Time: It is a flyin’!

Since Charlie’s birthday earlier this month she has made huge strides in not only her vocabulary but also her physical feats! She now constantly screams ‘Mama’ at me whether it be she’s happy, sad, pissed off or any other reason. I get the brunt of it, but I’m totally ok with that. She also is starting to try to say other words. She’s saying what I SWEAR is “doggie” but I really can’t be sure so whenever she says it I search for one of her million doggie toys and pick it up and say “Yes! Doggie! Ruff, ruff!” So I’m sure I sound like an idiot.

Also, she’s finally standing on her own! She’s gotten dramatically braver just in the last week and has finally cut the strings attached to our hands/couch/ottoman/toy that she happens to be closest to and LET GO! The first few times she would stand on her own a few seconds, get a HUGE grin on her face and dive bomb into me. But now, she let’s go, grins from ear to ear and continues to stand there all on her own! I’m so proud that I almost cry, start clapping and congratulate her and she gets excited and falls to her bum. But seriously, I KNOW she is close to walking now. She’s getting that bravery thing down pat and she’ll soon be all over the place! My baby is turning into a little girl right before my eyes.

I can honestly say that the past month has been the most fun with her. She is turning into a little person with ideas and desires and she is starting to voice them. And she is so entertaining! I could sit and watch her play all day (and sometimes I do b/c that laundry can wait!).

She’s starting to eat better (some days) and I’m hoping this will help her gain some needed weight. I’ve been spreading butter on a waffle for her for breakfast almost every morning and I’ve tried to get her to drink Pedialite but she’s not interested in it. So what else can I do? She eats what she wants, when she wants. I’m hoping the additional teeth she’s getting now will help b/c she eats SO DAMN SLOW I want to poke my eyes out w/ her fork. Seriously a meal w/ her easily lasts an hour.



Pizza Hut breadsticks & marinara = a HIT!



She now has 5 teeth (I think). It’s hard to get a look in that little mouth of hers! But I think her other top middle one finally broke through just last night. Her silly, crooked grin will soon be evened out!



Notice lopsided, goofy grin.  :)



Last Friday we took Charlie to the fair w/ our neighbor, Beth and her boys, Hunter and Mason. It was Charlie’s first time and although she was in her stroller for most of it I think she had a good time. She loves to people watch and what better place to do that than the state fair??? Hunter and Mason got to go on a handful of kiddie rides and stop in the butterfly exhibit but I think their highlight of the trip was the cotton candy and the chrysalis’ they got to buy and bring home! The first butterfly emerged Sunday and they were ecstatic and promptly named it Cedric Jack. What a name for a butterfly! That butterfly is going places I tell ya!



The boys & their cotton candy (and a Charlie sighting in the background)


In other household news, we’ve finally gotten our cabinets installed and the countertop fella is coming today to do final measurements for the granite we are ordering. Then it will be 2 weeks for delivery and installation. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that our project will be mosty complete as of September 12th (besides the backsplash and paint)! I’ll be sure to post a final picture once it is done but here is how it looks as of now.


I'm LOVING it!


Other than that we’ve just been living the life w/ the great MN summer weather! I am so sad to report that our crabapple tree’s leaves have started the annual change already. I guess it’s that time of year. We’ve got to get out and enjoy the last few weeks of summer b/c once it starts to get cold it gets cold FAST here and the damn winter seems to last forever. I love Autumn, I just HATE what comes after it.


Xoxo~
Kellie

Wordless Wednesday

Noodles anyone?

She's finally putting her little teeth to work!

Charlie got to enjoy eating her first apple like a big girl yesterday!  She is finally using her 4 little teeth!  She LOVED the apple!  I'll have to buy some more!

Wordless Wednesday

I love summer...

Spoiled lil Charlie

We traveled down to Galesburg last weekend so Charlie could celebrate her birthday with the rest of her family that couldn't make it up here for her party.  We took her out for her 3rd boat ride and she loved it again.  She's a water baby for sure!

Then she got another smash cake to tear into.  This time it was white cake instead of chocolate and she seemed to like it just as much.  Sugar is sugar right?  She definitely needed another bath after that!

I got to go golfing with my mother in law for the first time in 2 years and I did pretty good for not having played for so long.  It was a lot of fun to get out there!

We got back late Monday night and are recuperating from all the activity! Up this weekend is our kitchen remodel! We ordered new cabinets over 2 weeks ago and they finally came in last week so now we have to tear out the old ones to put the new ones in. I can't wait! I will post pics but just so you can see how badly we need it, here is a picture of what the cabinets looked like when we moved in

And here is a pic of what it currently looks like since I painted it a couple years ago.  I swear the only thing holding these cabinets together are the thousands of layers of paint on them.  They are bad!!!  There is also NO counter top space to work with.  The cabinets we currently have are hung too low and stick out too far.  The new ones will be hung at the appropriate height and go all the way up to the ceiling so that we'll be able to use the counter space underneath them.  We also are going to relocate the sink to be at a diagonal in the corner so we'll have a long piece of counter top to be able to cook on.  (Not that I cook a lot.  Ha!)  We also ordered a tall pantry type of cabinet for next to the stove and an over the stove cabinet that we will hand a wall mounted microwave under.  So that will give our small kitchen more room as well.  I'm totally stoked to get this done.  It's way overdue!

Bring it on!!!

One Year Ago Today

God blessed us with the most beautiful, perfect baby girl.  We are so incredibly lucky.  You are the best part of every day.

We love you Charlie Monkey!

Happy 1st Birthday!!!

Love~
Mommy & Daddy

Busy as little bees

We've been crazy busy but it's a good, fun busy. Charlie turns ONE this coming Saturday and due to some scheduling conflicts we had her 1st birthday party last weekend. She had a huge group of friends and family come to celebrate her 1st year! Our old neighbors, the Bormann's, even made the drive from Iowa to party with us! We are so blessed to have such great people in our lives!

Being a 1st time mom and never having to plan a birthday party before I was a little stressed out about it. I have no idea what kids of other ages like to do so I was trying to think of anything and everything I'd need to have and what they would enjoy doing as activities. Being that it is SUPER hot here lately I went and picked up a ladybug sprinkler at the last minute so that the kids could run through it to cool off. Thank goodness I did. It was the hit of the party. The kids went nuts running through it and next thing I knew there were kids running around soaking wet from head to toe! Other than the sprinkler I bought crazy straws, squirt guns, bubbles and had coloring pages, bean bag game, hula hoops, frisbees and the ladder game out for the kids to enjoy. The squirt guns were a pretty big hit as well.

We had a lot of fun and Charlie loved watching and interacting w/ everyone. She tore into her smash cupcake like a pro which required her getting her 2nd bath of the day. :) I'd have to say it was a success, but I'm glad it's over with. Planning it was a lot of work!

This weekend she gets to celebrate all over again with Grandma B, Z-pa and the rest of the Illinois family. We're looking forward to boating and enjoying the hot weather some more!

***

In other news, we found two itty bitty baby bunnies in our yard the day after the party. We think the mama bunny may have gotten nervous with all the activity going on the day/night before and tried unsuccessfully to move them. After watching over them all day Sunday I ended up picking them up Sunday night and putting them in a shoebox in my garage for the night so that a cat or some other animal wouldn't get them. Monday over my lunch break I brought them into a wildlife rescue organization. I hope they make it. They were so cute! I'm a sucker for things with fur.

***

Some updates on Charlie's milestones:

* I finally got a picture of her top tooth! It's really come out the past few days but getting a picture of it is hard!

* She loves pasta with marinara sauce! Unfortunately this causes me to use the stain stick on a regular basis on her clothing!

* She got her 1st big girl bath in the tub w/o the ducky. She loved it! So no more gigantic blow up ducky to goose me in the mornings while I try to squeeze into our bathroom to get ready! Yay!

* She's recently started pointing at things. When I ask her where Kobe is she frantically starts looking around for him and when she finds him she gets the biggest smile on her face and points in his direction. So she knows her brother's name! :)

* Her 12 month doctor appointment is next Thursday and I can't wait to find out how much she's grown in the last 3 months. My guess is she will be around 19-20 pounds and around 29-30 inches tall. We'll see how accurate my guesses are! She's still a skinny mini.

* Recently she's been sleeping around 11 hours a night! This is amazing for her! Up until now she'd been doing 8-9 hours sometimes but never 11 hours! This means we put her down around 8:00 and she wakes up around 7:00 which is PERFECT! I hope this continues! Knock on wood.

That's about all I can think of to report on now. Things are busy and good around here. We are enjoying the summer and I'm sad it's already August! The summer is going by way too fast as always.