2 Months (9 Weeks today)

So Charlotte turned 2 months old on the 26th! How crazy is that?

Just so we can all see how much she's grown in that short time:

Her first night home from the hospital:

Yesterday sitting in her Bumbo seat:

This week has been busy and fun. Charlee and I are getting much better at getting out of the house as we fall into a good routine. Just to get out of the house, I make sure we have something to go do every day - something as "simple" as grocery shopping. Actually, all week I found myself wishing that I already had my new Hotsling, because she is so much happier when we are out and about when she isn't in the stroller. Not only that, but my hands are then free to push a cart, carry a basket, or whatever. This also means I can step away from the cart without having to worry about stepping away from Charlotte. I talked to my friend Laura on Wednesday, (who's little boy is only a week younger than Charlotte) and she told me about a woman who tried to take a baby just by walking off with the mother's shopping cart while her back was turned. Scary stuff!

Anyway, the new Hotsling finally arrived in the mail yesterday, and I plopped Charlotte in it so I could trim the hedges and water the front flower (what flowers?) beds. Today she went to church in it. After an *incident* as we were leaving church, we couldn't use it for our trip to the Farmer's Market, so I used a borrowed ring sling (http://zolowear.com/). Even the hard to use ring sling seems to make more sense now that I understand the Hotsling. But I still love the Hotsling best - it is SO easy for me to get her in and out of there, and she loves it.

Sporting the new sling - its reversible!

I did however, learn the hard way how NOT to use my sling - for walking Maddie. I am not quite sure what happened, except that we only made it to the corner. Maddie stepped over her leash and I leaned over to untangle her. Maybe I was still leaning a little forward, or maybe it was the uneven spot at the curb, but when Maddie tried to dart into the street she pulled me into the street with her. Off balance, I came crashing down onto the asphalt with Charlotte in her sling. By some miracle of God (or Charlotte's Guardian Angel) she came out totally unscathed. Of course, I still haven't figured out the extent of the damages on MY body as I tried to keep from landing on her (which I still think I did, a little). She cried for only a moment after we hit the ground, but was completely content as a couple of neighbors walked me home. Actually, the experience seemed to make her sleepy (OK, so it was almost bedtime anyway), and I put her down to bed half an hour later. All in all, I cried the most - heck, I'm fighting a lump in my throat just thinking about it. No more of that. Sorry Maddie.

On a more pleasant note - Beta took us shopping on Friday and along with a bunch of precious outfits we came home with this:


Fred and I laughed so hard putting her into it. She found it less amusing but tolerated the bulky costume better than expected.

I keep trying to catch pictures of her smiling, but as soon as I pull out the camera she looks right at it with a very serious face. I got this one by sneaking up on her!