anniversary

Charlotte is just (already?!) turning 4 months next week but we can already celebrate an anniversary: Today a year ago, we found out that we're expecting our baby. After welcoming Penny into our life just a month before that, we were thrilled about the news that a new family member was on the way to join. 

Charlotte & Penny have made us a family and with six new legs, our life has become so much more eventful... and happier!

auf den hund gekommen

Während wir in Deutschland waren haben wir Penny ganz schön vermisst!

Aber zum Glück hat sie uns bei unserer Rückkehr ausgiebig begrüsst und wir konnten wie immer viele (nasse) Hundeküsse geniessen...

Nach so einer langen Reise fand Charlotte diese Fusswäsche natürlich sehr angenehm :-)

life is good!

hanging out, again

We are having a fun time in Germany! While we wait to return with our pictures, here's a flashback again:
 

 

Lately, Charlotte's sleep pattern has been oscillating between giving her parents a heavenly 6 hours + of sleep at night and some good, no fuss day time naps (showing us how 'grown up' of a baby she is) and needing more frequent feedings and cuddle time (to nurture her through another growth spurt). But one thing has never changed, hanging out with dad is the best for comfort and a good snooze!

hanging out

Wir geniessen unsere Tage mit Familie und Freunden in Deutschland sehr und sind schon auf neue Bilder gespannt, wenn wir nach Hause kommen.



     







In der Zwischenzeit mal wieder ein Rückblick: Bäuerchen machen ist wie gesagt ganz schön doof - aber man kann sich dabei auch einfach ganz schön an Mama's Schulter lehnen und ein bisschen 'abhängen' (wie der Amerikaner, oder Daddy, so sagen würde... :-)

leaving on a jet plane

Charlotte is off to her first flight over the big pond... stay tuned for the news on her adventures in Germany!

diaper change

 We change diapers every day - and lots of them. So nothing too extraordinary in a baby's life: just daily business!

But every so often, it indicates a new milestone. Not too long ago little Charlotte was curled up on the changing table in Newborn diapers... and now she's already at the brink of busting out of Size 1 into Size 2 diapers.

They do grow up so quickly!

peek-a-boo

nur heisse luft

Charlotte tut sich mit dem Bäuerchen machen etwas schwer. Nach dem Essen reckt & streckt sie sich, um geschluckte Luft nach oben zu beförden.

Wenn's dann endlich soweit ist kann man sich aber erleichtert mit Mama in's Kissen sinken lassen.

Letztendlich ist es halt doch nur alles heisse Luft!
 

a dog's life

Penny enjoys a good snooze every day. Well, we should rather call it a continuous stream of naps...

Charlotte's arrival did not change that much, just the choice of locale: When the baby nurses, Penny comes over and joins at the bottom of mommy's feet. When Charlotte is on her play mat, Penny lounges right next to her. When Charlotte is in her crib, Penny squeezes underneath. 

In a dog's life, there is a big soft spot for a new baby sister it seems - and apparently no worry about 500 hours less sleep!

500 hours of Charlotte

We read that parents lose an average of 500 hours of sleep during their baby's first year  - a tiring reality.

But we would not want to miss any of those waking hours... Well, at least the fun ones!

good night moon!

summer look

This is Penny's summer look.

She gets about half of her length cut - to thin out the coat for the warmer temperatures and avoid knits forming from her rolling in sand and seaweed. This hair-do still leaves her shaggy but not "super shaggy" anymore ;-)

Needless to say, the groomed girlie look barely lasts a day with our dog!

weltanschauung

Charlotte liebt es auf unseren Armen zu "sitzen" und durch die Wohnung getragen zu werden damit sie sich alles genau anschauen kann. Küche, Schlafzimmer, Penny...die Welt ist spannend!

she did not throw in the towel!

Charlotte did not exactly love bath time from the beginning.

Rather than wondering whether a big girl wouldn't have cried, we're giving her the benefit of the baby doubt this time...!

We're all learning as we go in this thing called having a baby: Maybe mommy's grip wasn't as secure when she lifted Charlotte into uncharted waters for the first time, perhaps the water was a tad too cold, or our girl just wasn't in the mood to have her ears cleaned. Who knows! But she did not throw in the towel.

Charlotte has given bath time quite a few tries since and has come to enjoy a relaxing lounge in the water. And, more importantly, a good towel massage afterwards! 

in the eye of the beholder

The beach is pure bliss for Penny. Although she ain't exactly mild mannered at home, Penny's traipsing around the house cannot be further from her unbridled enthusiasm on the beach. The waves, the rocks, the sand, the seaweed: all of it is just divine to her. And of course the fellow dogs can't be beat either. There's a regular pack of dogs that invade our beach in the evenings. On weekend mornings, Penny plays with Murphy when he's in town. Here she's giving him a little kiss. That or she's trying to puncture his jugular. It's a still-life and that means you can never really tell what's going on.

greifbar nah

Charlotte liebt es mittlerweile nach allem was ihr vor die Nase kommt zu greifen und es dann (nicht immer ganz zielsicher :-) in den Mund zu stecken... dazu gehört auch ihre Faust!

Auf ihrer Safarispieldecke hat sie dabei besonders viel Spass. Giraffen, Papageien und Affen hängen hier in greifbarer Nähe und können Charlotte (in Babyzeit) "stundenlang" beschäftigen - na ja, zumindest so lange, dass sich Mama mal einen Tee kochen kann!

schlafmütze

these parents are grand!

Of course, Charlotte's grandparents planned to visit after her birth. So for a few weeks she did not just have us newbie parents but lots of other helping hands, smiling faces and loving arms.

She had a fun time and can't wait for the next snooze on Oma, Opa, Nana, Granny and Popop!

my first trimester

Hard to believe but Charlotte already turned 3 months today!

During pregnancy, the first three months can't go fast enough. In baby life, they go far too quickly...

We celebrated the day by joining Penny for her beach walk in the morning, enjoying a sunny afternoon in the backyard, and donning a fun new hat.

rest in peace

Apart from snoozing all day and frolicking on the beach, Penny's favorite past time is chewing toys - preferably rope.

You can imagine how excited she was when her good buddy Oliver got her this peace sign for her birthday. Although, we secretly think it was an offering of truce since he must be quite tired of Penny's overexcited beach attacks... Rather than a girlfriend, she is more of an annoying sister. (Charlotte can sympathize when it comes to Penny's wet greetings!)

Anyhow, toys don't last that long with our tireless chewer... this symbol has already started to unravel!

got milk?!

flaschenkind

Charlotte's Vatertagsgeschenk für Daddy war das Fläschchen.





Seit Mitte Juni hat sie jeden Tag brav mit Papa gefrühstückt.

Zum Nachtisch gibt es meistens eine kleine Beuerchen- rückenmassage und ein kuschliges Zwiegespräch - oder eher gesagt einen *Milchklatsch* ...wie Charlotte mich gerade korrigiert!

Nach einer kleinen "Pause" (Charlotte hatte letzte Woche für ein paar Tage einen Flaschenstreik eingelegt) sind die beiden diese Woche wieder glücklich zum gemeinsamen Frühstücksritual zurückgekehrt. 

Bei Mama UND Papa schmeckt es halt doch am besten :-)

small - medium - large

Penny mit ein paar Freunden - oder Geschwistern, wie man meinen sollte! Und zwar in allen Grössen :-)

Auf jeden Fall sind die kleine Bonnie (links) und ihr "Bruder" Tucker (rechts) Penny's Seelenverwandte: Strandseelen, um genauer zu sein. Diese Pose auf der Wiese trügt! Den dreien geht es am besten, wenn sie ganz in ihrem Element sind... dem Strand. Durch den Sand wetzen, sich im Algenberg rollen, durch's Wasser galoppieren und mit Pfoten und Nase Löcher buddeln - das belebt die Mischlingshundeseele!

Ahhh, das (Hunde)Leben in La Jolla ist schön.

und wie!

volume and volume: was Frankie Valli prescriptive or descriptive

♬ Big Girls Don't Cry ♬

So says Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons. (And, the Google tells me, Fergie as well.)

Lately I've been wondering if he was being prescriptive or descriptive. Big girls don't cry. I've always just assumed the line was meant as a subtle admonition to the listener: you want to consider yourself a big girl? Well then you don't cry because big girls don't cry.

Now three months into this whole raising-a-little-girl thing, I'm beginning to wonder if the song was really just a matter-of-fact description of the relationship between volume and volume. Big girls don't cry. (They don't cry.) It's not that you shouldn't cry if you want to be considered a big girl; it's that not crying is a feature shared by big girls. Some friends with (shall we say) larger babies provide circumstantial evidence. These children always appear content just melting into the back of their stroller seat.

As for Charlotte, well, she's not the largest baby around. She's weighing in at twelve pounds now, like a good Thanksgiving turkey, and maybe that is Exhibit A in the case. She's been fighting the bottle recently, crying all the way. I was teaching at 8am in July so we were trying to catch her early in the morning. It was working fine for a while, but last week she went from being just a resistance movement to more tactical offensive maneuvers.But, after a few days off, we tried again today. And? Success. Unquestionable success. Three ounces with nary a peep whimpered. WWFVS?

snowshoeing on Mt. Laguna

Back in February, when Sandra was almost seven months pregnant, we decided to go snowshoeing for the day. We packed the car full with John, Shalini, Penny and four enormous pairs of snowshoes and drove east from La Jolla. We only had to drive about an hour to reach Mt. Laguna. Or close enough to Mt. Laguna, as it turned out; it had snowed quite a bit over the previous few days and the police closed the access road to the peak. (We weren't going to drive all the way up anyway, but we couldn't even get on the road.) Undeterred, we drove around until we could drive no further, crossed a few streams, and left the car for the day. 

We have no idea how far we hiked; my guess is about seven miles, give or take, all with snowshoes. The highest point on Mt. Laguna is almost 6,400 feet (about 2,000 meters), but we couldn't ascend near the peak even if we wanted. (We did.) 

Penny took to the snow like a champ. She basically treated it as if it was her familiar sand: burrowing her nose into the powder, rolling around on her back, and generally being a goofball.

Sandra too. She wanted to keep hiking after the rest of us, perhaps save Penny, were more than happy throwing in the towel, err gloves. 

On the way home we stopped for roadside burgers and some tasters at the Alpine Brewery. Sandra walked Penny around while Shalini, John and I enjoyed some beer. When we were ready to leave Sandra and Penny were nowhere to be found. After a few minutes two men walked past us. I asked if they'd seen a woman and dog roaming the area. "Shaggy dog?" one asked. Before I could answer the other interrupted with the correction, "Super shaggy." We knew we were on Sandra and Penny's trail.

classic Pennies