Charlotte smiles

We haven't been blogging very much, but I had start up again. Charlotte has started really smiling a lot! And interacting more. It's so lovely.

Cats and babies

Okay, we have an admission to make: We have three cats. How do cats mix with babies? This was a concern we had for the entire pregnancy. Well, we have made a discovery with a non-random sample of three varied cats: Cats named Scooter, Lexi or Missy could care less about babies named Charlotte. They seem not to notice her at all, and as of today, Charlotte has nothing to say about them either. Here is photographic evidence of our discovery.

First visit to a supermarket, and Guinea is in the house...

At Charlotte's age, everything is an adventure. Here's her first visit to a produce section:




One of Raul's most reliable friends... no, make that the most generous person he knows came to visit:
Alpha with Charlotte


Alpha made sure her Dad held Charlotte's head properly.


Famoro, Charlotte, Jennifer and Alpha

8 pounds 9 ounces!

Grandparents in the neighborhood:


Charlotte's paternal grandparents (Nagymama & Zeidi) spent their last day visiting on Sunday. We all took a walk on Sunday, and now they've flown home to California.


News of the day: Look at them thighs!


The big news of the day is that we met with our lovely pediatrician. We just a few days ago, we were worried that Charlotte had lost too much weight, but were pretty confident that she's gained a good amount. So we were pretty darn glad that she'd gone up from 7 pounds 3 ounces to 8 pounds 9 ounces in two weeks.

Fresh air

So far, Charlotte's whole world is this apartment (except her big Connecticut trip of course). We're totally nesting. But we realize that fresh air would be very beneficial too. So today we took a little stroll. This is no easy feat as we're finding out. Everything has to be perfectly timed between feedings. If we wait too long, she'll be hungry when we're out and about. So we only walked to Underhill, but it felt like a major accomplishment. We ran into several neighbors and had a bit of sunshine for her daily vitamin D dose. We'll try to get out a bit more and stray a bit further as the days roll into fall. Maybe next week we'll make it all the way to the Farmer's Market! Otherwise, it's staying in the cozy nest.

Our Cozy Nest:



Some visitors today to our Cozy Nest:

Brooklyn birth bring Budapest memories

Charlotte brought together many long lost relatives to her home in Brooklyn. Her paternal grandmother ("Nagymama") had a visit by her cousins Tom Slovak and Agnes Frank. It was a rare chance to discuss new and old family news, from dramatic World War II stories to the newest baby clothes.

It's hard to say what the most dramatic story of the day was, though her grandfather ("Zeidi") talked about how his days fighting in the Battle of the Bulge were not so bad. And his time fighting in the Israeli Independence war was pretty easy too.

Visiting the Mishpucha in Connecticut

Charlotte left Brooklyn for the first time on Tuesday, and she brought together all four of her grandparents and many other dear friends and relatives. Her dad, as always, took many photos, and here's a sampling.

A hot day with no stump

Look ma, no stump!



Charlotte resting on her pa.




One of the prime activities of our days so far are the recordings of Charlotte's comings and goings, literally. Start time 5:42, left breast, 14 minutes, start 6:09, right breast, 4 minutes, then stop, then a few minutes later 8 "bonus" minutes. We're making sure she nurses every 2-3 hours which sometimes means we're waking her from a deep sleep for her meal. She responds like a sleepy teenager and refuses to pay attention to us. But then sometimes she wants to eat more often like an hour after her last snack and we try to put her back to sleep. Right now it's pretty unpredictable. We're all learning here!

We have to start a blog because Charlotte's stump fell off

Okay, we know that most babies start their blogs on their first day of life. But Charlotte taking things as they come... and taking things as they go. The BIG news of the day is that the umbilical stump is gone! Well, almost gone. As of this writing, it's hanging on by a thread. Luckily, we will NOT provide photos of this weird, lizard-like object. There are MUCH cuter photos from today.



Meeting aunt Janie


Yo!