Twat did you say?

The MS Walk was last weekend and it turned out perfect! We woke up to rain and were worried we'd have to be walking in it the entire time. Me being the ever prepared Mom of the Year (haha, right) had heard it was supposed to be raining so I'd gone out and bought a rain cover for Charlie's stroller so that at least she'd be dry for the walk but we never even needed it. Guess I'll be returning that b/c I'll never be out walking in the rain again! Just minutes before the walk was supposed to start the sun came blazing through the clouds and it stayed that way the rest of the day! Gorgeous!!! Charlie loved the stroller ride and it was great to get out in the fresh springtime air and contribute to such a worthwhile cause!

You know that is Arbor Mist in those bottles, right? Tasty! :)

Thanks to all who donated! Although I ended up raising $125 I'm sad to say this was my worst year yet fundraising but this just means I can pester everyone even more next year! :)

After the walk Kara, my mom and I went to our friend Sarah's bridal shower where we sipped mimosas and had some excellent food. She's got some great friends and family and it was a lot of fun! Can't wait for her wedding which is coming up fast!

The rest of the weekend was spent w/ family and friends relaxing. We got Charlie a zebra blow up pool for this summer which I can't wait to get out! She loved staying up late and hanging out with the adults. When there are people up she does not want to be the first to go to bed! She fights it like a champ! She's such a little social butterfly and loves getting all the attention. She's starting to mimic people more and is so silly and she knows it too and keeps doing it to keep getting the laughs. Such a ham ball! All in all a great weekend. Couldn't ask for anything more.

Some new Charlie milestones:

• 
  
  She can now drink out of a sippy cup all on her own!

• 
  
  She waves hello/goodbye, but is picky as to who she will do it for. She almost always does it to herself in the mirror. What a goof.


• 
  
  She'll tilt her head to the side and wait for you to do the same and then immediately tilt it to the other side and go back and forth like this w/ a huge grin on her face.


• 
  
  She has a new sit and spin move where she sits and spins in circles on her butt. She now has the complete 360 view wherever she may be.







• 
  
  Her first tooth (bottom middle right one) broke through May 12th. She handled it like a champ although her tongue is now more often sticking out of her mouth than staying in it.


• 
  
  Still not crawling but you can tell she is getting anxious to be mobile. I don't think it will be much longer before she has learned some way to get around although I'm not convinced it will be by crawling...


• 
  
  She has started trying to clap her hands but usually does one or two claps and then instantly brings them together up to her mouth all excited and makes little squealing noises.


• 
  
  Her babbling is starting to sound more and more like actual words. Sometimes she'll really get on a roll and talk non-stop for what seems like forever. She gets really excited and worked up and it is hilarious.

• 
  
  She's very ticklish. :)


• 
  
  She loves to play peek-a-boo w/ her blankets and toys.


• 
  
  She loves these Gerber puff chip things and inhales them! She also likes pastas, cheese slices, cheese tortellini and quesadillas. She does NOT like green peppers. We found this out last weekend when she took one bite of one and immediately puked it and whatever else she had eaten up all over me and her. Not fun.


• 
  
  The second we take her outside she sticks her tongue out. We say she is "tasting" the air. We really have no idea why she does it but here is evidence:



She's perfect. :)




Happy Tuesday!!

Nothing but happiness!

I've been behind on blogging! Kara and Todd's wedding reception was 2 weeks ago. They got married in Puerto Rico in January and then had a reception back home in Des Moines April 30th.

Isn't this picture gorg? Perfection!

Anyway, the reception was absolutely perfect! The ballroom was gorgeous, the beer and wine were flowing, the food was delicious and there was all kinds of dancing and fun! One thing is for sure, we have some great friends and family and we definitely know how to have a good time!

Charlie was the flower girl even though she didn't make it to the actual wedding in Puerto Rico and didn't do anything w/ flowers or anything else other than go to the reception. But wasn't she an absolute doll!?!? She looked so perfect! And she made it until about 9:00 at the reception before having a small meltdown. It all got a little overwhelming for her when she got tired. She got to meet so many people though and was a big hit! :) Other than that I'll let the pictures show the rest. We had an absolute blast and wish Kara and Todd nothing but the best in their promising future together. They are perfect together and I love my new brother in law!!!

My dad knows how to party - it's in the genes. 4 of the 5 bridesmaids - We rock. Continuing the party back in our hotel rooms. Just cause the party ended doesn't mean we stop! :)
The happy couple
Great family!
Getting warmed up on the dance floor
The greatest girlfriends on earth!

A GREAT evening!

*****************

In other news, Charlie's first tooth broke through the surface on Thursday! Her lower right tooth is the first to show it's top (although it isn't showing much yet) and she's been a trooper through it all! She's definitely drooling more than normal and chewing on EVERYTHING and is a little more clingy than usual but other than that you wouldn't even know she was teething! Such a good girl! I can't wait for it to come out more and see that cute little tooth. When it does I'll be sure to post some cute toothy grin pictures! :)

Charlie is 9 months old!

Charlie turned 9 months old yesterday! Happy 9 months Charlie Monkey!!!

She had her 9 month well visit on Thursday and only got one shot (her final Hep B shot) and a finger poke. Didn't even flinch at the finger poke and only screamed for maybe 5 seconds after the shot and then just looked at me w/ this face of "what the hell Mom?!?!?" and then grabbed around my neck, stuck her thumb in her mouth and was fine after that. She's such a trooper.

Her 9 month stats:
Weight - 16.8 lbs. (12th %tile)
Height - 27.9 inches (64th %tile)
Head - 17.4 inches (57th %tile)

She's still tall and skinny. Doc seemed to think she needed to gain more weight than she had in the last 3 months since her last well visit but she won't take any more formula. I already feel like I'm fighting to get her to eat a decent amount of formula and the doc said to "force" it on her. Not sure how to do that as she is getting very strong willed at this point but I'll do my best. But I also wanted to say to him to just look at me and Wade, neither of us are large people so I don't really expect Charlie to be. And she had 2 colds/flu in the last 3 months one of which lasted forever and I know made her lose weight as she was hardly eating during it. Regardless the doc was happy w/ her health and said she is doing great reaching milestones accordingly so that made me happy. Still no teeth (altough they are close!) and still not crawling but that just means I can continue to procrastinate child proofing the house. Yay! :)

And just in time for my 1st Mother's Day Charlie started saying "mamamama" today! Makes my heart melt (I don't care that she doesn't know what it means)! She's such a great baby. Wade and I say to each other all the time how lucky we are to have her. She makes our lifes whole and is so much fun.

Now that the weather is FINALLY warming up we've been spending more time outdoors and Charlie seems to love it! Although the fresh air seems to wear her out as her naps are a lot longer after she's been outside. I think there is just so much to do and look at that she tires herself out! Today we'll hopefully get a family bike ride in when Wade returns from mountain biking with Mitch.

Charlie's 1st ride in the Burley (her hat kept riding up and off her head) :)

It's a great day. I honestly feel so blessed right now and life couldn't be better. It must be the warm weather bringing this out but I just feel great. (Now if I could just lose these last 4 stubborn pounds life would be perfect) :)

Happy Mother's Day to all the Moms out there. Especially to my Mom. I love you. You are the BEST! Xoxo!

I totally suck. Help me NOT suck.

Team FMS 2010 (Charlie's in the fat belly)

Yikes! I've totally become a slacker this year! I'm participating in the MS Walk again and I've got less than 3 weeks to try to reach my fundraising goal for it. Please help if you can. Just think if ALL my readers contributed just $1.00 I could raise like $7.00! :) But seriously, any little bit helps and I appreciate it with all my heart. As does my friend Katie who I walk for. She's proof that positive things come from these fundraisers b/c thanks to the donations the MS Society raised she is on a new drug that has helped keep her MS symptoms away! Not a cure but getting closer and it's all thanks to donators like YOU! These scientists couldn't search for a cure without that moolah!


Charlie will be joining us this year for her first time doing the walk out of the womb. She went with us last year but she just doesn't know it. :) And of course little Kobe man will be joining us as well and will probably army crawl the entire way through the grass and make us be the last ones to finish. (Or maybe we're always the last ones to finish b/c we always start late??? Whatever.)


Also this year since I'm not pregnant I can enjoy my Arbor Mist in my water bottle again! Hooray!!! Keeping the world classy since 1979. (Yes, I'm old.)

So please consider making a small donation and if you do I will linky love back to you, just be sure to let me know your blog address.

My donations page

Thanks a million from me and everyone else out there affected by MS!

Hoppy Easter! (B/c NOBODY ever says Hoppy in place of Happy)

Charlie's first Easter! It's a beautiful day out and the Moh's invited us to join them for Easter service! I got Charlie all decked out in her most adorable dress and tights and we were off. She did very well during the service. Luckily the service was only 35 minutes long b/c she was starting to get fussy towards the end. Only a few minor squeals out of her but no crying fest so I consider that a success. And I almost forgot! My favorite quote from the service came from little Mason to Charlie: "Do you know Jesus? He's a baby!" SO cute! :)

Today also marks the one year anniversary of Paps passing away. It's bittersweet. I know it was his time obviously. He lived a good life and was in bad shape at the end, starting to fall apart not only physically but his memory wasn't working so well either. But I selfishly wanted him to make it until Charlie was born. I wanted him to be able to meet his first great-grandchild. I miss him a lot...

I also got my hair chopped! Six inches cut off and copper tones added in for fun. I wanted a change and I really like it! So glad I have a great hairstylist who can help me with these decisions! :)

Anyway, what's an Easter post without pictures of little Charlie in her Easter best???

Hoppy Easter my Peeps! :)

Want to see something gross?

Seriously gross?












Like way, way, way gross?















If so continue scrolling down.















But I'm warning you this is not for the weak of heart.















You may gag.













You may vomit.













You may run away screaming.














Ok, enough warnings. If you've scrolled this far down you obviously want to see this grossness.













You sickos.














Here you go.








I told you. SO gross. So, so, so gross.


I was feeding Charlie and she sneezed. That was the outcome. She was obviously disgusted with herself b/c she started crying after it happened while I quickly grabbed my camera to document this nasty moment. She was fine the moment after I wiped it off. So she doesn't like to have booger bubbles coming out of her nose I guess. Who can blame her?

Anyway, proof above that snot noses can make even the cutest baby look disgusting.

You can gag now if you want to.

Later dudes!

Being this cute is hard work!

A little bit gangsta...

A little bit shy...

A little bit excited...

A little bit ornery...

A little bit playful...

A little bit goofy...

A LOT Daddy's girl.

She's a love muffin. :)

xoxo~

Will I ever blog about something other than Charlie ever again?

I damn sure hope so. But in this case this entry will be mostly about Charlie. Again. I'm sorry. She's obviously the most important part of my life and it all centers around her so I really don't have a lot more to write about.

This last weekend we got to drive down to Galesburg to see Wade's side of the family. Most of them hadn't seen Charlie since Christmas so she's changed a lot since they saw her last. Charlie got to see horses, cows, goats, cats and chickens for the first time! She was not a fan of the horse. We put her up on one and she had a meltdown! Then when Wade got on one she started bawling so we had to go inside! Kind of funny really.

The above picture cracks me up. We bought Charlie sunglasses and although she fought me the first time I put them on her once they were on she left them alone. She looks hilarious in them!

The weather was unbelievable. After going through a long Minnesota winter the 70's and 80's sun felt so. damn. good. I cannot wait for summer. We ate outside, played cards outside and we even gave Charlie a bath outside! She loved it.

Although it was wonderful to get to see everyone it always feels good to get home and back into your own bed and routine. I think Charlie was glad too b/c I think we were exhausting her with too much fun. :) She's wiped!

Here she is talking to me on the long car ride home. She gets so expressive talking now and makes the funniest faces. She gets very serious too sometimes. I wish I knew what the hell she was trying to say. It must be VERY important!

TTYL~

Happy 8 Months!

Little Charlie Monkey is 8 months old today! I can't believe she's growing so fast! Today we bought a big girl stroller for her and she loved taking a stroll around the neighborhood and being able to actually see everything! She also got to try American cheese slices today and seemed to really like them. She's starting to try to use her sippy cup but hasn't quite grasped the fact that she has to tilt it up to get the liquid to flow so she just puts it in her mouth and bites at it waiting until I tip it up enough for her to drink from. She's silly.

Anyway, happy 8 months little girl! You make Mommy and Daddy so happy and proud!

Love~

Holy Hell

This last week was the week from hell. Charlie came down with what we thought was just a cold last Thursday night. The next morning she had a fever and was so full of boogers we titled her the "Booger Queen". Seriously they were even coming out of her eyes. Look. Disgusting. Anyway, by Saturday night I had it. We're talking achiness, headaches, fever, chills, congestion and cough. And ZERO energy. It was murder. All that fun stuff lasted 2 1/2 days and then finally the aches and fever went away and left me w/ a nose so stuffed up I couldn't breathe at all (I became a mouth breather!!!) and still ZERO energy. With all the sinus pressure I actually have a toothache from it! I've never had anything like this before.

This brings us to today which is NINE long, brutal days after I first came down with this. I've gone through 3 boxes of kleenex, 1/2 box of Sudafed, 2 1/4 bottles of Dayquil and 1 1/2 bottles of Nyquil and my nose looks like it got in a fight with a jaguar and lost it's so raw and red. I am still congested and have a cough but I feel like it is finally going away. Seriously, this kid bringing home all these viruses is going to kill me. And somehow Wade avoided it thank God b/c he was my saving grace through all of this. He took care of Charlie and the housework b/c it was all I could do to muster up the energy to get up and go to the bathroom and not just pee on the couch.

So thank you hubs. You rock. Seriously. I could not do this without you.

You know who else rocks? Charlie. She handled this flu like a pro. She only had one bad night of sleep and was a little crabbier than normal and wouldn't eat much but with how happy she normally is it wasn't a huge deal.

So yeah. I feel like I fell off the face of the earth for the last week. So hello everybody, I'm back to the living it seems.