4 1/2 months and going strong

dottie went for her 4 month check up yesterday (it actually ended up being 4 1/2 months). She weighs 14 lbs 14 ounces (in the picture she is wearing a diaper which adds a little!), she is 26" long and her head is 43.3 cm (in the 95% for the size of her head....just like her mom and dad). it's crazy that in 4 1/2 months she has grown that much. she got 4 shots on this visit and THANK GOODNESS took it well. after her last appointment with shots, she was a real stinker for about 24 hours.

dottie in new york

the whole family packed up and headed to nyc last week. mara had a very successful stationary show for dutch door press, and dottie and I had lots of fun around the city.

click here for a slideshow

dottie loves her auntie steph and uncle paul

uncle paul and auntie steph were kind enough to spend some quality time with dottie while we set up for the stationery show this week. they showed her central park and took her around the city. she had lots of fun and was an angel (or so they say). cheers to them!

trying to sell some stationery

dottie, chuck, and aunt stephanie came to visit us at our booth at the national stationery show on tuesday. it was pretty cute, she even got her own badge that said "dottie" on it.

hangin' with the cousins in nyc

we headed to new york this week for the national stationery show (mom's working the show and dad's on dad duty). dottie was a little touch and go for the first 30 minutes of the flight so we were a tad nervous but it ended up going very smoothly...thank goodness!!!! we are lucky enough to be seeing a ton of people while we are here for work. so far we have done some hanging out with aunt stephanie and uncle and uncle thomas, aunt julie, ellis, and sadie grey. this picture was taken after dinner this evening. julie and the kids were sweet enough to come into the city on a very rainy day! what fun!!! tomorrow we are heading to brooklyn to a bbq to see some friends from school.

malcom and dottie

We went to Brian and Jeff's birthday party yesterday for good cheer and delicious cupcakes made by Jenny and Marla (though chuck was a little more excited by the Old Milwaukee!). Penny, Jason, Wyatt, and Malcolm came so Dottie was able to chill a bit with her buddy Malcolm. Malcolm is 1 week old in these pics and Dottie is just under 4 months old. What a difference 4 months makes!

abc's

recently chuck woke up early with the baby and let me sleep in (how nice!). he pulled up a fisher price program called Learn Your ABC's and taught her to tap the keyboard to change to the next letter. she gets really excited at the end of the alphabet when the song plays.

more swimming

we took dottie for her second swim class this week. what a hoot! she really seems to like it and even took time out of biting on her bottom lip to smile several times. in order to get babies this small to get used to going under the water, you blow in their face before putting them under so they close their eyes and such. this week chuck and the instructor were able to "dunk" her twice. she was a little startled i think but kept on going.

jump around...

...jump around...jump up jump up and get down!
we got dottie a johnny jump around this week and she is really into it though she doesn't like getting turned around so she isn't able to see us. she loves little toys on the tray too!

big brother

nasha and jason came to visit dottie the other day. unfortunately, it was past her bedtime.
(the second picture is a picture of the screen on the monitor we use to check on her when she's sleeping)

dottie meets her pal malcolm

we went to meet malcolm robert ricci at the hospital this afternoon. he is penny and jason's second son and was born this morning at 7:58 and was 6 lbs, 3 ounces. he is the sweetest little guy and we can't wait to get to know him. dottie is sure to be good pals with him for many years to come.

small talk

obama vs. clinton? the rising cost of milk? whatever they were talking about, i'm sure it was facinating.....

fuzzy wuzzy was a bear

nice and warm for our evening walk...
we couldn't resist!

swim lessons!

chuck took dottie to her first swim lesson today (he likes the water much better than i do) at this little place called la petite baleen. i couldn't stop taking photos because the whole thing was so darn cute. they sing little songs and the babies who are a little older even wear little goggles. i don't think she quite knew what to think of the whole thing and sucked her bottom lip the whole time. she looked very cute in her polka-dot suit, and was very popular, being the only girl in her class!
click here for a slide show!

janey comes to town

our friends janey and simon (from nyc) came to town for a visit and we had some old paper source people over for a little get together. here's a pic of janey and dottie and their blue eyes and another one just for fun of janey rocking out to guitar hero.

she's a party girl

dottie came with us to a brunch today in honor of erin macleod's birthday. she decided to get in the spirit of things and party it up with a pink party hat. (cute little cupcake outfit courtesy of grandma cam and grandpa bill)

daddy got it good...

people had been warning him about this when he did the busy bee...

a present for mom

out of nowhere, dottie decided to start rolling over today. we've decided it's her present to her mother. happy birthday mara!

a visit to siena's house

we drove over to berkeley to visit siena and marie today. siena couldn't be more darling and was showing dottie a few of her tricks. she is an amazing roller and "talks" up a storm. in the second picture i think they are trying to hold hands!

pass the milk please

we had erin and sonia over to celebrate our birthdays and dottie decided to join us for dinner. bummer she couldn't have any cake to go with her milk.

kickin' it

dottie wearing mom's shades...
oh yeah

dottie and her daddy reading

we spent some time in tahoe this weekend with grandma cam and grandpa bill. this photo is of dottie and chuck doing a little reading. it's pretty cool to watch how much more engaged she is getting when we read to her.

buddies doing tummy time

dottie has just really gotten into milo. she has taken to pulling his hair and kicking her feet in to his body. milo isn't so into it but i think knows that she isn't going anywhere. in the grand scheme of things, he is taking the whole sister thing pretty well. if she is crying in her room, he comes in to our room to make sure we know and then goes back in to to check on her. he also likes to give her legs a lick or two here and there.

dottie enjoying the sun the new deck

dottie chatting with her parents

before we shot this video, dottie was "chatting" up a storm and as soon as we started rolling, she got kind of quiet. it was funny because it was like knew. we tried over and over again and this was what we came up with. she is getting much more interactive and is just so much fun to be around.