Me 'n' my blankie

Faith Carol knitted Charlie Jo a gorgeous and supersoft blankie, perfect for cuddling and practicing her thumb-sucking! Witness the resulting cuteness:

Little fish

Corey and a partner from work (John) needed to get together to work this afternoon. Since John and his family live just a few miles from us, Corey and John decided to work in John's dining room rather than make the long trek into Nashville. John's wife, Amy, and four-year-old daughter invited Charlotte and me over as well to take a swim in the neighborhood pool. We had a blast! Check out the little bathing beauty:

That's the suit given to her by Kenny & Sally Anderson (they're sort of cousins on my mom's side). We forgot to take a picture with the supercute matching sunglasses on though.

Charlie met some boys(!) at the pool. That's Amy holding her there.

Amy's daughter was a terrific swimmer. She's learning the crawl stroke and can jump into the pool all by herself. She was so sweet with Charlotte!

Linus

Charlie fell asleep sucking on her thumb, with the sheet from my bed positioned just like Linus and his blankie from the comic strip "Peanuts". Maybe we should start calling her "Charlie Brown".

New jumping seat!

Early morning fun

I had some time to crochet this morning before Charlie woke up, but see why I am having a hard time finishing the blanket:


Pacey likes to lie on the yarn and attack it every so often when he decides it has sassed him enough.



Charlie Jo woke up soon after and resumed her latest obsession - chewing on her toes. NOM!!!

Another star sighting

Charlie had her second celebrity encounter today! We were at Merridee's for lunch with Alicia, Faith Carol, David and Shelby (FC's friend), and Naomi Judd was sitting at the next table over. She had a hat and dark glasses on, but she put her order in under her own name! When the gal at the counter yelled out "Naomi", the star popped right up and retrieved her food. We didn't accost Naomi or make her take a photo with Charlie or anything.

Today, Charlie fell asleep during tummy time for about 15 minutes. I kept a eagle-eye on her to make sure she kept breathing, but I was petrified the whole time. Now she's awake and back to her old tummy-time-hating self.

Slow June Weekend

Niki, Charlie, and I had a very nice weekend at home. I had lot of work to do, so I holed myself up in Don's Pool Room (aka the bonus room), and went for it on Saturday and Sunday during the days. Charlie and Niki worked around the house, and took occasional naps. We went for a walk on Saturday morning - Charlie was ready for the Tennessee sunshine.

In the afternoon, we bought Niki and Charlie a new "jogger stroller" for Niki and Charlie to use at Stroller Strides.

Our regular stroller is essentially the British sports car of strollers - very nice to look at and nice to use, but a little fragile. Taking it into the grass is not a good thing. So, we got what is essentially the Jeep Wrangler of joggers - cheap, not as handy, but tough and capable. Charlie absolutely hates it, of course. She hates being strapped in to anything.

On Sunday, the Hancocks stopped by. They had been on vacation and brought Charlie a little shirt as a souvenir. Charlie really enjoyed watching the two kids and playing with them. Sarah and Max are great kids, and were really entertaining Charlie by talking to her and playing with her toys with her. Charlie really responded to them.

Charlie is changing daily. Her voice is changing, and I am enjoying listening to her new sounds as she tries them out. She is not a big fan of tummy time, and much prefers to lay on her back, especially if she can watch a person's face, or play with her toys. She likes to grab her toys and shove them into her mouth. Big fun. She also enjoys watching herself in the mirror. She is fascinated by human faces.

She also really enjoys sticking her feet in her mouth. (Who doesn't, really?) So, most of her time on the changing table is still spent chatting with me and shoving her feet in her mouth. Luckily, she occasionally still does her full-body "soft-shoe routine", where she lays on her back, stops making sounds, and silently and energetically kicks her legs and swings her arms. She'll stop as abruptly as she starts, and goes right back to talking.

She likes to stand. When we sit her in our lap, she ALWAYS pushes up, trying to stand. We hold her by her trunk, and she tries to balance as best she can on her little feet. When she "stands", I love watching her facial expressions as she tries to balance.

She is playing more with her toys, but has not shown a preference. Wait. That's not accurate. She likes anything she can shove in her mouth. As such, our fingers, washcloths, burp cloths, the Baby Bjorn, her toys (such as car keys, Buggy-Bug, and Froggy-Frog), as well as the plastic rings they hang from, are ALL favorite toys.

Today, she rolled over onto her tummy from the back for the first time. Seemed to be an unpleasant surprise for her, as she squalled as soon as she flopped onto her belly. We'll see how this progresses.

This next week should be quiet, as we're less than two weeks away from Charlie's first trip to Michigan!

CJS

Actually...

...she is currently enrolled at Stringer U.

Commodore in training!

Check out the future Vanderbilt Commodore... She looks a little wild in that second photo.

Charlie as she grows

I thought it would be fun to look back at how much Charlie has changed already...

At birth:

At one month:

At two months:

At three months:

Charlotte and friend

We're looking forward to a whole new trivia experience tonight. We got some inside information that the customers at this restaurant are less than intelligent, so we should KILL without any problems. Charlotte is looking forward to pizza instead of Mexican food for a change, but I think I may need to make tacos tomorrow night to make up for missing out on my usual Pancho's fix.

Just for fun, here are some pictures of Charlie Jo and her little friend. We still need to come up with a name for this doll. Any suggestions?

So gross...

Corey just had a lovely experience - Charlotte sort of spit up into his mouth. GROSS!!

Earlier today, I was holding Charlotte and she spit up over my left shoulder. Some of it actually landed on Duke's nose. He didn't seem too bothered though. I've seen him lick spit-up off the floor before, so he probably considered the event to be good luck. Kind of like when a bird poops on you, I guess.

Thank goodness Charlotte saved all of her gross behavior for home, because she and I joined Corey and a bunch of his co-workers at the Viking Cooking School for dinner. The firm did a team-building exercise that afternoon and cooked our dinner. Charlotte only fussed a little even though she was held by probably six different people. She even gave out a few nice smiles.

Charlotte & Wilbur

Charlotte finally fits into her pig overalls Corey bought for her! How disgustingly cute does she look? The pig goes in the pocket (it's attached by a short cord) but I pulled it out for Charlotte to slurp on.



Nom nom nom...

Happy First Father's Day, Corey!

Charlotte would like to wish her daddy a Happy First Father's Day. We have already celebrated by changing many diapers, going for a long walk, and making cinnamon toast for breakfast. Excitement abounds! Here's Corey on the walk with all of his kids (minus Pacey the cat). Charlotte slept through most of it.


Charlie loves her daddy!

Good old Jordan

Niki's cousin Jordan, his brother Brandon, and his father Brian stopped by for dinner tonight. Brian and Brandon are in town so Brandon can attend a senior football camp at Vanderbilt. Jordan tonight, of course, kept us apprised of his keen observations and views on life. For example, Jordan announced that he was weirded out that Charlie does not have any teeth, and then expressed surprise that she was willing to grab his finger, pull it into her mouth, and gum it by alerting us that "Eww, gross. She's trying to eat my finger!"

The quote of the night, however, came when Jordan, after thumbing through Niki's Emily Post Etiquette book and reading us a couple of passages, announced that Ms. Post was no woman he'd "ever want to meet."

We had a fantastic night tonight. The Marshalls came for dessert and brought homemade blackberry cobbler, and we always enjoy our time with the Williams clan.

CJS

Cranky PAAAAAAAAAANTS!

I was trying to take a picture of my darling daughter in her adorable outfit given to her by Jenni & Dick Malahowski, but she was not exactly in the best of moods. I took some photos anyway, and they totally crack me up. She is very good at throwing a fit. Much like her father, actually.

3-Month Review

So, we've had a kid for three months now. Time to reflect. I certainly had a lot of ideas about what having a kid would be like. It is neat to look back and see how much was accurate.

People always say that your life changes considerably when you have a kid. True, true, true, but it is not as devastating as I thought it would be. The impression I used to get when people would tell me that all of our freedoms as adults would be gone - we would not be able to do the things we loved, and that we would basically be unable to enjoy the life as adults that we have been building for ourselves was that having a child entailed a necessary evil. In addition, we, as I was told, would no longer be able to spend money on ourselves.

This turned out to be true and false. It is true that life is very different now. Our schedules are different, and the ability of us to leave on a dime and do whatever we want whenever we want is over. Right now, with her breastfeeding, and especially with her sleeping so long at night (which requires us to crunch up all her eight feedings over less "awake" hours during the day), we (and especially Niki) have to plan each day out. We need to be in a position to feed her once every two hours, and during each two hour segment of our day, Charlie goes through three distinct moods - feeding, happy, and then cranky/sleepy. We have not been to any fancy restaurants lately, but we have gone out to eat. We continue to attend our "trivia night" at Panchos, and we hang out with the folks in the neighborhood like we used to. Niki takes her about once every couple of weeks to Vanderbilt to meet her "Vandy Aunties" for lunch. I do not get as much done around the house at night and over the weekends, because I am too busy either playing with Charlie or helping Niki. Spare money right now goes toward, for the most part, Charlie, or things that impact Charlie's life (new flooring, for instance -she'll be crawling soon).

On the other hand, this is what we WANT to be doing. We really enjoy our time with Charlie. Having true freedom of schedule, and the ability to go to nice restaurants, and getting lots of stuff done during the day is nice, but we'd rather be hanging out with Charlie. She'll only be this way once.

So, in other words - yes, our lives have changed drastically in the last three months, but we are glad it did. We wouldn't have it any other way.

We get a lot of questions about the dogs. We are not ignoring the dogs, but they certainly are playing a background role in our lives right now. As a baby, Charlie really needs the attention (if not direct, at least indirect) of at least one of us all day long. That's just part of being a baby, and is something that I did not fully understand before having Charlie. On the other hand, we pet them when we can, we take them for walks, and they are fairly understanding about this whole baby thing. We will get to interact more with them again when Charlie gets older. After all, and Niki would say that the following sentiment is "anthropomorphizing," but the dogs are family members just like we are, and family members, at one time or another, have to sacrifice when life changes come along. Life will continue to change for all of us, and during our lives, the dogs will go through periods where they get lots of attention, and periods when they don't. In fact, the dogs have a trade-off now. They do not get tons of direct attention, but on the other hand, Niki and Charlie are home most of the day. The dogs, even though we are not blogging about them every day, are still a big part of our lives. Niki and I can't imagine never having a few big black dogs around. As for the cat - well, his life has not changed very much. In fact, it probably has not changed at all. Pacey lives upstairs, and he interacts with us at night. That has not changed at all. Good old Pacey.

Charlie fusses a little, and has her crying fits, but by all accounts, is a pretty easy going baby. I understand perfectly well that we've got it easy on this part. It stinks when she cries, but she responds to efforts to soothe her, so I look at soothing her as a type of communication between the two of us. That makes it more bearable, especially if I can calm her down. Calming a crying baby is a double-sided reward. On one hand, I feel good because I am rewarded with quiet. In addition, there is the satisfaction of having communicated, both physically and verbally with her.

Having an infant is a lot of fun. I seriously can't wait until our next one, and, although Niki and I are not agreed on this point, I am very interested in having a third baby, as well. I really enjoy just spending time with her. She's such a neat kid.

More Bumbo cuteness

Charlie in her Bumbo!

We bought a tray for Charlie's Bumbo seat. That, combined with her new interest in toys, makes for some extreme cuteness. At least we think so!

Typical Monday night at Pancho's for trivia

Every Monday night, we join the Marshalls and the Scotts for trivia night at Pancho's Mexican Restaurante. Charlotte is passed from person to person until she falls asleep and the rest of us munch on burritos and enchiladas while answering trivia questions. Faith Carol brought her camera last week and we captured the extent of Charlotte's assistance with the contest.

First, she goofs around, checks people out, and then fusses a little. Here she is with Faith Carol, demonstrating this step.


Eventually, she conks out and misses all the excitement (like this past Monday, when we came from behind to take second place!), as in this photo with Alicia.

Future Domer?

I bet Charlotte would forever be Aunt Erin and Uncle Andrew's favorite niece if she went to Notre Dame. When we were in Illinois last week, we had Charlie try on some Irish duds to see how they looked. She and Auntie Ernie look like they're ready to join Charlie Weis' team!

Bath time in Lisle

Charlotte and I took a quick trip up to Illinois to visit Auntie Ernie and Uncle Drew-Dawg last week, but I hadn't gotten around to posting any photos of it until now. It was Charlotte's second trip by airplane and the first time I flew with her alone. We did pretty darn well, if I do say so myself. Charlotte was so well-behaved that she got compliments from other passengers who didn't even realize there was a baby on board until we were deplaning. We did more diaper changes on the tray tables (most of the Southwest jets don't have changing tables in the bathrooms) and managed not to tick anyone off. Like the last trip, only women chose to sit next to us. I guess men aren't too keen on sharing such a tight space with a baby.

We had a terrific time in Lisle with Erin and Andrew. Charlotte stayed in the "baby guest room" and was extra nice to her Auntie by saving all the poopy diapers for me to change. Either that, or Erin figured out exactly how to change only wet diapers and to make herself scarce when they were dirtier. Regardless, Charlotte didn't act too distressed that her two caretakers were identical twins. I wonder what she's going to think about that when she gets a little older?

We had a lot of fun recreating 1/2 of the famous Christmas card photo our parents sent out when Erin and I were six months old. We were each posed in one side of a double basin kitchen sink, having a bath. In Lisle, Erin and I folded up a beach towel to line the bottom of her sink, filled it with warm water, and plopped Miss Charlie Jo right in for a scrubbing. Charlotte loved it and only cried when we took her out to get dried off. Her favorite part was the Farty the Penguin bath toy that her Auntie Ernie kept squirting her with during the bath.