Spring done gone got away from me!

It is June 1st. I repeat. JUNE FIRST! It makes me sick to think of how quickly we are closing in on ‘B’Day {which is, of course, Charlotte’s first birthday}.

This post, though, will serve to catch you up on all the Baker ‘happenings’ so far this spring. My apologies for the massive photo binge that is about to happen.

Chris and I had an awesome day-date some time a few weeks back {if we’re being honest it was more like a month… maaaaybe two months back} . We took Charlotte to spend the afternoon with Papa and Honey {my parents}. On the way out to their house we stopped at Bergey’s Dairy farm for a little family adventure.

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She did not like the sheep. I don’t blame her. I seriously thought it was fake. I’m still not 100% certain it was living.
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Waiting for ice cream {for mommy and daddy, of course}. I wish so badly this photo wasn’t blurry. Still completely adorable.
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Meeting the cows.IMG_5062

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We love our Little Gym classes. Next week is Show Week {the last ‘performance’ of the semester}, but Charlie is already enrolled in her summer Bugs class which will start the following week so we won’t even skip a beat!

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She loves Ms. Jackie… the one who provides an endless supply of shakers and bubbles in class.
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Papa came to play during a class.IMG_5778

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Charlotte is very good at independent play and exploration with toys.

Putting the little people horse in, taking horse out, putting horse in again, taking horse out, throwing horse, crawling to get horse, mouthing horse, beating horse against boat and so on. IMG_5290

Charlotte absolutely adores her two cousins and I am so grateful that she gets to spend Tuesdays and Thursdays with my sister.

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We had a yard sale a few weeks ago. It was pretty much rained out; actually more like ‘fogged’ out because a low fog/rain cloud hovered over my driveway the entire day.  Chris and I have such a wonderful family support system: my parents, my in-laws, and my sister-in-law all came to help us. Since there weren’t many customers, my mom busied herself helping me get organized and encouraging me to purge even more. That’s what she does, professional organizing, and boy did I need her help. The other grandparents kept Charlotte entertained.IMG_5836

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Since business remained slow, Chris and his dad replaced our kitchen sink. It was, of course, harder than they anticipated, but they were eventually successful.IMG_5852

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The next weekend we decided to try our hand at yard sale round #2, which was much more successful thanks to the sun actually arriving for the day and sticking around a bit. Also, Charlotte learned how to drive.IMG_6095

Charlotte has gotten so much better at being in the church nursery {ie: away from me}.

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The best plan is ‘Out of sight, out of mind’ – once she has even an inkling that mama is nearby but not holding her she resorts to Llama drama {which she learned from the Llama Llama books of course. More on those in a bit}.

We love meeting up with other mommy’s and babies from our mom’s group for outings and play dates.  We love to go to the mall or the park.

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Charlotte is also learning to get along with her friends and is starting to understand the word ‘gentle’

{probably because I say it over and over again, but repetition is key}! Of course she still swats at other babies because, let’s face it, that’s what babies do, but she is learning. I can see it!

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My birthday present from Chris was a membership to the Zoo so we can go any time we want! We have had several beautiful days there {though one of them just happened to coincide with the field trip day of nearly every elementary school in the area}. I got some practice with maneuvering two kiddos instead of just one during one of the outings, which was a great experience and OH so exhausting.

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We attended an event at the zoo to meet the author of Llama Llama Red Pajama {and other silly alliterative and rhyming books} and have her sign our books. Charlotte could have cared less, but I absolutely love this book series {I think my love for books serves me well as a pediatric speech pathologist, though sometimes I do go a bit overboard}

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I love this particular series because the little Llama is always full of drama, which reminds me of a very expressive 9 month old I know.

 

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Mother’s day was a blur. I sometimes forget that I am a mother, and I definitely forgot that mother’s day is a holiday that applies to me now! Last mother’s day Charlotte was busy making me nauseous and puke-ey. This mother’s day Charlotte was busy making me laugh and smile {and chase after her, and wipe her bum}. What a difference a year makes, and well worth all the Llama drama, I’d say.

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I rekindled my love for the library last week. I hadn’t been for well over 5 years. Sad, I know, but all that is behind me now and we will just move forward with our relationship {though it’s not completely over between Kindle and me}. Charlotte loved our library outing too, though she didn’t quite understand the ‘quiet’ rule. Her new favorite game is to see how her voice echoes in new places. The bathroom at chic-fil-a wins, hands down. She gave quite a performance in there last time. The library echo was less effective, but that didn’t deter her one bit. I just hope we are allowed back in.IMG_6233

My mother and father-in-law have been wonderful the past few months by watching Charlotte for Chris and I while we attend our foster parent/adoption training classes each Wednesday evening. They even feed us dinner, which is such a blessing because it is a scramble to try and get to the classes on time because of Chris’ work schedule and rush hour traffic.
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Chris threw me a beach bbq birthday party at the beginning of May. It was absolutely frigid but I was so blessed to have many of my friends shiver out in the cold with me. Charlotte wasn’t really in to the whole sand thing, but I certainly tried to get her to touch it a few times. She is not keen on novel textures and immediately goes into ‘superman’ mode with her arms back and her back arched in order to avoid touching it. We’ll keep trying.
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Just soaking up all the snuggles I can get from her before she doesn’t want anything to do with mommy anymore and slams her door in my face before writing in her diary about how much she hates me. What?! Just mentally preparing myself for 16 years down the road.

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Anniversary photo + baby-less date

Things have been a little busy around here, what with the baby and all. Last year I decided to start a tradition of taking a photo of Chris and I each year to commemorate ‘us’ on our anniversary. I am excited to be able to look back one day on the many photos and see how we, as husband and wife, have evolved over the years.

Chris had a great idea to add Charlotte to this year’s photo; unfortunately her empty tummy had plans for sabotage. She was not a happy camper.

Weekdays are always pretty busy so we decided to wait until the weekend to celebrate our two married years together. My parents offered to watch Charlotte for us on Saturday. This was the first time that I had been away from Charlotte for longer than an hour (and I had only been away from her once before this for a doctors appointment) – boy was it difficult not to call every second.

Neither of us had been to the beach all summer (tragic, I know) and that is really all I wanted to do – Lay out in the sun! I can always tell when I haven’t had enough sunshine in my life. Chris and I didn’t even put on our bathing suits because we didn’t have much time so I’m sure we looked like tourists laying on the beach, looking at clouds and airplanes as they passed by, but it was glorious! There’s nothing like the sound of the waves crashing on the shore. After our beach date we grabbed some BBQ and then headed home. Nothing spectacular, but still a fun adventure.

Then I zipped back to my parents house to pick up Charlotte who had a blast at Papa and Honey’s farm. She didn’t miss me nearly as much as I missed her.

And I’m embarrassed to admit, being away from her really put me in an uptight, edgy mood – though I didn’t realize it until later. Do you ever have those days when you and your spouse just aren’t on the same page? I definitely wasn’t playing on Team Baker today, which is unfortunate, because this was our chance to really reconnect – our first time without Charlotte interrupting a meal, a conversation, sleep, etc.  Though of course we don’t mind those little interruptions, I just know it’s important us to make time for, well, US!

Oh well, tomorrow is another day. Another chance to try again to be loving, joyful, a peacemaker, patient, kind, good, gentle, faithful, and exhibit self control when it comes to my relationship with my hubby.  (Galatians 5:22-23)

Goooooooo Team Baker!

Anniversary One

This past week has been a crazy one in the Baker home, to say the least.

Earlier this week our new Mac was delivered to our house – our anniversary gift to ourselves. Just opening the packaging made me giddy. I am still trying to figure everything out and will probably still mourn the loss of Windows Live Writer for a few more months. (Let me know if you know a good blogging software for Mac – and I apologize in advance for the photos in this post… I can’t figure out how to make them larger while editing in wordpress).

Meanwhile, I had been battling some undefinable ‘sickness’ throughout the entire week which culminated in a friday/saturday affair with the throne in our master bathroom. Yucky stomach virus! After sleeping for almost 15 hours straight I actually felt hungry and we were able to go out for a fancy dinner, which is very special for us since we rarely eat fancy meals. At about 8:30 though, I was back in bed for the night – so exhausted I could barely move.

After church this morning we came home to find an unwelcome flat tire (not that any flat tires are ever welcomed).

On a  lighter note we began a tradition that I hope to carry on for many many more years of marriage.

Happy Anniversary to my amazing husband.

You make me happy when skies are grey.

Adjustments and then Evacuating!

I’m sure it’s obvious to you by now that I am about three weeks behind in my blogging.

I don’t know if I’ll ever catch up at this point but who’s counting, right?!

The week after coming back from Mexico was a tough one for all of us.

I called it ‘re-entry’.which is a term my mom ‘coined’ when I was little.

After spending the night at a friends house she tells me I would always go through a period of ‘re-entry’ which typically involved some sort of disobedience and trying to get away with things that had been okay to do in my friend’s home because their parent’s rules were different. After being away from the ‘norm’ I had picked up different habits and it was a adjustment to try and get back to what my parents expected from me.

When we came back from Mexico the same was true, only in reverse. I had picked up habits in Mexico that I wanted to keep! And I didn’t want to go back to my old ways, the old ‘rules’ of living my life. God had changed me so I wanted to avoid going back to the things that were expected of me from others. It was very difficult to head back to work and interact with people because, while my heart and mind had been changed for the better, those I left behind had stayed the same. It was difficult to relate to others because my mind was filled with my recent experience and that was really all that mattered to me.

Then after a long work week and  struggles with ‘re-entry’ … Chris dropped a bomb on me. There was a hurricane headed towards the east coast. More specifically – us. He had made the decision as the head of our house that we were going to head out of town to avoid the loss of power and flooding that was imminent. Now, I’m alright with road trips but, being the home-body that I am, I prefer as much warning as possible.

Fleeing our home at the last minute added to my stress and made for an eventful weekend.  We went to Roanoke, which is my old college stomping ground. It actually turned out to be a really fun trip – I was just on edge because of the circumstances.

I had to take the wheel for part of the trip because I get pretty car-sick when I don’t drive. Chris thinks that it’s just a mind game to gain control of the wheel. (I wonder if that same tactic will work for the remote?). With me behind the wheel that left him to man the camera.

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We walked around downtown Roanoke which offers really great people watching year round. We also ate at the Roanoke Weiner Stand. Nuff said.

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Chris had fun at the old train station.

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There were a lot of pretty cool architectural details to be photographed. Unfortunately, my mood wasn’t up for the challenge. There’s always next time.

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We visited my alma mater. They were gearing up for move-ins the next day.

It was so exciting to be back. I felt like a freshman again!

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We brought Baxter along with us, of course, and took him to a local dog park to run some energy out. He made fast friends, as usual, and had so much fun.

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Back at the hotel Baxter got to hone his hunting skills with the rubber duck that was in our bathroom. He was definitely afraid of it at first, then nuzzled it like a friend, then gnawed it’s poor little beak off!

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One evening we ventured down Main street in Salem (which is actually where Roanoke College is located – off Main Street in Salem, VA and not actually Roanoke, VA).

We headed to my most favorite coffee shop ever – Mill Mountain Coffee.

I found the location where the shop HAD been and GASP! In its place was a tattoo and piercing parlor!! WHAT?! My old study spot?! The hangout?! How could it have gone out of business?

Chris tried to console me and informed me that ‘things change’.

My retort was “not in Salem they don’t”.  And with that, I slumped to the ground on the stairs of a nearby church to mourn the ‘change’ that had just occurred in my life (or so I ‘ve been told. I wouldn’t have believed It had there not been photographic proof of my mini temper tantrum).

This is me, thinking about how my world was crumbling down around me.

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And this is me, wondering how everyone else can walk by so calmly on the street as if NOTHING IS WRONG?! only everything was wrong because my home away from home had vanished!

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Then Chris decided to try and salvage the night by calling Mill Mountain’s number from their website. “Yes, where are you located? I’m having trouble finding you. Oh, across from the library?”

We pan our gaze to the right one block.

There’s the library. and across the street? Mill Mountain!! Hazzah!

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It was a miracle!

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I felt so grateful for Chris who, in times of disaster and meltdowns, always has a level head and somehow solves even the most impossible dilemmas like disappearing buildings!

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He did comment on the way back to our home that “Next time we’ll stay home for the hurricane”. Oops! Hope it wasn’t because of me.