5 Months Old

Hey there, it's me Charlotte. I'm 5 months old today! I'm getting to be such a big girl--as you can see from the picture, I'm able to sit up when I've got myself propped up on my hands. I need to work on my stamina, though. I'm still a bit of a bobblehead; any movement of my head away from looking straight ahead, and I topple over.

Do I remind you of another baby when he was learning to sit up? (Jack was almost 6 months old when this picture was taken, so I'm still definitely beating him in my developmental milestones, he he.)

But I still think my big brother is the coolest thing since sliced bread (or Mommy's milk, in my case.)


I still get startled and bug-eyed from that camera flash Mom insists on using. Here's me in my excersaucer. I really like to bang on the toy by my right hand that makes different animal sounds.

Some of the other things I'm really into these days are: drooling, sticking my hands (and everything else) in my mouth, and grabbing anything I can reach. Between the drooling and sucking on my hands, my shirtsleeves are usually toast within 15 minutes of putting a new outfit on. But I don't seem to mind having wet sleeves all day. I also love to touch people with my slobber hands; I haven't figured out yet why they don't seem to like that.

My favorite things to grab are Mom and Ashley's hair and earrings, but anything within my reach is fair game. I think it's very funny when I swipe at something on the counter as we're walking past and knock it to the floor. I did that to a container of food the other day, and Mom was not very happy.

Overall, I'm a pretty happy 5-month old girl. I'm looking forward to next month when I get to try food!

Chuckles

Our girl apparently has a refined sense of humor. I haven't had much success in getting Charlotte to laugh, but the other night I finally managed to coax some chuckles out of her. Sorry for the poor video quality; it's hard to hold a camera in one hand and bounce a baby around with the other.

Big kids

Charlotte's been sitting so well lately that we decided to try putting her in the booster seat. She loves it! She's been fussy lately in her bouncer and swing, and I think it's because she just wanted to be at eye level with everyone one else!

Charlotte's take-over of Jack's booster seat came at a good time, since I had been wanting to transition him to the table anyway. Jack's a big fan of sitting at the table like a big boy! (He's still using a booster, with some fat books under it, to get him up to table-level.)

Here's Charlotte in her chair, throwing her toys around.

First day of school

Jack had a good first day of playschool on Tuesday! He didn't cry at all, unlike some of the other kids who were really screaming when I left. (But the teacher said sometimes kids who don't cry on the first day might cry on the second, when they realize school wasn't just a one-time thing!)

Jack is very proud of his monkey backpack (or "pack-pack," as he calls it), so here's a shot of him where you can actually see he's got a backpack on.

The kids sat down at a table for a snack to start things off, and apparently Jack didn't move from his seat the whole time. He preferred to watch the other kids during story and playtime. Hopefully tomorrow he'll work up the courage to venture out of his chair! Also, Jack has a new girlfriend. The teacher said one of the girls kept kissing Jack throughout the day. He always has been a chick magnet!

Bed time

Jack and Charlotte have similar bed times now, so they're usually getting baths and being put into their pj's at at about the same time. They both enjoy watching each other, so it's pretty cute. I usually have Jack further away from Charlotte on the bed to keep her away from his flailing limbs, but I scooted them together for a few pictures.

"So, how was your day?"
"Oh, pretty good. I discovered these things called toes, and I like to play with them a lot."



Charlotte loves to grab her toes. I wonder how long it will take her to start putting them in her mouth.


Jack has his first day of playschool today. It's just for 1.5 hours, 2 days a week, to get kids used to being away from home before they start preschool. Hopefully Jack will be fine and it'll just be me that tears up!

Blizzard!

Well, we didn't get 3 feet of snow like some had predicted, but we did wind up with close to 2 feet. The pile of snow at the end of our driveway is taller than Jack! The last I saw on the news, this storm had moved to #3 on the all-time worst snowstorms (for accumulation) in Chicago history. My work was cancelled, but Andy still had to go in. Fortunately the expressway was clear enough that he made it safely, and fairly quickly. The hardest part was getting out of our unshoveled driveway!

It isn't snowing much now in the early afternoon, but it was still snowing quite a bit this morning. Here's a quick video. Note how little snow is on our deck because of the high winds, but there are definitely big drifts against the back fence.

This is a little hard to see because of the lack of color contrast, but here's Jack standing in our driveway. The snow behind him gives you a good idea of the real accumulation. Jack's standing where I had shoveled. The snow was so deep and heavy it took me almost an hour and a half to shovel--and that's only half the driveway! I'll be heading out soon to work on the other side.

The snow pile again. Jack at first was excited about going outside and making a snowman, but after getting slapped in the face with a wind gust when we first stepped outside, he changed his mind. He lasted only long enough for me to take these pictures.

The driveway again (I'm standing on our front porch).

The neighborhood

Charlotte was extremely bothered by all this

Snow outside the back door. Fortunately this area was a little protected and didn't get as much snow as everywhere else. Lou was able to hop out onto the snow pretty easily.

Lou wouldn't stay in the snow for me to get a good angle of him with snow up to his belly. He kept wanting to come inside, I can't imagine why.