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Charlotte’s third ninety days, her six-to-nine-month period, served as her coming out party to the world. I’m not sure why, in my mind, it made sense to bring a six-month, one-day old baby to a microbrewery but not a five-month, thirty-one-day old baby to a microbrewery, but there was something mentally about breaking the six-month, maybe the vaccinations, maybe not, that lead to a significant pivot from hanging around the house to hanging around anywhere but the house. And that her third ninety-day period coincide with fall, my favorite time of the year? Perfect. Time to get out exploring.
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To help with the exploration, I made what I consider my best baby gear purchase – the Osprey Poco LT baby carrier. I’d seen miserable looking parents trying to navigate strollers at many a fall festival. Crowds. Steps. Grass. These impediments would not slow me down. Sure the Poco LT is designed for your baby’s first hike in nature, but if you need to exit a train, zig and zag through Reading Terminal Market, loop around City Hall, outwalk aggressive homeless people…nothing beats the Poco LT. Even if your spouse is out and you need to walk the dog and can’t leave the baby at home…Poco LT over the stroller every time.
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Whether we were on the Forbidden Drive, dining in Reading Terminal Market, drinking coffee in Rittenhouse Square, strolling Ridge Avenue during Roxtoberfest, it was always enjoyable to hear passerbyers “aaahhh” and “ooohhh” smiling reactions to seeing Charlotte sitting in the carrier. The added benefit to getting Charlotte out and seeing the world was that she generally took a very long nap that afternoon. Charlotte remains calm in the presence of new stimuli. From a train thundering into the station, to traffic on Market Street, to meandering through Watkins Glen Gorge, Charlotte focuses on observing all she can. The only exception to her calm façade? When Bryce Harper hit the go ahead home run in the bottom of the 8th inning in the NLCS. I was very excited and Charlotte started crying. Tears of joy we’ll call them.
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During these months Charlotte began crawling forward, crawling over, crawling up stairs and grabbing everything within reach including our dog, Annie, computer accessory cords, and anything that could you used to pull her up into a standing position. There were multiple safety updates to my work area setup. Play yards were in a position to drop Charlotte into them whenever nature called. Long gone were the days of putting Charlotte on her back and burying my head into work.
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I started and completed the preschool search. If you want to enroll your child in preshool, you need to start early. In some cases, before the child is even born. I want Charlotte to start school in the summer after her second birthday, June/July 2024, and for a few of the places I looked at, in August/September 2022, it was already unlikely she’d be admitted due to the current length of the waiting list. Fortunately (although when I see the price that may be the wrong descriptor), there was a new Goddard School opening a mile from my office. I toured a nearby school operated by the same owner (something you learn through the preschool search is that even if the school is a good “brand” the owner quality can vary school to school), took a tour of their facility, and immediately added Charlotte to the waiting list of the new school – she’s the first one on the list to start in June 2024.
What to do with learning and development until June 2024? I purchased a Lovevery subscription and every two months Charlotte receives a package of age-appropriate toys. They are great toys and at some point I’ll write a full review blog of them. The issue that we continue to run into with Charlotte’s play time is that Annie likes to be involved too. As much as Annie likes to play with Charlotte’s toys, Charlotte likes to play with Annie’s toys, although Annie is a bit more aggressive in letting Charlotte know she doesn’t like to share. Charlotte has a wide variety of toys from the classic Fisher Price rings and xylophone to Lovevery Montessori inspired toys and its fun watching her play with the toys. Her favorite toy always seems to be the new toy. Whenever something new is introduced, Charlotte immediately identifies the item that wasn’t there before, and quickly crawls to grab the new object.
For motor skills and social development, we took Charlotte to a play time group called Baby Bears that’s held every Wednesday in the Conshohocken community center. Surprisingly I’m the only dad that ever showed up at these weekly one-hour sessions where infants listen to a few songs, clap their hands, and then crawl over blocks and padding. Charlotte has scooted through the tunnels a few times. I think this is where she developed her stair climbing skills.
What to do with learning and development until June 2024? I purchased a Lovevery subscription and every two months Charlotte receives a package of age-appropriate toys. They are great toys and at some point I’ll write a full review blog of them. The issue that we continue to run into with Charlotte’s play time is that Annie likes to be involved too. As much as Annie likes to play with Charlotte’s toys, Charlotte likes to play with Annie’s toys, although Annie is a bit more aggressive in letting Charlotte know she doesn’t like to share. Charlotte has a wide variety of toys from the classic Fisher Price rings and xylophone to Lovevery Montessori inspired toys and its fun watching her play with the toys. Her favorite toy always seems to be the new toy. Whenever something new is introduced, Charlotte immediately identifies the item that wasn’t there before, and quickly crawls to grab the new object.
For motor skills and social development, we took Charlotte to a play time group called Baby Bears that’s held every Wednesday in the Conshohocken community center. Surprisingly I’m the only dad that ever showed up at these weekly one-hour sessions where infants listen to a few songs, clap their hands, and then crawl over blocks and padding. Charlotte has scooted through the tunnels a few times. I think this is where she developed her stair climbing skills.
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Charlotte’s noises are starting to sound more like words. There was a two-week period where she was consistently saying “dadadada”; sometimes directly to me, other times to a toy. Then she stopped saying “dadadada” all together.
Charlotte’s first tooth made an appearance. That brought with it the occasional fever, occasional diaper blowout, and lots of drool. She’s not a huge fan of teething toys.
We’ve been feeding her puree, puree, and more puree. Some of the purees have peanut butter as an ingredient. We supplement the purees with teething crackers and puffs – some of the puffs proclaim to reduce the potential for developing an allergy. Fingers crossed. Charlotte putting a spoon in her mouth and making less of a mealtime mess progressed relatively quick. Within a month or two, there weren’t many scraps falling to the floor for Annie. Drinking from a cup continues to be a learning process. She’s mastered the two-handed lift but hasn’t figured out where the liquid originates and is more interest in using the cup base as a teether than the opening for refreshment.
As much fun as this phase has been, there’s also a concrete realization that going forward everything is going to be happening much faster. The crawling is faster. The grabbing is faster. The eating is faster. Charlotte’s life in general is faster. So fast, that instead of trying to write down details of her experiences in summary form, I’m instead starting to build out individual pages of her experiences.
Charlotte’s first tooth made an appearance. That brought with it the occasional fever, occasional diaper blowout, and lots of drool. She’s not a huge fan of teething toys.
We’ve been feeding her puree, puree, and more puree. Some of the purees have peanut butter as an ingredient. We supplement the purees with teething crackers and puffs – some of the puffs proclaim to reduce the potential for developing an allergy. Fingers crossed. Charlotte putting a spoon in her mouth and making less of a mealtime mess progressed relatively quick. Within a month or two, there weren’t many scraps falling to the floor for Annie. Drinking from a cup continues to be a learning process. She’s mastered the two-handed lift but hasn’t figured out where the liquid originates and is more interest in using the cup base as a teether than the opening for refreshment.
As much fun as this phase has been, there’s also a concrete realization that going forward everything is going to be happening much faster. The crawling is faster. The grabbing is faster. The eating is faster. Charlotte’s life in general is faster. So fast, that instead of trying to write down details of her experiences in summary form, I’m instead starting to build out individual pages of her experiences.
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Is there a better place to test out a baby carrier than the Forbidden Drive? I think not. And since Charlotte wakes up so early, we were able to find parking before the lot at the Valley Green Inn filled up. Charlotte got her first glimpse of quacking ducks. It was fun watching everyone's reaction to Charlotte, people would pass us, then do a double take and smile at this little baby out on an adventure. The second time to the Forbidden Drive we even brought Annie along.
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Now for the Big Leagues...a trip to Center City Philadelphia. This required some planning to coordinate a trip around SEPTA schedules and timing a visit between naps and diaper changes. Charlotte was unphased when the train pulled into Spring Mill station - no cries, no emotions as the train rattled along the tracks. She didn't squirm much and enjoyed watching life pass by outside the window and became most excited when we passed the PECO substation near Allegheny.
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From the Gallery we went to the Reading Terminal Market - a new Georgian restaurant had just opened and I had to give their khachapuri a try. Saami Somi's personal khachapuri is a game changer. I was worried about the smaller size - in the way that a personal eight-inch piece loses the floppy crust of larger pies, I thought maybe the personal khachapuri would suffer a similar fate. The smaller size was just as good as the normal size. I can't wait to bring Charlotte back and we can each have our own.
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A walk down Market Street. Around City Hall. Down to Suburban Station. An hour swing through Center City.
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The Phillies won the World Series the year I was born, although I'd need to wait 28 years to see them actually win one myself. Would Charlotte be a similar good luck beacon? Not quite but hopefully she doesn't need to wait 28 years to see a World Series win. Although, if I'm doing the math correctly, my mom and dad saw the Phillies first world series win when they were 28, so using that pattern she may be in for a bit of a wait. At least there's the Eagles...the Sixers...the Flyers...it may be easier to be a Dodgers fan.
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Just don't tell 6ABC that her Dad became a Dodger's fan...
Charlotte's (and my) first visit to a pumpkin patch.
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Charlotte was born on 2.2.22, aka Ground Hogs Day. I found a Ground Hog cap on Etsy and a bear romper stood in for her fur. Joyce and I wore top hats as to be the Punxsutawney Phil officials.
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