Charlie Grace is 12 months old

Charlotte is now 12 months old {I prefer to label her age in months and will continue to do so as long as I can in an effort to ignore the fact that she is, in fact, getting older}.

At 12 months, Charlotte:

  • Weighs 17 lbs {10th percentile}, is 27 inches long {42nd percentile}
  • Is beginning to take a few wobbly steps {though as I’m finally writing this, she is practically running now}
  • Is learning to turn around backwards to climb down stairs/off ledges
  • Can feed herself with a spoon {though prefers her hands} and is now refusing to be fed anything via spoon by mommy or daddy and will turn her head away if we try {I just want to keep her clothes clean, is that too much to ask??}
  • Loves to give her baby doll hugs, particularly when others are watching and applauding… such a little performer… though once she get’s an ‘awww’ from mommy, baby is thrown to the floor. We’ll work on that.
  • Says: hi, bye bye, daddy, up, all done, thank you, ball, baby, balloon, book, Baxter {though ball, Baxter, and balloon all sounds the same right now}
  • Can sign: open, more, eat, please {her favorite right now is ‘please’}
  • Points to everything, waves to everyone, claps, gives high fives, is learning to give kisses, plays peek-a-boo, and dances to music
  • Understands and can follow several directions: give it to me, sit down, put in, all done, clean up, don’t touch/no, nice hands/gentle

Here are Charlotte’s 12 month photos, taken by the talented Kelly Lewis.

I made Charlotte’s ‘smash cake’, and I am pretty proud of the end result.

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Though I have to be honest, my initial cake trial looked like something from the website Cake Wrecks:

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Haha, I am still laughing at my attempt. I was trying to make a giant cupcake, but my efforts to also make the cake healthy and the frosting healthy resulted in a goopy mess. I ended up just using the base of the cake form and opted for peaked frosting instead of trying to smooth it out. To color the frosting I used beet juice {practically odorless and tasteless} to achieve the perfect pink!

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Charlotte definitely enjoyed her first taste of the sugary goodness.

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So proud of our big girl.

She is the sweetest, smartest, funniest baby around and we are so thankful to be her mommy and daddy.

Charlotte’s Pink Lemonade Pool Party

Because Charlotte is so ridiculously loved we opted to have 2 separate Pink Lemonade parties this year: a pool party and a family party. Our wonderful church friends opened their home and pool to us the weekend before Charlotte’s birthday.  Charlotte’s Lola and grandpa were generous enough to host the family party the following weekend at their home, which I will post on next.

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Ruffle-bum birthday girl
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Praying for the food and thanking God for all our wonderful friends and family.bday17

We were so thankful for a beautiful {though ridiculously hot} day!

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A huge thank you to my dear friend Jessica for all of the help with the decorations {a craft pro if you ever did see one}, and to all of my friends who helped with so many last minute details {making lemonade, frosting cupcakes, cutting lemons}… you know who you are!

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Instead of gifts, we asked guests to bring a pair of children’s tennis shoes to donate to a wonderful charity.

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TY note to print - Shoes

Thank you to all who made Charlotte’s birthday so wonderful!

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Charlie Grace is 11 months old

This post was partially written about 2 months ago {when Charlotte was actually 11 months old}, but the summer has been hectic and I have just now been able to sit down and put it all together.

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I had to bribe her with her toothbrush in order to get the rest of these photos.

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She has a love-hate relationship with that thing.

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But her relationship with Pink Puppy is definitely love-love!

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At 11 months, Charlotte:

  • Has about 6 words {up, all done, bye bye, no, dada, boo} and 3 signs {all done, milk, and more}.
  • Loves to turn the pages of her books and point to each picture.
  • Loves to stand and cruise around the couch and the coffee table but has not yet been brave enough to take a step on her own.
  • Cleaned up her toys in the bathtub all by herself singing “all done, all done, aaaaaall done”
  • SLEEPING THROUGH THE NIGHT! This is a big victory for us and it was quite a process, but I’m sure every new parent has to work through issues and problem solve like we did… and I’m sure there will be many more times in which we have to do the same throughout the years.

There are many thoughts out there on sleep training vs. no sleep training and cry vs. no cry, etc. In the end, you have to do what is right for your family and what you are comfortable with. Charlotte has gone down for bed very well for the last 5 months or so. She is practically asleep before you close the door so that wasn’t our issue. Our issue was that she was regularly waking up between 2 and 3 to nurse, though around 10 months she began waking 2-3 times a night {practically regressing to an infant waking regiment}! It was truly making me a zombie – 10 months of minimal solid sleep will wear anyone ragged. Each time I would go in to soothe her though she began expecting to nurse simply because it was mommy who was entering the room. If I left the room after soothing her and laying her down {without nursing} she would scream and deliver the most angry wails from a tortured deprived soul.   It . was . awful.    And would go on for so long until I eventually nursed her, worried that she had been really hungry all along.  It’s the perpetual battle of a mother – is this the cry of a baby who is truly hungry and needs nourishment? Or is this the cry of a baby who has every need met but simply wants mommy snuggles?  Or is this the cry of a baby who has every need met but just wants to get up and socialize? For Charlotte it was simply in the habit of  waking at that time and had previously always been fed. Eventually, I got the idea to have Chris go in to soothe her during her 2am wake-up. If she was able to go back to sleep, then I could rest easily knowing that she wasn’t hungry after all. If she continued to wake up or cry then I knew she needed something {milk, diaper change, teething meds}. The first few nights were difficult for Chris because he wasn’t used to getting up frequently during the night and had to head in to work the next morning as usual. If Charlotte woke up we agreed we would give her 3-5 minutes to self-soothe, then Chris would head in to give her her binky and lay her down again. It worked like a charm. During the first few nights she was able to mostly soothe herself back to sleep within the first 2 minutes of our ‘wait and see’ time period and she was always immediately soothed by Chris giving her a binky and laying her down {she only gets a binky during naps and bed….so they work REALLY well for soothing}. I didn’t get amazing sleep the first few weeks because 1) when she is awake, I am awake…and 2) even as she started sleeping through 2 o’clock, then 3 o’clock and so on, my body was still set to be awake for a good 45 minutes at those times.

Here’s what Charlie has been up to at 10 months (leading up to 11 months)

Keeping cool with a buddy.

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Manning her post at the front door.

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And hanging out with Lola and Grandpa.

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