Charlotte: 11 Months

This month has been far from normal! This post is very late, as our movers accidentally packed Charlotte's month stickers! Once we finally got new ones, we were able to take her 11 month pictures today! We are still missing her PB chair, but such is life!

In the last month, we moved out of our house, lived in a hotel for 10 days and made the trek from Hawaii to Florida ( without Kyle and plus Macey Jane)! Charlotte has embraced it all and taken it like a champ! She hasn't had any hiccups in her sleeping and she has actually slept till 8:30am (she has never done this before)!

We are enjoying our time here in Florida and Charlotte has fallen in love with her cousins and grandparents! Charlotte is such a busy body and loves going places! Staying at home just doesn't appeal to her! She loves cruising around in the stroller at the mall or just on a walk!

Kate and Charlotte- born 6 days apart!
This picture perfectly sums up their personalities! 

Facetiming Daddy!

She loves spaghetti! 

Happy 11 months baby girl! 

"Lion" face! 

I'm over these pictures, Mom! 

Ok, one more!

Weight:  I don't have an accurate weight because we don't have a scale right now!! Will update soon. 

Diaper Size:  5s!! :) 

Clothing Size: 12 months are done. She is in 18 month clothing! Waaah!

Eye Color: Baby Blue

Adventures this Month:  We left Hawaii on June 18. It was bittersweet as we left Daddy behind as he finishes up work, but we are enjoying our time back on the mainland! For the holiday weekend, my mom and I are heading to Savannah! 
Visitors: I guess I can take this out now that we are back in Florida! 
Favorite Toy:  I honestly can't name a favorite toy. She loves everything that isn't a toy... Anything she can climb on, pull up on or put in her mouth! 
Hair: My Charlotte has curls!! Not sure where she got them from, but they are adorable! Still pretty bald on top! 
Teeth: Just 2 on the bottom. We should have new ones any day. She has been teething and pretty fussy. 

Sleeping Habits: Sleeping good! Naps are short if we are out and about and she sleeps in the care. She wakes up the minute I put the car in park or open up her door! 

Milestones: She still loves to clap and has started waving hi and blowing kisses. If she is in a good mood, she will actually give you a real kiss! She is almost walking! She can stand unassisted for about 30 seconds, but she is nervous to take that first step. She is more apt to move if I dangle a toy in front of her. She is still babbling a lot but not making much sense! 
Looking forward to: Savannah this weekend, Daddy arriving in mid July and her 1st birthday!!!  

Charlotte: 10 Months

Happy 10 Months to my sweet girl! I wish I could freeze time and keep you this age forever! You are into everything and cruising all around (making a bee-line to the stairs whenever you can), but you are so much fun and so smart! You've learned so many new things and I am so amazed at all of the things you can do! Your silly little smile makes everything better! 

Happy Girl!

Daddy's Mini-Me

Kisses for her Prayer Elephant

Clappin' those hands!

Weight:  20lbs. on the dot according to our scale at home. 

Diaper Size:  4 or 5s

Clothing Size: 12 month PJs which are super tight, but 18 month clothes fit her too!Eye Color: Blue and so pretty!
Adventures this Month:  The last month has flown by as we prepare for our move back to Florida. We have been trying to complete our Hawaii bucket list as well! I celebrated my first Mother's Day, which was so great! But then, Kyle and I both got a stomach virus that had us down and out for a couple of days!
Visitors: Our last visitor comes Wednesday!
Favorite Toy: We have this peek-a-boo bear that she was so scared of. We would turn it on and she would crawl over to me and climb up and whimper because she was scared. In the past couple of days, she has decided she now likes it again! Honestly, she loves anything she can put in her mouth and chew on and anything that is not a child's toy, including shoes, the tray on the coffee table, cords, the TV cabinet. I am ordering a corral for my mom's house to contain her!
Hair: Her hair is really getting long in the back, but she is still a baldy on top. I think it will be blonde, but still not sure!
Teeth: Still just 2 little teeth that she loves to brush

Sleeping Habits: She is still a great sleeper, but our mornings keep getting earlier and earlier. It could be the fact that the sun begins to shine around 5:15 here. I plan on getting some black out curtains when we move. Normally she wakes up with a poopy diaper and I've tried my best to give her a bottle and put her back down, but she is ready to go and play! I can handle 6:30, but 5:30 is just too early!

Milestones: Has added "dada", "nana" (for banana), "ba" (for paci or bottle) and "ba" when she sees her blue ball, she also has completely mastered clapping and does it almost all the time, she gives high 5s too! Still not walking, but can walk around the coffee table and move from the coffee table to the couch. She's into everything and really loves playing with things that aren't her toys! She also signs "more". 
Looking forward to: savoring our last few moments in Hawaii! I think it will be a very long time until we are back on this side of the world! We have about 2 1/2 weeks left in Hawaii! 

Charlotte: 9 Months

Charlotte is 9 months old! It has been a month since she had her febrile seizure and she is doing just fine! Since then, her second tooth popped through and she is just as cute as can be. She is cruising around the house and into everything. She pulls up on everything and I mean everything, from baskets to trashcans even the toilet!! The other day she actually stood unassisted for about 4 seconds. Of course I screamed out of joy and she got scared and dropped to the ground. 

A week or two ago, I was feeding her dinner and she started saying "mmmamama" or something that sounded like "mama". I'm still not sure 100% if she is saying "Mum Mum" for her crackers or "mama". She looks at me and says "mama" and crawls to me and says "mama", but she also says "mama" to her bottle and binkie boo boo. Regardless, she is saying a word!! She has also said "dada", "hi" and a few other things in her rambling and mumbles! 

In the past few days she has really started dancing. She has a little interactive puppy toy that plays 3 songs that Kyle and I both have memorized and forever ingrained in our head! The minute we push the button she begins to rock back and forth. It is so precious! She can also press down her pop up toys and she loves balls. But, more than anything she likes to pull up on the coffee table or ottoman. Just tonight she was inching along trying to grab something off the table. She also loves her bath time! She knows when she is about to get in the bath and she gets super excited! She could sit in there for hours and splash! 

We also got her a kiddie pool and we have spent quite a few Saturdays and Sundays out back in the pool. Kyle fills it up in the morning so the sun can warm it up and then after her morning nap we usually get in and splash around! It also has a little slide that she loves! 

The cutest girl at Daddy's promotion

Loving her baby pool!

Charlotte's 1st Easter!

Mommy bought her a toothbrush today and she brushed her teeth tonight!

Hi guys, I'm 9 months old!

And I have 2 adorable teeth!

Model Pose!

Blowng bubbles, for attention of course!

Sit, Macey Jane!

I know you love me, go ahead and kiss me!

Ok, I guess I'll share my chair with you!

Weight:  19lbs. 11 oz. 

Diaper Size:  her 4s are getting pretty snug! Her BFF Marian (who is 3) became potty-trained so gave Charlotte her diapers, I keep my Costco stash in the garage, so I just grabbed one of the 5s from the closet and it fit her pretty well! How is she so big? 
Clothing Size: 9-12 months! I got 12 months and 18 months in the Lilly for Target stuff so she could wear stuff longer! :)
Eye Color: Love her baby blues!
Hair: Her hair is growing so much! She has quite the bed head, or should I say carseat head. The texture of her hair isn't the most desirable right now, lol, but I know she will be a beautiful blonde one day!
Teeth: Our baby has TWO teeth! And they are so, so cute! 

Sleeping Habits: I'm not sure what happened, but this baby girl loves to sleep now! She is a good napper (usually a 1.5-2 hour nap in the morning and afternoon) and then going down around 7:00pm-6:45am sometimes as even late at 8:00am! After her bed time routine, I lay her down awake and she just puts herself to sleep. She has about 4 pacis in her crib and she usually has one in her mouth and one in her hand. Then she switches them out periodically! 
Adventures this Month:  We were so busy this past month! Kyle's parents visited and during that time we had Kyle's promotion and our 4 year anniversary! We did lots of fun things during the time Kyle's family was here and Charlotte loved all of the attention of course!
Visitors: Our next and probably final visitor during our time in Hawaii, is Kyle's best friend and one of Charlotte's godfather's, Rob. He will come out in June! 

Milestones: First 2 teeth, Saying "Mama", dancing, almost has clapping down, crawling around the house, being super independent and exploring things on her own. 
Favorite Toy: She loves her puppy toy, balls, anything that she can pull up on!
Looking forward to: our Memorial Day Trip to the Big Island and moving back to Florida this summer! It is official, we got orders last week! Now to start the planning! 

Squeezing our Charlotte Extra Tight Today

Yesterday was the scariest moment of my life so far. Nothing can prepare you for seeing your child turn purple or gasp for air and be totally helpless. Our sweet Charlotte had a febrile seizure after she woke up from her afternoon nap. As I write this, she is peacefully sleeping and she is back to her normal smiley self!

After her nap, she had quite the blowout, so Kyle gave her a quick dip in the bath to rinse her off and clean her up. I brought her back in her room to get her dressed. We were washing her diaper changer cover, so I laid her on the floor. She began to twitch, shake and her eyes were rolling back. Kyle was right next to me and picked her up immediately. I started screaming and called 911. Kyle actually had a febrile seizure when he was 1 year old. Kyle's parents are here visiting and so Kyle's dad grabbed Charlotte and opened the freezer door so she could cool off. Kyle talked to the 911 operator because I couldn't even speak, I was terrified. I ran to a friend's house who is a pediatrician but unfortunately she was not home. Since we live on Ford Island, it took quite a bit of time for the ambulance to arrive. The fire truck and EMTs were on site pretty quickly, but it felt like an hour waiting on the ambulance to arrive. They gave Charlotte some oxygen, but she was screaming because she was so scared. Finally the ambulance arrived and we were on our way to the ER. She calmed down in the ambulance, but still was twitching a little bit. Kyle rode in the front of the ambulance and so when they took us out of the back, Charlotte saw daddy and smiled. At that moment, I knew that our little angel was probably going to be ok (and that she loves her daddy so, so much).

We went to Kapiolani, the women and children's hospital, and they got Charlotte's weight and vitals. Her temperature was 101, weight 19 lbs. 2oz., pulse and blood pressure were normal. The ER doc explained that this is a very normal occurrence and it is one of the most common things children come to the ER for. In fact, 1 in 25 children will have a febrile seizure in their life.

Charlotte had a flu test and received a catheter to check her urine for a UTI. I must also say that she was our happy, smiley baby all day. We had gone out on the boat earlier that day and she showed no signs or symptoms of anything. She just cut her first tooth, so I attributed that to her feeling a little warm. She also wasn't as interested in her food, but once again, I attributed that to her tooth.

Back to her smiley self!

Stop poking me!! No more shots!

Once she got some meds, Charlotte began to perk up and was happy and laughing! Her urine came back with an elevated white blood cell count, so they gave her a shot of antibiotics and determined that she probably has a urinary tract infection. We will see our pediatrician tomorrow to get the full lab results and go from there.

Daddy made a schedule to keep Charlotte's meds on track!

Charlotte fell asleep before we were discharged since it was her bedtime and she looked so peaceful. I slept in her room last night and we set our alarms to wake her up to give her Motrin and Tylenol to keep her fever under control.

I realize that these febrile seizures are common, but I can't even begin to describe the feeling of watching Charlotte suffer like she did. We were told that if it happens again, we should turn her on her side and let the seizure take its course. So much easier said than done.

So, if you have a baby, hopefully this information will help you if your child ever experiences a febrile seizure.

Febrile seizures are convulsions brought on by a fever in infants or small children. During a febrile seizure, a child often loses consciousness and shakes, moving limbs on both sides of the body. Less commonly, the child becomes rigid or has twitches in only a portion of the body, such as an arm or a leg, or on the right or the left side only. Most febrile seizures last a minute or two, although some can be as brief as a few seconds while others last for more than 15 minutes.

The majority of children with febrile seizures have rectal temperatures greater than 102 degrees Fahrenheit. Most febrile seizures occur during the first day of a child's fever. Children prone to febrile seizures are not considered to have epilepsy, since epilepsy is characterized by recurrent seizures that are not triggered by fever. A few factors appear to boost a child's risk of having recurrent febrile seizures, including young age (less than 15 months) during the first seizure, frequent fevers, and having immediate family members with a history of febrile seizures. If the seizure occurs soon after a fever has begun or when the temperature is relatively low, the risk of recurrence is higher. A long initial febrile seizure does not substantially boost the risk of recurrent febrile seizures, either brief or long.

So hug your babies and family extra tight today! Praise God our little Charlotte is just fine! 

Back to her happy self! Can you see that little tooth? 

Taking a Moment to Do Nothing

Life is crazy busy, especially when you add another human being into your family. I am a true busy body and it drives Kyle crazy. Our usual evening routine is walk or run around 5:30, feed Charlotte around 6:00, then I go up and do bath time and bed time routine while Kyle works on dinner! No, I don't force my husband to cook, he actually enjoys it and I am very grateful for that! I usually make the meal plan and then Kyle carries out the recipes! If he is lucky, sometimes I am his sous chef and will do all of the "not-so-fun" jobs like chopping and washing veggies! With a little one, you really have to divide and conquer! So, by the time Charlotte is down around 6:45/7:00, dinner is usually just about ready. So, we have dinner and then I tackle the million things that have been on my mind all day, to include emails, blogging, ordering things, surfing the web, sending thank you notes, doing bills, making photo books, ordering pictures, etc. There is always something to do!

Kyle and I just finished up season 3 of House of Cards. By the time we sat down in the evening, we would usually catch 1 or 2 episodes. Of course, I was usually on my computer, multi-tasking, working on something. Kyle really just wanted me to sit there and watch the show and do nothing else. But, as much as I tried, I really couldn't!

A couple weeks ago our pastor gave a sermon titled "Don't Just Do Something, Sit There". Yes, you read that correct! The entire sermon Kyle kept tapping my foot or squeezing my hand and in my mind I was thinking, wow, this is totally me! The sermon focused on the story of Mary and her sister Martha. Jesus and his disciples were coming to visit and so Martha slaved over a hot stove to prepare a fabulous meal for Jesus, while Mary sat in the living room with Jesus.

Luke 10:38-42

38 As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he  came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. 39 She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet listening to what he said. 40 But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!”41 “Martha, Martha,” the Lord answered, “you are worried and upset about many things,42 but few things are needed—or indeed only one.[a] Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.”

Like many sermons at our church, this one spoke to me and I am trying to live this message out. It is not easy, but it is so important to have time where you "do nothing" and sit at the Lord's feet. This could mean many different things to many people. It could be meditation, prayer, exercise. A friend gave me a devotional book and journal last week and I am embarrassed to say that I finally made time this morning to start! I woke up early to journal and read my devotional. Baby steps!

Grab your morning coffee and breakfast and dive in!

Here is a link to the entire sermon if you are interested in watching!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pg2rahGPwN8&feature=youtu.be

Weekend Adventures: Hanauma Bay and Waimea Valley

As our time in Hawaii begins to wind down, we are trying to cross things off of our Hawaii bucket list. It will probably be a very long time until we find ourselves in the Aloha state again, so we want to make sure that we cherish this time and do all of the touristy things!! As Charlotte gets older, it is getting easier to take her around and more fun too as she really enjoys all of our adventures! She is most happy in the water or exploring in the ergo.

Last weekend we went to Hanauma Bay after a yummy lunch at Kona Brewing Company in Hawaii Kai. Hanauma Bay is famous for snorkeling, although we actually didn't make it into the water because it was a little chilly! If you aren't a Hawaii resident or military, the admission is $7 per person and $1 for parking. Before you can enter the park, you have to watch a 10 minute safety video. If you live here on the island, you can register your name and zip code so that you don't have to watch it every visit. After watching the video, you walk down the hill to the bay. You can also take a shuttle if you aren't keen on walking up and down. You can rent snorkel gear on site and there are bathrooms which is an added plus for Hawaii beaches! We enjoyed the view and sun for a few hours and Charlotte even took a nap.

Beer Sampling at Kona Brewing. We plan to visit the brewery on the Big Island in May

Hanauma Bay

Our Tommy Bahama Backpack Chairs have been one of our best purchases!

This weekend we went to Waimea Valley on the North Shore. We had planned to have lunch at one of our favorite places in Haleiwa at Opal Thai, but it was randomly closed for "restaurant renovations". So, we had lunch at Haleiwa Joe's instead! After that, we ventured to Waimea Valley to view the gardens and Waimea Falls. After a nice leisurely walk up to the falls, we got changed into our suits and went swimming in the 68 degree water! We took turns as someone had to stay back with Charlotte. Kyle went first and I followed after! You are required to wear lifejackets and as I was getting ready to walk in, the lifeguard told me to stay away from the left side as rocks commonly fall into the water. Wow, that sounded safe! The water was cold, but once I took the plunge it actually felt good! It was definitely an experience and totally worth it!

Sitting like a big girl in her stroller

Beautiful landscape 

Canna Lilly

In front of the falls 

Taking it all in with Elmo

If you look close, that is Kyle!

Family Pic!

Swimming out!

Charlotte: 8 Months

Waaahhh!!! My baby is growing up so, so quickly! As much as it makes me sad, I'm also happy because she is just so fun! She smiles, laughs, tries to talk to us and Macey Jane and she lets us know when she is happy and when she is not. She is still snuggly, but for maybe 5-10 seconds, then she pops her little head up and just smiles. She sometimes will fall asleep with me holding her, but she really prefers rolling around her crib and getting comfortable.

She loves to eat and has to have something too if we are eating. Mum Mum crackers have become our new best friend, especially when we go out to dinner. We get a good 5 minutes of peace when she has these. She loves being able to pick things up with her hands and she is getting quite coordinated with putting them in her mouth!

She loves bath time and anything that involves water! We just bought her plastic pool today and we spent almost 2 hours just splashing around. So fun!

Pulling up on everything!

Naptime at the beach!

My sweet angel!

Relaxing in her chair

Looking at her sissy, Macey Jane!

Weight:  I keep forgetting to weigh her! 

Diaper Size:  graduated to 4s, tear!
Clothing Size: Still 9-12 months. She can't wear some things because the leg openings are too tight! Her little chunky thighs!
Eye Color: Blue Blue Blue
Hair: I added this in this month because she is finally getting some hair! It's definitely blonde and it has a little tiny curl to it in the back!!
Teeth: Her bottom tooth is about to pop! It's been right there for a while, but I think it is going to make its presence in the next couple of days.
Sleeping Habits: Rejoicing because we are finally getting sleep! It changes your life to go to sleep at night and not be up multiple times. I still get up once or twice to go to the bathroom and of course I check on her, but she is out! She also has been waking up in the morning and sitting up in her crib. I let her "play" and she just sits there and talks and plays with her multiple binkies. I think she is perplexed how she can have one in her hand and one in her mouth. If she wakes up around 5/5:30, I usually go in and feed her and then she goes back down until about 7:30/8:00. It is much easier to get ready for work with her still sleeping!
Adventures this Month:  We have been to the beach at least once a week. Charlotte loves being outside and loves the water! I had my big event the first week of March and Kyle had weekend duty last weekend, so our weekends have been a little limited.
Visitors: Kyle's parents come next week! 

Milestones: Crawling, pulling up, eating her puffs, avocado and banana pieces on her own
Favorite Toy: Anything that lights up, her ball that rolls and moves and the ottoman (pulling up on it)She loves when I sing to her. I usually put on Pandora during bath time and we have music time (Glee/Pitch Perfect type music) and she just smiles at me and laughs!
Looking forward to: her Grampy and Grammy coming to visit, Daddy's promotion and our trip to the Big Island over Memorial Day Weekend!