More slacking...

...except this time I had the pics, I just never posted them.

We took some pictures over the 4th of July. Most of them are at Kaye's parents playing with bubbles and her cousins, who were patiently trying to teach her to blow bubbles. She wanted to kiss/eat them. With Charlotte, it's a very fine line between kisses and eating. They both involve an open mouth and lots of drool.



There are also a few pics of Kaye's birthday dinner at Outback. Shut up! It was her choice. I didn't even have to brainwash her. The last few pics are of Charlotte on one of the weekend mornings while eating breakfast. She's very ladylike.

Oh, and I also included this year's obligatory pics of the Charlotte in the bikini my sister bought her. Happy now Chris?

I'm a huge slacker...

Actually, we've been very very busy these last couple weeks...I'll be able to explain more in the coming weeks. Charlotte is doing well. Her most recent checkups indicate that everything is going well. Her head is 15 percentage points ahead of the rest of her body on the growth chart...once again proving that she is daddy's girl.

She's doing better and better at sleeping through the night [knock on wood]. At this point we're down to only about 1 or 2 nights a week of having to get up with her. Typically, when we get up with her, she'll go right back to sleep after we pick her up. We still have to rock her for a little while to get her back to sleep...but she doesn't spend a lot of time actually "awake". During a recent late night session, she decided she wanted to stay up with mommy and daddy. She was wide awake from about 2 AM to approximately 4:30. I had to get something out of the kitchen at about 3 and spotted the camera on the counter. I'm not sure why, but I thought it would be funny to get a few snap shots of the experience.





Notice, I didn't get any shots of me during this evening. Let's just say the apple didn't fall far from the tree at that time. Oh, and for all you more experienced parents who have that uncontrollable urge to tell us that we should let her cry...we've done that. Thanks.

Lastly, I'll leave you with some obligatory bath video. On this particular evening, she was very content with taking a bath. This is not always the case. Her love for bath time ebbs and flows. Currently, she's in the screaming in terror phase.

Yet another gift from day care [petri dish]...

Last week Wednesday, I got a call from our day care letting me know that they suspected that Charlotte had "hand, foot, and mouth disease". I had heard of this, but didn't know much about it. Come to find out, neither did our day care. When they called, they told me that they had her quarantined in an office. So, of course, I'm imagining guys in white hazmat suits carrying my daughter into a sealed room [ala ET].

When I went to pick her up, one of the workers walked down the hall with her in her arms. She informed me that they were looking into how long she'd need to be out, but they'd definitely need a doctors note to get back in. So, I took her to the doctor.

Now, I've been through this before with pink-eye. They called me, told me she had pink eye, I took her to the doctor, and the doctor told me she didn't have it. So, I went back to day care...all cocky, of course...and told them she didn't have it. Of course, the next day her eyes were all gunked up and pink.

So, this time, I brought her back and gave them the doctors note saying she didn't have it. Interestingly, in the time it took me to take her to the doctor, they discovered that it didn't matter if she had it or not, she could say as long as she didn't have a fever. However, I planned to keep her out that day just to be safe [in case she did or didn't have it and could catch it]. Apparently there's nothing saying kids with this stuff need to be removed.

Thursday we took her back to daycare and all was fine. Early Friday afternoon, I got a call letting me know she was running a fever. As Friday and Saturday rolled along she started to get more and more blisters on her face.

From More gifts fr...

From More gifts fr...

These pics were taken on Sunday after her fever had broken. The blisters continued to show up through out the week. Overall, Charlotte was a pretty good sport with it. She's coming around and the blisters are going away.

As it turns out, almost every kid in the center ended up with it. In fact, I've spoken to parents who have their kids in other daycares, and they're getting it too. The upside...apparently she shouldn't get this again.

Catching up...

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.

It's a Girl!! Part Deux

Tonight, I picked Charlotte up from day care and they had her hair back in little tiny pony tails. That doesn't mean much to some people, but for a long time, she barely had hair. Unless she was wearing the brightest, pinkest outfit, people would say "What a cute little boy". Then again, when you dress her in a Packer sweatshirt like this, it doesn't help.

From Game Day

More recently, it's been too short to put in pony tails but too long to do anything else with. To top it all off, she's got her mother's curls in the back. If we're not careful, it could become a baby mullet [aka Infantulett]

Click on pic to view entire album

You have to really look for the pony tails, but they're there. There's a few other pics in the album of her playing in a basket. As you can tell, she's happier in some pics than others. At one point, she had her self stuck in, what appeared to be, a fairly painful position. You'll be impressed to know that I didn't try to get pics of that.

Valentine's Day is for...

...grandmas?



Apparently it is in our house.

It's been a long couple weeks...

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.

Game Day!!

As you can see, Charlotte was focused and ready for todays game. Unfortunately for her, she's inherited her father's huge head. The hat she's wearing fit her this fall. No so much any more. Oh and, no, we don't always dress her like a boy. On Friday, she went to school in her pink Packer outfit. So, quit judging us!!



Oh, and Charlotte and I also want it duly noted that we both agreed last January that Favre shouldn't retire. Of course, I didn't see them going to the NFC Championship...but Charlotte knew it all along.

Christmas 07

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.

One Year Pictures

It took two tries to get these pictures. Round one was an attempt to get pictures with her cousin, Matthew, as well as her 1 year pics. She was in no mood for this. We managed to get the picture with Matthew [even though it looks a little like a church directory picture]. We went back a week later and finally got her 1 year pictures done.


Christmas "Round One" pics & video coming soon

Matthew makes good

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.

Matthew's Graduation [click to view album]

Congratulations Matthew!

Charlotte's First Birthday

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].

Finally got it on film

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

Walking update

The walking thing is coming along. This weekend she was witnessed taking 3 or 4 steps... on purpose, not just falling forward. Occasionally she forgets that she needs to use both feet to walk, so she just kind of spins in a circle. I tried to video tape it the other night but, of course, she decided she didn't feel like walking then. The weird thing is that she's taken a liking to jumping. Occasionally she'll get all worked up and both feet will leave the ground.

Seriously, though. Given the choice between taking 10 minutes to walk across the room or crawling in 1/100 the time [or having mom or dad carry you], you wouldn't bother with walking either.

Sooo close...

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.