Charlotte's First Earthquake!

I thought we had moved away from California? This morning, Charlie woke me up for her usual 5 am meal. We went downstairs to watch the news while she nursed, and we were shocked to discover that just 20 minutes earlier there was a 5.4 magnitude earthquake centered in southern Illinois. People in the Nashville area (not us though) felt it as well! Wowzers.

FYI - today is the 233rd anniversary of Paul Revere's ride. Just a little bit of trivia for you.

Slurpin' & Burpin'

Charlie never looks so cute as when you're trying to coax a burp out of her. I captured a few goofy looks the other night.

Arrrrgh! Wipe me booty!

First, we have a photo of Ms. Charlie Jo at her third Trivia Night. Team Big Love may not have won, but we had a decent showing after an extremely slow start. Most importantly, we did our first diaper change in public (well, we did it in the bathroom, but we chatted with strangers while we did it!).
Second, we have some photos of our baby pirate, snoozin' up a storm in the Pack 'n' Play and in my lap.

Avast ye, swabbies!

Triple threat

Oh my. Yesterday I experienced something that will go down in the record books as the wildest diaper change ever. Here's a run down of the events:

1. Charlie fusses, so I check to see if her diaper is dirty. Yes, it is, so I set her down on the changing table and get the dirty diaper off.
2. She spits up a bunch, all over her new "Baby Saurus" footie outfit.
3. While I'm getting that wiped up, she pees.
4. Before I get much further in cleaning up that mess, she screws up her little face and lets loose another big poop.
5. I get the changing pad out of the way so at least she doesn't kick around in the poo and pee too much, but then Charlie spits up AGAIN.
6. After I wipe her face off and get her cleaned off down south with a new diaper under her but not secured, Charlie takes another little poop.

That might push some weaker mortals over the edge. They might throw up their hands in disgust and run screaming from the house, letting the dogs raise Charlie instead. I was close to reaching that point, but then Charlie gave me a little sly smile and melted my heart. I got her cleaned up again, threw on another footie outfit (a green one that says "Little Lamb"), and treated myself to a fudgsicle. Whew.

Charlotte Videos

Thought we'd post some videos we've taken with the video camera in the past few weeks. The first one is fairly old - it is Grandma B playing with Charlotte.



The second one was taken three weekends ago - little Charlotte getting ready for a bath.



This one was taken a few weeks ago - Charlotte on her play mat on the kitchen table on a quiet evening.



Last week Charlotte and I were playing in her room on a play mat made by her Great-Granny Taylor. Here is a really quick roll - she is just over four weeks old!



Here is a longer video of a roll - don't be alarmed at the squirking - think of it as girls grunting while playing tennis - if you stick with it to the end, you can hear her cheering!



Yesterday, Charlotte and I played on her play mat on the floor- here is another roll!




Finally, little Charlotte rockin' and rollin' on the play mat on Saturday.

Auntie Ernie & Uncle Andrew

It just occurred to me that we never posted much about the Baby Boot Camp that we ran a few weeks back. Well, it wasn't so much as a boot camp as it was a visit by Charlotte's Auntie Ernie (aka my sister, Erin) and Uncle Andrew. Since they will be expecting a baby of their own in two short months (baby Zach is due June 14th), their visit was also a learning session about all sorts of things, like how to hold a newborn, how to change a diaper (Auntie Ernie changed a bunch!), bath time, meal time, etc.

I had hung out with Sara & Joe's little baby Annabelle when she was first born, but probably not enough to have learned all I should have before we had Charlie. I wish I had done a practice session with a newborn to prepare myself! Thank goodness all of Charlie's grandparents came out for the first few weeks to help teach us infant care. I can't imagine getting through March without them.

Anyway, since I neglected to take virtually any photos of Erin and Andrew with their new niece, I got these photos from my mom's picture share to post. Don't they already look like baby care pros? Zach's going to have much more experienced hands caring for him when he's born. You can check out their progress at their baby blog.

Hey! Who are you two people? You kind of look like my mom, actually...

Just had some dinner, and now it's time for burpy burpy!

Man - I haven't ever been this high off the ground. Are you the Jolly Green Giant?

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!