Screws and Spoons

The hospital called yesterday and moved mom's surgery up one day. So tomorrow at 11am she will be going under the knife to get the screws out of her foot. We really have no idea how recovery will go. At first the doc said recovery will be quick, but then again mom shouldn't have any pain at all right now and she does. So who knows. We just hope and pray for a fast recovery to get mom up on her feet! Dad is going to ask for the screws so we can put them in a scrap book. Sick? Yes but those screws cost us a pretty penny. We might as well ask for them back. Plus it's nice knowing they are in our hands and not being reused for some other patient. Hey it could happen! No I will not be selling them on ebay.

Charlotte is learning to feed herself. She isn't very good at it but she is learning. Dad came home from work to find her sitting in her booster seat, food all over her face, cheeks, & nose. She was holding the spoon trying to get it into her mouth. She did a pretty good job but none the less needed a bath after dinner. She is growing so fast.

Original Gangsta

What up Peeps? Hottie Lottie has been kickin' it in the hiz'ouse all weekend with her cuz' lil' L Dogg. They be rollin' with mad style. Dis morning they jet ta da Fireman's breakfast in the hood ta git a hot home cooked breakfast up in here. You know das' right! When dey came back home da played fo' uh little while den Hottie Lottie took L'dogg's hat from him. Don't be messing with lil' L Dogg and Hottie Lottie. Word up.






Even 'ol Ollie be rollin' with the childin up in here!

Updates?

We know, we know. The blog updates have been few and far between. There are many reasons. One is Charlottes hair. It takes all of our effort to try and control it.




Another reason for the lack is updates is because of the amount of time dad spends picking up tissues around the house. This was ALWAYS an issue with mom alone. She has a never ending runny sneezy nose. Since the day he met her mom has always had tissues around. He learned very quickly that there would always be dirty tissues somewhere. Used tissues in the bed, used tissues in the pockets of mom's jacket (or dads if she wears it), used tissues in the couch. In fact, his wedding vows included "I promise to never get mad at the tissues you leave around the house." It is a never ending job for dad to pick these up and throw them out.

Well Miss Charlotte also has a thing for tissues (and wet wipes). She feels the need to find them and add to dads work by leaving them all around the house any chance she gets. Thus the lack of updates.




Still another reason for the lack of updates is the time spent ensuring Charlotte does not eat scissors (which he took out of her mouth the other morning) and removing any and all sharp objects from her little hands. Charlotte likes to get in the cabinets and drawers. When that happens she goes right to the sharpest objects she can find. This is VERY time consuming as she becomes more and more mobile.





Finally over the past few days Mom hasn't had much time to take pictures or update the blog because not only is she watching Charlotte, she is also helping Tiffany watch Liam. Here is a picture of Liam chugging a mason jar of moonshine. Amazing how he walks after drinking.

Excitement

Charlotte was very excited to see her cousin Liam today. He drove up with aunt Tiffany to visit for a couple of days. Hopefully on Sunday we will all go to the Fireman's breakfast. Liam will love to play on the firetrucks!

Trick or Treat

Last night was Trick or Treat in our town. Since we are in the town center, the police close our road down. There is wave after wave of parents with children that come to our house. There are so many trick-or-treaters that the town actually donates candy to anyone that lives in the town center. We estimated last night over 600 pieces of candy were given out at our house alone. We just about ran out of candy after the first hour. By 7:30pm with still a half an hour to go we did run out and resorted to handing out pennies. Dad decided to shut it down last night at 7:45 because, well giving out pennies instead of candy is embarrassing. I always hated those people when I trick or treated. I don't want to be that house on the street.

Paul and Jena came over to help hand out candy as did Kelly, Dave, Brodie, and Mason. We hung out on the porch, had some pumpkin beer, met everyone in the town, and handed out candy.

Bahhh Bahhhhh

Yes thats right. Charlotte was a lamb for Colins 1st Birthday/Costume/Halloween party. She looked so cute in her little outfit. She had so much fun playing with all the toys, especially the walker. She LOVED the walker. She would stand up behind it and walk across the room with no regard to whomever was in front of her. She would just bang into them and then keep pushing as if saying, "Hello!! You are in my way! Do you mind moving?".





Colin had a blast at his first birthday. He was superman. Ryan was Clark Kent. Lisa was Lois Lane. Kelly and Dave were zookeepers. Brodie was a monkey, Mason was a lion. Too cute.




Last night we moved the clocks back an hour. Children do not recognize daylight savings time. 5:00am on Sunday morning was not much fun for dad. He let mom sleep in both Saturday AND Sunday morning. The funny thing is he enjoyed every second with his daughter. They really had some quality bonding time together this weekend.

Last Thursday Shelby and Charlotte drove down to CT to visit Janet and Chris and Emma and Sarah. Charlotte had so much fun playing with girls and can't wait to see them again. Thank you Chris and Janet for taking care of them!

Sadness

Someone in West Virginia wants to buy my opened package of diapers. I know there is nothing wrong with the diapers, but for some reason it makes me sad to think that a family out there is searching ebay for deals on opened diapers. I just picture some small coal town in the hills of West Virginia, parents struggling to buy formula and diapers for their kids. It just makes me feel guilty for everything I have and how buying another package of diapers was no big deal for us. It just makes us appreciate what we do have and how lucky we are compared to thousands of people out there.

Then again, it could be a someone who has a pet monkey and the monkey wears diapers. If it were a monkey who cares where the diapers come from. Or it could be a scientist like myself wanting to do comparisons with all the diaper brands. They might want to find out what the gel stuff is in the diaper. Or it could be a person who is going to export the diapers to the Middle East for thousands of dollars per diaper.

Plushies meet Ebay

Click here for the Plushies Ebay listing. Feel free to place your bid. All proceeds go to charity. Not sure which one yet, dad might be starting a babies with bad diaper rash fund.

I think next we are going to make a little phone call to the Playskool company telling them to back off the chemicals in the diapers. :)

My Nemisis the Plushies

Charlotte's rash on her private areas is horrendous. Bright red, blistered, raw and painful describes it best. Mom told dad today "we need to figure out what food she is having a reaction to". Dad laughed and said "are you kidding me? hello we just switched from Huggies to Rashies diapers. I think that is the cause". So today dad hit CVS again. This time to buy the same old over priced, non-irratating Huggies that he hates.

Dad will be selling the rest of the Plushies on ebay. Please feel free to make an offer. There are 55 of them left.

Being Thankful for Love

There is something magical that happens upon the birth of a child. It is something that is very difficult to narrow down because so many things change. It could be the overwhelming responsibility of being a parent. Never wanting to make mistakes that will effect your child. It could be the feeling of mortality. Realizing you are getting older and that your child needs you right here right now. It could be the sense of protectiveness that takes over after a child is born. Knowing no matter what you will fight, scrape, and scrounge to ensure your child gets whatever they need to grow up to be happy, strong, healthy, and loving. Mostly I think it is a sense of being thankful. Thankful that no matter how bad you might think things are you still have more than a lot of people.

I am thankful for everything in my life. Friends, family, relatives. I am thankful we have a daughter that has brought us more joy and laughter than you could ever imagine. I am thankful she lets us dress her up to take her picture. I am thankful she has brought some extra magic in the form of love to our lives. I am thankful that I have a computer to share this love with you.

Here is a picture of love:

Scrap the Plushies

Charlotte has a lovely little rash now. From the new diapers? Who knows. We will give it another couple of days. If it continues we are switching back to the Huggies.

Huggies vs. Plushies

Mom: Michael, please pick up some diapers for me during your lunch break.
Dad: Sure, what kind?
Mom: Huggies
Dad: But I don't like the Huggies, I can never get them on her.
Mom: Well you can't buy the Pampers?
Dad: Why not? I liked the Pampers.
Mom: You liked the Swaddlers. Those are only for newborns.
Dad: Are you sure?

At lunch dad entered CVS and strolled down the diaper aisle. For 10 minutes he stared at all of the choices. Huggies, Pampers, CVS brand diapers, Pull ups, Swimmies, and who knows what else. Then a pink package caught his eye. Plushies. He could buy 60 Plushies for the same price as 40 Huggies. One thing dad knows is that diapers are expensive.

So dad brought home the Plushies. Mom laughed at him.
Mom: What kind of ghetto diapers are those?
Dad: They are Plushies.
Mom laughing: Plushies?
Dad: Yeah, they are made by a reputable company.
Mom: Which one?
Dad: Playschool.
Mom: They make TOYS!

This is when dad decided a good old fashion test would be needed. So he got out the measuring cup and one Huggie Diaper and one Plushie Diaper. One full cup of warm water was dumped into each diaper.




The results? Well it was about equal. Surprisingly the Plushies felt drier. We will find out today after she wears them around. Dad is crazy and a scientist at heart.

Terrible Two's?

Is that how the saying goes? Terrible two's? We are in the terrible ten's. Ten months. Charlotte decided last night to wake us up not once or twice but three times in the middle of the night. Today she decided she wanted to eat lunch by throwing it on the floor. Later on she decided the cabinets in the kitchen looked better with her in them instead of pots and pans. We are chaulking it up to a bad day. We have all had them...so why can't a baby just have a plain old bad day?

Walk in the Woods

Click HERE for more photos

Bonfire

No matter what people tell you about having children you can just never be prepared for the amount of time and energy they consume. On Saturday Dad thought taking a nap while Charlotte was napping would be a great idea. Unfortunately down time should be spent doing things that you can't do while the baby is awake. Mom reminded dad of this by yelling get your lazy ass off that bed telling him how important it is to utilize the "down time" to do things. Things such as showering, getting dressed, cleaning bottles, getting diaper bags ready, and cleaning. One thing he learned not to do while Charlotte is sleeping was lowering the storm windows all over the house. Especially the one above her room in the attic. It wouldn't be so bad if the windows in the house were not 100 years old. But trying to open and close an antique window in a crooked house is anything but quiet. Needless to say Charlotte also did not appreciate the slamming of the windows. As if mom catching dad "sleeping on the job" was not bad enough...waking Charlotte after only 30 minutes of her morning nap quickly put him into the dog house. The rest of the day he was "reminded" that she was grumpy and fussy because someone woke her up.

The saturday afternoon nap was not much better. After 30 minutes of crying and screaming in her crib, Mom and Dad decided to pack up Charlotte and head over to Kelly & Daves house for their annual Christmas tree bonfire. After 5 minutes in the car Charlotte was alseep. Dad dropped mom off at their house and continued to drive around the back roads of Dunbarton, Goffstown, & Weare with a sleeping baby for an hour. I think he was able to redeem himself a little with mom after that.

Kelly and Daves house was a roaring success with the kids. Lisa and Ryan brought over Colin and of course Mason and Brodie were there as well. Charlotte got to play with everyone and had a wonderful time.


Last year at this time mom, Lisa, and Kelly were pregnant. Hard to imagine a year later 3 kids running around. In honor of last years pregnant bellies...here are the kids with Pumpkin shirts!




We cant wait until the next batch comes! It will be pure chaos.



The highlight of the night was that all of the children went to sleep (we were worried Charlotte wouldn't go to sleep in a strange house). Dave threw last years Christmas tree on the fire and viola! instant giant bon fire!







please click "pregnant" if you want to view pumpkin bellies again.

Love Thursday

Love is....

Playing peek-a-boo with your granddaughter.

Finally Home

Charlotte and Shelby finally made it home last night from North Carolina. Because of heavy rain along the eastern seaboard, the flight out of NC to NH was delayed. They were supposed to be home around 6pm. They eventually landed at 8pm. Dad was looking for them at the airport, turned around, and saw Charlotte smiling away in the baby bjorn. She somehow seems MUCH bigger to him. Even after spending some time with him, he noticed there is something different about her. She IS bigger. She is heavier. Her two front top teeth have come in. She is talking more. She is waving more. She is turning into a little kid in front of his eyes.

What Not To Do

I find it hard to believe I am the only husband in the world whose wife leaves a list of things to do for her husband. I confirmed this when at my friends Paul and Jena's house this weekend. Paul also had a list of "to do's". So to make this world a happier place, I have a few words of wisdom for all the men who have lists:

1. Do not ignore the list on the fridge of things to do.
2. Finish the list early. Do no wait until the last day to start the list.
3. Do not add projects to the list such as painting the living room and raking the yard.
4. Do not cross any items off the list that are not finished.
5. If you don't finish the list do not pretend you didn't finish it because you couldn't read your wifes horrible handwriting.
6. Do not open the fridge to get your 4th beer of the night without looking at the list.
7. Do not open the fridge to get your 5th beer of the night without looking at the list.
8. Do not hide the list before your wife gets home hoping she will forget all of the things she asked you to do.

North Carolina vs. New Hampshire

Charlotte trying to put her socks on in the carseat in NC

Who is the Captain??

I love the open water!

I've got my eye on you Clowns!

Growing every day!

NH:
Today dad had on a t-shirt, over that long sleeve shirt, over that a sweatshirt, over that a light jacket.
NC:
Mom wore a long sleeve shirt.

NH: Dad raked the leaves up. Then took the dogs for a fall walk in the woods. It was cold and winter is coming.
NC: Mom, Nanny, Grampa, and Charlotte went out on the boat.

NH: Tonight dad turned the heat on.
NC: No need for heat.

Luckily mom sent dad some pictures of Charlotte. He was missing her a lot today.
Click here for the full set.