Month Three

Month three with our Charlie continues to be divine! We sure did luck up with an easy going, sweet as can be baby girl. She is just growing like crazy, too! We went from saying what a tiny little frog baby she was when she first came home, to calling her "Chunk" now. 

In Charlie's third month of life, we turned our little cozy at-home world upside down, and Mommy went back to work. Charlie started joining her sister at daycare, and so far it seems to be going quite well. She is always either smiling or sleeping when we pick her up and her teachers mark her "daily mood" as Happy just about every day. I take Emily in with me when I drop off and pick up Charlie, and she just loves going to "Tarlie's room". At afternoon pickup, Emily runs in yelling "Tarlie, Tarlie" and looking for her sister. She seems to be napping well there, and of course she eats well. And no illnesses yet (knock on wood!).

Over Labor Day weekend Mikey's Aunt Pat came to visit us from Wyoming. We had a house full of family and it was so much fun! Some how I didn't get all that many pictures though. What can I say, my hands are full almost all the time! We took Pat and the girls to the Dickson County Fair, and it was interesting to say the least.

Emily wasn't much in to riding things by herself, but we did take a train ride together.

We tried to stay for the demolition derby, but as soon as those cars started crashing, both girls started screaming and we had to take off out of there.

Since that was also the weekend before I was scheduled to go back to work, we decided to move Charlie to her own room at last. I was nervous, as usual, but she did great! She slept through the night both nights that weekend, and has pretty much done so ever since. She still sleeps on her tummy most of the time, and so she wiggles herself all around the crib, and usually ends up with her face squished against the rails. She will fuss a little, but if we go up and move her back to the middle, she will go right back to sleep. And, I will admit, I have no problem with bringing her in to our bed in the middle of the night if needed!

The girls and I made two trips to Atlanta without Daddy this month. The first one was just us three, and to say I was nervous about the drive down would be an understatement! I loaded the car with books and snacks and water, and I made a little diaper changing area in the back so that I wouldn't have to stop at sketchy bathrooms. 

Emily was really good! She read her books, and chattered to me about the "monkeys in the trees" that she said she saw out her window. When she says it, it sounds like she is saying "monkey cheese" but I know what she means. Charlie slept most of the way down, but she woke up about 45 minutes from Atlanta and needed to eat, so we pulled off the interstate and fed her. I let Emily sit in the front seat with me, and she thought she was so big - pushing all the buttons, opening the sunroof, all those fun car things. Every button in my car had greasy little fingerprints on it!

Our second trip to Atlanta, we took Grandma and went down to Katie's first baby shower. We had a fun visit but Emily developed a funky looking rash on her elbow and legs. She has always had eczema so we thought that was what it was. Also, Charlie decided sleeping was dumb and cried most of the night and all through the shower the next day.

We went to Katie's shower - which was lovely- and then headed home. Charlie had another rough night and Emily's skin wasn't clearing up. so I decided to take Emily to the doctor that next Monday.

As it turned out, the dreaded Hand Foot and Mouth disease was making its way through Emily's daycare class and she had gotten it, but instead of blisters in the normal places - her hands, feet and mouth - it had shown up on her already damaged skin in the places where her eczema normally is.

She had no other symptoms and didn't seem to even be uncomfortable. However, she did infect the one year old baby that she played with at the shower. Oops.

 I just adore the age Emily is at right now. She keeps us laughing every day with the things she says and the faces she makes.

Some bullet point updates on Miss E:

• She loves to have you sing the ABC song. She will yell "ABC Mommy" or "ABC Daddy" and if we don't burst in to song right away, she just keeps yelling until we do.
• She can also count to ten - she will say 1, 2, 3, 4 (she actually says Fork), 7, 9, 10. And she gets progressively louder as she counts, until the 9, 10 come out in a holler!
• She loves Mickey Mouse and Elmo and asks for both of them to be on TV constantly. 
• She pronounces her Fs as Ps, so that makes for some funny conversations. Have you ever met Mickey's friend "Goopy"? Or played "pootball"? Or eaten your dinner with a "pork"? We have!
• Her favorite person on Earth is her little sissy. She asks for Tarlie from the moment I pick her up at daycare until we get C in the car. She hovers over Charlie while she is in her swing and will say "she sleeping". When they take baths together, Emily pours the water over Charlie's legs and belly and only occasionally on her face.

Life with two kids under two years old is definitely non-stop and hard work, but it is also so much fun. We feel so lucky to have our happy, healthy girls. I go back and forth between wanting to freeze time and keep them little forever, and then also wishing I could see the future and see the young ladies they are going to be.