We're Back...

And we're toasty. Our air conditioning is STILL STILL STILLLLLLL broken. Fonts and italics cannot contain my dismay. When we got home last night/this morning at 3 a.m. from the airport, it was 90 degrees in our apartment. On the first floor. I have no idea how warm it was upstairs. Where we slept. I mean, where we "slept," by which you should read "sweated and tossed and turned for a few hours."

But we're home. And our trip to Iowa was very nice. I even got to experience a tornado warning again! Very exciting. My mom and I and Charlotte crouched on a blanket in the basement for a half-hour, listening to crackly reports of funnel sightings over a radio. I love tornado warnings. Nothing came of it, which I also love.

More info and pictures later. For now, the one above will have to do.

Come Fly With Me

Just a quick post from the dismal subterranean room into which they herd the low-paying SkyBus patrons at the Columbus airport. We're flying out to visit my family in Iowa this week. Here's hoping Charlotte does well in the air...

Setting: Dining Room. Charlotte is in her highchair, eating a graham cracker. I am sitting at the table next to her.

Charlotte: Mama! Mama. Mama! Mama. Mama? Mama?

Me: Yes, baby. What is it?

Charlotte: Cahcuh (cracker).

Me: Yeah, a cracker! You're eating a cracker.

[Pause]

Charlotte: Mama! Mama. Mama! Mama. Mama! Mama. Mama?

Me: What is it, honey?

Charlotte: Mama! Moh cahcuh?

Me: You want more? Okay, just a sec.

I get her another graham cracker from the package. There is a short pause.

Charlotte: Mama! Mama! Mama!

Me: Yes, honey?

Charlotte: CAHCUH! (She hurls the cracker to the ground.) MOH! Moh, mama!

Me: I don't think so. Your mama's not that dumb.

End scene.

Right now, she's busy transporting her shoes from one room to another. Sometimes she takes them one at a time. The next trip they'll travel as a pair. She's narrating the whole thing in baby gibberish like she's the host of her own show, some HGTV do-it-yourself thing about shoe moving.

She's spent the whole day searching for Jeff, who is out of town doing this. Every room we go into, she'll look around, saying "Dada? Dada?" Having exhausted all the other options, she opened the cabinet under the bathroom sink a little while ago, stuck her head in, and said "dada?"

This is ridiculous...

I was just checking my class lists for the fall. Every quarter I hope against hope that I won't have any duplicate names in my roster. I think I've had at least one pair in every class...two Rachels, two Megans, two Ryans, two Jasons...

This time takes the cake. In my two sections of 151, I have 5 (FIVE!) Chelseas.

Couch naps RULE!

Right now, because Charlotte's doing this:

I'm able to post this:

Charlotte's first bike ride!

Yesterday, following an afternoon spent purchasing, and then struggling to assemble and install Charlotte's new bike seat, my friend Kristin and I took her out for her first ride. Although she wasn't too excited about her helmet ("Hat...NO!" she said), she eventually got used to it and spent the ride saying "wheee!" and "whoa! whoa!", the latter when I was no doubt cornering too fast.

I've missed riding my bike, and now I look forward to being able to do so more often, particularly with the bike path just a block from our apartment.

I apologize about the dearth of posts around here lately. I got the great news yesterday that my master's essay was accepted and I'll be able to graduate this summer. This frees me up to work on a number of other things that I've been putting off for...well, for months, to be honest. Including a one-year video montage of Charlotte's first year that I hope to post here before the week's out.

In Charlotte news, she's back on her feet, walking like she'd never even heard of stairs. Speaking of stairs, she's kind of obsessed with them these days. I taught her how to back down the stairs today in the hopes that we won't always have to trail her up the steps only to bring her back down to start over again.

In Jeff and Jana news, we had our first date in about seven months Friday night, thanks to my friend Kristen who generously volunteered to babysit. Jeff and I headed out to a restaurant we'd been wanting to check out, and afterward even got to go get fancypants drinks at Casa. Like real grown-ups! Things went well at home, too. The only meltdown was when Kristen didn't understand Charlotte's request for "cahcah." Cahcah=cracker. And also our last name, interestingly.

So, look for more entries (with photos!) and even a video later this week.

Done!

I just emailed my master's essay draft off to my director. Although I thoroughly expect to receive several pages of suggested changes in return, I am celebrating nonetheless.

Final tally: 31 pages (in Times New Roman), 42 pages (Courier New). My works cited list is almost three pages.

Tumble in the Bronx

I'm happy to report that Charlotte seems a bit better today...more confident on her feet and walking a little closer to normal. I called the doctor and she said to take it day by day. If Charlotte's not back to normal within two weeks, we should follow up.

One thing that this spill has brought about is hearing everyone's stories about their own or their kids' tumbles. It is amazing what kids can bounce back from! It seems like everybody and their brother has fallen down stairs, off porches, out of car seats, etc. at one point or another, and all of them are walking without the assistance of canes or crutches at this point! Good thing babies are 90% cartilage.*

*not an actual percentage