Grandparent Tour - Part 1

Carly and I have just completed part 1 of our 3 week grandparent tour. Dave is unfortunately having to do a lot of traveling right now, Jake is down in Atlanta playing with Gertrude at Dave's parents, so Carly and I took to the road. For our first week we headed down to Columbia to visit with my parents. My dad had taken the week off of work, so it was a great time for a visit.

During our visit Carly and I were quite busy. On Wednesday we helped my dad in the kitchen. Carly helped decorate a cake, while I helped prepare a few side dishes for upcoming meals.

Decorating with M&Ms

Thursday's weather did not cooperate as much as we had hoped. Since we were unable to work in the yard, my mom, Carly, and I went shopping for a new pair of shoes for Carly. Currently her feet are measuring at a 5.5 wide, which has made finding flip flops for the pool and boat difficult. We set out in search of a pair of sturdy crocs. We were successful in our search, along with finding Carly a fall dress and coat on the clearance rack.

Showing off my new shoes to Daddy!

Following Carly's nap the weather perked up, and Carly was able to go outside and play. My parents had found her a plastic rake that would allow her to "help" in the yard. She really enjoyed carrying it around the yard and raking up various pieces of pine straw and leaves. (To be honest, I think my dad really enjoyed the "help" too!)

Helping Grandpa Rake!

Raking on my own!!

On Friday we were able to work in the yard more. After a yummy seafood lunch (where Carly actually ate about four shrimp), and a nice long nap, Carly helped me plant flowers in a window box for Dave, and then began watering the flowers (along with many of my parents' other plants and their grass).

Eating shrimp!!

Helping Mommy plant!

Watering Grammie and Grandpa's plants!

18 Month Check-Up

Carly had her 18 month check-up this afternoon. She weighed in at 26 lbs and 7 oz (75th percentile), measured 32.5 inches long (50 - 75th percentile), and with a 19.25 inch head (90 - 97th percentile). The doctor was thrilled with her first three teeth and her ability to gum so many different foods. (She is currently eating most fruits, peas, chicken, meatballs, deli meat, cheese, yogurt, applesauce, hot dogs, pretzels, and other various snack foods.)

During her visit we also discussed how Carly understands most of what we say to her, is starting to verbalize various nouns (dadda, doggy, puppy, uh-oh, ball, no-no) and says the phrase, "I did it" quite regularly. He also commented about how happy Carly was as she was prancing around the room in her diaper showing off her ability to unzip the diaper bag and get out what she wants and walking up to him smiling.

Carly's visit did end with 3 shots and a cry for "momma." She seemed to anticipate to shots when the nursed re-entered the room and had her lie down. She began to tense up and after the three shots, she screamed out "momma" while the nurse was working to get the two band-aids on her little chunky thighs. While it was great to hear her say my name, I hate that it only comes in times of desperation... One day that will all change (right?).

Spring Break 2011

Well most of the grown up world does not get a Spring Break; however, Dave was lucky enough to grab an extended weekend this Easter allowing us to have a short Spring Break.

Our break started with him wrapping up work a few moments early on Thursday for us to head to the Jimmy Buffett concert in town. We had margaritas and grilled out before heading into the amphitheater for a wonderful show. (Thankfully, the rain held out, so the weather was PERFECT!)

Due to all of Dave's long hours earlier in the week he got Friday off, allowing us to depart for our Easter weekend before lunch time. We made it down to Seabrook Island to visit with Dave's family in time for dinner.

Saturday began with a short 10K race for me on the island, then visiting with family friends.

Playing with Papa before dinner.

Easter morning was nice and calm, with Easter service, a few treats for Carly from the Easter Bunny, and a short egg hunt for Carly. All of this excitement wore Carly out, she took a quick nap before heading down for brunch with the family and more family friends. Unfortunately, this was the end of our visit and Spring Break. We loaded everything in the car and headed back north. Carly slept for a large portion of our ride home and didn't wake up today until after 9:30. She must have really enjoyed her Spring Break!!

Easter Egg Hunt #2

Carly participated in her second Easter Egg Hunt today, and was a girl on a mission.

Dadda

Dave is on a business trip this week; however, Carly was still able to see him today thanks to technology. Dave now has a new iPad to help him with work and school, but my favorite feature is the camera that allowed us to chat with him right before Carly's bath. She was able to sit in her highchair and talk to her "dadda." We've used Skype to talk to other family members in the past, but this is the first business trip where Dave has been able to chat with Carly.

Dave's posting on Facebook tonight sums it all up - "Just skype'd with Carly and now I miss her more. But I did get some good kisses!"

Carly's First Egg Hunt

Carly attended her first Egg Hunt this afternoon. After her nap she took a wagon ride down to our neighborhoods pool area to visit and play with other neighborhood children before the hunt began. She played with bubbles, drew on the parking lot with egg shaped side walk chalk, attempted to pick up an egg or two a little early for her basket, and met some new friends. Once everyone had gathered and the rules had been given, the kids were off. Carly was searching for eggs with children ranging from 0 - 5 (although, I think she was one of the youngest actually out hunting) and did quite well. She managed to pick up 13 eggs. The cutest part though was when she saw everyone going through their eggs and she began to copy. She is not interested in candy (yet), so she would open the egg, throw the candy on the ground, and then place the opened egg back in her basket. (You can imagine the fun I had when it was time to turn her 13 plastic eggs back in to the HOA bucket.) Thankfully, her neighborhood friends can be quite the distraction for her.

New Shoes

Carly has a new pair of shoes for the spring and summer. After a late morning (our house started moving around 9:45 this morning), Dave's first midterm, lunch, and Carly's nap, we ventured out to the mall. Our trip was quite productive. Dave ordered a new pair of prescription sunglasses and Carly got some new kicks. We were not very original with her shoes and picked out the exact same shoe as last time, just in the white spring/summer color and slightly larger. During her last shoe buying experience (back in September) she measured at a 4.5; however, we were told the shoe ran quite large and Carly ran out of the store wearing a size 4. Leaving Dave to walk to the counter to pay and me to chase after her. Today's shoe buying experience was exactly the same. The sales lady measured Carly's foot at a 5 wide, so recommended the 5.5 wide for growing room. She put the two new shoes on Carly's feet, Dave popped her off of his lap, the sales lady checked Carly's toe, and Carly proceeded to run out of the store. Again, Dave walked to pay and I began chasing. I guess Carly knows what she likes.

Peek-A-Boo

Today while I was working on dinner I noticed Carly laying down in front of our back door while Jake was persistently tapping on the door. Then I noticed her pop up and shout "BOO," then lay right back down. I got Dave's attention quickly and grabbed for the camera while he tried to get his phone out. Unfortunately, she stopped just as we were both ready to record her. She did go back to the door to continue her game with Jake one other time tonight. She is really quite fond of him!

3 Teeth in 3 Days

When Dave got home this evening from work he asked Carly about her teeth, referring to the two that had made an appearance over the past 72 hours. While checking on her two lower teeth, he noticed she now had a third tooth. Her upper left incisor tooth has arrived. (The dentist did tell me the two upper incisor teeth would probably arrive before her front two upper teeth.) So, now I guess we wait for this tooth's pair.

**Carly has continued to show no real signs of teething this week... although she has taken 3 hour naps on Monday and Tuesday. Hopefully our luck will continue.

New Interest in Table Food

We are sure there is not a true correlation between her two new teeth and her new interest to table food, but the timing sure is lining up.

On Saturday she ate all of the same foods as Dave and I ate as we traveled to and from Clemson. She ate her kid's meal at Chick-fil-a (minus 1 nugget and a few apple slices), she ate a hotdog, few snacks, and fruit at tailgate (I will admit that I packed the fruit for her to help ensure a balanced diet, but Dave and I picked at her cut up cantaloupe and strawberries too.)

Sunday (when her first tooth made an appearance), she ate chicken and peas with Dave and I at dinner. You can see the video here.

Yesterday (when her second tooth made an appearance), she ate left over chicken for lunch with me and then ate the meatballs in her spaghetti for dinner. She was not interested in the noodles, but even made sure she dipped her meatball chunk in the spaghetti sauce before placing the fork-full in her mouth.

She isn't 100% of the way there, but hopefully by Christmas we will not be traveling with a cooler of lunch meat, cheeses, pureed vegetables, bread, and peanut butter to ensure Carly eats at least something at every meal.

We have TEETH!

Carly now has TWO teeth!! Today after her nap she opened her mouth up wide and I was able to catch a quick glimpse for her second bottom tooth. I attempted to stick my finger in there to get a little feel, but as soon as I touched her gums she burst into tears. Being a compassionate mother I surrendered and snuggled her instead.

Dave was able to sneak a peak later in the afternoon while we were playing and confirmed my sighting of a 2nd tooth!

It looks like Carly will get to go to college in 17 years since she won't be needing implants anytime soon.

Dinner Time

This is a cute little video of dinner time in our home tonight. (Pardon the angle and bouncing in the beginning, Dave was holding it away from him hoping Carly would not notice it.)

We have a TOOTH!!

That is right ladies and gentlemen, at 1 year, 5 Months, 2 weeks and 5 days Carly got her FIRST tooth! We weren't really expecting it this morning, but there it was. I had just gotten home from helping at church, David and Carly were on their way upstairs for a fresh diaper. While up there I asked Carly how her teeth were coming (we tend to ask regularly). David's finger went into her mouth (like it does at least once every day) and for the first time ever felt a sharp edge on her lower right side. WOO-HOO! Now I am just hoping that teething will continue like this; however, I'm not quite sure we are that lucky!

Feeding Jake

Whirlwind of a Weekend

Our family had quite the busy little weekend. Unfortunately, it did not start quite as early as Dave had hoped it would on Friday night. However, at 7pm we were packed and loaded in the car with a full tank of gas, and we were heading for South Carolina's low country.

We had a few missions for the weekend:

• Run in the Cooper River Bridge Run (a 10k)
• Visit with Dave's grandparents and parents
• Let Carly have her first walk on the beach
• Relax

We made marvelous time on our drive thanks to a sleeping baby and only moderate traffic and arrived around 11pm. An hour later we were settled in, Carly was back asleep, and everything was set out for Saturday's early wake up time. Thankfully Dave and I were able to sleep until just after 5am since his Dad generously offered to drop us off at the starting line in Mt. Pleasant and then pick us back up near the finish line. (This allowed us to not worry about being in line no later than 6am for the shuttle.)

With our extra hour of sleep, Dave and I were both able to run personal bests for the 10k. I completed the race in just a few seconds over 55 minutes, and Dave finished just a few seconds over 1 hour, 8 minutes. (We were quite satisfied with our times, especially since our big races in Atlanta were only 13 days prior to this one.)

After our "quick" morning run over the bridge we headed back to Seabrook to relax and visit with family. Carly, her Grandma, Dave, and I did get a chance to put our toes in the sand after Carly's mid-day nap. At first Carly was not too sure about how the sand felt on her toes, but once I picked her up and placed her a few yards from the walkway she was fine. She especially loved seeing all of the dogs that were running and playing on the beach. She would "run" towards a group of dogs screaming "DOGGIE, DOGGIE!" The only thing she did not seem to sure of was getting her feet wet. Carly and her Grandma walked towards the water, but once the wave splashed Carly's feet she was not amused. (I'm sure once it is warmer this won't be an issue.)

Unfortunately, our visit came to an end after breakfast on Sunday. Dave had a fair amount of school work and work-work that he needed to get done, so we loaded up and headed north west. This trip was not quite so quick. There were some severe wrecks along I-26, which then forced almost everyone to stop at the same restaurant around Orangeburg for a very delayed lunch. On the plus side, we did stop by my parents' house to let Carly and Jake run around while Dave and I stretched our legs.

Thankfully we all made it home (only 6 hours after we left South Carolina's low country) and are slowly recovering. I'm sure we will be nice and energized just in time for next weekend's whirlwind.