Charlotte's First Haircut

Before

After

9 Months

Charlotte had her 9 month well baby visit today.  She is 20 pounds 1 ounce and 28 inches.  She's about the 70th percentile for everything, including head circumference.  She's very proportional.  She has mastered sitting on her own, but has shown little interest in moving around.  If a toy is out of reach, she just plays with something closer.  Charlotte will play on her tummy for a long time and will pivot around, but isn't getting up on all fours and trying to scoot or crawl.  Her pediatrician says she will probably start crawling and pulling up on furniture in the next month.  Yikes!  We are not ready - time to babyproof!  It's so easy having an immobile baby,  especially one as happy as Charlotte. 

Summer Sledding

Emily had a good idea this afternoon.  We got out one of our sleds, filled it with water, and let Charlotte splish and splash in it.  Maybe this is just something all Minnesotans with babies know to do with sleds in the summer.  Regardless, Charlotte liked swimming in a sled a lot more than Pancho liked the bath I gave him after filling Charlotte's sled with water.  But as you can tell, both were happy as can be when the hose was finally turned off.

And as you can see below, Charlotte and Pancho now have a common ground to base their budding friendship on.  They both have a shared interest in sticks.  I had to take Charlotte's stick away from her when she tried to put in her mouth, but let Pancho chew on his.  I figured it was a good teaching moment for Charlotte to learn that life isn't fair.

Scrapmania!

When I was a kid one of my favorite books was a scrapbook my mom made for me.  There were a lot of pictures of animals, faces, families, whatever pictures she could find from her book catalogs and magazines that we would find interesting.  She made one for each of us, me and my two sisters.   I still remember a lot of the pictures and I probably looked at it every day until I could read.  And even after that I would still look at it all the time.  It was so much fun.  Now my mom has continued the tradition for the next generation.   We just got a scrapbook she made for Charlotte in the mail last week and it is now one of Charlotte's favorite books.

It's such a great size for Charlotte.  She loves to get up close to the pictures and touch them.  She can look at one single page for quite a few minutes, no small feat for a nine month old.  And everytime we turn the page together, you can see she is eagerly waiting to see what is on the next page.

My mom kept the tradition alive and made scrapbooks for each of her other three grandchildren, and clearly my niece Sophia is also a fan of the scrapbook.  Sophia beat my mom to the punch this time around and made a scrapbook for Charlotte this summer, before she was born.  The quick reader will note Sophia finished her scrapbook well ahead of her grandma.  Great work Sophia!

And more importantly. Charlotte also really gets into looking at all the pictures in the scrapbook Sophia made for her.

And most importantly, both books put a smile on Charlotte's face.

BFF

As I posted earlier, Charlotte and Pancho coexist but have yet to truly mingle.  But Charlotte does have a friend in Toonces.

I think it helps that Toonces is the runt of the litter and is used to being harassed, chased, and bullied by Nacho (in a gentle giant sort of way).  So when Charlotte reaches out to grab or feel Toonces and ends up grabbing her tail or poking her eye, Toonces is kind of used to it.  But usually Charlotte sticks her hand out and Toonces nuzzles up next to it, happy to receive some attention that doesn't involve being chased and battered by Nacho or shooed away by Emily or me.

Twins!

My nephew, Lewis, said he knew twins - Netta, Bailey, and Charlotte.  Can you guess who's who? 

B, C, N
8 months

B, C, N
1 month

N, C, B
4 months

It is so fun to watch them together.  They are more aware of each other now.  Netta and Bailey are crawling.  Charlotte is still pretty much immobile.  One day we won't be able to stage this picture anymore because they will all be crawling all over the place.

Raspberries