Baby and Me

I have been inspired by some photography blogs lately. There are some photographers that take a picture a week with their children for 52 weeks. Some people are incredibly creative. Take a look at this blog for some examples: Crista Acosta.

Today I set up the tripod, put my camera on the self timer mode and snapped a few of Charlotte and me.

Daycare Blues

Our church has a daycare. This daycare is, according to Bright from the Start & NAEYC, a very good daycare. In fact, there is a waiting list. Charlotte has had her little name on the waiting list since last September. (She is actually listed as "Baby Davis" because we didn't know her name then). Her name came up, she's starting there on August 11.

Judd and I toured the daycare last December while Charlotte was swimming around in my belly. We felt really good about it. The "teachers" seemed very nice, the place looked clean, most of the babies were smiling, the ratio is 3:1 of kids to teachers, and they even clean the toys 2x a day. Plus, it is at our church. Our church is 2 miles from our house, and on my way to work. We were thrilled. It will be the next best thing to me staying at home with her, right?

On Monday Charlotte and I went to meet with the person that is to be Charlotte's teacher in the Infant 2 room. She talked to us and walked us around the facility to show me how Charlotte would spend her day. I looked into the Infant 2 room, and I saw 6 one year-olds looking back at me with big eyes. The tears started to well up in my eyes. I just pictured Charlotte, my baby, in that room. I don't know what it was that caused that reaction in me. Knowing that she'll be in that room all day? Having her diaper changed by a woman that has to wear surgical gloves to change it? The institutional feel of it? Knowing that she'll be competing with 5 or 6 other babies for attention all day?

Currently she is at an in-home daycare where she is the only baby under 1. She is carried around by her daycare provider all day. But, this daycare provider only watches children 3 days a week. I work 5 days a week. The math no longer works.

Will the pit in my stomach ever go away? Will the visions of her big blue eyes staring sadly at the door waiting for me to appear ever change to visions of her happily playing with her friends? Am I doing the right thing? Will these decisions shape the rest of her life? Sometimes I feel like the decision about whether to work or not is a bigger decision than having her in the first place.

Baptism

Charlotte was baptized yesterday. It was a day filled with beautiful things. A beautiful ceremony adorned with beautiful family and friends packed in the front pews of the church. To top it all off, there was a beautiful baby wearing a beautiful gown in the center of it all.

After the service, we all headed back to our house for a barbecue lunch and chocolate cake. Judd's parents and grandparents drove up from south Georgia. My parents, one of my sisters, Sally and her husband Andrew drove down from Pennsylvania. Erin, Dave, and the twins came as well. Everyone ate, talked, and played with babies - what a great afternoon!

Judd and I want to thank everyone for being a part of such a special day in Charlotte's life. We can't describe the feeling knowing that our child is so loved.

Field Trip

About 4 years ago Judd bought us a Nikon D70. Every year I sit down with the camera and the owner's manual to teach myself how to use the camera and all of it's settings. Every year I read the first 10 or so pages, put the camera down and walk away frustrated. Aperature, shutter speed, ISO, white balance - how is anyone supposed to figure it all out? So, this year I signed up to take a photography course at Showcase. I started Digital 101 a few weeks ago. I'm learning so much about my (oops, I mean our) camera.

Saturday our class met at Oakland Cemetary to take pictures. If you haven't checked this piece of Atlanta out before, I would highly recommend it. It is beautiful.

Here are some of my shots from the day.

Thanks Aunt Rachel - You Rock!

There was just a knock on our door, I opened it to find a delivery person with a vase of flowers. They were from Aunt Rachel for Charlotte's baptism on Sunday.

So, Charlotte wanted to put her "Aunt Rachel Rocks" shirt on and have her picture taken with her new flowers.

Rachel, we'll miss you this weekend!

I love blogging

You may not realize it, but I love blogging. I have loved it from the moment I read my first blog. Some might even say that it is an addiction. I know that it is hard to believe this, considering my post counts / month have gone down each month, but that may be due to the fact that each month I find more blogs to read. (I'm hoping August will be jammed packed with posts).

Reasons why I love it:

• I'm learning about people that I have lost touch with over the years as more and more of my past acquaintances have started blogs. In fact, I feel like I now know more about some of you than I did when I saw you every day.
• It is fun to see different blogging styles. Some blog 4 times a day, while others pick and choose the best (or worst) moments of every couple of days. Both are good, just different.
• It is inspiring. For me, it is especially inspiring to see blogs that are now a business. Or, on a completely different level, the posts themselves are inspiring. I am inspired by all of those moms out there that are so dedicated to their children, or artists that have quit their "real" jobs to chase dreams.
• I have never kept a journal more than 3 days. I am thrilled that on Feb. 1, 2009 I will have Charlotte's first year of growth and development documented. It is fun to know that when she has her first baby, she'll look back on her first year to compare milestones.

I do worry sometimes that blogging removes the need to get together with one another. If you read about people's lives every day, do you really need to call them or email them to find out how they are doing? So, I would like to propose an idea. How about all of us get together one Saturday this Fall? I'm not sure who is really reading this blog, because most never comment, but if you would be interested in this, comment on this post. Pass this post along to others that you feel might be interested..or gather the people in your "blogosphere" up and bring them along!

PCB

Last Wednesday, Judd, Charlotte, and I headed down to Panama City Beach for a few days of fun in the sun with Judd's family. We stayed at Splash. We had a wonderful condo with a beautiful view. The resort is geared towards children. There were 4 different pools. Two of the pools are completely shaded, which is nice with a 5 month old. We spent the majority of our time in the lazy river - a pool with a current that propelled you around a circular "river". Charlotte would just float along with one of the adults by her side. She seemed to really enjoy it, she would splash the water with her hands and kick her little feet.

We spent some time on the beach in the mornings. Lilly and Katie played in the sand and water while Frank built sand sculptures. The beach was really nice. The water was so blue and clear.

We went out to eat at the PCB favorites, Capt. Anderson's and Angelo's. Judd and I were able to sneak away a couple of nights after Charlotte went to bed. It was nice to have a little time with him. We realized how much our vacations have changed. A couple of years ago, I would have spent all day on the beach, reading, getting tan, as far away from children as I could get. This year I was smack dab in the middle of kiddie pools, in the shade. I was able to sneak down to the beach a few times which was really nice - not long enough to get a tan but long enough to meet the business end of a jelly fish.

It was nice to get away for a few days and spend time with the in-laws. I'm fortunate to have married into such a wonderful family. All 3 little girls were really well behaved and just adorable, which made it that much more enjoyable.

Back from the Beach

and we're exhausted.

We spent the last few days at Panama City Beach with Judd's family....more to come...

My Moments

Last night I was feeding Charlotte before she went to bed. We were sitting in the glider in her room, all you could hear was the fan spinning above us and the cars buzzing by outside. She was so sweet and peaceful cuddled up next to me. I looked at her and realized how big she is getting. She is longer than the width of the glider, her feet push against the arms. She used to be so small that she fit on top of a boppy pillow.

5 months ago, we would have had to have a pillow and a boppy on my lap so that she would be in the correct position to feed. Her feedings used to be an event. I would get into the rocker, place the pillow just so, then align the boppy so that her head would be high enough. After that, I would position her so that her latch would be as painless as possible and then she would latch. I would hold my breath and clench my jaws until the pain of her latch subsided. She would eat and fall asleep. After she drained one side, I would need to wake her up, so I would change her diaper. After changing her diaper we would repeat the process for the other side. The whole scenario would take 45 minutes.

Now, she can eat anywhere or anytime. I have fed her in the airport, in Babies R Us, in the car in parking lots, even on the beach. There isn't a boppy or pillow, just my lap. It is so effortless and painless now and takes about 10-15 minutes. If you would have told me 5 months ago that I was considering breastfeeding longer than 6 months, I would have told you that you were crazy. Now I can't think about not sharing those special moments with her. It forces us to have a quiet moment together during the day. I have come to cherish those quiet moments with her - just us. There aren't many of those moments left, if I'm lucky, 6 more months of them. I plan to savor every one.

Wrestling a Baby Alligator

That is how I feel everytime I change Charlotte's diaper now that she has learned how to flip over on her changing table. As soon as I put her down, she kicks her little legs and flips right over and does not want to flip back.

I'm pretty good at putting her clothes on when she flips over, in fact, when she's on her tummy it is a little easier. However, I haven't yet mastered putting her diaper on her when she's on her tummy. Instead, I wrestle it onto her and pray that it is on tight enough to hold back what she can produce.

The big 2-9

Judd is now one year closer to thirty. Today he turned 29. He has seemed a little depressed about this birthday, so I did my best to cheer him up. I made sure to tell him that the "spot where his hair parts" wasn't really that big.

I think he had a good day. I woke him up with bagels, coffee, and a present (a model of a 777 in the new Delta livery that he can put on his desk at work). Later, we went to church and hung out for the rest of the afternoon.

This evening we had Dave, Erin, and the girls over for dinner. It was the first time they had all been over since the girls had been born. We had a great time. Judd grilled some steaks and I made a chocolate cake for dessert.

It has been a little dream of mine to get a picture with all three girls. Tonight we got that picture.

Judd has finished up his day watching "The Jerk". Can't think of a better way to end the day :)

Swimming with Aunt Al

Allison invited us (ok, we invited ourselves) to her neighborhood pool on Saturday afternoon. I stopped at Target on the way and picked up a little raft for Charlotte. We had a great time catching up with "Aunt Al". There was even a guest appearance by Allison's mom, it was good to see her too.

Allison looks fabulous, a cute little preggo lady. They already have their crib and changing table set up!

Ready to Work

Judd put Charlotte in our big office chair last week and I thought she looked cute in the big chair. Today I thought I'd take her picture in it. She sits up surprisingly well....

First Fourth

Happy Belated 4th of July! We hope you had as great a day as we had.

We started out the day very early. Judd and Charlotte dropped me off at Lenox Mall around 6:45 so I could line up at the start of the Peachtree. This was my 7th time to participate. I didn't know how the race was going to go for me considering I have run about 10 times since Charlotte was born. I was pleasantly surprised. I ended up with a finishing time of 1:00:27!

It was a great race. There are so many enthusiastic people lining the race cheering you on. While I was running I kept thinking about last year's race. I was pregnant with Charlotte, about 8 or 9 weeks along. I ran it with Erin, who wasn't pregnant yet. We had a great time, took our time, walked a lot. We walked to Krispy Kreme after the race and each had a couple doughnuts. I kept thinking about how drastically each of our lives has changed in one year!

Charlotte and Judd were there to greet me at the finish line.

We relaxed the rest of the day. We went to eat at Fox Brother's bar-b-que for a late lunch. Later in the evening we went to Decatur to watch the parade and listen to the Callanwalde band. Charlotte loved listening to the music and watching all of the people. We left before the fireworks started so she could get to bed closer to her normal bed time.

NewBaby.com

Found this today and thought I'd share:

http://www.newbaby.com

It is video blogging. Lots of "how tos" and advice about babies.

Blue Lights

Last night I was snuggled on the couch with Judd watching the Olympic trials and dreaming of being in as good of shape as Olympic swimmers are. Around 8:45 we noticed a red truck drive by followed by 3 vehicles with bright flashing headlights and streaming blue lights. They seemed to be slowing down as they passed our house. I thought, "Just the redneck neighbors and their tricked out cars." Judd went downstairs to peek out of the garage to see what was going on. Turns out it was undercover police cars pulling over the red truck. They ended up arresting someone from the truck and ticketing the lovely (not!) shirtless redneck driving it.

Below was the scene from the perspective of our front lawn. The blue truck, wagon, and Expedition were the undercover police cars.



Pretty exciting stuff for a Tuesday night.

5 Months

Seriously, it's July already?

No stats at 5 months.

Here are the comparisons...it isn't obvious from the pictures, but she is big! She is really filling out her 6 month clothes, I think we'll be moving to 9 months soon.

4 months	5 months

I really have to get better at making the pictures look better for comparisons.