Poor 'Ol Jody

Yesterday was a rough day for old Jody. We made the decision to have about 5 inches of her tail removed. The end of her tail just wasn't healing, so the vet thought it would be the best thing to do. Since the surgery leaves a much cleaner wound, we'll have an easier time getting it healed - finally.

I have had a love/hate (more towards the hate) relationship with Jody since Charlotte was born. I have seen her as a burden, just one more thing to take care of. She gets hair EVERYWHERE, so I'm always vacuuming. But, this surgery has turned me around. Friday morning when I dropped her off for the surgery, I was wracked with guilt about the decision Judd and I had made. Would I still hear her tail thumping against the doors and walls when she wags it? I had tears in my eyes when talking to the vet about it when I dropped her off. As, much as the dog annoys me, she is SUCH a good, sweet, old dog.

Judd picked her up a little while ago. She looks great, like nothing has happened - and there is still plenty of tail left to wag.

A Day With Daddy

Charlotte was still a little under the weather on Monday afternoon. She had a bad cough, and judging by her diapers, she still had a little bit of a virus. I have a lot of work this week, and a deadline next week - I really couldn't afford the time to stay home with her on Tuesday. So, I called Judd and asked if he'd be able to stay home with her. He said he would.

Charlotte has been quite the Mommy's girl lately. She literally clings to me when he tries to take her. It is to the point where she won't even let him feed her if I'm around. The other night we were playing in her room after her bath. Judd laid his head in my lap just to see what she would do. She looked at him and screamed, then came over and pushed his head out of my lap, and sat down to claim her territory. So, I was a little anxious about Tuesday. I wasn't anxious about his ability to care for her - quite the opposite - I knew he'd do a great job with that - I just didn't want her to scream the entire day.

Turns out they had a wonderful day together. I got home on Tuesday afternoon and they were out for the second walk of the day. They got Chick-fil-a for lunch, and she took 2 wonderful naps.

On my first day back to work last April, Judd opened up a Gmail account for Charlotte. He sent me emails that day "from her" saying that she was doing great at daycare. It was very sweet. Tuesday, I was emailed a few times "from Charlotte", with pictures attached, telling me what a great time she was having with her dad. I loved that.

Tuesday, Judd got a glimpse of how it would be to stay home with Charlotte full time. I asked him if he wanted to do that - I'd work and he could stay home. He said he wasn't interested, but I think he actually thought about it for a minute before he answered.

Walkin'

When I picked Charlotte up from daycare on Friday, I was told that she had done a lot of walking that day. Sure enough, when I got her home, she walked all over the place. She continued the trend throughout the weekend. She even got to the point where she could stand from a sitting position without holding on to anything.

(You may be wondering what the red splotch is on her chin - seems she has some eczema)

We spent the weekend down at the lake with Judd's family. During the month of Feb. we celebrated Judd's grandfather's birthday, Charlotte's birthday, his cousin, Andrea's birthday, and his sister's birthday. We had one big birthday party on Saturday. Judd's mom was back to her entertaining self and hosted 20 people! We had a good time visiting with family and playing Guitar Hero. Charlotte got to sip sweet tea out of everyone's cup, ate Fritos and all sorts of other things that people handed her.

Saturday night she threw up in her crib. When I picked her up, she threw up on me. By the end of it, I had gone through 2 different sets of pajamas. We're not sure if was everything she ate on Saturday, a virus, or something else. We ended up leaving early on Sunday in order to get her home. She seems to be feeling better today.

Charlotte got a new table and chairs from Judd's parents for her birthday. We brought it home this weekend. It is just perfect for her. It has some flowers painted on the chairs and the table. She ate a little lunch sitting at the table yesterday. I was kind of shocked that she sat up in the chair and ate like such a big girl! Today I got some pictures of her with her table. However, she decided to test me by continuing to stand up in the chair. In fact, at one point (without prompting), she stood up in the chair and held her arms straight up to show me "How Big" she was. That was the end of table time for a while.

R & S

What I've Learned from American Idol

Judd and I love this time of year. TV is fantastic. Between "How I Met Your Mother", "American Idol", "The Amazing Race", "Lost", "The Office", and "Dragons' Den", we have something to watch each night, and usually a DVR full of shows to catch up on.

So far we have watched every episode of American Idol. Not sure that we have a favorite Idol yet, maybe in the next few weeks one will emerge.

What I have learned from watching this season of American Idol is that the love a parent has for their child has to be the strongest love out there. I knew that this was true in my own life, but watching all of these parents truly believe in their children regardless of what they are wearing or how they sing is heartwarming. Last night as the different "artists" would come up to the Red Room, most were greeted by a smile and hug from their Mom or Dad. They must find so much comfort knowing that no matter how sharp their notes are, their parents think they have the most beautiful voice in the world.

Charlotte's teeth may grow in 100 different directions, she may never grow hair, maybe she'll never walk - but to me she is the most beautiful, intelligent child in the world - and not even Simon Cowell can convince me otherwise. I hope that I can successfully instill this feeling of security into Charlotte - I pray that she will always know that no matter what she does, I'll love her.

Valentine's Day in San Antonio

Judd and I decided to take Charlotte and go on a little adventure for Valentine's weekend. We checked flights looking for a place that had plenty of available seats. We hoped for a place that was warm, had sand and sea, but those places all had planes flying to capacity. So, we thought about San Antonio. I had never been, but had heard the riverwalk was nice.

We woke up Saturday morning and headed to the airport. After sitting in the plane for an hour, then a 2.5 hour flight, we arrived in San Antonio about 1pm on Saturday and made our way to the hotel. We stayed at the Drury Plaza Inn on the riverwalk. This hotel is in the Alamo National Bank building and used to be just that, a bank. The lobby is pretty amazing, and the rooms were really nice. Plus, they threw in breakfast on Sunday morning.

Since Charlotte wouldn't take a nap we headed down to walk along the river. After that we made our way over to the Alamo.

(This is the kind of picture you get when you ask a teenager to take your picture. You'd think she would have thought to get the Alamo actually in it. Oh well)

After walking for a while more, we stopped to have dinner at a Mexican place along the river. We headed back to the hotel.

We had a pretty rough night Saturday night. Charlotte was not digging the hotel crib and was up from 2am until 5:30am off and on. She just couldn't get comfortable. I even broke my #1 rule and brought her into bed with us. But, I guess we have done too good on that rule because she wanted nothing to do with sleeping with us.

We woke up very tired on Sunday starting to second guess this whole weekend getaway idea. After some breakfast and Starbucks we were feeling recharged. We headed down to the river for another walk. Charlotte slept for about an hour while we walked. We checked out, grabbed some lunch, and headed to the San Antonio Zoo. I was a little surprised by how much Charlotte seemed to enjoy it. I think she was more interested in the people than the animals, but she was very entertained.

After the zoo we headed to the hill country to look around, then made our way to the airport. Charlotte slept the entire way home, which was wonderful.

I think we learned that we may need to wait a little while to try this again. Charlotte was VERY good the majority of the time, but we were all pretty exhausted by the time we got home last night.

My Little Valentine

My little model has adopted a different attitude towards the camera...I don't get much eye contact anymore, and when I do, she doesn't smile.

So Big

It's just us girls today. Last night, Judd and a friend went to D.C. for the night and day today. Judd hadn't been anywhere in a while and got the itch. Last night we went to dinner with Judd's cousin Jennifer. Today we were going to go visit Drena & Oliver, but Charlotte woke up with a runny nose and cough. I didn't want to expose little Oliver to that. I'm hoping that I can go tomorrow afternoon when Judd can watch Charlotte. I haven't seen Drena or Oliver since before Christmas, and I'm sure he's grown so much.

So, today I think we will probably go to the mall and get Charlotte some new shoes. Her current pair are starting to look pretty bad and I think they are getting a little small.

We had a fun morning this morning. This past week she only took one nap a day at daycare. So, she has been really cranky in the evenings. It makes me so sad when the only time I get to spend with her during the day she is tired and fussy. Thursday night she cried for a half an hour, picking her up didn't even calm her down. Then she refused to eat any dinner she was so tired. So, this morning was much needed. I just needed to see her smile.

Lately, when you ask Charlotte, "How big is Charlotte?", she will throw up her arms when you follow up with, "SOOOOOO Big."

Updates

Charlotte had a doctor's appointment on Tuesday - her 1 year checkup. Here are her stats:

Weight: 21 lb 3 oz - 50% percentile
Length: 31 1/4 " - 75-90% percentile
Head: 18 1/4 " - 75% percentile

We went off of bottles on Saturday and she is doing a little better with the sippy cup everyday. She still drinks juice and water out of the cup like a champ. Milk, not so much. I have been mixing the milk with a little bit of apple juice - sounds gross, but she drinks that up. Last night she got up at midnight and wouldn't stop crying, so I fixed her a cup of juice & milk and she gulped it down in about 3 minutes. It has been SO nice to not have to fix bottles in the morning before day care and cleaning them in the evening.

Jody's tail seems to be on the mend. I took her in on Monday to have it checked. The doctor seemed confident that we could leave the bandage off, that it had healed. He said there was a little scab on the tip of the tail, but if it opened up, then just to put pressure on it. I felt like the bandage should stay on for another week, but took his word for it. Sure enough yesterday morning in her usual fashion, she banged it along the wall of the hallway as she wagged it furiously in anticipation of breakfast. I looked and there was blood splattered everywhere. It was the very tip of the tail, not the usual spot, so I bandaged that and hopefully it will heal. If we are still dealing with it in a week, I'm going to have the tail docked. We have been trying to get this tail to heal for 2 months and I've lost all patience. Think of me what you will, but cleaning blood splatters off of my wall & floor is just something I don't want to do anymore. Any other moms out there that have lost all patience with their pets after having kids? or am I the only heartless person out there?

P & Q

Happy Birthday Charlotte!

My baby turned 1 today at 6:26 pm, just before the Super Bowl started. She came home from the hospital on Super Bowl Sunday last year - we got home about half time.

We have had a wonderful weekend celebrating her big day. Yesterday we celebrated her birthday with a polka dot party. Judd and my dad covered the tables with polka dot wrapping paper, I made polka dot cupcakes, there were polka dot plates & napkins. Charlotte wore her polka dot birthday dress.

My co-worker and friend, Candy made Charlotte's cake. It was so cute, brown and pink to match her dress.

Charlotte started eating her cake very politely:

Then, she dug a little deeper:

Then she figured using her hands was a waste of time:

She loved the cake so much, she decided to give it a hug:

While this weekend was a lot of fun, I have been a little sad about this milestone. There were a lot of sentences started this weekend with , "Last year at this time." This morning we plugged the video camera into the TV and watched the videos of the past year, including the hours before she was born in Labor & Delivery. It just made me realize how much I need to cherish this time because she'll be two before I know it.