8 months already! gah!

Last week our Charlotte turned 8 months old, and I forgot to write about it! oops...so I'll just get right to it :)

Charly Mae is growing into such a big girl. She crawls like a champ now. Mostly she crawls at the feet of her brother, following him wherever he goes. And since he runs, he is like 10x faster than her, so often we'll hear him yelling "Come ON Char-yotte!" followed by his sidekick's quick heavy breathing as she musters up all her energy to crawl at twice speed. Watching the two of them do circles around the apartment is all the entertainment I ever need.

Talmage is definitely getting into the whole "older brother" groove. Sometimes he will insist that he hold her bottle, and he sits very still and serious while propping it steady with his hand. Every morning when I go into his room, he asks "Sissy wake????" and if I say "No, she's sleeping" then he promises to be quiet and play softly with his toys. BUT, no matter what, he will always run into the living room, wake her up by unzipping her pack n play and crawling into bed with her, and a few minutes bursts into our bedroom with, "SHE'S WAKE!!!!! COME LOOK!" Never fails. Thankfully, she doesn't seem to mind being woken up with Talmage yelling in her face (unlike me..grr). In fact I think she loves it, and she's super smiley to see him right there and ready to play.

He also likes setting up playtime for her by dumping out ALL of her toys around her in a circle. Of course she crawls right past them and starts chewing on his cars. He does NOT like this, and we're working on teaching him that sharing is GOOD. We even had a whole FHE on it a few weeks ago but he still doesn't care for sharing. Ah well....we'll keep trying.

One thing that I think is so cute is when he reprimands her for getting into something she shouldn't. He says, "No Char-yotte...don't do-....CHAR-YOTTE! NO! DON"T!" Usually its when she touches a lamp, or gets a grip on a cord, or puts something in her mouth. A few times he's even tried picking her up to move her away from the danger at hand (don't worry, I catch him every time before he feet come off the floor). He must get it from me, except I don't yell because I know it makes no difference. He, on the other hand, will go NUTS about it- especially if he's helplessly restrained in his high chair.

But the best part is that they make each other laugh. T usually laughs when she burps, toots, spits up, jumps in her jumperoo, pushes buttons on the piano keyboard, or tries to stand up. She laughs when he sings, gets in her face, dances, or crawls alongside her acting like a puppy. I love love LOVE it. It never gets old!

Okay- back to just Charlotte. Here are some fun 8 month stats.

eats:
*half a jar of baby food mixed with organic whole grain cereal, about 4-5 times a week around dinnertime.
*Gerber puffs and yogurt melts
*Cheerios
has eaten, unintended by me:
*parts of our shag rug, which we've since rolled up and shoved behind our couch.
*part of a candy wrapper, undoubtedly left on the ground and discovered by her chubby little fingers while she was on the hunt for bits & particles. I didn't know she ate the wrapper until I saw it pass in her diaper. yuck.
*Goldfish stolen off the floor from Talmage. oops.
*orange juice from T's sippy. oops.
*pretzel sticks, given by T while they were in the backseat. oops again..?
Honestly, and I never thought I would say this, with a second child I've just learned to let things go :)

sleeps:
*in both her pack n play and crib. We are hoping to move her permanently to the crib, but the difficulty in that is that its in T's bedroom. If only we had one more room....arg.
*2-3 times for naps, with her longest nap in the middle of the day
*from about 9 pm- 6 am for bed. After a bottle, she'll usually go back to sleep for another hour or so.

 LOVES:
*her brother's cars and trucks
*climbing on people's legs
*being spun, thrown in the air, "fake dropped". She's an adrenaline junkie, methinks.
*shoving a million cherrios into her mouth at once. (I don't let her, of course...)
*things that make noise.
*things that light up.
*things left on the ground for her to consume.
*sleeping on her dad ONLY.
*splashing in the tub with Talmage!

HATES:
*sleeping on me. I know...its sad. But when I hold her she just wants to pull out my hair and scratch my neck in search for a necklace (which doesn't make any sense, b/c I hardly ever wear jewelery!)
*when anyone takes something away from her. She will cry like its the end of the world... drama queen already.
*being left alone
*men with lots of hair on their face and/or head.
*getting dressed. Which is funny, because it's one of my ultimate favorite things to do with her....so many choices!!! shirt or onesie? pants or leggings? and what headband will look best?

first ponytail! I'm so glad she has enough hair for it :)

and a random fact...when Charlotte poops, she gets right in front of us, goes into downward dog and grunts. And we smell it instantly. It's so obvious when she's poopy because she makes such a spectacle of it.
sidenote: this is TOTALLY different than T right now, who runs and hides in the furthest darkest corner of the house...

Did I mention that Talmage gets tickled by tickling his sissy? It is a daily ritual. He'll regret this when she will one day be able to tickle him back!