play time

Well, I've been back to work now for just over 2 weeks, so it was about time for a vacation. My uncle and cousins were visiting Colorado for... gosh, maybe the first time since my parents moved there, 18 years ago! I can't even remember how long it had been since I'd seen my younger cousin, so I decided to visit Colorado, too. Of course, Mom was ecstatic to hear that Charli was coming (and me, too). Charli was really good on the way out - we came on the flight at 6am, and she fell asleep just as everyone was getting on the plane. I thought, Great! Unfortunately, the flight attendant came by as we were about to leave, and said Charli could not be in the sling for takeoff. :( I took her out and she stayed asleep, but I can't go to sleep while I'm just holding her, so I put her back in after we were in the air, and THEN she woke up. And stayed up for the entire rest of the trip. She was really good, but she didn't sleep, which means I didn't sleep...

We've had a great time, though! Charli just played interactively with me for the first time ever! She was standing on my lap, and I would open my mouth really wide and she would put her hand in it. I pretended I was eating it, and she laughed and laughed. We tried to get some video of it, but of course by that point, she was tired of it, or forgot how it worked. It was so cute while it lasted! Then she played with Grandma; at least I got a cute picture of that.

Kim and Brent have been preparing like crazy for their Pacific Crest Trail hike. They are leaving on May 14! They are finishing boxes that get sent to various towns along the trail to provide themselves with the food and equipment they need for each stage of the hike. They are also making a lot of their own equipment. Whenever Brent is not hunched over in front of the sewing machine, he is rehearsing for the symphony. Charli really enjoyed listening to him practice - she cried at certain chords and passages, and listened and wiggled and drooled happily to the rest.

Yesterday Mom wanted to take Charli to the park, so we went, and true to form, the instant we got there, Charli fell asleep. This time, however, we had time to kill, so we had a picnic lunch there and basically waited around until Charli woke up, and then Mom took her to see the geese. Then we also went swinging, and Charli loves that! This video is actually from a different park (the one from today), because we weren't smart enough to bring the camera that takes video yesterday.



Today we went to an even better park - it's amazing the things they have at parks now. The toys? games? rides? whatever it is they have at parks, they are way more fun than they used to be. I thought they just had swings and things to climb on. Not so! I want one of these things in my back yard, but Dad doesn't...

5 months

Wow! 5 months, and we haven't killed the baby yet! Happy 5 month birthday, Charli!


It's a good thing Charli is so much hardier than our plants. Crying is definitely a survival skill; I'd hate to see what her condition would be if she merely wilted quietly.

Well, just as the emailed pictures dropped off considerably when Brian went back to work, the blog posting is also having a drought now that I've gone back to work (good thing Brian can post right from his iPhone...). Lots of things are happening, but now I'm so tired all the time I pass out in the evening before I have a chance to blog. Add to that the fact that I have been trying to migrate computers, which makes it hard to update our website, and we have a complete lack of communication with the Charli fans in various parts of the country. So sorry!

For her 5 month birthday, Charli gave me a gift: she slept from about 8pm until 7:25am. Normally Brian gets up in the wee hours to give Charli a bottle, but he is currently feeling under the weather, so he slept in a different room so as not to give the baby a cold. I usually sleep through the 4am feeding, and I thought I probably would last night too, but I figured if she really started wailing I would definitely wake up. I was out until 7:25am, at which time I realized Charli was awake and perfectly happy, making noise and wiggling around in her crib. Hooray!

Charli has adapted well to our work schedules. Indeed, I don't think she even notices that we don't spend the day with her, because she is having much more fun with her nannies than she ever has with us. Nina blows bubbles and fingerpaints with her (see Charli's first piece of artwork, currently hanging on our door because our refrigerator doesn't stick to magnets), and lets her jump in Annabella's jumper. Maria takes her on the swings at the park and reads her books and successfully puts her down for naps. It's enough to make a mother feel inadequate!

So many accomplishments since our last post! Charli is sitting up much better now. She can support herself, although her balance is not so great and she falls over after a little bit (it's not so bad, Grandpa Jerry!). She held her bottle after the ballgame, but she can't get it back into her mouth if it falls out. She had a good session eating her toes after she collapsed onto them after sitting up for a while. She also had a good session of thumb sucking, although now she is back to sucking on all of her fingers individually and together. She has now eaten oatmeal, butternut squash, sweet potatos, and peas. She might be slightly allergic to the butternut squash - a day or two after we gave it to her, she developed a rash over most of her body. It didn't seem to bother her, fortunately, and I can't say for sure that's what caused it. Now it's gone, and it's left her skin a little drier than usual, so I am dousing her in lotion each night; it helps a lot. Next time we have butternut squash, I'll give her some more and see if the same thing happens. She regularly rolls to the left now, too (still no front to back).

We also had a lovely visit with Kelly, who came out last Thursday and just left yesterday. Any family resemblance there? :) We got off to a bit of a rough start, as neither Brian nor I was home when Kelly got to the front door... I thought she was arriving in the evening, but I was wrong; she arrived around 1:30 in the afternoon, while I was at lunch with Daisy - oops! But we found each other and everything worked out OK. We ate a lot of breakfast, went to a party in Palo Alto, and went to a couple of wineries in Napa. It was a lovely weekend; we have to try to get out to St. Louis soon, I think.

So that's all for now. I did manage to update the website; there's lots of new pictures now!

Picnic!

So rather than try to get a bunch of vineyards in today, we bought a
bottle here at St. Supery and got a spot on their lawn. They loaned
us some wine glasses and we brought somebread and cheese (and wheat
thins) and we set up camp. Pictured here, Charli takes charge of
dispensing bread and cheese rations...

Another day of tasting!

This time Kelly is here, and ready taste the best that Napa Valley has
to offer. Our first stop, pictured here, is St. Supery vineyard - a
longtime favorite. We brought the stroller this time so that Charli
can sit and relax and overlook this establishment's board of fare.

Honest Jim, we aren't giving Charli anything but a sniff!!

First ballgame!

We'll have more pictures later, but because we can, here is some real
time first ballgame blogging! Getting here was a little rough, since
I forgot my card key to get into the office, but once we got in the
ballpark and checked the stroller things were good.

Now we are relaxing in the field club, feeding Charli. It looks like
she may be going down for a nap here in the top of the sixth.

rattlin' around

Well, things are pretty different now that I'm working again. Charli has been mowing through my stored up milk while I'm in south bay, and I can't really pump fast enough to keep up with her - it's stressing me out. In my efforts to keep from running out of milk in 2 weeks, I get up at all hours of the night to pump, which makes me way more tired than I was a week ago. I often fall asleep now at 9pm, and I might get up 3 times during the night to pump. It's much better on the days I work at home, when I can just feed her myself.

Charli is doing great though - she is sitting up better and feeling more sturdy all the time. She reaches for things, and she still loves her pears. Yesterday, she found her toes. They deserve some close inspection, but they don't seem to be very appetizing. At any rate, they haven't been in her mouth yet. Today, she figured out how to use a rattle. She is really quite proficient, although she is not at her best in this particular example:



Some days she is very vocal, and some days not so much. This would be a vocal day...



And this is how Charli felt to find that her Grandpa Lawler was in the hospital (where they don't serve any Jack). We hope you are better soon!

nose to the grindstone

Well, today's the day - my first day back at work (and I'm already slacking by writing this blog post! Don't tell my boss). I'll add a picture later. I dropped Charli off with a minimum of fuss (especially given that she was sound asleep), and made the long journey, mentally and physically, to work. Everyone keeps asking me if I'm excited to be back at work, and I'm all, "Ye... No. But I'm excited to see everyone again!" Our office moved while I was on maternity leave, so I spent a little time wandering around the complex wondering where we live now. It turns out we are in the first building I went into, just as I thought, except there are no signs identifying it as Software AG either on the building or at the reception area inside the front door. Indeed, the sign there is for Minerva Systems or something, which was the main contributing factor to my confusion. We are on the second floor. With no sign. I know that now.

But enough about me! Last night, Charli rolled over from front to back - so exciting! And a whole bunch of other milestones I forgot to post about: Right around the beginning of the month, we started taking baths in the big bathtub. Charli loves it! She kicks and kicks and smiles and smiles. And when she turned 4 months old, she caught her first cold. It was very mild, but she was coughing and her nose was running. She wasn't grouchy, though. And now that I am having to get up in the mornings, we are starting to leave Charli in her crib all night, instead of bringing her into bed with us after her early morning feeding. We'll see how long that lasts - she doesn't mind at all, but I miss her...

I hate to leave you with no pictures, but I'm on my work laptop which means I don't have the newest pictures anymore. So, you'll just have to settle for an old one (about 2 weeks old). :)