Only 4 months until Christmas!

And 5 days.

Which means that this little princess is 8 months old.

Charlotte has grown so much in the last month.  I haven't weighed her or measured her yet, but there is absolutely no question that she's gone through a growth spurt.

But, she's also grown in other ways.  She has such a personality.  She is incredibly outgoing but likes to play shy.  She does not like to see anyone upset, but laughs when she hears someone else giggle.  She is curious about everything going on around her.  She is quick to smile, quicker to stick out her tongue and goes to just about anyone these days.  And she does the cutest little thing with her nose.  It gets crinkled all the time.  I love it.

She is crawling so fast and getting into just about everything lately.  She loves to be in the kitchen.  It's the best place to open drawers and cupboards.  She loves to get out all the sippy cups and play with the lids.  She's just so fast, and wants to be where the action is. 

Charlotte is anxious to stand up.  If she's in her bassinet (I know we need to move her, more on that in a moment) she can put her hands on my nightstand and then pull herself to stand.  But, her body is more like a triangle.  She spends a lot of time pulling herself to her knees and grabbing onto anything to pull herself up to stand.  If we help her up to stand, she'll stand for a really long time.  Like minutes.  If we hold her hands, she'll make a lot of stepping motions to get where she wants.  She's so excited about every single movement.

She loves to be picked up and reaches her arms out to you and waves her little hand towards you like, please let me love on you.  And when you pick her up, she will love on you.  She will turn her head into your chest.  She will give you wide open mouth kisses.  She will just love you.  It's the sweetest thing.

She is babbling a lot and can say mama, but I don't count it yet.  If you ask her where mama is or dada, or Kaitlyn or Samantha or bottle, she knows.  There are actually a lot of words she understands.  She loves the dogs, is just absolutely crazy about Archie. 

A few things about Charlotte this month:
           * She is clapping
           * She dances to music
           * She loves having a blanket.  All the time.
           * She still has 2 teeth!!  She was the earliest to get them, but the slowest to get more...
           * She still loves the paci.  The only baby to go past 6 months with them.
           * When she wears disposable diapers, she's a size 3; in cloth, she's in the middle rise
           * She is wearing a 6-12 month in clothes.  She hasn't really worn shoes yet...
           * She is sleeping through the night.  Kinda.  She sleeps from 9 p.m. to 2:30 a.m. and 3 to 7
           * She nurses every 2-3 hours day, has baby food 3 times a day, loves puffs and       
              gets 6 oz of formula at night.
           * We have been very slowly adding in table foods.  So far she has had watermelon, mashed
               potatoes and bananas.

I have so many things to write about.  I'm going to work on them tomorrow.  Some things I'm working on:

* Being catfished again!  And this time I have texts and emails to share.  ;) And why I ended up deleting 300 facebook friends...
* Kaitlyn's second year in cheer!
* Kaitlyn starting the 4th grade!
* Samantha potty training and all the hysterical things she says
* The miraculous recovery of Archie
* Our new daily schedule.  What it's like with having my 4 month old nephew here 4 days a week!