Charlotte is having a great time with her Great Granny Kappy and Great Grandpa Lee. Last night, we ate at the Franklin Chophouse (Charlotte slept the whole time) and this morning we hung around the house and goofed off. We went to lunch at Blue Coast Burrito (Charlotte's fourth visit in as many weeks of life!) and then headed out to Arrington Vineyard (her second visit in her life!) to taste some wine and hang out on their heated deck.

When we were getting ready to leave the winery, we ran smack dab into Kix Brooks (of the country group Brooks & Dunn). Kix is a co-owner of the winery and he was tickled to meet Miss Charlotte. He graciously agreed to take a photo with her and we chatted about his two kids (one is a freshman at Vanderbilt and the other attends Wash U.). I asked Granny to take our picture and she looked a little confused but agreed. After she snapped the photo, Corey walked up and saw me talking to Kix. I knew Granny and Grandpa probably didn't recognize Kix, but it cracked me up that Corey (who saw Brooks & Dunn in concert at Michigan State) didn't realize who Kix was until Corey introduced himself and Kix introduced himself right back. Once we got outside, we clued Granny in so she didn't wonder why she had been asked to photograph her great granddaughter with some random dude. Hee hee.

After our celebrity sighting, we headed back home and ate Granny's delicious lasagna for dinner. Then Charlotte had a bath and we puttered around. Corey's now giving Charlotte her last bottle while I write this post. We're not sure what we're going to do tomorrow, but we bet it's going to include many diaper changes, feedings, and playing with little Charlie.

Here's Charlie and her new buddy, Kix Brooks:

Visitors

Charlotte has met all of her grandparents, an aunt, an uncle, and a few shoestring relations over the past few weeks. Tonight she will meet her first set of great grandparents - Corey's maternal grandmother and grandfather. Lee and Kappy are on their way back from wintering in Florida and are planning on stopping by for the weekend to see what being great grandparents is all about. We hope it hasn't been too long since they last changed a diaper because Charlotte is awfully talented in the diaper-dirtying arena.

Oh -and she turned over two more times this afternoon!

Accomplishments

It is very true that it seems like you never get anything done while you're trying to care for a newborn. In the past 3 days, I have only accomplished two loads of laundry, one trip to the grocery store, one foray out to Pancho's Place for trivia night, a visit to my old office to show off the baby and two showers while Charlotte whimpered outside the bathroom. I did also take care of the dogs and keep the house relatively cleaned up, but I have only accomplished most of my "chores" while Corey is home in the evening hogging the baby.

Charlie has slept about five to five and a half hours at a clip almost every night since the doctor okayed us to let her sleep as long as she wanted (until Charlie regained her birth weight, we were instructed to wake her up every few hours for feedings). As a result, I am really feeling pretty darn good and not like a sleep-deprived zombie. I have taken a few naps while the baby sleeps, but not because I would have died without them.

We're getting better and better at the breastfeeding thing, but we're still supplementing with expressed breast milk and a little bit of formula. I count my lucky stars that Charlie seems to be able to switch between a bottle, the breast, formula, breast milk, and a mixture of formula and breast milk without blinking an eye. Maybe she takes after Corey -- I am certainly a MUCH pickier eater than he is. I don't have a formal cannon of "Food Rules" like my dear sister, but if any potatoes, legumes, squash, or other nasty things come near my plate I'm not a happy camper.

Time to go feed little Charlotte. She is one hungry little booger!

My Little Peanut

Charlotte loves her Peanut Shell sling (a gift from Alan Mak & Liz Hochman, who are expecting their own little peanut this summer!). I love it too, because my hands are free to do things like fold laundry or open the bag of dark chocolate peanut M&Ms that I just bought at the grocery store. MMMMMMMM!!! Anyway, here are some photos of the little peanut in her Peanut Shell sling.


Can you see her little head peeking out in the bottom photo? You have to look closely.

Charlotte Rolls Over

Okay, folks!

Charlotte rolled over two times tonight - for a total of 5.

Roll Over # 5 took a little bit of time, so we recorded it in three videos.

In the beginning of video no. 2, my voice sounds garbled - I'm saying something like "She started on her stomach and now she's tucked her arm under . . ."



Now she's on her side . . , Can she flip over?



This is it!



Very truly yours,
Corey J. Stringer
Proud Daddy

More Charlotte Videos - Not 8 minutes!

Charlotte wiggling on the floor.

Charlotte's First Trivia Night

I came from a long, hard, day at work to an empty house - Niki, on her first day home alone with Charlotte, took her to the trivia night we like to attend with our friends at Pancho's Place, a local Mexican restaurant.

I had many questions when my girls got home - did they win? How did everyone there like Charlie? Did Charlie behave? Did Niki have to feed Charlie? Did she have to change Charlie? Was Charlie awake the whole time? Did people hold Charlie, or did Charlie hang out in her carrier?

But, of all of the questions I had to ask, my one burning question was - WHY ON EARTH DID CHARLOTTE'S BREATH SMELL LIKE NACHO CHEESE?

- CJS

Oh - they got second place!

Charlotte Frickin' Rocks

Here is what www.babycenter.com says about when a baby will roll over:

Your baby may be able to kick herself over, from her tummy to his back, as early as age 2 to 3 months. It may take her until she's about 5 or 6 months to flip from back to front, though, because she needs stronger neck and arm muscles for that maneuver.

Our baby, though -

2 weeks, 6 days. Charlotte rolled over front to back three times this morning all on her own. All three times, she used the same technique. We'll see if she can do it again this afternoon!

One Proud Papa

Here's some photos from the past few days...

We're Back!

Crikey! I was having way too much fun with all of our guests (Corey's parents, then my parents and sister and brother-in-law) that I completely neglected to post anything. So much has happened since we posted last. Charlotte went to the pediatrician on Monday for her second regular checkup and received a glowing report. Her newborn jaundice is totally gone, and she weighed 8 pounds and 1/2 ounce. We received permission to let her sleep as long as she wants during the night (feeding her only when she wakes up to cry). We haven't really let her go much past about five and a half hours at a stretch, but we're totally proud of how well she sleeps at night.

In other news that may gross some of you out, I actually got breastfeeding to work! I'm still stressed out about her getting enough (it's hard to figure out how much she has eaten when she nurses, unlike bottle feeding where you can tell exactly how much she has taken in), so I'm still pumping and giving her supplements of breast milk by bottle afterward. I will try to slowly wean her off of that (except when Corey is home in the evening because he absolutely loves to bottle feed her!) so we can skip the whole pumping and bottle feeding steps, but for now this seems to be working very well. In fact, when we took her to the pediatrician's office this afternoon to check her weight, we found she weighed 8 pounds, 9 ounces! That was an amazing increase since just four days ago, but not so much that the nurse or doctor was worried she would need to go on Weight Watchers any time soon.

Charlotte is awake more and more each day. We haven't run into any situations where she is uncontrollably crying and unable to be soothed with feeding, diaper changing, cuddling, and the five soothing elements from the book Happiest Baby on the Block. That's a great book that has worked very well for us so far. My childhood friend, Sally, recently recommended Babywise, and I think I'm going to pick that one up to help us work out a sleep schedule once Charlotte is old enough.

We have received so many terrific presents for Charlotte from all of our friends and family. We are horribly slow at getting thank you notes out, so please don't be offended if they come in the form of a note on the back of the birth announcements, which I am addressing tonight.

My parents, Erin and Andrew all left this afternoon. We won't have any more guests staying with us until Corey's grandparents swing by on their way back to Michigan from Florida in a few weeks, so we're pretty much on our own now. It's kind of scary, but I think we're ready for it. Corey just finished feeding the little booger and we're watching the Michigan State game on TV. We're excited to see cousins John and Susan Scott tomorrow when they come here for lunch. They are down visiting Sarah at Vanderbilt and called to see if they could stop by to meet Charlotte. How could we resist a chance to show her off?

P.S. Charlotte has now been to Blue Coast Burrito not once, not twice, but THREE times. She has also been to Sonic, Babies 'r' Us, Publix, Hobby Lobby, Ross, Arrington Vineyard, and maybe one or two other places that I'm now forgetting. She slept through 95% of these trips, but had a little melt down in Ross. Maybe she doesn't like shopping at discount stores?

Charlotte at One Week

Charlotte is one week old today, and what a week we have had. Niki, Grandma Stringer, and I have really enjoyed watching Charlotte explore her little body. She tests out facial expressions, and swings her arms around. At this point, she does not have the capability to accurately move her arms. All she can do is make her brain say "Arm move," at which point the arm moves in a random direction, and she says "Hmm. That was interesting." She is learning, by test after test, how to make her arms and legs move where she wants them. As a result, she looks like "Elaine" from Seinfeld dancing - or a Busta Rhyme video . . .

We have been bottle-feeding Charlotte breastmilk. This works well for all of us, and we are working on establishing a pattern. She sleeps 4 hours a stretch at night, and we have to wake her up when we need to feed her. We understand that colic does not set in until 2 weeks after birth, so we are keeping our fingers crossed that she remains peaceful throughout her babyhood.

Connie and Duke have taken well to Charlotte, and we are beginning to see signs now that Duke is protective of the baby, and that Connie understands that when the baby cries, Niki and I need to attend to her. Once more days go by, we will be able to tell if these are random acts that the animals have taken, or are patterns of behavior.

Pacey is very wary, and still will not come within 2 feet of the baby.

Niki is feeling very well, and is healing nicely. She has the evening weepies that new mothers get, but it does not last long. Charlotte gets a little fussy in the evening (the witching hour), but settles down quickly.

Every day, Charlotte is spending more and more time with her eyes open, taking in the world. Right now, she can recognize high contrast - she enjoys looking at our green wall in the back of the house that contrasts with the bright windows. She looks back and forth . . .

We had a Cannonwood Champagne Toast on Sunday afternoon. Many of our neighbors stopped by, and we gave Charlotte a very nice introduction to the neighbors, the McMullens, and Jordan Williams.

We have also been enjoying "Skyping" with Grandpa Stringer back in Rochester, and talking to JoAnn and Spike and looking forward to their visit.

We are having a great time.

Charlotte's Room

Here is Charlotte going in her room for the first time. She also gets to meet Pacey the Cat, and hear the MSU Fight Song on her mobile for the first time.

(This was not the first time hearing the Fight Song, though - I sang it to her earlier in the morning). (This is all on March 12, 2008.)

CJS, NIS, and CJS