Taking Baby To Walk

Cindy is Charlotte's baby. She got her for Christmas. Her name is Cindy because of Charlotte's resemblance to Cindy Lou Who.

Lately we have been taking Cindy on lots of walks. Yesterday, after we returned home from taking Jody for a walk, Charlotte said, "I take Cindy to walk." So, we went upstairs and packed up Cindy into her stroller.



Then she started running with her down the sidewalk. (maybe we need a baby jogging stroller?)



Cindy loves the walks. You would think she would be scared to death after the stroller has been tipped over or hurled down the sidewalk. But instead she just closes her eyes and goes to sleep.



Usually we have to find a stick to take back to Jody.



Then Charlotte declares it is Cindy's birthday when we hit one of the sewer caps and sits down in the middle of the sidewalk to sing "Happy Birthday" at the top of her lungs.



This walk of about 75 yards usually takes us 30 minutes or so to complete. In other words it takes FOREVER. I was telling Judd about our walks the other day and he said, "Sounds great - sure beats sitting in a cube, working." I had to agree with that.

Swimming

I've been keeping a little secret from all of you lovely blog readers. Charlotte and I have been up to something. Every Monday and Wednesday morning for the past four weeks we have packed up our swimsuits and headed to the Y for swimming lessons.

Why didn't I write about this sooner? I haven't been able to get a single picture to prove that we have actually been doing it. And, I have a really, really hard time blogging about something like this without a picture. But, this past Saturday we did a make up class since Judd and I were in NYC last Monday. Judd was able to come along and video tape.

When asked whether he would like to jump in the pool and be Charlotte's buoy or video tape, didn't take him long to decide. go figure.

Charlotte started out 4 weeks ago very excited about swimming lessons, but still not so sure that she wanted to let go of me - AT ALL. So, I was patient and let her fingernails dig into my neck and shoulders for a half hour two days a week. Then in the 3rd week, she grabbed onto a noodle and let go of me. It was the miracle my neck had prayed for - she swam solo holding onto a noodle. I was one proud mama.

Then this past week, she took it a step further. I put her little "backpack" on and held onto her waist. All of the sudden I felt her little legs pumping as hard as they could. So, I let go to see what would happen. She took off! "Swimming" all around. She was so proud of herself you could feel it. I was pretty darn proud too.

We have a little over a month before the pool opens. I'm hoping that these lessons will be fresh enough in her little brain and little muscles that she'll feel right at home there this summer.

Here she is in action.

Why?

Someone told me the other day that the "why?" questions weren't supposed to hit until the 3s. Lucky us, Charlotte has started early. I would say we are averaging about 250 why questions/day. Our brains are tired at the end of the day. In the morning, I actually try to think of why something might be the way that it is - but by the end of the day I go with the standard answer, "That's how God made it."



Here are a couple examples from today:
C: "Why we having pancakes for lunch?"
Me: "I thought it would be fun."
C: "Why you think it would be fun?"
Me: "Because it is something different and you like to help"
C: "Why me like to help?"
Me: "I don't know, why do you like to help?"
C: "I dunno"

C: "What's Daddy doing?"
Me: "Taking a shower"
C: "Why he taking shower?"
Me: "Because he has to go to work"
C: "Why he go to work"
Me: "You know why, why does he have to go to work?"
C: "To make money" pause....
C: "Why he need to make money?"
Me: "So we can feed you and do fun things"
C: "Why we do fun things?"
Me: "Because we do"

We have been asked "Why the sky is blue?" on a daily basis. That one I can safely say I don't know the answer other than - "God made it that way"

She came home from her grandparent's house saying, "I love asking questions" I'm pretty sure she was told that she "loves asking questions" a lot. But no matter how tiring the "whys" are, I am so very thankful for having a curious child.



(what the majority of pictures look like these days - this is her "smile")

NYC

Judd and I made it back to Atlanta yesterday afternoon after a wonderful trip to New York.

We didn't have an agenda, we just wanted to take in the city and try to relax a little bit. We had fabulous luck with eating - thanks in part to the wonderful little app I had on my iPhone called Yelp. We ate fairly inexpensively even though we ate great Italian food in the cutest little restaurants.

We saw South Pacific at Lincoln Center on Saturday night (it was awesome!), went to the movies on Sunday night, and went to a comedy club on Monday night.

Sunday morning we spent walking around the Upper Westside checking out the flea and farmer's markets. Sunday afternoon we headed to B&H Photo. It is the coolest place for anyone remotely interested in photography, videography, recording, etc. Monday we went to the Top of the Rock and to the Museum of Modern Art. There is a performance artist on exhibit there right now and let's just say it was, well, interesting.

We had great travel luck - first class both ways. That beats sitting in coach trying to entertain a 2 year old any day.

We spent some great time together just the two of us. We always have a good time traveling together - something that I'm extremely happy about. We have very similar tastes and travel style. Sure, we missed Charlotte, but we knew she was in good hands and didn't worry about her at all. In fact, we even forgot to call her one night before she went to bed because we were too worried about getting from the restaurant to the movie on time!

From what I hear, Charlotte had a wonderful time with her grandparents. She played with baby ducks, ate ice cream cones at the dock, went to the park, ate cheetos and coke on the boat, fished with her Grandaddy, played with her Grandmother, went on the paddle boat with Aunt Pam, and had lunch with her Great Grandparents. They said she slept great, and I'm sure she did with all of that going on.

Col-De-Sac Fun

What evenings in the Spring and Summer should be.











My new all time favorite is in one of the sets above - can you guess?

Reason #567 why I love him

A month or so ago, Judd and I planned to go to Cabo, Mexico for 5 nights/6 days sans Charlotte. Judd planned the whole thing. We had two tickets to fly anywhere in the world, so Judd booked our seats with those. Then we had enough hotel points to cover our hotel stay - a semi-free vacation, what could be better.

At the time I voiced my doubts about being about to be away from Charlotte for that long. It would be the longest I have ever been away from her, and I just didn't know if I could do that. Don't get me wrong - I need a break, and I recognize that, but 5 nights is a long time. Judd told me that he had worked hard on booking and researching the trip and to be honest, his feelings were kind of hurt. He said that I would love the time away and would be able to relax when I got there.

So, I started to get used to the idea. I soon began to look forward to the time away and knew that I probably needed a full 5 nights to completely relax. I was starting to plan out my wardrobe - and this takes some work when you barely still fit into your old clothes (yes, you "pop" a lot faster with the 2nd) and you don't have too many cute summer maternity clothes to choose from. I had even started to get used to the fact that I would be putting on a bathing suit.

Then, Judd got home from Las Vegas last week. He was tired. He had been on the road for a few nights for the past 3 weeks. He missed his Charlotte. He looked at me and said, "you are gonna kill me, but I don't think I want to be gone from her for 5 nights. I've been gone so much lately, and will be leaving again the week after we get back - can we just go somewhere for 3 nights?" My mouth dropped open and I gave him a big hug. Seriously, how can you say no to that?

So, we are still headed out of town this weekend, but for 3 nights. It will be a really nice get away. We are headed to NYC and will be staying close to Central Park. We plan to see a show, eat lots of yummy food, and try to do a few things we haven't done there before. And, I won't have to put on a bathing suit :)

Big Girl Bed

Last Thursday we converted Charlotte's crib to a toddler bed or "big girl bed". Charlotte and I made a special trip to Target to find some bedding and Charlotte picked out a cute owl/forest print which matches her room pretty well. (Thank the Lord for Target - seriously, what did people do before it existed?) She helped me wash the bedding and then Judd put the bed together.

Charlotte jumped right in and pulled the covers up to her chin. She loved it. While I was getting dinner together, Judd told her she couldn't have something or other and she stomped her little foot and said, "I go to my big girl bed" and marched upstairs and sat in her bed. It was pretty funny. Judd and I thought, "well, guess we'll have a nice quiet dinner". She eventually came down and joined us for dinner.

She has done really well with the bed. She doesn't get out of it without Judd or I coming into her room in the morning or after nap. We have toddler proofed her room just in case.

She wasn't climbing out of her crib, she would have stayed in her crib until she was 5 if we would have let her. It is starting to get to the point where I am having a hard time lifting her over the rail and laying her on the mattress. Also, we will eventually need the mattress for the baby. So, we decided to go ahead and give it a whirl - so far so good.

It was more emotional than I thought it would be when I peeked in on her the first night before I went to bed. She looked SO big asleep with her head on a pillow and tucked into her covers. She is turning into a little girl right before my eyes.

Baby Davis #2

We found out we were pregnant mid February with this baby. While we were extremely excited, Judd and I were also scared to get too attached to the baby until we knew that everything was OK.

In early December I had a miscarriage at 7.5 weeks. It was something that I never thought would never happen to me. I was in PA for my sister's wedding and had some bleeding. I called my doctor and they said the only thing to do, since I was out of town, was go to an urgent care clinic or the ER. I went to urgent care, but they didn't have the equipment, so I headed to the ER. After a 5 or 6 hour ordeal, and an ultrasound that showed no baby and measuring at 5 weeks, they sent me home. I lost the "baby" that night.

It is hard to describe the feelings that you go through. Not only is it emotionally painful, it is physically painful. But, with the help of my wonderful husband and our family (especially my dad who was with me in the ER), we got through it and decided to give it another whirl - and it worked!

The doctor I see likes to confirm the pregnancy at about 7 weeks. So, mid March I headed to the doctor excited to see if this baby was progressing the way it should. I watched the ultrasound screen, so anxiously that I think I stopped breathing. It wasn't the best of news. Even though it had been 7 weeks according to my dates, the baby was only measuring at 5 weeks. I couldn't believe that this was happening again. She reassured me that everything looked perfect for 5 weeks and we would repeat the ultrasound in 2 weeks. She said to just wait and see what happened.

The next 2 weeks went by VERY slowly and I was a nervous wreck the entire time. I was obsessed with every cramp, every feeling.

Judd went with me for the ultrasound at the "new" 7.5 week mark. We watched the screen and immediately saw a little embryo with a heartbeat beating away. Oh the feeling of relief. Judd squeezed my hand and the tears were just running down my cheeks. My due date was adjusted to Oct 24th.

We went for an ultrasound at 11.5 weeks last week and saw the baby again, this time in 3D. The baby is perfect - growing just like it should. We couldn't be happier. The doctor asked if we wanted him to guess the sex. I had heard they could make a guess this early and Judd and I agreed to have him guess. He took a look and said he is 90% sure it is a BOY! While, we aren't buying any blue yet, and we honestly don't care at all what the sex is, it is exciting to think about a little guy running around this house tormenting his big sister.

Now that I am breathing a little easier about this pregnancy and really starting to believe that it is really happening, we have to start figuring out how we are going to fit another kiddo in this house!

Moving

We will be moving this blog over to a new spot on the web sometime around October 24th.

Davis, Party of 4

Please update any of your bookmarks accordingly.

More details to come on Monday.

Tame the Mane

The weather has been turning Charlotte's hair into an untamed mane the past few days. It is super curly. It isn't really long enough to do anything with. Every morning I try to put some water in it and comb it into place, but each afternoon it looks like this. It's pretty darn cute if you ask me, even if it isn't perfectly in place with a bow on top.

Easter Weekend

We headed to the lake on Friday afternoon to spend Easter weekend with the Davis clan. As usual, we spent most of our time enjoying the sun (and pollen) on the dock, taking boat rides, eating, and talking. There was an egg hunt thrown into the mix on Saturday.

One of the highlights of the weekend were the 2 baby ducks that Judd's parents got for each of the cousins, Lilly, Katie, and Charlotte for a total of 6 ducks. With a little help from her Dad, Charlotte named her two ducks Cheese and Quakers. The little ducks have a few more weeks to spend growing up in a tub in their garage before they are released into the lake.

Charlotte had a wonderful time. The child was covered in dirt & sweat at the end of each day. (A sure sign you have played as hard as you can) She stuck to her cousin Lilly like glue. Lilly is 6 and could have ignored Charlotte, but instead she played and played with her. They jumped on the bed, chased each other, played with toys, and caught minnows out of Grandaddy's fishing bucket. It made me so excited about watching them grow up together.

The weekend would have been absolutely perfect except for one thing - Katie couldn't be there and we missed her!

Happy Easter!

We are headed to the lake for the weekend to celebrate Easter with Judd's family. Hope you have a wonderful weekend!




Last year's:




First Easter:

Lucky

One day you will not have flat, chubby baby feet - they will have arches and look grown up.

One day you will actually have ankles.

One day you will not have dimples where your fingers meet your hands.



One day you will not want to have a birthday party for your doll, Cindy. You will not want me to play with you. You will not give me a pretend cupcake and let me blow out the "candle" on your cupcake.

But, today you did let me join in the birthday party and it was one of those special times that everything in my brain left for a few minutes and I was able to concentrate 110% on you and every move you made. I loved the way you helped Cindy into her high chair, the way you cleaned up when she "spilled" her orange juice. They way you look at me with a spark in your eye when you know you did something funny, just waiting for me to laugh so you can laugh too.



I actually cried this morning when Daddy was leaving for work because I didn't think I could make it through the day alone with you. I was so tired from the past few nights when you have woken up 2 or 3 times. I was so tired because your Daddy had been out of town. I wasn't sure I could do it.

But then, I calmed down, made a cup of coffee and watched you play Weebles. I reminded myself of just how lucky I am to have these days with you and that I wouldn't trade it.