Author: admin

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Charlie Grace is 10 months old.

Technically, as of today, 10 months – 3 weeks.. Meh, it is what it is.  Fortunately, I jotted down notes on what Charlotte was doing at 10 months to make things easier for to type up once I had the chance to sit down {now 3 weeks later}.

I see a trend forming with her monthly photos now. Lots of defiance being shown here.
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oh, so dramatic.

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pink puppy helps.

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Eventually she got what she wanted… which was to play with her toys and books.
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At 10 months, Charlotte:

  • Has started to clap and loves to fill in her part of “If You’re Happy and You Know It” {unless she has an audience… she definitely doesn’t like to perform if mommy wants her to show off}.
  • She has begun signing ‘more’ while eating. Success! Unfortunately, she started signing ‘more’ the day she had a terrible stomach virus {the speech pathologist inside died a little each time she signed ‘more’ and I wasn’t able to give her more to eat}!
  • Is not saying any new words this month, but continues to be spontaneous with her regulars: “uh-oh”, “dada”, “ball”, “bubbles”, “bye bye”, and “ba” for Baxter
  • Has been to two birthday parties for friends {kiddos other than her cousins}

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  • Is not really loving the pool like I thought she would, but I hope she will warm up to it. She absolutely loves bath time so I think she’ll come around. Until then, she’d prefer to stay by the snack table 🙂

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  • Loves spending time with her grandparents. Here she is reading with Lola and at Papa and Honey’s yard sale.
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  • Keeps me on my toes as far as baby proofing goes. She is definitely a daredevil. Note to self: no more big toys in the baby cage. She loves pulling up and cruising around our coffee table which is nice and round with no sharp edges.

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  • Is now occasionally standing unassisted. Here is the video of her first time standing again for your viewing pleasure in case you missed the earlier post:

  • Battled her first case of hives from a virus and had her first visit to Urgent Care {just to make sure she wasn’t battling something else}. Keeping her entertained at urgent care was the hardest part though.

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  • Has begun throwing tantrums when toys {and non toy items she has become attached to} are taken away from her. The photo below was her reaction to the ‘clean up’ song for the foam noodles at her friend Hunter’s party at The Little Gym. Oh boy.

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  • Dances and sways any time she hears music or singing. The fun part about this one is that it is not something we taught her, she’s just got moves!
  • Is a master at isolating her index finger to point and will point to anything that catches her attention or that she wants.
  • Will occasionally grind her teeth, which really scared us when we first heard it; after researching it though, it seems that many young kiddos grind their teeth as a way of exploring the new chicklets in their mouth, and Charlie has 8 which means she has a lot of exploring to do!
  • Is starting to fit into size 9 month clothing, is almost in a size 3 shoe {long, narrow feet}, refuses to keep a hat or sunglasses on, and has discovered that she has bows in her hair and now yanks them out any chance she gets.

Stay tuned {next week, lol} for her 11 month update!

 

- admin

A refinishing job 3 years in the making.

When Chris and I first got married and bought our house I made the ‘new homeowner’ mistake of beginning about 50 projects simultaneously. Some projects were a necessity to us actually being able to live and function in the house {like fixing up a table so we didn’t have to eat on the floor and painting over the blood red walls in the kitchen – if you saw the walls, you’d realize it was a necessity}, other projects were just my creative genius getting away from me. The chair in our office was one of the latter. I had taken it apart before really knowing what I wanted to do with it. It sat in a dilapidated state in our garage for almost 3 years until this past week as I was getting our house ready for our resource parenting home study.

I wish I had a ‘before’ photo of the chair because it’s always very satisfying to compare with the ‘after’ photos. This chair is one that my mother re-covered to match my room when I was younger, and I’m sure she salvaged it from the thrift store. It took quite a bit of muscle to peel away the 5 layers of fabric/pleather stapled to the seat over the years.

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My apologies for the blurry photos, but here are some of the previous coverings.
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The fabric I chose is some of my favorite. I actually purchased it before Chris and I even closed on the house. I came across it at the fabric store, fell in love, and bought every yard and scrap they had. I am very selective with which projects I use it on. It’s currently on our kitchen chairs as well. I also added additional padding to the chair – a necessity since the previous padding was practically nonexistent {or so old it had been squashed into nothingness from the weight of 10 previous owners}.

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The chair itself was originally white but was very easy to spray paint a pretty teal color {it looks blue in the photos because of the poor quality of the pics but really has more of a teal/green tone to it}. I honestly don’t remember the name … ‘sea’ something and I don’t care enough to go digging in my trash to recover the canister, but if you want to know I’m sure I can find it online! image-62

I am loving the finished product and am so glad this space is starting to come together.

- admin

Did you miss me?

I’ve been a little preoccupied. Now, I don’t expect you all to sit at your computer patiently waiting for the next post on this humble blog to pop up in your newsfeed or in your inbox. So I don’t expect you to have noticed that I haven’t even posted Charlotte’s 10 month photos/update. Actually, I haven’t even taken her 10 month photos. Weeping. I’m weeping at the thought of that. It has definitely become much harder to take her photos as the months progress, and the arrival of summer has packed our schedule full of activities way more important than mini photo shoots and blogging:

  • I have been picking up a few extra days of patients at work now that my sister is home for the summer and is able to watch Charlotte. She loves spending time with her Aunt Mel and cousins.
  • Charlotte and I have also been enjoying play-dates at the aquarium, park, and the good ‘ol baby pool in the backyard.
  • Chris and I finished our resource parent {foster parent} and adoption training through the city of Virginia Beach and are now in the process of completing our home study. The process is very extensive {as I think it should be}. We met with our case worker 2 weeks ago to fill out paperwork {background checks, DMV records, and the like}. We also had to answer questionnaires and decide on the ‘parameters’ we feel comfortable accepting {for us, we only placed limits on age – birth to 3} , any race or gender is welcome in our home! Eventually we will expand the age, but our current room/bed/toy situation is perfect for a younger kiddo in need of a safe place. We went to DHS to be fingerprinted last week and met with our caseworker again to provide an extensive history {our family history, relationships, work history, education, parenting style, support systems, etc} and this week our case worker is coming by for a preliminary home inspection. Once our home study is complete our application will be put before a board for review and approval. Once we are approved we will be ready to have another kiddo in our home. It could be that same day we are approved, it could be in a week, it could be months… we will just wait.
  • I have also been planning Charlotte’s first birthday party. Talk about emotional. I probably should have done way more at this point (with a little over a month to go), but I have been in severe denial.

Stay tuned for Charlotte’s 10 month update later this week. I am PROMISING right here in written word so I had better deliver.

 

- admin

Real Life Parenting: vomit.

Sick babies are never fun. Charlotte is very healthy, and for that we are truly blessed. Today she succumbed to her 3rd illness though (the first being a head cold at 7 months and the second being a high fever from some sort of virus at 9 months). The really sad part about this time is that I didn’t even know she was sick! One moment we were playing by the pool, the next she had thrown up and was feverish. Of course, hindsight is 20/20 and as I look back on the course of the day it seems completely obvious that she was sick.

My first clue should have been the surprise waiting for me in Charlotte’s crib when I went to get her this morning:

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No that isn’t blood. It’s blueberries from her dinner last night. She must have thrown up at some point in the night. I feel awful that she slept in yucky blueberry regurgitation, but she never woke up or cried so I had no idea! I thought that it was the blueberries that upset her tummy so I didn’t think much of it. Also I’m sure Charlotte will thank me for posting this lovely photo of her ‘bed head’ and blueberry ‘schmear art’ in 15 years.

I got Charlotte cleaned up and started the sheets soaking {I’m fairly certain they will never come clean but I’m willing to give it the ‘ol college try…. not that I would have ever spent this much time cleaning something in college. I most likely would have just thrown it away}. After nursing for a bit after waking up she actually vomited again! I know, I know… any sane person {parenting experience or not} would have figured out that something was wrong.  I thought it was because she drank too fast and choked, which is something she used to do when she was much younger. I just assumed her tummy couldn’t handle the amount she drank.  After that she ate a great breakfast and was her usual giggly and playful self so I wasn’t worried.

We visited my office for lunch and Charlotte socialized with all her loves there and was on her best behavior.

After that we met up with some buddies for a spashy play date.

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Charlotte wasn’t in love with the cold water, but she loved watching her buddies play.

After a little while though I could tell she was beginning to not feel well and then she threw up again after nursing!

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I am so sad it took me that long to realize I had a sick kiddo on my hands. I’m trying not to beat myself up about it. She was just as playful as usual until the afternoon when her fever spiked. Poor baby. image-57

For a kiddo battling a tummy virus, though, she certainly had a very successful day: Standing unassisted for the first time and SO proud of herself.

Does that look sick to you?!