daddy x2

noah's arc

Charlotte is a little confused.

After two years in a mini mini-crib (it wasn't even a full-size mini crib), Charlotte seems to miss the comfort of being able to push against all four sides at once. She's taken to filling the ample space of her normal-sized crib by recreating Noah's Arc.

Beside her in bed the other night (by no means an atypical scene) were:

Rosa: pink bunny rabbit; best friend
Other Rosa: pink bunny rabbit
Unnamed Rosa: pink bunny rabbit
Leo: yellow lion; Rosa's best friend
Tiger Lily: large tiger pillow
Schaf: eviscerated remains of a once-functioning sleep sheep
Lammy: lamb blankie
Elmo: red mutant
Bridget: baby doll
Bobo: baby doll
Lilly: purple dog
Unnamed: small baby
Unnamed: medium baby
Unnamed: large baby

good morning

Sneaky how mother nature engineered such a sweet innocent look that lets you forget right away how many times you were called out of bed in the past night... ;-)

we are MUSICA!

Charlotte LOVES singing, dancing and music class at daycare -- so we got her a few more instruments.

Enthusiastically, she assigned them right away and had us all play together.











When asked what our band is called, she exclaimed "Musica!"

May we present:

Charlotte: vocals (lots), flute and xylophone
Mama: second flute (at best)
Daddy on the drums

The two Rosas, Noah and Penny made a pretty decent, although at times lethargic, audience...

Until Rosa was invited upstage for a raging guest performance on the castanets ;-)

well, hello!

Before leaving with Daddy in the mornings, Charlotte always jumps into bed with Mama and baby Noey to cuddle a bit and give good bye kisses. The other day, she ran back into her room and brought her good friend Elmo -- so that he could "keep Noey company and watch over him during the day"...

Noah found the encounter quite fascinating!

simply charlotte

Charlotte is not a quiet kid: she has energy - physically and verbally, lots of it! In fact, we've been told by quite a few people that "she has spunk" ...

Many pictures on the blog have already depicted that. Now that Charlotte is a chatty toddler, the things she says also give testimony to her fun character (she likes to call herself "funny bunny";-).






Recently, Charlotte has been hearing a lot about 'learning' -- she is learning how to use the potty, how to dress and undress herself etc. ... and she is eager to learn and do everything herself.

We have also been talking about baby Noah not being able to eat, walk or talk yet -- and that he still has to learn all those things.  So in a conversation with Mama and Daddy, Charlotte applied this concept further:

The other day, she exclaimed "Noah and me were both in Mama's tummy!"

Mama nodded in agreement "Yes, you and Noah were both in my tummy." 

Expanding on her thought, Charlotte added "In Daddy's too!"

Mildly smiling, Mama told her "No Daddies can't have babies in their belly, only Mamas."

Thinking for a moment, Charlotte agreed and concluded "Yes, he still has to learn how to do that!" 

Good luck with that, dad! ;-)

smiley face

Noah has changed already so much in the past weeks: eating like a champ (apparently, he's determined not to stay a "little" brother for too long), he was already well over birth weight right after the first weekend we brought him home and is now a good 12 pounds -- close to half of Charlotte's 25 pounds ;-)

Around week 5-6, Noah also started his charm offensive: he happily smiles with everyone that flirts with him, and can't wait for his sister to bring her girlfriends home!

mama x 2

meet & greet

In the last couple of weeks, the grandparents came to visit of course:
to meet Noah and spend time with Charlotte.

Thanks for cuddling, playing and reading with us! (And helping Mama & Daddy get some rest ;-)

how did that happen?!

The last two blog posts showed us again how quickly 2 1/2 years zoomed by with Charlotte.

With Noah, time seems to have accelerated even faster:

At 8 weeks old, he has already grown from a sleepy newborn (that we just brought home yesterday,
I swear!) to an alert, interactive and exploring infant.

sand-skiing and camouflage

I think this is from January in La Jolla. It is 63 degrees and raining in DC. It is October.

sunday morning (many months ago)

 

 

see, noah, tummy time ain't so hard

NSA

Long-time readers of this space will know one of us is a big fan of surveillance. Heck, Daddy could practically be an unpaid endorser for night-vision wifi cameras. Watching the odd, contorted positions of children sleeping is always entertaining.

Noah still sleeps wrapped like a burrito. The length of his nap is seemingly determined by how long it takes him to weasel his arms out of the swaddle. Here he's halfway towards waking up.

Charlotte, on the other hand, was celebrating the U.S. Men's National Team [soccer] scoring their first goal against Mexico a few weeks back.

early bird

 

What?! I have to wait 

some 60 plus years for 
my Florida retirement??? 

I'll take another nap then...

potty time

Not that we would have attempted this with a new baby around and all the other changes this summer, but Charlotte determined herself that she wants to go potty now -- especially when seeing how much fun older friends in daycare have with this "business."

We suspected for a while that she's 'ready' to learn. Even without any prompting on our part, she is actually pretty reliable already. Secretly, we think she just likes to use it as an excuse to read more books. As evidence, Charlotte tellingly set up Leo to model the luxury of her new pot for all to see.

* Stay tuned: We've added Sesame Street sticker rewards to entice our little potty trainer even more (resulting in Charlotte splitting her business into multiple installments now) and Charlotte is starting to officially potty train in daycare tomorrow (she's already excited about wearing big girl underwear -- also Elmo themed, of course ;-)

mandelbaum, mandelbaum, mandelbaum

We're not sure if he looks more like Izzy, Izzy Jr., or Izzy Sr.? 

sleepover

Speaking of sleepless nights, which are usually only a newborn/baby phenomenon in our house: Charlotte didn't want to sleep the other night and caused enough of a fuss to merit reinforcements. All she wanted, it seems, was to read a few more books. So Mama read a German book with her before beginning a German rendition of The Cat in the Hat, which, thankfully, was cut short once Charlotte's moon light mercifully quit for the evening. (These books came after reading a book about Washington, DC, The Cat in the Hat (in English), and The Going to Bed Book with Daddy before attempting sleep the first time.) [As an aside: the only threat of punishment Charlotte seems to respond to is the possibility of no books in the evening.] 

 The evening get-together was pleasant, however, with the whole family in tow. Charlotte initially called for Mama. She then requested to visit Daddy and Noey; preferring to keep her close to home base, we came to visit her instead. Last but not least, the curious one, Penny, decided to come join the festivities. As usual, she entered with a kiss for whomever she could reach.   

happy us!

Alright, when you have children your own birthdays, schedules and activities take second rank... and to be honest, blogging about the 'critters' is just so much more fun! But once a year, we get to celebrate us:

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!

At our wedding, one of the guests predicted that five years in we would have two kids and a dog...
we complied, ahead of schedule ;-)

In the last four years, we've repeatedly said YES: to each other, to a life together, and to a family. And so far -- apart from the occasional snoring and nagging, sleepless nights, tantrums, and doggie walks in the rain -- it feels pretty good.

the end of summer*

[*at least according to DC Parks and Recreation]

Labor Day marked the closing of DC's spray parks. Since it was still hot here, Charlotte and the whole family took the opportunity to splash out for the end of the season. 

sisterly love

Noah is officially part of the clan -- his big sisters have fully welcomed him.

On the very first day, Charlotte gave him a loving nickname: Baby Noey (rhymes with Zoe and Chloe). In fact, Charlotte's repertoire of Noah nicknames [aka variations] has steadily grown: Nola, Nona, Nolika, Nolina, Noney, ...

Whenever she gets a chance, Penny gives little Noah a good sniff or wet kiss.



When Charlotte hears her little brother cry, she's taken to commenting

"Baby Noey is crying. Ima gonna make him feel better."

Big sister has gone through the gauntlet of siblingdom though, and exhibited a gamut of sibling emotions over the past weeks.

On the way to her second hospital visit, Charlotte exclaimed to Daddy in the car: 

"Ima gonna hold baby Noah." [Ed. note: Pause. That's nice Charlotte. Maybe she's getting the hang of this thing after all.]

"Ima not gonna poke his eyes out." [Ed.: Umm, I wasn't concerned about that until just now. Why would that even come into your head? What other types of "interaction" have I neglected to anticipate?]

"Ima not gonna hit him." [Ed.: Sounds like daycare teachers were working hard on adding a NOT to this sentence...]

As if he had known, Noah arrived bearing gifts to appease the sisterly gods. We're not sure if it was the fancy camera 'he' gave Charlotte, or simply his sweet newborn charm... but she immediately took to him: Charlotte's favorite activities now include kissing Noah, helping him burp, kissing Noah, assisting with diaper changes, kissing Noah, singing and reading books to him, and... kissing him.


Penny, on the other hand, has been completely unfazed by the new delivery. When we had Charlotte, we had the distinct impression that Penny didn't trust us as newbie parents [she would run in our room -- tail wagging -- and stick her wet snout into whichever face she could reach when Charlotte began crying]. She's now more relaxed about how the whole operation works, letting the two-leggers tend to the situation on their own terms -- but still grabs every opportunity to snuggle up to "her baby".

All in all,
it looks like Noah can look forward
to more sisterly love from our girls.

first days (... and weeks)

Yes, we've been in Babyland over the past month -- enjoying baby bliss and living in baby blur! 

 

Having settled into our new five-some family life (and gotten used to a more erratic schedule and shorter nights again...), we're back to update you on our adventures since we've come home: from the early sleepy (yearn!) newborn days to the more lively infant-toddler-doggie discoveries to come ;-)