Family Party

Today we had a family party to celebrate Charlotte's birthday. We had pizza and ice cream cake at Grammy & Pop's house. People who were there were Mommy, Daddy, Grammy & Pop, MiMi & Boppi, Gramma Sue & (Grandpa) Dick, Auntie Krista & Uncle Matt, Auntie Michelle, Uncle Mark, Daniel, Owen, Kaylin, Kevin & Wendy.

I know it sounds crazy to have TWO parties for a 2 year old... Believe me, I thought the same thing! But this really worked out great. It was more personal and Charlotte didn't seem so overwhelmed. Not to mention I'm sure all the grandparents didn't want to sit through a kiddie party at MWCC.

Alright, now on to the good stuff... pictures!!

It was finally time to open presents and surprise... She went right for this gigantic one! They learn this stuff at an early age, huh? :)
This one was from the Williams & Maillets

It took at least 10 minutes to get through it. She ripped open little piece by little piece.

A new art easel from Gramma Sue and Grandpa Dick
She even reads the cards!
She had to take a break from presents to try out the slide that Daddy's still putting together!
Am I crazy or are her hands on the proper keys?
She really liked her new laptop from Uncle Mark
Her 1st pair of roller skates from the Dechs.
We live on a nice flat dead end road to try these out in the spring.
Can't go wrong giving Charlotte books... She is Stephe's daughter.
Ahhh, finally ready to go!
1-2-3-GO!
Weeeeeee!!!
Happy Birthday to you...
A fun new race car set from MiMi & Boppy

I didn't get any pictures of the Grammy & Pop gigantic bag of clothes. I can't wait to see them all on her!

Thanks to everyone for such a nice day... We are so lucky to have such a great family. Everyone made Charlotte feel very special!

Happy Birthday Charlie May!!

Today my little girl turned 2!! Time really does fly. I still remember the day we took her home like it was yesterday. We were so scared we would not know how to take care of a baby. We learn as we go and so far I think we're all doing alright. :)

Here's a list of some things Charlotte's doing at 2:
*Speaks very well and is starting to make sentences.
Here's an example: "Lainey outside snow wet."
Translation: Lainey's outside in the snow getting wet.
*Recognizes the colors red, blue, green, yellow, white and black. I can ask her to go get her pink shoes and she actually comes back with the pink shoes.
*Counts to 13. She loves to count things.
*Recognizes a lot of letters & numbers in books and around town on signs. A couple weeks ago we happened to be sitting at a traffic light in front of a Super 8 Hotel. Out of no where, she keeps saying 8, 8, big 8. I look over and sure enough, there was a big 8 staring back at me.
*LOVES to go to Barnes & Noble to play with the train table and look at the books then head to Petco to see all the animals.
*Gets very excited to go anywhere in the car... sometimes I wonder if we're too used to having a dog. LOL
*Sings quite a bit now and still loves music.
*Has to hug, kiss then hug again EVERYONE who leaves the house or if we're leaving their house. She's very Hollywood!
*Cries if she's in earshot of me closing the refrigerator door. She LOVES to close all doors. She'll say "Charlotte close door."
*Seems to enjoy cleaning up just as much as making the mess and we love to encourage that. She throws all her own diapers in the trash.
*She's peed on the potty twice now but hasn't been interested for a couple weeks. She gets on it every morning before her bath.
*Speaking of baths... She really likes watching the tornado as the water is going down the drain.
*She still eats really well, pretty much anything we put in front of her and she still loves fruits and vegetables. If you ask what she wants for dinner, she'll say chicken & peas... Either that's her favorite or she eats that combo a lot. LOL
*Her favorite things to watch are Sesame St (Elmo), a dog competition that Stephe taped, Jeopardy and she still likes The Simpsons (AKA Bart).
*Is getting very independent... She wants to do everything "self".

OK, enough of my proud Mom babbling. There are just some things that I'd like to look back and remember some day. :)

Here are some pictures from Charlotte's birthday party. I know you can't tell since she will not smile for my camera, but she had an awesome time. She was so excited when she walked into the gym and saw all this cool stuff set up for her. Her friends that were at the party were Daniel, Owen, Hunter, Ryan & Megan Jacques, Emma Landry, Ryan Gallant, Gavin & Alley McLaughlin & Meghan McAvene. Adults that attended were Mommy, Daddy, Auntie Krista, Auntie Mich, Uncle Scott, Uncle Jim, Auntie Janice & Uncle Jacques, Laura, Renee, Sammy, Lynn, Jenn & Ted. It seemed like everyone had a lot of fun.

Happy Birthday "Charlette" cake

Two of Charlotte's special buddies weren't able to make it to her party. Here's their story: Charlotte was born within 2 days of 2 of my friends' babies. We were in the hospital together. I know, what a weird coincidence... What's weirder is Patty and I are both due within a week of each other with baby #2!! Anyway, Aime had Jacob on Monday, I had Charlotte Wednesday and Patty had Hannah Friday. Hannah & Jake both had their birthday parties on the same day so they weren't able to come to Charlotte's party. We did manage to make it to the tail end of Jake's party though so I was able to get a couple pictures of the 2 kids together.

Charlotte and her birthday buddy Jake

Baby Landry Number Two

I've been really bad at keeping up with this blog through the holidays. There has been so much going on. The biggest thing that happened for us was on Christmas when we told our families we're expecting our second child in July! It was surprise to us too, a very happy surprise. I'm about 13 weeks along right now and feeling excellent. I hate to type that for all the poor women that have it rough for the first tri-mester. I guess I just have a stomach of steel as I had a pretty easy first tri with Charlotte too. I do remember feeling more tired when I was pregnant with Charlotte though and would come home from work and just crash on the couch. I was afraid of feeling that again since this time I can't afford to be such a slug. Maybe the fact that I didn't have the option of being tired this time helped, not sure. But I only start getting tired around 8 or 9 at night! I can't really complain about that!

Earlier this week, I started panicking that since I really don't feel anything at all, maybe I'm not really pregnant! That was quickly put to rest Wednesday though when I heard a nice strong heartbeat at my doctor appointment. What a great appointment!! Charlotte came with me which was interesting in itself. I think I'll take her to most of the appointments actually. When I was leaving the Dr. said he hopes to see her again! I think they like when the older siblings are involved in the pregnancy. Maybe it'll help her adjust into being a big sister??? I figure it can't hurt. She was actually really good, aside from wanting to be on the table with me for the exam... that was kind of awkward. But when I got up, she laid on the table and rubbed her belly. She's so cute!!

Dr. Howard said based on my measurements and how quickly he found the heartbeat, I was probably right on with my due date of July 19th. It was exciting to hear that heartbeat... as soon as he found it, all my worries went away. He also told me that since technically I'll be 35 when this baby is born (for only 1 month), that I qualify as "high risk" and have the option of getting some testing done. The first test offered was an amnio which I quickly declined. I've heard these are very painful and also pose a slight risk to the baby that I'm not willing to go through for really no reason. He seemed to agree with me and said I barely qualified anyway. Technically my eggs were only 34. LOL Obviously if down the road things seem off, I'd be willing to get some tests done but I'm not anticipating any problems.

I'll be getting some Christmas pictures up soon. Charlotte had a great Christmas and has a new fascination with Santa. It seems like anytime I say you know who's coming over today??? Her first response is Santa. Our friends recently had a baby and named her Samantha. I showed Charlotte her picture and said "Samantha". She smiled and repeated me only her version was "Santa". It's so funny because she was afraid of him when he made an appearance at Grammy & Pop's house Christmas Eve. I do think she liked the idea that he brought presents though. LOL