Teeth, bruises, and Night Shift

It seems like Charlotte jumped on the gross motor skill speed train all of sudden.  Out of the blue, this baby can crawl, stand, climb, explore, and get into some serious trouble. In the past week she has had at least 2, if not 3 bruises on her face at all times. Just as one is starting to fade, she takes a header into the dining room table. Then, to add insult to injury, pulls the metal office chair on top of herself.  It's rough being little. It is such a joy to watch her explore her world at her own pace in her own way. I love watching her little mind ponder a dilemma and process a solution; albeit often a poor solution.

The tooth count is up to 3, but since she would rather bite her tongue off than let me feel in her mouth, it's possible there are 15 in there and I just have no idea. I'm going to stick with 3 for now.

The big news in this household is my return to work. After 11 glorious months at home with my baby girl, it's time to leave my calling as a stay at home mom and go back to the grind of 12 hour shifts in the middle of the night. Sound dramatic? It was for effect. In reality, I accepted a Supplemental position in the NICU meaning I will only work 2 shifts a month. Since Charlotte is an angel baby and sleeps from 7-7 she will be none the wiser of my absence.  I'm apprehensive about that first shift back, but once I get that under my belt I'm sure it will be smooth sailing. And hopefully those few shifts a month will enable us to tear out this atrocity of a front yard next year and replace it with something less embracing beautiful, functional, aesthetically pleasing.

My husband can die a happy man. We upgraded our 6 year old computer to an iMac. The same iMac he has been researching for the past year. Having never used a Mac, I am in the middle of a relatively steep learning curve. That being said, this post is lacking pictures because I don't know how to put them on this computer yet.

10 Months

Charlotte has now officially been outside my body longer than she has been inside it. 10 months old. Unbelievable.  The past week has been an explosion of milestones for her. Here's the laundry list of accomplishments.

Army crawls faster than a crab running from a gull
Starting to crawl on hands and knees
Can pull up on anything, even the wall
Can go from lying down to sitting up
Sleeps like a rock from 7-7 (sometimes longer)
2 consistent naps a day but can survive on 1 if something fantastic is happening
Wearing mostly 6-9 clothes but slowly changing over to 9-12 month
Getting fat!
No signs of stranger anxiety


We had our pictures taken by the always-spectacular Justine last month. They turned out better than I could have hoped for!

A Week in the Sun

Every year when I was growing up, my family would spend a week in Sunriver, OR in December and snowboard at Bachelor. Once all the kids were away at college, the trip fell by the wayside. Until now! We just got back from the most spectacular week in Sunriver. Our first big vacation as a family of three. Parents, all 5 kids and their spouses and children. 15 of us. We hiked, swam, played games, white water rafted, shopped, toured, ate. It was a special time with people I don't get to see nearly enough. Charlotte was an absolute angel and had so much fun playing with her cousins, aunts and uncles, and grandparents. Most days she would play hard, nap a little, then sleep 14 hours at night to recharge for the next exciting day. Though 3 months her junior, her cousin Sophia taught her quite a bit about crawling and standing. It was incredible to see the developmental leaps Charlotte made in just one week. Before we left, Charlotte could not make it over the single step that led out of our family room. By the time we returned home, she was scaling the step like she'd been doing it for years.  In 30 seconds she had made it from one end of the house to the other (and eaten some dog food along the way). So far she is sticking with the slightly unconventional, but equally effective, method of army crawling. It is hysterical to watch her squirm across the floor like a crab. And man is she fast. Here is the real bummer of army crawling. Charlotte is all the time filthy. I could be pushing my mop around 24/7 and the front of her shirt would still look like she was dragged through the mud. I think I will attach a Swiffer Pad to her stomach and let her do all the work.


She did pull her self up one time while we were there, and she also sat herself up one time. But neither of these feats have been repeated yet. I think I'll let her do them a few more times before I pen them in her baby book.

A few other fun milestones: Charlotte claps on command (without visual aid), waves "hi," and occasionally reaches for her head when you ask her, "where's your head?" It blows me away to see her learn and comprehend things.

In other fantastically exciting news, I got new carpet yesterday! After regretting my first carpet selection for 2 years, we finally took the plunge and replaced it. It is beautifully perfect and I am one happy mama! Live and learn.

Hiking the Deschutes River

Our Crew

My Beautiful Parents

Enjoying the High Desert Museum

Best Display

Quick Diaper Change

Playing with cousin Sophia

The Fam

Worn out!

Settlers in the Sun

Parenting

Long before Charlotte came along I had an interest in parenting. Everything about parenting fascinated me. Different parenting strategies, different parenting personalities, etc. The psychology of raising children is one of my favorite subjects to research and study, and has been for many, many years. I had read more than 20 parenting books before I was even out of high school. Every morning before school, I would watch Dr. T. Berry Brazelton's show on Lifetime, What Every Baby Knows. I love to talk about parenting with experts, mentors and peers. Now that I have Charlotte I am starting to implement some of these ideas that I have spent years stewing over. Granted, I'm only 9 months in, but so far I am having the time of my life. My love of parenting psychology has only deepened since she entered the scene. The most astounding part of it all is how many extremely contradicting opinions there are out there. About EVERYTHING. As a perfectionist, it is aggravating to want to do it right only to discover there is no right! The most important thing I have learned so far is that everyone parents completely differently, and every baby needs to be parented differently.  We are all doing the very best we can, with nothing but love for our children. As mothers, we want the best for them, and we do whatever it is we think will achieve that end. I have recently made a commitment to myself and my husband to try and keep my parenting opinions private unless specifically asked.  I love this quote from an article I recently read:


"Child-rearing has been a touchy subject in America, perhaps because the stakes are so high and the theories so inconclusive. In her book Raising America: Experts, Parents, and a Century of Advice About Children, Ann Hulbert recounts how there’s always been a tension among the various recommended parenting styles—the bonders versus the disciplinarians, the child-centered versus the parent-centered—with the pendulum swinging back and forth between them over the decades. Yet the underlying goal of good parenting, even during the heyday of don’t-hug-your-kid-too-much advice in the 1920s (“When you are tempted to pet your child, remember that mother love is a dangerous instrument,” the behavioral psychologist John Watson wrote in his famous guide to child-rearing), has long been the same: to raise children who will grow into productive, happy adults. "


I thoroughly enjoyed this article and would highly recommend it. Really got me thinking. If you take time to read it, I would love to hear your opinion! READ ME!

Lil' Camper

Dirt, sun, good food, great friends, s'mores (with peanut butter, sans chocolate), river rafting, life doesn't get much better. Camping. One of my greatest loves. This weekend was hopefully the start of Charlotte's deep love for the outdoors as well.  We spent the last 3 days in the Klamath National Forest at Indian Scotty Campground with some wonderful friends from church and had a phenomenal time. The campground was beautiful, the weather was ideal, the half-deflated river raft was perfect for an exciting and memorable adventure, and the bridge was superb for jumping. I could not have asked for a better time.  Charlotte is the best little camper I have met! She hiked, she napped, she was bathed in a stock pot, she learned about distant galaxies, she made s'mores (and then deprived of the joy of tasting one), she slept all night. Never has she reached such levels of filth or exhaustion; and yet, that smile stayed plastered on her face the entire weekend. Jeremy and I reflected on the way home what a joy and pleasure she was to have along. It wasn't stressful or excessive amounts of work, just fun and relaxing. She really does make everything better. It was so fun to share something we love so much with her. We are so blessed with such an easy going baby that it makes adventures like this not only doable, but enjoyable. When can we go back?

Hammock time

Happy Camper

Exhausting hike

Jer jumping

My turn

Bath time or Dinner time?

Both!

Jer practicing for the Lumberjack competition

My two favorite people

Tired the last day