pm today.

While at the hospital, Charlotte had an IV and oxygen and received breathing treatments (Albuturol) and steroids periodically. She was a trooper! She smiled at the doctors and nurses and managed to sleep a little bit in the crib there- but definitely preferred to be held. She also gave both Rob and I nasty colds- but oh well. We are just glad that she is well enough to be home now and that we get to sleep in our own beds. :)

Here is Rob giving her a breathing treatment at home tonight...



Anyway, we hope that you are all well and had a very happy New Year! Kris & Lindsay- we will get together someday! And Linda- we are glad to hear that you are home from the hospital as well- take care of yourself!