Thursday, June 25, 2015

Life with Lottie - 13 Months Old

It seems like Lottie is up to something new every day. Her mischievousness is also becoming apparent (I think we all know who this comes from).


 We definitely laugh a lot.




She still loves loves loves airplanes. Our adopted SC grandparents, Kay & Randy, gave her a big book of airplanes, which we read several times a day.


Another love of Charlotte's is her puppy dogs. I can't say that the dogs always enjoy her affections, but most of the time they seem to appreciate it or at least tolerate it.




Note the super sweet Daddy love at the end.

Lottie has a thing for shoes. Like mother like daughter. The best part is that our shoes are too heavy for her, so they throw off her balance and she has to heave them everywhere. Cracks us up.

Victory!

She has started coloring as well. She colors on a dry erase board with dry erase crayons during church.


We do the usual Aggie brainwashing training. If you listen closely, she does the Hullabaloo rhythm (she just drops the brush in the middle).


We also do weekly trips to the library where we sometimes catch storytime or just play in the kids section.



But mostly, this little girl wants to be outside. She doesn't know how to say "outside," but she will point to the door and say "Airplane?" since we go outside to look for airplanes flying over the house. She recognizes the sound of an airplane flying overhead and will look for it. She also knows that jet streams equal an airplane even if you can't quite see it. 

Pointing out an airplane

She really enjoys walks in her wagon and will even leave on her sunglasses.


She still loves her water table of course.



However, grass is not her thing. This is what happens when you place the princess on grass.



The pathetic half-hearted fuss just kills me. I lose it every time (laughing), which of course is not the reaction Lottie is striving for.

I did finally get this picture in front of our knock-out roses. She is sitting on my stomach while I crane my neck up to get the picture.


While Lottie and I are enjoying life, Chris is doing this in the background:



Occasionally, we steal him away for a study break.

Family ice cream break


The second picture set is from the mall. Walking with Chris carrying Lottie on his shoulders made me feel like a parent. I had one of those when did we reach the age of my parents (you know--the age your parents will stay forever in your memory)??? It was crazy. The picture on the far right I like to call the "But we don't want to go home so Daddy can study!"

And of course, May is the month of Mother's Day. I had an incredible 2nd Mother's Day. Chris took the day off to hang with us, which was a gift in of itself since we hadn't had a full day with him in weeks. We decided to pick an episode of Pioneer Woman and recreate all the recipes. So we watched the episode, made a list, went to the store, and then came home and cooked everything. It was a blast, and the food was incredible. 


We chose the Pickup Picnic episode (from the season on Netflix). The menu included:


Chris did not have time to get me flowers this year. He was disappointed, so on the way home from the store, he stopped at a field and gathered a very pretty wildflower bouquet. I loved it. 


The cowboy beans were absolutely ridiculous. Everyone should try these. Chris and I dream of making them again. And as you can see, Lottie agrees.






Monday, June 1, 2015

Life with Lottie - 12 Months Old

Chris and I are absolutely loving this stage. Charlotte is just so much fun. At 12 months, she was already understanding a good bit of what we said, saying a few things herself, making hilarious noises, mimicking everything, and going, going, going non-stop. While she didn't start walking until 13 months, she was getting around very well. Here are some moments from month 12:

Her favorite word is Airplane, which she learned from the toddler I watched for a couple of months. It took about a week for me to help Lottie pair a picture of an airplane with the word.


She also knows what sound an elephant makes. She will do this if you ask or if she sees a picture of an elephant. She still can't say elephant, but she sure knows what they are. I included a clip of Chris doing his elephant sound, so you can see what Lottie is trying to imitate.


She also loves to chatter. One morning, I got the cutest video of her talking to Finn. In the middle, you see her point to Finn and say "Baby."


She is really starting to enjoy activities and really interact with what is occurring. We have taken her to feed the ducks a few times (like here), but these are the pictures from her first trip.




Two blue herons were fighting over the pond, and they came within 10 feet of us. It was really cool.


We tried her water table for the first time, which is basically a small pool to her. She loves it.



Finn just hanging out in the background

Crawling in



Those regular diapers sure fill up. She was rocking some serious diaper sag and about 10 extra pounds.

After a little bit, we had to cover up our fair-skinned red head.

All in all, we just have a great time with her.

Chris showing Lottie a picture of his mom, Sonja

Playing with her new farm

Lottie saw Daddy mowing, so she climbed up into the dog bowl to wave and point at him.

Lottie coloring a giant card for Chris

Daddy time 

Sweet girl