Dee-troit Lean!

Quick pic of Charli chillin' in her ride. We all went to brunch today
at the Mission Beach Cafe. Charli didn't sleep a bit despite the
lengthed route we took to get there in hopes that she would fall
asleep. But instead she chose to stay awake and charm our fellow
patrons.

rockin' out

She's so close...



but not quite...



Even so, Charli is much more mobile than she used to be. She can roll over and over to get around, and she can push herself in small increments and rotate in any direction, so that if you look away for a while, she will definitely be somewhere else when you look back. She can get off the rug and onto the hardwood floor, and then it's really easy for her to propel herself, mostly backwards, into the stools or the bookshelves and get stuck.

I also left Charli sitting up on the wood floor for a moment, and of course she chose that moment to roll herself backwards and hit her head, rather than the previous 15 minutes when I was sitting behind her. I felt bad (it was way worse than when Sam dropped her), but then again, she'd probably better get used to it...

Does she look older to you?

Both Korin and I thought that Charli looked older tonight when she
passed out after Korin fed her. Of course, maybe that's all just
parental hogwash and she actually looks as young and baby-like as she
did yesterday. Hard to tell, check out the picture yourself and you
be the judge!

Charli is now VERY close to crawling and seems to have figured out
that if she can just scoot her way over to our pseudo-hardwood floor
that her mobility increases dramatically. Unfortunately for her, she
is best at moving backwards which means that she ends up against the
wall pretty quickly. It is also of some concern that she is tasting
all of the furniture. But aside from those things it is pretty fun to
see her figuring things out.

I got my official cholesterol report today, and compared it to my
precious blood test from 11/28/2007, a mere 5 months before. Here is
the roundup:

Cholesterol before: 305, after: 157
Triglycerides before: 498, after: 117
HDL before: 36, after: 39 (40 is good, I'm on my way!)
LDL before: N/A (triglycerides too high!), after: 95

Looks like I have a shot at living to see Charli graduate!

duh - 6 months

It's crazy what important things one might forget to blog about. Thursday was Charli's 6 month birthday! It's been a whole 6 months! Where does the time go? And to further illustrate that question, a friend at the bbq yesterday pointed out that it was almost Brian's and my first anniversary! How can it be? But it is true. Brian already realized that our anniversary was coming up, apparently, but I did not. I'm the worst.

So anyway, with the 6 month birthday comes the 6 month doctor's visit, which in turn comes with the 6 month measurements! How exciting! Charli is 25 inches long, and she weighs 14lbs 1oz, which, of course, I think is not enough. She is now in approximately the 20th percentile for weight (at 4 months she was in the 25th percentile, but the doctor says they usually drop a little bit when they start eating solids), but she's also in the 25th percentile for length and head size, so she's proportional. It makes me feel better when I can remember that, but for the most part, I continue to think that I'm starving her. To counter that perception, we are just starting to supplement with formula. I don't think she likes it too much, but she drinks it. She also made horrible faces today when I tried to feed her homemade squash, broccoli, and carrots, but of course, I wasn't videoing.

I know I'm not really starving her. The doctor (and everyone else) says she's perfectly healthy, and she's obviously happy. It's just some mental problem I have; I can't help it. I know in my head she's doing fine, but in my heart of hearts (or is that my stomach?), I think she could eat more if it were available, and that would be better for her. I don't recall growing up hungry. I don't know what would make me this way. Brian has learned to ignore it. Sam has not, but she was on her way.

barrage

Well hello! It sure has been a long time since we made a blog post! It isn't that nothing's been happening; it's that I've been so tired that I fall asleep immediately after dinner (or Lost, which gets watched after dinner), rather than doing anything so thoughtful as writing a blog post. So, here's a barrage of happenings coming at you in quick succession! Lots of pictures! Lots of video! Get ready, here it comes!

The first news isn't even about us. Way back on May 13, Kim and Brent left for their monster hike. For those of you who don't know the details, Kim and Brent have quit their jobs, rented out their house, and gone on a 2600 mile, 4 1/2 month hike. They are hiking the Pacific Crest Trail, walking from the border of Mexico to the border of Canada, via California, Oregon, and Washington. So far, it's been going well, except Kim is sick. They hike about 20 miles a day! For all the gory details, check out their blog. If you click on the latitude/longitude (when it's there), you can see where they are on the trail! How cool is that? Charli says 'Have a good time'!

Later that week, we had a heat wave in San Francisco. It went up to like 90 degrees or something, and here we were with no air conditioning. *pant pant* It was even hot at night. Here is Charli sucking on ice cubes and looking cute.

And more news not about us! Sam graduated on May 17, so we went back to Colorado to watch her walk (this allowed us to get out of the heat wave, too). It was great! She double majored in math and art, and walked with the math department. We had to get up really early to be there - her graduation started at 8am (how cruel). As it turns out, Sam was supposed to be in a green gown, to indicate that she was in the top 15% of her class, but she didn't know that - haha! We're pretty proud of her anyway, though. :)

Charli didn't think too much of the graduation (she was fussy through most of it), but she really enjoyed the luau afterwards. Brian and I (more me, it seems) were appalled to find that Charli LOVES POI. Yes, poi, that grody purplish gray taro paste stuff that Hawaiians eat as a starch staple, like rice. I love taro in every other form, but not poi (not even with milk and sugar in it, Hawaii folk - it's still TOO GROSS). Dad (Grandpa) compares it to wallpaper paste. Here is video of the first time she had poi, because I was trying to get good video of this terrible face she usually makes the first time she tries anything. Apparently that face is for things less beloved than poi, which Mom (Grandma) proudly fed her as part of every meal after this. Crazy baby.



The day after graduation, we had brunch with friends and saw Sam's senior art show, which was hosted by the math department. It sure is nice when your major's department really supports your other major! While we were at brunch, Charli apparently got thirsty...

Charli also discovered some musical interests:



Sam came back to SF with us to watch Charli for a week (our last week without nannies). She was GREAT with Charli - patient and fun, and she even made us dinner! She was completely relaxed and laid back about everything. We will be happy to have her back anytime! Charli has stopped hanging her tongue out all the time, but this week she learned a new trick: spluttering. Gee, where do you think she got that? Actually, don't let me mislead you. Sam got it from Charli, not the other way around. :) Sam left this morning to visit a friend in Vancouver, but I'm sure we'll be seeing her again soon.



Yesterday we went up to Sacramento for a delicious birthday bbq for my uncle Kalei and his daughter Alina, visiting from Utah. Alina has a 3 year old daughter named Avery, who is the the spitting image of Alina - she is so cute! I was extremely neglectful about taking pictures at this bbq, but at least I got this one. Alina gave us a pile of hair clips for Charli, which OF COURSE we had to try out all at once. They looked adorable, but no pictures. *sniff* So sad...

And last in this behemoth post, Charli is really going to start crawling soon. She can get up on her hands and knees and usually she just goes back down, but sometimes she will rock a little bit or move her legs. She seems best at it when she's upset - she can lift her butt up about 4 feet when she's screaming. :) Speaking of which: last night we caught Charli sleeping on her face with her arms spread out and knees under her, and her butt up in the air. Brian tells me she gets this from him. :)

OK, was that enough news? I sure hope so, because I can't remember anything else that happened over the past 2 weeks. Actually, I wouldn't even remember this much if it weren't for all the pictures. This camera is better than a journal!

happy mother's day

Here it is, the first time I've been on the receiving end of "happy mother's day"! And a lovely day it was, too. There's Charli's wish for me. :)

We started out with breakfast at the Mission Beach Cafe, where they have unfortunately stopped serving the best biscuits and gravy that we'd found so far in the city. So sad. Now they just have biscuits and honey, which are still quite good, but they don't really fill the same need... Everyone at the cafe agreed that Charli is quite the cutey. The waiter said she was the cutest all week, which of course translates into a larger tip.

Then we came home and relaxed for a while, and Charli tried some mango. Yummy! She liked it. I liked it too, but there wasn't enough for both of us. She went down for her nap an hour late again, because Brian and I are completely incapable of keeping her on schedule. I tried to put her down around the right time, but that just really didn't work out at all. Brian had to rock her to sleep again - he's got some skills in that arena. After that I went and got a cute new wallet/purse thing, because I am addicted to wallets, and after that we went to Bi-Rite to get some dinner makings so Brian could fix me dinner! For mother's day! How special! While he was getting that ready, I fixed Charli some blueberries and bananas, and she LOVED it. I've never seen her open her mouth so wide for food. I think she likes it better than pears!

After Charli went to bed, Brian made us fabulous grilled salmon (a new glaze recipe, which turned out even better than our old dill recipe, which is awesome) and awesome roasted vegetables, and it was DELICIOUS. He made a ton, so that we would have some leftovers, but it was so good we ate it all instead. For dessert we had brownies with ice cream and bananas and blueberries, and it was scrumptious.

While we were eating, we watched the movie "IQ", which was awful. It had Meg Ryan, Tim Robbins, and Walter Matthau in it - Walter Matthau was Einstein, and Meg Ryan was his supposedly smart niece, and Tim Robbins was the auto mechanic who falls in love with her. I highly recommend that everyone NOT see this movie, even if you happen to like cheesy romantic comedies. See something with Julia Roberts instead; she is so much more likable than
Meg Ryan.

Well, that's all for now. Happy Mother's Day, everyone! Many happy returns!

*pbbbbt*

Yesterday as soon as she woke up, Charli started to sit around with her tongue hanging out. She did it all day yesterday, and continued on today. It's hilarious! We thought maybe she could feel her teeth coming in or something, but I don't feel or see anything there. Whatever - it makes for some great pictures! :)

Charli and I had a lovely day together, while I was supposed to be working. Brian stayed home as late as he could to give me some time in the morning, but he had a presentation to give so he had to leave before 10. Charli was then really good for a while and I got a little bit of work done, but then she decided she wanted to go out, so we went to the park and swung for a long time. Then she came home and ate and fussed and resisted sleeping and screamed and ate and finally took a 2 hour nap, which allowed me to get some more work done. Our friend Alexis was going to help me take care of Charli in the afternoon, but our schedules kept not quite matching up (or more accurately, our kids' schedules didn't quite match up), so we didn't manage to get together until almost 4, at which point I just knocked off work early. It was Friday afternoon! No one works until 5 on a Friday afternoon.

Alexis brought over some homemade carrots, lentils, peas and mango for Charli. We tried the peas for lunch today, but it was not very successful. She ate about half of them, didn't seem to like them so much, and then had the biggest barf ever. Peas everywhere; I don't think she kept any of them down. I guess she REALLY doesn't like them. :( She had some peas before at Nina's house; I'll have to ask her if she remembers whether or not Charli liked them when she gets back.

Also from yesterday: this is not a picture of it, but it's close - a few minutes before we took this picture, Charli actually got up on her hands and knees for a second. She had to push her feet against the pillow to get up there, but it was a definite advance from her previous efforts of lifting up her torso but not bending anywhere. *sigh* Soon she will be crawling... It seems so exciting from this side, but I'm sure after she starts, we're going to wish she hadn't.

Here are some pics of us hanging out at Dolores Park (thanks for the picnic blanket, Grandma!). Brian and I were having a lovely time at home, as we are perfectly capable of doing all day long, but Charli got bored, so we had to find somewhere else to have a lovely time. We went to the park in the morning, and in the afternoon we hung out on the deck, which is definintely at it's best in spring. We can sit in the shade of the wisteria if we position the blanket carefully, and our roses and irises and clematis and heuchera and honeysuckle and pansies and lemon tree (and weeds) are all blooming, and everything is green and lovely. Charli likes it! Now if we can just figure out how to get some grass out there...