Life without the family...

Well, another day has come and gone for me here in lonely San
Francisco. I would say that my 2 biggest accomplishments for the week
have been:

1. I have worked day and night to catch up on a backlog of like 150
emails.

2. When I wasn't doing that I was catching up with the boys over at Il
Pirata, the bar that is just up the street from Tribe's old office
that is tragically located precisely along my route home.

So I guess what that means is that in the absence of more worthwhile
influences, I am:

1. A workaholic

2. A drunk workaholic

To my credit, I can say that I am more of 1 than 2, but I clearly
prefer the third alternative which I will be pursuing come Friday when
I fly out to Colorado.

Speaking of work, life after the old boss has actually been pretty
productive. My new boss (a guy that was promoted from within purely
based on the fact that he proved he was very capable to do the work)
has drastically improved my day to day job. It's pretty amazing the
effect that an effective leader can have on a team. Especially on a
team as talented as the one we have at Cisco. All we lacked was a
rudder apparently.

Anyway, enough about me. Now, back to your regularly scheduled dosage
of Charli. I have to say that this week I have enjoyed the blog as
much as the rest of you!

-B

Hahaha!

When I woke up this morning, I thought this blog post was going to be about how Charli REALLY slept through last night - she went to bed around 9:30pm, and woke up around 7:30m. 10 hours! Incredible! And she's so adorable when she wakes up - she wasn't even screaming for food! So of course, I had to go get the camera...

But then we went to Mom and Sam's office so everyone there could meet Charli, and then this post was going to be about Charli's first experience being dropped. *GASP* Auntie Sam dropped the baby - BONK! OK, admitted, it was only from about an inch and a half up, and it was only her head because her butt was already on the ground, and it was onto a padded changing pad on carpet, but STILL! Charli was pretty upset about it (Sam is in complete denial - she says Charli was not upset at all until I picked her up, but that is clearly the result of the mental breakdown associated with having been the first person to DROP THE BABY).

BUT! Now this post is about the fact that TODAY CHARLI STARTED LAUGHING! It is so exciting! Grandma and Charli and I were at home and I was bouncing her while she was sitting on my knees, and she laughed - it was this afternoon a little after 5pm. Dad had gone to pick up Mom from work, and Kim and Sam weren't home yet. It was just once, but Grandma completely agrees that it was a laugh. Previously when I bounced her, she would open her mouth really wide and look like she was laughing, but no sounds would come out. So I bounced her a lot more, and she laughed again! Then everyone started coming home, and Mom made her laugh like 4 more times, by swinging Charli on her feet and also by playing the 'try to drool in my mouth' game. It is so great! The foot swinging is particularly effective. I was so sad that Brian wasn't here for it, but as he points out, she'll probably be doing it a lot more, so he won't miss them all...

from Colorado

Well, as has been noted in some comments, it's been a long time since I posted. Things have been so busy with guests and visits and eating and shopping... I will try to make up for it with lots of pictures.

Our big accomplishment as of this post is that Charli and I have taken our first plane ride, going with my mother and grandmother to Colorado. Unfortunately, all our pictures suck, but here are a couple anyway, at the airport and on the plane. Charli was great on the plane. She fussed a little at first, but that was just because she was hungry, and I was trying to wait to feed her until the plane took off, so that she could equalize the pressure in her ears by eating. Eventually I just fed her anyway, and everything went fine. The entire flight was after her bedtime, and after eating she slept the entire rest of the way. We arrived in Denver around midnight and didn't get back home until almost 2am, where Kim had crackers and dip and hot tea laid out for us, and Mom had set up our rooms with pajamas and slippers before she came out to SF. What service!

On the developmental front, Charli has good head control, and for the first time I felt really comfortable walking around with her facing front. Her head didn't bob around at all, and she doesn't like facing me in the moby anymore unless she is sleepy. She gets bored. Also, she seems to be enjoying tummy time more - or maybe it's just that we've found a pillow that makes it ok.

Her firsts are mostly fashion related this time:

1) Butt ruffles! Uh, thanks, Mom...

2) Check it out - shoes! It's pretty cold here in CO. Socks just don't seem sufficient.

3) And last, Charli holds her own bottle! Well, sort of... Clearly this only works if the bottle is just about empty and she happens to have her other hand in just the right place to prop the bottle up. But it looks good!

happy valentine's day

We never do anything special for Valentine's day, and this one was no different. I meant to dress Charli up in a fancy dress, because otherwise she might grow too big for it before she ever wears it, but I forgot. And I put her in all kinds of clothes with hearts on them yesterday and the day before, but I forgot that today, too. Valentine's day was completely eclipsed by Lost night anyway. Awesome episode tonight! I had to watch it twice. :)

Today the 4 generations went to Clement Street to wander around. Then in the afternoon we went to get Taipo's hearing aid checked, to see if it could be easily fixed - no such luck. Something is wrong with the electronics, so it has to be sent back to the factory to be repaired. Too bad.

Mom brought Charli a toy frog - it's very cute. Here are some pictures of Charli trying to eat it.

She looks like she can hold things in these pictures, but she can't really - these are just fortunate moments in the midst of a lot of manhandling. Or froghandling, I guess.

strange day indeed

Such a strange day. Everything was normal until it was almost time to go pick my mother up from the airport, around 2:30 - when Brian came home. What in the world was Brian doing coming home at 2:30? I didn't tell him he needed to come to the airport with me... Turns out he was feeling sick, and came home to go to bed. So he did.

We got my mother and came home and sat around for a while, and then the power went out. Ugh. It was out for hours. It got dark and we had to do everything by tealight candle or a little penlight. Charli had a candlelit dinner! She was fascinated by the candles, but I was pretty bored. No internet! What did people do after dark before there was electricity?!

Just as I was about to start looking around for some more substantial candles, the power came back on. Brian also woke up. Mom said she'd watch the baby, so Brian and I actually went out for a nice dinner. We had a lovely meal at Spork, where we didn't have to jiggle the baby carriage and we didn't have to wonder whether or not we'd be able to have dessert. That might have been the strangest thing all day!

A couple more firsts:
1) Charli pulled MY hair this morning.
2) She wore a dress! It's really cute, but it does ride up. Onesies seem to be the most practical way to go.

super crafty!

Check out this hat I crocheted for Charli! It's too big, but that's ok. I actually finished it several days ago, but I didn't have any cute pictures of Charli in it. The hat is not nearly so impressive without a cute baby under it! I made it all by myself! I feel so crafty!

Jerry? Comments?

I also posted some new pictures on the website.

meltdown

WowOWee. I just got back from lunch with Michelle and Grandma at Pacific Catch, where Charli had a complete meltdown in the bathroom. She was getting just a little bit fussy, so I took her to change her diaper. I put her down on the changing pad, and she started crying. I got her pants off, and she just lost it. She was SCREAMING. LOUD. Her special high pitched scream. Other people came to use the bathroom - they got to listen to us. I picked her up and she calmed down, but she was still not changed and now only half dressed. I put her down, she screamed bloody murder. I picked her up, she didn't stop, so I fed her a little bit. That quieted her down, but again, still not changed and still only half dressed. Finally I put her down and changed her and put her pants back on, even though she was screaming at the top of her lungs. Another lady came in to use the bathroom and, on her way out, asked me if I wanted her to call 911. She was just joking. I think.

Now we are home, and Charli seems to have recovered. She is sitting in her car seat, making noises and looking comfortable. I am stressed.

As I barely got a chance to mention above, Grandma is here now! That would be Taipo (great grandma) to Charli. How exciting! She arrived yesterday from Honolulu, after a flight change and several delays, but everything ended up ok. It was Charli's first experience of an airport terminal, although she's seen the arrivals lanes a few times. We're acclimating her slowly for the plane ride on Sunday.

And on the subject of travel, we hope Jerry and Donna are having a great time in Hilton Head!