Charlotte

Can you believe it? Tomorrow Charlotte will be 7 months old!! It really does seem to be going by faster this time...it's so sad. Although every stage is more fun than the one before, you still can't help but be a little sad that this is the last time for tiny pj's, midnight feedings, sleepy cuddles... But I have to admit the midnight feedings can go away anytime she's ready! I took her for her 6 month check up this week and she's great! Healthy, Healthy, Healthy. She weighs 17.0lbs and is 27 inches long. She was in the 54 % for weight and 91% for height. By this time, Sarah Grace had already started to slow down and drop off the charts completely. She's now on baby food and oatmeal. So far the only 2 things she hasn't liked are prunes and green beans...everything else she scarfs down! She's sitting up on her own now, and would rather be sitting in the floor playing than confined in any kind of seat or swing. She's also rolling over although she doesn't play for long on her tummy. Neither of my girls were a fan of "tummy time". She loves her bath or anything else water related. She loved the ocean, pool and lake. When you get her totally naked you better be heading towards water or she's going to let you know of her disappointment. She's starting to say Mama and reach for people when they come near enough to pick her up. Her favorite things to do are chew on tags, buckles, medicine droppers, and jump her in her jumpy seat. If she's not doing that she's in the floor watching cartoons with her sister. She loves her sister like no one else! Sarah Grace can make her belly-laugh just by saying her name. Charlotte will just about jump out of her seat with excitement when Sarah Grace comes in the room. When she gets fussy in the car or at dinner all we have to do is get SG to talk or sing to her and all's well in her little world!

She IS sleeping through the night!!!! For a while I thought it would never happen. She would get up once around 3-4 AM and then go right back to sleep, but after the beach that changed, for the worse. We were back on infant time! I was up feeding her at least twice a night but usually 3 times! YES, I said 3 times a night at 7 MONTHS old! Her Dr. suggested the "tough love" approach so we gave it a try. I was ready to try anything. The Dr. said she'll cry like she's dying, but that after 2-3 nights of no response to her fits she'll get the picture and start sleeping. So we started on Sunday night and just turned the monitor off and pretended she wasn't there. It sounds awful, I know, but it worked. We slept great!! So, for the next 2 nights we did the same thing and then on Wednesday night I turned the monitor back on and she never made a PEEP! :) For some reason, we just do not breed babies that sleep, but if she's like her sister she'll enjoy it when she's older. Sarah Grace still takes a 3 HOUR nap EVERY day, and if I forget what time it is she reminds ME! :)

Fantastic 4th

Surprise! We packed up and headed out again... This time to the lake for the week of the 4th. I left with girls on Friday afternoon with my mom and we came home the following Saturday. Krista and Payton came up on Monday night and stayed the week too. The guys came and went, a night or two here and there, during the week.I thought it would be a relaxing week but Charlotte had other plans. She decided it would be more fun to spend LOTS of quality time with her mom during the night, EVERY night! I don't know what it was but she got up at least 3 times a night, if not more. And I had to get up with her so she wouldn't wake up the whole house. I was able to nap here and there but she wore me out. But in spite of her schedule it was still a good week. We had mostly good weather (couple of rainy days), really good food, and saw great fireworks on the fourth.

Sarah Grace was in heaven. Including Sarah Grace and our neighbor's kids there are 9 kids between our 2 lake houses. She played and played.... She would disappear into their house at night to watch movies, and their kids would come to our house in the morning after breakfast. She would swim and play all day, and as soon as dinner was over she was back outside to play and take "adventures" on the golf cart with her buddies. They had "jumping" contests in the water, played "pirate ship" on rafts, and putted around the cove in the paddle boat. She had a ball!

Charlotte enjoyed the lake too. She loved the water! We put her in her little boat and she'd splash and squeal. She also liked the boat...she loved the wind in her face and napping in her seat while we rode. But I'm sure her favorite part was never having to fuss for more than 5 seconds because someone was always there to pick her up... not to mention the ice cream, banana pudding and suckers she got to sample. ;0) On the 4th we all piled in the boat to go watch fireworks on the lake. Sarah Grace was really nervous this year about the noise. She had her ears covered the whole way there just in case. Once we dropped anchor to watch, she was fine and really liked them. Payton and Charlotte didn't mind them either. Charlotte actually fell asleep towards the end. When we got back to the dock we did a few sparklers of our own and Sarah Grace pretended to be the Statue of Liberty. The following Friday night my Pawpaw bought a ton of fireworks and we set them off in the yard, that night SG acted scared to death... go figure.

Second Stop

The second trip of the Summer was to the beach with my family. We got home from WY on the 6/2 and left for Florida on 6/9. We had a great trip down and Payton and Charlotte did great in the car. We only had to stop one time for Charlotte coming and going...she was a trooper! She would sleep, wake up and play for a while, take a bottle and go right back to sleep. It was like we were still just traveling with one child. ;0) The beach was great. We had beautiful weather every day but one and the girls had fun on the beach. Sarah Grace didn't care too much for the ocean this year. Last year we couldn't keep her out of it (see last years blog) and this year she wouldn't go past her ankles and that was only when we made her for pictures. She still enjoyed digging and "cooking" in the sand. She'd dig all day, cooking and stirring and passing out samples to everyone. Charlotte loved the ocean! As soon as you put her feet in she went crazy kicking and squealing, but she spent most of the day napping under the tent. Payton liked the beach about the same as Sarah Grace liked the ocean. The first day she just stood in one spot holding one foot in the air saying "uh ohhhh!" because she didn't like the sand.

All of the girls loved the pool. Sarah Grace had no fear, jumping in, swimming from one end to the other, or getting thrown into the air. She even liked to go under the water. Charlotte loved her little floaty boat...it made the sweetest noises and she had a ball. Payton liked the pool too, and she liked for you to go under and pop back up in front of her. She'd hold up one finger and say "back" for do it again or come right back.

We had a big group on the beach and every few days it would get bigger with friends or family, who were also on vacation in the area. One day there were 7 kids under 5 yrs old! It was so fun to watch them all play.

We ate out somewhere every night and the girls did good at dinner. Most days naps were short or didn't exist at all (except for Charlotte), but the girls were good considering. Charlotte and Payton had their rocky nights but there were no dinner table meltdowns or majorly embarrassing meals. We were even able to go to a couple of REALLY nice places and not get dirty looks from the tables around us. The last night on the way to get ice cream Sarah Grace broke down in tears and said she wanted to go back to "her world". She had enough fun and was ready for her bed and a regular routine again.

Overall, it was a relaxing week. We got a lot of sun, ate a lot of great seafood, got a little extra rest and had fun hanging out as a family. Adam and I even managed to have a date night and saw a movie!

Go West...

Happy Summer!

The Self family started Summer out with a bang! As soon as Sarah Grace finished her last day of school we hit the road (or air)! Our first stop was Jackson Hole, Wyoming for our Self family vacation. We flew to Salt Lake City and met up with Adam's family and all flew together to Wyoming. We spent a week in Grand Teton National Park in a beautiful cabin and left from there to go to Yellowstone NP for two days. It was beautiful! It was the perfect time of year to go. All of the animals had new babies and it was still cool enough that they hadn't all moved up into the high country and we were able to see tons! We saw moose, elk, bison, bear, fox, coyote, and bald eagles (& lots of horses and cows). Some time we saw herds of 150-200 bison at a time! They'd stop traffic to cross the road wandering from one place to another.

Jackson is a true "old west" town in the foothills of the Teton Mtns. There were lots of fun shops and restaurants and we went into town several days. We stayed about 45 minutes from town near a christian dude ranch (that let us ride for FREE!). It was THE BEST ride we've ever done. It was the week before they officially opened for their Summer season and the horses were fresh and ready to ride. We took a 2 hour ride up into the mountains, across some little streams, and even saw a moose and her calf and some deer while we were riding. We also saw grizzly tracks and saw where one had recently dug up a buried horse and been eating on it! It sounds gross but it was pretty cool. We had been warned all week by people at the ranch that they had spotted a grizzly with 2 cubs on the property several times in the week before we were there.

In the middle of the week we left our cabin and drove to Yellowstone (about an hour and half away). When we got into the park there was actually snow on the ground, over a foot deep in some places. So we stopped and let SG play in it for a while. She had never done that before and thought it was great. After the first stop she wanted to pull over every time we saw a patch. We stopped for lunch at the Old Faithful Inn for lunch and while we were there it started snowing!! SG and I ran outside and played for a second. It was coming down pretty hard but didn't stick. It snowed a couple more times during the day and the next day it was 70 degrees and sunny...go figure. Sarah Grace was not a fan of the geysers in the park because she didn't like the "eggy" smell (sulfur). She did enjoy watching Old Faithful "eRUMPting". She also thought all the different waterfalls were neat.

We saw tons of animals in YNP. The most exciting were the bears! We saw 4 black bears, 2 together and 2 others individually. It's pretty rare to see any much less 4 in one day and within about an hour! We also saw 2 bald eagles! They were so pretty. The bison were everywhere and after a while, we didn't even stop to look anymore because they were as common as cows, but wild. There seemed to be one baby for every adult! So sweet.

All in all, it was great trip and Sarah Grace had a ball (Charlotte stayed behind at home).