Wednesday, October 22, 2008

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.

Thursday, October 16, 2008

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.


Wednesday, October 15, 2008

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.

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

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...

Monday, October 13, 2008

Movin' right along

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

Sunday, October 12, 2008

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...

Saturday, October 11, 2008

Friday, October 10, 2008

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:

Wednesday, October 8, 2008

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: