Several months ago we discovered we were expecting another child in January [11th to be exact]. For several reasons, we've kept it to ourselves. But, after 3 ultra sounds and everything progressing nicely...we finally feel comfortable putting the news out there. On Thursday, we found out "it's a girl".
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| From Baby Girl Michael |
It's still better than our experience with the Easter Bunny.
I'd feel bad watching it if it weren't so darn funny. She's a good sport.
The replacement cord for my video camera finally came in so I was able to upload some video. There's more coming.
First, we have some video from the Oktoberfest Parade. Every year I march with the UWL Alumni band. A few things to note about the video. I really wish they'd stop selling those horns to people along the parade route. This video is shot by Kaye who typically standing at the end of the parade route. The band isn't terribly disciplined anyway, but by the end of the parade route it's a bit loose [to say the least]. Beer isn't exactly in short supply along the route and these people aren't getting any younger. Lastly, you'll notice Matthew at the end of the clip. I encourage him and his friend Rob to start marching with us. I may live to regret that.
Next, I have some video from Charlotte's B'day
I'll be getting more video up later.
I admit, I'm a slacker. It's been way too long since my last post. Or...maybe not that much is happening. Well, let me catch you up.
This wasn't Charlotte's first Easter, but it was the first one where she's been able to take part in some of the activities. It was my mom's spring break, so she was able to spend a long weekend with us. We had an Easter egg hunt at our church. I was a little afraid of how this might go because, in the weeks leading up to Easter, Charlotte had been pointing at Easter Eggs and saying [or sometimes yelling], "Balls!!". Luckily, that was kept to a minimum at church.
After the Easter egg hunt, we went to the mall for the obligatory picture with the Easter Bunny, or as he's known to Charlotte, "that large furry thing that I like to look at from far away, but not so much close up" There are several parts in the video where, if you watch real closely, you can see small moments of panic. The real terror is not capture on video because I bailed on the video taping duties as soon as I saw her start to lose it. Let's face it, I'm not good at watching my daughter freak out. As you can see above, we did manage to snap one pic.
Like last year, we visited my cousin Sue for Easter Sunday. And, again, she fed us way better than we deserve. Other than a brief choking episode by Charlotte on the way down and a crying/screaming fit for the last 20 minutes of the ride back, it was well worth the trip. I can't thank Sue, and everyone who helps her, enough.
Charlotte is developing her own little personality. She has a fondness for the word "no". She likes to say it to the dog, her parents, a grilled cheese...it really doesn't matter. It's been a long winter, so she's been cooped up in the house for a long time. Let's face it, when there's 3 feet of snow in the yard and you're only 2 feet tall, playing in the yard isn't an option. So, when the weather warmed up, I decided we'd start taking more walks around the block, playing in the yard, going to parks.
The first time I had her in the yard, I set her down in the grass and she just stood there. She seemed afraid to move. I slowly came to realize that she was afraid of the grass. Granted, last summer when she was just learning to sit up/crawl, she wasn't a fan of the feeling of the grass, but I've heard that's fairly normal. However, this seemed to be more of an outright fear...not screaming in fear [ala the Easter Bunny], just kind of afraid to move fear. Nonetheless, we have been able to get her out more. A couple weeks ago we took her to "Kids Coulee", a giant playground/castle/jungle gym in one of our local parks. This was her first time on a big swing set. Yes, I shot video of it. Don't judge me.
Last weekend we payed a visit to my grandma Erickson [my mom's side]. While it's always nice to see her, Charlotte was more interested in her walker. The better photos are courtesy of my Uncle Gary.
Ok, maybe stuff has been happening. Apparently, I am a slacker.
I've discussed this issue here and here, but day care is little more than a petri dish where I drop my kid off every day.
I kid. We're actually very happy with Charlotte's day care. However, she picks up these little bugs there that give her a little sniffle or a low grade fever. We also had the pleasure of a couple weeks where Charlotte didn't want to sleep by herself at night. So, what does a sick kid and a lack of sleep for Mommy and Daddy add up to? That's right. Both Mommy and Daddy were home sick on Tuesday. I can't speak for Kaye, but for about 24 hours, I felt like I was hit by a truck. At about 5 in the morning, I told Kaye I thought I had Lyme disease. I don't know why I picked Lyme disease. It made sense at the time.
That, along with a Packer loss in the playoffs [moment of silence] led to my inability to post for the last several weeks. So I shot a little video over the last couple days. The scene was shot while Kaye was at work the other day [I think...I'm really not sure]. Regardless, it's a little peak into what Charlotte and I do when no one else is around. The conversation is fascinating. She's learning a few words, primarily "more" and "ball". She doesn't have "mommy" or "daddy" down yet, but she definitely knows how to ask for more. Well, at least she has her priorities straight. You'll also notice she's learned a few other thing.
The last scene is for my sister. She and Dale gave Charlotte a Zebra for Christmas. She's been hounding me for several weeks to see Charlotte ride it. So I offer this video as proof. As I said, she's been a little under the weather, so she kept it to a slow trot.
Christmas is like getting a part time job that involves travel, manual labor [ie "Some assembly required"], over eating, and late nights. Last Saturday, we drove to Waupaca. Christmas Eve we drove to Oxford, WI for the Erickson family Christmas [my mother's side]...and then back to Waupaca. Christmas day, we drove to La Crosse to and enjoyed another huge meal with Kaye's family. My mom visited us from Thursday to Sunday. She and Charlotte got lots of quality time. I don't know who ran who more ragged...but I think they both enjoyed it. Lastly, we had Christmas with Kaye's immediate family on Sunday afternoon and watched the Packers.
On Saturday, Santa visited my mom's house. It was the first time Charlotte had any clue of what was going on [unlike the first time]. She had mixed emotions.
[Hat tip to Dick Cook]
Then it was off to the Erickson Family Christmas
Then back to Grandma Michael's for more gifts.
Then on to Kaye's family...
...and more presents.
Just in case that's not enough, we also have pictures.
The other big event last weekend was my nephew's graduation from the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse with degrees in Sociology and Political Science. We are all very proud of him and know he'll do good things. Dale and Chris took us all out for dinner that night. The cake he's holding was his extra special "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" cake. It was friggin' awesome.
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| Matthew's Graduation [click to view album] |
I was going to write a heartfelt post about how amazing the past year has been, but decided I'd just let it be what it is-a kid's first birthday. Unfortunately, the clowns, ponies, and carnie rides didn't show up. So we had lunch, cake, and presents.
We had lots of family around this weekend because of her B'day and Matthew's Graduation from UW-L [more on that in a post to follow]. Charlotte got plenty of cake, as you can see...plenty of presents, as you can see...and entirely too much attention. Between the attention and a few late night meals [and maybe some teething], she was awake every 30 minutes to an hour both nights. We're not the best at letting her cry it out anyway, but when you've got people staying at your house, it makes it even harder because you don't want them to have to endure it too.
Regardless, it's been a great year with her. She's taught me a lot about myself that I never knew. It's only been a year, but I don't remember what life was like without her, nor would I want to [or maybe I'm just blocking it out for the sake of my own sanity].
It took a while, but we finally got it on film. It's only a few steps, but you get the picture...
It took a few tries though
I wanted to post this earlier, but had some problems with the upload. The other day, I walked into Charlotte's daycare and saw this kid go running by. I peaked my head around the corner and discovered it was Charlotte. They have a push toy there that I've seen her use before, but apparently she's become fairly proficient. So, of course, we had to go get one for home. She has also been spotted taking 1 or 2 unassisted steps in the last couple days.
The last portion of the video is a little reminder that she is her father's daughter. Unfortunately, she's developing some of my eating habits. However, at the end, those are oranges Kaye's giving her. So, it isn't completely hopeless...yet.
So it's been a while since I posted last. I'd say we've been busy [and I think we have], but I'm hard pressed to make a list of stuff we've been doing that might have kept me from posting anything. I suppose between ramping up for start of the school year, which is our busiest time at work, and various other stuff, I guess I've neglected this form of communication.
We had some pics taken last week. Check them out.
I also shot some video today that isn't all that eventful.
It does, however, show that her crawling has improved immensely...and, God help us all, she's standing. Sometimes she's able to stand on her own without holding on to anything and some of those are incidents might even be on purpose. As you can see from the pictures, she's getting her teeth.
Update: Remember my plans for retirement? Well, one of my nephew's roommates works at a local Quillins grocery store and also knows the gentleman that I mentioned in that post. Want to guess how he knows him? That's right, he does the same stuff at Quillins...apparently for hours at a time. So, now I'm starting think he may be a slightly past "a little eclectic" and maybe a little closer to goofy. I must admit though, it doesn't make it less funny.
Hopefully Charlotte's a better dancer than her father. By the way, did I ever mention that Kaye was a Pom Pon girl. Anyway...it's subtle, but the video below shows that Charlotte has some sort of rhythm. Check her out, right after the change from reggae to a more bluesy feel.
Oh, and here's more video of her crawling. Yes, it's that important.
For a couple weeks, Charlotte has been able to move around the room a little at a time, but it was more a product of changing positions. Look out!! She's learned to crawl. Granted, it's not the most coordinated crawl in the world, but she's moving.
Just a few notes on the video below:
I'm not necessarily one of those parents who takes pictures of his child for no reason. This week, I became one of those parents momentarily.
I just hope she steers clear of the almond when she starts eating that stuff [inside Swedish joke].
We paid a visit to my mom's last weekend. It's the first time I had been back since she was released from the hospital. All in all, she seems to be recovering quite well. She had a "little" landscaping that needed to be done. It turned into a two day project involving new trees, a small retaining wall, all new edging...and probably the coolest machine ever, a stump grinder. In reality, I'm just thankful no one lost a limb. It's not quite done yet, but should look nice when everything is in place.
This week, we're trying to start Charlotte on rice. She's been getting it in her formula at night for a while now, but now we've been trying to feed her with a spoon. I'll let you judge how well the first feeding went.
This week, Charlotte also started her new day care. She's getting adjusted to the change in scenery. Her sleep is a little off so she comes home and crashes. Not such a big deal, until she wakes up at 3:30 AM and wants to hang out. This day care came along at a fairly nice time, however. Her baby sitter [and old friend and coworker of mine, Sandy] is expecting a baby in August, so she probably didn't need the extra baby to carry around.
I shot a little footage of Charlotte the other day when she was in the mood for talking. She hasn't been cooperative, though. I've been trying to get something similar since she started "talking" but, without fail, every time I grabbed the video camera, she clammed up.
First things first...I finally cut some video from our trip to Rockford last weekend to see Charlotte's great grandmother. You can check it out below. You'll notice that Charlotte's getting a little...um...festively plump. At this rate, Kaye and I may end up on Maury Povich.
On Tuesday, I had my first day of family leave. I'll be hanging with Charlotte until March 27th. So far it's been great. However, I've learned that there are people who had very little confidence in me to make it through one day, let alone 2 weeks. I've become fairly accustomed to low expectations. So, this is nothing new.
Kaye starts a new job with Marine Credit Union on April 2nd. More on that at a later date.
Charlotte was baptized this weekend at the church Kaye and I will be joining in the next couple weeks.. No screaming. No fussing. Just pretty much sat there and took the whole thing in. After she's baptized, the minister walks her down down the aisle and introduces her to the congregation. At the end of the service, she takes the baby out with her and greets everyone as they leave church. As you can see from the video, I'm confused...as usual.
Kaye's brother Mark, my sister Chris, and brother-in-law Dale, were her sponsors. Grandma Michael was also here for the weekend. Kaye's family and my family all got together for brunch after the service on Sunday. All in all, good weekend. Charlotte was exhausted on Sunday. She slept from about 4:00 PM on Sunday until 6:30 AM Monday morning [except for a few feedings and a burst of energy for about an hour Sunday before bed]. Check out the pics from this weekend below.
Ok, she has been bathed, but this was her first fully submerged bath. I don't think she liked it so much.
Poor kid. We just had to put up with our parents showing our naked baby photos/videos to our friends and family. Charlotte's are now on the web.
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