And... I'm Back!

Well hello there.

I gave up on blogging for a while. I feel as if I am not very good at it, but I am going to try again (it may not turn out very well).

So, I have no idea where I left off because the blogger site is totally different than before and I can't figure out how to navigate to old postings (however, I didn't try very hard) so I am going to just to start fresh. Hope that's okay.

Currently Charlie is quite funny. She talks a lot and eats a lot. I feel as if she may have an unhealthy obsession with food... it may be a problem. Last night she even requested a snack in the middle of the night. Oh yes, that...the middle of the night... it has been her favorite time of day lately. She likes to just wake up for a few hours and just hang out with her mom and dad in the middle. of. the. night... It's not okay. We still love her though. We come up with a new strategy every evening before we go to bed. Nothing seems to work... She slept better at 4 months old than she is right now.

The hours between 1:00 and 4:00am do not usually include my finest moments. They do, however, include plenty of whisper yells, huffs and puffs and few "Why?'s." Then every morning she wakes up all happy and singing like nothing ever happened. Then she begins to feed...

Well, hopefully this blogging thing will work out for me.
Maybe tomorrow I will be able to post good news about Charlie's sleeping habits... HA!

Long Time No Post...

Sorry about that. Things are a little busy around.

I am not going to try to update you on all of the happenings since my last post. That is way too much! Charlie has gone from a slowly walking baby to an extremely fast kid with a sense of humor and an attitude.

Yes... an attitude. That girl can pitch a fit like no baby I know. One minute she is perfectly happy and then next she is screaming and I am trying not to yell. This seems to only happy when I am around though. Everyone else who keeps her tells me that she is perfect. But I know all of them have seen her get crazy mad over something not so crazy.

There are some really good things though... Like language. Her language skills are developing quite well. She can pretty much tell me what she wants (and then tell me how mad she is when she can't have it). She knows what an owl, dog, cat and snake say. (These are pretty cute if I do say so myself). She is especially good at the owl. I love owls and her room has a lot of owl stuff. Even her highchair has owls on it. Every time we sit down to eat she points to the owls and says "whoo whoo."

(Saying "Whoo Whoo")

On a different note...

Last week we changed daycares. It has been a magically wonderful change. It costs less, it opens later (therefore I go into work later-yay for me), it is a larger room with fewer kids, there are chickens, goats and snakes, they do art everyday and Charlie seems to love it. I didn't the daycare we were using was bad, but there are so many good things about this new one. I can already tell a difference in her behavior and her language. It is pretty impressive.

Well, I am seriously going to try to keep this blog updated. I like doing it, but I never have time and I like sleep.


'Till next time...

One Year

A year ago today Tallon and I drove to the hospital a couple and two days later came home a family of three. It was scary, exciting and scary. I was so nervous to be a mom... and a working mom. I knew it would be a lot to balance and I knew that I would struggle. I also knew that I would love that baby more than anything. I was right about all those things.

Charlie has gone from an 8 pound 10 ounce screaming blob to a 25 pound walking monster that is really really cute and funny. She is an incredible little thing that makes me smile several times a day. When I see her through the daycare window every night when I pick her up I smile so big. She just makes me so happy.

She has already developed quite the personality. She gets frustrated easily, but she also laughs at almost everything. She signs lots of words and is starting to say a few. The best one right now is "Hi!" She normally says it when no one can hear it but me and while looking out a window. She waves at everything... people, toys, sippy cups, pacifiers, etc. She loves to dance. She dances to just about anything, even the washing machine. She knows how to turn on the record player and knows the best buttons to push on her toys. She follows the dogs around with one finger in the air saying "NO, NO, NO!" or at least something that sounds like no. When she takes the first bite of her food she says "MMMmmmm..." and then she stuffs it all in her face like she hasn't eaten days.

I still check on her before I go to be at night. I want to make sure she is covered up and sleeping soundly. I still cherish the night time bottle. It is such a special moment and a great way to end my day. I know in just a few shorts months she will no longer have that night time bottle. I think I will have a harder time with that she will. I stopped questioning everything I do and just go with my instinct. I have gone from being completely unsure to... less unsure. There is so much I still have to learn about this sweet baby, but I'm content with my knowledge for know. I am sure I will need to seek out more information when she is around 13... I'm scared for when that happens.

She is such a sweet girl and I know she will grow up to do great things. It is so amazing how much she has learned in just one year. These next few years are going to fly by. Before I know it we will be taking first day of school pictures and I will crying while I look through the little window on the door of her classroom... she will be so embarrassed.

Until then I will keep smiling at the happy dancing baby that we call Charlie.

Happy First Birthday, Charlie! I love you so very much.

Charlotte Marie Chandler

In the womb. Approximately 21 weeks along.

First day.

One Month

Two Months

Three Months and Halloween

Four Months

Five Months and Happy

Six Months

Seven Months

Eight Months

Nine Months

Ten Months

Eleven Months

Almost but not quite 12 months

The Big Party!

We celebrated Charlie's first birthday this weekend. It went great!

I want to blog about it, but I feel like it needs to be divided up in sections. So here it goes...

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The Friday before the party...

On Friday I got went to the party store and collected all the things I thought I would need. Plates, napkins, plastic ware, table clothes and some things for decorations. Then I went to Hobby Lobby to get some more stuff... mason jars, tissue paper, cupcake cups and some sticks (yes... sticks). As I waited for Kaylin to get off work I started making decorations and goody bags... and I cleaned up my house at some point, but not very well. Once Kaylin was off work we headed to Wal-Mart to get all the stuff for making/decorating cupcakes and feeding the guests. Once Charlie was home with Tallon we headed out to my dad's to bake cupcakes and decorate. After seeing a some of the decorations put out I was got excited. It was all looking so great and I couldn't wait until the next day.

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The morning of the party...

That morning we got up at our normal time, got ready, packed up our things and went to... Target. I really needed to find a comfortable dress/swimsuit cover up for the party. Then we picked up Kaylin and went out to my dad's.

I was hoping Charlie would nap during the set up process but she woke up as soon as I got her out of the car. She was really good though. She mostly just followed us around as we set things up.

And she ate a snack...

And she had a mini photo shoot with Auntie Kaylin...

Tallon played Angry Birds and hung balloons.

Everything went so smooth. It was great. By 11:00 we were ready to party!

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The party begins...

As everyone arrived we had them fix a plate and then get in the pool. It was incredibly hot outside. Once you got in the pool it felt much better. Also, it was great entertainment for the kids.

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Then we opened gifts...

Charlie got some wonderful gifts! I tried to make this part of the party go quick. Charlie was getting tired and it was hot. She got some great new outfits and some really fun toys. However, she really just liked the ribbon... she was the same way when we opened Christmas gifts.

She loves sitting on chairs right now. She is always trying to sit on things. It's so funny.

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The cupcake bar...

This was by far my favorite part of the party. I had an idea in my head and it turned out even better. I wanted a cupcake decorating bar and that was what I got. It was so cute and perfect. Kaylin made the cupcakes and the icing. I set up the table with lots of decorating goodies. Everyone really enjoyed it.

I decorated the first cupcake for Charlie. I used a white cupcake, then put white and teal icing on it, a few chocolate sprinkles and a blueberry on top. It was cute and yummy.

She ever so sweetly picked the blueberry off of the cupcake and ate it...

Then she picked up the cupcake and smashed the whole thing in her face. She looked up at me like "Is this okay?" and we just kept singing Happy Birthday. I'm sure she was completely confused, but happy that she got to eat such a wonderful treat.

All the kids seemed to really enjoy the cupcakes. They even went up to Kaylin to tell her how great they were. I'm so glad that the cupcake bar was a hit. Everything tasted great and it looked cute too!

After Charlie ate her cupcake we stripped her down and Papa J put her in the pool to clean her up. Once she was cleaned up enough I changed her into some dry clothes and put her down for a nap.

***

While Charlie napped...

Kaylin and I decorated our own cupcakes so we could photograph the cuteness...

Then I played in the pool as long as I could before Charlie woke up from her nap. It was refreshing. I was burning up by that point.

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The party was over...

The worse part of having a party is the clean up. There was so much to clean up! And none of it would fit in my car. While we tried to clean up, Charlie played with balloons. These might be some of my favorite pictures from the party. She was well rested and happy.

After we cleaned up some of the stuff we took Charlie and Tallon home. Kaylin and I went back to her car to get all the gifts and the decorations. The backseat of her car was full! I couldn't believe how much stuff went into this party.

This was the most stress free party I have ever planned. It went so well. Charlie was well behaved, nothing got broken and everything looked cute. It was a success.

Even though the party is over we still have two more days until our little baby turns one. She already acts like a toddler and I am sure we will hit the terrible twos soon enough. But for now we are going to enjoy our 11 month old.