My favorite time of day, of late, has to be when Charlotte takes her afternoon nap. I call it my "Mommy Fika." "Fika" is the Swedish word for "coffee break." Every afternoon, around 1 p.m. I make a pot of coffee and lay down on my couch with a book until Charlotte wakes up (usually an hour or so). Sometimes I have a sweet treat, sometimes I just have coffee with cream and sugar, but boy, oh, boy do I love that quiet coffee-reading time! Currently I am on my second tour of Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows. I'm almost done and contemplating reading it a THIRD time. I miss so much because I read through it so fast!

Here. Proof that I am a real human being, separate from my baby :)

Tomorrow the three of us are taking a trip to Appleton, Wisconsin for Starbuck's, Target, Old Navy, mall walking, Famous Dave's, and who-knows-what-other-adventures!

This weekend we had a really big retreat and the Rills were kind enough to watch Charlotte all weekend. On Monday morning, the last meal of the retreat, I just kept Charlotte with me and brought her to the kitchen. She was such a dear to play on some towels with some kitchen utensils while Mommy and Daddy baked fresh biscuits for everyone.



Charlotte is really into snacking lately. She enjoys feeding herself crackers, teething biscuits, apple slices, and carrot sticks. Here are some of the snacks that Charlotte shared with Mommy today:



This video is from Christmas, but it's Charlotte enjoying my sister, Katie's dancing.

This is also from around Christmas- Charlotte taking her first ride on her new sled from Gramma and Poppa. She's about to go down for a nap, which is why she may look so indifferent. Normally on her sled she smiles and laughs.

Charlotte is seven months old!
Every month I take probably 20 or so shots of her sitting in that chair and this month it was so hard to pick one because they were all so cute!

This was the first month that Charlotte realized that there was a piece of paper sitting next to her in her chair.

It wasn't long before...

... it ended up in her mouth.

Charlotte and I have been so sick! BOOOOO!!!! She has been sick since we got home from Christmas, poor girl. I started getting sick on New Year's Day. We have been laying around the house since then. At first it was kind of wonderful. Kyle pulled our guest bed into the living room and for two days we laid on it and had a Harry Potter movie marathon. But now, I'm ready to be better (and am far from it). We have another group coming in a few days and Charlotte and I want to go to Marquette with Lauren- we need to get better!

Charlotte's newest trick is sitting up pretty well by herself- but even more exciting is that we put her in the real bathtub sitting up a few days ago and she LOVES it!

The first time I put her in the tub she was so sick, so I was hoping it would make her feel better. She actually loved it, but doesn't she look so pathetic?


She loves the bath toys, Grandma and Grandpa Duck!



I had to cook during Christmas Camp, while Charlotte was sick :( so we had a string of really awesome sitters! Thanks, Heather, Lynn, Megan, Sarah, and Johanna! Auntie Heather snatched her up any chance she got and loved laughing back and forth with her.

Charlie lovin' that snow globe. Don't be fooled by the yawn.

Whew. We can finally breathe. Things have been CRAZY. I feel like I have not. stopped. moving. since November. Christmas Camp ended on January 1st and we burrowed into our house for the last few days to rest (just in time for me to become paralyzingly sick. perfect.) Anyways, here is Christmas!

We found these glasses on Gramma and Poppa's kitchen counter. Charlotte kept trying to grab them, but couldn't understand that they were on her face, so she just kept waving her hands 10 inches in front of them trying to get them.

We spent the day of the 23rd in Park Ridge, eating at Five Guys, having coffee with Kendell and Emma, and hanging out at the Bergs, doing crafts- my favorite!

On the morning of the 24th, we opened presents at Gramma and Poppa's.
I like how Adeline is perfectly modeling her gift tag here.

Check out the towers of presents!

Charlotte got a cutie owl sweater from Gramma.

I sure hope this girl doesn't grow up to hate owls, because I've certainly surrounded her with them.

Always fun with the cousins.

Charlie and Auntie Brooke

We spent the first part of Christmas Eve at the Mecher's.
Charlotte and Josh- she loves him!

Charlotte and Dan.

In the Christmas mug. Once Gladdy saw that we were taking her picture, he announced it to the living room and soon it was like Charlotte was on the red carpet. But there were so many people there to make her smile!

The second half of Christmas Eve was spent at my mom's house with the Duckhorn's.
Charlotte with Great-Grandma and Great-Grandpa Duckhorn.

Charlotte got this hat for Christmas that I am obviously in love with.
And my stepdad's cousin's 11 year old son, Eddie, who lives fairly close to us and we visit from time to time (we went to their house when Charlotte was just a few days old) crocheted her this sweet blanket! So cute!

Kyle rocking a Hello Kitty band-aid that Charlotte got for Christmas.

Christmas morning we all (Kyle, Charlotte, Mom, Bill, Amy, Pete, and I) went over to my Dad and Patti's for breakfast and presents.

Charlotte got this sweet giraffe to ride on!

Charlie with Auntie Amy and Pete.

Auntie Katie and Uncle Ben got so many presents!

Charlotte got this snow globe from Grandma Patti and Grandpa Rich- so cute!

And look what else! Those darling socks she asked for on the blog a few weeks ago!

I have no pictures of opening presents at my mom's, for some reason, but Charlotte got some pretty sweet toys- including tons of Veggie Tales movies! I was so excited to watch them myself! For the rest of Christmas day, we had my stepdad's family over to my mom's. She made her usual enormous, delicious display of appetizers (of which I ate FAR too many). The next day her and I went day after Christmas shopping- our favorite thing to do together- and got some great deals!