Charlotte's first trip to Belleville (Belle-vegas) to visit Auntie Stacey and Uncle Art

Oh, my gosh! What’s going on? Charlotte was awake before 5 am. To avoid waking up the whole house, Mommy brought Charlotte into Mommy and Daddy’s bed, in the hopes that she would fall back to sleep. Charlotte showed no interest whatsoever, and continued to thrash about, crying out quite loudly. When Mommy could no longer handle it, realizing that no one in our room was going to get any sleep, Mommy got dressed, bundled up Charlotte, and left the house before 6 am for a long walk. It was still quite dark outside and it had started to snow. Charlotte was quite content to sit in her stroller and drink her bottle. Mommy and Charlotte walked to Tim Horton’s so Mommy could have a coffee.




Eventually, Charlotte started to fuss to get out of her stroller, so Mommy knew it was time to get on our way. We took the extra long route home to Auntie Stacey’s in the hopes that Charlotte would fall asleep, which she did. We were just around the corner from the house when Daddy called Mommy on her cell phone, worried that perhaps we had got lost. When we arrived home, Charlotte was still asleep; however, the stroller wouldn’t fit between the two vehicles parked in the driveway, so we weren’t able to leave her sleeping in the stroller at the front door. Daddy met Mommy at the front door to take sleeping Charlotte from her arms; unfortunately, by the time Mommy got the stroller put back into the van and got into the house, Charlotte was wide awake and ready for the next activity.

While we made breakfast, Charlotte ate quite a few Cheerios while sitting and lounging about on the island in Auntie Stacey’s big open kitchen.


We all enjoyed ham and eggs for breakfast—-Charlotte ate quite well, feeding herself, despite the number of Cheerios she consumed while breakfast was prepared. After breakfast, we visited with Uncle Art and Aunt Stacey until it was time for Charlotte to go down for her nap. Mommy put Charlotte in her playpen, bundled up in her blanket with her bottle; Charlotte appeared to be quite content. Within a few minutes, Charlotte began to fuss and cry; as Mommy got closer to the door, she realized that Charlotte’s cries were immediately on the other side of the door—-Charlotte had climbed out of the playpen. Mommy put Charlotte back in the playpen and within a few minutes, she had climbed out of it, again. This time, Mommy swaddled Charlotte in her blanket and placed her in the middle of the “big bed” that Mommy and Daddy had slept on and placed pillows on either side of Charlotte. Charlotte eventually fell asleep—-this gave Mommy and Auntie Stacey the opportunity to do a little shopping; apparently, Charlotte got up about 10 minutes after we left the house, so Charlotte’s nap was a grand total of about 30 minutes.

Stacey and Mommy arrived home to quite a mess in the upstairs bathroom—-Max had got Charlotte’s dirty poo diaper and had pulled it apart all over the bathroom floor-—what a mess! After this incident, Max continued to try to lick Charlotte’s legs and bottom, likely recognizing her scent, but this behaviour really frightened Charlotte.

Charlotte enjoyed sitting in the cat’s bed. It was so cute to watch, but Mommy could never get it on video: Charlotte would crawl into the cat’s bed, meowing while doing so and then lie down, not like a cat, but with her face down in the bed. She would then lift her head and start pulling cat fur off her lips. She did the same thing many times throughout the course of the weekend.


Charlotte would also not leave the dog’s water and food bowls alone. Eventually, we had to put the water bowl and dispenser on the counter to get it out of her reach. Charlotte was quite content to sit and splash both hands in the bowl, getting her legs, arms, and feet wet-—good thing Mommy brought extra clothes.

Just before dinner, Mommy took Charlotte outside for a little fresh air and to play in the snow.



Charlotte ate quite well at dinner, but learned very quickly that she could drop food on the floor for the dog who was begging at Charlotte’s feet under the table. After dinner, Mommy and Daddy took Charlotte down the basement to watch a little TV before Charlotte’s bedtime. Charlotte was more interested in exploring everything that she wasn’t supposed to get into, so Mommy was definitely looking forward to Charlotte’s bedtime when she could finally put up her feet and enjoy a movie with Daddy. Charlotte is definitely related to the Energizer Bunny as she showed no signs of wanting to go to bed, which surprised Mommy as she was up so early and didn’t really have a nap.

Mommy and Daddy really padded up the base of the playpen with a big fluffy blanket to make it more comfortable for Charlotte. Initially, Charlotte didn’t cry when Mommy placed her in the playpen, but she became agitated when Mommy moved toward the door. So, with the dresser lamp on, Mommy climbed into the big bed beside Charlotte and turned to face her so that Charlotte knew she was there. Charlotte would just start to drift off to sleep and then abruptly stir and start chattering to Mommy or start crying. Mommy was able to catch a few winks herself, hoping to get up to play cards with the others once they got home from the hockey game. Charlotte was a very light sleeper tonight and would stir whenever Mommy moved.

After a couple of hours of lying in bed, Mommy turned off the dresser lamp, hoping that Charlotte would then stay asleep so that Mommy could escape for some adult company before heading to bed. By this time, Mommy was totally exhausted, so changed into her jammies and went to bed. At some point, Daddy peaked in to see that Mommy was taking up most of the bed, so he decided to sleep on the couch down the basement. Mommy really hopes that Charlotte doesn’t wake up before 6 am tomorrow.