Pool Time.

The first time we tried to put Charlotte in a baby pool she screamed her head off. You would have thought it was the worst thing we ever did to her. Our neighbors even heard her screaming. But we recently tried again with warmer water and her cousin, Penelope, present. Things went a lot better this time. She loved playing. At first she just sat and held onto the rubber ducks that Penelope was putting in the pool. By the end she was crawling around in the water. Next up: Trying out a real pool that we can get in with her.

Fourth of July.

Charlotte just celebrated her last first holiday: Fourth of July. With Bryan being the new guy at work he had to work and living in an area with a fire ban there weren't any fireworks (not that Char would have been awake for them anyways). So, Char and I spent the day hanging out with my parents, sister, and niece. It was a pretty nice and relaxing holiday - aside from the chaos of trying to take pictures of a nine-month-old and two-year-old together.

Nine Months.

This is a very overdue update about Charlotte's ninth month. Turning nine months fell right in the middle of preparing to move to Colorado. We actually had to take a break from packing up her room to take her nine month pictures. I am going to try my best to update about just her ninth month and not include any things that I need to save for her ten month update that will be coming up in two weeks, so the list may be shorter than normal. Here we go:

• Charlotte weighs 20 pounds 6 ounces and is almost 30 inches long. She is basically off the charts for her height and in the average range for her weight. It sure makes it hard to find pants long enough to fit her!
• She purposefully says "mama" and "dada". Sometimes they are repetitive (i.e., "mamamama"), but she says them when she wants either Bryan or I respectively.
• She waves a lot more now and occasionally does it for an actual "bye bye".
• Charlotte is cruising on furniture. This has led to a few bumps on the head falling down between furniture, but she can take steps holding onto things.
• Speaking of cruising, Charlotte will NOT sit still. Trying to take her picture is one of the hardest things to do. She moves all over the place. Maybe one day it'll become easier again - like when she goes to college.
• We have added breakfast to her feeding routine. Right now she just gets oatmeal in the morning. Then the same dinner and nursing routine as before.
• She is learning who her family members are more and more. She doesn't get upset when my mom or Bryan's mom visits. She won't go to them right away, but she warms up within minutes.
• She has started to play "catch". By this I mean if I roll or hand her a ball, she will hand it right back. This can go on forever and she just loves it and smiles and laughs.
• She is suddenly an early morning person again. We are talking 6:30 wake ups. I don't know what's going on. However, she is taking two regular naps again. For awhile there she was on a weird nap schedule.

Our ninth month as parents (which is a blur with moving):

• I really had to learn to prioritize getting ready to move with a baby. I usually am such an organized person with a grand to-do list (okay, this is still true). But I had to keep reminding myself that it was okay if something on that to-do list didn't get done because I needed to keep Charlotte's routine as normal as possible and make sure she still had her normal playtime during the day.
• Bryan got to enjoy his first Father's Day. We didn't do anything special that day, because Bryan had to work and then we were packing. When Bryan was in Colorado for his job interview, though, Charlotte and I made him his Father's Day present (a framed picture of Charlotte holding the letters D-A-D).

Thirty-five weeks.

Thirty-six weeks.

Thirty-seven weeks.

Thirty-eight weeks.

Thirty-nine weeks.

Sometimes this is how her weekly photo goes.

Nine months.