2009.

It has been quite the year for the C Family.

January.

Chris enters his 2nd semester of graduate school and is teaching undergraduate classes. He spends his free time taking care of a wife that won't stop puking. Erin gets her exercise by running from her office across the building to another bathroom to puke so her coworkers don't suspect anything. She reaches 12 weeks at the end of the month and spills the beans so she is allowed to puke freely in any bathroom she wants. Carly still has fins.

February.

Chris and Erin move to a smaller apartment to save money on rent. Chris goes away for a few days to a conference, and Erin spends the weekend setting up the new place. Carly makes her puke a lot, but she decides to cook dinner for herself and spills rice all over the kitchen. It stays there until Chris returns.

March.

Erin continues having dreams and impressions that baby is a boy. They find out baby is Carly. Erin doubts her mother's intuition. But the baby is amazingly beautiful. Chris cries when he sees her perfect physiological structure.

April.

Chris and Erin run off to the West for a week. Erin and Carly walk across the stage at Erin's BYU graduation. Chris waits 2 hours for Erin's 5 seconds of fame.

May.

Chris wages a mighty battle with Ikea over a faulty crib. Erin leaves the cute middle pregnancy stage and enters the really big stage. Carly takes tumbling classes.

June.

Chris and Erin celebrate their 3rd anniversary by buying Carly Applebee's riblets for dinner and skipping out on the movie they planned to see because Erin was really tired and huge. They decide their 4th anniversary will be more spectacular.

July.

Erin is really huge now. Chris shows off his handyman skills by building bookshelves, gliders, changing tables, swings, and strollers. They get a new crib that is too big for their Honda Civic and have to drive home at 5 MPH with Chris hanging out the car window and holding the boxed crib on the roof of the car. Erin breaks the news to her bosses that she plans to quit and is frequently asked how she'll support a child with a student husband. She has no answer.

August.

Erin goes into labor 2 days before her due date. During one of Erin's contractions, Chris complains of a bad Charlie Horse and calls it "the worst pain in the world". Erin gives birth to the most beautiful being to ever grace the earth and spends the rest of the month in a shocked stupor. Chris takes care of his wife, newborn, starts school, runs UT's fitness center, and works on three research projects. He is occasionally allowed some water and crackers for sustenance. Carly gains a whole pound within 4 days of her birth.

September.

Erin learns to walk again and even leaves the house occasionally. Carly spends most of the month eating. Chris's crazy August schedule stretches into September.

October.

The family of 3 spends 1 and 1/2 hours on Halloween night looking for a friend's house where they were supposed to attend a party. Carly is the cutest mouse and cutest skeleton ever. Both sets of grandparents visit for her blessing and bare record of her perfection. Chris and Erin are still alive.

November.

Chris goes to Michigan to a PhD program visit. Erin finds single motherhood beyond difficult and gives up trying to keep everything together. She spends the days watching "Say Yes to the Dress" and waiting for his return. Carly can't believe some of the dresses these women choose to get married in. She also enjoys Thanksgiving morning watching The Godfather with her parents.

December.

Chris's semester from you-know-where finally ends. Erin is grateful to have him home. Carly is huge. The family of 3 sets off on a 3 week, 3 state vacation. Carly is insanely spoiled on her first Christmas. Chris and Erin love her more each day.

2009 has been good to us. Bring on 2010.

Playing with daddy.

Chris and Carly playing on Christmas Eve.

She is the cutest thing ever.

Silent night.

And so it was, that, while they were there, the days were accomplished that she should be delivered.

And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn.

And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.

And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid.

And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.

For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour which is Christ the Lord.

And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.

And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying,

Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.

{Luke 2: 6-14}

We hope your Christmas is fabulous.

Love,

The C Family.

The Great Escape

We're out like a fat kid in dodge ball.

~

On Friday, we woke up ready for our little family's mini Christmas. We started opening presents and were planning for a big breakfast when we got several phone calls. A storm was on the way, and our planned drive to Indiana for Christmas should be moved up.

~

Now I was excited to leave for Christmas. Amazingly, I hadn't left Knoxville since July 4th weekend. That's the longest I've been in one town since I left Pocatello for BYU. I was ready for a great escape. But Friday was our "Christmas day". It had been a crazy week, and a beyond crazy semester. It was a day I was really looking forward to. Not going to lie; I cried. But you can't control the weather, so our Christmas day ended up being spent in a unexpected packing craze followed by 9 hours in the car.

~

9 hours in the car. Its a 6 1/2 hour drive. But that storm we were trying to beat? We caught the beginning of it. Tennessee's "mountains" were getting snow and we spent a decent amount of time going 20-30 miles per hour. Oh, and our sweet Carly has on ongoing battle with her carseat, and she's never been on a car ride longer than 30 minutes. However, one prayer was answered and she was practically an angel the whole time.

~

Speaking of prayers. The storm started out as intense Southern rain. The only way to understand it is to experience it, but driving in Southern rain is akin to driving under a waterfall (I would imagine). Visibility was extremely low, and I just closed my eyes and prayed over and over again that the rain would go away. During this time, we climbed in elevation, and the rain turned into a blizzard. "That's not want I meant," I said in my next prayer.

~

But we made it. Carly slept a great deal of the car ride, so her schedule is fairly destroyed. But she has been shockingly happy anyway. I think she likes all the attention. She is having a hard time sleeping in a new place, however, and I'm not sure how to remedy that (suggestions?).

~

The next morning we woke to snow outside and reports of icy roads. We were very grateful we didn't have a 9 hour drive ahead of us.

~

As for our little family Christmas? We managed to squeeze it in before we left (our apartment is in a state of chaos). I love our little family.

~

And now we've escaped. Escaped school, callings, apartment, Knoxville. The baby is still here, but she's fun enough that she's worth the work. And there are a lot of people here willing to hold her. How lucky Chris and I are to have two amazing sets of parents that actually want to see us. Well, they want to see Carly, but it means we get to come too. For the next 3 weeks we have no plans, and that's the best part.

Meet Leo.

Isn't he adorable?

I've mentioned before that Carly has a thing for lions. This being the case, Chris and I really wanted to get her a stuffed lion that she could love during her childhood years. I checked many stores, but only found some that weren't cute enough, or fairly cute but had manes that shed. I was nearly hopeless when I decided to brave the crazy isles of ToysRUs. And there he was. Leo. Seriously the cutest stuffed animal I've ever seen. And of course I had to sift through them to find the one that was perfect for Carly. He was a little pricey but we got him $15 dollars off, so we felt pretty good about it (yes, he cost enough to be $15 off). I couldn't wait to introduce him to Carly. When I did, she grabbed his face and smiled and made her happy gurgling sound and held on to his mane. Instant friends. Chris suggested the name and said how it was a constellation. I said it was also a zodiac sign. Then I remembered that the Zodiac sign Leo was in late summer. We checked when we got home and, not even kidding, Carly is a Leo. How perfect.

A few things.

*My baby has been a fussopotomus lately. That's C family language for really cranky. I can't figure out whats wrong. She seems kind of spacey too and I can't help but wonder if its from all the drugs I'm hopped up on (antibiotics, flu shot, H1N1 flu mist, etc . . . ).

*We [mostly] finished our Christmas shopping today. We traded off going shopping for each other while the other stayed home with Carly. Unfortunately, Carly's Santa is on a tight budget, so she won't be getting all that much from him. Luckily she has a lot of grand-Santas that like to spoil her. But honestly, her main interest these days lies in sucking on her fingers.

*Some times Carly sucks so hard on her fingers she gags. And sometimes she bites them so hard she screams bloody-murder. Is that normal?

*I made homemade mashed potatoes today for the first time ever. They were really good and not even that hard. Wondering what took me so long.

*I'm going to teach myself to sew. It looks like a fun and useful hobby. Two things I'd like to make some day are Carly's toddler bedding and family stockings (I can't find any I really like that don't cost way too much). Chris doesn't believe I'm really going to do it because one time I said I was going to learn German and I never did.

*Its cold outside and all Christmasy. This is the time of year we learned Carly was on her way (Dec 6th to be exact). Its also the time when I started getting sick. The cold reminds me of vomiting.

*But its not really THAT cold. I've been opening the windows the last few days to let fresh air in and I've been perfectly fine in my uniform of basketball shorts and a t-shirt. I'm going to miss these Knoxville winters when I'm gone.

*Whats with Tiger Woods? Man, I cheered for you. What a pig.

*I was supposed to get a Christmas package from my mom yesterday and it still hasn't shown up. I love packages. UPS man, where are you?

*I got new jeans. Needed them considering I have big holes in the back of my other two main pairs, and my "fat jeans" are way to baggy now (yay!). They are tres cute and were on sale for $20. Love a bargain.

*Chris is done and home now. Its awesome. He completes me. I like the idea of him being a professor because then he has a "Christmas break" even when he's done being a student.

*Its really late, my baby's asleep, and I'm still blogging. That's crazyness. Goodnight.

We are a family.

[Second post of the day; don't miss out on the first.]

~

We got our family pictures taken about a month ago and I finally got around to ordering them. It went fairly well, considering Carly was 3 months old, and Brianna was great and nice and patient and did a great job. We did learn that 3 months old was about the worst time to take pictures, as it is past the newborn phase, but before the smile-on-cue phase. Luckily, Carly is really cute and only made a weird face in 75% of the pictures, so the other 25% were really good. Here are a few favs.

Do you think it will always be like this?

Do you think we'll feel like this for the rest of our lives?

Like, when she's twenty, will we look at her

and still think she's the most amazing thing ever?

That's what I asked Chris a few days ago as we played with our stunning Carly.

"I don't know," he responded. "That would be a good question to ask your dad."

"But I think the thing we see right now that's so amazing is she is so pure and innocent and perfect. I think that's what God does when He gives us a child. He shows us how much He loves us. I think we see her the same way God sees us."

Not a bad answer on the spot. Have I ever mentioned how amazing the man I married is? Kudos to me.

But that sentence "I think we see her the same way God sees us" has been rolling around in my brain ever since he said it. Its amazing to think anyone loves me as much as I love Carly, least of all an almighty God. But its true. He does. (Man, I've been a little spiritual lately). And it makes me that much more motivated to be the person I want Carly to be some day (does that make sense?). I've found parenthood plays with your mind a lot.

~

Anyway, we'll end with a funny. On Friday Carly went to her 4 month appointment. Turns out she's going to make us millions as a [modest] supermodel, as she is a tall and skinny baby. She is standing at 2 feet tall! Anyway, they gave her shots which was good and exciting. That night we went to the ward Christmas party. She loves being around people; she seems to find people watching to be rather entertaining. By the time the party was over she was exhausted, but we had to make a quick run to Walmart. When we got home she was asleep in her carseat, but needed to eat before bed so I wouldn't get a 2 am wake-up call. Here's what we got (sorry its so dark, hopefully you can still see it):

four months old.

Wow. Four months old.

For some reason 4 months is a landmark in my head.

Like, by 4 months a baby is a full blown baby.

And Carly is definitely full blown baby.

My newborn is long gone.

And I'm loving it.

Carly, at four months old . . .

*you are starting to play with toys. You love your Olympic rings, your ball, your ocean, and of course LionHeart. Its so fun to watch you learn to play with things, and it gives me a bigger break now and then.

*you are grabbing at things. Toys, yes, but you especially like to grab mommy's hair and hold on to it for dear life. Another favorite target is daddy's face.

*you are a smiler. You are especially good at smiling at random strangers who smile at you, which the stranger always loves. You are also occasionally bashful when you smile, and you bury your face in my shoulder.

*you are still being breastfed! Ok, this one is for me. My ultimate goal has always been 4 months. I made it and even feel positive about continuing. It hasn't been an especially easy thing for me, so I'm grateful I've gotten this far.

*you are getting a tad mobile. If I put you on the ground and leave for a second, you are often in a different spot than where I left you.

*you squawk when you are excited or happy. Laughs are still rare and I've only heard all-out laughter twice (both times spurred on by daddy). But the squawk is the next best thing. When you squawk with extra excitement, it tickles your throat and you end up coughing.

*you show a preference for mom and dad. Its nice on our hearts to know that you know us and like us. However, with the holidays coming up, I hope you don't insist on being held by me the entire time.

*you are stunning. We can't get over how beautiful, smart, funny, and good you are.

Happy four months, Car. We're glad you joined us.

Trim Up the Tree.

I ran into Santa Claus at JC Penney today. I'm pretty sure he was the really thing. He had on shiny black boots, a gorgeous suit with gold buttons, and a real beard. And it couldn't have been the mall Santa because I had just seen the mall Santa with a long line of kids waiting to see him. I was headed toward the elevator down a back hall with Carly. She was in her carseat-stroller combo pack and had been passed out for several hours. Santa asked if he could take a peek and, of course, raved about how cute she was. I was so so sad that I didn't have my camera. How fun would it have been to get a picture of Carly and Santa in the back hallway of JC Penney instead of posed on his throne? Of all the times I forget to shove my camera into my diaper bag . . .

It got cold in Knoxville. Up until Thanksgiving we were holding steady around 70. It was glorious and Carly and I marveled in our morning walks. Alas, all good things come to an end, and now its cold. But I'm sure its not really that cold. I have just been wonderfully spoiled by Tennessee's mild winters. I seriously do not miss icy roads and feet of snow. I keep complaining of how cold it is now, and Chris has begun worrying about how I will fare if we end up moving to Michigan.






On Saturday we left the house around noon and were shocked to find snow. It was all gone by the time the evening came, but it still counts as Carly's first snowfall. Doesn't she look thrilled?

And we finally decorated our tree. I put it up a week ago mostly to add light to our over-head-light-less living room. Last night Chris and I went back and forth decorating while the other one held Carly. I love decorating our tree. This is our fourth Christmas so we are gradually building a decent collection of ornaments. This year we couldn't even use them all.

Putting our star on the top of the tree.

She's like "Real funny, daddy."

Family. Sorry I look so glamorous in this picture.

Speaking of ornaments, I really love ornaments. My parents have a massive collection, and they aren't the fancy ones that all match. They are homemade by their children through the years and collected on different vacations and symbolize different life events. Chris's parents' collection is the same way. That's how our collection is. I thought I'd share a few favs:

The Missionary. My mom got him for Chris during for our first married Christmas.

Newlyweds. This one was a wedding gift.

The starfish surfer. We got this one on our honeymoon in Southern California.

And a new favorite. Carly's baby ornament, glass baby shoes. It was given to Carly by my grandmother. I love this because my baby ornament is also a pair of glass shoes tied together with a pink ribbon. I still love being the one to hang it up every Christmas. Now every year Carly will get to hang these on the tree.

So This is Christmas.

It’s Christmas time. Can you believe it is already December? The last few months have been quite the blur. And now things are starting to clear up.

-

Every morning this week Carly and I have been listening to Christmas music. It’s a great way to start off the day. The other day I was listening to Josh Groban’s rendition of Silent Night. I was looking at my baby girl smiling up at me and there were the tears (I think I actually cry more as a mother than I did as a pregnant lady).

-

Christmas traditions are great. I love trees and decorations and fun music and the smell of the mall during the holidays and lights and presents. It is all part of the magic of Christmas. But the thing I love most of all about Christmas is the fact that it is just about a mother and her baby.

-

Luke 2 is one of my favorite chapters in all of scripture, and I have been thinking a lot about Mary’s experience. She had been traveling and was surely exhausted. Then, of all the places, she has to give birth in a stable. And while I know God was with her, she still had to actually GIVE BIRTH, which I now know is no small task with modern medicine, let alone without it. Then she held her baby boy all night. And for her, if just for a little while, He was just her baby boy.

-

How much she must have loved Him. There are few feelings as exquisite as holding your newborn child, and how tightly she must have held Him. I love Carly so much it is frightening. And Mary was just a mother who loved her baby more than anything.

-

How grateful I am for that mother and that baby boy. He is my Savior. As the Son of God, He grew from that precious baby in His mother’s arms to work miracles, heal the sick, and die for all mankind, including me. Because of Him I have Chris forever. Because of Him we have Carly forever.

-

That’s what I really love most about Christmas.

High Quality Entertainment

Saw this guy on Ellen. So bizarre but rather entertaining.

As of Late.

We've had some pretty active weekends as of late. Active is a relative term, as most days Carly and I hang out at home, play, go for walks in the 70 degree Tennessee weather (until this weekend), and count down the hours until daddy comes home. As of late, Carly has been having some new adventures.

She went to see Aunt Jenny's swim meet last weekend. She was all oranged out and the folks in the crowd couldn't get enough of her. She has a tendency to attract attention wherever she goes. The next night we babysat the 5-month-old baby of some friends of ours as they went to the Tennessee football game. Jenna's a calm baby and luckily Carly was asleep for the first hour she was at our house. And it worked out rather well for Chris and I, because we left both babies in the hands of his parents and headed to most of the adult session of stake conference (we did tell Jenna's parents about this). This was Carly's first real interaction with another baby (I'm not doing a very good job at socializing her) and they seemed to get along rather well. Too bad both their dad's are students and will be leaving Knoxville in the next short while; it would have been fun to see them grow old together.

The next morning was Stake Conference. I'm sure it was great, but trying to feed a very hungry yet curious baby in a crowded mothers lounge doesn't make for easy listening. I've decided Church will be a "get as much as you can" experience for the next 10-15 years. In news that's just as interesting, Carly had an adorable headband that matched her dress, but Chris seemed to think she looked like Rambo baby. I clipped a massive flower on it to solve the problem.

He thinks he's funny.

Then we had some sad news in the C House. Carly said good-bye to her dearest friend, LionHeart. I left him in the diaper bag with a bottle that had a little leftover "mama milk" in it. I forgot about the bottle, and two days later unzipped the bag to the most putrid smell ever. I tried to resuscitate LionHeart, but he can't be immersed in water, so there was no saving him. The smell was making me gag as I tried to wipe him down with soap and a damp cloth. So we said a tearful good-bye, and buried him in the dumpster. Luckily, he has a lot of brothers in the not-so-distant land of Target. We found one with as kind a heart as LionHeart had, and now Carly is getting to know LionHeart II.

Last picture with LionHeart I

And of course, we enjoyed Thanksgiving. We stayed in Knoxville and Chris's family came down and we celebrated at his sister Jenny's apartment.

Thanksgiving morning nap

Hanging with Gpa C. Beautiful baby.

Mama and Car.

Its been a fun few weeks, but I'm looking forward to three weeks of calm nothingness (that's a relative term these days with a baby and Chris's hectic schedule) before we head off for Christmas vacation. We are excited to spend the next few weeks celebrating Carly's first Christmas as a little family of 3.

List of Gratitude

It has long been a tradition in my family that when we sit down for Thanksgiving dinner that we all go around the table and name a few things that we are thankful for. This year's was very special. I love this tradition because it is a time that usually helps me to express the things that are most important to me. Thanksgiving is also a wonderful time because it reminds me not only of everything I'm blessed to have, but also that everything I've been given comes from Heavenly Father. An entire day to think about how Heavenly Father has blessed us! Very cool to me. This year, I have decided to share with all of you a number of things that I feel particularly grateful for and why.... I hope you all enjoy:)

1) Erin - she will always top my list
2) Carly - the new center of our little universe
3) Dad, Mom, Becky, Sarah, Jenny, Sammie - made me who I am, love them so much
4) Jedd, Karen, Michael, Camie, Jason, Kasee, Brady - made erin who she is, love them so much
5) The temple/Covenants - binds us all together forever
6) The Scriptures - helps me keep the right perspective
7) Education - tough, but the key to our future
8) C/T family vacations - treasure those memories
9) Excitement for hollidays - Nothing like the build-up for special family time
10) The church - builds me up each week
11) Our apartment - not much to look at, but our sanctuary from the world
12) Latter-day prophets - where would we all be without them?
13) Pictures - funny how those are the morst priceless of all possessions
14) Prayer - sweet hour
15) Good people - don't they just make the day so much more nice?
16) Challenges - helps me progress
17) Bed - feels great at the end of every day
18) Our country - freedom
19) Good Hymns - few things help me feel the spirit stronger
20) Extended Family - good times and great fun
21) The cubbies - blessing or curse? not sure
22) Cheeseburgers - my favorite meal
23) Movie Previews - really bummed if I miss them before a movie
24) Good Friends - we are so fortunate to know and learn from you
25) BYU - brought erin and I together, place of great growth
26) University of Tennessee - time when Carly came to us, place of great growth
27) Ex Roomies - here's to my boys Matty, Joe, Mer, B-Rad, and Andy
28) Fall - leaves changing, college football, holiday season
29) Good health - so fortunate
30) Tenncare - HUGE tithing blessing
31) Snow - makes the world look so pure
32) Text messaging - can talk to my wife anytime I need
33) Nice shoes - don't know why I enjoy
34) Modern Medicine - awsomeness
35) The great outdoors - unbelievable
36) Working out - good to take care of our earthly tabernacle
37) Turkey bowl - very sore right now, but was a blast
38) The future - very important
39) The past - thankful for Heavenly Father's patience with me
40) Baseball - "Is this heaven? No, its Iowa."
41) Webcam - priceless to see our Idaho family
42) Cell phone - can talk to anyone at any time
43) Chuck-o-rama - for some strange reason, makes my wife very happy
44) Thursday nights - friday coming and also Community, the office, 30 rock
45) Our car - what would we do without her?
46) Dreams - sure are cool
47) Priesthood blessings - have guided us all our lives
48) Memories - the sweetest moments
49) The plan of Salvation - divine
50) Jesus the Christ - made all of this possible

Happy Thanksgiving! On to Christmas!

Grateful

I am a little extra grateful this year.

Because she's here.

Its easy to say "I'm grateful for this" and "I'm grateful for that". But I think Carly's arrival has taught me true gratitude. Don't get me wrong, I'm grateful for all my blessings up to this point (including Chris), but there is something about this girl that has changed my every perspective on life. This child's very existence has taught me a gratitude so deep I didn't know it existed. We are so incredibly lucky to have her, and every day I look at her flawless face and question why she was sent to me. As if I wasn't before, I am even more indebted to my Heavenly Father for blessing us with our Carly. More than words can express, this Thanksgiving I am extra grateful.

She talks.

She has a lot to say.

[Sorry about my cinematography. Obviously I won't be winning an Oscar any time soon.]

The Tale of Two Monkeys

The other day I was entertaining Carly in order to stretch her to 2 hours between eating. Its a rather exhausting task. She has a large bin full of toys, and my 2-hour-gap quest often requires an emptying of the bin to hold her attention away from eating long enough. Anyway, as I dug through the bin to find something new and fabulous to show her, I came across two monkeys. Their story is a hilarious one, so I thought "I should blog about that". So here it goes.

My sophomore year of high school I bought a little stuffed monkey from the dollar store. I thought it was cute and it had Velcro on its hands, so I hung it off the seat of my car (do I sound 16 or what?). This monkey, named Monk (I know, I'm so clever at naming things. Must have to do with the 6 bunnies I've had named Bunny), spent many years with me in my high school car(s) and then made the trip to BYU with me. He even survived my high-speed rollover off I-15. Then I got married and he came too, experiencing each new phase of life as it came. I was undoubtedly emotionally attached to Monk. My first married Christmas we left to see family and Monk came along. When we got back to Provo and I was unpacking, I couldn't find Monk anywhere. I searched everywhere. Went back down to the underground parking lot and retraced my steps. But he was gone. I figured he must have fallen out of my backpack at the airport. I was so sad. A little too sad, probably, but Monk and I had gone through a lot together! Anyway, a little while later, Chris and I found another monkey that looked a lot like Monk. His name was Monk Jr., and he came home with us.

Then 4 or 5 months pass. Chris and I are walking to our apartment from the underground parking lot and there, in the landscaped rocks, lay Monk. He appeared to be in a pile of rotting trash that was in a rotting garbage bag. But he was still alive! I ran upstairs to grab a grocery bag, then ran back to rescue Monk. He soaked in several different types of soap for several days. Chris was terrified that he had become home to a nest of spiders, but the soaking proved him wrong. Monk was missing an eye, and was a little worn down, but looked great! I couldn't believe that he was just laying there after all those months! Isn't that so bizarre, yet so amazing? So Monk and Monk Jr became fast friends, and now they help me postpone my child's meals.

Monk Jr, Carly, and Monk

In other news, I recently got Carly a Bumbo off Craigslist. Next-to-new and 1/3 the price is the way I like to go, especially when it comes to baby things that my baby may or may not enjoy. I came home with it and immediately sprayed it down with anti-bacterial spray just in case it was infected with the swine flu, then rinsed it in the bath tub. So far, she seems mostly confused by it. But she is coming to enjoy it too. But of course, about 17 hours after I picked it up, my mother-in-law texted us saying she got Carly a new Bumbo and would bring it down this weekend. We promptly called her to tell her the news so she could get her money back . . . and suggested some diapers may be an appropriate gift instead.

And finally, I don't what it is, but we have been experiencing a ladybug invasion in the C House. I find them everywhere. Its very strange, as ladybugs are not usually bugs you find in the house. Of course I would take ladybugs any day over a roach (which make me scream rather loudly), and I usually pick them up and take them outside, though I did rinse one down the sink when I was doing dishes and felt really guilty about it.

Ladybug exploring Chris's slacks.

three months old

At 12:53 today I was rocking my baby to sleep in my rocking chair.

~

At 12:53 three months ago today, I saw her beautiful face for the first time.

~

Its crazy how we only love her more each day.

Carly, at three months old . . .
*you've now been sleeping through the night for two months, and sleeping in your crib for a month. It makes for a happy mommy.
*you just rolled over for the first time and now are rolling both ways with relative ease.
*you are a huge smiler. I can get you to smile at any second, with two exceptions: you're hungry or there is a camera in your face.
*you LOVE playing with daddy. He is the only one who has ever made you laugh. When he walks around the room, your eyes follow him.
*you're still a crazy eater. But I'd take crazy eater over crazy sleeper any day.
*you talk up a storm and make the sweetest sounds. You also love to growl--you think its funny.
*sucking on your hands is no longer a sign of hunger. It is now a form of entertainment.
*you produce drool at a most impressive level, and I often find it in unexpected places (like my hair or the kitchen counter).
*you bring me and your daddy an incredible amount of joy. We always say its a little insane how much we love you.
Happy three months, Car. We're glad you joined us.

She growls.

[skip to the 1:00 mark for the best of the growling]

They say you become who your friends are.

Must be all that time she's spending with LionHeart.

[she got LionHeart on her face, and couldn't quite figure out how to get him off.]