Pictures!

What a goofball - she loves to cheese it up for the camera.


Daddy's girl.


Nothing like a Saturday afternoon snooze in you teddybear pram.


At least somebody is getting some sleep....Maggie the princess.

Don't underestimate...

The power of having pants that fit. I finally accepted the fact that although my waistline may shrink post-pregnancy, my new hips feel the need to hang out for a while. My MIL, Patty, was kind enough to come babysit yesterday while I shopped for new pants. Kohl's to the rescue. It felt great to be able to pull on pants that fit nicely and didn't have an elastic waist band. It doesn't matter what the size on the label is if you feel and look good in them!

Kim's baby

For those who know Kim, her son was born this morning. I won't give specific family details in order to respect her privacy on my blog, but mom and baby are both well. Look at all of his golden locks! 7# 1oz and 21.5".



Congratulations Kim!

6 weeks

Our little one turned six weeks yesterday. I have had so much fun getting to know her. Just like any new relationship, I am still in the "infatuation" period and she can do no wrong.
In these few weeks I have learned:
She likes to sleep swaddled, but with her right arm out and over her head.
She cries loudly and says "neh" when hungry. Her tired cry is an angry whimper.
She loves the orange flower that hangs on her bouncer seat and she likes to have her legs free so she can kick to make the flower dance.
The best way to make her smile is your toothiest grin.
She thinks naps are over-rated. If she is going to nap, her favorite place is in your arms.
Puppy noses are great for tickles.
Kung Pao chicken in breast milk = trip to the store for carpet cleaner.
She likes warm baths, but hates the cold lotion.
Glowing lights and church music are soothing.
Lastly...
As soon as you think you have her figured out, everything changes.

Separation anxiety

My baby seems to hate naps. She can look dreadfully tired, but outside of my arms, a vibrating bouncer, or swing- she will fight the nap tip the end. I try to leave her to cry it out, but after 5 minutes, my heart can't take it anymore. I do swaddle her, "shush", rock/sway, and sometimes use a pacifier. Often I get her sleepy and laid down peacefully, but it seems some unknown thing will startle her and once she sees I am gone it's time to scream.
Any advice from the seasoned veterans out there? Is this just a phase? And note that I am blogging this on my iTouch while watching over her crib. This time I'm going to try to slowly leave Supernanny-style.

Survey says..

We've definitely been given many opinions as to whether little Charlie looks like me or Bri, and the opinions seem quite divided. Funny though how people will be very firm with their belief, "Oh definitely Brian!" So, I've decided to take a poll.





And yes, I know Brian and I look alike.

Quizzes by Quibblo.com

Amos


Matthew

Quizzes by Quibblo.com

Or maybe she just looks like her "sister"!


I already put in my responses, so giddy-up!

Valentine's Day Love

My brother-in-law married the love of his life on Valentine's Day (and her birthday). The ceremony took place at the beautiful St. John 's Chapel in Plymouth. Julie looked like a modern day Cinderella in her dress, and of course, she wouldn't be complete without her prince, David.




Charlotte behaved better than I could've ever asked for, even after I drug her all around the greater Detroit to meet her great grandmother and visit with grandpa at work. She didn't even spit up on her dress. She got a lot of love from all of her relatives. It was so nice to have this chance to share her with everyone.


Cousin Matthew was all dudded up in a suit from Jack & Jill. Jacqueline looked gorgeous - very classy in her navy blue dress and french twist. Mothers often worry about their child out-shadowing them, but not a worry for Jacq - she'll stand out in any crowd.


We rushed home Sunday so Charlotte could meet another special person. Her "Uncle" David drove up from Cincinnati to meet her. It was so nice to see him, if only we could talk him into moving back to Michigan. Come on David!!

Smiles!

Charlotte is 5 weeks old today and I dare you to argue with me that this isn't a real and true smile. As my mom said, "You'll know they're real when her eyes are smiling."
And believe me, she wasn't passing gas. It brought tears to my eyes (the smiles, not gas).

Coolest backpack ever.

Jacqueline tipped me off to this cool knitting accessory, the PurlPod backpack. It will keep your yarn for separate projects organized and tangle-free. It definitely ranks as awesome, but not $270 awesome. For now I'll stick with my zip-lock bags.

As for knitting, Monday marked 28 days with no knitting, so I took action. Charlotte went to knit night with me that night. Even though I only had time to knit 4 rows, it felt good to be back on the horse. She seems to like sitting on my lap and watching the needles (and tangling her fingers in the yarn). Last night I got to knit for one whole hour! Happy day.

Belly time

Charlotte loved the sunny weather yesterday...so much so that she only took one good nap in the day. This led to a very cranky girl come bed time. I'm working much harder at getting her to nap today. The weather was so nice that I put her in the Baby Bjorn and walked Maggie for a bit. I had to be careful to avoid all the "doggie land mines" that the melted snow revealed on the sidewalk.

She's tolerant of a little belly time, although she can't do much to lift her head just yet. She sort of looks surprised in this pic.

4 Weeks

My precious baby is 4 weeks old today and I'm so sad to realize my maternity leave is 1/2 over already! Time has flown by. In 4 weeks, I don't think Charlotte has changed too much. She's still a calm baby and has these moments of attentiveness that would make you swear that she understands you. She eats every 2-4 hours, sleeps up to 5 hours at night, and loves to listen to music.

She hasn't learned any fabulous "tricks" yet, so Jessie, tell Carl he'd be disappointed. But, I took her to the candy shop today and these women insisted she was waving back at them. She did have her right hand up and was wiggling her fingers, but I'm not going to pretend she was really waving...especially since they were standing about 5 feet away. But now that I think about it, maybe she was waving in hopes they would give her some candy.

And at 4 weeks, I would like to think I am starting to get the routine down. But today, after I had just changed a poopy diaper, bundled her in the car seat, grabbed my purse, and had a treat in hand to give to Maggie as we walked out the door, a tell-tale explosion was heard down-under. I thought, "No way you just pooped baby!" I considered just leaving her as it was going to be a short outing, but I couldn't. I pulled her out of the car seat and found that she had even pooped through her outfit. And this is why moms are always running behind!

I love this pic of Maggie sniffing Charlotte. I'm not sure Charlotte is fond of cold, wet noses. I think Maggie wants to eat the flower off this hat.

SNL must read my blog!



Well, maybe not since this clip seems to defend Michael Phelps - but still I'm flattered.

What I've learned about poop

My friend, Carrie, gave me the advice that "no one wants to hear about your baby's poop." Tough, I'm going to talk about it anyway!

In four weeks, I've learned so much already about baby poop that I want to pass on my advice to any other soon-to-be new moms.

1) Even though the baby's diet consists of one thing, their poop comes in every color and texture you can imagine.

2) In no way does the velocity or amplitude of the poop correlate to what you will find in the diaper.

3) The mother who quickly attends to the sound of a newly pooped in diaper will regret it, as she will use 4 diapers in that one change. Each time she wipes and switches, more poop will inevitably be deposited into the clean and rather expensive Pampers.

4) Spray and wash Oxy is a miracle product for removing poop stains. And the sink used to be for washing dishes and soaking delicates. Now you will use it to soak poopy clothes at 2 am.

5) As much as you'd like to believe your newborn is smiling or contemplating how much she loves being your daughter, she's not thinking about anything, she's just working on pooping.

Brian told me last night he wants me to update the blog because he doesn't want to see Charlotte's cross-eyed photo anymore. See, I told you it was a face only a mother could love!

Anyway, other than baby, I have a few other thoughts on my mind. I have plenty of time to watch t.v. right now. I'm not really into the news heavy networks like CNN, but I love my morning and evening news as well as GMA. So, my thoughts on news you may have missed.

Michael Phelps is now an idiot in my book. He had everything going for him! Why risk it all just to look cool in front of a bunch of non-medal holding college students. This should be on the SNL news portion where Seth and Amy go back and forth saying "REALLY?!"

I'm glad I don't live in Tucson, because I watched the Super Bowl with my in-laws. That would've been awkward.

For those who need an excuse not to eat fish. Just another depressing comment about humanity.

And - my favorite Super Bowl commercial.

Somehow I still snuck babies in this post.

Not every pic is a keeper.

I've been working on getting a great photo of Charlotte for her birth announcements. I'm a bit tardy in getting them out, but because I want to hand-make them, it's slowing me down a lot. Anyway, during our home "photo shoot" this morning, Charlotte went a bit cross-eyed. Too funny. A face only a mom could love :)

Playing dress-up

I think most girls remember how fun it was to dress their Barbie dolls in all of their favorite dresses, style their hair, then pretend they were going to a prom. I always loved Peaches and Cream Barbie the best. The corset on her dress was glimmering white and her skirt was made with layer upon layer of peach chiffon.



Well, now I have my own living doll to dress up - Charlotte. Her first official special occasion is Uncle David's wedding on February 14th. Unfortunately, it's quite difficult to find a nice dress in 0-3 months. I tried Kohl's, Carters, Gymboree, The Children's Place, Baby Gap and Macy's. The best dress I found was at Macy's, and I think it's darn cute. It even has little roses stitched on the center pleat. Hopefully she can go more than a couple hours before pooping on it.

20 days

I can't believe my baby is almost three weeks old! We're getting to know each other better every day. We're definitely not on a schedule, but we do have a routine, so it makes it easier to know what she needs. The nights are peaceful and I don't dread them like I did when I was pumping. I get up with her about every 4 hours for 45 minutes. It feels calm and serene knowing the world is sleeping around us.
Yesterday, Brian's cousin, Rachael, and her bf, Steve, visited. Rachael brought Charlotte's completed hat and sweater set. This was her first hat and sweater. She was committed to making them perfect and she really did! Rach - we tried the sweater on her after you left and it fits great right now. She wore it to church last night and was cute as a button.