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.

Memorial Day weekend part II: MD

Sunday night we headed back home from PA so that we could go on a picnic with some of our "first babies" crew at Cunningham Falls State Park in MD on Monday. It was a great day for a picnic!

William H. is the newest addition to the group, here with mom Felicity.

William J. (4 mos.) enjoyed relaxing on the blanket with dad Bradford.

Joshie took a nice nap in the shade after lunch.

Charlotte played a little peek-a-boo from under daddy's hat.

The whole picnic crew- Andersons, Spiveys, Hancocks and Johnsons.

After lunch we made the short hike up to Cunningham Falls. Rob and some of the others climbed around on the rocks while Charlotte & I waited below with others. Rob just can't resist a nice rock formation! After our hike we cooled off with a little swim in the lake... where all the new mommies enforced a "no photographs" rule. ;)

Memorial Day weekend part I: PA

We hope that you all had an enjoyable Memorial Day weekend! We spent Saturday and Sunday in PA visiting family...

Charlotte and Leah are ready to go to Connie's pool for a swim on Saturday.

Once there, Charlotte was not very happy about how cold the water was. She did like how it tasted though!

After her first swim, she took a little nap with daddy.

Saturday night we went to Becky's Drive-in and watched Shrek the Third. We were too tired to stick around for Spiderman 3 (which didn't start until 11 pm,) but we enjoyed the movie despite the drizzle- and I especially enjoyed the funnel cake. ;) FYI- an odd bit about Becky's- apparently they used to only show "adult movies"... now they only show "family friendly movies."

Charlotte even let Shrek hold her!

Sunday we spent time sharing stories and Rob and Mark took the kids for a walk in the woods at Beltzville State Park. One thing that really surprised us over the weekend was how much Charlotte LOVES dogs! When we went to Pop-pop Kaufman's house, she especially loved that she could yell and wave her arms and Nana would come over and lick her in the face! This picture is of us with Buster (all 120 lbs of him) after he jumped up on Rob's lap and licked his neck.

Happiness is...

... sitting on the steps on a late spring evening.

taking a moment to reflect

Rob, Charlotte and I attended a wedding reception for friends Alissa & Joseph last night. There were many people there from our old singles ward in Chevy Chase that we hadn't seen since we got married. It was a lot of fun to visit with everyone and to introduce them to Charlotte. :)

On the way home it had Rob and I talking a lot about our own wedding and what the past 20-ish months of marriage have been like. We've been very busy! It was less than 2 1/2 years ago that we met. Memorial Day weekend will mark 2 years since Rob first asked me out. Since then we have experienced many happy moments together... and a few trials as well. For example, we've bought our first home, moved, had Charlotte and I've left my job- all just within the past 9 months.

Anyway, I am so thankful to have my dear husband Rob and our sweet Charlotte. And I just wanted to take a moment to remember that. :)

On our wedding day - 10-08-05

Charlotte's birthday- 10-19-06

7 months old- 5-19-07

Charlotte is a pipe in our basement

A while back, Rob informed me that some of the pipes in our laundry room have "Charlotte" written on them. Today I was doing some spring cleaning and saw them for myself. Sorry, these are the best pictures that I could get...

This one says, "CHARLOTTE Pipe & Foundry Co. Made in the USA"

Clearly, we think this is very funny.

(And no, we didn't know that before she was born, and we did not name our daughter after the company that made the pipes in our basement.)

our little party girl

Charlotte just keeps amazing Rob & I with how social she is! She loves seeing other little kids and babies, and so far she is even willing to go to new adults and smile at them and talk to them. Neither one of us was ever that social... that we can remember anyway. This past weekend we were in PA for Charlotte's cousin Max's 3rd birthday. We had a great time visiting with friends and family...

Charlotte and Daddy on the hammock swing in Max's room.

Cousin Eddie helped feed Charlotte some peas on the deck. Too bad it was raining on our wedding day!!! We certainly would have enjoyed these decks at our reception. :)

Tug of war was so much fun! We had a lot of combinations of people playing. (I was on the winning moms team vs. the kids team.) Here is Miranda, Mikey, Leah and birthday boy Max.

Ed gets everyone set... On this side: Connor, Sarah, Aunt Melissa & Eddie.

And on this side: Uncle Dan, Miranda, Leah & Mikey.

Charlotte won "pin the tail on the puppy." She just LOVED this puppy poster! She sat and squealed at it for ages. (Okay, so Aunt Pam helped her win.)

Muppet feet

My new favorite video. ;)

I love how she lifts her feet up like a Muppet.

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!