Another month flew by!  I’m not kidding when I say I really can’t catch my breath these days—and now for other reasons besides my baby growing up too fast!  This month Charlotte decided to start walking…and now…she is RUNNING!  Everywhere.  So, I spend a lot of my day chasing her around with my growing belly.  Maybe this will help me not gain too much weight!  Some 17 month highlights:

• Like I mentioned, Charlotte is officially on the move.  We moved up to level 4 at Gymboree so she could learn and play with her peers (16-21 months) and it’s been great!  Her teacher Ms. Kristin is amazed with all the progress she has made in such little time.

• Along with the walking has come some new sounds and words.  Just yesterday she FINALLY started to say, “ma-ma-ma-ma”.  I think it’s more of a desperate cry for: A. me, B. food, C. food.  But…up until now she had not even used the “m” sound, so I’ll take it!  Charlotte favorite words are: up, hot, off, Da-da, apple.  Really…she says “da-da” for pretty much everything.  But she has been babbling some random sounds recently, so maybe her talking with change this month.

• Poor Charlotte has been cutting 2 new teeth, the two next to her top teeth.  One of them has cut through, so we are waiting for the other.  It’s been a few days of whining, crying, clinging and not sleeping—but we’ll get through it!  Charlotte LOVES brushing her teeth.  LOVES.  Which is a really great thing and I hope this continues through to her teen years and beyond!

• Charlotte is still a picky eater.  I’ve tried to stop obsessing over it, and just go with what she’s in the mood for.  I have also stopped making 15 things for her each meal.  If she doesn’t eat what I’ve made, then I give her milk and  be done with it for the night.  I’m just so thankful she will drink milk now (by the way, that is chocolate milk in the Starbucks cup, not coffee!)…it was REALLY tough before that.  I have also changed the way I react to her throwing food off of her tray (or plates or cups).  When she does this (at least once a day) I remove her from her seat without saying a word and take her to her crib for one minute while I leave the room.  When we come back to the table, I tell her to “give to mama” if she is done.  This has made mealtime a little easier…but it’s incredibly hard to stay patient…and sane.

• Barney.  Need I say more?  There is no other toy out there that excites our Charlotte like Barney.  She is obsessed with her doll, and wants to take him everywhere.  We sing the songs all day long and she has the cutest, BIGGEST smile especially with the “I Love You” song.  

• CG is still an awesome sleeper, and I am so thankful for this!  She takes a 2-3 hour nap everyday and still sleeps 10-12 hours a night.  Recently she has had a harder time settling down at nap time, but this may be because of teething.

• Some favorite toys currently are: her baby doll “Lucy”, Barney doll, Lulu rocking chair, blocks, bubbles, books, puzzles, purses (she loves to put things in and take them out…so cute!), and any toy that makes music.  She really isn’t the type of child to go and play with toys independently for hours—but I’m hoping this changes because I may have my hands full in a few months!  She really loves following mommy around the most, and “helping” me cook and clean!  Oh, and did I mention Charlotte loves flags?!  She loves, loves, loves them.  It’s pretty funny.

Charlotte Grace, each stage with you is better and better.  You make us laugh, keep us busy, and surprise us each and every day.  I don’t know if my heart can love you any more than it does :).  We LOVE you sweet girl!

Just some typical daily fun for Miss C:

Taking a walk on a “warm” February day…

Putting on her shades and practicing her monologue and 16 bar audition piece for her next audition for Barney…

Keeping her girlish figure with what else?  SIR PIZZA of course :)  Takes after her mom.

What a life, huh?!

Today, I am sitting at the kitchen table working on about a million things for school.  But I can’t complain.  My Valentine’s day flowers (lilies and roses and sunflowers!) are blooming and smell like Spring.  I’m watching the birds eat just about everything from our bird feeder.  And it’s 53 degrees today!  Here are some other ramblings going on in my head:

• Last year for Lent I gave up Twitter for the 40 days.  This turned into a much longer period of time and I went months without “tweeting”!  This year, I have found myself back to Twitter and Facebook more often than not.  So, I decided to take both applications off of my phone, and will still use them—but only from a computer in the evenings.  I hope this will help me to stay more present :)

• I’ve mentioned our new bird feeder a few times….and seriously?  It’s SO entertaining!  Andrew and I thought it would be fun for Charlotte—but I think we enjoy it more than she does.  Currently there are 2 cardinals (one red male—one BROWN female) a bunch of chickadees, and a giant woodpecker that come and eat throughout the day.  

• So…I’m sure many of you are wondering when the big “gender reveal” will be.   (Or, you may not care at all, but I’m going to talk about it anyways (!).)  After MUCH—and I’m talking MUCH—debate and discussion over the issue, we have decided to keep the gender a big old surprise.  I, for one, am was not a fan of this idea at all—but Andrew is really excited about it and after talking about it, praying about it, and obsessing over it I think it may end up being a good challenge for me.  I don’t like surprises.  Our pregnancy with Charlotte was a big enough surprise for a lifetime for me.  But not being able to find something out RIGHT NOW is very rare these days.  So, I agreed.  We have our gender scan this weekend, and will be sealing the gender away!  5 more months (more or less) of waiting!  (but I still have my own ideas of what it is…)

• Charlotte has a new fascination with smells.  She does a “smell test” on just about everything recently.  Food, toys, those little diaper pail fresheners.  She carries them around like they are toys—and I had to hide them from her because I’m pretty sure those are NOT for babies toddlers.

• Remember when i talked about SMASH being my new favorite show?  Eh…I’m not so sure anymore.  It hasn’t kept my interest the past few episodes, so I’m on to the next.  I hear Downtown Abby is great, so I may give that a try in my “spare time”.

If the sun isn’t shining where you are—I hope it shines soon!  It is amazing what a little sun can do for a person in mid-February.  Happy Ash Wednesday!

Today is Wed and the day after Valentines Day.  Normally I would have a post-Vday chocolate depression of “back to reality” but today I am in a great mood.  Must be all the love and cupcakes from yesterday!

• Speaking of Valentines day….my husband sadly did not get home until close to 10pm.  I knew he would have to work extra late (busy season’s name of the game) but it was still a little sad (especially for him!).  Thankfully Charlotte and I were adopted by my parents and brother Bradford for an amazing pot roast meal, laughs, love and Barney watching (as usual).  I really had the BEST time, and I don’t think CG or I stopped smiling until we got home.  Andrew was greatly missed!

• I just finished making my famous turkey-spinach lasagna recipe for tonight’s dinner.  I don’t make it often, and per A’s request I used “real meat” instead of turkey.  But seriously—it tastes amazing even with the “fake” stuff!

• I’ve really been missing hot yoga recently.  I stopped going once I found out I was pregnant.  Some people have advised that the heat (the room is heated to 90-100 degrees, for an hour and a half class) is dangerous for the baby, while others say it’s perfectly fine to continue.  I am torn about which is true, but now that I have been without it for about 3 months I would be nervous to start up again out of the blue.  I’ve tried other kinds of yoga, but the just don’t cut it for me.  So, until I am 6 weeks postpartum…I guess I will have to stick to walking/running at the gym.  Bleh.

• I still can’t believe the news about Whitney Houston.  My mom and I have always loved her music, and my mom has just about every one of her cds.  Such a tragic loss.  Whatever the real story is, her voice and music will be greatly missed.

• My daughter has become an excellent “plate thrower” during meal time recently.  If you are or have ever been a mommy to a toddler I’m sure you know exactly what I mean!  I know they sell those stick on plates that suction to the tray, so I will have to look for those.  I have exhausted every other tactic to try to teach her to keep her food on her tray, or to “give to mommy” when she is done.  Any advice?!

Tomorrow I am back to practicum and class, and will be sure to give you all a bump update soon!  I don’t feel like I look much different, but then again—I live with myself ha!  Happy Wednesday :)

I think I have been a little off track with GRW—but this week I have a lot on my mind, so I didn’t want to pass it up!  I guess that’s how life is….some weeks are busy and others are a little more uneventful.  

• Two days ago we went on a nice long walk around noon in the fresh 50 degree weather.  Right now—I am looking out my window at the snow falling down ALL DAY.  I think the weather is a little bi-polar this year.

• We have some very exciting news….Andrew passed his third exam on the CPA!!  It was on of the harder exams, and he was very nervous about it.  I just KNEW he would pass.  He worked so incredibly hard for months.  Only one exam to go!!  So proud of my husband…I know my non-math brian would not be able to complete this task ;)

• I’ve been emotional lately.  I’m blaming it on pregnancy, but who knows.  I think it has just been one of those weeks where I am extra sensitive and can’t seem to shake things.  (I know that was vague…but I have to keep SOME thoughts private!)

• Andrew planned a Valentine’s date night for this weekend!  I can’t remember the last time we went out without Charlotte, but it has been awhile.  We used to try to make it a priority…but with trying to save money and wanting to spend our spare time WITH Charlotte is just hasn’t happened.  We are going to my favorite restaurant, Toast, and hopefully seeing a movie (The Descendants—pleaaase!)  And Charlotte will be spending the night with her Grams and Grandpa—we are so grateful for this!

• Did anyone watch the new NBC drama/musical SMASH Monday night??  I had heard so much about it, and knew a few people who had small roles in the episode so I tuned in and LOVED IT.  The whole show is about life in NYC in the musical theater world: auditions, rejection, the lifestyle, creating musicals etc.  It reminded me so much of when I was pursuing a career in musical theater (not sure many of you know about that….I studied musical theater in college, and spent the first half of my LIFE singing, dancing and acting!).  Anyway, I loved it, and even if you aren’t familiar with musical theater the writing and cast are pretty great.

I feel like the weeks are moving so fast!  Tomorrow I will already be at the 16 week mark, and back to practicum.  Here’s to hoping for a productive end to this week :)