Happy Easter!

It's been a while since we wrote much on the blog. Charlotte is growing up so much every day, so there is lots to say! Several weeks ago we made the big step moving Charlotte into her own room. Everyone is liking the new arrangement, especially because we are sleeping better now that we don't hear her making little noises in her sleep at 4:30am!

Charlotte is getting better at moving--she is sometimes crawling on her hands and knees, but usually she scoots/army crawls everywhere. She is getting fast! We have started working on the word "no." She likes to scoot towards the collection of computer and speaker cords or towards daddy's important papers. It seems that her favorite things to play with are the things she can't have! I suppose that the easier solution would be to put those things where she can't reach them!

She has really perfected the skill of standing while holding on to the furniture. She loves to stand! We can also get her to balance on her own without support for a few seconds, but she will inevitably fall (we haven't dropped her yet!). A couple of times she has been able to pull herself up from sitting to standing. I'm sure it won't be long before she is doing it consistently. We had to move her from the top bassinett part of her pack & play to the bottom because she is so much more mobile now. She still sleeps swaddled (really really tightly!), but she sometimes works her arms out of it and then can move around. She seems to like being swaddled; it's one of her cues that it is time to sleep. We aren't sure how long we'll keep swaddling her...hopefully she grows out of it before middle school!

A few weeks ago (almost a month!) we were in Duluth for four days. We had a retreat for school with workshops and lectures at the residency program that we want to go to in a couple of years. For two evenings we had the "business" part of our retreat, and then the rest of the time we spent visiting with friends. It was so great to see everyone!!! Below is a picture of a group of our friends from that visit.


For Easter we drove down to Roland, Iowa to visit Kristi's sister and brother-in-law Lisa and Travis. It was so fun to see them and to spend some good quality time with them. Charlotte absolutely loved it--she was glad to see her aunt and uncle, but she also adored all of their animals. Lisa and Travis have 3 "big" pet birds (a cockatiel, a conure, and a parakeet), 3 "little" birds (finches), a rabbit, a gecko, and several fish. Charlotte was enthralled with all of the animals. Unfortunately she mostly wanted to poke them in the eyes or grab their feathers, so she mostly just looked at them! Here is our little bunny on Easter.

Here she is hoping to poke Thumper in the eye or nose. We had to bribe him to sit there by putting some oatmeal on the couch!

Aunt Lisa and Charlotte.

Isn't she sweet?!

Yesterday we went out for Birthday dinner at Applebees with Matt's parents. It is Matt's birthday tomorrow (26 on the 26th, his golden birthday!!!), and it is Kristi's birthday on April 2nd. Charlotte enjoyed people watching, licking a french fry, drinking water from a straw, and eating Cheerios.

Charlottte with Grandma Carol Ann.

Charlotte got a little messy as she ate lunch today. Those are prunes smeared all over her face!


Thanks for checking in with us! We hope these pictures of our cute baby brighten your day!

She's all grown up!

Charlotte learned an essential life skill today that she couldn't do yesterday. She picked up Cheerios and put them in her mouth!

Anyone who thinks we're crazy for broadcasting this information, you should know that this is a very intricate skill that requires a lot of brain power, hand eye coordination, and fine motor movement to pick up those tiny little o's. She's pretty much a genius in the making.

Here you go Auntie Laura! Ask and you shall receive!

No time to write now, but we will update you on all of her accomplishments soon! Until then, here are some pictures of our little bunny.

A couple pictures from Aunt Lisa and Uncle Travis

These are from Christmas-time I believe. Isn't she well-mannered? :)

Guest photographer entry!

Charlotte's grandpa Mark wanted to make his mark on the blog with this guest photographer entry! If you think you have Charlotte pictures that may make the grade, feel free to email them for consideration

Mama and Baby's day off

Mama and Charlotte have had a couple of days together at home. She is playing hooky from daycare and I am taking a couple of days off from work at the clinic between rotations. Here are pictures of some of the fun things we did today.

First, Charlotte played with the big blue exercise ball. But then she let go and fell down. Here she is just after that incident...




But then I let her play with the vertical blinds in the living room, which she loves.

Then she was feeling better.

Charlotte got some valentine's cards in the mail from her great-grandma Florek and great-grandma Lois. Here she is "reading" them.

Grandma Cindy sent some Valentine's cookies to Daddy (they were addressed to Mama too, but we all know who they were really for). Charlotte is testing them out for Daddy.

Matt got me tulips for Valentine's day--aren't they beautiful?!

Charlotte's favorite toys

Here's just a few pictures of the star of our show. She is learning how to scoot around on her belly. If we leave her in one place and turn our backs on her, she ends up halfway across the room before we know it! She hasn't quite figured out how to put her knees up and crawl yet, but I have a feeling it won't be long.



Her new favorite thing to do is to dump out a whole basket full of toys. If we fill it up and put it next to her she will empty it out in a matter of seconds. Then she proceeds to play with each toy individually for a minute or two.


She also loves looking in mirrors. Here she is in the hallway where we put a mirror so she could watch herself in the Johnny Jump Up. She really loves that other baby!

Charlotte's great-grandma Rose Ann knit her a sweater and a blanket this winter. The sweater is for when she is older, but I couldn't resist putting it on her for a picture!