April 23, 2013 - admin 2 Comments

It’s official: First word.

Charlotte said her first word on Sunday.

It was epic.

I feel that as a speech therapist mommy I have been critical of judging Charlotte’s ‘firsts’. She was actually technically crawling (mobile) before I gave her a gold star on her report card for crawling because to me, it wasn’t crawling until she was actually moving forward – she moved sideways and backwards way before she moved forward.

When it comes to ‘talking’, Charlotte has been pretty vocal since early on; this is her at 2 months, starting to express her little inner personality {apologies for the long videos, I didn’t have time to edit them down this week. Just fast forward if you hate adorable-ness}:

and at 4 months:

Then the ‘throat clearing’ phase at 6 months:

And now at 8 months {I wouldn’t say this clip is very representative, seeing as how most of her communication as of late consists of screams and shrieks because she is frustrated with mommy for ‘cramping her style’, but this clip is definitely easier on the ears}:

Chris and I have been hearing Charlotte babble ‘mamas’ and ‘dadas’ in the most hilarious ways over the past few months and she has imitated ‘bye bye’ and ‘hey’ {I’m pretty sure it was a ‘hey y’all… in her best southern drawl, ha!} when listening to us talk. I was waiting for her to spontaneously verbalize with purpose before counting it as her ‘first word’ and she delivered on Sunday evening. I had her in her highchair munching on some frozen peaches {in her mesh teether, of course} to soothe her poor teething gums. When Chris came home from small group and walked through the door she looked right over to him.. ‘dada’, and without skipping a beat went right back to gnawing on her fruit. It was so adorable. She was so proud of herself. And so were we.

April 9, 2013 - admin

A quick morning update.

Here’s a brief Baker family update {and a mini photo purge} – I haven’t posted in weeks, there is so much you’ve missed.

Chris and I have begun taking foster parenting classes through the City of Virginia Beach. Let me answer some questions that you may have to save you from having to ask them: It will take 9 weeks to finish the classes. A home study must be completed before anyone will be placed with us. No, we don’t know if we are ready for another child to be added to the mix {who does?!}. Yes, we are freaking out about bed space, car space, and pretty much just space in general. Yes, we will have age parameters for whomever will be placed with us {3 and under}. Yes, I am terrified. Yes, we are trusting God – He is leading us down this path so we are trusting in His best judgement. I’m trying to keep my ‘thinking’ and ‘planning’ out of it because that can only screw things up. No, we are not parenting experts {as we haven’t even gotten to the tough parenting tasks with Charlotte yet}, but as long as there are children in the world who need loving, patient, kind adults in their life to live out and show Christ’s love for them then we will be obedient to what God asks of us.
Charlotte is now quite mobile and is crawling everywhere and pulling up to her knees. She will be 8 months on Thursday of this week so I will fill you in on her latest developmental milestones in her 8 month update post.

That’s all I have time for at the moment, I hear one little 7 month old who wants to get up and join the action.

Chris and Charlotte - hat

March 14, 2013 - admin

Oh Happy Play!

My job is play. As a pediatric speech therapist everything I do revolves around play in some way or another; the type and tools of play vary depending on the patient and his/her needs at the time, but it all boils back down to the fundamentals of play. In the outpatient setting, however, I haven’t had the opportunity to see the development of ‘typical’ play skills in an infant. My caseload consists mostly of kiddos over 2 yrs. {younger children usually receive services in the home}. Only since having a child of my own have I been able to witness the development of communication and play in a very young baby. I would love to say I know all the milestones for babies under age one but this is all quite new to me and I am surprised every day at some of the things Charlotte is able to do; playing with this gum ball machine toy is no exception. Chris and I bought this for Charlotte for Christmas even though I knew she wouldn’t be ready for it for a while. I love this toy and use it with children in therapy almost every day; I knew I wanted Charlotte to experience this type of ’cause-effect’ play {and secretly wanted to be able to take the toy to work to add to my personal stash once Charlotte had outgrown it}.

I hadn’t invested too much time showing her how to play with this toy because I honestly thought it would be a few more months before she would be able to activate it. However, it was one that I let her explore independently quite frequently {independent = on the floor in the living room surrounded by toys while I fold clothes or clip coupons}.

My apologies for the crazy mom commentary… I was very excited!

I tried to capture another video of her putting the ball back in the top when my dad {Papa} was over visiting but my iPhone camera wasn’t able to capture it because it was too full of other photos and videos. smart phone fail. Added to tomorrow’s to-do list: sync up iPhone and clear out some space! I would be so sad if my phone died and I lost some of the great photos on it… gotta start keeping up with that.

February 25, 2013 - admin

Bathtime… it cures what ails ya!

Charlotte has been teething for the past few days; just the usual stuff… drooling, gumming everything in sight… yada yada. She still only has the two bottom teeth {the same ones that appeared just after 4 months} and we’ve grown to adore that little chicklet smile. I know more chicklets are about to pop through any moment now and I know I’ll still love that smile once they do. Until then though, we’ve been suffering through the aches and pains that come with the teething territory. Today she seemed particularly uncomfortable and none of the usual remedies seemed to work… until bath time.

She went from THIS:

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