Philadelphia Portrait & Pet Photographer | April Ziegler Photography

Dear Charlotte,

We have a crawler! On July 18, just one day before you turned 7 months old, you scooted across the living room in the most adorable little army crawl. Previously, you had been pulling yourself a bit with your arms when you wanted to reach a toy that was just out of your grasp. Suddenly, it seemed, you figured out that you could move a little easier with just a little push of your feet… and you were off! You’re a fast little belly crawler! Your first stop was the heater vents, where you proceeded to stick your tiny fingers in the vent and then tried to eat it. Time to baby proof.

You expanded your food experience this month by trying apples, peas, sweet potato, carrots, and rice cereal. You weren’t particularly into of any of them. We celebrated your first 4th of July (you wore a blue onesie with white polka dots and a red heart on the bum… I must say, it was pretty dang cute!) with an indoor picnic due to the insane heat. No fireworks for you but I’m hoping you’ll be interested in them next year.

This month, we decided to move you to your own room. And you decided that you weren’t too fond of that idea. To be honest, I wasn’t either. But we knew that the longer we waited, the harder it would be to make the transition. And you were creeping up to the weight limit on your bassinet so it had to be done. You’re a belly sleeper, like your mama, which made me even more nervous since they say that babies shouldn’t sleep on their bellies. I’d flip you over onto your back, and you’d scream and immediately flip back onto your belly where you’d settle in comfortably. Eventually I gave up and resigned myself to checking on you every five minutes or so instead of continuing the baby-flipping battle. The first night of you sleeping in your crib was hard. I didn’t sleep a bit… How could I when I was watching you on the video monitor the entire night? I felt like you were losing a little bit of your babyness and gaining a little independence from your daddy and I. I was scared to give up the security of having you within my arms reach. I suppose it was a lesson in letting go. In letting you do your thing and having faith that you’ll be ok. I’m sure it’ll be one of many parenting lessons to come. You better believe that when you woke in the morning to eat at around 6am, I brought you into our room for early morning baby snuggles. I still do that nearly every day. I do believe that you’ve converted your mama into a morning person… I absolutely love that time that we have cuddling in bed together as a family.

Love,

Your mama.

Dear Charlotte,

You are officially half of a whole year old! Happy half birthday, baby girl.

The most exciting milestone of this past month was introducing you to solids. You tried your first bit of real food, avocado, on June 2 when you were 5.5 months old. I mashed it up and mixed it with a splash of breastmilk, making you your very own boob juice guacamole. Sounds delish, right? We carefully buckled you into your high chair and set up the video camera to capture your first bite of real food. With anxious excitement, daddy offered you a spoon of avocado and… no reaction. None. Not disgust. Not enjoyment. Nothing. This process repeated itself the following week when you tried butternut squash, and also with banana. You seem quite unsure of this whole food business.

We started this month with your first Phillies game. Your Grammy is a big baseball fan, so we got her tickets for Mother’s Day. You were all decked out in your Phillies onesie and baseball legwarmers, but even having the cutest little cheerleader in the world couldn’t help them win. This month we celebrated your daddy’s very first Father’s Day. I tried to make it special for him, because he does SO much for us… we’re both very lucky to have him. We also celebrated my 33rd birthday and my best one yet… my first birthday as a mama.

These days, anything and everything goes into your mouth… including your own feet. We prop you up on the couch to practice sitting and more than once I’ve caught you just sitting there with a foot in your mouth. Ha. Your new adventures are cracking us up. You were quite surprised this month to discover that your bouncer actually bounces. As you pushed yourself up and down, your arms flailed wildly and you smiled as you looked around the room. The bouncer has since become a much more fun place to hang out.

You weighed in this month at 14lbs 8oz and are 26 inches long. You’ve more than doubled your weight since you were born! Though I’m so happy to see you growing and happy and healthy, sometimes I wish I could just make it stop because it seems to be happening far too fast. I’m no longer able to cradle you like a baby… You’re so over that baby stuff. There’s too much to see, you like to be held up and looking around. The only time when you allow yourself to be cradled is when you get really sleepy, just minutes before you fall asleep. I cherish those minutes. I admit to rocking you a little longer than necessary, so I can steal glances down at your perfectly beautiful face… I’m still in awe of you, after six months. You started napping in your crib this month. It took awhile to get you used to it, since you had grown accustomed to napping in your swing… You loved the swaying movement and would struggle to keep your heavy eyes open as you were swung to sleep. The crib doesn’t move, and I think the big openness of it frightened you at first. We had to stop swaddling you since you learned how to roll, in fear that you’d roll your little burrito self right over onto your face, and I think that not having the swaddle that kept you wrapped so warm and comfy was an adjustment as well. You’re doing well with the changes, and I love finally seeing you spend time in your room. My favorite thing is coming in to get you when you wake from your nap… you smile up at me and when I pick you up, you wrap your little arm around my neck in a half hug and I melt. And I realize that even though there are things that you are growing out of that I miss, there are things that you are learning that make my heart so very full.

Love,

Your mama.