Life with Vera Charlotte: Vera Turns One!

Here it is my darling Vera, your first birthday. It’s surreal that exactly one year ago today, I was laboring quietly on a birthing ball, or in your father’s arms. Joking with the doctor as my contractions picked up, “You better finish up whatever you’ve got going on Doc, because I’m going to call you back in 45 minutes to have this baby.” We all laughed aloud but just a little over an hour later you were placed on my belly, with your pudgy back rolls and your extra long baby toes.

And then, just like that, you were 6 months old. A well-traveled infant having gone to Europe at a mere 3 months old. Your jaundice finally subsided, your newborn features completely disappeared, and that awful case of cradle cap was fully gone. Now you were bright eyed, curious, and already on the move! You did the funniest one arm scoot across the floors with impressive speed. You were sitting, rolling over and pulling yourself up on your crib, the couch, and even the dog! You had a sedated CT scan to check the tumor in your lung, which turned out to be gone!  You nursed like crazy both day & night and would scream if we tried any sort of bottle.

Then, I whisked you away to Rhode Island for a month where you learned to crawl on your hands and knees. You started eating more and more food, and were the definition of a horrible sleeper. You only slept right by my side so you could nurse at your every whim and fancy. When we were back in Florida we tried to sleep train you, only to have you get sick the day after you slept through the night for the first time ever. We have struggled ever since to sleep train you successfully again.

You started to walk, you started to babble, “Mamama ma” without any intention behind the words, but still exciting nonetheless. Soon you started nursing less and eating more during the day. Emerson started school and I finally got some one on one time with you and have cherished our days together. I feel like it was finally around 9 months or so, when Emmie went to preschool, that I got a chance to see who you really are, without the boss-lady bossing us around.

And then I must have blinked again because here we are. Your birthday. I have soaked up every second of your first year, Vera, and hope to continue to soak in the sweetness in your eyes, the joy in your giggles, and the love in your snuggles. Happy first birthday my love. May you continue to grow into a fun, charming, and smart young lady.

With all my love,

Mama

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Holiday Gift Guide for Toddlers & Infants

With the holiday season just around the corner I’ve created a couple of gift guides to hopefully ease the question of, “What should I get for…”

For Emmie’s Christmas wish list, and for toddlers aged 2-5, I think having a Christmas list or holiday gift guide with several different categories helps make the overall “haul,” if you will, well rounded. For the 3 year old girl I made sure to have art supplies for creating things, dress up to encourage imaginative play, and a scissor cutting book for fine motor skills practice. There’s also play money with a calculator-register to encourage math & financial learning, some pretty fun animal hair clips to wear and a real cooking set for kids to help in the kitchen with meal prep. Lastly, to round out the categories is a book to read. I chose Rosie Revere Engineer because we picked up this doll from Target…which leads to the last category of play with the doll armoire. This guide can also be easily adjusted for boys too!

 

2017 Gift Guide for 3 year old girl. Toddler christmas list. Xmas gift guide for kids. Gift guide for girls age 2-4

  markers || Melissa & Doug coloring pack || doll armoire  || Anna dress || Rapunzel dress

kids cooking set || play money || scissor skills book

hair clips  || Rose Revere Book

 

The one year old infant has a very similar styled gift guide also broken up into categories. We have musical instruments to encourage sound exploration, headbands & soft jammies to wear, bath color drops for sensory play and a rain cloud bath toy for cause and effect exploration. A teether toy covers the incessant need for gnawing & chewing and a nice interactive book to read rounds out the selection.

 

2017 Gift Guide for 1 year old girl. baby's christmas list. Xmas gift guide for kids. Gift guide for infant girls

musical instruments  || mushroom teether  || bath color drops || rain cloud bath toy

 headbands  || purple stripe jammies  ||  Melissa & Doug soft book

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Life with Vera Charlotte: 7 & 8 Months

Being away for September has really thrown me off. In fact, I’m pretty behind with Vera’s monthly updates. She’s quickly approaching the 9 month mark, so I figured it was about time to post her 7 & 8 month updates.

Cute ideas for monthly baby photos | Monthly baby pictures | baby collage |overthedeepend

At 7 months you:

| got your first two teeth! |

| crawl super fast on your belly |

| are either happy or screaming, there’s no in between |

| get up a zillion times a night to nurse |

| are really starting to dig food |

| put everything in your mouth |

| are pretty ticklish and always belly laugh when tickled |

| have been enjoying food in a mesh pouch |

| love playing in your standing saucer |

 

You still refuse to drink breastmilk when I’m not there. I had a clinic appointment this month and you went the whole 13 hours without milk. You are stubborn and set in your ways. You love snuggling when you’re sleepy and have begun “giving kisses.” You slowly lean in and open your mouth to press against someone’s face. You even did it to a little girl at story time who leaned in to give you a hug. You’ve begun playing in your exosaucer this month and really like it. We’ll bring you into the garage while we work out and you’ll watch and play. You also love chomping on berries, broccoli and bananas through a mesh food pouch.

Cute ideas for monthly baby photos | Monthly baby pictures | baby collage |overthedeepend

At 8 months you:

| started crawling on your hands and knees |

| are pulling up and cruising around |

| easily go from crawling to sitting |

| still put everything into your mouth |

| got your first cold |

| met your great-grandparents |

| stayed the whole month in Rhode Island |

| attended your first wedding |

| slept in my bed for the whole month & refused to nap |

This month was a crazy month. We pretty much stayed all of September in Rhode Island bouncing between Mimi & Pa-Rob’s house to Nonni & Pop-pop’s house. There was a wedding, and many get-togethers with relatives. You decided you were not going to nap unless you were nursing or in the car. You refused to sleep in the pack-n-play for more than 40 minutes so I ended up bringing you into bed with me most nights. You’ve gotten much steadier on your feet this past month and I fear you’re going to keep up the tradition of walking before you hit 9 months. We’ll see how you do in the next 4 weeks. Something tells me you won’t be stopped once you learn how to walk.

As always, we love you something fierce.

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Life with Vera Charlotte: 6 Months

My darling Vera. You have been in winning your way into our hearts now for a whole 6 months. From your distinctive laugh to your incessant need to be moving, it’s safe to say you’ve wiggled your way deep into our hearts and we wouldn’t have it any other way.

At 6 months you:

| have started eating solid foods: baby led weaning style & baby purees |

| still scoot along army crawl style |

| rock back and forth up on your knees |

| can push yourself up into an almost sitting position |

| try to pull up on things, and voice your frustration loudly when you can’t get up |

| are still not a great sleeper, but I’ve accepted it’s just part of who you are |

| love to grab faces, hair and when you’re nursing you pinch the back of my arm |

| are still infatuated with Emmie, following her around, laughing at her, and watch her every move |

| make an “ah ah ah” sound most often |

| weigh 14.5 lbs |

| had a CT scan and did great |

| finally have a cup you’re willing to drink water from |

| don’t suck your thumb as much, so car rides are becoming rough again |

 

You are an explorer. You hate being confined, and you love to scoot your booty all around the house. You lead with your left arm, suck your left thumb, and prefer to sleep on your left side. You follow Emmie and Oliver around scooting after them. You let us know when you’re unhappy by crying LOUDLY. You enjoy some baby food such as butternut squash and you’ve tried real food like avocado slices, banana and bread. You finally drink water from a sippy cup but still pretty much refuse breast milk out of any container. You love being in the water and went in the gulf for the first time this past month. You also went swimming in a pool and enjoyed that just as much. You love being close to me and let only a few select people hold you without fussing. This drives your grandparents crazy! You have the bluest of blue eyes and your hair is still a mystery. Half of it’s blonde, and half of it is a light reddish brown.

You had your CT scan to check on your lung mass, and it went really well. You were such a trooper fasting, then going under anesthesia. You had a couple bruises from IV’s but other than that you would never know you had a procedure done. The best part was they couldn’t see any lung mass! You’ll get another scan, but this time an MRI, in 6 months and if that’s clear then you won’t need any surgery. To say that we’re thankful and relieved would be an understatement. We love you so much little girl.

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Life with Vera Charlotte: 5 months

Monthly photos of newborn, baby collage of monthly photos

 

At 5 Months old you:

|| roll over like a pro ||

|| scoot around army style ||

|| can sit by yourself for about 10 seconds ||

|| love playing in your baby saucer ||

|| are very loud & talk all the time ||

|| hate being contained in your baby-proofed area||

|| have zero schedule at night ||

|| went in the ocean for the first time and loved it ||

|| love when Emmie makes you silly sounds in the car — you calm right down ||

|| have sucked on an apple core, corn of the cob & green beans ||

|| try to grab anyone’s food if you’re close enough ||

|| imitate a hoover vacuum by eating everything off the floor ||

|| weigh about 12-13 lbs ||

|| wear 6-9 month and 9-12 month clothes ||

This past month (or really month and a half since I’m a little late) your personality has begun to blossom. You are a wild child for sure! You hate being confined to your baby-proofed play area and would much rather zoom across the house to find every speck of dust, wrappers, old stickers and dried leaves to chomp. You are in love with Emerson. You continue to watch her completely enraptured in whatever she may be doing. Emmie has also taken a fancy to “playing” with you. She’ll set up fake food picnics and feed you off the plastic spoons, which you’re more than happy to chomp on. She loves playing “sleepover” with you in your crib and you’re always so content when she’s playing with you, even if she does boop you on the head a little too hard every once in a while.

You are quite serious when we’re eating. You are a baby on a mission when we break out the food. You try your darnedest to get a grab of anyone’s food if you’re close enough. You once shoved your face smack into my BBQ chicken sandwich at Chic-fil-a. You’ve tried your first real food of banana and you loved it. You sucked on it at first, and then as soon as you realized how good it tasted you tried to shove the whole piece in your mouth.

You continue to want nothing to do with bottles, much to my dismay, and you are a pretty rotten sleeper. You’ll wake up anywhere from once a night to every hour! I really think your sleep is so wacky because you keep crushing milestones. You started to crawl, army style, about 3 days after turning 5 months old! Then, you learned to sit up. Now, you’re working on propping yourself up on your knees when you crawl. All before 6 months! Not to mention all the new noises, blowing bubbles, and growing you’re doing. Slow down little lady! I have a feeling you are going to be the child who will get into everything in a blink of an eye. Regardless of the trouble you scoot yourself into I could still eat you up, I love you so.

My Vera Charlotte, my little wild one.

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Life with Vera Charlotte: 4 Months

Monthly photos of newborn, baby collage of monthly photos

At 4 months you:

|| roll back to belly and belly to back ||

|| started sucking your thumb ||

|| really hate it when anyone besides Momma holds you ||

 || are a terrible napper and only nap about 30-40 minutes max ||

|| are starting to transition to sleeping in a crib ||

|| will sometimes take a bottle, but it takes a lot of coercing ||

|| love to smile, especially when you wake up in the morning ||

|| love playing on your play-mat, especially with the purple horse toy ||

 || love watching your big sister — especially if she’s dancing or shaking a toy for you ||

You had your first real laugh this month as well. We were outside, Emmie and Daddy on the trampoline, and I was holding you while making Oliver do his tricks. When we got to “turn around,” you busted out your first real belly laugh. I, of course, made Oliver repeat “turn around” about 6 times just to hear your magical baby laugh. And on the complete opposite end of the spectrum, anytime you’re really unhappy you will let everyone know because, girlfriend, your cry is loud! Thank goodness you’re generally a happy baby. Emmie usually covers her ears and says, “Mom, Vera is too loud!” when you cry in the car.

Overall, you’re the perfect addition to our family and I can’t wait to watch you grow.

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Life with Vera Charlotte

It’s been two whole months since we welcomed our sweet Vera Charlotte into the world. I’m trying to savor every single moment because I know she’s our last baby. Each night-time waking, each nursing snuggle, each little smile and even those heart-breaking pouts and sobs. She’s a sweet chub of a baby, so different than her older sister. I remember Emerson feeling so fragile in my arms whereas Vera feels so hefty – so solid.

We’ve all fallen into what feels like a good routine. I know the routine will constantly be changing, just as quickly as little Vera. But for now I feel like I’m slowly getting my groove back.

Emmie has been overall wonderful in the transition of being an only child to suddenly having to share her parents with another little human, who really doesn’t do much but sleep & cry. Emerson has already fallen comfortably into the role of big sister. She is constantly informing me when Vera starts to fuss that I need to either “pick her up,” or “give her breastmilk.” And my sweet, tenderhearted Emmie will tear up and join in the crying if Vera is left fussing or crying for too long. Car rides are the worst, when I can’t actively soothe Vera, no matter how loudly Emmie demands it.

Slowly and surely I’ll get back into writing more for the blog.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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