Rain Drops of Drool

Today, I was laying down holding Charli up over me and flying her like an airplane. It was entertaining, we smiled at each other and she made her happy noises as she was soaring through the air. I'm watching little balls of moisture accumulate on her top lip. And the moisture accumulation continues to grow. Until the molecules split. I am then watching a giant ball of saliva descend towards my face. Not being able to set Charli down and move fast enough it lands right above my lip, spreading like a rain drop hitting dry playground equipment. And then another drop comes, and another, and another and they just keep coming and wont stop! Ok so maybe only a couple more followed the initial one. I set Charli down and as I began to wipe my face off this occurs...

Charli you can even make slobbering on my face a great experience. Thank you.

Overcoming Stairs

Our baby turned 9 months old yesterday! It is crazy how time flies!

We celebrated by having a garage sale (not yesterday but a couple of days ago)

It was not all mine, well majority of it was my parents. Most of it was sold. There are still a few things that we want to sell and some bigger items like a 3yr old stand up washer and dryer (works great, just wont fit under the cabinets in the wash closet) if anyone is interested.

Charli can climb up the stairs now.

I did want to redeem myself for the whole vinegar incident I told you about recently. I don't want it to seem like I suck at cooking, because I dont always :) ha. I made Parmesan shrimp with spaghetti last night

It was insanely good! If you are ever lucky enough to let me cook for you, I'll make this. Possibly.

The weather is suppose to be crazy today. After the Joplin tornado, Im a bit paranoid. It being that close to home made it a bit more real. We will be driving through there this month on the way to visit family, which will make it even more surreal.

Climbing out

This weekend I went to go get Charli from her nap and found her like this

I suppose we should move her mattress down again. Don't want the little booger escaping now.

Story A: She was also climbing up her walker the other day and was trying to get into the seat. She was so close when her foot slipped off, her little arms shot up into the air, her body tightened up like a toothpick and she fell off her walker and rolled several times on the floor, all the while her arms still straight up over her head and body tight like a tootsie roll. I waited a minute for her to begin screaming, but the tough little nugget got into crawling position shook her head and headed back to try and get in the walker again. I couldn't hold back the laughter, the fear I felt while it was all happening but the reassurance she was ok, the event turned into a rather humorous one. She is one tough cookie (gets it from me).

Story 2: Not to brag on myself but I have become quite the chef. I haven't burnt water in months! I decided this past week I was going to try some really crazy dishes. Most of them turned out good. But last night I was going to make some Harvest brown rice with apples, cranberry's, walnuts, goat cheese. The picture looked amazing. I was tired yesterday (thats what Im blaming it on). The recipe called for the brown rice to be cooked in apple cider vinegar to get that apple flavor cooked in well. As most of you know the vinegar part isn't the most pleasing to the nose, plus when one is simmering it, the smell tends to continue to get stronger. I was quite worried about the intense smell of vinegar aroma that was slowly burning the hair inside my nose. I continued to check the recipe and sure enough I was doing everything right. By the fifth time of checking I noticed I had added the word vinegar in my mind. A light bulb turned on in my head and remembered when we were shopping this week that I was not able to find the apple cider in the store and was going to take the dinner off the list, but forgot. So, being the inexperienced chef, I figured maybe, just maybe the rice would turn out ok, therefore I let it continue cooking. James came home and took a nice big waft of the highly anticipated home cooked meal and inhaled the strongest vinegar sent (I cant even describe how nasty it was, by this time Ive been inhaling this sent for the past 40 min and cant smell it anymore). He had to step outside, I had to open all the windows and turn on all the fans, and sadly put the rice in the compost pile out back. We ate Hog Wild.

Lesson for the week: One can't substitute Apple Cider Vinegar for Apple Cider. It just does not work. NO.

Roses are a bloomin

Charli's top tooth is beginning to poke through! The only way she seems to find any relief is by sneaking under chairs and chewing on the metal...

Exhibit A

She is officially pulling up now too!! I think she wanted to play in her walker when I found her.

Exhibit B

Our rose bush had its first bud of the spring on it as well

Exhibit 3

Would you like to hear (or read) some bittersweet news? Im gonna tell ya anyway. We traded in my car that I have had since my senior year of high school :( it was hard watching it go. But, on the sweet side we now have a great new, to us, family vehicle!

Baby Wipes

Most of you know that James and I have gone cloth diaper and love it!! . I have decided to take it a step further and make some cloth wipes which makes it easier because we dont have to have a separate container to throw the disposable wipes into, now we can throw them all in one!

Here are the steps I used incase you want to try it:

Materials:

*Cloth (im sure any kind would work but we had extra terry cloth and it works pretty well, and its cheep if you want to buy some)

*Sewing Machine

*Water

*Jar (We used a pickle jar)

*favorite baby soap

*favorite baby oil

Step 1:

cut your cloth into squares mine are roughly 5inx5in. If you get the terry cloth then just cut it into quarters.

Step 2:

Seam up the edges that might fray.

Step 3:

Have your helper layer the cloth slightly on top of each other and roll tightly, as shown above.

Step D:

Mix 2 cups water, 1 T Baby bath and 1 T baby oil in pickle jar. Shake. and put the roll of cloths in. Pull up the starting cloth from the very middle and they come up like regular wipes. Just wash with the diapers.

It might seem like alot of work but, it might have taken me fifteen minutes to cut and sew, with the help of Charli another 2 min to mix the solution and roll up the cloth. Im sure one could use a left over square wipe container and then you wouldn't have to roll the cloth. You dont necessarily have to roll the cloth for the pickle jar either, I just cant get my hand all the way down in it :) I have been testing these out for a few weeks and really like them. Charli doesnt seem to get diaper rash as much anymore either and the crude come off pretty easy. Let me know if you have any ideas on making wipes or anything for a baby.

Monday #2

Happy Monday! I figure I would post something every monday and sometimes more through out the week depending on what is going on. Yesterday was mothers day. Charli took me shopping :) and then we had a wonderful dinner with the whole family that evening at Chili's. Oh man was it good!!

Charli's top tooth is coming in and I think it is quite a bit more painful than her bottom ones that came in because she sure is crabby! The only thing that calms her is taking her outside or helping her walk around the house.

Our herbs are growing beautifully, at least none of them have died yet! I do have a plant inside that is wilting, its sad. Charli helps us in the garden by eating things and playing in the sprinkler water

Ill leave you with this video of what Charli and I do during the day

Back!

Ello Friends and Family,

Now that I'm not working with those that I worried about seeing my family and child, Im ready to blog again.

Updates: We moved from Missouri to Kansas. With so many from Missouri that we are missing as well as others in other states that we are not able to see, Im starting up this blog to keep everyone up to date on what our little family is up to. More so on Charli :)

James received a great job here in Kansas delivering gas. I also am able to stay home with my baby girl and we are both absolutely loving it. Im discovering how much I love staying home, although I enjoyed working too, I am discovering things I loved doing and am starting them up again (sewing and scrapbooking) as well as other things such as becoming frugal, loving to do laundry (I know not many people enjoy this chore but I look forward to folding the warm clothes fresh out of the dryer in attempt to leave no wrinkles). James and I also planted some herbs for the first time and are excited to watch them grow. At my folks, they planted many veggies that we are going to help garden. James is working quite a bit, but is home every night, and enjoying the home cooked meals that Im experimenting with. He has also been enjoying working on the yard and attempting to make the lawn like green carpet :)

Charli's first tooth poked through last week, now another is poking through! She has been quite crabby and taking lots of naps. I made some teething biscuits out of baby cereal, flour and juice that she Loves! Would take a picture of her teeth but, she wont let me open her mouth, except to brush her teeth with the little finger tooth brush. Charli is also loving being read too. Her favorite book right now is 'I love you through and through' as well as the books that have flaps with things hidden behind them, if that makes since. She is crawling everywhere! I had to baby proof the house about a month ago. She is also able to pull up on lower things to a standing position and is able to walk with assistance. Time is going to fast. She had her first Easter and went easter egg hunting. She would pick up the eggs and eat them, well attempt to lol.

I will be posting pics of what we are up to through out the week or month, Ill try to stay up to date on this. I need to include some of our duplex because so many of you are asking about it! That is all I have today, Charli is asleep so Im going to organize something.

Happy Trails