Staying on Top of It All

First off, I don't. That is the problem.

If the house is clean, the fridge is stocked, meals are prepared, and Charlotte entertained, I've only managed to squeeze in a few hours of work for the week.

If I pull a solid week of work (between 20 and 30 hours), the house is a mess, the laundry isn't done, there are no fresh foods in the fridge, Charlotte whines at my feet, and I lack the enthusiasm to turn something frozen into a low-carb, low-fat feast.

There has to be something I'm missing on how to do this right and keep everything balanced.

In case you ever doubted...

here is some proof that Charlotte does in deed have half of my genes:

(My 1st Birthday - 2/18/82)

Amazing, huh?

I was a little excited.

Okay, A LOT excited. I used to think she was strictly FRED's child, no relation to me...

Step by Step

While it has proven a little more difficult than originally thought to get Charlotte's walking moves on video and from video to web, I thought this picture would show that she's coming along! We do have some video, but its not so great.

We had a fun weekend with teething. Tooth #10 has been lurking just below her gums for weeks, and both it and tooth #11 finally broke though Saturday! She also sported a fever most of the weekend, but it subsided yesterday as she bounced back to her cheerful self. Her sleep schedule is still ALL wacky.

In other excitement, AUNT CHRISTY and BRIAN got engaged last night! Whoo hoo! We got to celebrate with them shortly after he proposed. After bringing Charlotte home and tucking her into bed, I went back over to my parents house and hung out with them until well after midnight. I came home to Fred and Charlotte sleeping together in our bed. She obviously woke up and gave him a hard time, but so cute!

Summer Fun

This morning Mommy distracted me long enough to do my hair:



Then we went outside for a walk:

I'm so good at this, aren't I?

Whew, this walking stuff takes it out of a girl!

Now for a nap! Maybe Mommy will take me swimming this afternoon...

Mommy Frustrations

Just a few frustrating things from the life of this Mommy.

1. Things you never knew could stain:
   - Bananas leave BLACK spots on clothing
   - Bug spray leaves a nasty yellow ring on white
2. RUINING clothes as I try to get stains out, assuming they aren't already ruined
3. Any expensive toy Charlotte only plays with for 5 seconds
4. Bibs secured with velcro. This sucks because almost ALL of my bibs are velcro.
   - Charlotte recently decided she doesn't like to wear a bib and pulls them all right off.
   - There is a good chance that they'll tear up everything in the wash if not fastened before going in.
5. Nothing is organized, ever, since Charlotte always pulls anything and everything out, into her mouth for a taste, and drops it on the floor before moving on to the next thing.

We had lunch with some friends of ours who don't have a child. It was kind of hard to explain how I wouldn't trade any of the above frustrations/lack of time to myself for my life without Mommy responsibilities. I love our little girl to pieces and pieces and enjoy all of the "work" that comes with her. (Though I'll admit, sometimes I march on with a little groan.)

Cloth Reflections

So after two months of full time cloth diapering, these are my thoughts.

1. I hate stuffing pocket diapers. I am so lazy! Why do I forget this about myself? I got all excited about a SALE and bought more of the BumGenius 3.0s than I originally intended instead of more all-in-one diapers. I saved a little extra cash in the long run because I purchased the size adjustable diapers, but all in all, I rather just wash and go! Something to remember if I'm make future cloth diaper purchases.
   
2. Cloth wipes- flannel-rock! I received a gift package of 12 when Cotton Babies made a small goof on my order. They work way better than washcloths that aren't 100% cotton.
3. Screw the changing table. I use a travel pad on the bed for wet diapers (and the easier poopy) and a cushioned pad on the bathroom floor for the poopy ones.
   
4. Aviod blueberries. They make for a stain and a mess on the other end. Too bad Charlotte loves them.
5. Finally, after 6 weeks, and some blueberries, I caved and dunked a messy poopy diaper in the toilet. It turned out better than I'd dreaded, but still, I found myself wondering, "How did I get here?" Although I thought I'd regret that we'd not yet installed a sprayer on the back of the toilet for icky messes, somehow the dunking thing seems cleaner.
6. Still in the hole from the initial purchase, but 2 months in cloth means around $80 that we haven't spent on items destined for a landfill. Excellent!
   

Recent Photos

We have taken a lot of photos lately, and I haven't posted any of them!

July 5th we went to visit my grandmother, Mom. Charlotte kept pointing at her, but I thought this photo of them looking at each other was pretty cute.


This past Saturday, Fred and I took Charlotte to Stride Rite for her first "official" pair of shoes.

All in all, I think she's pretty excited about them.

Saturday afternoon we went to visit Fred's parents, who just arrived back from the Philippines. They brought me back this beautiful dress, made in the same style as Fred's traditional Barong. These clothes are traditionally worn to formal Filipino events.

Don't worry, Charlotte's Lolo and Lola did not forget about her! They brought her back 15 outfits, including a couple of dresses to choose from for Aunt Fiona's wedding in October.

Look at those dimples!

Sunday, after Daddy left for Philidelphia, Charlotte helped me clean out the car. Eeach bag is full of stuff from the car. WOW I didn't realize how much baby stuff I'd kept stashed in there. I also found close to 10 pens under the seats - no wonder I can't find one when I need it!

They're Back!

So, I must admit that I tried to hide my disappointment at not getting to go to Africa on a safari with the rest of my family. Maybe I hid it better at some times than others, but really, my family now includes this precious little girl who I wouldn't leave for three weeks and wouldn't take to remote Africa, so there was never a question of us going. That doesn't mean I didn't want to go; it just means I have my priorities in line ;-).

They brought back a ton of cool photos, which made me wish I could have gone even more. The one below is Christy with the cape buffalo she killed. Don't worry, not a bit of any animal killed was wasted, as they distributed anything my family did not eat to the surrounding villages where people are grateful for the food.

Of course, Charlotte received more attention upon our arrival at my parent's house yesterday (I know, she's a lot cuter than me). Quickly, though, everyone gathered to watch me open my souvenir. Mom pulled out a stack of jewelry pouches and said she didn't know which one was mine, but said I could just open them until we go to to mine. I began pulling out beautiful pairs of tanzanite and diamond earrings.

"Sweet," I thought, "these are beautiful!" and eagerly looked for the pair someone would declare mine. (Image borrowed from the web.)

I came to the last pouch without having coming across mine, "Down to the last one! That one is yours."

THIS is what I got!

My reaction, "Oh, My God! Wow!"

So, it feels good to know that my presence was missed :-).

FIRST STEP!

All by herself, Charlotte took a solid step towards her Aunt Michele without falling over! She may have taken another one, except Miss Maddie hurried herself over to the center of the action and Charlotte grabbed onto her.

I can't believe it.

I'm going to have to carry my video camera around on standby now.

Our Baby is No Baby...

Last weekend we bought her this toy.




Yesterday we had her feet measured (size 4.5) and bought her a pair of shoes (size 3.5, go figure the point of sizing).

She's growing up so fast!

Will it ever end?

I thought the season for illnesses fell to WINTER - not for Charlotte and me, it seems! From November to March Charlotte had Bronchiolitis and the both of us had a cold. All in all, that doesn't sound so bad, although maybe we had enough to deal with because of her hips to make up for it all. Our summer, however has been plagued with illness.

From Memorial Day through The 4th of July, hardly a week has gone by without one of us being sick. Throw in Charlotte's current teething spree, and not a single week has gone peacefully. Believe it or not, today is the first day we've both been sick at the same time with the same thing, so its not even the result of germ transfers between the two of us. I am on my second cold in two weeks, and third illness in three.

Does it ever end? More vitamins, maybe? Something needs to change!

Whoa! Where'd That Come From?

Charlotte broke two new teeth right around 2 weeks ago and the drool slowed down for about a week and returned in mass quantities in the last few days. She's been sleepless the last couple of nights and her crankiness this afternoon prompted us to pull out the baby orajel. That's when I felt it.

Our 10-month old baby has 9 teeth! Yes 9!

It seems as though her top front molars are coming in, although I'm so bad at judging these things that it may be a cuspid. It's not as though she'll allow me to take a good long look :-).

She has been a teething monster, getting her bottom two teeth at 4.5 months, top 4 incisors by 7 months, additional bottom incisors at 9.5 months, first molars at 10 months. INSANE. Her toothy grin doesn't look like a baby's anymore.

AVERAGE tooth patterns in infants:




With all the continued crankiness and drooling, you can bet we she's probably working on the same tooth on the other side.

Anyway, since she wouldn't go to sleep and then woke up an hour after she did go to sleep, I'm going to sleep a little before she's up again - probably every hour and a half all night long...

Take me Out to the Ball Game!

I can hardly believe that today was only just Charlotte's first Astros' Game! Many moons ago Fred said he'd like to "skip" work one day to go to weekday afternoon game. By the time we settled on a day that was good, the CECO tickets, right behind the visitors dugout on the field, were taken. We decided to go anyway and enjoy a family day.

First we went to ToysRUs and bought a push walker toy for Charlotte (that's another precious post!). Then we went to James Coney Island for some pre-game hot dogs.

After searching for a parking spot in downtown Houston on a workday (yipes!), we bought tickets in the cheap seats. No matter where you sit at a ball game, the atmosphere stays the same!


By the time we made it to our seats, the game was well under way, with the 'stros already down. Then the Dodgers hit a home run. We heard enthusiastic cheers from here and there around the stadium. Charlotte immediately joined in on the clapping. Wrong team, baby doll! She continued to clap intermittently throughout the game, although never for the Astros, it seemed!


Charlotte entertained the fans around us so much that a fellow fan offered to take our family photo - too bad she doesn't look so enthusiastic.

Even though the Astros lost, we had a great time. Hopefully, we'll get to go back again soon!

Check out Reunion Post

The reunion post with photos can be found here.

Since I hope to use most of these posts to create a book about Charlotte's first year of life, I want to make sure I keep everything in order, which is why the post is backdated. Its also a lengthy post - longer than I usually like to publish - as I want to record as much as I can for Charlotte to be able to look back at later.

I'm going to use the free program from Blurb to download my entire blog, edit it a bit, and create a book.

Woes of a light sleeper

Charlotte awakes at the drop of a pin, I swear. I know people always say, get them used to sleeping through noise! Unfortunately, most of the time she's sleeping, I'm quietly working at my computer, so we never trained her so well for that.

Today, Sylvia is over here helping us out since my family is out of town. I LOVE having a clean house, although I quickly feel terrible as she seems to instantly uncover all of the random items and dirt that have been hiding under our furniture for months.

Charlotte's naps, however, have shrunk to half an hour because Sylvia is loud. Grrr.

Of course, not so much of a "Grr" that I'd give back my clean house :-).

The good news is that I am sure Charlotte will teach baby #2 (whenever that may be) to sleep through anything.