Like Mother, Like Daughter

Charlotte has taken up a habit of mine from when I was a kid.

Sucking her thumb.

This doesn't bother me one bit. It shows she has a way to comfort herself. I know people can say "Oh it's gross" or "It'll ruin her teeth" but I say psshhhh to all of that. I started sucking my thumb when my dad deployed for the millionth time when I was 2. It's how I dealt with him being gone. The teeth that could possibly be messed with were baby teeth, I'd loose those anyway. By the time I had all my permanent teeth I had cut the habit, and my mouth is fine. I have perfect teeth, and have never had braces. So whatevs Academy of Pediatrics. I won't follow your guidelines on this one. Miss Charlotte will be fine. I don't think this will be a problem. I'll probably eat my words later, but I'm optimistic for now :)

Rocking the Carolina Panthers blanket. Poppie would be proud.

This was how I used to look. Exact same placement of the fingers.

Sweet baby girl

Baby's first Coke

Last weekend we met Joe's parents in Atlanta for a mini vacay. It was nice to get away and see them, and to also have some babysitters. Let me tell you, a shower without having to rush was bliss. We got to go to the Coca-Cola Factory and take that tour, which was just as much fun the second time for Joe and me as it was being the first for his parents. We missed the Aquarium b/c the line was insane, but I'm confident it won't be the last time we visit Atlanta. Charlotte even got to try a drop of coke. She didn't hate it, but she also wasn't smacking her lips for more. We also had the opportunity to eat at The Varsity which is a Georgia Tech. staple, and has been featured on Man Vs. Food. We had such a fun weekend, and we're looking forward to our next trip.

Charlotte & Grandpa

The baby is in the pouch :)

One of the Coca-Cola characters

Little family

2 Months

Charlie girl, 

I can't believe you are already 2 months old. Where did the time go?! It's been 9 weeks since you graced us with your presence, and it's been the best 9 weeks of our lives. 

 

You had your 2 month well baby check up yesterday and you did great! You weren't exactly thrilled with your shots, but you were right as rain afterwards. When the nurse stuck you with the first needle, your eyes got HUGE and it took about 20 seconds for you to register what just happened, but when it finally clicked you were pissed! You turned as red as a stop sign, and SCREAMED. But when he took the needle out, you stopped crying and sucked that paci like it was going out off style. We repeated that process 2 more times. Fun stuff.

 

 

You now weigh 10.9 lbs. and are 58 cm. long, and your head is just as big as ever. Your a bit of a chunk, but your my favorite chunk :)

 

 

Your wearing size 1 diapers, and your clothes are newborn to 3 months. Some of your newborn things still fit, but we're pushing it with others. All the onsies and jammies are good, but those cutesy outfits may not make it much longer. Your 3 month things are a tad big, but I think you'll be in them for awhile. You still hate hats with a fiery passion, but you wear a hairbow everyday and you don't mind them at all. You have more hairbows than I know what to do with, but I'm still going to buy them for you whenever I see one you can't live without. 

You have rolled over 2 more times since the last time I bragged on you about it. I can't believe it! It didn't scare you or anything, but you wouldn't let me put you back on your belly afterwards, and you held my hand tight for awhile after. So I think you were a little freaked out. 

 

 

You love to sit up. You are such a nosy rosy and you hate laying on your back in certain places b/c you can't see anything. You'll fuss and squirm forever until we sit you up, or prop you on your Boppy and then your right as rain. You hold your head up all the time now. I was super impressed when you could do that from day one, but now you never put it down unless your about to fall asleep.

You laugh and smile ALL the time. We don't even have to tickle your nose or lips anymore to get a grin. You think getting your diaper changed is the funniest thing ever. And you flirt with Daddy all the time. You get this big grin that makes your eyes squinty, and you turn your head to the side, and you pull your hands up under your chin, and it's pretty obvious your flirting. It's got to be the cutest thing I've ever seen.

 

 

Your still not a fan of bottles, and that suits Moma just fine. We've only had to give you one a few times when we're places I'm not comfortable breast feeding you. Your always clearly annoyed when it's offered to you, but you only fight me a few minutes. Besides, I hate busting into my freezer stash so if you don't like bottles, it won't break my heart.

 

 

Your first Valentine's day was a success. You looked cute as a button in your little tutu, and Daddy gave you your first chocolate. Gabbie sent you the cutest St. Patrick's day outfit and GK sent you super cute hairbows. You racked up as usual.

 

 

 

You are such a good sleeper! You've been sleeping 11pm-7am consistently since you were 5 weeks old, and you take a 4 to 5 hour nap everyday at 11am, with small little cat naps here and there. You definitely get your sleeping habits from your daddy. Like him, you could probably sleep through a bomb explosion. Like Moma, you talk in your sleep. Every time you exhale you let out a little squeak. It's beyond adorable. 

 

 

 

When you get mad or upset, all you want is your moma and your paci. I usually don't get to you as quickly as you would like, so you shove your fist in your mouth to calm yourself down. Sometimes you stick your fingers down your throat and choke yourself and then you pull your hand out and look at it like "dude wth?!" It cracks me up every time.

We love you so much baby girl! I'm so excited to see you grow, but I'm gonna need for you to slow down. You already have such a strong personality. I can just tell your going to be a sweet girl. We can't wait to see what you have in store for us this month! We love you more than anything in the whole wide world!

XOXO, Moma & Daddy

Happy Valentines Day!

I hope everyone is having a fantastic Valentines Day! We've celebrated by getting our 2 month old shots, lunch with Daddy at work, some red roses, Godiva chocolate, and Gabbie's taco soup for dinner. It's Daddy's favorite :) A perfect Valentine's Day for our little family!

Her first chocolate from her Daddy

Our Love Story

 I'm linking up with Becky over at From Mrs to Mama for the Love Story link up. Feel free to head on over there and join in! It's so much fun reading everybody's stories :) Here's ours!

 

1. How long have you and your significant other been together?

We've been together 3 years

2. How did you meet?

Ha. This is a funny story which makes me look like a total crazy-cakes. It makes him look like a hero though :) We met in college. He was a senior at NC State and I was a Jr. at Meredith College. The day we met, I was moving into my new apartment with my best friend Jessica and our mutual friend Rachel. It had been a stressful day, and it was the middle of August so it was hotter than hell. My parents had come up to Raleigh to help, and we had gotten there at 7am. First we had to paint the apt., so we couldn't move anything in until this was done. Then we worked on Jessica and Rachel's rooms first, then the kitchen and living and dining rooms. It was super late at this point, so my parents had to leave, which left me to put my room together alone. I hadn't even taken plastic of my mattress yet. So I go to put my box spring on the bed frame and it falls right through the middle. I became hysterical after this. It was past midnight, I was exhausted, and now my bed didn't fit. That was way more than I was emotionally equipped to deal with at that point. I called my sister sobbing. She couldn't understand anything I was saying, and my mom freaked out and thought I was dying. When I had finally calmed down enough to talk, I told them what happened. My sister offered to come up, but mom wouldn't let her. She decided to call Jake and see if Joe was back up in Raleigh for school yet. Jake is Joe's little brother btw. The plan was to have him come over and make sure the bed was put together right, and if so to help me find a solution. Now, if you know Joe and I, you know that all the tools we own belong to me, and I'm the one who puts things together and builds all the furniture, and Joe? Eh not so much. I of course didn't know this at the time. Now I was completely capable of fixing this on my own, but I was so upset I couldn't think straight. So he agrees to come over and brings over his roommate Parker. Turns out I knew Parker, we went to high school together. So they knock on the door, and I answer in purple yoga pants, an oversized tshirt, a greasy ponytail (b/c I'd been working all day) and mascara running down my face. I looked stunning obviously. They show up in shorty shorts, and cut off tshirts. They had come from some ROTC thing so they looked about as fabulous as I did. So they come in and check the bed out, and turns out I needed support slats. No big deal. We decided we'd go to Hope Depot in the morning to get them since it was almost midnight at this point, and they weren't open. Now I was in a relationship when this all went down, so it wasn't exactly love at first sight. I mean, we didn't really pay much attention to each other at the time. But they helped me fix it, and I made a horrible dinner to say thanks, and then they went on their merry way. We didn't see each other again until December, but we started dating immediately and have been inseparable since. Even though he was asleep for most of our first date :)

3. If married, how long have you been married?

A year in April

4. If you are married, where did you get married at? Big or small wedding?

We got married in the courthouse. We're having our actual wedding this May. And it'll be a medium wedding.

5. Do you have any nick-names that you call one another? Do share!

Babe, Baby, Joe-Joe, JAB, Honey. 

6. Name 3 things you love most about your honey.

He is so funny, incredibly smart, and a wonderful husband and father. We laugh all the time, and he dotes on Charlie and me.

7. Tell us how he proposed?
We were in our living room, on our couch. Just the 2 of us. It was simple and perfect.

8. Is he a flowers and teddy bear kind of guy for v-day, or strawberries, champagne, and rose petals?

He's both. Honestly, he doesn't have a style. He switches it up all the time.

9. Are you a sunset dinner on the beach kind of girl, or pop a movie in and relax on the couch?

Movie on the couch. Although, I wouldn't mind a sunset dinner on the beach.

10. Tell us one thing you'd like to do with your significant one day. If you could do anything? Go anywhere?

We love to travel, and we hope to one day tour Europe.

11. Tell us what you plan on doing on this Valentine's Day.
We will probably stay home. Having a new baby makes romantic dinners out kinda tricky.

12. Are you asking for anything this Valentine's day?

Yep. A jewelry box and an uninterrupted shower.   

13. Give us one piece of advice of keeping a relationship strong and full of love. 

Honesty, communication, and acceptance are so important. They all tie into each other. I'm not an expert by any means, but these are key components to keeping our relationship strong. We're lucky in that the love just happens, no work involved.

14.  Show us a picture of what love means to you.

Love is welcoming your soldier home from war

Love is watching basketball with your daughter

Love is giving your baby your finger when she's upset and that's what she wants

Love is a Daddy meeting his daughter for the first time

Love is meeting my daughter after 10 1/2 hours of labor and an emergency c-section.

Now go link up and read everyone else's stories!

PS Check out this post as well! I might even order something :)

Sometimes

 We love our paci. We laugh and smile when we see it, and we get suspicious when someone else touches it. It's kind of a big deal.

And sometimes we like our fist. It's always there and it can't be dropped on the floor, or snatched up by Keech.

 Our fingers are pretty tasty too.

But sometimes we like our Moma's finger most of all :)

For the love of boy bands

The hubs and I noticed something tonight, and it has us kind of sad and concerned for future generations.

What the hell happened to all the bay bands?!

I don't know about y'all, but I happened to be a HUGE, ENORMOUS Backstreet Boys fan. I mean like woa. I was convinced, I'm talking CONVINCED, I was going to marry Nick Carter. Um hello delicious blonde boy of my dreams. It was love <3

We spent a good chunk of our Saturday night on YouTube listening to all of our favorites from our "youth". Who doesn't remember drawing a line in the sand when it came to the BSB vs. N*SYNC battle? You couldn't like both. It wasn't allowed, and you couldn't be friends with someone who liked the opposing band. It just wasn't tolerated. At least not at my school :) I'll leave you with the delciousness of my childhood. I don't know if I want my daughter growing up in a world without boy bands :)

 

 

Oh for the love of Nick Carter. Swoon.

Who wasn't in love with Nick Lachey?

The enemy. I mean N*SYNC

Who could forget O Town? They had some delightfully cheesy pop songs 

This is quite possibly the best BSB song ever. Just saying.

Airplanes & Babies

Charlie and I had to take an impromptu trip home to NC last week. Turns out our tenants we had living in our house not only just up and abandoned the house, but they destroyed it too. UGH. Carpets are ruined, there's holes in the walls, and doors are missing. It's ridiculous. And according to the neighbors, she was running an escort service out of the house. They also informed us that she had an ad on Craig's List renting the house out, and some woman showed up with a UHaul to move in. I'm glad the neighbors saw and stopped her. Just ugh. So the baby and I flew home so we could file charges, and now we're dealing with that. Drama. Hopefully we'll get it all resolved soon, and can get new tenants in that will take care our house until we're back next May.

I was terrified to fly with Charlie. I was scared she was going to be that baby, but she did great! We got to the Atlanta airport at 5am and she slept the whole time. We left our house at 3.30 and she slept the whole drive too. Our flight got cancelled, and then the new one kept getting delayed, and I was so sure she was going to wake up and lose her shit. She woke up once while we were waiting, but I nursed her and she went right back to sleep. I was nervous to feed her in public, but she was cooperative and it was fine. We finally got to get on the plane, and a really nice guy helped me. I had her, her car seat, stroller, boppy, my bag and her diaper bag, so basically I was a gypsy. I didn't know how I was going to maneuver all that stuff but a guy on the flight offered to help. He was really nice, and it turned out that his wife had traveled alone with their daughter and no one had helped her, so he wanted to make sure he helped out a mom if he ever saw one. The flight only had like 15 people on it, so she stayed in her carseat in the seat next to me. She woke up the last 20 minutes of the flight, and she was just talking and smiling the whole time. She made the funniest faces when we were descending. She got pissy when we were waiting on Gabbie and Poppie to pick us up, but then she was all giggles and smiles when they got there. Go figure.

First airplane ride

The trip back was a whole nother story. Both flights were entirely full, so she had to ride in my lap. That meant she got woken up when I took her out of her carseat. Then everybody kept commenting on how cute she was and "Oh look at the baby!" but did anyone offer the help me as I struggled to hold her and get my bags in an overhead bin? Of course not. I know you see me struggling b/c your talking about my baby. I do not expect anyone to help me, but don't sit there and talk about me having a hard time and not offer to help. It's just rude. She also screamed the the whole time before take off and 10 minutes after. She only stopped when I was able to feed her. That took a lot maneuvering, but we figured it out. I kinda felt bad she was crying, but then I didn't b/c she's a baby. She can't help when she's upset, and crying is how she communicates. They were all talking, so she was too. Once she got to eat though, she fell asleep immediately afterwards and it was pretty pleasant from there. We were both very happy when we landed. She lit up when she saw Daddy. It was sweet, especially since she usually isn't that happy with him. We were both happy to be home. We definitely missed Daddy and Keech. But this trip also made me miss NC, and I can't wait til we're back.

Charlie & Traveling Rosie. Since Poppie goes on lots of trips around the world for his job, he won't get to see Charlie as much as everybody else. So Traveling Rosie goes with Poppie on all his trips and takes pictures and brings back goodies, and then she magically "appears" in her house (aka I put her back) and she tells Charlie all about her trip with Poppie. I'll go more into detail when she gets back from her first trip. She's currently in North Dakota, and then she'll go straight to Japan and then Korea.

She loves her Gabbie (my mom)