A nice first Halloween for Charlie Jo

Despite the rocky start to the day, I had a great time on my first Halloween evening.

We posed for photos with the pumpkins.  Because they had been carved almost a week ago, they were looking a little limp.

I'm a ladybug!  Can you see the reflection of my daddy in the glass door behind me?

Awww...  The pumpkin is almost as big as me.

Daddy was dressed head to toe in his flame gear and Mommy put on her Duke Blue Devils jersey because it was the only costume-like thing she owned.

Pacey tried to look scary!

For the second year in a row, Daddy soaked toilet paper rolls in kerosene and used them to light the pumpkins.  Apparently, tea lights just aren't bright enough.  Daddy is now the hero of every pre-teen boy in the neighborhood.

Cranky ladybug

Oh my. Charlie Jo was SO cranky at the Stroller Strides Halloween Spooktacular this morning. We left half-way through, and she instantly fell asleep in the car on the way home. She woke right up when I tried to whisk her inside to continue her nap, and now she's acting like the happiest child on earth.

We're looking forward to handing out candy tonight, and we will take more photos of the ladybug in action. I'm too lazy to go downstairs to get my regular camera, so here is a camera phone shot of Charlie in her Halloween day outfit. My mom, sister and I can't remember which one of us bought her this pumpkin onesie at Carters this summer, but she sure does look cute in it!

And she glows in the dark!

Charlotte's Great Granny and Great Grandpa Taylor gave her this hilarious outfit to wear last weekend. Not only does Charlotte looks like the sweetest skeleton on the block, but she also glows in the dark! I think she also looks a little bit like a cat burglar.

Trivia night hijinks

Our Monday night trivia team is special. Like special ed, that is. This week, the theme was Charlotte-sploitation. First, we had Charlotte model this lovely hat/wig combo.


She was surprisingly cool about the whole thing. Next, we demonstrated the cement-like qualities of her fruit puffs that she likes to eat. The one on her forehead stuck there for a good half hour. The ones on her earlobes sadly did not stick quite as long, but the one on her right earlobe was there for at least 10 minutes.

Charlie's first Pumpkin Carving Party

Corey and I threw our third annual neighborhood Pumpkin Carving Party on Sunday afternoon. The weather was absolutely gorgeous -- I think it got into the 70s out on our deck (which has a southern exposure and tends to be warm). No, Charlie didn't really participate in the carving part, but she wore a costume and had a good time rolling around on the floor with Sarah and Max Hancock. She also spent a good bit of time being carried by Dan Marshall, injuring Ronnie Ballentine by jumping on some sensitive parts while he held her in his lap, and trying to climb over Jean Ballentine's shoulders.

Click here for a slideshow of photos from the party.

Ohio adventures

Finally!! Here are some of the pictures from the 222 Taylor Reunion Weekend.


One half of the table on the Saturday night anniversary party.


The other half of the Saturday night anniversary party table.


Granny and Grandpa dubbed this the "222" celebration. Grandpa turned 82 this year; Granny turned 80; and Granny and Grandpa celebrated their 60th anniversary this year! (82 + 80 + 60 = 222)


Uncle Dave . . .


Aunt Lisa . . .


While taking the traditional "cousins picture", Ellie busted a joke loose. Even though Charlie doesn't know English yet, she even thought the joke was funny.


Granny and Grandpa look terrific at 80 and 82!


Ellie enjoyed seeing cousin Erin . . .


and cousin Katie . . .


The Pennsylvania (and New York and DC) Taylors look great!


Mom and I enjoyed hanging out.


Erin brought her beau Matt for the family to meet.


The lodge was really cool.


Charlie Jo got bored with shopping in Oxford and decided to take a snooze.


Corey & Larry investigated the marina for potential future use.


And finally -- the newest Taylor family member isn't quite here yet, but he/she is getting bigger! Stephanie looks great! You do too, Don, but it's not quite the same if you're not the one carrying the baby...

- CJS

Freedom!

Tonight we came to a great new realization -- now that Charlotte can put herself to sleep, Corey and I can go out and have a baby-sitter do the bedtime routine! Faith Carol did an excellent job putting Charlotte to bed tonight, and Charlotte apparently fell asleep within about 10 minutes. This means that as long as Charlotte has a good dinner, she really doesn't need to be nursed before being put to bed.

All of the date night possibilities are starting to become reality! We might actually spend some time alone again!! Of course, the entire time we were away from Charlotte, I was a little on edge. I texted Faith Carol, oh, about 15 times. She humored me and didn't make fun of me, luckily. What in the world did parents do before they could text their baby-sitters and not worry about the phone waking the baby up? I guess they just learned to let go a little sooner.

Anyway, Corey and I had a terrific time tonight at a charity dinner with some of his coworkers, and we're looking forward to more nights like these. Let's just hope Faith Carol is as willing to babysit once she gets her license and/or another boyfriend... Hee hee!

Wah wah wah

WHEW! After our champion sleeper abandoned her previous sleep-10-hours-with-absolutely-no-interruptions pattern over the past few weeks, we decided it might be time to bite the bullet. We have rocked her to sleep and/or nursed her to sleep for her entire life thus far and have always done the same if she woke up in the middle of the night. I bought a book on the subject that Kristin (my sort of cousin out in San Diego whose baby, Maddie, is just a couple of months older than Charlie) told me about. It reassured me that Charlie is plenty old enough to make it through the night without eating (and since she had done this one her own for several months, it made sense) and that she would be able to put herself back to sleep in the middle of the night if she did the same to fall asleep initially. Of course, this means that we needed to let Charlie cry herself to sleep. Ack!

I wasn't fooling myself about it -- I knew I was going to hate to hear her cry. No parent in the world likes it. Corey and I steeled ourselves for a long evening of discomfort. He poured us each a glass of wine after we set Charlie in her crib (at about 8:00 p.m., after nursing and bathing her) and she began to bawl. We turned the monitor off because she was plenty loud enough to hear (even all the way downstairs) -- amplification of her cries was totally unnecessary. Duke cowered on the stairs and licked his lips.

She would cry for a few minutes, then angrily suck her thumb and growl, then cry, then growl, and then ... silence. I checked the clock on my cell phone. Had it been two long, torturous hours? Nope - 12 whole minutes. A quick check of the video monitor revealed Charlie curled up at the foot of her crib, snoozing like an angel. We called the grandmothers, texted friends to let them know how the ordeal went, and then we celebrated with more wine.

The next time we heard from Charlie was a couple of hours after we went to bed. I honestly don't remember how long she whimpered, but it was not long at all. She really didn't even get going with a full-on cry for more than a few seconds. The rest of the night, she has slept like a rock.

So why did I wake up at 5:00 a.m.? I'm not really sure. Corey did the same thing, so he went in to work (something he needed to do for a few hours today anyway). I'm dying to see how long Charlie Jo will sleep this morning -- we're already at the 10-hour mark that usually signaled the end of her sleep in months past, and she shows no signs of rousing. The book indicates that it is a good idea for a baby to sleep for 12 hours or so a night, so I will try to keep Charlie in her crib until 8:00 a.m. We may go to Stroller Strides, and then we have lots of preparations for tomorrow's third annual Pumpkin Carving Party we're throwing.

I'm so proud of Charlie Jo! I hope she knows how much we love her and how much it kills us to hear her unhappy. Her great night of sleep shows how much she needs it though. Faith Carol is going to babysit tonight while Corey and I attend a firm function, but I think we should be home by the time Charlie needs to go down to sleep. Stay tuned to hear how tonight goes!

In the meantime, here's another video of our champion sleeper doing what she does best...

She's a menace

The snorting is what kills me about this video...

Back in action

We had a fabulous time in Ohio with Corey's family. More about that later once I get a hold of some better photos. We took almost no photos for some reason, but I'm hoping to steal some from others who took more. We got home Sunday afternoon and caught up with the Marshalls, who had been gone for a few days in Philadelphia. They brought Charlotte back an adorable sporty little outfit with the Liberty Bell on it.

On Monday we had a nice day of crawling practice. I worked on my super secret favors for the baby shower I'm throwing my sister-in-law, Stephanie, at the end of November. Now that Charlie Jo can entertain herself by crawling from toy to toy and tearing everything off of her toy shelves, I can get quite a bit done with two free hands.

Tuesday was our wild day. We started off by voting, and then with a shopping trip to Target during which Charlotte tried to dive out of the cart about 1,000 times. She REALLY wants to get a hold of, well, everything. Why can't retailers anticipate my grabby daughter and put the clothing racks a little further apart? After that, we grabbed a burrito at Blue Coast Burrito and considered doing a little more shopping. When I saw Charlie had zonked out in her carseat, I decided to head home. Unfortunately, while we were sitting still at a light, a Barbie lookalike with a huge SUV and a bad attitude rear-ended us (not very hard, but enough to scratch up my bumper). It didn't help that she denied it, told me I must not be a Christian since I had to get firm to get her to pull off the road so I could get her insurance information, and then insisted on calling the police because she didn't trust me to report the damage accurately. The amazing part? Charlie didn't wake up until right before the cop arrived. She's a champ.

Charlie's sleep skills continued to amaze me when she was able to fall asleep for a good half an hour at a bowling alley! After the accident, we cleaned up and went to see Faith Carol's team bowl. Charlie loved all of the commotion and looked all around until she decided to fall asleep on my shoulder. So now Charlie has fallen asleep at a rock concert, slept through a car accident, and snoozed through a bowling match. Maybe we should go to a gun range to see if she could sleep through that. There's nothing wrong with her hearing - trust me! I think she's just absurdly good at blocking it all out when she wants to.

This morning, we arrived at Pinkerton Park for Stroller Strides only to find that they were filming a Krystal commercial there! No, Charlie Jo was not discovered as the next child star, but we had fun watching the commotion as we worked out. Now, Charlie is conked out in her pack 'n' play. She should sleep well because she had a rough night last night. All of the sudden she seems to be having problems sleeping through the night, so I'm going to finally go buy Ferber's book and see what I can do about helping her to learn to put herself to sleep.

Here's my favorite photo of Charlotte from Ohio. It was chilly there, so we bundled her up in her Michigan State gear while we shopped in Oxford. She was acting like a real goofball during lunch, and Corey took this photo.

Charlie showing off for Daddy

Off to Ohio

We're heading to Ohio tomorrow to help Corey's Granny & Grandpa celebrate their SIXTIETH wedding anniversary. You read that right -- SIXTIETH. That is no small feat. We're also celebrating Granny's 80th birthday and Grandpa's 82nd birthday. Considering Corey's other Grandfather is well into his 90s, I'd say Corey has some pretty good genes.

Anyway, we're ready for a weekend of fun, after which I'm sure we will have fun photos to share. Before we go, here's some pictures of Piggle getting ready to host her first ever playgroup. Sure, only two other babies were able to make it because it seems like EVERYONE is sick around here, but we had a great time. There was only a minimum of toy stealing and hair grabbing on Piggle's part. Oh yeah, and she stole a pacifier. Oh Piggle...




And, here's Piggle in her new Notre Dame jersey, courtesy of Auntie Erin and Uncle Andrew! Aunt Stephanie and Uncle Don should be happy about it as well.

Just can't stop taking photos of playtime!

I think I need rehab.

Indecision 2008

To celebrate the opening of early voting for the presidential election, we bring you Charlie's own version of Decision 2008. To sit or crawl - that is the question. I think she makes dinosaur noises to help her think.

Story time -- whoops!

I love the weird squeaking grunts she makes when she's trying to pull herself up.

Piggle in her playroom

Amidst all of our weekend fun (margarita party at the Ellis' house and a shrimp boil at the Marshalls' house), we somehow had time to clear out the rest of the bonus room and make it over as Piggle's playroom. We put baby gates around the computer desk and the TV so that babies could roam free in there. Although we still haven't recarpeted that room like the rest of the upstairs, I have concluded that might not be such a bad thing. Let's just say that regurgitated baby food doesn't come out of carpet as well as you might hope.

Check out that spread of toys!



What will she pull off the shelves next?



She pulled the basket of blocks out all by herself.



Next time I turned around, she had upended the basket and used it to help get herself into this position.



Playtime is getting a lot more interesting...

Movin' right along

Here's a video of the little goof and her interesting crawling method...

We're in trouble now...

Charlotte is pulling herself up like a champ now! She's also crawling a little bit, but we still don't have a good video of that yet. Here's a short one of her pulling herself up on her crib. She was proudly wearing her MSU jersey because that was the only team of ours that actually won this weekend...

Could Piggle pull off a cowboy hat?

What do you think?

Making guacamole

I tried an experiment today -- what happens when you strip Charlotte down and set her up at the highchair with a tray full of little avocado pieces? Witness the result:

Why is getting splashed in the face so funny?

When Addie & Ella were here last weekend, we learned that Charlie Jo thinks it's HILARIOUS when you smack your hand on the surface of the water and splash her in the face a little. Addie was doing it in the hot tub, and Charlie laughed and laughed. We tried it tonight in the bath tub. Sure enough, Charlie giggled like a fool. Corey grabbed the camera and we caught a little bit of the fun in a video:

Time to head home

The Wagner crew drove home to Florida today, but not before we had lunch together at Noshville. We had an event to celebrate -- but propriety keeps me from disclosing the exact nature of Ella's accomplishment.

Addie was so sweet with Charlie. She tried to teach her that books are for reading, not eating.



Congratulations Ella! That cake was well-deserved.



Charlie was working on "chewing" on one of her peach puff snacks.



Addie created a masterpiece on her placemat.



I think I might have forgotten to count to three before I took this photo.


Thanks so much for coming to visit, everyone! We miss you already!!

From Iraq to Tennessee - Day 2

Today, we made pancakes for breakfast and had a quiet morning at home while Corey went to work. After he got back, we shopped for some baby shoes (but didn't find any in Ella's size). Finally, we found out way to the Adventure Science Center in Nashville.

Charlie was more enthralled with Ella than the exhibits.



Charlie liked to play the keyboard though.



Ella loved the hovering balls.



Say what now?



Addie went down the big tube slide with her Grandma Janet twice.



After dinner at the Loveless Cafe, we hit the hot tub again.



Now, all the girls are snoozing and the adults are recovering with beer and watching football.