Bluebonnets

This past winter has been extremely long and fairly chilly for us. However, it did bring a lot of much needed rain. We never complain about rain in Texas!!! I get excited when we have really good wet winters because my mind is already anticipating Spring and all of the lovely wildflowers that will pop up all over the place.

Our state flower is the bluebonnet. They start popping up around April and stick around for a month or two. You often see families taking their Easter pictures in fields full of the flowers or spy cars pulled over on the side of the highways to snap a few shots. Here's a link to a post I did about the wildflowers several years ago.

I couldn't wait to take Charlotte out and snap a few photos of her. One afternoon, we just happened to be in the vicinity of a really good park that I knew had a huge field full of bluebonnets. Thankfully, C was wearing the perfect outfit so we made a detour and spent some time meandering through the sweet smelling field. I wish I would have had my big camera with me, but my iphone took some pretty great shots of her!

C kept wandering off and chasing these tiny, yellow butterflies.

Did I mention that it was crazy windy that afternoon? Like ridiculously windy! The poor girl's hair was all over the place.

 

You're not suppose to pick the bluebonnets, so C settled for a bouquet of other wildflowers growing in the same field. The red ones are another one of our favorite: Indian Paintbrushes. C calls them Alien Paintbrushes.

Several people over on Instagram really liked this one. C was starting to get restless from me asking her to smile and look at the camera for the billionth time, so I took off running through the flowers. At one point, I found a tiny slop and completely laid down on my stomach with the phone pointed up and ready to go.  I could hear her squealing with delight as she got closer trying to track me down. I snapped this the moment I saw her and thankfully it turned out super sweet and captured the playfulness of the moment!

Doesn't it look like she's sitting in a painting? I could have stayed out there all day, but we were over the wind and ready for a late lunch!

First Trip to the Zoo

First off, happy Veteran's day!!! We are very grateful for those that have served both past and present to honor and protect our country. Thank you for your bravery, dedication and numerous sacrifices. Charlotte was thrilled to see lots of flags flying high today. She's obsessed with pointing out each and every flag she can spot!




We took a road trip to Houston last weekend. We attended a wedding on Saturday. Can I tell you how much fun it is to get my precious daughter totally dressed up for special occasions. She got many, many compliments and looked quite darling if I do say so myself. Seeing her and Ross dressed up and cuddling pretty much made my heart explode! We are going to have to work on wearing tights though. She kept taking her shoes off in the car and trying to rip her tights off like she does with her socks. What can I say - she likes to be barefoot like her mama.



Sunday we took Charlotte to the Houston zoo. Ross and I could barely contain our excitement. Since the moment Charlotte was born, we've talked about taking her to the zoo. It's something that we've always enjoyed doing together and I have to tell you - it's a totally dIfferent experience seeing it through the eyes of your child. She loved pointing out all of the animals and making their sounds to us. There were two exhibits that totally made her eyes light up. The first one was the giraffes. She was in awe over their height and proximity. We ate at a cafe where you sat outside right next to where they were feeding the giraffes lettuce leaves. She giggled at their long black tongues and waved everytime one came walking by the patio.



The second was the world of primates! We were excited to see such a variety of monkeys. The zoos in our area don't have many at all and they are so much fun to watch. Charlotte really loved watching them swing around and play together. We spent a long time watching the chimpanzees. There were two, right by the glass, using sticks to place in a hole and pull termites out to nibble on. It was neat seeing them so up close. The funniest and definitely oddest were these tiny monkeys called Tamarin. They would follow you as you walked by and study you as much as we studied them. We had a great visit. I would definitely go back again and recommend it to others. It's surrounded by a wonderful park that we enjoyed strolling through and it's located nearby several interesting looking museums. Have you been to the zoo recently? What was your favorite exhibit??

Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween!!!! Did you're munchkins have fun trick-or-treating?? Charlotte dressed up as Tinkerbell this year. She got a lot of compliments :) I have to admit she looked pretty darn sweet walking around in her costume.



We weren't sure what her reaction would be to seeing all of the kiddos dressed up, but she absolutely loved it and had a blast. She helped pass out candy and clapped as everyone walked away.




She even got her first taste of candy. We were quite popular since we were passing out ring pops. We let Charlotte have a few licks of one. She wasn't too sure about it at first, but her smile kept getting bigger and bigger with each lick. Mario seemed to be the most popular costume in our neighborhood. We also saw a lot of pirates and vampires. Hope everyone had a fun night!!!

Happy Chaos

I know it has been a few months since I posted an update. We've been busy little bees settling into our new place as well as chasing a full blown toddler. Charlotte recently turned 15 months and is bouncing all over the place. Here are some recent achievements:


- We've been going through teething hell lately ;) C has been working on getting her first molars in. 4 in fact. All at once!!! Fun times people - not! God bless Popsicles. Her favorite is pureed peach. She will even go over to the freezer and open it trying to hunt for them. I've also made watermelon and pineapple/banana/coconut milk blend. Speaking of teeth, my kid is obsessed with brushing her new pearly whites. She will stand at the bathroom counter, on her tippy toes, pointing up and saying brush.




- Knows a ton of animal sounds. She has become a great entertainer at parties with people sitting around asking her what does a ___ say? The newest ones she has added to her list are: elephant ( she even flips her arm over her head), alligator, squirrel, owl, lion, horse, donkey, snake, pig, fish (makes fishy lips), mouse, crow (caw while flapping her "wings"), monkey, seal (she will clap her hands together), chicken and crab. She also loves motorcycles and revs her fist when she sees them, dump trucks (room), fire trucks (makes a siren sound), airplanes and buses.

- Is talking up a storm and repeating everything!!!! Her newest words are: straw, sock, shoe, pretty, cool, no, ice, house, pop (for Poppi), book, mess, brush and toast. She is constantly babbling in her own language too.

- She figured out walking right after her birthday and that immediately turned into running and climbing. She's a quick little monkey and it doesn't help that she's so tall. She swings her long leg up on something and proceeds to crawl on top of everything possible.



- Ross and I have started geocaching. It's a fun thing for us to do together and it has really taught us the way around our new area. It has also introduced us to a ton of new parks and C loves parks. She gets excited to swing, wants to go down the tallest slides possible and just loves exploring new areas. We've even taken her out on a few hikes that were quite peaceful and relaxing.

We've just been keeping busy and embracing the happy chaos. I'll try and get on here to post more often. I'm constantly putting pics on Twitter or Instagram so feel free to check there in the meantime. Hope y'all have a great weekend. We are looking forward to Halloween on Monday!

10 Month Update

Another month has come and flown by so quickly. My sweet Charlotte is growing and learning new things constantly. It has definitely been a fun few weeks. I love watching her discover new things. Her personality is definitely blossoming. She's energetic, curious, social and a comedian. She always entertains everyone and keeps us laughing.



At 10 months, Charlotte ....

- is slowly getting away from pureed foods and trying out solids. We love watching her pick up tiny pieces of food. She's very meticulous about it. This month she has tried real: kernels of brown rice, green beans, potatoes, pears, apples, pasta, peas, grated cheese and watermelon. She has loved it all. She's also nuts about yogurt - either vanilla or blueberry flavored. Good thing we are moving to solids because this month brought two more teeth; giving her a total of six. We believe #7 is just below the surface, but she refuses to let us get a good look.

- still loves being outdoors. We hung up a swing in the backyard and use it daily. She also tried out her swimming pool on Mother's day. She enjoyed splashing around and playing in it. I know we will use it lots this summer.



- continues to love books. Our new favorite is Where's the Green Sheep by Mem Fox. When the book asks that question, it's just a blank page so I started flipping my hand over as if asking a question. Well little Miss picked up on that and does the same gesture when she hears the word "where". It's quite cute and instantly made us realize that she's watching our every move!!!

- is crawling all over the house. You put her down and she scurries off eager to explore. She's pulling up on anything she can get her tiny little hands on and she's not scared to let go and fall back when she's ready to move on. This new developments has given me heart palpitations and many new gray hairs!!! She's just now starting to hold on and take a few steps around the edge of things. People always gasp at her height when they see her standing. She towers over the coffee table and can now stand up and reach the top of our dining room table. Craziness!!!!



- is babbling like crazy. She loves to mimic your noises and has started saying "Bye". If we ask her what a sheep says, she will reply with a short and super sweet " Ba". It's quite cute.

- still loves singing "head, shoulders, knees and toes". She's starting to learn some of her body parts too. She will point to her head and grab her ears when asked where they are.

- has learned to play. She loves: stacking toys and knocking them down, having us hide objects for her to find, playing peek-a-boo at any given chance, or just playing with us in general. I love when she finds something that we've done hilarious and bust out with a girlie squeal or a full body chuckle. She has the most infectious laugh.

She's simply just a joy and absolute delight to have around. I can't believe we have a ten month old!!! Thanks for checking in on us!!!

Deep in the Heart of Texas

Deep in the Heart of Texas, originally uploaded by orosky17.

The theme this week over on i heart faces is May flowers! I love flowers and I especially love taking pictures of flowers. Being from Texas, I immediately thought of wildflowers. The moment Charlotte was born I had visions of taking pictures of her in this field of bluebonnets and indian paintbrushes. I bought the perfect outfit and anxiously awaited for Spring to arrive. And then it happened. We've had very little rain meaning no fields of gorgeous wildflowers. I'm still bummed about this fact, but I've started dreaming of next Spring. My sweet baby girl will be a toddler by then. I can't wait to watch her run through this field and play in the flowers.

If you click on the photo, it willl take you to my Flickr stream where you can view more pictures of this field.

Soft & Sweet

The theme over on i heart faces today is soft and sweet. It's no surprise who the sweetie in our house is! A couple days ago, I played with Charlotte on a blanket in the backyard. We were kicking a ball back and forth, studying blades of grass and watching the wind make the trees dance. I had my camera out snapping pictures, when she decided to crawl over and start " tickling" me. I was moving the camera out of the way getting ready for her attack and my finger pressed the button. This photo was a complete accident and I love how it turned out! The light was bright and soft and she was extremely close. What is more sweet than the innocence in a child's eyes? I love my little ray of sunshine!!! For those of you who follow her updates, we had our 9 month check-up on Friday. All is well!!!! MissC is now 29.75" long and weighs 22lbs 3oz.

First Easter

Hope everyone had a wonderful Easter. I just wanted to share a few photos from our celebration. We spent the day at my inlaws's house. We played with Charlotte all day, had a fabulous BBQ and just relaxed. It was the perfect way to enjoy her first Easter.



Charlotte immediately spyed her little Easter nest and was eager to crawl over and check it out. Those eggs are like little maracas. She has been carrying them around ever since. She looked so sweet in her little dress, but it was interfering with her mobility and she's all about crawling and exploring these days. Needless to say we had an outfit change after lunch. Her little amber beads are from Inspired by Finn and actually help with her teething. They look awfully cute though and she has no clue she's even wearing them.



As I mentioned we had a great lunch. The guys made BBQ chicken using the Neely's homemade sauce. My MIL made a delicious saffron rice as well as a fruit salad. I brought along a carrot salad, apple coleslaw and we topped everything off with my favorite carrot cake! The only cake that I like. It was a great day! Wishing everyone a wonderful week.

9 Month Update

Happy Easter!!!! Not only is it Charlotte's first Easter, but she just so happens to be turning 9 months old today. She has really changed this past month. She's more playful and we are starting to catch glimpses of her infectious personality. We've accomplished several new milestones that we wanted to share with you.



As you can see, she has perfected her balance and sits up like a pro. The moment she started doing that playtime became a whole new experience. It changed once again this week when she figured out how to crawl!!! She started out crawling sideways like a crab, but has finally straightened out. Now she shuffles along the floor moving from room to room. We are having fun watching her explore new things. She still loves to read books and can now turn the pages for you. She enjoys pulling a pile of books out and looking at them herself. Her new favorite toy is a ball. We have several of them in the house and she squeals with delight rolling them back and forth with us. She also sits up, grabs a ball and places it at her feet to kick across the room. Ross is extra proud of this feat since he played soccer all his life.



This month brought along 2 more teeth giving her a total of 4 teeth now. We love her little toothy grins. I'm still making all of her food and we enjoy trying out new flavors and combos. This month she has added the following foods to her diet: blueberries, zucchini, chicken, turkey, mango, squash, cauliflower and corn. The only one she didn't care for were the mangos. Her favorite is still peas followed by carrots or corn. She has mastered the art of drinking water out of a sippy cup and is working on eating solid foods. She has become a Puff addict and we recently started giving her bites of steamed zucchini or pears. She loves when I add cinnamon to her fruits or oatmeal.



I'm often stopped when we are out shopping by people commenting on how much she babbles to me. I'm constantly talking or pointing things out to her and when I'm not, I just copy her sounds. She now says mama (maaw-maa), hi (ha), Nala, uh-oh ( uhoo) and ball. I can ask her to turn the lights out when we leave a room and she will immediately turn and mess with the switch. When I ask her where her tongue is she will stick hers out and curl it over her top lip. She recently started doing the sign for more when she wants another bite of food. I can ask for a kiss and she will either purse her lips up like a little fish or attack me with a huge wet lick. She still loves clapping her hands and playing peek-a-boo under the blankets.



Charlotte is still an outside girl. We continue to blow lots of bubbles off the back porch, stroll around the neighborhood, play with the neighbor kids and point out every bird that comes nearby. She loves animals and listening to us make animal sounds. Just yesterday we took her to the duck pond. She thought the ducks were hysterical. Especially when Ross got surrounded by them while passing out bread. We then let her test out the swings for the very first time. She could have swung all day. She loved it and would rock back and forth when it started to slow down. Do you notice anything funny in that last photo? Check out the butterfly!! It landed on her swing and went along for the ride. All in all we are having fun in this new active stage. Thanks again for checking in on us. We wish all of you a wonderful Easter celebration!!!!

8 Month Update

Another month has come and gone (way too quickly) leaving me with a bouncing 8 month old today!! Charlotte has changed so much these past few weeks. Her personality is definitely starting to surface. We've quickly learned that our lives are going to be filled with constant laughter. She loves to giggle and is definitely a little clown. She's super animated and makes many different, funny noises and facial expressions. The picture above shows her most common grin. She's still scrunching up her face and smiling when she's full of delight. She attracts a lot of attention this way when we are out and about. That and the fact that she has learned to wave and immediately starts flapping her arm before I can pull her out of the car. She has also learned to clap. I love watching her little hands do this. Sometimes they meet in unison and sometimes she ends up slapping her wrists.



As you can see, this month has been full of tasting new foods. It's no secret that Ross and I consider ourselves foodies. We love cooking and trying out new flavors ourselves. Charlotte is always in the kitchen with us. She watches us cook and I always let her touch and smell the food and spices that we are using. This month she tried pears, bananas, carrots, oatmeal, green beans and sweet potatoes. Her top favorite is still peas followed closely by carrots. I'm still making all of her food from scratch and I'm excited to introduce her to more flavors now that her options have expanded. I just got done making blueberries and a mixture of apples & pears with a bit of cinnamon. Just last week her top tooth popped through giving her 3 teeth so far. She wasn't quite sure what to make of this new development and spent days rubbing her tongue across her teeth and even started grinding them against one another. So happy that habit stopped (shudder)!! Her hair has recently really started to fill out as well. She has definitely been rockin' some major cow licks lately which just make me grin. My favorite moments are when she nuzzles against me and let's me play with her hair.



Charlotte is definitely a curious, active, liitle girl. I spend every waking moment trying to come up with new ways to entertain her. Now that Spring has arrived we have been spending oodles of time outdoors. We blow bubbles, we watch the neighborhood kids play, we point out the birds and squirrels, we lay in the yard watching the wind blow through the trees, we take long walks discussing every new thing we see and greeting anyone who walks past us. We love being outside. Her new favorite thing to do is sit in the yard and pick up leaves or blades of grass. She studies each one before dropping it and analyzing a new one. She loves to read and look at books. We have many story times throughout the day. We've started going to the library regularly to check out a few books and even a couple videos. Her first word was mama closely followed by hi. I think she has been working on uh-oh too. We haven't mastered the art of crawling yet, but we are close. She gets up on all fours rocking back and forth, but then flops over and rolls across the room giggling. She loves standing up and even used my leg to pull herself up yesterday. I have to admit it freaked me out a bit. My little baby is slowly slipping away and leaving me with a precious toddler. However I'm really looking forward to this interactive stage. Thanks for stopping by and checking in on Our little Panda. Wishing y'all a sunshiny day!!!

Head, shoulders, knees & Toes

Your ears, your eyes, your mouth, your nose.
Head, shoulders, knees and toes.
Knees and toes.

We've been singing this to Charlotte since we brought her home from the hospital. She squeals with delight as we sing and point to all of the different parts. The challenge this week over on i heart faces is to post a picture of a person, but it can't include their face!! The first photo that popped into mind was this one. It was taken 2.5 weeks after she was born. I loved her slender, newborn feet along with her curled toes, peely skin and even a prick spot where they drew blood. Baby feet are so soft and scrumptious. It's hard to believe that my tiny 5 pound 7 ounce panda has morphed 7 months later into this bouncing, healthy girl whose in the 98th percentile for height. Every now and then, I miss cuddling with that tender baby bundle. However, I'm loving this new stage she has entered. She's a blast to hang out with and has such a fun personality. Always ready to play, explore and giggle!!!!

Phone Photo Challenge

Did you see the new challenge posted today over on i heart faces?? It's to upload a photo that you have taken with your phone. No problem!!!! I'm always snapping pictures with my iPhone to send to Charlotte's grandparents or to post over on Twitter. I had a tough time deciding which photo to pick, but I finally decided to go with this one. It was taken on Sunday on our back porch. We had just bought Charlotte a couple hats at Target to help protect her from the sun on our daily walks. This was her first time trying it on. As you can see, she immediately found the straps and had to give them a taste. Everything gets a lick these days!!!!

6 Month Update

Oh my goodness, how can I have a 6 month old already? I LOVE my little goober!!! She makes us giggle each and every day. This month she has really worked on and mastered the art of sitting up and falling over, LOL. It took her about a week to learn how to steady herself and now all she wants to do is sit up and wobble. My favorite part is when I let her sit on our bed and she slowly looks up at me with the biggest grin in the whole wide world. She's so proud of herself and her smile definitely melts my heart. She also loves to roll and I mean roll all over the place. She rolls until she gets stuck under some furniture and we turn her around and off she goes again. In the last week, she has been working on pulling her knees up under her, but then she just ends up scooting on her belly like an inch worm. It won't be long before she crawling and then I really won't be able to catch her. If you look closely at the bottom picture, you can see her two little teeth. They make her grin that much cuter!!!


We definitely have a tall girl on our hands. She's in 6 month tops, but 9 month pants!!!! Let me tell you - she didn't get that height from me :) Since she's so tall and sitting up, we had to move her to a new bathtub already. We got her this little inflatable duck tub and it's quiet entertaining to watch her in it. The moment she spots it filled with water she starts kicking her legs. She LOVES splashing and licking the water droplets off of her face. We definitely have a little ham on our hands and she truly makes us laugh each and every day!


Just a quick update on us. I went in for a Cat-Scan last Friday and I'm happy to report that I'm kidney stone free. WooHoo! Huge relief. I was a tad nervous waiting for the results. Now Ross is the one dealing with some medical stuff. Monday morning (24th) we're waking up very very early and heading to the hospital. Ross has had a lot of problems with his ears and started noticing some hearing loss recently. We ended up going in to see a specialist a few weeks ago and found out that he has a perforated ear drum along with a condition called Cholesteatoma. So he is undergoing surgery this morning to repair everything. Fingers crossed that all goes well and that he has a quick recovery!!! I'm sure Charlotte will do her best to keep him smiling this week!!! Thanks so much for checking in on us this month. Enjoy your day.

Best Face Photo of 2010

The challenge this week over on i heart faces is to share our favorite face photo that was taken in 2010. I knew immediately which picture I wanted to enter. Charlotte is five months old now and has definitely become my favorite little model. I snap photos of her daily! She's our little monkey girl and we can't help falling more and more in love with her every single moment.

Our Little Monkey

Just wanted to share the photo I took for our holiday cards this year! This fits Charlotte's personality perfectly. She's such a little goober and is constantly doing things that make us laugh already. she loves to giggle and clown around. I snapped several fabulous pictures of her in her monkey hat, but this was our favorite. She's constantly giving us that little smirk when we are acting silly. We are definitely smitten with our little girl! I ordered the hat off of Etsy from a fabulous shop called Luckeymade. The customer service was spectacular!!! I got to choose my own colors and she had it shipped out by the end of the week. The price was also fantastic compared to similar shops!!!! Go check it out. Happy holidays!!!!!

Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween!!!! We took Charlotte to the pumpkin patch earlier this week. She loves being outside and she enjoyed watching everyone walk around. We had fun snapping photos of her and picking out a few pumpkins to bring home. We found these cute tiny pumpkins and it was perfect for our little princess. Although, we had to keep her from licking it. Told y'all the bubbles are overtaking our house!!!!



We are staying in tonight and looking forward to passing out candy to all the neighborhood kids. Can't wait to see what the favorite costumes are this year. What are your kiddos dressing up as??? Hope y'all have a fun evening and sneak a few sweet treats for yourself!!!

Roadtrip

Over the weekend, we went on our very first road trip. Charlotte was a pro traveler!!! She slept 3.5 hours waking up as soon as we took the exit for our destination. On Sunday, we attended a wedding in Galveston. It was fun dressing Charlotte up and introducing her to more family members. Ross had fun snapping photos all day long. This is one of my favorites that he captured. I feel so blessed with such a beautiful family and this little girl makes me smile all day long!!!