icky milk.

apparently i have icky milk.

charis was spitting up a LOT yesterday and then had some mucous in her stools, so we called the doctor last night around 10pm. he said we should bring her in and have her looked at. so they did find traces of blood in her stools and they believe that she is allergic to dairy. apparently milk allergy appears around this age.

so i am now off dairy. :( no cheese, no ice cream, no cream cheese, no sour cream. no yum. it's a little overwhelming. i mean, dude, no butter. what the heck.

it will certainly be an adjustment for me, but the bright side (you know, other than charis being less fussy and not having painful issues in her digestive system) is that i'll probably start dropping this baby weight pretty quick.

we can try adding some dairy back in in 4-6 months and see how it goes, because from what they tell me, milk allergy is a short-term affliction for most kids her age. let's keep our fingers crossed.

it's been a while!

goodness, these posts get fewer and far between...it's interesting how the frequency of them is inversely proportional to how tired i am. :)

charis is growing like gangbusters. she has been making all kinds of new sounds and just makes adorable noises now...much better than all those grunts, although we still get those too :) her neck is so strong now, she holds her head up almost all the time. she is rolling from side to back and back to side on a regular basis too. and when you carry her, she has started to put her arm around your shoulder to help hold herself up. derek spends a lot of time trying to teach her to stick out her tongue, and his patience is finally beginning to pay off...she smiles at us when we do it to her, and then her little tongue pokes out for a second and she smiles again. man, those smiles have got to be the best drug in the world. hm. the epidural was pretty amazing though. ;)

the cloth diapering has been in full swing for about a month now and i am pleased to report we have quickly become veterans of that war. since derek has gone back to work, i've gotten into a good groove with things and with the extra diapers we bought a few weeks back, i'm prepared to say i think the cloth diapering is easier than the disposable diapering that we did for the first few weeks...if only because i don't have to run to the store and slap down $30 for a weeks worth of diapers and wipes. it's nice having everything i need in the house at all times. i bought a drying rack a couple weeks ago and started hanging the diapers out to dry, so we're saving energy that way and the diapers are completely stain free without any stain treatments. i'm continually amazed at the bleaching power of the sun. i'm really happy with the diapers we've chosen for her (a mix of fuzzi bunz and bumgenius one-size) and it's even easy when we're out of the house, thanks to our wipes spray and wet bags. i really recommend cloth to anyone, even if you're working full time. i wash every two to three days and then hang them out to dry. it's really not much of a hassle, and i love stuffing the inserts back into the clean diapers and putting them back on the shelf. who knew i'd love diaper laundry??? :)

we went to an over the rhine concert last wednesday with some friends of ours from our birthing class. their little boy is about a month older than charis. the concert was free and it was a fabulous night for it. derek and i saw tons of friends there, and we had a great night with the baby just laying on the ground quilt and enjoying the music. i don't think we've seen over the rhine for about three years now. didn't think i missed going to their shows, but i think i was wrong :)

this past weekend we looked at some houses and found one that we really like. we are considering putting a contingent offer on it and see what happens. of course, in order to do that, we need to get our condo on the market. well, we're really close to being able to do that. just a bit more clutter to box up and sort through and i think we'll be there. hopefully it will be on the market in the next week.

derek's job is just going great and he is so happy there. plenty of work, and plenty of excitement.

two weekends from now, we will be traveling to illinois to visit derek's family as his sister will be in town from florida. it will be our first road trip with charis, and i have to say i'm nervous about it. we're going to try to time our travel time around her afternoon nap time so that hopefully she'll sleep most of the way. we'll see. but i'm sort of anticipating a 7-hour trek for what is usually a 4.5 hour drive.

well, that baby of ours is getting ready to wake up, so i'm going to shut this post down for now...here are a few new pics to enjoy...

reading with grandma bobbi

two month pics

over the rhine concert

eight weeks!

i can't believe this kid is 8 weeks old already!! she is doing all kinds of fun things like making new sounds, making great eye contact, watching us when we walk across the room...her head is getting so strong, she holds it up almost all the time now when she is upright. and just in the past two days, she has really started getting some motor control with her hands, pulling them up to her mouth to try and suck on them. last night on our way home from a shopping trip, she was crying in the car and kept trying to suck on her hand to soothe herself...but after a few seconds of unsuccessfully trying to get the whole thing in her mouth, she would start wailing again because she had made herself so mad at that stupid hand! other than the tears and crying, it was pretty funny.

as for her baptism, we have had some turmoil in the family and felt it was best to postpone the baptism until things are better. we'll certainly let everyone know the new date once we have it.

we've been taking some long walks with charis this week...makes me so glad we caved and bought the stroller. she seems to really love trees and will just stare up at the canopy as we walk under them.

i've been feeling a little stronger each day, but still need to be careful not to overdo it. the hematologist said last friday that all my tests came back normal and i must have just been having all those bleeding issues due to the retained placenta. as far as he is concerned, i have a clean bill of health and just need to keep taking my iron supplements for another six months to get my body back to where it should be. so that's great news!

derek has been loving his new job but i think he loves the short commute (10-15 minutes) even more :)

last night she slept about 7 hours straight (after a day with virtually no naps and a LOT of fussing)...and last week, she slept 7.5 hours two times in 6 days. we are very optimistic that this trend will continue...

next week we are going to a free outdoor concert with Over the Rhine (my favorite band), and we are hoping for cooler, less humid weather so we can enjoy being outside with her again.

here are some recent pics to enjoy...

finally we have some pictures to share from derek's graduation!

and here's derek getting charis a good workout on the exercise ball

and some naked tummy time...note the craziness of the long hair in the back...when all the rest is little more than peach fuzz...

and finally, some fun sitting pics with daddy. her neck is so strong!!

and believe it or not, she is supporting her own weight here...daddy is just keeping her from tipping over :)

ok, so a lot has happened in the last week or so. let's start with our trip to columbus last tuesday. we woke up to a gorgeous day -- not too hot, not too cold...plenty of sun. so we decided to head up to columbus for the day. we went shopping at easton, i got a haircut, and we had dinner with my cousin holly. here are a few pics from dinner...






then wednesday night there was a free concert at the fraze with the air force band of flight. the weather was decent, so we decided to go. we took our awesome lawn quilt that teresa made for just such a purpose. we had a really great time hanging out with charis in the park, listening to music. derek said later (and i agree with him) that it was kind of the first time he really felt like we were a family, the three of us. it was a very relaxing evening, as you can see below...








then there was the 4th of july...it was obviously her first. we had a great little cookout at my mom's with some close family. charis was a bit fussy that day. maybe she was communicating her frustration at the rain and storms that might have caused fireworks to be canceled (they didn't). well, we didn't do fireworks anyway, because we thought they'd scare the be-crappers out of our little girl. here's a pic of her in her little 4th of july outfit:


so this week has been good so far. derek started his job on monday, and i started being almost laid off on monday. i'm technically on "lag" which is a precursor to being laid off if they don't find you work in a month or so. i will likely be laid off in a month or so. which means that monday, i officially became a stay-at-home mom. it's not like i wasn't home before, obviously. but derek and i have been home together for pretty much the better part of the last three months. it's a bit of an adjustment. now i have all day with charis, and no one to hand her off to when i can't get her to stop crying :) i had my mom come stay with us on monday so i didn't feel so alone. she helped me get a few things done around the house. derek finished all the painting we were hoping to get done, so that's great...now we have to re-settle things in the aftermath...and believe me, there's aftermath.

also, some big news -- the night before derek started his job, charis slept 7.5 hours straight!

big weekend coming up...charis' baptism!