Autumn in Athens

This past Monday the temperature topped out at 94 degrees. Thursday it didn't make 60. Fall is truly here...truly and suddenly. It happened so quickly that I was caught without a coat, wandering around campus in my three-quarter-sleeve shirt, teeth chattering.

Today was a little bit warmer, but still cool enough to warrant sweatshirts, plus a hat and a blanket for Charlotte, as we walked into town to watch the homecoming parade. To be completely accurate, we sprinted into town as the parade started at 9 a.m., and we all woke up sometime between 8:45 and 9:15 a.m. Fortunately we managed to beat the band (literally! Ha!) and saw the whole parade. We even ran ahead again so we could see the Marching 110 for a second, fabulous time.

Charlotte loves the marching band. She loved the floats (and may I just say that Pella's fabulous volksparade has obviously spoiled me for other parades; the floats are inevitable disappointing to someone who was weaned on Vermeer and Pella Corp.'s amazing offerings). She loved all the people. She especially loved the people who had doggies.

We took the opportunity for a little family photo shoot after the parade on a leaf-covered hillside. Charlotte played in the leaves (yeeves, she calls them) and shrieked "people! people!" as the crowds dispersed. It was a beautiful day.

Right now Jeff is on the phone with a customer representative from some energy drink company. He called to let them know about a spelling error in their nutritional facts.

When did my husband become a curmudgeonly old man? "Why don't you kids get your stuff off my lawn!"

Warning: Poop Post Ahead

Well, the big news around these parts is that Charlotte pooped in the potty last night. Or "hatched a turtle" if you will.

It was a half-hour long ordeal of Charlotte wandering naked around the bathroom and hallway farting and saying "p.u." while I encouraged her to "make a turtle in the potty!" When she'd wander close enough to me I'd nab her and set her on the potty and give her some good pooping grunts of encouragement. She'd imitate me, laugh, and then get up again and wander out into the hallway to toot. At one point she peed on the bathmat.

Then the mood changed and I could tell she was serious about it. Her stomach clenched and she got that middle-distance stare. I plopped her on the potty and held her hand. In just a few seconds she was up again, but this time she left something behind.

When I drew her attention to the lovely deposit she had made, she appeared a little weirded out. But I heaped praise upon her, applauding and saying "yay! Poopy in the potty!" I felt like an idiot, but it worked. She was very excited about her achievement.

Jeff wasn't home, so I took a few pictures to share. I certainly wasn't going to leave the poop in the potty because GOOD GRIEF did it stink. That's what a steady diet of cheese, eggs and ham will do to you. I told Jeff to check out the pictures on the camera this morning, and he apparently shared them with Charlotte, too. Now she demands "more potty" whenever I use the camera, and I have to present to her the slide show of her fecal triumphs while she watches intently.

It's certainly not one of those Kodak moments I envisioned when I was pregnant, but it'll do.

Sometimes I worry about having a daughter, a little girl who potentially will have to face all the crap regarding body image and size and weight and beauty standards that I did, but tenfold due to the even greater prevalence of media today. These two short films from Dove made me cry, because they encapsulate that.

"Onslaught"

"Daughters"

A good morning starts off as this one did, with Charlotte sleeping until nearly 9 a.m., and, when she finally woke up, talking to herself cheerfully until I came to get her. The sounds of her sweet little voice over the baby monitor make mornings a treat. This morning, we heard:

"Kitty! Kitty!" followed by laughter. She sleeps with her little stuffed orange tiger kitty in the corner of her crib. She likes to give Kitty hugs in the morning.

"Girl! Hi, girl!" said to the picture of a girl on the little pillow in her crib. It's made from vintage alphabet fabric, and she likes to identify and greet the different objects represented on the pillow. She also said hi to the ball on the pillow this morning.

Then, a sing-song chorus of "Mama, Dada. Mama, Dada. Dada, Dada. Papa! Nana, Papa. Nana, Papa. Papa, Dada," and so forth.

When I went into her room, she stood up, still clutching Kitty, and said, "Mama! Mow-ning!"

I don't hate mornings anymore.

Patch-tastic

It felt wrong to be wearing shorts and sweating at the pumpkin patch yesterday, but it was ninety degrees and it would have been wrong to costume ourselves in jeans and sweatshirts simply for the photo opportunities. Despite the steaming, sun-scorching heat, we had fun at the patch. Charlotte hugged the pumpkins, ran amok, and waved at everyone she saw. Even inanimate objects, like corn and balloons, warranted a greeting.

After our time at the patch we continued up to Columbus. Our friends Kurt and Kristen were along for the fall-themed fun, and we were meeting our friend Erin in German Village for eine gute Zeit (a good time). By the time the sun was low in the sky, it was much more comfortable. We hit up Katz's Deli, walked to the park, and had dinner at Schmidt's Sausage Haus. Charlotte enjoyed her genuine Deutsch mac and cheese, but even more so she enjoyed the Bavarian-styled oompah band who did great Donald Duck impressions. Don't ask.

All in all, a fine fall day, despite the Saharan temps.

Feeling Better...

"If possible, a woman should nurse exclusively for at least one year, or, ideally, until the baby loses interest...in modern hunter-gatherer societies, nursing for three years is typical and four to six years is not unheard of. UNICEF and the World Health Organization advise breast-feeding for 'two years and beyond."

From Real Food: What to Eat and Why by Nina Planck.

It has been a rough few days for me, time-wise. I've been really busy grading student papers, which means little to no time for posting. I can't tell you, though, how many times throughout the day Charlotte says or does something funny or remarkable and I think "I have to blog about that." I'm exhausted tonight. I finally finished paper grading last night, and accordingly my body has sacked me with a cold. I will go to bed soon. But first a few of Charlotte's funnies, in random bullet-point style.

• Yesterday she had a dirty diaper. Jeff was changing it. The turd was small, round, slightly flattened, greenish. Charlotte pointed to it and said "turtle?" Now she frequently wants us to check her "dipah" for a "turtle."
• Not only is she using words to identify things, but she's telling stories now too (albeit in a very abbreviated style). Today Charlotte and I spent a half-hour chasing squirrels around the College Green. She loved to watch them run up the trees. On the walk home, she would occasionally tell me about it: "Cuwull! Up! Twee!" And then, inevitiably: "More! More cuwull!"
• Jeff, Charlotte and I went to the OU football game on Saturday. Charlotte's favorite part of the game was the giant mascot, Rufus the Bobcat. She called him "big kitty." I have video of her talking about him that I'll try to post soon.
• Jeff is encouraging flights of fancy and imagination. One of their favorite things to do while I'm at school is lay on the big bed and pretend they're under the night sky. Charlotte now calls the smoke detector "moom" (that's "moon" to the rest of us).

More soon, I hope!

Finally!

A new Charlotte video. Apologies in advance for my singing.

Coming Soon to a YouTube Near You...

Our video camera has returned home, and Charlotte has been making with the cute quite a bit lately. I'll do my best to post some live Charlotte action...just as soon as I can finish grading these forty student papers!

Fifteen Months

Yesterday was Charlotte's fifteen-month birthday. We celebrated with some time outdoors at Ash Cave with Grandpa and Grandma Tig, ending the day with a trip to Dairy Queen. Strangely, Charlotte was more interested in her carrots and bananas at home than the whipped topping and ice cream at the DQ. Is this child related to me? I don't believe it.

More to come, but here, at least, is a new picture to tide you over.

Briefly (no pun intended)

The smell from Charlotte's just-dirtied diaper could strip paint off the walls. Thank goodness Jeff loves diaper-changing time!

Happy Anniversary!

Today is Jeff's and my seventh wedding anniversary. Here we are seven years ago today:



And here we are (about) seven years after that, getting ready to go out for a date (!) Friday night:


The past seven years have included some of the lowest lows of my life. I lost my Aunt Grace and my Grandpa Deur. I was fired from my very first job. I was rejected from several of the graduate programs to which I applied. Through each of these awful, stressful, mournful times Jeff proved what an amazing guy he was: supportive, thoughtful, listening and loving.

The past seven years have also included some the highest highs of my life. We took trips to the Smoky Mountians, the west coast, Ireland, and New York City, as well as random road trips around the midwest. We bought and sold our first house. We uprooted and moved to a new community and I started and finished my master's program. And, of course, the big one...we made this person:


Having a baby, and especially welcoming an unexpected baby, can, I think, be a real relationship litmus test. Charlotte proved that Jeff and I can work together under remarkable circumstances. After nearly fifteen months of parenting her, we've formed a parental team that makes me really proud. And that's probably the biggest achievement of our marriage.

Happy anniversary, Jeff!

Happy Birthday, Oma!

Today is my grandma Deur's 89th birthday! Perhaps because Charlotte is named after her, they have taken to each other quite well:


Here they are in August, 2006, when Charlotte was just two months old.

And here they are a year later, reading together.

Oma is also one of the people Charlotte can now reliably pick out in pictures. Any photo with Oma in it warrants an "Amaaah!" Closely followed by "bike," which is what Charlotte thinks Oma's walker is. :)

Happy birthday, Grandma!

It's hard to describe the adorableness that Charlotte brings to the table these days. I could tell you how she's become a little parrot, repeating (or trying to repeat) things Jeff and I say. She'll often say "okay!" and "sure!" and "yeah!" with about the same intonation that I say these words. "Charlotte, let's go get ready for your bath, okay?" I'll say. "Okay!" she'll respond. And she tries out other words, too: peaches, cheese, bat, water, Olivia (the book), play, toys, shoes, shirt...the list of new words added to her lexicon grows almost daily. Of course, many of these words only Jeff and I understand. Requests for another reading of Olivia, her current favorite, come out sounding like "Yaya." Water is "wawa" and shirt sounds like a certain four-letter expletive.

That same expletive was also the way Charlotte had decided her first name was pronounced for a while. And since her pronunciation for our last name is still "caca," we were a bit concerned. Fortunately, she's now adopted "Char-char" as her moniker of choice.

And her mobility! It's amazing. She's walking, really walking, with confidence. She only appears a little bit drunk when she's strolling up and down the halls, which is quite an improvement over a few weeks ago. In fact, when I think about it, I can't remember the last time I saw her crawl. Walking is the way to go, Charlotte has decided.

But I think the best, and most indescribable, development is this crazy, kooky sense of humor she's developed. She makes jokes! Like pointing to a picture of a chicken wearing a chef's hat in a magazine and saying "dada." Then looking at me with a wry little grin, waiting for me to laugh. And when she laughs, she really gets into it--head back, eyes squinting, nose wrinkling, "ha ha ha!" I mean, it's not high comedy or anything, but when I think back to where we were a year ago, all diapers and sleep deprivation and spit-up, this kind of interaction is very rewarding.

A new post coming soon about my first week of school and Charlotte's general awesomeness. But for now I give you this: Tig Blob.

Yes, it's another blog. And it's totally boring, just to warn you in advance. I'm trying to get back in shape, and I write about really mind-numbingly dull stuff like what I eat and how far I run. But if you find that interesting and want to check it out, there you go. Or, perhaps you want to place bets on how long until I quit (seriously, people. I'm running! If you know me and my history with running, you'll realize how ludicrous that is).

Noise Toys

Just now, Jeff was getting ready to take out the kitchen trash. As he removed the can from under the sink (that's where the Dutch keep their kitchen garbage, you know), the edge hit the cabinet. Suddenly we both heard the tinny melodic chimes of one of Charlotte's electronic toys.

Upon further examination, it appears Miss C threw her new cell phone toy away. I had noticed her subversively opening the cabinets while I was making her dinner earlier tonight...hmm. I guess it's time to get those child-proof latches up.

Potty Time!

Now, I realize this may totally be a fluke, a one-time thing, but it's exciting nonetheless.

Charlotte's been showing an interest in the toilet and what the adult members of her family do on the toilet. Early on I encouraged her to consider a relationship between herself and said bathroom appliance. "Big girls go pee-pee on the potty!" I would say encouragingly while she watched me do just that, transfixed. Soon she showed an interest in helping me flush, shutting the lid, and washing her hands along with me after the task was completed.

Earlier this week I picked up a training potty on a whim. I thought we'd set it up next to the big toilet and give her some time to get used to it. Perhaps even encourage her to sit on it, if for nothing else but to keep her from hanging all over me while I use the bathroom.

She was nearly ecstatic when she saw what we had gotten for her. "Look, Charlotte's potty!" I said. She caught on immediately: "Pahhh-tay! Pahtay!" We let her sit on it, diaperless and fancy free, a few times.

Then, today, as she sat next to me, poking me in the thigh and giggling, I heard the telltale sound of...pee-pee! In the potty! From Charlotte! She seemed to know what she'd done, too. I heaped praise upon her, clapping and saying "Yay! Potty!" Then we got Jeff to share the joy with dada. That was a moment I think will be captured in my memory forever: the little tableau of our family, crouching on the bathroom floor and pointing at plastic bowl full of my daughter's urine, cheering and clapping.

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

Yes! Michigan

We spent our long weekend in Michigan visiting Jeff's family and some friends. Overall we had a great time. In truly un-Grand Rapidian fashion, the weather was full-on sunny almost every day and actually hot. We spent a lot of time outside with Charlotte, playing in Grandpa and Grandma's yard.

I wanted to write a post about Charlotte's lakeshore adventures, and how much she loved the water, how she strained against my grip, trying to run into the waves. I wanted to write about how she learned so many new words this weekend (uncle, walk, and Mindi among them). I wanted to write about how she now requests to "walk" everywhere, holding the hands of one or two people as she barrels ahead.

But I have to admit to being totally preoccupied with my concerns about Charlotte's recent injury, too much so to take the time to do any of those topics justice. In brief, Charlotte and Jeff took a tumble down the stairs yesterday. Charlotte is mysteriously injured, or uninjured and just traumatized...we can't tell. She seemed to have hurt her left foot. She didn't want to walk, and would scream and cry when she put weight on her feet. She briefly had a bruise on the sole of her foot. Now there's no bruise, no swelling, no visible evidence of injury, but she's not walking normally. She doesn't want to stand up. She kind of drags her feet.

We went to the doctor today, but didn't really get any answers. We can go for an x-ray if we want. I don' t know. I really hope we wake up tomorrow and she's back to normal again.

One of my greatest fears as a parent is that something will happen to my daughter. I try not to think too much about all the terrible things that could go wrong on a daily basis, of the bugs she could catch or the tumbles she could take or the bad people lurking, waiting to hurt her. To have something like this happen makes it more difficult for me to keep these fears at bay.

It's hard to think about much else when my mind is preoccupied with (probably needless) worrying. I hope it's needless. I really do.

This One's Broken!

Charlotte loves to play on our bed. She'll flop around, lean back on the pillows, smile and laugh. Yesterday when I was at school, Jeff was letting Charlotte crawl around our bed (closely supervised, of course...our bed's really high off the floor).

She crawled over to the foot of the bed, where she was sitting up, smacking the mattress and saying, "Nuh! Nuh!"

When Charlotte wants to nurse, she taps my chest and says "Nuh!"

As she continued to hit the bed and shout, Jeff leaned over to see what was going on. Lying on top of the covers was one of my bras.

Lucky Thirteen

Today is Charlotte's 13-month birthday, as well as my friend Mindi's 348-month birthday. (Happy birthday, Min!) I have to say that this last month has been TOTALLY AWESOME and I am not in any way exaggerating. Carla on the television show Scrubs said about having a baby: "Dr. Cox says it's like having a dog that slowly learns how to talk." And that's true, except that Charlotte would never jump up on you and hardly sheds. But the talking! It's amazing!

For example: when I get up in the morning in response to Charlotte's groaning siren call over the baby monitor, I'm usually pretty tired still. Sometimes I am a bit, shall we say, crabby? Not terribly chipper at any rate. But when I walk into her room these days, she usually greets me with a high-pitched, breathy "Hiiiii!" Lately she's also been saying "Morning!" in response to my good morning greetings. It sounds a bit like "Mooooheee," but I get the picture.

In addition to Charlotte's effusive greetings, her repertoire of animal sounds, her exclamations (uh-oh, oh dada, ooooh wow, among them) and her attempts to repeat what Jeff and I say. But she's more than just mimicking--she's actually learning that words mean things. "Haaa-tuh" she'll utter whenever she catches sight of one of the dozens of baseball caps Jeff has scattered around the house. "Aapuh" is her word for any vaguely apple-ish fruit. And an "ehbuh" is found in the middle of your arm while "neeeeee"s take up residence mid-leg. We're still working on "aaah-pituh," the less polite name for underarm.

When Charlotte isn't I.D.ing body parts, she's calling out the gender of the various children we meet. Whether you're a "guhl" or a "boooiuh," Charlotte will make a determination and announce it when ready.

She loves music. She loves to dance. She reads books to herself in her crazy, sing-songy baby language. She plays with her toys. She plays! Just a year ago we were applauding her first real smile. Now I see that wide, toothy grin every day as she expresses her general excitement over this amazing world she has to discover.

Happy 13-month birthday, Charlotte!

Should I be concerned?

For the last few quarters, I've closed out whatever course I was teaching with a pizza party for my students. The last couple of times, I've also invited Jeff and Charlotte to attend. And by "invited," I mean, "strongly encouraged." Okay, "forced." I enjoyed allowing my students to see my non-academic side, and, of course, to meet my adorable daughter and almost as cute husband. (Sorry Jeff).

Today was the last day of class for the summer session I taught. Charlotte really turned on the charm, happily demonstrating all of her animal sounds (which include monkey, crocodile, elephant, and a very gentle tiger) and she even ate a little pizza. While my students were writing their final journal entry, I was helping Charlotte walk through the room. She took a circuitous course, wanting to visit each and every student. As we wove our way back to the front, she paused by one student's desk, looked directly at him, and said, "Hiii, baby!"

Double-Video Monday!

Two new Charlotte videos up at youtube. The first one features Charlotte rocking out. The second is all about walking.

Enjoy!

Summer Fun

I'm taking a brief break from my Spanish homework (which takes, on average, three hours every night). So I thought I'd share a recent photo of Charlotte enjoying the baby pool and her Swimways luxury baby liner (not its real name). We've gotten to the pool at least once a week since summer began, and she really loves it. I think it's appropriate that her first word was "duck" because she's taken to the pool like a duck to...well, to water.

Today the temperature topped out at 95 degrees. The air conditioning in Ellis Hall (where my office and classroom are) was on the fritz, so my classroom was also approximately 95 degrees. Not too conducive to persuading juniors to discuss rhetorical strategies. A trip to the pool was just what the doctor ordered.

Relaxing in the shallow end of the baby pool while Charlotte motored around, bumping her little boat up against random strangers (she's very social), I realized that my summer is almost halfway over. I'd better enjoy this summer fun while it lasts.

The Simpselaars

Our family as Simpsons characters. Why are my arms so short? I don't know. I also don't know why I'm wearing mom jeans.

And another...

Charlotte goes for a walk. Watch it here.

Charlotte's Birthday: Cupcake Destruction!

Watch it here.

Charlotte's Birthday

Charlotte's first birthday party yesterday was a big success. I'll upload video later, but here are a few pictures of the festivities:

http://www.flickr.com/gp/33138142@N00/f7299N

One Year

June 23, 2006

June 23, 2007

Happy birthday, baby girl.

She walks!



Yesterday, while I was in school, Charlotte stood up in the middle of the floor and took two steps toward Jeff.

We've entered a whole new world of mobility here. Be afraid...be very afraid.


(Oh, and the photo has nothing to do with walking...I just couldn't resist posting it. It's one of her new favorite things to do.)

Happy Father's Day!






To all the dads, grandpas and great-grandpas out there!

Update



I've received a few requests for pictures of the newly-shorn Jeff. The photo above is Charlotte admiring her dada's smooth noggin. Fun fact: Jeff has a remarkably well-shaped head!

I've just handed in my final paper for my master's program...well, final except for my thesis, that is. It's a bit anticlimactic in the sense I have a whole summer of Spanish and teaching and thesis-writing to look forward to. But my graduate course-work is done. Woo!

Some people have asked whether Charlotte has a birthday list. I posted a button link to her Amazon wishlist in the sidebar to the right. If you click on it, you'll be brought right to her list.


Also, happy anniversary, Mom and Dad! Today they celebrate 31 years of bliss. :)

At Long Last!

A new Charlotte video! She dances! She speaks! She signs! She's wonderbaby!

Buhbuh!

The above picture features Charlotte's favorite new thing: buhbuh! That's bubbles, for those of you who don't speak baby. She's so into bubbles that she belts out "buhbuh" anytime we walk within sight of the bright yellow or green bubble containers.

We celebrated Charlotte's 11-month-birthday this week. She seems like such a little girl suddenly--no longer the little round helpless baby. I love how she's exploring her world. And she's learning so many new things, absorbing information like a fat little sponge. She's starting to do some of the baby signs we've been showing her for months. Her favorite is the sign for "hat," which involves patting the top of your head. Every time she sees Jeff wearing a hat, or a baseball cap hanging on a doorknob, or a character in one of her books wearing a hat, she makes the sign. Do I even need to say how adorable that is?

She now does the signs for duck, hat, bird, sleep, cat, ball, more, and her own version of dog. Bird, hat and sleep are new this week. It hardly takes any time for her to pick up something new...again, the little sponge.

Some friends of ours here in Athens had a baby last week. I ran into them today out for a walk with their new daughter. She's just a sweet, brand-new little bundle, much like Charlotte was 11 months ago. When I got home, Charlotte suddenly looked so...huge. Mobile. Competent. I was amazed. I am, every day.

One Year Ago

I was sorting through some of my image files on my computer tonight, and I came across this photo, which was taken one year ago today.

My, how things have changed.

Happy...

...birthday to my dad, who turns 51 today. Last year, for his 50th, I was enormously pregnant and unable to make the trip to Iowa to help celebrate. This year, too, we couldn't get to Iowa, but I was happy to spend the day with Charlotte instead of with my bulging belly. I love my dad, and I love seeing how he's fitting well into his new role as grandpa.

...Mother's Day to all the mothers in my life: my mom, my mother-in-law, my grandma, and Jeff's grandma. We were happy to promote you all to the next tier up in mother-ness (grandma, grandma, oma and great-grandma, respectively).

...baby Charlotte has been making some leaps and bounds lately. She's started climbing the stairs (gulp) making necessary the quick scramble to improvise a baby gate. She's saying quite a few more words ("buhbuh" for bubbles, "boh" for book, "bah" for ball, "gleen" for green, "lalalow" for yellow, "boo" for blue). She's starting to give kisses, which usually means puckering up or humming and pressing her head onto your face.

...is what you will be when I post a new video of Charlotte later this week!

For your reading pleasure, a poem by Jeff:

Baby’s First Booger
- for Charlotte, 10 months

I showed it to her, as proof
that my brutal raid on her nose –
all that effort in the face of her screaming,
her twisting and flailing –
hadn’t been for nothing.

“See?” I said, holding it up for her. “This
is what I was after. That thing
was in your nose!”
She looked. She stared. She reached. She took. It stuck.
She tried to take it off
with a finger from the other hand,
but it stuck to that one too, of course.

Eventually she got sick of it all,
shook her fists in frustration,
then lost interest.
It was time for a nap.

An hour later, she’d produced another.
Same routine, same struggle, opposite nostril.
After the liberation, I again presented the bounty, the evidence
to show that some things don’t make sense at the time,
but are really for the best.
“I’ll bet you can breathe a bit better now,” I said.
But she wasn’t messing around. This time
she grabbed it right away
and put it in her mouth.

All Back Home



We've returned home to Athens after a week-long trip to Iowa for my grandpa's funeral. The trip was exhausting, both physically and emotionally, but I'm very glad for how smoothly everything went. Planning a 24-hour round-trip roadtrip at the 11th hour, scrambling to find people to cover my teaching for the week (thanks, Erin, Kristin and Kurt!), packing and loading up the car after a day of teaching and grad classes...I'm really surprised there weren't more glitches and disasters.


The relative smoothness of the trip allowed me to devote my mental and emotional energy to joining my family in mourning the loss and celebrating the life of my grandpa.


The picture above is of Charlotte enjoying the tulips in Scholte Gardens like a good little Dutch girl.

For more on my grandpa's death, you can read my dad's blog on the last three weeks.

Goodbye, Opa

Melvin Ernest Deur

June 1, 1921 - April 21, 2007

More Congrats!

Congratulations are due to Jeff's brother Mark and his fiancee, Katie. I hear the story of their engagement is one for the books! (Something involving Fifth Third Ballpark...you'll have to ask Mark). Congratulations, you crazy kids!

Duh! (Duck)

It seems Charlotte has said her first word (other than mama and dada): Duh! Which, naturally, means duck.

There are many ducks in Charlotte's life. There's her rubber ducky that she bathes with. There's the duck on her plush yellow Little Einstein block. There's all the pictures of ducks in her various books, including fluffy feathered ducks in her touch-and-feel farm animal book. There's her stuffed purple duck with the crazy eyes that Grandpa and Grandma Deur gave her for Easter. The purple duck quacks and has fuzzy white hair on top of his head; it's her favorite. When she sees purple duck, she says "Duh!" It happens enough that I don't think it's coincidence.

So it's only appropriate that we got to introduce Charlotte to the real thing yesterday. We all took a walk into town, and as we were walking past one of the frat houses on campus, I noticed something strange. A few guys were sitting out front and they appeared to have little creatures perching on their shoulders. I peered more carefully, and saw...Duh! Yes, baby ducks. I asked if we could come see the ducks, and they were obliging.

Charlotte appeared less enthusiastic about the real thing than she is about pictures of ducks or even the plush purple example. But she did try to squeeze the little baby duck, perhaps to hear him quack. As I removed her little hand from around the poor ducky's neck, I realized I was probably more excited about the baby duckies than she was. But who could blame me? They're adorable! Duh, indeed!

Tragedy

We've spent all evening watching the terrible news from Virginia Tech.

I certainly can't imagine what the students at VTech went through today.

While I was scanning GoogleNews, I came across this article: major school shootings.

The stress faced by students is well documented. In my almost-six quarters of graduate studies, I've seen two students drop out for various reasons. I've also witnessed countless freak-outs by my friends in grad school, ranging in severity from compulsive M&M eating to excessive partying. And I too have felt the intense pressure of making the grade. (Confession: the compulsive M&M eating was me).

My point isn't necessarily related to today's events. I was just thinking about the kind of pressure students face, whether self-motivated or not.

Today as I was walking to my car after class, I was thinking about what it would be like to have the idyllic spring afternoon broken by gunshots, to have my classroom invaded by an armed man. What would I do? How would I react?

I was hurrying home to see my baby and I didn't even notice that my backpack was unzipped. As I swung my bag off my shoulder, my laptop fell out and clattered to the ground. Any other day, I would have been devasted. I probably would have said words I wouldn't repeat in polite company. I might have hunted down some M&Ms.

Today, however, I just picked up my Dell (which is working fine, by the way) and got into my car. There were more important things going on.

I guess my point is that it comes down to perspective, and your ability to put things into perspective. I'm glad I've been able to do that.

Update

The last time I wrote a real post on here was just after spring break, and as I've just wrapped up the third week of spring quarter, I feel a little ashamed to have taken so long to write. But this quarter is shaping up to be much busier than I had anticipated. Although I'm teaching the same course I taught last quarter, the daily work and minor adjustments to the syllabus take up a good amount of time. And I'm only taking one grad course, but the reading load for that class is pretty heavy.

But besides all that, the biggest thing that has kept me from updating is that I've just been busy spending time with Charlotte. Right now I hear her waking up from her nap, which means I'll have to pick this update up later. But rest assured that Miss Charlotte is doing well, growing by leaps and bounds, and amazing us every day with her growth and change both mentally and physically.

Happy Easter!

New Movie!

Charlotte has been busy!

What happened to spring break??

I knew I would feel like this...but where did my break go?

I started spring quarter today. My class seems like a good bunch, and since I'm teaching almost the same syllabus as last quarter, I think it should be fairly smooth sailing. My grad class (my last grad class during my MA!) seems pretty cool. Debunking the Victorians! Woo!

I don't have time to write now, but I owe this blog a video and a nine-month-birthday post. So check back!

Whew.

Grades are filed. One final paper is in, the other is still pending, thanks to a last-minute extension from my professor. Winter quarter is now officially over.

Spring break is never long enough, especially when compared to our long, luxurious six-week winter break. Only one week? That's crazy.

Fortunately, this year Jeff and I (and Charlotte) are staying put. Last year Jeff went to Arizona (where it was unseasonably cold--bah!) and I flew solo to Iowa to visit my family. Well, not quite solo...Miss C came along, too.

That was such an uncomfortable flight, in part because I think Charlotte picked midair over Iowa to flip from head-up to head-down. It felt...weird.

This year we can just sit back and relax and wait for the visitors to come to us. Which they are--my folks will be here Wednesday.

In Charlotte news (because I know why you people are here, and it's not for me!): she has a top front tooth busting through, and it's been wreaking all sorts of havoc on her sleep. I also caught her grinding her bottom teeth against the new interloper. Let's hope the partner tooth emerges at the same time to lessen the sleep disturbances.

Watch for a video soon. Until then, you'll have to be content with the picture above, one of the "rejects" from a photo shoot I did a couple weeks ago. (Prints coming soon, grandparents!) Note the arm-rolls.

Congratulations!



Big congrats to Jeff's brother Steve and his girlfriend...I mean fiancee...Katy. That's right, those crazy kids got engaged tonight. Charlotte's congratulations are forthcoming.

Video Evidence

Charlotte crawls!

Crawling


Around Christmas time, Charlotte began getting up on her hands and knees, rocking back and forth. After a while, this rocking turned to crawling--backwards. In no time, Charlotte began making her way around the room, but always in reverse.

Just yesterday, something clicked. Jeff and Charlotte were playing with a ball on the floor, sitting up a few paces apart. Charlotte decided she wanted to get to Jeff, got down on her hands and knees, and...crawled! In a forward direction!

It was a little stop-and-go, and she did a face plant after her first attempt. But she wasn't discouraged, and tried again. When I got home from school, she crawled to me. Now it's just a day later and she's already much better at it, almost a smooth crawler.

One lesson I take from this experience is that babies will do things in their own time. I felt weird every time someone would ask "Is she crawling?" and I would respond, "Yep, but only backwards." I know that crawling isn't even considered a developmental step for babies because so many skip it, never do it, or do some variation of it (creeping, army-crawling, rolling, etc.) All the weeks of reverse crawling that led up to this sudden forward motion were practice, warm-up for the big event, which she did when she was ready for it.

New Video

Charlotte claps!

New Skill!

Charlotte's learned a new skill: clapping her hands. The photo above captures her in process of applauding. Now that she knows to clap her hands, she does it whenever she's excited about something. The facial expression in this photo seems to indicate that she's excited about the poop she's working on!

Jeff's not one to toot his own horn, so please allow me to do it for him:

Why Athens County? essay contest

Congratulations, Jeff!

Eight Months

Today is Charlotte's eight-month birthday. I have to say that this past month has been the best so far. Miss C gets more and more interactive, social, and entertaining with each passing week. Her big smiles of joy when Jeff or I walk through the door, her fun babbling "conversations", the way she entertains herself for minutes crawling around on the floor, playing with toys and blowing raspberries. She's so fun! It's just a joy to be privy to her life.

Happy birthday, baby girl!

The picture above captures Charlotte's big, beaming smile perfectly. Sometimes people don't get to see her smile; when Charlotte meets people, she tends to gaze at them solemnly, unblinking. I think it freaks some people out. They get nervous. They want her to smile.

I kind of like the fact that Charlotte waits to dole out her big happy grins. It shows an element of gravity that' s rather becoming in a baby, don't you think? Once she's checked you out, looked at your face long and hard, listened to your voice a bit, then she'll share a smile with you. And let me tell you, it's totally worth it.

We just spent a weekend with Jeff's parents. Coincidentally, Charlotte also had a couple bad nights of sleep, the likes of which we haven't experienced in weeks. I think the fact that she's getting over a nasty cold might have something to do with it. Also, we may have kept her up a little too late to pack in more fun with grandpa and grandma. But last night she slept well, and was up cooing and smiling again this morning.

After Jeff's parents left last night, Jeff said, "I can't imagine how hard it is for them to leave! I don't EVER want to leave her."

I know what he means. But I think I can imagine, a little, how hard it is for all the grandparents to leave after a visit. That's one of the big reasons we're hoping to end up a little closer to both families after our next move. I really want Charlotte's grandparents to be a part of her life.

Where I've Been

Sorry to neglect the blog for so long! It's been quite a week. I've been busy grading my first round of student papers, always a taxing experience. Then I came down with what I thought was the flu, but turned out to be mastitis. That pushed back my work for a couple days, as I was quite busy being feverish and delirious. I had a book review and presentation due today, on which I was working up until the eleventh hour. But I did feel fairly good about what I handed in, and my presentation seemed to go smoothly.

Now I'm taking a break from my 100+ pages of reading to update. I know you're all here for Charlotte, so don't miss the new video in the post below. These days the girl is nothin' but love and fun and smiles...just in time for Valentine's day, I guess.

Monday Night Live

At last, a new Charlotte video!

Hey, while you're on YouTube, check out this video: Free Hugs.

Gets me every time...

Charlotte's Talent Show

Most of you have seen this skill of Charlotte's before, but for those of you who haven't...well, I really can't explain what you're about to see.

Enjoy!

Wow.

Jeff just came back downstairs from getting Charlotte back to sleep. (Only the second visit; tonight was a good night). He said, and I quote: "I can't believe I wasn't more eager to have a kid before this."

This is from the man I thought would postpone becoming a parent until we were both moving into the Warm Friend rest home in downtown Holland. (Seriously. The Warm Friend. I kinda want to retire there.) It just goes to show you that often the anticipation of the event is more frightening than its realization.

Friday Night Live

The latest installment in the Charlotte video series:

Charlotte's First Music Video

Enjoy!

Seven Months

Charlotte's not too sure how she feels about attaining the ripe old age of seven months. Here she's contemplating her age while playing with her favorite toy, the lid to mommy's water bottle. Not available in stores!

This month has brought a lot of fantastic new developments, not the least of which is Charlotte's new habit of sleeping through the night. I know! I can't believe it either. What was that you asked about naps? I didn't hear you. Let's move on.

Charlotte goes to sleep around 8 p.m. and wakes up around 8 a.m. every day. She'll sometimes decide she needs a late-night snack, but other than that she's sleeping through. And when she wakes up she's cheerful, smiling and ready for a new day.

Charlotte's not crawling, but she is scooting around backward more quickly and effectively. I wonder if she'll be one of those babies that doesn't ever really crawl. She's also rolling over to get places now, sometimes rolling front to back to front to back all the way across the room. Funny.

Her repertoire of sounds is broadening. In addition to her reduplicated babbling (ma ma ma ma, da da da da, etc.) Charlotte is mixin' it up with some variegated babbling (a ba da la, ma ma da ba, etc.) She's also discovered the joy of blowing raspberries, especially when she has a mouthful of baby food. (By the way, did you know that the term "raspberry" for a Bronx cheer originates in Cockney rhyming slang [raspberry tart:fart]? Now you do!)

Speaking of food, Miss C. Tig can't get enough of that stuff, as long as it is fruit or orange veggies. We're sneaking some greens in there by mixing her green beans with sweet potatoes or butternut squash or carrots. But she's always a little suspicious about that green-colored food. Sweet tooth? She must be my kid.

And the three-times-a-day baby food habit has ushered in an entirely new world of diapers. I won't get into details, but let's just say we're talking about solids in, solids out.

I think the best development this month is the way Charlotte seems to be interacting with her environment. She notices things: my digital clock on the bedside table, pencils and pens on the desk, things mama and daddy are eating, the sounds her wooden blocks make when she pounds them together, the way she can splash water out of her little tub when she kicks her legs... One other thing she notices is when I leave in the mornings for school. This has made the already-rough part of my day even more difficult. It's fine when I'm at school, studying or in class or teaching and busy, but getting out that door is tough.

But the reaction I get when I arrive home--wide open eyes and wide excited smiling mouth, squealing and arm-flapping--makes my day. Why can't Jeff react like that when I get home? Maybe if I brought Jim Leyland with me he would.

Anyway, happy seven-month birthday, little girl! Thanks for such a fun month.

I edited the post below to contain a link to the video of Charlotte instead of the video itself, just to save space on the page. Let me know if you have any problems with the link!

Okay, I've never tried this before, but I was looking for a simple way to share video more readily. It's not a terribly exciting video, but if it works I can promise more thrilling Charlotte footage in the future!

Daddy Comes Home: A Short Film

Enjoy! And let me know if it works!

Messy

Charlotte's latest stats: 19 lb. 6 oz., 26 5/8 in.

As you can see from the above picture, girlfriend LOVES to eat. And to wear her food as well.

Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte*

Yes, yes...another sleep post. Fortunately, I have good news this time. Since Saturday night, Charlotte has been going to sleep around 8:30 p.m. and sleeping until 8 a.m., waking up only once during the night. This is a vast improvement (I can't emphasize how vast) over how Charlotte was sleeping just a month ago. She'd fuss and fight sleep until late in the night, sometimes not going to bed until close to midnight. Then she'd wake again at around 2. And again around 4:30 or 5. And again at 7.

It was fortunate that this happened when I was on break from school because I would likely have run mad otherwise. Now, with this new, wonderful schedule, I occasionally wake up feeling refreshed and well-rested!

This is all relative, however. Every once in a while I realize that I haven't had an uninterrupted eight-hour stretch of sleep since last June. Once I've stopped crying, and I really think about it, I realize that sleep, while wonderful and recharging and oh-so-glorious, is less of a necessity than I had previously realized. One really can survive on only four or five pieced-together hours a night.

Survival is different than thriving, however. And that's why I'm so glad Charlotte's sleeping better.

*see here

Brothers

It's a strange coincidence that Jeff and I both have brothers with a birthday on January 7. Today my brother Scott turns 26; Jeff's youngest brother Mark turns 23.

I can't speak for Jeff, but I know that my brother is the reason I someday want to have another child. Growing up with a little brother meant I had many things: a constant intruder, a confidante, someone who could sympathize about how weird our parents are, a conveniently close enemy if I needed to fight and blow off some steam, someone to fake sumo wrestle with, someone to watch MST3K with, someone that maybe even sometimes looked up to me and made me feel like I should try to be a good example.

One of my greatest hopes is that someday Charlotte will get to experience the indescribable relationship (at times unbearable, at times so much fun) that occurs between siblings.

Happy birthday, brothers!

Week One: Done and Done

Well, my first "week" of school is under my belt. All in all, I think it went well. My grad classes seem interesting, although I'm sure the reading load will present some challenges. (This from a speed-reader; that's what having a busy, curious six-month-old will do to you). I think I'll really enjoy the class I'm teaching. It's a pleasant change to be teaching juniors rather than timid, tremulous freshmen.

And it was much easier to leave Charlotte again than I thought it would be. I'm sure that's because I know she's safe and well-loved at home with her dad. But boy, is coming home ever fun now. She's so excited when I walk through the door. It's a big confidence-booster. No one has ever shrieked with joy to see me after a few hours apart.

I'm not too thrilled to be resuming my relationship with the breast pump. I actually glared at it when I got it out on Wednesday morning. Stupid breast pump. (Apologies to my father, father-in-law, brother, and brothers-in-law).

Highlight of today: I had my students answer some questions about their reading and writing abilities and concerns for the course in their journals. One of my students wrote that his only concern was "having too much fun!!" Awesome. I'll see to it that doesn't happen, heh heh.

Charlotte and her grandparents

Two weeks with the grandparents (one week with each set) spoiled not only Charlotte, but Jeff and I as well. What will we do without our parents, eager to hold and play with Charlotte while we work or read or shower?

We miss you guys...and Charlotte does too!