The Foot

It hit dad tonight how horrible this is. Mom is really in a lot of pain and it is going to be VERY difficult for her to take care of Charlotte. Dad spent the day doing what mom would usually do (which is a hell of a lot) and doing other things to help mom out. Not a fun Sunday. Grocery shopping, putting groceries away, changing diapers, letting the dogs in and out, cooking lunch, doing dishes, putting Charlotte down for a nap, getting mom water, cooking dinner....it was just exhausting. Its hard enough just trying to do things with a 4 month old...now doing anything has become extremely difficult.

Nanny is flying in Monday afternoon. Dad is very worried with how mom will do in the morning with no help.

It's not Broken

Mom's spirit is a little broken but her foot isn't. She needs to call the doctor on Monday to follow up with what we should do. She did get some crutches and is learning how to use them. Of course having a beautiful sunny weekend and not being able to get up and around very easily makes it a little tough. We are hoping that she will at least be able to stand on it in a week or so. For now its going to be a struggle with a 4 month old.

Nanny is hopefully going to fly up for the week to help out. I don't know what we would have done if she couldn't make it.

Another wonderful sleeping night for little Charlotte. She went to sleep around 8pm, fed her again at 11pm...then she slept all night!! She finally woke up at 5:30 to eat then went back to sleep until 8am!!!We don't really know what happened, but Dad thinks it's his special sleep technique.

Saturday April 29th The good and the Bad

Ok, so Dad did not take the new job at the new company. He was just not ready to leave the only company he knows for a lateral move. Hard to walk away from 4 weeks vacation and knowing so many people. The company has always done right by dad and he has been there for 12 years, has been able to provide well for his family. He is just not ready to risk that. Having a baby changes ALL of your views on careers, work, life, and jobs in general. It took dad a while but he realized that he is not much of a risk taker.

So now onto the good news and bad news. Charlotte slept from 7pm until 5am!!!! That is the good news!! The bad news is at 5:30am when she was done feeding from mom, dad was returning her to her room and crib....mom was heading downstairs in the dark to get some water and suddenly ....thump thump CRASH. What the hell was that dad though? He ran to the stairs, flipped on the light switch....and there was mom laying at the bottom of the stairs all balled up.

After about 3-4 minutes he was able to get her up...although she is not able to stand on her foot. We think its broken or pretty damn close. We will find out in a few hours when we visit the doctor and get some x-rays done. This will be interesting...mom on crutches with a 4 month old. Not sure how this will work out. Luckily mom has plenty of pain killers left from the c section. Dad will have to take some.

Our House

Well Sunday we had College Painting come out to take a look at our house for a quote. We desperately need the outside of our house painted. We had another company come earlier in the week...their quote was $7800. Dad freaked. Dad figured he was better off buying a $20 brush, a few hundred bucks in paint, and finding a rickety old ladder at the dump. But to appease mom he got another quote. The kid was in college and gave us a quote for HALF of the price, but to top things off detailed all that he was going to have done for us...caulking cracks, sanding rusty nails, and priming boards that were bare. Yes it seems too good to be true, but hey they are the 2nd largest painting company in the US. We will see how it comes out and provide pictures. ETA is end of June. Mom is VERY happy dad will not be spending any time in the emergency room now and is also happy he will not be teaching any swear words to Charlotte this summer. Who knows, he still has plenty of other work to do around the house. Ohh the woes of owning a house that's 106 years old!

Dad has also been in turmoil regarding work. He has accepted an offer with a new company...but is petrified of leaving the safety and security of a company he has been with for 12 years. Hey at 33 he can't see being with the same company for another 15 or 20 years without experiencing some other places. Time to see what life is like with other companies! It's either a really good or really bad decision. Let's hope it's for the best.

Could it still be a fluke?

Success again!
Charlotte got a bath last night, from there a massage, bottle, book, then bed at 6:30. We didn't hear from her again till 3:30am....this is still success. We hope she keeps this up. Mom has gotten so much sleep, more than she has in 4 1/2 months but she feels more tired than usual..hopefully she will adjust. We have our fingers crossed for another wonderful night of sleep.
We'll keep you posted.

Dr. Jeckyl and Ms. Charlotte

Topsy turvey week. Let's start by telling you dad yet again argued with the pediatrician. Hard to believe. It was Charlottes 4 month follow up visit. Shots were due. Dad of course thinks they are nuts to give her immunization for things such as Polio (the last polio case in the US was in 1979). Any cases of polio since then have come from kids contracting the disease from the vaccine. Seems dumb to me. Oh and then there is the DTaP shot. Diphtheria, Tetanus, and Pertussis. Dad was reading Parenting magazine and there was an ad for it and all the wonderful benefits of the shot. Then dad read the back side of the ad, you know, the side affect side, etc that no one reads? We he read it. The side effects didn't look too bad...the usual...death, shock, seizures, and brain damage. What really got dad was one of the ingredients was formaldehyde. Hello?? One of the WORST substances you could put in your body.

So dad expressed his concerns with the doc. I am not against inoculation. Im against doing so much at once. Why not spread it out? Let her little body deal with one shot at a time?? Of course the doc talked about the benefits of inoculation. Dad kept on him about how we can't possibly know all of the effects of putting this crap in kids all at once. Finally the doc broke down and explained to dad it was more "work" for him to separate out the shots. And get this...the insurance company RATES the doctor by the number of children he inoculates. He could get a bad rating by them if he didn't give the shots. Truth at last!! Not only was it more work but it made him look bad. Needless to say we spread out the shots and actually refused one of them that we didn't think we needed. Damn insurance companies controlling our doctors. This is an issue.

Moving on.

Upon return from our vacation we decided to put Charlotte in her own room. Such a wonderful idea:
Night 1 - Charlotte unswaddled.In her crib. Flailed all night. Cried nonstop. Total sleep roughly 2 hours for mom, dad, and baby.
Night 2 - Charlotte unswaddled. In her bassinet in her crib. Same as above. Only difference is she was so exhausted during the day that she was miserable at night and at day.
Night 3 - Charlotte swaddled. In bassinet in her crib. Slept all night.
Night 4- to be determined tonight. We think night 3 was a fluke.

Children are exhausting. Our Saturday was spent being half awake. Our Sunday so far we have been great since Charlotte slept from 7pm to 5:30am, then went back to sleep until 8:30. Mom's bags under her eyes are now gone.

We Have Returned!

Well the vacation was great. We got off to a bit of a rough start but in the end it turned out perfect. Saturday we all piled into the Mini-Van and headed to Long Island to stay with Aunt Tiff, Uncle Ian, and Cousin Liam. Every inch and crevice of the van was packed with stuff. Abigail and Oliver in the far back, Charlotte in the middle row, and mom and dad upfront. After about 3 hours mom was in the middle with Charlotte who was crying, Abigail was in the front seat petrified of something that made noise in the back, and Oliver was still in the back panting because he gets car sick. Then the rain started. Then the accidents backed up the roads in Connecticut. What should take 5 hours took more like 8. Of course it felt like 10. Dad and Mom were starting to really DREAD the 10 hour ride the following day to North Carolina.

We had a great nights sleep and at 5am we awoke to pile in the car yet again. Tiff in one car with Liam, the rest of us in the minivan trying to keep up with her. And we thought people in Boston drove fast?? Long island has to have the worst and fastest drivers in the world. It started at 5:30am with Tiff blowing a red light because it was taking too long. We followed of course.

The rest of the ride was fairly uneventful. It was really not bad. We stopped a few times to eat, let the dogs pee, change diapers, etc. Dad was able to take a bottle with frozen milk in it and sit it on the dashboard defroster and BAM instant thawed and heated milk! He is so smart! We did break the law a few times by pulling Charlotte out of her car seat and holding her for 10 minutes or so while we drove.Let me change that Dad didn't do it while he drove, mom did it while Dad drove. We only did it a couple of times and dad was VERY careful. It did give Charlotte a needed stretch to keep going.
GET ME OUT OF THIS CAR!

At about 4:30pm on Sunday we arrived at Nanny and Grampys house in NC. Their new house is absolutely beautiful and they thought of every little detail. It's right on the creek and has amazing views. The sunset pictures below are from their backyard.
On Monday we went into "town" in Oriental to have lunch and walk around. Dad and Grampy got the boat ready and put it in the water and took a little cruise on the water. Then dad and Grampy went for a little spin on the ATV to see the rest of the new property.




Tuesday morning Mom and Dad piled back into the minivan again. This time to drive the 4 hours south to Myrtle Beach. Actually Surfside beach but its next to Myrtle Beach so we will leave it at that. This drive went really well and once we got there we went straight to the beach! Charlotte's first beach visit! She didn't get to see too much of it since she was in her stroller most of the time. After the beach we hit one of the outdoor malls in Myrtle Beach for a little shopping. We bought Charlotte a spider that plays "itsy bitsy spider". Silly but we had to buy her something fun for being so good.

Pappa cooked dinner and had it ready for us when we got back. We had homemade tacos. They were amazing as usual. Dad ate 7 of them. I wont tell you how many mom ate but it was more than 2. She loves them. After dinner Caitey read Charlotte a bedtime story. She even held her by herself! Caitey is getting so big. Dad remembers holding her when she was just a baby. To think they grow that fast is really sad. After Charlotte was sleeping, Caitey showed Mom her Hermit Crab collection. She has 15. Mom didn't like any of them. Mom does not like Hermit Crabs. Mom is PETRIFIED of Hermit Crabs.

Wednesday morning we left to drive back to NC. Again, uneventful car ride. Although Mom and Dad did find out that there are two Route 17's in Wilmington NC. One is for trucks and one is not. We thought the "truck" route would be shorter. It was not. Once we got back to NC we did a whole lot of relaxing in the sun. It was very nice.

Thursday we did more relaxing. We also went out on the boat with Abigail and Oliver. As usual Abigail was a chicken. Oliver LOVED it.

Friday morning Ian flew in from NY and then we all went out on the boat. He actually flew in on Thursday night but got stuck in Charlotte NC (no relation). Damn US AIR. Charlotte loved the boat ride. She even got to drive the boat!!

Saturday we all went to Beaufort NC on the water. Us boys went into New Bern first and had breakfast together while the girls got ready at home with the kids. Once we got to Beaufort the guys took care of the kids while the girls ate lunch. We did a little shopping and just had a great time.
When we got back the boys went out again to hit the local raw bar for some beer and oysters.

Sunday was Easter. More sun. More fun...and of course Easter Baskets!!!! Thank you for our Easter baskets! Abigail and Oliver went swimming. Up and down the property they would run...just chasing each other....around and around until they got too hot then they would run into the river and swim! then back out to do it all again. They did this almost every day but on Sunday we really let them run and run and run to wear them out.

Monday we left to head home!

Ready for Vacation

Only one more day. Mom, Dad, Charlotte, Abigail, & Oliver are all going to get packed in the car for a little trip to the South. Saturday morning we are leaving at 6am to hit Long Island and Aunt Tiffany and Uncle Ian. Sunday morning 6 AM we are all leaving to drive down to North Carolina to see Nanny and Grampa! Yeee Haaaa! Hopefully the car ride will be smooth and peaceful. Chances of that happening? Slim to none. We are going to take PLENTY of pictures and dad is going to do his best to not yell.."DONT MAKE ME PULL OVER!". Should be hours upon hours upon hours of fun.

Tuesday we are going to make the 4 hour trek from NC to SC to visit Grammy and Pappa. We are going to spend a day there and then drive back to NC on Wednesday.

We are so looking forward to our vacation!

GROUNDED

I am now grounded.

Dad wanted mom to take pictures of what she teaches me everyday...what kind of request is that? So she taught me how to drink a beer and she e-mailed him the pictures. Now I'm grounded. I seem to be the scapegoat here...help!

Tongue Twisted

Charlotte found her tongue this week. She looks like a lizard...sticking it out of her mouth all the time and twisting it around. She also found her hands and has learned how to hold things!

Return from Vermont - posted by Oliver

Despite mom bringing baby Charlotte to Vermont with us, I still had fun. I ran around in the back yard, barked at all the dogs in the neighborhood, and just had fun playing with Abigail.

Charlotte and her cousin Liam went for daily strolls with mom and aunt Tiffany. You can see by the pictures how serious she is. I don't think it's that tough being a baby, so Im not sure what her issue is.

Dad and uncle Ian came in on Friday night. By the time dad arrived on Friday night he was starving. Mom didn't have dinner ready for him as she promised. He angrily grabbed the frozen pizza from her and put it in the oven. About 30 minutes later when trying to cut through the pizza he realized he left the cardboard on the bottom! The pizza stuck to the whole cardboard and just made a mess. HAAA!! That's what he gets for being impatient!

Saturday it rained. Not a whole lot of fun. Mom and dad had to wipe my feet every time I came into the house. Charlotte got very fussy around dinner time. Mom and dad couldn't take her out in that condition. Tiffany and Ian went to dinner with cousin Liam. Mom and dad stayed in and ordered take out food.

Sunday morning we left to come home. We were home by 11am. Vacation sure didn't last long.

When we got home Mom and Dad took all of us on a walk around the neighborhood. I had a hard time at first barking at everyone, other dogs and cars, but by the end of the walk dad said I was being a "good boy". He even took us to swim in the river, I went in further than abigail. Maybe I'll be a better swimmer than her this summer. We'll have to wait and see.