We had a month to plan Charlotte’s birthday bash and opted to host the party “off-site” at the Monon Community Center in Carmel since our apartment, while bigger, is still a bit small. We invited our families and friends in the area for some pizza, cupcakes and gift opening. It was a blast, and for being planned somewhat last-minute, it turned out great.
Charlotte got CRAZY spoiled at her birthday party, and we want to thank our friends and family for showing her so much love!
Again, thank you everyone for the gifts, the love and the birthday wishes!
Charlotte’s birthday has, by far, been the most exciting part of her first year of life. And even though she won’t remember a bit of it, we still wanted to make it special.
So we did a few of Charlotte’s favorite things. Like swinging…
..and eating Mac and Cheese and fries at Bru Burger…
..and hanging out together.
We also spoiled Charlotte with a few gifts.
Some of which were quite large given the extra room we have in the new apartment.
Um, Charlotte, that’s not how it’s done. Unless you’re flying your freak flag. Otherwise, go for it.
Ok, good thing this is the last of the monthly photo shoots. Now that she’s mobile, she wants nothing to do with sitting still and smiling for a camera. And I don’t have the patience to try and get a good shot.
Dear Charlotte,
WE DID IT! We all survived the first year. Not that it was much of a challenge. You have been an easy baby, for sure, and I know we’ll brag all of your life about how sweet and nice and calm you were your first year.
In that regard, you have made our transition into parenthood very smooth, and we thank you for that. I know I say it all of the time, but you are a joy to be around right now. You help us notice and pause for the little things in life, and it has been a wonder to see the world through your eyes this whole year.
During this month, you made the move from Chicago to Indianapolis, celebrated your first Halloween and added many more skills to your repertoire. You’re saying a few more new words, signing “more” like an expert and even singing a few notes. You are still enamored by Darcy kitty, Curious George and Mickey Mouse, and your all-time favorite object(s) in the whole world are books.
You are not walking yet, and frankly, you have no real interest in it. You crawl and cruise like a champ. But when it comes to standing on your own, you feel there is no need. And that is OK by us. Put it off as long as you want — until you’re too heavy to carry, that is.
I want to paint a picture of the girl you are today: you are dainty. You love to sleep. You are calm. You’re a big eater. You legitimately play well with others and share. You give kisses, snuggle and are starting to give hugs. You’re a book nerd. You feel most safe with your Dad. But you feel most calm with me. You’re independent, playing by yourself most of the time. And you are happy, happy, happy.
Charlotte, I can’t tell you how much you are loved — by us, by your extended family, by friends and even by total strangers. You are an amazing little girl already, and you’ve only lived one year! But it has been a mighty year. We are so blessed by you, and we thank the Lord for your life every day. It is our prayer that every year, you draw closer to Him because He loves you infinitely more than we do.
You are loved, you are loved, you are loved,
Mom & Dad
Weight: 18 lbs (exactly what I weighed at one year too) Height: 29 1/2 in Clothing size: 12 – 18 month clothing
Charlotte Likes: Snuggling before dinner with Mom, snuggling with Dad after bath time, fish (aquariums), toys, dancing, singing, dogs, exploring, laughing whenever Mom and Dad laugh, riding in the cart at the grocery store and people watching.
Charlotte Dislikes: Not getting her way.
Firsts: Move to a new place, Halloween and visit to the aquarium.
Diapers: We took a break from cloth diapers during the move. It was just too much to launder them in addition to packing, etc. During that time, Charlotte kind of outgrew the medium size gDiaper pants so we need to buy the large. Hopefully, that helps with the leaking we’ve been experiencing. Ugh.
Sleep: Charlotte still takes two naps a day. The first lasts for about an hour and a half and the second is two, sometimes two and a half hours long. And I typically have to wake her up from the second one. She has also started sleeping 12 hours in the last two weeks, and we’re trying to shoot for an 8 p.m. bedtime now. However, we’ve yet to actually hit this deadline.
Feed: As mentioned earlier, Charlotte eats whatever we do now. She also drinks cow’s milk. Now, we have to conquer doing it out of a sippy cup.
Talk: Charlotte has added the words shoe, go, no and fish to her vocabulary. Sometimes, she’ll even try to say “No, no, Darcy” after me (yes, that gets said quite a lot around here). Also, she has totally aced signing “more” and will sign it pretty much whenever she wants anything, not just food. Obviously, we need to expand on her signing development a little more.
Finally, Charlotte stopped wearing the helmet on November 8. The goal was to make it to her first birthday, but I noticed one day that she was pulling at it A LOT. When we took it off that evening for cleaning, we noticed a red, indented line on the side of her head. (Just an aside, we take the helmet into an orthotics specialist every three weeks to have it resculpted as her head grows.) Obviously, she needed the helmet resculpted, but we weren’t in the same city as our doctor anymore and we were one week out from being done with the helmet. With that, we made the call to quit the helmet. So Charlotte is helmet free!
Sorry for the hiatus, but I had a legitimate excuse this time. In mid-October, Ryan was offered a new job within Bank of America that would require us to relocate to Indianapolis. He quickly accepted the offer and settled on a November 4 start date. So that gave us roughly two weeks to pack, see a bit more of the city and move to Indy!
Ryan and I had been going to Goebbert’s in Barrington, Illinois for the past two years to celebrate fall, pick out our pumpkins and pick up apple cider donuts. Of course, it was on the bucket list to take Charlotte Ruth.
We managed to fit in one more sporting event — Charlotte’s first Bulls game.
We also celebrated Charlotte’s first Halloween in Chicago. One of our friends in Mom’s Group threw a party for the kiddos on the Sunday before Halloween. Of course, Charlotte was Minnie Mouse.
Charlotte and I took advantage of a free day at the Shedd Aquarium.
And finally, a Chicago miracle happened: we got to eat at Hot Doug’s! We are not people to stand in line for food so we’ve never actually eaten at Hot Doug’s. But we managed a trip the day before we moved at lunchtime and had no problem ordering our food and getting a seat. Victory!
Chicago may have not been my first choice for spending six years of my life, but it’s where my heart was. Though I moved there for Ryan, I fell in love with that city too. We made wonderful friends there, found an amazing church that taught truth, started our married lives and most importantly, had our first child there. For that reason, our sweet home Chicago will always have a very special place in our hearts — we’ll be back soon!
little bits • the randolph family blog 