Dare I Say She’s Back??

Posted on August 13, 2015 by playinghousewi

Charlotte has been… out of sorts this past week. Yes, that is my polite way of saying she’s been kind of a jerk all dang week.

I’m not 100% sure what the cause has been, but I’m sure it has to do with the fact that for the past 3-4 nights, she’s woken up in the middle of the night hollering like a banchee and not subsiding without a little love from mom and/or dad. And I’m talking 1-2 hours of hollering per night. I’m tired.

Beyond that, I believe she is working on more teeth… it could be the molars on her right side (she has the top and bottom on the left) or it could be some other set of teeth. Either way, the intense amounts of drool and jamming her fingers in her mouth (and down her throat) leads me to believe that teething is playing a role.

The last little smidge of fun is what I’ll call “toddlerhood.” Miss Charlotte has been exploring the art of whine crying and tantruming. Over the past few days, she’s literally transformed from our sweet babe who barely cries (except during diaper changes) to a little todd-monster who is loosing her shit over everything!

I’m bored playing with this toy… TANTRUM!

I want to eat this piece of food, not that one… <throw everything on the floor> TANTRUM!

Don’t touch me… TANTRUM!

This is fun… TANTRUM!

You’re so funny, momma! <Laughing>… TANTRUM!

Get the picture?

We literally ate dinner last night to the sweet hum of Charlotte’s hysterics. After 3-4 full days of whining and/or spazzing tantrums, we decided it was time to just ignore her. So we ate and chatted while she went from blank stares to tantrum and back again.

However, last night, instead of waking up around 2, the sweet princess slept until 5… whined like a goon and then settled after Mark wound up her music box. I’ll call that progress. We were awake for maybe 10 minutes.

Even bigger progress has been her mood. She has been SUCH a love today. Who knows if it’ll be Jeckyll or Hyde when she wakes up from this next nap, but at least we had half a day with our sweetie pie.

My Big Girl

Posted on July 31, 2015 by playinghousewi

The other day when I was counting Charlotte’s baby teeth, I said she had 7 teeth with one on the verge… HOWEVER, just yesterday (or maybe the day before), she was doing something weird with her tiny mouth hanging open and I discovered TWO MOLARS!!!

Suddenly I feel like she is a legit big kid. I mean, molars…

That brings the count to 9 teeth with at least one, if not three, on the way.

So nuts!

My big girl…

Check out her eating olives like a big kid… I didn’t even show her this… Just looked over and caught her in the act!

Also, yesterday I decided to give sign language a more focused effort. I was teaching her “more” so she would stop making that terrible whining sound every time she ran out of berries. After a few minutes, she was already getting the hang of it…

Night Wakings

Posted on January 16, 2015 by playinghousewi

Our little Charlie has been waking up during the middle of the night every couple of days lately. And of course, it’s not a quick or quiet affair. She wakes up screaming and will seemingly go on forever.

Up until last night, Mark was going in, changing her and giving her a bottle. Last night Mark so generously nominated me for the job (thanks!). I don’t want her to get used to night feedings again since we’ve successfully weened her from them, so last night, I went in, changed her and swayed with her. With her tiny head pressed against my cheek, we rocked back and forth in her room. It was actually really sweet and peaceful.

After about 10 or so minutes, I decided to put her back down (awake). Instantly, she was crying again. I put her paci in her mouth, gave her a dolly to snuggle or gnaw on or whatever and left the room. I spent the next hour watching her on the monitor.

She cried and whined and fussed, but what was so interesting was how skilled she seemed. I watched her as she rolled on top of her paci and thought, “great… She’s never going to find it now!” But after a minute or so, she must have felt it on her neck and worked and worked until she was able to find it with her hand.

She grabbed it and immediately started chewing on it. She was biting the wrong end, but seeming to enjoy chewing on it. Her cries turned to whines and then to chatting. After about an hour, she finally flipped her paci the right way, put it in her mouth and rolled to her side before drifting off to sleep.

While it was 315 in the morning by the time she fell asleep, it was pretty fascinating to watch. And today as I feed my little 6 month old baby, I can’t help but think how old she’s already become. It’s such a crazy thing to watch these tiny infants who just sleep and eat turn into miniature people.

Such a blessing.

A BIG Week 25

Posted on January 10, 2015 by playinghousewi

This past week has been crazy. Our little Charlie has made leaps and bounds.

The first obvious momentous milestone was her new little pop up crawly bounce. I’m pretty much obsessed with this adorable, excited new movement. I think we still have a short amount of time before she actually crawls, but I’m just loving this first step.

The second more obvious milestone is the tiny one’s new teeth! Charlie was super crabby leading up to her teeth, but didn’t show any other real symptoms otherwise. However, since those teeth have come in, she’s been a drooly, chomping mess. I wouldn’t be surprised if more were coming.

Now, those two things in themselves made for a big week, but beyond that, Charlie has seemed to make jumps developmentally, too. This week was big for object permanence. She’s suddenly looking around people or objects to see what’s behind them. It’s super cute. She’ll lean very dramatically past me if there is someone behind me who strikes her interest.

She’s really just all around older this week. And I feel like she’s grown a lot. She seems so big now… And heavy. Oy. My baby is growing up.

Crabby Little Princess

Posted on January 9, 2015 by playinghousewi

This is the best way to sum up my day…

Truly, maybe it wasn’t THAT bad, but it was a little rough. If I’m being totally honest, I had the thought, “am I going to be able to make this work?” With this being me taking Charlotte to work.

I think I will… It was just one of those days where a ton of little things went wrong, Charlie girl was super crabby and demanding (and of course, refusing to nap like she should), and I was super busy with work. Not the ideal combination.

HOWEVER, Charlotte must have sensed my desperation, because she threw me a brief, but much needed, bone before her bedtime routine. When we got home, I put C in her nighttime diaper and put her on the floor. Instantly, she was my sweet little angel. She was smiling and laughing and giving me love all over the place.

It was perfection. She rolled all over her room, hopping up into crawl position sporadically, while I folded and put away her laundry. It was by far the best 40 minutes of my day. What a pumpkin.

I must have missed (or ignored) her “I’m getting sleepy and am going to crash soon” signals, because in a matter of one little roll, things went sour.

But at least we had that perfect time together 🙂

Two Tooth Magoo

Posted on January 7, 2015 by playinghousewi

Guess who cut two teeth?!? Yep! Miss Charlotte! I’ve known that she was working on one and kind of thought I felt another… Then, when I felt in her mouth today, I got poked by two sharp little nubs!

I’m guessing that the little teethers were big contributors to Charlotte’s stellar mood this past week. But considering, it really wasn’t so bad.

I can’t even believe it… I have a baby who is about to crawl, can sit almost unassisted. AND has two teeth! How did this girl get so old already?

I tried to snap a picture of her tiny nub teeth, but anytime I got close, she either licked my finger, shoved it into her mouth for a good gnaw, or grab for the camera.