can't wait

No pictures til I get home and can post a longer post, but I couldn't wait to put this up.

Yesterday I stood Charli on her feet, and she stood there unsupported for about 3 seconds! Yay! I was shocked. Brian and Jerry and Kelly were all in attendance!

Also, Charli is getting her first top tooth. I think it's the top right, but it's kind of hard to tell exactly where my finger is getting bit when she won't stay still for more than a second.

the silver and black

Charli attended her first football game today - the Oakland Raiders vs. the San Diego Chargers. Unfortunately, we lost (everything fell apart in the fourth quarter), but Charli showed good sportsmanship throughout. She helped us boo when the Raiders got penalties, and we practiced one-finger hi-fives with the neighboring fans when they scored. She didn't comprehend the one-finger hi-five, but she wouldn't open her hand for a regular hi-five, so we did the best we could. She stayed awake for the whole game (and for the entire ride home after the game, and then for the entire evening until bedtime) and hardly fussed at all. This time we managed to bring enough food, and we remembered both sunscreen and a hat. Hooray! We'll make good parents yet.


Check out the fan in the left of this picture. Next year, we're getting Charli an outfit like that.

unfettered joy

Here's my beautiful girl with the bubble maker that Mom brought for my birthday. Charli LOVES my birthday. :)








I love these pictures. She looks so happy and innocent. *sniff*

She has no idea what the world is really like! She thinks everyone loves her and wants her to be happy! She has no idea she is going to be a teenager!

surprise!

Well. Turns out Brian had ALL KINDS of plans for my birthday...

As I was putting the baby to bed, I heard the doorbell ring. It seemed Brian was expecting someone, so I wasn't too surprised about that, but I didn't know who it was. Boy was I flabbergasted when MY MOM came into Charli's room! And then MY DAD came in, too! And Daisy! And Jim! Well, those last two weren't such a shock, but my parents... Good thing I had a shirt on! :) *sniff* I almost cried. I'm totally turning into my mom.

Charli started crying, what with the sudden invasion of her room right at bedtime, so everyone left and I put her down and everything was fine. We ordered yummy pizza, and Mom kept talking about babysitting, and I kept thinking "Wow, that's a long ways to come just to babysit for an evening, unless... they are babysitting for more than an evening?" And so I finally figured out that Brian had gotten us reservations to the Ritz-Carlton in Half Moon Bay, so we could make use of the gift certificates my wonderful team at work had given us as a wedding present. And he kept this secret for weeks. And my parents (and Sam, I'm sure) kept it secret for weeks. And Daisy kept it secret for weeks (she picked up my parents at the airport). As a matter of fact, even some people at work knew (I don't know for how long), and they kept it quiet. I'm sure it helps that I am completely thick about these things, and probably wouldn't figure out a suprise if it bit me on the butt, but that sure was a lot of people who knew and who didn't tell me. I think even Kim and Brent knew, out there on the Pacific Crest Trail...

Mom was hilarious. She brought me some gifts for my birthday - a beautiful handmade cloth activity book (for Charli), and a bubblemaker (for Charli). She also brought Charli a couple of toys and some new clothes and shoes. And she also had a few more things for Charli in her suitcase. :)

So on Saturday, Brian and I left Charli overnight for the first time, and headed for Half Moon Bay. The Ritz is pretty swank. They asked our names at the gatehouse on the way in, stuck something on our windshield, and after that, everyone greeted us by name, and at reception, they gave us a couple of glasses of wine. We got a room with a little firepit and looking out over the ocean (all the rooms might do this) and a really nice tv. You can enjoy the whole room with us via pictures!

We saw whales (but I didn't bring my long lens, so my pictures aren't very good)! There is a bath menu in the bathroom, where you can order a fancy butler drawn bath in your extra deep extra fancy marble bathtub (minimum $45, for a kids' bubblebath including hot chocolate and cookies). At 6:30 in the evening, a guy in a kilt walks around the property playing bagpipes! There is a catalog in the room that sells a sweater for $2500 (yes, that's two zeros before the decimal point)!

We had dinner and breakfast in the hotel, and they were quite acceptable. Dinner was not as good as the dinner at the Ritz in the city, but it was still pretty good. The chef might have been trying a little too hard - I thought there was often an ingredient in the dishes that didn't quite go, and there was one that was a frankly terrible combination (foie gras and peanut butter shortbread?! Don't try this one at home, folks!), but then you just eat the bits separately and they taste quite good - but the location is gorgeous and the service was good, so overall things were quite lovely. Breakfast the next morning was very tasty, but the service was terrible (very unexpected). Nothing that would prevent me from staying there again, should the (free) occasion arise...

Overall, we (I) had a great time! I highly recommend it to anyone who has way too much disposable income, or alternatively who has a really, really generous entity of some type (like, say, a team at work) who gives you lovely gift certificates, and a really, really great daflink who plans big secret things.

37

*gasp* I am 37 today! That is 444 months, Charli!

To celebrate my birthday, I tried putting Charli in her first cloth diaper. See how cute it is? And now I have put one less diaper in the landfill. Of course, it cost me about half as much as a whole case of disposables, so it will take me a while to recoup my investment. But my CONSCIENCE is worth ANY price, right? And they're so cute...

So Charli liked it fine, and she took a big poo in it. It plopped right off into the toilet, no trauma there, and I just put the diaper in a bag. Charli's trying out our second cloth diaper overnight, so tomorrow I'll wash them both, and I'll consider this a pretty good test!

the end of an era

I have stopped pumping milk for Charli. We will use up our frozen stash with evening feedings, and during the day she will be 100% formula from now on.

I feel both relieved and sort of let down, but definitely more relieved. :)

fishies!

Today Maria took Charli to the aquarium, and she LOVED it. My whole family loves aquariums, and it's lovely to know that Charli is following in our footsteps. I think we'll get a membership to the California Academy of Science, which has an aquarium, a planetarium, and a natural history museum (complete with rainforest)! Who could ask for anything more?