Monday, June 24, 2013

Weekend Fun

Friday, Josh went out of town for a one night work trip, so my brother came over to spend the night with me, Charlie, and Bessie. He's a big help. He's at the age where money really motivates him, so I usually find a job or two for him to do to earn a little cash.

Like cleaning up all the dog poo in the yard...for $3. I think I win that deal.


Then the money burns a hole in his pocket and I take him to Wal-Mart to buy some sort of Lego apparatus. 


On another note: Look at who is about to pull up on things. And who likes to help with laundry. This kid is THIS CLOSE to taking off crawling. He wants to so bad. I think one of these days he's going to take off after the dog.


Bessie doesn't seem too worried about it. 

This also happened this weekend:


Terrible pic, but you get the idea. Did you know this burns 50 calories every 10 minutes? For someone who's currently counting calories, this was big news. Add that to my 30 Day Shred every morning, and things better be shaping up soon!

Happy Monday!

Wednesday, June 19, 2013

Dog Dilemma

Oh, sweet Bessie. How you frustrate me so. And yet I still adore you.

This dog. The first week we got her, back in 2011, we got a wire crate. She broke it the first time we left her home alone. She broke it, AND broke out. But didn't destroy the house.

So we let her roam the house every time we left.

And she did great.

Until I went back to work, and she spent long days home.

Then she started destroying the house. I mean, DE-STROY-ING. I'd come home from lunch to lamps knocked over, speakers and wires torn up, a sleeping bag torn out of the hall closet, in shreds.

So we got another crate. A plastic one this time.

And somehow we put the door on backwards and she broke it.

So we bought a third crate. (These things run around $100 minimum.)

And she settled in. She even started going willingly into the crate for me every morning, and every lunch hour. She seemed to appreciate the boundary of the crate. She couldn't handle the wide open house by herself, but she could handle the crate.

And then we moved back to Nashville.

And she forgot that the crate is a safe place.

After a few times of leaving her, she broke the door of the third crate.

We started zip tying her in, rather than spending another $100 while I'm not working.

She broke the zip ties.

We found a 4th crate on clearance.

The third time in it, she snapped the wire of the door in half.

This dog only weighs 35 lbs. She has the strength of a cougar. (Are cougars really strong? They seem like they would be.)

Somehow, she couldn't get the zip ties off, but she snapped the wire. Explain that one.

So yeah.

Somehow, a fifth crate seems pointless.


Tuesday, June 18, 2013

Anyone?

Anyone else's house look like this after a full day of taking care of baby, AND cleaning. (At least it feels like I clean all day.)



And he doesn't even crawl yet...



Monday, June 17, 2013

Surprise Trip to Denver

Last week, Josh had to go on a work trip to Denver to help with a video shoot at a Hillsong United concert, really last minute. Like, found out Monday that he had to leave Wednesday. So Charlie and I ended up going along, since Josh has been gone for work so much lately! It's nice when you're not working and can pick up and go at the drop of a hat!

This was Charlie's 3rd time flying in his short 8 month life! I never flew until I turned 18! Lucky kid. He loves flying. Actually, he loves people watching, and new environments, so flying is perfect.


Ready to fly!


Exhausted from the flying excitement. He fell asleep sitting up in his stroller, before I laid him back. Poor kid. 

Josh's brother is working on the tour, so we didn't tell him Charlie and I were coming along and surprised him Wednesday night. We found a really cool mountain to drive up (one of the highest in the state I think) to see the scenery. If we had made it to the top, I think the elevation was 14,000 ft. Unfortuantely, at about 10,000 feet, I noticed Charlie's lips and hands were turning purple! Super scary. He seemed perfectly happy, but didn't look so good. We booked it back down and he was fine. 


Josh and Paul on the mouton (before we noticed Charlie's lips)

The next day, Josh had to be at the venue early in the morning, so Char and I killed some time around downtown Denver. We really just did a driving tour, then ate at Chipotle before going to the venue to hang out for the afternoon. 


My lunch buddy

The concert was at Red Rocks. Oh. My. Gosh. This place was unreal. Seriously. If you live the in mountains, it is probably no big deal, but it almost looked fake, it was so gorgeous. It looked like a painting! The pictures don't do it a bit of justice. I can't even describe it. 




We hung out all afternoon in the production office, just killing time. Charlie got his own special pass for the concert (even though he didn't attend). 


He also got his first real owie. He has been leaning forward from sitting, attempting to crawl, and he face planted onto the carpet. I'm pretty sure there's cement under that carpet. He bonked his head pretty good! You could see the red bump for the rest of the day. 


That night, we found a babysitter through a friend that used to live there, and had her come stay at the hotel with Charlie so I could go to the show. It was the first time we've hired a babysitter (other than daycare). She made some really easy money. I put him to bed, and she had to sit there and watch cable. Nice gig. :)

It was so great to go to the show without a baby in tow! Josh and I had a date night (sort of!)

The next day, we had just a few hours in the morning before we had to head back to the airport, so I talked Josh into going over to Columbine High School. I just wanted to see the place where such a huge event from my childhood took place. I remember it was one of the first huge news events that really impacted me. I was in eighth grade when the terrible shooting took place. We talked about it in class for weeks. I read so much about it. 

I'm glad we went. There's a gorgeous, serene memorial in a public park right next to the school. It was surreal to try and picture the events of that day on that site. I can't even imagine. It was interesting to have my own child there, and think about the parents who lost children that horrible day. So, so sad. But glad we were able to go pay tribute before we left. 

Monday, June 3, 2013

Charlie - 8 Months


BABY STATS:
Weight: Around 18 pounds. He went to the doctor 2 weeks ago and weighed 17 lbs, 15 oz. I know that's still not huge for his age, but suddenly people keep telling me he looks huge for an 8 month old, which I find strange. I'm so used to him being small for his age. 



Sleep: Bedtime is between 7:30 and 8, waking up around 4 am to eat, then going back down until 6:30. He'll take 2-3 naps during the day at daycare, but does not nap nearly as well for us. I plan on working on that when I'm home with him soon.



Feeding: Still takes about 6 bottles a day, but I think I'm going to try to cut it back. The kid is packing on pounds, and I dont think he really needs to eat every 3 hours anymore. I need to do some research. He does baby food solids twice a day now, and then usually a little bit of real solids. He will eat scrambled eggs, banana, cheese, black beans, and little pieces of baby puffs. 



Diaper Size: Size 3. I think we only bought 1 or 2 boxes of Size 2.

Clothes Size: A few 3-6 month sleepers. I think they ran really big.  He's mostly in 6 month and some 9 month clothes. I bought a few cheap 9 month sleepers at Meijer and when I washed them they were too small. You get what you pay for!



Hair: Brown, and he grew a whole lot more of it this month. It's wispy. It's nice to have something to wash in the bath.

Milestones: I feel like he does something new every single day lately. First tooth! (Popped through on May 23...Praise the Lord.) First epic diaper rash (boo). Eating more real solids, including puffs. Clapping hands (so stinkin' cute). Sort of over the paci. Sleeping in his own room for naps AND nighttime (this is major). Sitting up in shopping cart. Moved the car seat straps up a notch. 


New Nicknames: Char (I've started calling him this all the time. Original, I know.)

Crap. I've only got one more month to lose this baby weight...