a lot.

a lot has happened in the last couple weeks, obviously...christmas, new year's...but also, charis has had a lot going on! she has three more teeth (which we found consecutively on jan 2, 3, 4), and two more to come -- so she will have eight teeth soon!! she spent most of last week sick, and new year's eve was the worst...poor thing was miserable, but we think it was just a cold and she is doing much better now. she is pulling up on EVERYTHING! which also means she's falling down a lot and bumping her head...

as for christmas, she had so much fun opening presents! she quickly learned how to tear off paper, and at first was solely interested in eating it...but soon discovered there were surprises hiding under the paper.

we've spent most of this past week just trying to help her feel better...derek was off from dec 23 thru yesterday, so we had a nice long break together. yesterday we took down the tree and derek spent some time trying to babyproof the fireplace, which is still a work in progress but soon to be completed.

derek gave me a bunch of knitting stuff for christmas -- books, yarn, needles, etc...and i am knitting like crazy! he found a free class on monday nights that i'll be going to for the 2nd time tonight, and i am loving it! i'm almost done with my first little project, and i'll soon be starting on a little sweater for charis.

ok, so enough talk, more pictures, right??? we'll start with christmas morning!


sick little charis with red/watery eyes and runny nose :(



i took these today for my sister who gave charis this cute dress/leggings and the little stuffed lamb for christmas...enjoy, sis!

seven months already.

my, how the time does fly.

on sunday when i was taking her 7 month pictures (soon to follow), she crawled over to her exersaucer and pulled up on the thing. that crazy girl! she pulled herself up and started playing with the toys on it. today, she did the same thing, and was walking around it to get to different toys. this kid is not going to stay on the ground for very long.

i made some more baby food today...peas and apricots. she had some peas tonight and that seemed to go over fairly well...we'll try the apricots next week and see how that goes.

i'm so excited about christmas, and perhaps even more excited that today was derek's last day of work until january 5. it will be fabulous to have him at home for a while. i need the company. things can get overwhelming at times, and it will be a much-needed break for my full-time mothering all day long.

we bought charis a snow suit this weekend and are anxiously awaiting the snow required for her to wear it. can't wait to see what she thinks of that. there will definitely be video.

so merry christmas to everyone! i'll try and post early next week, but we'll be out of town over the weekend so don't be too anxious for those first christmas pictures!!

sign of the times.

so this morning, i had charis in her high chair and was feeding her some rice cereal mixed with pears... (mixing with pears is the only way she'll eat it) so she ate a couple bites, then started kind of yelling at me and wouldn't eat any more... i was just kind of looking at her, trying to figure out what she wanted, when i looked at her hands, stretched out at her sides. they were squeezing into fists and releasing repeatedly...

now, this is the ASL sign for "milk"...but even though we've been signing with her for a couple months (and not always consistently), i had never seen her doing anything resembling signing back at me...in fact, i was starting to wonder if i would even recognize when she signed back to me.

so this morning, she's doing the fist thing, and it occurs to me, "maybe she's asking for milk?" so i sign back to her and say "charis, do you want some milk?" she immediately stopped being mad, smiled, and flapped her arms in excitement.

holy cow, the kid was telling me she wanted milk!!!

i can't wait for the next sign she chooses to use!

making history.

well, regardless of how you all voted, hopefully we can all agree that it is very exciting that history has been made...barriers have been broken. personally, i'm excited to see some young kids in the white house...and who doesn't want to see a puppy on the white house lawn???

our little charis is making her own history... she's started scooting backwards on her hands and knees...lookout stereo, it's almost time to child proof. and the girl is a squealer. when she gets happy, she just goes nuts with her little squeals...it's ADORABLE. we've started giving her baths in the sink and it works really well. she sits up on her own and for derek and i, standing up makes it so much easier to bathe her.

we've been trying some foods with her once in a while...the other day we gave her a piece of pear in one of these thingies (http://www.bestbabygear.com/nibblerbynuby.html) ... she was really into it...we took some video of her making faces and getting the shivers while chewing on it...but she kept going back for more, so i think she liked it. we still get gags when we try and spoon feed her anything. i made some sweet potatoes last week and got the gags from her... i read that the oversensitive gag reflex goes away when they're ready for solids. so we'll just keep trying every week or so and see how she does.

the warmer weather this week has been amazing. we've had the windows open, gone for walks, etc. makes it easier to be at home all day.

i promise i'll post some new pictures soon...the batteries to the camera are dead and derek had the charger at work all last week. so i'm charging it now and i'll post when i can. we've got halloween pics, baths in the sink, and a few other things :)

a crazy week.

well, charis is 4 months old!!! she turned 4 months on my birthday last week, september 21. it was a frustrating day...we had planned a great day at the aquarium in newport, but as we were putting charis in the stroller in the parking garage, i threw out my back. i could hardly stand or walk, but not to be thwarted, derek got me a wheelchair so that we could still enjoy the aquarium. i held charis, and he pushed us all the way through. it was somewhat disappointing, but we did our best to make it a great day in spite of it.



we were fortunate that my chiropractor was willing to go in to the office that day (on a sunday!) to adjust me and get me some relief...but leaving his office, the car's exhaust slammed on the curb and impact broke the catalytic converter! so we're frantically trying to find a replacement vehicle at a decent price that will last us...i think we've settled on a used honda odyssey, but we've yet to seal a deal.

the friday before my birthday, charis had a really rough day...very irritable, wouldn't nurse, etc. well, saturday morning we discovered the source of her discomfort -- a tooth! yep, she cut her first tooth, one day shy of 4 months old. she's about to pop that 2nd one through as well...it should show any day now.

so most of this week has been spent trying to find a new car (or van, as it may be). but when we haven't been focusing on that, charis has been becoming a fabulous little sitter, sometimes sitting for as much as 10 minutes at a time. she is really starting to reach for things, including our dishes at dinner time. she's getting really good at grasping and figuring out how her hands and arms work in 3d space...and when she is on her stomach, she is pushing up on her arms, getting herself so high above the ground! she's also trying to get up on her knees, and it seems that she is building the muscles she'll need to crawl. this little girl is growing up way too fast!

i'll leave you with a few pictures from her 4 month photo session. my sister has been begging for profile pictures, so i made sure to shoot a few this time. enjoy, sis! :)

(well, the first one is actually from celebrating my birthday at my mom's on saturday night)

learning to sit.

well, she's not spectacular at it yet, but charis is slowly and surely learning to sit. she is always trying to pull herself up when she is laying down, but obviously still needs help to get up. derek jokes that she's building a little baby 6-pack in her belly.

she gets very excited when we help her into a sitting position, and she's getting better at balancing. we like to practice with her on the bed so she can tip over and not get hurt...that way, she can still build the muscle tone and balance she needs, but isn't bonking her head on the ground all the time.

this morning, she was sitting for more than a minute at a time, which was by far the best she's done so far. it's fun to see little improvements in skills like this day by day. makes me really glad i'm at home with her, and makes me sad for the next kid that i won't be able to spend as much time doing stuff like this because i'll have charis to take care of as well. :)





here's one of charis mid-tip...



she's also really digging her exersaucer (insert shameless plug for evenflo products here).



and on a final note, for those of you who have had kids, how stinking amazing is it when you can make your baby smile and laugh???? oh, man. it's the best.

i'd like to thank our sposors: breastfeeding, no dairy, no milk.

yes yes, thanks to our lovely sponsors...thanks to their support, as of yesterday i am back to pre-pregnancy weight! although, i do not have my pre-pregnancy body, as some things are smaller than they used to be and some things are larger. regardless, the plan is to ride this train and see how far it goes.

meanwhile, charis is crazy about picking up her head now, regardless of how she is situated. see for yourself:



yesterday she started trying to sit up while laying on her back. she is very determined, but never gets more than a few inches off the ground, despite her grunts and groans. derek blames her puffy diapers.

we got this amazing thing yesterday, called a peapod. it's by kidco. look it up. it is officially our answer to the playard question...that being the question of, do we really want to travel with a bulky, heavy playard? the answer being, no, we do not. we choose to travel with this! (this being the peapod). super cute, super fun, super easy to set up and take down, super light compared to a playard and super small for putting in an already overcrowded cargo area. we highly recommend.

the new rule of 72.

so i'm sure some of you are familiar with the rule of 72, the financial rule that helps you figure out how long it will take to double your money in an investment situation...

well, i have discovered the new rule of 72...that is this:

in any given situation, on a given day, whenever i put on a clean shirt, within 72 seconds, that clean shirt will be covered in spit-up.

no, i'm not exaggerating, and yes, i do own dozens of perfectly good burp rags... but charis has a way of turning her head at just the right time and angle so that the burp rag is completely useless.

so there you have it... the new rule of 72.

napoleon dynamite was right.

yes, that old sage napoleon dynamite was right about a few things. one of them being that girls love dudes with skills. i myself am not looking for a dude with nun-chuck skills, but computer hacking skills can come in handy, that's for sure. derek has some amazing skills i've become aware of lately...one being that he can wash dishes and clean the kitchen with only one hand (the other hand, of course, is holding charis).

as a mom, i am developing some pretty sweet skills myself. one that i am quite proud of is my ability to pick up pretty much anything with my toes, sweep my right leg outside and to the right, and either toss said item onto a table, couch or chair...or grab it with my right hand. all, of course, done while holding charis in the other hand. this alleviates the need to bend, which can be cumbersome with a squirmy 3-month-old.

these leg-sweeping skills, however, are nothing new. no, they date back to the bygone days of high school, when me and several of my friends enjoyed avoiding studying by playing with a hackey sack. some of the guys were pretty impressive, as was our friend jenn, who was a good soccer player. i, however, was mediocre at best...but i did have one weapon in my arsenal -- the outside right. it was pretty much my solution to any hack pass, and my best bet at keeping the sack in play. my outside right was very reliable.

today, that oustide right is serving me well again...and i would like to thank my friends for helping me swarm to success...who knew that wasting time in tim's garage would one day make me a better mom. who knew.

playing catch up.

well, i have so many pictures to share and a bit of news as well.

our condo is officially up for sale. if you know anyone who wants a great condo in centerville, send them to look at ours! we have been looking at houses and made an offer on one a couple weeks ago, but didn't get it. we continue to search for a house and hope to find something fabulous that suits us perfectly.

so while we've been ready to get the house up for sale, derek's mom came to visit for about four days and went hog-wild cleaning up our house for us. it was a HUGE help.

here are a couple random photos from the last few weeks...



charis is growing so fast! the doctor checked her a week after i went off dairy and said she is better without it, so the dairy fast continues for at least another three months. it's not too terribly difficult...i'd say i miss pizza the most :)

so, our friend tim (currently residing in london) stopped in friday morning to meet charis...tim is kind of the perpetual bachelor of our group...he loves traveling and is reticent to settle down...but when he was holding charis, he said he could see how this (having a baby) could be pretty nice. hmmm, timo...there is nothing like having a baby, and it will change your life in ways you didn't expect...and it's incredibly fulfilling and wonderful! go for it and don't look back! i mean, find a wife first, preferably :)


and here is charis sleeping in the car on the way to illinois on friday, hugging her burp rag like a blankie... charis traveled so well, we were amazed...she slept almost the entire ride there and back. we timed our traveling excellently, so that we were driving during her usual afternoon naptime. seems all my stress about driving to illinois was completely unnecessary :)


this was at a farmer's market we visited while in illinois this weekend.


uncle alex with charis...


charis meets great-grandma cler...


charis with aunt meredith...


a family picture...


on the way home from illinois, we stopped off downtown and walked around at riverscape. it was a gorgeous evening, and it was nice to stretch our legs a bit and take in the evening breezes... i got some great shots of derek and charis while we were there...

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.

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 :)