March 9th is a big day. It's Pop Pop's AND cousin Scotty's birthdays.
Happy Birthday to you both.

How sweet is it to have a naked little baby sleeping in your arms.

"Too Bright, Too Bright!"

So, the sun is out here in Wilmington! After breaking not one, but two different retractable window shades in my car Lily Kate has been riding in the sun light the last few weeks. As I'm driving along sometimes I turn a corner and change directions and the sun will hit her window and will she start to yell "too bright! too bright!". I tried to explain to Lily Kate that the shade in her window could really help with that but I know better than to buy a third one. So, yesterday I bought her some very stylish "lellow sunnies". (To her credit, Parks and I call sunglasses "sunnies" so she got that word correct). Here they are!

Sweet Face

7 weeks old

This is the best that I've been able to capture on video so far. I'll keep working on it so you can see her little personality. She smiles a lot and is generally pretty easy to please. Charlotte has slept through the night a hand full of times but not consistently yet. I can see the light at the end of the tunnel of exhaustion and it is encouraging. The sweetest thing that has happened in my little life lately was walking into the living room and watching Lily Kate talk to Charlotte while Charlotte was in her swing. Lily Kate was saying "hey seetheart, hey monkey, hey Char" (monkey is LK's pet name for Charlotte) and Charlotte was looking at her with a huge grin. I said "Lily Kate, you did that, you made her smile! She loves you" and LK kept saying, "I did that, I did that". It was the first time that she smiled at Kate. It was a moment to remember.

Tummy Time

So Close...

I'm so close to catching a smile on film, I keep catching the moments before. We've had some fun days around here playing with the girls. Charlotte loves to be held, she just stares and coos. It's hard to find time to just be still with her for one on one time but it's really worth it when I do. She's a sweet one.

Plumping Up

She's loosing hair but she's gaining weight. Charlotte has started smiling and cooing this past weekend. It's addicting to sit with her and try to connect. She really is so sweet. We'll try to get a video of her smiling.

The Girls

We're Rollin

I had to post this because just as I finished my last post Parks called to me from the living room to come see Charlotte. She was lying on her little mat on the floor on her back and Parks had just put her on her tummy. I've seen her come close, but apparently now she's rolling over! Thank goodness we have months until crawling, I don't have enough hands for that yet.

Miss Charlotte is finally rounding out a little, I think she's getting cuter every day.

Buddies

This is Crawford, I've posted about him before. He and Lily Kate are two peas in a pod. They both like to yell for fun and run around and act silly. I love watching them play, I take comfort in the fact that LK is not the only wild child.

Some Sweet Charlotte

Here she is at 3 1/2 weeks now. Charlotte is precious, she is sort of quiet, she doesn't seem to cry much (for now) even when Lily Kate is helping "take care of her"

Buddies

This is Lily Kate and her friend, Will on their way to Chick Fil A. You can tell how happy they are. It doesn't get much better than chicken nuggets for dinner, and an indoor playground in this freezing weather.
PS Our other precious friend, Jacob was with us - I wish I had gotten a shot of the 3 of them

Lily Kate Opens Presents

Lily Kate's new favorite toy

"I wanna hold my Charlotte"

HAPPY BIRTHDAY (almost) LILY KATE!!

Wow, what a day! My parents are in town this week so we had a special early birthday celebration for Lily Kate. This morning we went to Chuck E Cheese and played games and opened presents and had a blast. I like this picture below because Parks and my dad are really into the games and Lily Kate is just waiting patiently.

I know I'm biased, but isn't she just beautiful! One of the gifts she got is Elmo Live. He talks and dances and moves very realistically, LK was quickly very attached.

Lily Kate and her Nona! And here's us below eating cake and pizza at Mellow Mushroom. We had to go next door for lunch. We just couldn't bring ourselves to eat the Chuck E Cheese pizza when Mellow was right next door.

This shot is my favorite, it's the end of the night and Lily Kate has been celebrating all day with no noticeable lull in her energy level. What a day! I think there's going to be some serious disappointment when Nona and Pop Pop go home.

My Charlotte

I know this picture isn't too clear but her face it just too sweet, I had to post it.

Sound Asleep

This is still how Charlotte spends most of her day. Tomorrow is her 2week birthday! I promise the picture above was taken in the morning, I am getting dressed during the day at this point :)

Sisters

This is what Lily Kate calls "huggle time". Huggle time is something she learned from Parks, they basically lie in bed and talk and wrestle some. Every few days she asks if she and Charlotte can have huggle time. I have been more than impressed with her gentle spirit towards Charlotte. She calls her "seetheart" and "monkey" and loves to hold her and kiss her and we've even gotten her to let us know when she's all done holding her so that she doesn't just dump her off her lap anymore. She really is a fantastic big sister.

The girls

Charlotte's first bath

When the nurses bathed Charlotte at the hospital she liked it a lot, in fact, she didn't cry at all. I think she liked the warm water. Well, we didn't have the same experience with her first bath here at the house. I love this picture, you can feel how sad she was. And there she is below just afterward.

There's no denying that they're sisters

They aren't twins but the similarities are definitely there. This is Lily Kate in her second week of life. (probably about a pound heavier than Charlotte is now)

My two baby girls

January 8th

Wow, what a crazy last few days! You got my little blog note on Wed afternoon. I had no idea we were having a baby that night. Around 9pm I started having some "cramps" that just kept getting worse and worse and it took Parks and me about two hours to finally turn the TV off and have a real conversation considering what we needed to get up and do in case this was real. It's a good thing we did... at 1:30 we finally went to the hospital. The "cramps" were clearly contractions by that point and I was in serious pain. I was 7cm when I was admitted and there was some scary talk of delivery before there was time for an epidural. I've never known panic like that and I was thanking God between while biting my pillow in pain when the anesthesiologist arrived. It was extra special because his little doctor hat (not sure what the technical name for those is) was burnt orange with a longhorn on it. I appreciated that and I was sure that you fellow longhorns will too. I am certain LK would have called him "the hook em guy". Anyway, all was well shortly after the epidural. The picture above was clearly after my visit with "the hook em guy". Anyway, we did end up waiting a while before delivery in order to get some penicillin in my system (because I am Group B positive for Strep) and she was born in the morning. So, here she is! Charlotte Elizabeth has been so sweet so far. I think she looks a lot like Lily Kate did but I'm sure she'll change a lot each day.

Charlotte Elizabeth Carpenter

1-8-08

9:43 AM

7lbs. 2 oz.

We're going to meet her by next Friday!

We went to the doctor today and my induction date was set for next Friday, Jan 16th. Unless we get a pleasant surprise we'll meet our little Charlotte in 9 days. Tonight I kept telling Lily Kate, "you're going to meet your sister next Friday!" and she would just laugh and say "Noooo" - the same "Noooo" she says when we ask her if she's a chicken or if we can eat her little thighs for dessert. I'm starting to wonder if she thinks this whole baby coming out thing is nonsense too. We'll see :)

Baby Shower

I can't believe this is the only picture I took at my baby shower this weekend. The table was so pretty (& look at the diaper cake!) that I took a picture when I first got there and then, of course, I had so much fun that I didn't take another the whole time. It was great though, it is always overwhelming to feel so loved and helped at the same time. We are VERY grateful.

I have my 39 wk dr apt on Wed and, because Lily Kate was 8lb 6oz, they say they might let me make an induction appointment right around my due date (1/14) instead of a week later. Mom and Dad will get here on Sat, the 17th, so I'm praying that they'll let me come in and have her the 15th or 16th. We'll see, ultimately God will order the days - not me - and Charlotte will come when she comes. We'll have a baby girl by the end of the month, at least we know that. We'll keep you posted!