Tears

It looks like Charlie's little tear ducts have started working! She squeezed out a tiny tear while crying yesterday evening. Corey got home just in time to kiss it away. Awww... how disgustingly sweet. I don't have a picture of the tear, but here's some photos of Charlie passing the time during this horribly dark and rainy morning. We're actually on a tornado watch! Duke is understandably upset and hiding in the bathroom, of course.

One month old!

As Charlotte's Great Aunt Sibyl just reminded me, today Charlotte is exactly one month old! To celebrate, I gave little Charlie a bath. Okay, so it wasn't so much a celebration as a necessity. I did, however, dress her in a super cute outfit consisting of a pink t-shirt with ruffly short sleeves and pink overall shorts with flowers on them. She's now snoozing on the nursing pillow and I don't have the heart to move her.

She has been sucking on her fingers and fists more. It's probably only a matter of time before she starts putting everything in her reach in her mouth. Uh oh!

The Kiddo

Here's some photos from the last week of the kiddo. As always. if you click on the photo you will get a larger version on your screen.

Playing on the floor...


Worried!


Hanging out with Connie.


Plumber butt!

Rollin' rollin' rollin', keep them babies rollin'...

Charlotte is rolling over faster and faster now. It's like she doesn't want to be on her tummy or something! She uses a slightly different technique each time, but gets the job done.

Charlie had a great day today and was a lot less fussy in the evening. Corey and I watched a little bit of the TLC show "Jon & Kate Plus Eight" and it really made us realize how easy we have it with only one kid. I can't imagine having sextuplets, or even twins at this point!

We had a little adventure when the dogs ran off and Duke bathed himself in a big mud puddle. As a result, he got a real bath tonight once Corey got home. Dumb dog. The good thing was it is finally warm enough to give baths outside, which makes me happy that we don't have to clean dog hair out of the bathroom.

Nothing much exciting happened today, but sometimes that is a blessing!

Here's little Charlie snoozing with her new Charlotte's Web pillow that her Great Granny Kappy made for her. Is she really smiling or is it something else?

Skype you later!

Charlotte is truly a high-tech baby. She has BOTH sets of grandparents set up on Skype, which is a program that lets you videoconference with others via a webcam and the internet. Grandma B and Granddad (the Stringers) initiated the Skyping, and Grandma Jo and Grandpa Spike (the Evans) ran out and bought a webcam not long after. Now, Charlotte can "talk" to either set of grandparents, and we can all see each other. Grandma B is planning story times, and Grandma Jo has been experimenting with a function that allows her to replace her image with that of various animals that talk when she talks. Charlotte's Aunt Stephanie and Uncle Don are also on Skype, and we hope to convince her Aunt Erin and Uncle Andrew to jump on the bandwagon as well.

If anyone else has a webcam and wants to Skype with Charlotte, our Skype ID is "tnstringers". We don't stay connected at all times, so just give us a call and let us know to get it set up.

Here's Charlie Skyping with Grandma B and Granddad...

And here's Charlie Skyping with Grandma Jo, who is disguised as a dinosaur!

Charlotte's Second Trivia Night

Although we only got third place at tonight's Trivia Night, we had a great time. Charlotte stayed awake for more of it, and she was happy to finally meet another important member of our team, Dawn Scott (who missed last week because of some meetings). The team got tripped up on a question about which presidents signed the Constitution and whether Oprah qualified as an "entertainer" for the purpose of another question, but the one that really got us involved when the first laundromat opened. Who would have guessed the first one didn't debut until 1948? Oh well.

Charlie had a great weekend with her great grandparents. They independently confirmed that she can indeed roll over, and thankfully they refrained from kidnapping her this morning on their way out of town. Today, Charlie and I had a nice quiet day alone with the biggest excitement coming when I was able to take an entire shower without any crying! Charlotte's crying, I mean. She is also cracking us up these past few days as she suddenly has decided she needs to stick her tongue out quite often. Could she be blowing raspberries by the end of the week?

We're having a fussy night, but it's not anything we can't handle. Things are winding down and we should be putting Charlotte down for the night in just a little while. She's officially four weeks old today, and we couldn't be happier with our sweet girl.

This photo is actually from last week's Trivia Night, but I forgot to post it until now. Charlotte may have slept through most of it, but Rich, David, and Faith Carol were all having a great time!

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.