Rolling, Hiking, Jumping

Charley started rolling over last week! She went from not really ever trying to roll over to doing it all of the time. Here's a pic after a successful roll. I promise I didn't pose her hand like that. Seriously!

Charley and Mema

My parents were up for a couple of days last week, and as Allison would say, it was mucho fun. Unfortunately it was very cold and very rainy their entire stay, so we mainly stayed inside and couldn't take them to see any sites. They had to leave Saturday morning, after which the sun came out in all it's glory. D and I decided to take a family hike "up" Paris Mountain. We haven't hiked since I was just a wee bit pregnant with Charley, so it was good to get out and hit the trails again. Charley did wonderfully...We don't have a fancy shmancy pack, so the poor thing had to bob around in a front pack. She fell asleep the entire way back down the trail, which was precious (but probably gave her bumpy dreams). Andrea - I think Charley and Mags will make great hiking buds!


Below are some pictures of Charley in her door jumper thing. She is hilarious in it. Because she is so tall, I mean, long*, she is outgrowing it waaay too quickly. From the get go, we've had it at the highest height that it will go, and Charley's feet are flat on the ground, which is apparently a no-no with those things. D spent some time this afternoon rigging it so we can get some extra time out of it, and it worked! Yay! I'm excited b/c she loves it and it is super fun watching her in it.
*Donald pointed out to me that babies are "long" and aren't considered "tall" until they start walking. Or maybe it's when they start standing. Or maybe it's when they reach a certain height. Not sure. :)

Chucktown Trip

Donald had a meeting in Myrtle Beach for a few days, so he dropped Charley and I off to spend some time with my folks in Charleston. We had a great time...it went by too quickly...didn't get to see everyone that we wanted to see or spend enough time with the grandparents. Thanks to the Edmonds for watching our Sadie even though it meant they had up to four dogs at their house over the weekend.

Kisses from Daddy

"What is that, Aunt Robin?!"

Granddaddy's birthday! (with cousin, Lexie)

Smiles with Mema

Meeting Frenchiemama's co-workers

Helping Frenchiemama type

Snugglin' with Auntie MJ

Cousin, Jrew!! (they were in Charleston too!)

Housekeeping Woes

So this morning I made my list of things to do. Yes, I'm a list person. So, I set off to vacuum the house, which is a twice-weekly ritual (Donald is a huge help with this). Vacuuming a house with a black lab any less than twice a week results in black tumble-weeds rolling down the hallway. So, I couldn't find the vacuum. It's normally in the laundry room. I searched everywhere, every room. Just before calling my husband to ask him where it was (like he hid it or something), I found it under a pile of shirts that are waiting to be ironed. Also on my list. Wonderful reminder. So here I go. Off to vacuum. Charley is playing safely, contently in her crib under the mobile. Okay, one room down, two rooms...okay, Charley is screaming. Screaming! All of our attempts to create an immunity with her and the vacuum cleaner by running it in close proximity since she was a newborn have proved futile, because now it scares her. Turn it on. Screaming. Turn it off. Stop screaming. Hmmm. So I comforted her for a second, placed her back in the crib, on her tummy this time with toys, and quickly vacuumed the remainder of the house, with the dog who created most of the mess trailing behind me, getting tangled in the cord or standing in the very spot that needs to be vacuumed. Okay.... Vacuum... Check.
Earlier this morning, I spent what seemed like an hour making up Charley's crib. I had to change the mattress pad and sheet, which had been peed on while the sheet savers (ultimate crib sheets) were in the wash, becoming free of their sweet potato stains and drool spots. Normally I keep a clean one on hand, but somehow the rotation got screwed up. So here I go, putting on the sheet. It is like putting panty hose on an elephant. Miserable. I literally was out of breath by the end of it. And then there's putting the sheet saver back on. Are all of those snaps really necessary? But, of course, I snap them all, because if I don't, my child might choke on them, strangle herself, or worse yet, consume the entire thing, and then I'd go to jail for negligence and my cellmate, Myrtle the Murderer, would ask me, "what you in for?" and to that I would sadly reply, "I failed to snap all of the snaps." So, now, Charley is napping in her all-snapped-up crib, and I can breathe easy. Although, being a mom, there's rarely ever room for breathing easy. So...Crib Sheets.... Check. (actually I just added that to the list so I could have the pleasure of checking it off).

It's Been Five Months!

Charley has been with us for five months now!! Crazy! She has grown leaps and bounds this past month. She is now grabbing everything in sight and sticking it in her mouth. She doesn't have total control of her arms yet, so when she goes to grab things while sitting in our lap, it's in Whack-a-Mole fashion. She will see something she wants and then her arm will go whack, whack, whack until her little hand successfully grabs the desired object. She will then swing her arm like a crane and drop the object on the floor.
Charley began eating vegetables this month. We haven't moved past sweet potatoes yet... she dogs them as well as her oatmeal. She continues to drink her bottle like we haven't fed her in days. Not to mention she recognizes her bottle now, so if she sees it and we don't give it to her instantly, she will scream. I mean, scream. Therefore, we either hide her bottle or let her scream. We're not sure if you can teach a five-month-old that "screaming is not an appropriate behavior" and "we will not reward you with your bottle if you scream," so the lesson on "don't manipulate mommy and daddy" is on standby. Scriptures say that we are supposed to crave the Bible like a baby craves milk...something we've heard at church and Wafuasi lately... So this morning, when Charley was crying a desperate cry for her bottle while I was searching for a burp cloth, it made me think about this verse... If the Bible was taken away from me or withheld from me, how would I react? Would I be so desperate for it that I would weep like my hungry child? ...Something to think about.

Random Mobile Pics

Pictures that I took from my phone in the last month or so...

Shop 'til you drop. Maggie and Charley take a snooze at the outlets in Gaffney.

Yes, we still have Sadie. Yes, she's still an inside dog. Yes, she still gets lovin' (sometimes).
An icky bug that was crawling on a flower stem in our yard. It was white and spikey.

My D-group singing a Christmas carol to a random couple at Chick-fil-A (long story).

Charley and her bow-band. Full of smiles!!

In 40 Days...

Finally an Update

Things are going well here... Fall is here and life is busy. Our little girl is growing so fast! She's now into oatmeal (think extra-fine-baby-kind not instant-maple-and-brown-sugar), and as you can see, it's going pretty well (when it actually stays in her mouth). We tried rice cereal for awhile first, but she prefers the oatmeal.
Donald had his first football game last night (little league), and they won 22 - 0. Yay!
Over the last few weeks, I have been very passionate about several things. 1. Politics. I have discovered that Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham get me too fired up for my own good. I love listening to them, but I seriously want to go pick a fight with someone once I'm through. And that's exhausting. Not that I actually pick a fight, it's just exhausting being fired up enough to want to pick a fight 2. Football. Need I say more?? 3. My faith and my time...how those two things should be united, but somehow end up being worlds apart sometimes. Okay, so this is completely random in regards to this post, but I just have to share with you the following excerpt from a sermon by Matt Chandler. I love it.

"Christians are no better than non Christians. In fact, the believer in Christ who's actually been converted and understands the scriptures, doesn't see himself as morally fit for God at all. In fact, he sees himself as so desperately broken that unless God sends Jesus to become a wrath-absorbing sacrifice for our lives, that we have no chance at ever being restored. ...Christians continually show that they don't understand the Gospel by pretending they are more moral and more devoted than everyone else...That's not the Gospel. In fact, it's the enemy of the Gospel. The Gospel's not for the "more" moral and the "more" devoted...the Gospel of Jesus saves. Saves us from what? From us. Our inability to be as devoted as we need to be, Our inability to be as moral as he's commanded us to be."