All About Bug

I feel like Mr. Jensen has gotten quite a bit of blog press lately, what with his walking skills, fancy new haircut, and tendency to do goofy, Wordless Wednesday-worthy things. So I wanted to do a little post dedicated to some of what Charlie-Bug has been up to lately. First up, the headband...

One day, Charlotte and Jensen were crawling around my bathroom when Charlie came across one of my headbands. I explained to her what the headband was, showed her how I wear it in my hair, and then put it on her head for a second. She watched and listened intently, then went on to play with something else. Later that day, she woke up from her afternoon nap before Jensen did, so she and I were hanging out in my bedroom. She crawled into the bathroom, found the headband, and put it on her head...just like I had shown her. She was so proud of herself! She proceeded to wear the headband for the rest of the afternoon and was just pleased as punch.

She is such a funny girl, and one of my favorite things about her is how you can always tell when she's proud of herself. She is such a smart little cookie. I know I have talked and talked about how Charlie is always pointing at things, but seriously...she is always pointing at something. She's a great communicator...her latest form of communication is the "I Don't Know" shrug:

I know this one is blurry, but I couldn't resist that sweet grin.

She uses the shrug to mean "I don't know" or "Uh-oh." It's a pretty helpful communication tool...the other day she must have dropped her sippy cup off her highchair tray when I wasn't looking. So she looked at me, pointed at Jensen's sippy cup on his tray, then shrugged her shoulders as if to say, "Where's mine?" And a few days ago, I was trying to get her to shrug her shoulders so I could get a picture. Jensen had crawled into the kitchen and out of our line of vision...so I said, "Charlotte, where is Jensen?" I expected her to shrug, but instead she looked at me like I was really dumb and pointed towards the kitchen. Clever girl! I know people always say that kids and babies are like sponges, always soaking up information...but I think Charlotte is some kind of super-duper-absorbent sponge. When you explain something to her she gets a look on her face like she is really trying to concentrate and learn.

Charlotte's favorite toy these days is a ball...actually, any ball will do. She loves tennis balls and my mom recently got the babies some of those big bouncy balls that you see in bins at the toy store. She loves to roll them and chase them around. Charlie has also recently learned to bounce them and will even play a game of "catch" with you in which she bounces the ball to you and you bounce it back to her. Perhaps we have a little athlete on our hands?

Okay, so this one's a dryer ball...she loves it, too!

Charlotte sleeps in her own bedroom these days...the pack 'n' play in the guest room that we had been using for naps has become her bed for nighttime, too. She sleeps so great in there and I think it is mostly due to one thing: Her bunnies. We put two stuffed bunnies in her pack 'n' play and they seem to have become quite comforting to her. Once in awhile, she'll wake up in the night crying...when we watch her on the monitor she will pick up one of her bunnies and begin "talking" to it...like she's telling it about a bad dream or something. They're her little friends, and whenever we ask where her bunnies are, she will point upstairs towards her bedroom. We recently went to lunch at the tea room, and they had a huge display of bunnies...Charlotte was in heaven!

What else has our Bug been up to lately? Let's see, she got her first band-aid:

Just a little ouchie on her big toe (and see how she's pointing at it?). Hmmmm...what else? Oh yes...she took her first steps! When Brian and I were at the wedding reception last Saturday, I got a text from my mom that read, "Guess who jist took.a teenie.tiny step?" (Yes, I included the typos. Sorry, Mom.). So we were a bit devastated that we missed it...but she rewarded us the very next day by taking a few steps on her own for us to see. She has a little stroller that she loves to push around the living room, and every now and again she will let go and take some steps on her own...and, in true Bug form, she is so proud of herself each time she does it!

I really can't believe she's already taken her first few steps and is close to being a walker! I really thought she'd be a much later walker than this, but she has surprised me yet again. 

So that's a little bit about what our Peanut has been up to these days...she's clever and funny and sweet, and she most definitely keeps us on our toes.