words with charlotte

Charlotte has been saying a lot of words lately, and she's gotten increasingly better at repeating me when I ask her to say a certain word that she knows. Thus, I thought it would be fun to document some of her words. You'll have to turn the volume way up to hear it, but with her sweet little voice, it's totally worth it. 

Closed captioning: "Hi... Bye bye... Baby... Good girl... Mama... Daddy... Great great great... [Charlotte]... sock... [Winston]... [Please]". Notice how she reacts when we ask her to say Winston's name? She does this every time! She knows how to say his name, but it's like she gets so excited when he's even mentioned that she squeals in her high-pitched squeal that's specific to Winston. Also, the "great great great" is something that Matt and I say a lot. It's from SNL, when Alex Baldwin did an impression of Tony Bennett - it was spot on, and really funny. Ever since, we've been saying "great great great", and it's been great great great!

She can say some other things, too. I forgot about "all done", but she says that aaaaaall the time. She also learned how to say "wow" today, which is very cute. I'm sure there are more that I'm not thinking of. My mom claims that she said "banana" when she was 14 months old, but never repeated it again. She also said Charlotte said another one-time-only word while we were in Lincoln for Meredith's shower; I don't remember which word. (Funny how she only says the one-time words for my mom... Love you, Mom!!)

I will use the rest of this blog post for random updates. Feel free to yawn and/or just close the window.

Eye Surgery
As I mentioned in my post about Meredith's baby shower, Charlotte had eye surgery yesterday. She's had a blocked tear duct since she was born. Normally, it will clear itself up by the time the baby reaches a year old, but that was not the case with Charlotte. So, they sent us to the eye doctor, who scheduled us for surgery (last October). Our insurance at the time wouldn't cover the surgery, though, so we switched insurance for Charlotte, which took some time. We pushed the surgery back until December, but then had to push it back again - and that's how we came up with the February 20th date. It's nice to have it all over with. No longer will Charlotte have weird ooziness coming from her right eye; no longer will strangers say, "Oh, have you been crying??" because she has a single tear streaming down her face; no longer will she wake up like a cyclops because her right eye is oozed shut.

I woke her up at 6am and took her to West Des Moines for the surgery. She was in a very good mood, considering she got three hours less sleep than normal, and not by her choice. The surgery was very short, only a few minutes long. They did have to put her under for the surgery. She was only "out" for a few minutes. She woke up from anesthesia surprisingly happy. The nurses were obsessed with her because she was so sweet, cute and snuggly. They said most babies wake up screaming, but Charlotte woke up saying, "Ba ba, da da da", etc. She tired when we got home, both from the anesthesia, and also from waking up at 6am. By the afternoon, she was pretty much back to herself. Today, she was 100% normal, you'd never know that she had surgery yesterday. The only poopy thing is that we have to give her six eye drops a day for the next two weeks, which she hates. But, it's only two weeks, and ultimately, we're very thankful that everything went so well with the surgery! We also had many friends praying for her and offering lots of encouragement to us yesterday and today, which we really appreciate!


Email Sign-Up
I added a fun thing to my blog where you can type in your email address, and an email whenever I make a new post to my blog. I figure a very small number of close relatives might be interested. Mom, maybe you could even plug Dad's email address into it, and that way he'd always get the link emailed directly to him, so he wouldn't have to venture out into the scary interworlds alone. Anyone else who wants an email update - you're welcome to sign up! I don't think I know how to see who's signed up, so I'll probably never know if you do.


New Poll
I added a new poll: Is New Cute a boy or a girl? We'll find out for sure in a couple months, but cast your vote now.


18-Month Checkup 
We had Charlotte's 18-month checkup last week, and I forgot to include those stats as well, so here they are now! Weight: 22lbs 13oz, 53%; Height: 30", 6%, Head Size: 45cm, 18%. (The endocrinologist appointment was January 17th, and the 18-month checkup was February 14th.) I was very happy with her growth! However, from what I understand, doctors usually give children until they are 18 months old to walk, and if they're not walking by that point, they like to look into what may be causing this. I was expecting this, so I wasn't surprised when the doctor referred us to both a neurologist and a physical therapist. We are going to see the physical therapist this Friday; I haven't heard back from the neurologist yet.