From a lamb to a turtle

We are counting down the days until our beach vacation! It can't get here soon enough. WEG and I are both burnt out with work right now and desperately need some time away from the office to recharge!

 

We are excited to see how Charlotte likes the beach. I can't believe that my baby is already almost 8 months old. She is getting around so well on her own and has started to show interest in walking. She pulls up on her own and will take a few steps while holding on to someone's hands.

 

This week, she is transitioning to the turtles room at daycare. Currently, she is a lamb, but it is time for her to move to a class that will allow for more interaction. Most of the children in her lambs class are little babies that can't sit up on their own, and all of the kids she started with have moved up to turtles. So it is time, but still a little sad. I love her teachers in the lambs room, but I know we will love the turtles teachers.

 

I posted on Facebook yesterday that almost six months ago I dropped her off at daycare for the first time and cried all the way to work. And then yesterday we started her transition, and I had to fight back tears all the way in because of how quickly my little girl is growing.

She's at the stage where she wants to be on the go all the time. She doesn't like to just be held unless she is super tired, and even then, she fights it a bit. Her daddy and I miss cuddling with her. This is such a cute age, though. She babbles and plays and giggles. Melts my heart to hear that little laugh. Her teachers tell us how smart and independent she is, and WEG and I often wonder if that's what they tell all of the parents, but we know Charlotte is smart. Of course she is, she's ours, right? Haha.

 

Hopefully this transition to the turtles room will help her nap better. In her other room, there was no set naptime, and the lights were never off for napping. Charlotte has always been one to fight sleep and naps, especially when she thinks she is missing something. In the turtles room, there are two set nap times per day, and they turn the lights off for them. So, I hope that this will mean that she will actually rest, at least, during those times since she knows that her friends are not out of their cribs playing. We will see!

The other night, after napping pitifully all day, Charlotte was just not having it at about 6:00. Nothing suited her and she was whining incessantly, so I fixed her dinner. While fixing her dinner, she put her head down on WEG's lap and was fighting to stay awake. The whole time in her high chair eating she was about to nod off, and the minute she finished the last bite, this is what happened!

 

I'd say she was tired, wouldn't you?

Sorry for the random, rambling blog post, but these are moments I want to remember as I look back!

Father's Day Weekend

Well, it's Wednesday and I am just now getting around to re-capping our Father's Day weekend!  Better late than never, huh?

We had a great weekend at home for once!  On Saturday, we went to the little Farmer's Market in our town. Got some fresh veggies, fresh shrimp, boiled peanuts, and hot dogs. That's a good round-up, right? After that, it was off to Babies 'R' Us to stock up on baby-proofing supplies. Now that we have a little crawler, it won't be long before she figures out how to open cabinets. Best to be proactive!

On Saturday night, our friends, the Pennys, came over for dinner. I'm not sure if I mentioned it or not, but my friend Holly recently had a baby boy. Walker and Charlotte are exactly 6 months to the day apart in age. It is going to be so much fun raising them together! Charlotte decided she wanted to hold Walker's hand...so sweet!

Until, she went in for the kiss. Ahem, Daddy was NOT happy about this one. No kissing boys, Charlotte Ruth!

On Sunday we went to early church and then out on the lake. Charlotte went swimming for the first time in her new float, and she LOVED it!

My parents came for dinner and WEG cooked shrimp and grits (yum!) and we went out on the boat to see the purple martins at sunset.  Lake Murray has the largest migration of purple martins in the world, and between June and September, they come in to roost on one of the islands on the lake. Right at sunset, they all descend on this island. It is quite the show!

Such a great weekend as we celebrated WEG's very first Father's Day! He has been the very best daddy I could have ever asked for to Charlotte. The adoration is mutual between those two. It warms my heart that she has a daddy that she will love and adore as much as I love and adore my own.

Beach essentials for baby?

We're heading to the beach in a couple of weeks for a ten-day vacation. (I CAN'T WAIT, btw) Seeing as how this is our first big trip with our precious baby girl in tow, I'd like to know if anybody has any suggestions of what works well and what does not work well for the beach.

I am hoping Charlotte will tolerate the sand. We took her in the lake for the first time yesterday in her little float, and she absolutely loved it. She splashed and even stuck her face in the water, which scared me but did not phase her.

So, anybody braved the beach with an 8 month old? How did it go? What are our "must-takes" and what can we leave at home?

I'll be back tomorrow (hopefully) with a recap of our weekend and Father's Day, but I need to download the pictures from my camera.

A sticky (or should I say stinky?) situation

Disclaimer: If talk of bodily waste bothers you, you might want to skip this post.

So, picture the scene. It's Sunday night. I feed Charlotte her dinner, go upstairs and make her bath. By the time I get back downstairs, WEG has stripped her down to her diaper, so we're ready to go. As I do every night, I get to the bathroom, pull off her diaper and toss it in the trash, and turn to put her in the tub. Only on this particular night, my foot squishes as I step towards the tub. Looking down, I see it....poop all over my foot, in the rug, and on the floor.

Um, GROSS. Obviously when I pulled off her diaper, I did not realize that she had left a prize for me, and when I tossed it in the trash, out flew a bit of poop. So, I did what any sane mother would do....started yelling for my husband. He ran up the stairs to my rescue- probably thinking something was wrong with Charlotte. As I handed her off, he proclaimed how gross the whole scene was and didn't stick around to watch me scrape the poop off my foot. The rug went immediately in the wash, and nobody is worse for the wear. But, I've gotta tell you. This thing called motherhood...at times, it ain't glamorous!

In other news, my Gamecock baseball team claimed the Regional, and we're headed to Chapel Hill for a battle of the Carolinas. Charlotte's ready, and pulling for a South Carolina victory. On to Omaha!