Category Archives: New Baby

Weekend in Review

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This past weekend was SO busy and wonderful! Not just busy in the “we’re new parents and don’t really go out” sense… but for real busy.

On Friday, we headed to Lake Country to visit my sweet little love of a friend, her hubby and their NEW baby girl, Bailey, in the hospital. It was such perfection to hold her warm and cozy little cutie. Charlie enjoyed the visit, too! She loves to point out the obvious… “hey momma, look… that’s a baby”… “hey momma, loook… the baby is crying”… “hey momma – waaaa – I sound like the baby.”

Yes, I “paraphrased” her grunts and pointing.


  
 After our visit, we headed to this cute little Italian restaurant with our friends Erica and Jake. We were a little nervous because we didn’t sit down for dinner until around 6:30/6:45ish… which is Charlie’s bed time. BUT, she was very well behaved and allowed us to have real adult conversation and a really great time. She even FELL ASLEEP IN THE CAR!!!

First, we taught her to drive!


 Up until about a month ago, this child has not dozed in the car since she was a tiny tot.

On Saturday, Marky went golfing with his friends while I lived out my nightmare with the animals. I will post separately about the shit storm that has been our pets these past few weeks, but to summarize, I went in to change Charlotte after her nap. Within seconds, Oliver the Cat waltzed in, strolled behind Charlotte’s glider and URINATED on her carpet with his evil ammonia pee. I proceeded to soak up pee for the next 15 minutes while Charlotte projectile sobbed in my face. It was fab.


 I was desperate to get out, so after the urination game, Charlie and I met my parents, neice and nephew at Strawberry Fest for lunch (a cute little festival in a neighboring town). After the fest, Charlie and I went home for a nap.


Post-nap, Charlotte went to her Grandpa and Grandma’s (Mark’s dad and step mom’s house) for a sleepover party! Of course she was pumped. She loves them and Grampie lets her play with whatever she wants. They had an absolute blast and Charlie was very well-behaved.


While she enjoyed her slumber party, Mark and I went to a housewarming party at his friend’s house downtown. It was great! They had the cutest little setup on their driveway. Their house is great. It was a nice night amongst adults.

Then, Sunday we were up early to pick up the little one and head to Chicago to see my brosef. We were a little nervous about driving out there because unless Charlotte miraculously slept in the car, she’d be without a nap all day… which she’s never actually done before. We rigged a little cave for Charlotte in the back seat and actually managed to get her to sleep for about an hour of our 1.5 hour drive.


It was enough to keep her happy for a great day! We went to lunch and then walked through a cute little art fair! It was SO much fun to be out and hang with my brother. It was definitely the most time he’s spent with Charlotte and I have to say, it was perfect. She absolutely loved his goofy nature and he seemed to have a lot of fun playing with her. It really made me so happy.


  
  
  
  
  
  
After Uncle Matt time, we stopped by my friend Marci’s house to smooch her and her little baby who is already 6 weeks old! And of course, we had to introduce the future husband and wife!





Then, grabbed a quick dinner and headed home. At dinner, Charlie met her first ex-boyfriend! It was another little babe who was just 2 weeks older than her. The two were FLIRTING up a storm… staring at each other, chatting, showing off. It was way too cute. Notice her facing away from the table?? She was watching her new bf.


  
After din, we got on the road… two hours later, poor Charlie didn’t get in bed until 9 pm, but thankfully slept most of the way home. She literally fell asleep within 45 seconds of being strapped in her carseat.All in all, a busy and great weekend!

Play Time at Great Grandpa’s

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Today we got to go play at Great Grandpa’s after lunch! Considering we arrived during what should have been Charlie’s nap time, she was (pretty much) all smiles… 

   
                 

Father’s Day Gifts for My Love

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This Father’s Day marked my hubby’s FIRST as a pops to an outside baby. Last year we celebrated when I was a monster of a pregnant lady (as described in this blog post), but this year it’s different. My amazing husband has almost a full year of being the best damn dad I could have ever hoped for my little one under his belt. This Father’s Day, he deserved the best.

So, while hubby was away on business last week, I worked like a dog to make him Father’s Day gifts he would not only love and appreciate, but gifts that would show him just how much we love and appreciate him.

Here’s what we got him…

Jimmy Fallon’s new book, “Your baby’s first word will be DADA” 

This book is absolutely adorable (and funny). A great gift considering Charlie is on the brink of speaking (real words).

"The Dada cow says, 'dada.' The baby cow says 'moo.'"

“The Dada cow says, ‘dada.’ The baby cow says ‘moo.'”

Our next gift was from Charlie. A little picture for her Daddy to keep on his desk at work. I bought the letters at Michael’s for $3 or so dollars per letter with their current sale and coupons. The frame is also from Michael’s.

The little cutie pie in daddy's shirt.

The little cutie pie in daddy’s shirt.

  
Here are some outtakes…

Charlie 2 Looking away No bow

The last gift was the most time-consuming. I spent about 20-30 hours (literally) going through every video I’ve taken over the past year and compiling an “ode” to my hubby and our baby’s first year of life. This was worth every minute. Hubby LOVED it and it is something we will always have to bring smiles and memories of Charlie’s first year.

Watch & enjoy…

I’ll share another post highlighting all the wonderful moments of our perfect Father’s Day!

Hope you all had a great celebration!

Celebrating with the Fam

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Last night we attended a local BBQ celebration for our friends who got married in Santa Fe. We brought our little nugget and despite staying up way past her bedtime (830 pm!!), she was such a doll. 

She was playing with the kids, crawling up to random strangers and asking them to pick her up with her outstretched arms… It was great!

And even better, after a quick 530 am wake up, she went back to sleep until 915am!

   
       

I’m SUCH an idiot…

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Remember when I spent weeks meticulously painting different sized stripes in 6 different colors on a growth chart for Charlotte? Here’s the blog if you’ve forgotten.

Growth Chart 2 Growth Chart

Well, I had gotten as far as painting all the colors on when I put the project on pause. Now, 11 months later, I finally decided it was time to finish. I lightly sanded it last weekend so you couldn’t feel the ridges from where I lifted the tape, I touched up the paint and sanded again, and finally it was time to spray coat it with a clear enamel.

Last night was the night!

Mark shook my paint for what felt like forever, I took it outside and sprayed! When I was done, I went searching for the numbers I had bought to mark the feet. Finally, I found the numbers and in the bag was also a can of clear enamel spray paint. I instantly grabbed the can I had just used and started comparing.

Hmm… what’s the difference?

I looked back and forth and back and forth when all of a sudden it hit me… THE CAPS! THE CAPS ARE DIFFERENT. One white, one clear.

I ran outside to look at my ruler…

SHIT!

I spray painted WHITE PAINT over my damn ruler!

SHIT, SHIT, SHIT!

UGH. I cannot even believe what a stupid and careless mistake I made. Dangit.

  
(I wish I had a before and after to show just how white this is now.)

So, tonight, instead of being ready to fasten the numbers onto my beautifully finished ruler, I will be attempting to sand off the white paint while salvaging the paint underneath.

Can I still blame mommy brain?

A New Day

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  The bunny has been really sick the past few days. Whatever she’d been fighting last week came to a head on Sunday when she was bashed with a terrible cough, horribly stuffy nose and a fever. Poor girl.
She was so uncomfortable and sick that every time she’d sleep, she’d wake herself up coughing this terrible cough and choking on nasty goober, which ended in howls and tears every time.

Yesterday, she could barely nap. She’d lay down, fall asleep, and then wake up 30 minutes later coughing and crying. It was really sad.

Which makes me SO grateful that she finally slept all the way through the night last night with no tears AND took a mega nap this morning from 8:30a – 12:15p! GO CHARLIE!

Not to mention the fact that she’s got her pep back. It’s not all the way back, but it’s definitely on its way!

Thank goodness… watching the babes struggle is horrible.

As a side note, do you notice how great her nose looks considering she had a horribly stuffy nose?? My mother-in-law taught us a trick… A touch of Vaseline on the nose and voila! No redness or cracked skin! I know, I know… Vaseline isn’t the best in general, but for how infrequently it’s used in our house, this trick is sticking for good. Happy nose = happy baby!

Who’s the chick in the glasses?

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I sent this picture to Mark tonight and his response was, “is that Charlotte?”

I can’t help but think of “A Cinderella Story” when the dude doesn’t recognize Hilary Duff because she’s wearing this tiny mask over her eyes. Apparently, my husband is that guy.

So funny. Thanks for the laugh, lover.

   
There she is!!

And now a couple others from our dinner tonight…

   
  

And now from before dinner  

Please note all of the toys she threw on the floor and the tiny hand creeping over thr edge.

Sleep Training: The “I Thought You Were Already Trained” Edition

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Over the past 2 months or so, Charlotte has woken up at 3 or 4 am about 7 or so times. Unfortunately for me, 4 of those wakeups have occured this week… consecutively… while my hubby is away. Not fun.

I know that we are so lucky to have a baby who has slept through the night for the past 6ish months, so excuse me for complaining anyway. I’m totally struggling, walking around like a damn zombie. Or even better, walking around like I’m feeling fine, but making big errors or saying crap that makes no sense. Isn’t exhaustion awesome?

Anyway, I’ve made many excuses for why Charlotte is suddenly waking up…

  • She’s teething (she does have 4 giant teeth coming in on top… one that’s already cut through)
  • She doesn’t feel well (Mark’s been sick with an upper respiratory infection and I was battling all sorts of crud)
  • She’s overtired (she skipped two naps this past weekend and this girl never skips naps… ever)
  • Her schedule is totally off from our traveling these past two months

I’m pretty sure it’s a combo of all of these. My thought is that maybe it started as her teeth or something else bothering her and has been perpetuated by her being overtired and feeling off in terms of her schedule. Regardless, it’s gotta end.

I’ve been working so hard to get her napping on time and going to bed at a good time. But the child continues to wake up.

The first three nights, Charlotte got a diaper change, a little coddling and then it was back to bed. Last night, I decided it was time to cry it out. I felt horrible about it, but I kept going back to the fact that Charlotte and I are BOTH better off when she’s sleeping soundly through the night. Allowing her to get used to breaking up her sleep for a 4 am snuggle is not productive for her or for me.

So, I painfully listened to my baby cry for about 15 minutes. At that time, I whispered for her to go back to sleep and sang her a lullaby through the baby monitor. She was quiet for a minute, but then returned to crying/whining/tossing around her crib.

About a half hour later, I did the same thing again.

When she hit the 1-1.5 hour (ish) mark of being awake, I decided it was time to go in. When I got in her room, I saw that she had thrown her bunny and paci out of the crib (WHY DOES SHE KEEP DOING THIS!!?!?). I put her paci in her mouth, handed her the bunny and laid her down on her back. Of course, she started crying. I wound up her music box from my Aunt & Uncle, said goodnight and left the room.

She let out a couple of quick howls and then laid captivated by the music. She loves that music box.

Within 10-15 minutes, she was finally back to sleep… at 5:45 am. The whole affair took almost 2 hours of blissful joy.

I crawled back in bed, pulled the covers over my head, and we both slept until 8.

As always, I have no idea if I handled the situation correctly. But, unlike other times, I was alone last night. There’s something so reassuring about going back and forth with my hubs saying, “do you think this is right?” Last night I had to just trust my gut.

Hopefully it pays off.

Thankfully, despite waking up late, she went down for her morning nap at a decent hour (only about a half hour behind her normal schedule) and has been sleeping soundly for over two hours and counting. Not to mention the fact that she woke up in a relatively good mood.

She was a little edgy, but shared her adorable little smile and sweet laugh.

   
   Wish me luck tonight!

A Few of my Favorite Things

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I have been so terrible about taking Charlie’s weekly photos (because taking them is just as fun as scratching my eyeballs out) and the corresponding updates. With that in mind, here are some of Charlie’s favorite things these days:

  1. Pointing. The little chickadee is constantly pointing at EVERYTHING. She doesn’t say anything, but in my head I hear her saying, “This? This? That? This? This? Want this! This!” Today I said, “Charlie, look at the trees” and she pointed right at them.  
  2. Toby’s leash. Few things get Charlotte more excited that the opportunity to hold (and whip around) Toby’s leash. It’s ideal when he’s attached to it, but not essential.  
  3. Bunny. The girl is glued to her bunny.  
  4. Bread. Hands down, Charlie’s #1 food is bread.  
  5. Princess Doll House. Charlotte loves to play with her princess dollhouse.    nytime I pull it out for her, she gives me a round of applause.   
  6. Family. Miss Charlotte loves her family. Whether it’s mommy or daddy, her cousins, her Aunts and Uncles, Grandparents… she loves them all!  
  7. Green vegetables and fruit. Her top veggies are asparagus and zucchini. She eats both in such large quantities… it’s nuts. And fruit… no matter how full she is, she’ll make room for some berries any day.  
  8. Pulling herself up to standing. Any opportunity she gets, she’s up!  
  9. Toby & Ollie. Charlotte LOVES her pets. They make her laugh, smile, and crawl at extreme speeds to catch them.  
  10. Outdoors. Charlie really seems to be enjoying the warming weather. She does lots of smiling in the warm breeze and seems totally fascinated by the colors of the trees and sky.