Two-month Update

Have two months already come and gone? I know I'm a little behind...but let's just pretend it's December 12th...

Here are the official stats:

10lb 14oz (50%)
22.75 in tall (70%)
39.5 cm head circumference (70%) --> So that explains why so many of her hats won't fit her head..."fits 3-6 months" my foot!

The highlight of Charlotte's second month was this important discovery:

The realization of which led to this new favorite past-time:

And perhaps the most exciting (and endearing) new development:

Now doesn't that just melt your heart? How I love this girl's smiles!

Charlotte continues to be a very happy and content baby. This month had a few more "rough" spots than the first, particularly right after I received my new calling as YW President and had one week where I was away from her for over 10 hours. Mitch is such a natural parent, so we figured it wouldn't really be a problem as long as I left milk for him to feed her with. Boy did we learn! We quickly discovered that nothing can quite replace "Mom." Poor Mitchell endured some frantic hours and lost quite a bit of sleep. But luckily, after a week and half or so in that tired stupor that we'd heard so much about, we were able to figure out Charlotte a) doesn't particularly seem to like the bottle b) needs a consistent sleep schedule in order to avoid becoming over-tired which leads to hours of hysterical crying and c) a blanket over her head works wonders at getting those little eyes to close--otherwise this girl just doesn't want to miss out on any of the fun! Sleep was then caught-up on and life when back to much smoother sailing.

We also enjoyed the greater freedom that came with less-frequent feedings and a (we assume) stronger immune system. To take advantage, we:

We were invited by friends to the Thanksgiving Shootout--Charlotte's first basketball game.

We hosted Thanksgiving this year. I loved doing it so much, I hope having it at our place will become a tradition. We invited my family over and I made the turkey and some pies and Mom and Aunt Kay brought delicious side-dishes. There was tons of food--just like Thanksgiving should be! We had a great time just talking, trying to figure out the relationship between Curtis and Charlotte (was it 2nd cousins once-removed? ah well, I still didn't quite get the hang of it :), playing Sequence, perusing Black Friday ads, and playing with the token iTouch and iPhone. Charlotte loved meeting Aunt Kay for the first time and I hardly had to worry about holding her, there were so many willing arms!

Sadly though, for me at least, I didn't win the wishbone contest. So I sure hope Mitch's wish was a good one!

It has been so fun to watch Charlotte daily become more aware of her surroundings (including us!), figure out a little bit more how to move her arms and hands, and become so much more interactive.

And to top it all of, she is just a sweet, sweet girl.