Charlotte - Weeks 23 & 24

What a difference 2 weeks makes in baby life! Charlie's a professional eater now and her repertoire includes, rice cereal, oatmeal, pears, squash and sweet potato. I really wanted to make her food like I did for Ruby but so far, that hasn't happened. :( Oh well, if I find the time I will, if not, I won't. Sorry Charlie, I'm sure you won't have to see a therapist about this in your teen years though. :)

Charlotte is sitting up a lot better now. We still can't leave her unassisted but she's almost there. She's also found her new favorite toy - her feet! She loves them! She's so much fun and she LOVES smiling and laughing at big sister Ruby. Her giggles are contagious and usually we're all laughing when she is. She's such a strong baby and wants to be standing up all the time. She also can get a really good grip on your hair and pull like nobody's business. She takes Ruby's hair out in chunks.

Charlie continues to be a joy and is being a little more consistent with her sleeping through the night and isn't usually getting up before 6am anymore which is nice! In the past couple of weeks she's also starting waking up from naps and in the morning happy instead of crying which is much more pleasant for me.

Ruby is doing great and still thriving at school. She's very excited for the "sneaky leppers" to come to her school on St. Patty's Day. I guess the teachers told them they all have to wear green that day to make sure the leprechauns don't come mess up their classroom. It was all I could do not to die laughing when she told me about the "leppers". She is so hilarious.

Ruby's very interested in death right now and why people die. We try not to dwell on it too much and not make a big deal about it when we're answering her death questions but it's hard to know what to say when she says, "Mommy, I don't want to die." A cheerful, "Oh honey, everyone dies at some point but you won't die for a very, very long time." usually does the trick. Damn. The answer to this one wasn't in the parenting manual. :)

We're excited to see PopPop this weekend and enjoy the beautiful Florida Spring weather!

Silly Sisters

At the Children's Museum. She wasn't really excited about milking the cow. She was kind of confused/grossed out.

Baby Hospital! Now we're talking!!

Dr. Ruby, busy at work saving the world, one baby at a time.

I came into the room and found this with Ruby giggling in the corner.

Mamma and her girl.

She looks like such a little girl here - Charlie don't grow up too fast!!

Good shot by Rubes!

Hi sweet girl!

Love these two!

I wish I had that upper body strength!

Umm, can you say "Douglette"?

I just want to eat her!!!

Quiet time.

Zonked.

Always a party at the Vogt house!

Who needs toys when you have toes?

Charlotte - Week 22

I can't believe Charlie's 5 months old already! Time sure is flying. We started her on rice cereal this weekend and she LOVES eating. She was more than ready and she took to it right away and is a pro already. Ruby loves to help feed Charlie and does the airplane really well. :) Rubes is so sweet with Charlotte and just loves her so much, it's really awesome to watch. Charlotte is on the move! She can roll a good distance and I can't take my eye off her for a second. Gone are the days where I can just lay her on the bed while I putter around the room. I have a feeling she'll be an early crawler. She's really starting to sit up more and more on her own and she loves to do it. She's so smiley and cuddly and curious and happy. An overall joy of a baby!

Rubes is the best big sister and seems to have rounded the corner from the really challenging behaviour we were having in the past few months. Several times I've come up to get her out of quiet time and she's cleaned her whole room and pulled the covers up on her bed and she says, "Mommy, I cleaned my room for you to make you happy." Oh things like that just make me want to cry it's so sweet. She'll also clean the living room for me now and she does a great job! Her newest discovery is that she can zip her jackets/sweaters up all by herself now. She was over the moon the first time she did it. It was so fun sitting down with her after school on Valentine's Day and having her show me all of the Valentines she got. She read who each one was from one and got them all right! She amazes me sometimes. Love that girl!

Rubes can always get a giggle from Charlie.

Stinker and stinkette.

Sleepover fort with Ben & Lucy!!

Bedtime story. Yup, I just laid there and let Doug do the work. :)

2 of my favorite people.

Aww, Charlie, I love you!

She sure does love her Mommy, too!

Heading out the door for their Valentine's Day breakfast date and Dunkin' Donuts!

Big girl with a spoon!

A baby in jeans always makes me giggle.

Especially when they're this cute.

So I put her on her play mat, turned around and chopped up a carrot and turned around and she was all the way over there!!

Charlotte - Week 20 & 21

Hi everybody! We've had a busy couple of weeks! Grandpa and Gretta came last week for a few days and Ruby of course loved the extra attention and I loved the help. We had a great time and Charlie loved meeting them for the first time.

As I predicted in my last post, Charlie is now rolling over both ways. She started the day after I posted that I thought she was going to be rolling over soon. She's so strong and just flips herself from her back to her belly so quickly. She now sleeps on her belly most of the time. She's also really wanting to sit up by herself and can do it for a little bit at a time. She's growing much too quickly, I don't want this baby stage to end too soon! :) There's a little something going on with Charlie right now and I can't put my finger on it. I think it's either stranger anxiety coming on or teething. She's just not quite herself and wakes up in the middle of her naps crying and generally just wants to be held (read: nursed) by me. Other than that, she's still her happy self and is really finding her voice (read: screech). I took the girls to the library for story time this week and Charlotte would not stop happily screeching away very loudly - she doesn't quite understand "shhhhh" yet. :) Luckily she's pretty cute so I didn't get too many dirty looks.

Ruby's doing great and had her first trip to the dentist last week which she LOVED. She wants to go back already. She didn't have any cavities and everything looked great! She was so brave and was such a good girl. She loves to tell stories now and can go on and on for quite a while, creating elaborate stories. The funny thing to me is, that she doesn't even pause to think about what she should say next, it just comes out - I just love her imagination. She continues to love school and really wants to go 5 days a week but I can't bare to let her do that just yet.

Happy Valentine's Day to everyone, I'm excited to be celebrating this year with my complete family, my best friend and my two sweet girls. xoxo

She did a great job at opening up wide.

No cavities!

Nothing better than sister giggles.

Taking silly pictures on Grandpa's computer.

Singing the song Grandpa wrote for Ruby appropriately titled, "I can do it all by myself!"

Charlie meeting Ebee Baby.

Captain Ruby!

Hanging out with Grandpa.

I don't think you're going to get any milk from there, Charlie!

Ruby was SO excited to take a bath with Charlie for the first time.

Hi sweet girl!

I love to swing.

Watch out for your ankles, yup, that thing's motorized!

Look who's sitting up!

Awww!

Listening to Grandpa's music.

Grandpa and his girls.

Park playdate.

Playing "Simon Says" with Daddy.