It is June 1st. I repeat. JUNE FIRST! It makes me sick to think of how quickly we are closing in on ‘B’Day {which is, of course, Charlotte’s first birthday}.

This post, though, will serve to catch you up on all the Baker ‘happenings’ so far this spring. My apologies for the massive photo binge that is about to happen.

Chris and I had an awesome day-date some time a few weeks back {if we’re being honest it was more like a month… maaaaybe two months back} . We took Charlotte to spend the afternoon with Papa and Honey {my parents}. On the way out to their house we stopped at Bergey’s Dairy farm for a little family adventure.

She did not like the sheep. I don’t blame her. I seriously thought it was fake. I’m still not 100% certain it was living.

Waiting for ice cream {for mommy and daddy, of course}. I wish so badly this photo wasn’t blurry. Still completely adorable.

Meeting the cows.

We love our Little Gym classes. Next week is Show Week {the last ‘performance’ of the semester}, but Charlie is already enrolled in her summer Bugs class which will start the following week so we won’t even skip a beat!

She loves Ms. Jackie… the one who provides an endless supply of shakers and bubbles in class.

Papa came to play during a class.

Charlotte is very good at independent play and exploration with toys.

Putting the little people horse in, taking horse out, putting horse in again, taking horse out, throwing horse, crawling to get horse, mouthing horse, beating horse against boat and so on. 

Charlotte absolutely adores her two cousins and I am so grateful that she gets to spend Tuesdays and Thursdays with my sister.

We had a yard sale a few weeks ago. It was pretty much rained out; actually more like ‘fogged’ out because a low fog/rain cloud hovered over my driveway the entire day.  Chris and I have such a wonderful family support system: my parents, my in-laws, and my sister-in-law all came to help us. Since there weren’t many customers, my mom busied herself helping me get organized and encouraging me to purge even more. That’s what she does, professional organizing, and boy did I need her help. The other grandparents kept Charlotte entertained.

Since business remained slow, Chris and his dad replaced our kitchen sink. It was, of course, harder than they anticipated, but they were eventually successful.

 

The next weekend we decided to try our hand at yard sale round #2, which was much more successful thanks to the sun actually arriving for the day and sticking around a bit. Also, Charlotte learned how to drive.

Charlotte has gotten so much better at being in the church nursery {ie: away from me}.

The best plan is ‘Out of sight, out of mind’ – once she has even an inkling that mama is nearby but not holding her she resorts to Llama drama {which she learned from the Llama Llama books of course. More on those in a bit}.

We love meeting up with other mommy’s and babies from our mom’s group for outings and play dates.  We love to go to the mall or the park.

Charlotte is also learning to get along with her friends and is starting to understand the word ‘gentle’

{probably because I say it over and over again, but repetition is key}! Of course she still swats at other babies because, let’s face it, that’s what babies do, but she is learning. I can see it!

My birthday present from Chris was a membership to the Zoo so we can go any time we want! We have had several beautiful days there {though one of them just happened to coincide with the field trip day of nearly every elementary school in the area}. I got some practice with maneuvering two kiddos instead of just one during one of the outings, which was a great experience and OH so exhausting.

We attended an event at the zoo to meet the author of Llama Llama Red Pajama {and other silly alliterative and rhyming books} and have her sign our books. Charlotte could have cared less, but I absolutely love this book series {I think my love for books serves me well as a pediatric speech pathologist, though sometimes I do go a bit overboard}

 

I love this particular series because the little Llama is always full of drama, which reminds me of a very expressive 9 month old I know.

 

Mother’s day was a blur. I sometimes forget that I am a mother, and I definitely forgot that mother’s day is a holiday that applies to me now! Last mother’s day Charlotte was busy making me nauseous and puke-ey. This mother’s day Charlotte was busy making me laugh and smile {and chase after her, and wipe her bum}. What a difference a year makes, and well worth all the Llama drama, I’d say.

 

I rekindled my love for the library last week. I hadn’t been for well over 5 years. Sad, I know, but all that is behind me now and we will just move forward with our relationship {though it’s not completely over between Kindle and me}. Charlotte loved our library outing too, though she didn’t quite understand the ‘quiet’ rule. Her new favorite game is to see how her voice echoes in new places. The bathroom at chic-fil-a wins, hands down. She gave quite a performance in there last time. The library echo was less effective, but that didn’t deter her one bit. I just hope we are allowed back in.

My mother and father-in-law have been wonderful the past few months by watching Charlotte for Chris and I while we attend our foster parent/adoption training classes each Wednesday evening. They even feed us dinner, which is such a blessing because it is a scramble to try and get to the classes on time because of Chris’ work schedule and rush hour traffic.

 

Chris threw me a beach bbq birthday party at the beginning of May. It was absolutely frigid but I was so blessed to have many of my friends shiver out in the cold with me. Charlotte wasn’t really in to the whole sand thing, but I certainly tried to get her to touch it a few times. She is not keen on novel textures and immediately goes into ‘superman’ mode with her arms back and her back arched in order to avoid touching it. We’ll keep trying.

Just soaking up all the snuggles I can get from her before she doesn’t want anything to do with mommy anymore and slams her door in my face before writing in her diary about how much she hates me. What?! Just mentally preparing myself for 16 years down the road.