Tags

What's with tags? I can give Charlotte any toy and she locates the tag in no time flat. Now I know what the makers of Taggies were thinking.

Trip to PA

Last Thursday, Charlotte and I flew up to visit my parents in Mechanicsburg, PA. We had a little bit of a rough night on Thursday. We tried for the 6:30 flight, and didn't get on that. So, we waited around for the 8:10 flight, which didn't actually leave until 8:45. Poor Charlotte didn't go down for the night until 12:30am, which is VERY late for her. She was an amazing baby, though - not one tear the entire time.

Friday I worked from my parent's house while they watched Charlotte. Later that afternoon we went to run a couple of errands and to visit my Grammie. She absolutely adores Charlotte. When Charlotte is in the room, that is all Grammie can pay attention to. We walked her around the building showing her off to various old ladies.

Saturday I caught up with a good friend, Adrienne, and her husband Tom. I have known Adrienne since middle school. We don't talk that often, and see each other about once a year, but when we get together it isn't hard to get back into the groove - she's just one of those friends. She is pregnant with her first (it's a girl!) and due late September. She looks fantastic! (and very tall - I don't think I was wearing heels like that in the 3rd trimester!)

My newly engaged sister Rachel was visiting for the weekend as well. We celebrated her engagement with her finacee and his family on Saturday evening. Sunday we went to church, then Charlotte and I caught the 3:40 flight back to Atlanta. Charlotte did not have a stellar performance on the flight home. She is such a wiggle worm. She cannot be still, she is ALWAYS moving something. I didn't have a seat open next to me, and she was not happy confined to my lap the entire flight.

When we got home, she took one look at Judd and cried. Then, she realized who he was and got this huge smile and laughed out loud at him. He was thrilled. I was happy to come home to a clean house. Judd had done all of the normal weekly cleaning on Sunday.

Here's another picture from the weekend. Dad, Charlotte, and I decided to wear the same color on Saturday. (It wasn't planned, just happened).

A perfect sound

This evening, I heard the best sound I have ever heard.

Charlotte laughed.

I knew Judd would be the one to really get it out of her. We have been waiting and waiting for it, and tonight we were rewarded. She was laying on the changing table, and Judd would duck down out of her sight, then pop right back up with a goofy face. I just sat in the rocking chair watching them with happy tears running down my face. I can't describe what it is to hear the first real laugh. To me, it is even better than seeing the first smile.

She is doing something new every day. She is reaching for EVERYTHING within her arm's reach. Even the camera. (sorry this is blurry)

No Goals

A lot of you are writing lists of 101 goals in 1001 days. It seems to be the thing to do if you have a blog. I have thought about this a little bit, and I will not be participating. I have a big problem with trying to do too many things at once. For instance, last week I got it in my head that I needed to make cupcakes. So, after working a full day of work, I picked Charlotte up from daycare, went to the grocery store to pick up the ingredients, came home and began mixing cupcakes while Charlotte played on the floor. Why wasn't I playing with her during that time? Why did I feel the need to bake cupcakes in the middle of an already very hectic day. This is just one example of something that I do A LOT lately - it drives Judd crazy.

So, in an effort to focus my energy on the things that really do need to be done, I am not going to burden myself with a list of 101 goals. The thoughts of having 101 things floating around in my head is too much to bear at this point, even the act of coming up with them and getting them all organized and published is a major task. So, here are my 6 goals for the next 1001 days:

• Be the best mother I can be
• Be the best wife I can be
• Be the best daughter, granddaughter, sister, aunt, cousin and friend that I can be
• Be the best employee I can be
• Be the best blogger I can be
• Go for a run when I can fit it in

6 years

Judd and I celebrated our 6 year wedding anniversary yesterday. I think the theme of the day was, "I can't believe it has been 6 years!". We went out to a nice dinner on Saturday night in Albany, GA while his parents watched Charlotte. During dinner we went through our accomplishments for the last 6 years.

We have:

• traveled to Europe together 3 times
• owned a home
• owned 7 cars
• held 6 jobs
• traveled to Hawaii
• doubled our income
• brought a child into the world

These are the big ones. We have other smaller accomplishments and many other places traveled. We have been busy. I think the best accomplishment of all is that we have been very happily married for 6 years. We have made an amazing life for ourselves, which now includes one very beautiful little girl.

Bunny Ears or Fairy Wings?

We spent this weekend at the lake with Judd's family. Judd and I were going to head up to Maine for the weekend with Charlotte for a mini-vacation, but on Thursday night we decided that we were both too tired to take on that adventure. So, we headed to the lake. Emily, Frank, and the girls were down as well. Friday night, Judd asked Lilly what she had been doing so far this summer. Her reply: "I've been a fairy." So, later on in the night she put on her tutu and fairy wings and danced around for us. She has the most amazing imagination. Check out her fairy wings (they look a lot like bunny ears):







Charlotte swam in the pool on Saturday. She sat in a little float that her grandparents bought for her and floated along. Judd and I rode the jet ski for a while on Saturday and we all had some home made peach ice cream to cool off in the afternoon - even Charlotte had a taste. Judd and I slipped out Saturday night to have dinner by ourselves. We are headed back home in just a little while to have a few hours to do some things around the house.





Isn't this just the coolest baby?

Scott Slade

My manager nominated our team to get breakfast from Scott Slade and Kudzu.com. He brought some yummy biscuits from McDonalds. This definately was a nice start to the day!

Pull Your Weight

This morning I got Charlotte up, fed and dressed. I brought her into our room, laid her on the bed and finished getting myself ready. I mentioned to Judd that he needed to grab a few more diapers for her diaper bag before he took her to daycare. I looked and he had stuck the diapers down the front of her pants in order to not forget them. He told me that it was about time she started to pull her weight around here. Poor thing.

Father's Day Week?

Since Friday evening Judd has been saying that it was Father's Day weekend. So whenever I asked him to do anything or go anywhere, his reply would be, "But it's Father's Day Weekend." I would say, "No, Sunday is Father's Day." Now, today, he has been excited that this is the beginning of Father's Day Week.

I think he had a nice day today. I thought it would be a nice touch if he wrote the blog posting today, but he declined my invitation to be a guest writer. I went to Bagel Palace this morning and brought home a delicious everything bagel with cream cheese for him. I also brewed him a pot of freshly ground Kona coffee. Charlotte and I made him a photo book for his gift, you can see part of it here. We ate lunch at one of his favorite places, and relaxed the rest of the day.

A special "Happy Father's Day" goes out to both of our Dads. They are just about the best role models we could ask for (well, besides our Moms). I wasn't surprised to discover that Judd is a very loving and devoted father - just take a look at his Dad.

Under Construction

Well, it was bound to happen eventually - I forgot the parts to my pump at home. Imagine my surprise when I get to the lactation room, get everything set up, only to realize there was nothing to set up. Around 11:30 I was starting to get pretty uncomfortable, so after stuffing some tissue in my bra to soak up any leaking, I asked my manager if I could head home. She emphatically replied, "Yes".

When I arrived home, I was greeted with this scene. We knew that this was coming - but it is still a little frightening to have a huge "digger" digging up our yard. The whole house shakes when it moves.

New Dress

My mom made a pretty little dress for Charlotte, but Charlotte would rather eat it than wear it.

Glistening

That's what southern belle's do, they "glisten". This weekend there wasn't a single southern belle glistening - they were sweating. It is HOT down here. This weekend was Virginia Highland's Summerfest. We didn't bother going. It just seemed too hot to take the baby down there. It would have been a lot of trouble to walk around and look at all of the same artists we saw at the Inman Park festival. I'm sad we didn't go, though - I do LOVE a festival.

Saturday morning, I fed Charlotte around 7am. Judd took her after that and I got to sleep until 9am!! We decided that we would each get a day on the weekend to sleep in. I can't tell you how much this means to me. It may seem small to a lot of you, but I have only had 3 days since she was born that I have slept until 9. I can now look forward to one morning a week.

Sunday we went to church. This was the first "normal" Sunday we have attended since she was born. She went to the nursery, and Judd and I went to the service. Saturday night Judd and I reminisced over dinner about growing up. For us, going to church wasn't an option. We woke up on Sunday mornings knowing that we were going. What a gift our parents gave us by doing this. I know that there were Sundays they woke up and didn't feel like going. I'm sure my sisters and I (in fact, I remember) whined and moaned about going. But, they got us up, dressed us, and drove us to church every Sunday. (a few exceptions, of course, vacations, etc)

Judd and I then realized that it was our responsibility to give Charlotte that same upbringing. It hit me that this is a big responsibility. It also means that we need to become much more involved in our church, so she will see that and become an active, involved child in the church. I'm starting with a bible study 6 Mondays this summer. It is a group of young mothers, or mothers of young childern. I'm excited to get to know more moms in the community I live in.

Yummy

Charlotte's first meal of rice cereal. More was on her face than in her tummy.

2 fun things

1. If any of you have multiple blogs, check this out, BlogJet.

2. IBM (well, really Lenovo) can be funny:

My New Do

I chopped it all off:

4 months

Stats:

Weight: 14 lbs 12 oz - 75%
Length: 24.5 inches - 75-90%
Head: 16.25 inches - 50-75%

Sorry, these aren't very good comparison pics...

3 months	4 months

But, it's getting harder to get her to be still:

She had a good doctor's appointment this morning. She is no longer wheezing and seems to have a little less congestion. We had a rough night last night - she was up at 1:30 and 4:30 with horrible coughing. I fed her both times, and got spit up on both times. I think her body was trying to rid itself of some of the gunk in her chest.

The doctor said she looks like a very normal 4 month old. She said we could start feeding her a little rice cereal and begin fruits and veggies in a month or so. I'm pretty excited to see how she reacts to solids.

Purple Dinosaur

This weekend we had to pull out the purple dinosaur. For those of you that read this blog, and don't know what this means, see this post. I debated on Friday whether or not to take her to the doctor. She was coughing all day, and a little grouchy in the evening, but otherwise ok - so I decided not to. On Saturday, she sounded as if she was wheezing, so I packed her up and took her in. They are open until noon on Saturdays on a first come, first serve basis. The doctor said that she was wheezing and her chest was pulling when she took a breath. We were given a breathing treatment there and sent home with a prescription for a steroid to give her once a day along with giving her Albuterol every 4 hours. Both of these medicines are administered using a nebulizer.

So, we got the nebulizer hooked up and began her treatment of the steroid and Albuterol. As I was sitting there trying to hold the mask up to her face, Judd began reading the warning label on the steroid.

1. Avoid letting the mist get into the eyes. Now this is next to impossible. I'm pretty sure the purple dinosaur was made for a 1 year old - mist is going everywhere when we give her one of these treatments. I'm sure it is getting into her eyes and mine. When Judd opened the package some squirted up into his eyes. So, we will all have cataracts and glaucoma.
2. Be sure to wash out the mouth after treatment to reduce the risk of thrush. I'm not sure how they expect you to wash out a 4 month old's mouth after a breathing treatment. It's not like I can hand her a glass of water and instruct her to swish and spit. But, I am terrified of thrush. (If you don't know what it is, read here.) Thrush will wreak havoc on the breastfeeding routine that we have worked very hard to create. I also think that it is absolutely disgusting that yeast could be growing in her mouth. So, I tried my best to wipe her mouth out with a wet paper towel.

So, we haven't given her a steroid treatment today. She hasn't been wheezing nearly as much, and I just hate to put things in her body that she might not need.

On a positive note, Judd got to go to a nice party last night for his friend Jimmy. I had planned to go, we even had a babysitter, but I decided to stay home with Sickie. However, today I ran, which made for 3 days this week. That is the best I have done post partum. I also went out to lunch with Erin. (mother of Ella & Emma.) This was the first time we had been out together in about 5 months - we had a nice visit.