2nd Birthday

We can't believe Charlotte is already 2! Shelly and Carrie Ella threw her a party in the morning, and then we celebrated that night with her favorite meal- sushi- followed by the biggest Japanese ice cream sundae ever. And then a birthday party the following weekend with the fam- jungle theme!

Halloween fun

Halloween is a very important holiday at our house, and we really did it up this year. Charlotte was a flamingo, mama was a peacock, and daddy was a zookeeper.

Carolinas Sept 2013

Charlotte and Daddy flew back east for Papa's birthday and to visit the Wasse cousins. Charlotte had so much fun! Here she is making drip drop sand castles with Papa and beach combing with Grandma.

Summer Fun 2013

We had a lot of fun this summer! Blueberry picking, fountain splashing, and a trip to Whidbey Island. Mama and Daddy even fit in some anniversary celebration on 7/11.

4th of July 2013

For the 4th, we went to Gladstone Beach with Zander, Cameron, Heather and Paul. The kids had a great time and the private fireworks were amazing!

Palm Springs Spring 2013

The Wasses love the desert! We were in heaven in our hacienda rental: pool, sun, and did I say sun? We'll be back!

Holidays

We chose this picture for our holiday card because we love Charlotte's huge, joy-filled smile. She is actually swinging on a swing back to back with Carrie Ella. (Photo credits go to Michelle.)

Charlotte enjoyed her 2nd Chanukkah and Christmas, especially ripping the paper off of her presents. We held our 6th annual vodkas and latkes party on December 15th. Grandma and Pops were in Hong Kong, so we just put Charlotte to bed in our room, closed all the doors, turned on some white noise and crossed our fingers. She slept happily through the entire party and we had lots of fun with all of our friends.

We were a little worried about putting up a Christmas tree because of all the tempting items at Charlotte's level. So we put only soft, nonbreakable things on the bottom half of the tree and tied it to the wall so she couldn't pull it over. Of course, Charlotte barely showed any interest in it all. Better safe than sorry I suppose.

Talk to me

Charlotte is a big babbler, and Matt and I sometimes like to pretend that she is really talking. Charlotte, what is your preferred airport when flying into Paris? DeGaul DeGaul DeGaul.

But  over the last couple months, she has definitely started pointing at things and saying some real words. We think dog was her first official word, inspired by her cousin Barkley. Her list currently includes: cheese, banana, bye bye, hand, eye, button, duck, up, hat, and mine. Lots of Dada, but still no consistent usage of Mama :)

For art's sake

It's never too soon to introduce arts and crafts, or is it? Mama and Charlotte had some fun with double-sided tape and some pieces of tissue paper. In between eating our art supplies, we made this:

Then I made some paste from flour and water and let Charlotte have at it. Of course, her first impulse was to dip her entire hand in the paste and put it on her face. But she eventually got the idea and made this:

 Lots of fun. Hopefully she will inherit her father's artistic abilities instead of mine :)

Charlotte turns one!

Charlotte celebrated her first birthday on November 9th. It's so hard to believe she is already a year old, and at the same time, we can hardly remember life without our sweet girl.

We had a birthday party for her with Grandma, Pops, Aunt Liz, Uncle E, Michelle (our nanny), the Maloneys (our nanny share family) and our friends across the street Heather & Paul and their son Zander. Matt and I had a lot of fun with the farm theme!

Matt's artistic abilities apparently extend to icing cakes, sculpting marzipan, and crafting animal hats. 

No surprise, Charlotte loved cake. The video is priceless. Faceplant @ 1:20!

Charlotte had a lot of fun ripping open the wrapping paper and especially loved her new shoes from Aunt Liz & Uncle E and her xylophone from Grandma & Pops.

First Halloween

Charlotte's official due date was October 28th, so naturally her costume-loving parents had hoped she would be a Halloween baby. No such luck- she came a week and a half late, which means that this year was her first Halloween. We dressed up as Charlotte's Web: Charlotte was the spider, I was Wilbur the pig, and Matt was Templeton the rat. We went to a party at the Gray's house to show off our cute costumes :)

Mermaid in distress

Grandma and Pops brought some of my old bath toys up to Seattle from storage in Monterey on their last trip down, and they were an immediate hit. Aunt Liz was visiting one evening at bath time and was playing a new game with Charlotte- mermaid in distress. The game consisted of Liz throwing the mermaid over the side of the tub, begging for rescue, climbing up the tub wall, and jumping happily back into the water, with Charlotte laughing all the while. The next night in the tub, Charlotte picked up the mermaid, threw her over the edge, grabbed her by the hair and lifted her up the tub wall, plopped her back in the water, and squealed with delight. We're not quite sure exactly what lesson this game is teaching, but the mermaid is now very busy at bath time.

Aspen, CO

We couldn't miss the chance for Charlotte to meet Matt's entire Michigan family at his cousin Erin's wedding in Aspen, Colorado. We flew into Denver, met up with Grandma Mary and Riley, and drove together to Aspen. The town was beautiful and the wedding was just lovely. Charlotte had lots of QT with Riley and Grandma and charmed all her cousins, aunts, and uncles.

On the plane home, Charlotte was practicing her new skill- quacking. She went on quite a quacking jag that had Matt and I hysterical laughing, until we realized that it probably wasn't so funny to the other passengers! "It's better than crying," said the lady in front of us after we apologized. True enough.

Charlotte loves the camera

We received a gift certificate for a photo shoot when Charlotte was born and finally put it to use. C is10 months old, her dress hand knit by Nana Roe. Thanks Sarah & David!

Bon Vivant

As cousin Hattie says, Charlotte simply enjoys being a baby.

Meal times are no exception. She loves to feed herself with spoon or hand and will eat pretty much anything you give her, but fruit is definitely her favorite. Summer was very exciting with so much good fruit to choose from- Charlotte loved to stuff her face full of watermelon. Now that fall is here, she has moved on to pears and kiwi, with gusto. Num num.

Swinging is another favorite activity. Lots of squealing with joy.

First teeth

Between 7 and 9 months of age, Charlotte sprouted not one, not two but eight teeth! She has four on the bottom and four on the top, and they definitely did not come in in the usual order. She has been quite a trooper through it all- we didn't even know about the first two until her doctor pointed them out at her seven month visit. She is loving biting into food and everything else. And yes, we're still breastfeeding. When they first came in it was a little dicey but we've worked it out :)

First Overnight

To celebrate our 3rd anniversary, we spent the night at the Pan Pacific Hotel and Charlotte had her first overnight with Grandma and Pops. She had a bath in the kitchen sink, enjoyed some homemade fruit puree popsicles, and slept all night like a champ. Charlotte also got in some QT with her Wolf Uncle Baxter. Unfortunately, I ate a bad oyster and did not have much fun that night, but Charlotte had a blast.

First swim

We had out first swimming lesson today at the Queen Anne pool. Charlotte was too cute in her little cherry swimsuit, and she took to the water instantly. We practiced kicking around and had lots of fun! We can't wait to practice at Grandma and Pops' new condo pool.

California Girls

We flew down to Santa Cruz for Kaya's graduation. So hard to believe "the baby" is all grown up and going off to college in New York City! The whole family gathered at Tom's house to celebrate.

Then we drove up to San Francisco for Baby Summit 2012! We visited Jess, Nate & Avery, Rebecca, Danny & Eli, and Emily and Camilla flew in from Austin. It was so great to see all my ladies and meet their little ones. Penn class of '33!

Making friends

I started back at work part time when Charlotte was 3 months old. It was so hard!! Thank goodness for our super amazing nanny Michelle- I can rest assured at work knowing everyday that Charlotte is being expertly cared for. Priceless!

Michelle made this tutu!

We had decided to look for a nanny share and got in touch with a nearby family with a baby 3 weeks younger than Charlotte on a community mom's listserv. As luck would have it, we totally struck gold. Kate and Sean are super cool and and we are totally on the same parenting page. We did a bunch of nanny interviews and Michelle just won us over.Charlotte loves her, and we do, too.

Charlotte and Carrie Ella are ridiculously cute together!

Mother's Day

On a gorgeous sunny day, we celebrated Jess' first Mother's Day at Liz's house. We had club sandwiches and ice cream cake and Charlotte had her first piece of watermelon. It was so hot, we had to go inside, and Charlotte and Uncle E retired to read the Times.