Let's Hope

The window in front of my computer looks onto the street in front of our house. Our neighbors below us just came home with a few friends. They were in really scary drag outfits. Blue eyeshadow, slinky dress, greasy looking hair-let's just hope I don't have to explain this to my daughter someday.

Recipe I love

Last night I made a recipe I love, love, love. I wasn't going to post about it, but then I saw Heather's posts about food and thought I'd share. I got this one out of the Phillsbury complete cookbook:

Chinese Sweet-and-sour pork

Wow, I just looked at the recipe in the book and that's a lot to type, if you want the recipe let me know and I'll put it up. (It's not hard, I'm just lazy and I'm not sure anyone would actually use it.) The reason that I like the recipe isn't just because it's yummy though. I really like all the chemistry that's going on when you're making it. Maillard browning, starch gelatinization, denaturation of proteins, mingling of flavor compounds, and much more. It just totally reminded me of some of the experiments that I did during school. It made me feel smart and I loved it. Plus, this time I didn't make the oil too hot like last time. The batter browned perfectly.

Another benefit to this came in the entertainment Charlotte had today with the leftover brown rice. I decided to eat some for part of my lunch and she decided that she wanted some too. So I fed her some. Then she decided that she wanted to feel the rice between her fingers. I figured we could have a messy lunch time (occasionally I think it's important to get dirty when learning new things). Then she decided that it would be really fun to empty the whole rice container on the floor. Well, at least she had fun.

Slow on the Uptake

Have you ever thought of a great response to something awful someone said to you after the fact and really wished you could have said it right then? That totally happened to me last night. Only instead of the situation being a few days ago it was several years ago. I have no idea why that situation popped into my head, but I thought of an awesome comment. At first I wished I had said it. Then I realized that I wouldn't chose to go back and say it because then I would have to be back to where I was back then. I'm so much happier now. I was really in a negative spot right then in my life and I'm so glad to be past it. So maybe the best response to that comment/situation was going on to live a happier life. That realization made me smile.

munchkin mischief

I was doing the dishes from when I made cookies yesterday. I had different bowls of colored frosting to clean and I just thought I'd put them in the dishwasher. After rinsing off some other dishes I looked to put them in the dishwasher and saw this:

She was sad when I immediately took it away from her.

Another cute picture I took of her was this morning just before she got up. This is how she's decided to sleep in her crib right now:

Notice the little feet through the bars in the back. So funny!

Christmas Projects

I'm finished! I finally finished all my Christmas present projects! I'm very proud of how they turned out, but I can't show you any photos of them since they're presents and that would ruin the surprise. So instead I'll show you close ups of the mantle runner I made last year. Also, I was so excited about being done with the presents that I stayed up late finishing the ornaments that I started earlier. I think they turned out quite nicely.

I included this shot so you could see that, no, I didn't iron it when I took it out of the box. Yes, it has bugged me ever since, but not enough to take the nativity off it and iron it. Oh well.
Here's a shot of the six ornaments. You can't really see the detail in them though so I included close ups.
I didn't use all the fancy buttons that the pattern said to because they were super expensive and I told myself that the ornaments were strictly to be made from scraps from other projects. I am now really happy I kept all those buttons from off clothing. I kept the sequins from my graduation dress and they look great on the angel, elf and reindeer. The ribbon was just what I had around (I'm not sure what it was originally for). The white and black buttons were leftovers from the Santa's eyes in the mantle runner. All the fabric was scraps and the floss was from the Christmas projects this year.

My sister, my baby

Ways in which my baby is an awful lot like my sister:
She sleeps in the car. A lot.
She likes to eat Panera bagels.
She likes to go shopping with me.
She's better dressed than me.

She likes to be in control.

She loves me. A lot.

It made me laugh yesterday when this occurred to me. I thought I'd share this little treat with everyone today. Now I keep thinking of more things to add to my list.

Online Prints

I am a user of Costco photocenter. I have absolutely loved this service in the past. When I usually order my prints online I love that they show up in the mail within a week. I did not, however, appreciate how long it took to get my current order. I decided to include photos of my daughter in our Christmas cards. I ordered prints on November 25th. I kept checking back in to the web site when the photos didn't make it. I contacted customer service and all I got was that they had sent them. If they had sent them they'd be here by now! After almost three weeks of waiting I finally decided to just send the cards today without the photos. Guess what showed up after I sealed all the envelopes? Great.

RIP

When we got married my mom bought me a cute little vacuum cleaner. I loved it. It was green. When we moved to St. Louis, our apartment had new carpet. They put it in the day before we moved in. The new carpet was just too much for my "little green vacuum that could" because after four months of living here it no longer could. Dan fixed it three times and it kept breaking, plus when he fixed it, it was still really loud and sounded wrong. I mourned the loss for several days before I told anyone. Then when I told my mom she decided to get me the best Christmas gift, a new vacuum! The new vacuum arrived two days ago and I've been in vacuuming bliss ever since. It's red and it has a cord retraction button. I don't have to wind up the cord ever again! My new vacuum floats along the ground with the slightest push and it gets every little bit of cheerio, graham cracker or dirt clod from winter shoes. I felt bad for my old vacuum because now it seems like it was just never going to cut the mustard, but this new one is amazing. I'm in love and I don't care who knows it.

Isn't it funny that with everything that seems to be keeping me busy lately as we count down to Christmas, what I chose to write about is my vacuum. I guess I just love good cleaning supplies.

Merry Christmas

Yesterday was our church Christmas party. There was a talent show and I convinced Dan to perform with me in it. He played the banjo and I played the mandolin on one song and the fiddle on the other. It went.....well, at least it was quick. My opinion though is that the church talent show is the perfect place to start playing something you're still figuring out. Everyone will still be very supportive. So next time it'll be better.

I think I'm really getting into the Holiday spirit now. I've been thinking a lot about what someone told me a week ago. The home she grew up in was culturally Jewish, but she said they were really agnostic. Later in life she converted to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. In other words, she became a Christian. That gave her a whole lot of freedom to decide what traditions she wanted to have in her family for Christmas. While she still lights the menorah with her parents and siblings, she chose Christmas traditions that brought her family closer to Christ during this time of year, and, in her words, "Christmas cards were quickly ruled out." It just got me thinking about all the traditions Dan's family and my family have. Which ones do I want to emphasize? Which ones do I want to take out? What do I want the feel of the Holidays to be? Do we really need to have our counter constantly replenished with homemade candy from Thanksgiving to New Year's?

Already because of the financial restraints of our situation, gift giving has been kept to a minimum. That's a mixed bag of sorts because there are so many positives and negatives. It has helped me see the world through my husband's eyes. He truly has been a real teacher to me about being less covetous and materialistic. Yes, there are things that I would love to have. Yes, I love to get gifts, but that's not really what our home has been focusing on right now. The negative side is on the part where I would love to give more. Oh how I wish I could give all the things I'm seeing that I think my family would love! Although now that I come to think of it, what I am giving them I'm making with my own hands. I think more love has gone into my gifts the past two years than ever before.

My husband and I have decided to do a 12 days of Christmas with the family. I'm really excited about this one. Our plan is to have Christmas envelopes with a family activity in them for each night of the 12. We take turns picking an envelope and do whatever is in each of them. This way we spend more time together as a family this time of year. Also, some of the envelopes will be based on the spiritual message of the season. I was going to have it be an advent type thing and go for the whole month, but thinking of 12 things is much easier than 25. Even though it's Christmas, I'm still a slacker. Oh well. This is a tradition I hope we will keep.

There are others I've been thinking about, but I'm tired and I have to go do the stinking dishes now. YUCK!

Oh, and one last thought before I finish. When I got married and realized that I would be spending at least half my holidays with my in-laws, I never thought I'd be so excited to see them! While it's not the same as the Christmas that I grew up with, it's still a place where I love and am loved. I missed seeing Dave at Thanksgiving and I was super tired the night I saw Heather and her kids so I'm glad I'm going to get a chance to see them while I'm actually awake!

Unexpected Advice

Today I was waiting in line at the post office (why is it that there's always a line at the post office?) and I overheard this man conducting some sort of home buying financing business over his cell phone. By the way, everyone overheard it because the man was really loud. When he got off the phone he proceeded to tell all the people in the post office that you're poor if you pay for things with cash. Credit is the way to go to get rich! He has purchased his home, car, and big rig truck all on credit cards! Don't get a mortgage either, because you'll just end up being poor. The only way to buy things in America is with Credit Cards!

Last week, while waiting at the doctor's office with my baby a youngish gentleman started talking to me about his daughter (now five and living with her mother). He raised her on his own until recently and it sounded like he was a great dad. Then he said, "I didn't want my daughter to have any resentment so I didn't beat her, until I thought she really needed it, because sometimes they just really need it." I'm sure he meant spanking. I hope he meant spanking rather than beating. I'll never know. I just smiled an nodded until the nurse called my name.

PS. Neither of these stories were the ones I was going to share, but they were just such odd experiences I had to share them.

The Evidence Keeps Piling Up

I am married to the most thoughtful and wonderful man!  First, he made the chili for dinner.  It started with using the garlic press and then he did the whole thing.  Later in the day, I fell asleep.  He let me sleep and made the cornbread and got the baby ready and fed her and just let me sleep.  He is so awesome!  I have tons of stories to tell, but no energy to tell them right now.  

Christmas

Well, we got our tree up and also our nativity. It looks really good. I put on some popcorn garlands and some ribbons. Dan called me Charlie Brown because of the popcorn garland, but I really like it. We also have our s'more ornaments and our blown glass ornaments and the snowflake and gingerbread ornaments. We love it. We put it on the bin so that Charlotte can't reach it. The bottom branches are about one inch above her head.

Here's our mantle with the Santa mantle runner I made last year and the new nativity scene. It looks really good next to the dark wood.

Also today was the first time I've actually been able to do Charlotte's hair! It looked so cute!

Check

I really should have known better!  A word to the wise, when you're running late to catch your flight home from vacation at your parents' house, your husband should always check the areas that you packed and you should always check his.  If, say, you are in charge of packing the things we left in their office and he doesn't do one last check before you leave you might have your glasses left behind.  That's OK, I think I just wear contacts or squint for four weeks until we go back.  If, then, he is in charge of packing the bathroom items and you do not do a final check before running out the door you might find out once you're home that he left:

• your facial cleanser
  
• your razor
  
• your favorite lip balm
  
• your hair spray
  
• your mousse
  
• your hair dryer
  
• your curling iron
  

It's going to be an interesting four weeks.  Does anyone else realize that it's just my stuff we left?  Luckily I have some cleanser (which I don't like as much), and we can have a designated blade for me on my husband's razor, but I think I'm going to have to go buy more mousse and hair spray.  

Teething

Charlotte's been acting like she feels horrible. This is the same way she acted when getting in her two bottom teeth. Dan just got home from a run to the store for motrin. Hopefully it helps her calm down and get to sleep, since she's not been sleeping for the last hour and a half.

I wish I had something awesome to write since it's been a while, but I really truly don't.  We got back from Thanksgiving last night and today we're just taking it slowly.  My husband turned the hot water heater on last night so we would have hot water this morning, but he must not have turned it high enough because when I tried to give the baby a bath I used only hot water and it was still cool enough to make her cry.  So the bath was forgone and now she's napping.  

I loved seeing my family and spending time with my mom.  Just Mom and me.  It felt awesome.  Not only because I had a little adult time, but because Dan was with the baby so I knew I didn't even need to think about her.  She was taken care of.  

Also, Dan and I went out on a date!  We've spent "date" time here at the house after the baby's asleep, but we haven't gone out on a date since she was born.  It was so much fun!  Home dates are good because they're cheap and simple, but it's fun to go out.  

Charlotte did so well with other people this time around.  I think all this vacation time has taught her that I'm not the only person that can love her.  (But I think I'm still her favorite and I like it that way.)  On the plane ride home Dan held her while she was napping and I looked over and saw both of the people I love most in the world sleeping.  There's nothing like a Daddy and his daughter!  No wonder we have so many photos of the two of them asleep!

My sister and her husband didn't come until late Wednesday night and we left Friday so we really only had a day together.  I got really sad when I realized that we wont be seeing each other at Christmas either so that was it for a while.  Oh, but I do love them both.  They both also had tons of fun with Charlotte and I think my sister got a sore arm from bouncing her so much.

We missed seeing Nate, Jenny and their kids and both Dan and I sincerely hope they will be able to make it up the day after Christmas.  Although if they can't we understand, we don't want to put too much pressure on them.  It's just that a whole year of living close to them has spoiled us, we miss them too much!

On the Charlotte front she's gotten a whole lot more brave this past week.  She has realized that if she really wants to get around she's going to have to figure out how to let go of the sofa and still stay upright.  Now, if there's a gap between furniture that she can't quite reach across she's just letting go and hoping that she lands right.  It's pretty funny.  I think she's getting one or both of her top teeth in right now.  On the plane we put an ice cube in a flannel blanket and had her chew on it and she really liked it.  Plus, nursing is getting increasingly uncomfortable.  I think we are seeing the end of the nursing days soon.  She loves bouncing and shaking her head no.  Both are games she likes even more if someone plays along with her (as both Aunt Katie and Uncle Garrett would do.)

Oh our break was good.  It was so short though!  My only consolation is that it's only four weeks until the next one!  I have so many projects to complete before then!  I'd better get going!

YIKES

We went to the mall the other day.  After living in two different places that don't have a mall for two years (a year in each place, not two years in each place) my head started to swim with sheer magnitude of all the stuff you could buy.  Then I went into the Anthropology store.  As I was walking around admiring things I would never be able to buy for myself, I happened upon some of the Christmas items.  A lady next to me picked up a Chocolate bar and asked the clerk if the price marked on it was right.  It was a $12 chocolate bar the size and general shape of a Hershey's bar.  My jaw dropped.  The clerk's response, "Yes, it's $12, but it's really good."  That's right it better be good, for $12 it better be the best chocolate bar I've ever tasted!

Hallelujah Chorus!

Months ago I taught Charlotte to put her pacifier in her own mouth.  It was really fun to watch her go from not figuring it out, to feeling for the right part in her mouth, to the expert she is today.  I did this with the idea that she would learn how to put it in at night so that she can go back to sleep by herself.  Up until now she's not been doing that.  There have always been a few times when one or the other of us has to get up to put the pacifier back in and then go back to sleep.  Not that this is a big deal, because you don't really need to be awake to find a pacifier, but it was becoming a hassle.  

Then came last night.  We did all the same things.  She went to bed at 7 and then I nursed her right before I went to bed.  Then, the next thing I knew it was 6:30 AM and my husband was leaning down to kiss me good bye!  Hallelujah!  She's figured it out!  She can put herself back to sleep!  This is so amazing!  Now if we can just keep this trend going.

Helmets part 2

Thanks for all the great comments.  I just want everyone to know that I'm not the helmet wearer in question here.  I don't own a helmet, but then again I don't really ride my bike so it's a non issue right now.  This is just a question that has come up lately in our group of friends.

To clarify, the question at hand is not whether an adult should wear a helmet.  The question is whether said adult should be made to wear a helmet if they would rather chose not to.

Helmets

Do you think that grown adults should have to always wear a helmet when they ride a bike or are they old enough now to asses the dangers and make that decision on their own?

Live and Learn

This weekend we went to Washington for the wedding of my husband's friend.  I definitely learned a few important do's and don'ts.  I figured I'd write them down so I can remember them as we will be travelling a lot this holiday season.  

Do: Have most things ready when your husband gets home from school
Don't: Take so long getting the last few things ready that you start to be late to the airport.
Do: Go to economy parking, even though it's about a mile past the airport.  It's the cheapest parking lot, cheaper even than the other private parking areas.
Don't: Have your baby get her six month shots the day before you leave.  She might get a mild fever and be achy and cranky.  This isn't fun for anyone.
Don't: Sit in the middle of the plane.  Someone will sit in the third seat in the row and then you don't have any room for the cranky baby to move around.
Do: Bring things for your baby to eat.  When she eats she's happy (which is a lot like her mom).
Don't: Forget to bring food for yourself.
Do: Remember that EVERYONE loves babies!  Especially grandma aged women.  If you feel like talking that's great.  If you feel like sleeping, that's not so great.
Do: Stay at your cousin's house.  He's so awesome and seemed so happy to see us!
Don't: Forget Tylenol.  If you take your baby two time zones away and then make her be in pain so wont sleep.  period.
Do: Spend time with Grandma Whiting.  She is awesome with the little ones!  
Don't: Wait to get Tylenol because it might cost a lot.  Get it anyway.  It'll make a huge difference.
Do: Take turns staying up with the baby when she wakes up at night.  Preferably have a good video.  In our case it was Finding Nemo at Dan's friend's house.  We stayed up and watched it with her at 2 AM until she fell asleep.  Then when she woke up at 5 AM we switched places and the other one watched it with her until she fell asleep.  It's way better than fighting with her to go back to sleep in a place that she doesn't know.
Do: Sit next to a grandma/grandpa couple while waiting for your flight to take off.  They may just give your baby a banana to eat.  Your baby loves bananas.
Do: On the flight home remember to give her Tylenol before the plane takes off and give her juice.  She'll fall asleep for half of the flight and play quietly the second half.  If you can get a seat free in between the two of you for the baby it's even better.  She can sit in that seat.  Or she can look between the cracks and play with the two grown men behind her.
Do: Bring teething toys.  She kept biting everything she could fit in her mouth.  I thought she was only getting two teeth, but those two have broken through and she's still biting everything.
Don't: Just assume that since she's in her own crib the damage done by the two time zones and no schedule will go away.  You will have to reteach her to go to sleep alone.  

All in all the trip was good.  I just would have done things a lot differently.  I don't really like waking up at 5 AM, but I don't think that can be avoided.  

Honors

Yes, that is what Dan received in Anatomy!  Woohoo!

The secret I've been keeping is that Dan's two buddies that he studies with dressed up in costume as him!  The night before Halloween I asked Dan if he was going to dress up and he said, "As myself."  I told him that was a good costume, but I didn't tell him that his costume was going to be stolen from him!  On Sunday I took his belt with his buckle and it was a good thing that I was asleep when he was getting ready in the morning.  I totally would have blown it.  He told me he was totally surprised.  YES!

My morning

I now know why my mom only takes 8 minute showers.

When I went in to the shower the box of Cheerios was completely intact.  The books were in a neat little stack.

Halloween Costumes

Since Charlotte is too little to go trick-or-treating I decided that she would just wear her costume all day today.  First we went to the library and she was a princess.


Later I decided that we should go to the zoo since the weather was so good.  Since we were going to be around the animals I decided I'd dress her in her bear outfit.  

I did have a cute little pink nose, but she rubbed that off before we got to the zoo.  Also there are paw prints on the bottoms of the feet.  She was super cute!

Budget

Aargh, I hate to do the budget.  You'd think that since I have my degree and I stay on top of it, doing the budget wouldn't be that hard for me.  Apparently my simple math skills need a lot of work!  Also my saying, "No" skills at the fabric store.

Home Decor

Here's the fruit of our labors.




A rug for a penny!  Awesome!



Dan built me this TV stand.  I think it's awesome, but he told me that it's, "far from perfect."  He's always harder on himself than anyone else!



This is our hall of family photos.  The hall is skinny so I couldn't get a shot of them straight on.


This is our other new rug.  I thought it was sufficiently masculine enough for Dan to like it.  


Here's our fireplace with the mantel all decorated.  I like my Halloween pumpkins I've painted on the hearth there.


These are the drapes that I made from fabric I used in our two previous apartments for drapes.  I just reworked them here.


I think I finally found a way to display Dan's horns that I like!  I never, ever thought that this day would come, but I think they look good on the wall like that.


These new curtains in our bedroom look really good.  Dan likes them too because they block more light at night.  We've had a really hard time getting used to light coming through the window at night here.  In Clarkston everything was always dark at night.

The New Term

I thought since my husband's life hasn't gotten much of the spotlight here lately I'd catch everyone up. He made it through first year anatomy! YEAH! We don't know if he got honors until the middle of this week though. He doesn't think he did, but I say wait and see. Now he is taking cell biology and...um...I can't remember the other one right now. I'll post that later. At any rate they seem to be much less intensive than anatomy. He seems to have a whole lot more free time to spend with Charlotte and me. Which is so great since Charlotte's first tooth made an appearance today! YEAH! She hasn't slept well the past couple of nights and I'm so glad Dan has been around to share the responsibility. I would go crazy trying to do it on my own.

In other Dan related news his study buddies are going to surprise him on Wednesday and I'm in on it. Given my lack of ability to keep a secret I think this was pretty bold of them although they don't know that I'm horrible at secrets. I'm trying super hard not to give it away, but it's just so good that I want to laugh with glee every time I think about it! I'll let everyone in on the secret on Wednesday, but since I'm trying to be a good secret keeper I wont tell yet.

Also Dan related, this weekend we are going to go to Dan's buddy's wedding. This is a friend he's had since kindergarten so we're pretty excited. We're flying to Washington for the ceremony and it'll be the first time in a plane for our little one. I'm bringing an extra bottle, both pacifiers, finger foods, and some toys, but beyond that it's all about being lucky. We're flying out Friday and back on Sunday. Oh what a weekend. Well, that's all I can think of for now!

Your House in Order

Well, last weekend was a BLAST! Not only did we get to go see the Botanical Gardens, the St. Louis Basilica, with and entire mosaic ceiling consisting of 1/2" pieces of tile, but we also got to go to Daniel Boone's house. It was awesome and it made me realize how my Daniel is much like Daniel Boone in his thriftiness, and hard work ethic. Mom and I also spent some time getting my house decorated while Dan went to class. It was tons of fun because I wasn't doing it alone while trying to take care of the baby. Curtains are up, photos are hung, rugs are down and it feels a whole lot more like home. Mom bought us two new rugs. Which brings me to a great little tidbit. We purchased the two rugs at The Home Depot where one of the rugs was on clearance. It was originally $57 and can you believe that we bought it for $.01!? Yes, that's right! a penny! And it looks every bit of it's $57 goodness at the top of my stairs. Also Charlotte started to try and walk around while holding onto the sofa. She's not too fast at it, but she eventually makes it to where she wants to be.

This morning, while taking out the garbage I discovered another little exciting project was done. Dan bought us storage shelves for our food storage and other things in the basement so I will actually be able to see what we have. Today I found that he's put them together! I was so excited that I organized them then and there. I then decided to inventory what we currently have. Then I looked up what we needed for one year. Oh boy! We are gonna need to get crackin on this whole food storage thing. As far as grains go we're gonna need about 600 lbs of them for a year for all of us and we have a total of 15 lbs. Well, it's something to work on. My only concern is that I couldn't find a solid numerical target for food storage of things like sugar, salt, fruits, baking soda. I found concrete numbers for grains (including wheat, rice, and corn), legumes, and water, but that was it. How am I supposed to get a year's worth of food storage if I don't know how much we'll need? Frustrating, very frustrating. Oh well, I'm sure it's just because I've never really thought about needing it before. (We actually have absolutely no water stored which seems really dumb now that I think about it.)

no news

Charlotte fell asleep during my run this morning. Grrr! She usually falls asleep right when we get home. That way I have the optimal amount of getting ready/doing chores time available. It was tricky getting her up to her bedroom from the street and she woke up. I put her in her crib anyway hoping she'll go back to sleep. Now I have to stay in the front of the house for a while killing time until I think she's back to sleep. If she hears me moving around before she's really out it just wakes her up. Little stinker! Oh well.

In good news I tipped the run/walk ratio in favor of running yesterday! Exciting huh?

I was wondering during my run today, what percentage of people run/exercise while listening to their ipod? If they do that then when do they have time to just think their own thoughts? I have found that my run in the morning is my favorite time to think about the day, the future, funny stories, lots of things. If you're listening to music how do you do that and think at the same time? If you don't, then when do you get a chance to just think?

YESSSS!

A man from the St Louis Water Division just came to my door and told me that they will be shutting off my water for a while for a scheduled maintenance check-up. I guess this means I can't do the dishes in the sink. Or the laundry. Oh darn.

Babler State Park

Well, I got Daniel to come home early from studying Saturday and we drove a little ways out of the city to Babler State park and walked around. I would say hiked around, but there weren't any hills or anything so it was more of a walk than a hike. Here are some photos of our trip.


This was the bridge that we started on. There wasn't any water below it though.

Don't you like her jacket? It has little pants that go with it that have feet with paw prints on the bottom. We decided to forgo those though because I let her get down and walk around a little after the walk and it would have gotten those really dirty.

We did have to stop part of the way through because mommy and baby both got hungry. I had a really yummy chicken salad sandwich and Charlotte had really yummy mommy's milk.

Here we are at the end of the hike. I just realized that not only are we both wearing pink, but we are both wearing clothing that Aunt Katie got for us! Kinda funny huh?

Charlotte figured out that her tongue doesn't always have to be inside of her mouth. In fact she finds it very fun for it to be outside of her mouth now!

In other news, remember those "allergies" that Charlotte and I caught of Dan's a little less than a month ago? Well, I got the cold and got over it, but Charlotte didn't very well. She's all over it except for this cough. A persistent cough that is deep in her chest, but doesn't really do a whole lot except for keep us all up at night. I'm thinking about getting a humidifier. What do you think? Is it worth the investment or should we just tough it out for a little? She's going to the doctor as soon as possible (hopefully next week) since she's now almost 7 months old and still hasn't had her 6 month appointment. If she's still got the cough then I'll bring it up, but I really hope she's over it by then.

Free Time

When we moved here Daniel's faculty group leader gave each member of her group that was married and/or had kids (which was 100% of us) a small book called, "Favorite Places to go with Kids in Saint Louis." I know it's a very catchy name. My mother is coming into town next weekend and I've been perusing the book for a few days now so that her whole trip will be loaded with fun for the whole family. I'm so excited. I wasn't thinking about planning anything, but then Danny Bobby kept asking me if he thought my mom would like to do x, or wouldn't it be fun to take her to y so I figured I should get a plan together. We don't necessarily have to go by the plan, but things always go better when there is a plan. Good news, the forecast for next weekend has Saturday and Sunday sunny and mid 70's. That's still a ways off, especially since both Friday and Monday are supposed to be rainy, but I'm still making plans. It's gonna be good.

So here I was looking at my booklet thinking that some of these things would be fun to do today. The only hang-ups were that (1) my baby cried for a solid hour today and I had no idea why or how to stop it. She cried until she passed out with exhaustion. Hopefully she'll wake up totally over that whole I'm mad at the world attitude. (2) My husband is studying today.

Well, I can't do a whole lot about (1) but hope for a better future. As far as my husband studying I decided I'd call him and see what he's up to. When I asked him how long he'll be studying for he said, "A while still. Why?" I told him that if he studied until around 2 or so then we could still go out hiking or something and wouldn't that be fun? But if he had to keep studying I totally understood since next Friday is his anatomy final. He's so awesome. He said that 4 more hours of studying would probably do him pretty well and then we could go. Now my only question is where to. Choices, choices, choices. Oh I do love free time!

The Hill

So there's a part of St. Louis called the hill. It's where all the Italians live. I know this because the street signs say, "The Hill" with an Italian flag on it. My only question is that where does the hill start? There isn't really a hill so I can't figure out why it is called that and where the geographic location starts. There's a commercial on TV that says this car place is, "right at the enterance to the hill." I just don't get it.

I remember going swimming with my next door neighbor, Kim, when I was younger. She had these snorkeling goggles so we would take turns putting them on and swimming upside down on the bottom of the shallow end of the pool. It was so surreal looking up at people, the room and the lights through the top of the water. Eventually we got up our nerve and swam with them to the deep end of the pool, which I'm sure was around 5 feet, but since we couldn't touch it was deep. I remember looking up at the shallow end and thinking how silly I was when I thought the bottom of that was deep.

The past couple of days I've had that same feeling, only not been able to quite put it into words. That's why I haven't really been posting all that much. I've thought it through now so I figured I'd try to share it. This next part is going to sound really, really silly though. I feel that the pool I am swimming in is my love for those around me, and specifically my family. I was swimming around the bottom of the shallow end of the pool gazing around thinking I had this deep love. It seems that in the last months, and probably triggered by having my baby, I have finally ventured out into the deep end of the pool and my love for them is so, so much more. The funny thing is I don't really think it appears to be any more than it was a few short months ago. So here's what I've been thinking I want to say to my family.

Charlotte
I love you so much that every time I think about it tears just start coming. You are so, so amazing just because you are you. I think you are beautiful and strong and funny and smart, but I want you to know that's not why I love you. Even if you were none of those things I would still love you because you are my baby and you are amazing. I thank Heavenly Father everyday for the blessing it is to be your mom and I pray for the knowledge of the skills I need to meet your needs mentally, physically, spiritually and emotionally. I feel that because of you I have become a stronger, milder, and more open minded person. I love you.

Daniel
I love you more than I can ever express to you. Sometimes I just burst inside to try and get that across to you. I can't imagine being any happier with my chosen partner on our path as husband and wife. You truly are smarter than the average bear and I am so, so, so proud to be the wife that stands next to you. I think you complement me so well--at times holding me up and at times being held up by me. You are smart and handsome and strong and truly gifted, but again, like Charlotte, that's not why I love you. I love you for just being you, and for letting me see all of you. There are somethings I want you to never stop doing because I cherish them so. I want you to never stop making up silly songs to sing to our children, I love hearing them from the other room as you sing them to Charlotte in the tub. I want you to never stop being, "funny, funny" even though sometimes I don't laugh right away. You always know how to make me laugh. I want you to never stop trying your best to make me feel protected and provided for. I love that about your masculinity. We had heard that the third year of marriage is a hard one, which may be true for some. We have also heard that the first year of medical school is a hard one, which may be true for others. I just want you to know that I am proud of what we are doing and I am loving you for your efforts more and more each day.

Daddy
I love you and I can't thank you enough for being my dad! I feel like I won in the daddy lottery! Thank you so, so much for being my dad and giving me so much of yourself! I am learning more and more each day how hard it is to raise children in a righteous way. It is hard, but you have also taught me that it is worth it and it has plenty of perks along the way. I am so sorry when I think about how hard on you I was when I was in high school. I just want you to know that I appreciate and value you as an amazing man and a wonderful father. You are strong, patient, smart, spiritual, and funny. That is not why I love you though. I love you because you loved me first. I know that you worry about me because I know I will never stop worrying about my baby. Thank you for your love and support.

Mom
I love you and I can't believe how shallow my love for you has been until now. Now that I understand what it means to have a mother's love. Now that I know what it's like to worry over every choice I make and my child makes. You worked so hard for Katie and me! And now I realize that your job is not over, even though both of us are out on our own. Being a mom is forever and I am so glad that you are mine. You have taught me so much about what that means and I am realizing more and more each day how carefully you treated your job. Nothing good happened in our home by accident. You and dad had plans for us and I thank you for that. I don't know if I have ever told you this before, but I was always so proud to have you come to my school when I was in elementary, to pick me up, to give a presentation at career day, to go to my performances. I just want you to know that 100% of the time I thought you were always the most beautiful mom there. You are beautiful, strong in mind and personality, humble, and spiritual. I love you mom!

Katie
I love you so much! You are my exemplar. Thank you so, so much for being there when I needed you. I know, and have always known, that I can turn to you for any help that I may need. I really do have the best sister in the whole world. You never acted too cool to be around me and I love you so much for that. I hope I can teach Charlotte to be the kind of big sister that you always have been for me. You are S-M-A-R-T! And you are also sincere and loving. Thank you for showing me yourself. I love you so, so much.

Garrett
To the newest member of my family I just want you to know that I love you so much! You have made my sister more happy than I have ever seen her before and I cherish that about you. I want you to know that I think you are amazing both in action and in word. I hope that my children will look to you as another shining example of what it means to be a good man in our society. Thank you for that, in advance. I love you.

Nathan and Jodi
I love you both so very much. You have taught me what it means to be a newlywed and be poor and be happy. The two of you are the first examples that I actually was aware of outside of myself. Thank you so, so much for that. You both are also my first examples of good and righteous people that weren't raised by my parents. You taught me that different ways of doing things are ok and that I need to figure out what I'm going to do as a parent. Thank you. I love you both and I love your girls!

LeAnn
I love you so much more now than I ever have before! I love you not only for being a wonderful mother to my husband and a great grandma to my baby, but also for being a great role model for me. It is such a comfort to personally know, someone that has done the exact same things I am doing right now. I love that you support Daniel and me so very much. I am very fortunate to have such a great mother-in-law. It feels so good to be understood about where I'm coming from. Thank you. I love you.

John
To the father of my husband, I love you. Thank you for teaching my husband what it means to be a good father. I think that many of the things he does in our family are because he saw you doing them for him. Thank you for teaching him to work hard and to be honest. Thank you also for your continued love and support for all three of us right now. We love you so much. I hope that my children will also look to you as an example of a good father, husband, leader, and man. I love you.

There are many more people I have been thinking about lately and many more that I love very much. This post is getting long though so maybe I'll just call them and let them know. My love for each of my family members and friends has deepened so very much in the past few months that it amazes me. I thank the Lord for each of you daily.

The Explosion

Since the beginning of the week our baby girl has had a little bit of constipation. (Yes, this post will be about poop so if you don't want to hear it stop now.) She's still been going, it just takes her a long time of hard pushing. She would get this sad little worried look on her face and then push until she was red in the face to get it all out. I told Dan about it and he was a little worried so he said we should make sure she nurses enough on me and make her rice cereal with more pear juice than normal. Well, I'm here to declare operation roto router a success. Yesterday she again got the worried look on her face and my heart sank. I was worried I'd have to take her into the doctor for this problem since it had been going on for a few days. After 5 minutes of red faced pushing I figured she was done so I took her in her room to change her. We don't have a changing table, the floor works just fine for me, so I plopped her down on the changing pad on the floor and took off her diaper. I started to clean her up when she began to push again. I panicked. She pushed out a "plug" of harder poop.....and then.....the explosion of liquefied poop shot right out of her onto my front. All over my shirt and shorts and socks and the changing pad and the rug we have on the floor and her and the diaper I had under her. It was everywhere! And it was disgusting.

Her attitude changed amazingly after the incident. She must have felt better because she acted happier all day than she had for the past few. I was completely covered in poop, and, amazingly relieved by it.

PS. Sorry if this grosses you out. It was the only thing I could think to post about today.

A New Project

So for a while now I've been working on a new project that I've been reluctant to let out of the bag. I'm just so excited about it that I don't want to let fly into the unknown and then get rained on and me be sad. Well, I'm going to take the leap tonight.

I decided that I'm going to sew my own baby/little girl dresses and sell them. I decided this because I went to a children's boutique here a few weeks back and was shocked to see the prices on baby clothing that I knew I could make just as well for a whole lot less money. Ever since I committed myself to the idea it's pretty much taken hold of me. I take this as a good sign. I came up with a design that seems really cute to me and I love it. Now I'm stuck. For the past three nights I've been unable to sleep because I need to chose fabric and accents for the first dress. I have so many ideas and I just don't know what I want to do. Then it's a matter of matching my ideas to my available materials. I lay in bed just thinking about what is a good idea and what isn't and how I'm going to get things done. I have found that planning things takes much longer than actually doing them.

Another thing is in the past few days my eyes have been opened to the seemingly limitless possibilities of fabric that can be found at the click of a button. What to do, what to do. So now it's 11 pm, my husband went to bed a half hour ago, my baby went to bed 4 hours ago and she will get me up at 6 am whether I spend more time at this computer or not. I really should go to bed. Charlotte and I have a big day tomorrow at the Botanical Gardens. Plus, with this cough that she has now developed I know I wont sleep very well tonight. I should get to bed now so that I can jump start my sleeping. I can't though. I know if I go to bed I'll just lay there......thinking.

This really should be an easy decision. It's not like it's going to be the only dress I make. I should just go ahead and chose one and then move on to the next. It's just that I want to chose the best one. I want to fall in love with the one that I'm making and not think that I could do better.

Well, there it is. My new project. I am so excited!

Six Months

Happy Six Month Birthday! Oh she is so big!

Differences

Lately I have been discovering many differences between my husband and myself. Mostly I think these are funny and interesting. Here are a few:

I was measuring something to sew and I only wanted to round the measurements to the nearest 1/8 inch where the math came out 3/16. I told him I was rounding it and he said, "You can't build a house off 3/16 an inch." And I thought I was picky about being exact!

Last week, just after I had changed the sheets my husband asked, "How often do you change the sheets?" I just had to laugh when I told him, "We've been married for two years and you haven't noticed that I change the sheets once a week?" We both had a good laugh over that one.

The creative process is so much different between the two of us. My husband's process is completely inside of himself. He loves to create things, all on his own. I am the opposite where I love to have the creative process be collaborative. I know I have some ideas, but they get so much more defined and refined when I share them with others. Also, when others share their input I think it gets so much better.

My husband is so great at understanding this difference. He will always be my collaborator when I want one with my projects. Keep in mind that most of my projects include sewing. He is so awesome. Although he does tend to want gingham and plaid, for everything.

Just In Case

In case I ever fool myself into thinking I'm a tidy sewer:

Now I have to go clean that mess!

Last Night's Dinner

Last night we had pepper steak with a blackberry glaze. I broiled the steaks because we don't have a grill. This was my first attempt at broiling meat all by myself and I am so proud of myself because they turned out sooooo good. Plus, it was super easy. So now I know a good easy recipe that's impressive to serve people when they come over.

Yuck!

It really stinks when you and your baby both catch your husband's "allergies" at the same time. Luckily she's sleeping. I should be doing the same.

Jinxed

Well, I was sure I jinxed myself because the night after that last post she woke up five times! I don't want to jinx myself again so I wont tell you whether or not she slept the beautiful sleep of bliss last night. I wont tell you if I got a whole night's uninterrupted sleep and woke up well rested and happy this morning. I really don't want to jinx myself again.

Speaking of things that change when you have a baby I realized a few days ago something that I never thought would change. I actually run now! I was taking a two mile walk everyday, but the baby would always start to cry about 4 blocks from the end of the walk. So I adapted. Now I walk two blocks and run one for the whole two miles. It's great because she doesn't get mad about being there too long. Today I realized that walking two running one was getting pretty easy for me. I guess I'll have to switch things up a bit. I can't believe how much having a baby changes things!

In A Row

Now I don't want to jinx this, but I'm just so excited about it I have to say something. For the past two nights I have been able to go to bed at 10 and sleep uninterrupted until 6! Isn't that super exciting?! Charlotte has gone down to bed around 7:30 in the evening. She does wake up on and off before we go to bed at 10, but after that she stays asleep! For two nights in a row! Anyway, now that I've said something about it I'm sure she wont want to sleep at all tonight, but I'm excited at the progress she's making.

On another note, my husband is so funny! If any of you know him in real life you wont believe me about how silly he is, but he just is so silly! The other night he spent the whole evening talking and singing in a french accent. And by the way his french accent isn't really very good. He's just so funny! I just love being around him! I sort of love that he's only really silly inside his own home with his little family. It's like a secret awesomeness that Charlotte and I are let in on.

My New Favorite Photo

At least for today.

Isn't she awesome!

On another note, thanks for all the encouraging comments. I feel much better now. The freak out has passed.

Charlotte Sweb

I love my baby's name. It was my husband's idea to name her Charlotte, but when he suggested it I loved it so there you have it. I pretty much figured we were having a girl since we could agree on a girl name and would have had the fight of the century over the boys. Now I'm a little worried though. Every child that hears her name responds, "Like Charlotte's Web?" Now I know they're just excited to make the association and it doesn't bother me one bit. I'm just worried that eventually it might bother my baby. So what I'd like to hear from anyone that would like to tell me is something along the lines of, "It's OK, her name is awesome and she'll love it!" If you have any disparaging comments please keep them to yourself. Thank you for your support.

Pooped

My husband is so cute! He came home early from studying today because he said he just couldn't study any more. When I feel that way before a test I usually enjoy it and just give in and stop studying for good. I found that studying past my terminal capacity never really helped much anyway. Not so for my hubby! This is what he looks like right now:

And I'm sure he'll get up and review more before bed tonight!

Rainy Day Reds

Well today is day number two this week that I've spent the day completely in my apartment. The first time was becuase USPS took until 3PM to deliver something they told me I had to be present to get. Then they just threw the box onto our front porch without even knocking on our door. Maybe they knocked on the door to the people below us. Today it's been raining on and off all day. YUCK. Although with all the heat we've had I guess the rain is a good thing and I shouldn't complain.

On the plus side my baby learned two new "tricks" yesterday. She found out that she could pull herself up. Kind of awesome, kind of really scary. I don't know if I'm ready for a mobile little one especially since we haven't figured out what we're doing with the front steps to our place. The other trick is that when I'm holding her hands she figured out that not only can she raise and lower her feet individually, but she can move them forward to step. She would look at them as they went forward like it was so surprising that her feet were doing it. The success rate of this one is still very low, but it was something fun to show Dan when he got home yesterday.

Speaking of my husband his first test is tomorrow. He is working himself to the limit studying for it too. His drive to excell amazes me. I'm confident he'll do well on it, but you should all think good thoughts for him tomorrow.

Talents

All I can say is that it's a good thing my husband isn't vain at all. When we got married he suggested I buy clippers so I could cut his hair. I bought a set of clippers. I proceeded to be the sole person that cuts my husband's hair. I have absolutely no training, but I got a video tape with the set. (You can easily see where this is going I'm sure.) After watching the tape (which was produced in the 80's and had little to no value in teaching me to cut my husband's hair, that is unless he wants a flat top) I started in on his head. The first year of our marriage was a bad hair year for my husband. On the plus side we did find out that about a week and a half to two weeks later his hair looks just as good as if it were cut by a professional.

Now I would like to say that I think I'm pretty ok at cutting my husband's hair. I have developed my own system that I use every time. My idea is that with repetition I might just perfect the system. Here's how it goes:

1. Use the clippers on the bottom 2/3 of his head.
2. Get his whole head wet.
3. Realize that I still haven't shaved his neck and around his ears so towel dry is head.
4. Use the clippers on his neck.
5. Get his head wet again.
6. Get out the scissors.
7. Accidentally scrape the comb across the top of both ears while combing it out.
8. Cut a T to divide the top of his head into 4 quadrants. This I will use as a guide later so that it's all even.
9. Lose where the T was and make another one.
10. At this point I get sort of confused about the two different T's because of course one is shorter than the other. Since I can't make hair longer I use the shorter of the two T's.
11. Fill in the rest of the four quadrants so that the hair is longer on the top of his head than on the sides.
12. Proclaim the job finished.
13. Spend the rest of the night looking funny at him because I cut one side longer than the other.
14. Decide to do something about it the next night and cut the other side even with the first.
15. Spend the next two weeks finding spots that I didn't cut as short as others.
16. Call them "texture" when husband asks me about it.

All I can say is it's really good that my husband isn't vain. He honestly thinks I'm good at cutting hair! I think I'm better at cutting hair than I was and one day I might be good enough to get it right on the first try. By then though, he'll probably just go to the barber again. Sometimes I just have to laugh at myself!

Red Delicious

In case you didn't grow up in the apple state permit me to let you in on a little secret: Red Delicious apples are the worst kind of apple you could buy or snack on ever. If anyone tries to tell you that they love red delicious apples, they just haven't had any other kind before. Let me introduce you to the braeburn:





Or perhaps the gala:


Or really my favorite the pink lady:

I'm only showing you these three because they are my personal favorites, there are many, many different kinds of apples out there.







This little fact makes me think that there's got to be the same type of thing out there with all kinds of fruit that I don't know about. What about bananas I only know of two types, the regular yellow type and the plantain. Are there others? Would anyone recommend a different type than the classic yellow banana? What about oranges? Are navel oranges really the best type of orange? What I would really like to know about is grapes. After learning a tiny bit about viticulture I know there are about a bazillion types of grapes and the ones I usually buy in the grocery store don't really cut the mustard as far as fruit snacking is concerned. Any ideas on what the best type of grape is? How can I get my hands on them?

Almost there!

I am so close to being done unpacking I can smell it! I only have three boxes left to unpack and they are purely decorations. I am so excited about this prospect. The only issue now is that we don't really have all that much stuff! Our new place is so much bigger than the single wide. We have a whole extra room that I don't have any furniture for! Really that room is supposed to be our dining room, but it seems very impractical with our little one so what I think I'm going to use it for is a play room/sewing room. It's big enough to comfortably fit both. Plus, that means that I can still keep an eye on the baby while I'm sewing. Now I just have to figure out how to configure the room for the best use. This place still doesn't feel quite like home yet though. I think it's because I haven't hung any of our photos. Also because it looks pretty empty. We'll see. I've got four years to fill it up so I'm not in any hurry.

File this week under:

My life is amazing!

First, on Monday I was in charge of family night. I did the lesson on gratitude. After reading a few scriptures on the importance of being grateful for what we have we made a list of the things that our family is thankful for. Then I said how I was feeling really sorry for myself a few days ago and then after thinking about all that I have and am thankful for the situation turned completely around in my mind and now I'm glad about it. After I had finished our lesson I asked Dan if he had anything he wanted to add and he said that he wanted to let me know how grateful he was for me and for all I do for our family. He said he didn't know how he would be able to do all this without me. That made me so happy! Even typing it now I get a little teary eyed! Being appreciated makes all the difference. I am so SO SO happy with my life and my sweetheart.

Then, yesterday, Charlotte and I went to the wading pool in the park next to our house. It was the first time ever that she's worn her swimsuit and she had a blast. We sat together in the inch of water at the very edge and splashed our hands in the water. There was also a little fountain that came out of the ground and sprayed about 6 inches into the air next to us and we splashed in that a little bit. Oh it was so much fun to see her so excited about it!

Lastly, my sister has been calling me more often! I do love to talk to her. She doesn't like to talk on the phone very much, if at all, so any time she calls it's like a special treat. I like that she just lets me ramble on and on about nothing. Thanks Katie!

Anyway, isn't my life amazing? I think you'd have to agree!

My Magazine

Last week, or maybe it was the week before, Dan and I were waiting in line at the checkout at the grocery store. While in line Dan likes to read me the headlines of all the magazines like he really cares about what the stars are doing. He's always done this. I'm not sure why it started, but I think it's really funny. Sometimes he'll add in the headlines of the homemaking magazines too. Like the headline is tantalizing him with the answer to one of his great decorating dilemas. So there we were and I look down and see "O" the Oprah magazine. In all fairness I have never read the O magazine and I have no idea what it's about. So I asked Daniel, "If you had your own magazine would you put a picture of yourself on it every month?" His answer was of course, No. Then I asked, "If you had your own magazine what would you have it be about?" His answer, "Outdoor activites, camping, hiking, climbing." I figured it was eithr that or cars.

Ever since I've been asking myself what I would put in my own magazine. I have no idea! I guess it'd be a parenting magazine. Am I really a parenting magazine? I like to read them, a lot. I do spend a lot of time dealing with poop and how to get rid of it. Maybe my magazine would be about sewing. I do like to sew. Perhaps it would be about living on a budget? I don't know.

So anyway, the question(s) of the day is/are: if you had a magazine what would it be about? Would you put a photo of yourself on it every month? Do you think others would want to read it?

My Sanity

So yesterday I was really questioning my sanity. I think my husband was questioning it too because he kept giving me lots of hugs. He's so cute when he thinks something's wrong and there's nothing he can do to fix it. I decided that the issue is that I've slackened on my goals. Remember the goals that I wrote down a while back? Physical Activity, making the bed, learning new things, regular scripture study. Well, since we moved I pretty much let them go to the wind. Last night as I went to bed I just felt awful. I just wanted to cry. This morning when I woke up I decided that I should jump start back onto those goals again. I know my life is hectic and nothing is in any sort of schedule, but doing those things will make me feel better.

I also decided that I need to talk to an adult other than my husband. I love him, but when he comes home for the day he's spent! He works so hard at school and talks so much and is concentrating so hard, and still has more studying to do that he doesn't have a whole lot left to give. I totally understand that and I also appreciate that he does make an effort. He talks all during dinner about my day and his day and what we want to do about certain things and it's great. The problem comes in that out of 24 hours I spend 7 hours sleeping (sort of), 15-16 hours conversing with a baby that can't talk, and 1 maybe 2 hours with an adult. I decided I need more.

That is why this morning I walked for about an hour, and had Tammy over with her two kids to play. It was SOOOOO GOOOOOOD! Plus, I think Charlotte was happier having stuff to do with Madeline, Tammy's baby girl. Anyway, we're much happier today.

Our New Fridge

So I was kinda bummed to hear that our new fridge would come today. You are probably wondering why. It's because I was going to go over to my friend Tammy's house this morning and I was informed yesterday that the fridge guys were coming between 8 and noon. Since we were going to get together at 9:30 our plan was out. Luckily she said she could come to my house and wait with me. Also, the fridge guys came at 8! That's never happened to me before, but I was really excited. My landlord had set the whole thing up and decided he needed to be here to make sure that they took the old fridge away.

You'd think that I would be really happy right now right? I got to spend the morning with my friend and a new fridge. Only half of those things happened. I did get to spend the morning with my friend and it was great. I did NOT, however, end up with a new fridge. Let me ask you this one question, when getting a new fridge what is the first step in finding the right criteria? In my book it would be measuring the old fridge, the opening, and the areas you will need to take the fridge to get it into place! I mean honestly, who doesn't measure? You'll end up buying a fridge that is way too big! They couldn't get the fridge down the hallway! My landlord just kept telling them that they should be able to do it. I looked and there was no way they were going to be able to get that fridge in there. They wont be able to get the fridge in if it's too big for the hole you've got to put it through. It's not like fridges can squeeze! So that was a big hassle, and there's no fridge.

Julie Had Her Baby!

Last night at around 6 pm she had a 7 pound 10 ounce little baby boy! I can't wait to see photos!

The Zoo

Today was Charlotte's first day at the zoo! It was great fun! The St. Louis zoo is FREE and so I'm sure we'll be taking advantage of it often. The thing about it being free is I didn't feel pressured to see everything today. When Charlotte got sleepy and hungry we simply went home. Her favorite part was the penguins. I took her out of her stroller and held her up to see them. The penguins were being fed so they were noisy. I didn't know that penguins made any noise at all, but they do and they're pretty loud. Well, Charlotte wanted to add her noise to the mix so she was squealing. It was pretty funny.

This is the two of us with the penguins behind. It was pretty dark in there so you can't really see the penguins, but they were swimming all around.

Mirror, Mirror

Tummy time has always been hard with Charlotte. When we first tried to get her to do tumy time she's lay there for, oh, 30 seconds before letting out one of her loudest screams to let us know she was done with this. After a month and a half of this she finally decided that it wasn't so bad. She'd actually stay on her tummy for a good 20 minute stretch. I was so proud! Then we moved and she decided that the tummy was no fun anymore. Then at church yesterday I layed her down on her tummy. I expected it to last, a minute or two. To my surprise there were three other moms that brought their 1 and under aged kids to the back to play. They were all sitting there and the baby layed there watching them and recieving the toys they gave her and smiled at them. It was really fun. So today I decided to try and trick her. I layed her on the floor with her musical turttle, her favorite toy right now, and then set the mirror up so she could see herself. It worked for a while. She was smiling and laughing at herself and her turttle in the mirror. It was so funny!

And Just When You Thought He Couldn't Get Better

After a long day at school:

He makes me cookies while playing with the baby. Of course I let him eat as many as he wants.

Heart melting

This photo is about a month old, but I just LOVE it. She's smiling at her daddy. We were in the middle of a long day driving from Spokane to Utah. She is so great at travelling!

Grrrrr!

Charlotte went down for her nap this morning all on her own. It was amazing. I just put her down in her crib and she rolled to her side and went to sleep. (She sleeps on her side now all the time. I think it's funny.) I was so happy and thought today was going to be a great sleeping/playing day for her. Then approximately ten minutes later workers started to pound on our house. LOUDLY. I was pretty annoyed, but they hadn't woken up the baby and probably they were doing something that needed to be done on the roof of our place.

Now I realize that our house is approximately 2 feet away from our neighbor's and also that the old in the window air conditioning unit sticks out into that space. It would be really difficult to get to the roof from the side of the house. Do you really have to drop EVERYTHING you drop right onto the metal air conditioning unit? Yes, that sound wakes up my baby. Every.single.time. I just get her back to sleep and then they manage to drop more! If they don't drop stuff on the unit then they're banging around on our roof. My anger started to rise as I was trying to work with a screaming baby. It was only kept in check by the fact that I figured the work on the place needed to be done.

This only helped until I took out the garbage. As I was putting it in the dumpster behind our house I looked back and saw that, although their ladder was placed next to our house they were actually working on the chimney of our neighbor's house. They've been clomping, banging, throwing things at our house while not even working on our house! And now they've decided it's time to again bang on our roof. And yes, my baby did just wake up screaming once again.

The Heat

Well Heather tagged me, and only me, so I guess I'd better answer.

1. What is the best thing you cooked last week?

Hahahahahaha! We were still moving in last week! I had no stove! I had no oven! So I didn't really cook anything last week. Usually I cook all our meals, but last week I didn't. We're still moving in, but I have the whole kitchen unpacked now. A few nights ago I made taco salad that was pretty good. I planned on having leftovers the next night but my husband had already taken it to school and eaten them for lunch. I guess he liked those.

2. If money, time, and babysitting were no object where would you go and with who?

I guess I'm so lame because I don't really have a destination that I'd love to go to and I'm being held back from. I would like to spend more time with my family. And I would really like to have a whole week of sleeping 8 hours a night without interruptions. So I'd do that if money, time, and babysitting were no object. Probably it would be cool I guess if my family came here to St. Louis for a week and we went to all the places I've seen for families to go to that cost money. St. Louis is great for cheap and free things, but there's also a lot of cool family stuff that does cost money. I'm saving those for when we have money to spend.

3. When was the last time you cried?

I'd say yesterday. As it turns out we're really poor (that's what happens when your husband is in medical school). I was hoping to be able to get some help with medical insurance, but Missouri isn't very helpful. I was so frustrated just trying to get in contact with anyone that could help me. Then when I finally did get a hold of someone all I was told was, "No don't come in we'll mail you something." That and the we're not going to help you one bit news that I received was really frustrating.

4. What is the most played song on your ipod right now?

Hahahaha! This is another funny one since I don't have an ipod. Again we're poor. Also I did have my hands on one and didn't really care to set it up. I know, I know, I've heard all about them being awesome and once you have one you don't know how you'd live without one. My brother said they're like cell phones were. When cell phones were first coming out he'd think to himself that they weren't that big a deal. Then once he got one he would never go back to not having one. Well, to be honest I probably could be just as happy not having a cell phone either. It's just more cost effective to call my family on the cell phone as it is to pay for long distance.

5. Is there something on t.v. this week that you are more excited about than the So You Think You Can Dance finale?

Well, there again we're poor. So that means that we're watching TV through an antenna which receives cbs and nbc and a little bit of fox (which comes in black and white occasionally). Needless to say we don't watch too much TV and I haven't seen any of So You Think You Can Dance.

I don't really have anyone I want to tag though so I'm skipping that part of the whole rigamaroll. Yes, I was also the one that broke the chain letters in elementary school too.

Nosy Neighbor

I am such a nosy neighbor! I didn't realize this until this morning. Five police cars and one ambulance were parked across the street from our house. There was someone on the ground on the other side of the ambulance so I couldn't really see what was going on. Then they picked up my neighbor, Larry, from the ground onto the gurney. His roommate was out there talking to the police. The weird thing is that they were not in front of their house. They were about four houses down. Then when they were putting him into the ambulance he was yelling, "You! get away from me. All of you, let me go! Stop touching me." And that's when I noticed how all is arms and legs were strapped down. There have been so many ambulances going around in St. Louis since we moved here. I figured someone had passed out because of the heat (record breaking highs.) I just stood at our second floor window watching them for a good five minutes until they left. I am so nosy!

You've Got to be Kidding Me

Anyone that tells you that their 1-2 month old baby sleeps 10+ hours a night every night, without waking up is full of bologna. And if they then go on to say that their baby only wants to eat every 7-8 hours in a day their also full of it. Either that or they have a very out of the ordinary baby.

Finally

Well, I found it! And I got the car licensed today! It was really exciting, and took all day, but it's finally done!

20 Bucks

If you were me and you just got yourself your new driver's license for Missouri, where would you put it? (Remember that you're me now.) Yeah, I have no idea either.

Teething?

So I think Charlotte might be getting a tooth. Here are the symptoms:

• She's fussy all the time. Even when I'm holding her (which usually quiets that). She's not really outright having a fit, just unhappy and wants me to know about it.
• She's drooling excessively. The whole front of her dress was wet yesterday.
• Today I gave her one of those toys that you put in the freezer so it's cold. She chomped away on it until it fell out. Then she cried again.
• She's sleepy.

The only thing is that I can't feel a tooth yet. So we'll see.

Our "Home"

Nothing says "home" like:

The welcome post I painted at our last place was secretly unpacked and put up by my husband last night or this morning. It is now welcoming everyone to our new place. He's so cute!

Moving

Is it just me or does everyone think that moving totally and completely stinks. Even if you're moving to do something new and exciting or just moving because it's time to move it is awful. I especially don't like moving to new states. Then on top of the moving mess you have to change all your vehicle information, your driver's license, and a whole lot of other dumb stuff. Every day I think, today's the day that I will finish getting everything out of boxes and start to get everything organized and in it's place. Every night I go to bed thinking about all the stuff that we still have left to do. Also I get this completely unfounded frustration with my husband for not getting stuff done. Really what I think is happening is that I am frustrated with myself and my inefficiency brought on by a few different factors: the baby, our apartment isn't finished, and I have no clean clothing. I fully know that my husband is working HARD and doing all that he can to get things done. Everyday when he gets back from campus we get something big checked off our list (yesterday it was opening a new bank account since Wells Fargo isn't around here). And yet every night all I see is what is still left on the stinking list! Ugh! I have to mentally give myself a talking to so that I don't dump all my stress out on him. Remember Maggie, he is doing all he can! He's already finished stripping the stairs. He shouldn't even have to be doing the extra stuff. It's our landlord's fault that he can't help unpack because he's trying to get our apartment completed! He really is going above and beyond! What if you had a husband that couldn't do all the handy man stuff around the house? You would never be able to move in! Now I just have to be a big girl and follow my own lectures. On the up side, I absolutely love our new place. This place was his choice and boy did he chose a good one! We live in the top floor of a two story house. It's brick and it has a whole lot of character on the outside. On the inside it has all new carpet and new paint. Plus, I absolutely love looking out our windows to the trees in the front and back of our house. The vents for our AC are about three feet above the floor in the wall and they have decorative covers on them. I'm sure that this place will be great for us once we're settled in. Plus, now that I can actually cook meals for my family I'm feeling much better about our place. We're no longer pouring money out of our bank account because we have to eat out. I'm feeling much, much better about that.

We're Here!

Good news! St. Louis loves babies! That makes it OK with me. We have a mountian of stuff to unpack and find spots for. I haven't done laundry in more than a week. Everything is so jumbled up. Yikes! Updates soon.

I Miss You

Last night Charlotte woke up at 2:30 AM to eat.



Then she woke up every hour after that.



Ever since this vacation started she hasn't really slept well, but last night my husband had gone home for his bsa camping trip. So I had to get up every time.

Mom Friends

Everyone (and by everyone I mean all the mom/parenting type of magazines) says that it's really important for me to get "mom friends." The good news about this is that my sister-in-law lives three blocks away from me and had her baby 7 weeks ahead of me. We are a perfect match so that whole, this-is-how-I-met-my-first-mommy-friend thing was already made the moment we moved into town. The bad news: we're moving in three weeks. We're moving to a place that I have never seen before and never really paid attention to until I found out its a place I might live.

My husband is totally stoked to be going because, well, this is his life's dream. Goal number one since the third grade (when he figured out he would not be big enough to ever be a pro football player) was to become a doctor. I am so excited for him and for us that we're on our way to the future! I feel like his cheerleader sometimes. "Way to go honey! I always knew you could do it! You are the best!" These remarks are all deserved on his part. He's a great husband, and one of the brightest men I have ever met.

Here's the thing, St. Louis doesn't have my mommy friend! I am so comfortable with my sister-in-law that I know I can go over to her house in the middle of the day and she wont feel inconvienced. In fact she worries when I don't show up for a few days! Medical school is a full time sort of thing. I know my husband, as great as he is, is only human. His time will be taken up much by his schooling (as I think it should. I don't want my doctor to have slacked off learning his profession when I go to get help!). Plus, he's not a mom, he's never been through what I'm going through. It feels so therapeutic to be able to talk to someone who knows exactly what I'm going through because she's going through it too.

I feel exactly like I did when we moved the summer between fourth and fifth grade. To be precise I feel like I did on the second day of school. I had no idea what I was jumping into then. Now I know how hard it can be to make new friends. Here's hoping it's easier at 23 than it is at 10. Maybe it'll be like freshman year in college. Everyone was friendless and looking for new friends and so it was pretty easy to make them. Yeah, it'll be like that. Right?

"Mom Clothes"

My brother is 10 years older than I am. He and his wife got married when I was somewhere in the 13 year-old range. Once after they were married my mom, sister, and I were with her and her baby girl and I said to her that she wears "mom clothes." I did not say this as an insult, just a statement of fact. I didn't realize how much it must have hurt her feelings, but with her reaction I knew I had said something wrong. It is only until now that I realize what a horrible thing I must have said to her!

Ever since having a baby I have felt just like I did at 12 when my body had changed shape and I didn't like the way it looked. I didn't know how to dress it, and I was sure it didn't look as good as the girls around me. Now I have that same feeling, but for different reasons. At three months post partem I was still in maternity (or once you've had the baby I like to call them fat-girl) clothing. Then my dad of all people said it really was time for me to get out of maternity wear. In my heart I knew he was right. He had been right for a good month. The reason I was still in maternity clothing was three fold:

1. I no longer fit into my old clothing. Everything was too tight or just didn't fit right.
2. I didn't want to spend the money to get new clothing.
3. I worried that becuase my old clothing made me look and feel fat, going shopping for new clothing would confirm that yes, I really was a fatty.

The thing is that I realized I was wearing the same oversized T-shirts and baggy jeans every week! YUCK!

Yesterday I went shopping with my mom and dad (my mom really is the best person for me to shop with! She tells me the truth and we can be silly in the dressing rooms). And do you want to know the truth? Once I gave up trying to be what I used to be and really trying on things that fit the new me I realized that I still look good! It felt good too. Clothing that fits is the best thing in the whole world! I feel so much better now! I know this might sound vain, like I shouldn't be worrying about all this because I have a new baby that is the most precious thing, but I do. Once I stopped feeling guilty about feeling ugly I was able to move forward to a new me. Plus, I'm only one size bigger than I was before the baby. That's pretty good I'd say.

Now my new clothing isn't what I used to wear. I don't think that it is "mom clothes" either. I'd like to think it's somewhere in between. Older, more grown up clothing, but that fits and looks good too.