Adios, 2011!

I was going to write a long, reflective post about the year, but honestly, I don't have the energy for that. In addition, it's pretty obvious what the highlight of my year was. Stumped? Let me give you a few photographic clues:

Yeah, I'd say 2011 was pretty fantastic. I can't wait to see what 2012 holds. Happy New Year!

Charlotte's First Christmas-In Pictures

Our Christmas was wonderful. I hope yours was, too!

Merry Christmas!

Blessed Family Religious Christmas Card

Don't send boring Christmas cards , personalize them at Shutterfly.

View the entire collection of cards.

Friday Five: Favorite Classic Christmas Songs (Updated)

I realized as I was getting ready to post this that I'd already done this very topic back in 2009! However, I think I would change the list a little bit now. Here are my current favorite Christmas classics:

1.  "O Come, O Come, Emmanuel."  Still my favorite, and SCC's version is still my favorite.

2.  "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen." I just started to fully appreciate the words of this song this year. I love Bethany Dillon's version of this song. It has a jazzy flair.

3.  "I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day." Still love MercyMe's version of this one, but Casting Crowns has a nice interpretation as well.

4.  "O Holy Night."

5.  "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas."


What are your favorite Christmas classics?

Don't Get Sad, Get Fit!

Confession: I only worked out TWICE in November. 65 minutes total. Pitiful, right? I'm not entirely sure what happened, but I think I can blame laziness and exhaustion for the bulk of it. It's been hard to find a good routine that allows me optimal time with Charlotte and Stephen and also time to workout, read my Bible, and oh yeah, work full time. I haven't figured it out yet, but the most logical of solutions is the one I'm least fond of: waking up early. When I wake up at 5:30 or 5:40, like I did this morning, I can get things accomplished. Charlotte and Stephen are both still sleeping then, so I'm not missing out on time with either of them, and I enjoy the time to myself. Unfortunately, more often than not I end up setting my alarm for 5:30, hitting it when it goes off, and then going back to sleep for another hour.

This was not always the case. Early on in my first attempt to lose weight, back in 2008 and 2009, I routinely woke up at 5:30 or 6:00 to exercise. It was just a matter of routine. I rarely skipped, rarely overslept my alarm. So what's different now? The obvious difference is that I now have a 9-month-old who still enjoys the occasional crack-of-dawn wake-up call. However, while the early days of Charlotte's life resulted in some serious sleep deprivation, the truth is I'm FAR more rested than I was when she was a newborn, so the baby excuse really doesn't fly.

Perhaps if I were gaining weight from the lack of exercise, I'd be more motivated, but I managed to lose 4 pounds in November. 4 pounds isn't stellar, but it's pretty typical weight loss for me, and I'm happy about it. Of course, who knows what I would have lost if I had exercised!

Ultimately I think it comes down to the fact that I don't want weight loss badly enough to get up early. I'd rather sleep in than exercise. I'd rather succumb to laziness than chase after fitness. I may have run 4 miles back in October, but I'm fairly certain there's no way I could do that right now, and that makes me sad. But more than making me sad, it's making me motivated. Motivated to make a concerted effort to take care of myself and my body so I can be a good example for Charlotte and a good steward of this body that God has given me.

Do you have any good tips for waking up earlier?

On Paint Colors and Toddler Hats

Thanks for all of the concern/support on my last post! Apparently I need to write about fainting and holes in the wall more often, huh? :) Fortunately, we are all doing well (aside from a cold that Charlotte has, poor baby) and have been vomit-free! And my sweet daddy has already patched the hole in the wall! Now I have an excuse to pick out a new paint color. I'm considering a chocolate brown, but I don't know if that would be too dark for such a small space. Any thoughts?

While you're pondering the pros and cons of chocolate brown paint, enjoy this picture of Charlotte in her cute winter hat (I won't mention the fact that her hat is a size 2T because her head is so big.):

This past weekend I participated in my church's presentation of the Living Christmas Tree and succeeded in getting not a single picture of the event, despite the fact that we performed 3 times on 3 different days. I'm quite the documentarian. (Is "documentarian" a word? I'm declaring it a word.) We have a large tree that all of the singers actually sing in. (Now is the time when a picture would be helpful, right?) Anyway, it was my first time to be in the program, and I had so much fun singing and being in the tree, and it was a great way to celebrate the miracle of Christ coming to earth to rescue us.

I can't believe Christmas is almost here! I can't wait to celebrate with my family. What are you looking forward to?

The Story of the Hole

If you remember my post from last week, Charlotte caught a stomach bug. Tuesday night was the worst in terms of amount of times she vomited, but she also threw up on Wednesday a few times and was rather pitiful. She did not sleep well on Wednesday night, and neither did I. I felt as though I couldn't get warm and never really felt comfortable. I also had an upset stomach of my own, although I never threw up.

Thursday morning I woke up feeling pretty queasy, and I thought, "Oh no, please oh please don't let me get sick!" But sure enough, I felt worse and worse as the day progressed. Charlotte seemed to be doing better, however, although she only wanted to sleep snuggled up to me, which I happily allowed her to do since she doesn't sit still much these days. Stephen came home around 1:45 to take his lunch break, and it wasn't a moment too soon. I felt as though all the energy had been slowly draining from my body all day long, so the minute he got home, I went to bed and slept until he had to go back to work at 4:15 (he obviously took an extended lunch break, haha). Charlotte had done well the whole day, so we were hopeful she'd be able to go to daycare. I continued to feel poorly and ended up going to sleep at 8:30.

Around 11:00 or 11:15 I awoke to the sounds of Charlotte crying screaming. Stephen got up to check on her, and after realizing that her screams had not quieted down after a few minutes, I pulled myself out of bed to see if I needed to help Stephen. He met me at the bedroom door and then promptly sat down on the floor, telling me he felt like he was going to pass out and that Charlotte had thrown up in her crib. I rushed to her and saw her covered in throw up and screaming in misery. I quickly picked her up and went to the guest bathroom, where I started the bath and then set her on the counter so I could wipe off her face while the tub filled.

The last thing I remember is reaching to get a washcloth.

Next thing I know, Stephen was gently shaking me and calling my name over and over. I looked around and found myself on the floor of the bathroom. I was completely confused, having no idea what had happened. Then I looked behind me and saw the hole in our bathroom wall.

 

Immediately I said, "What happened? Did I do that?" I was in complete disbelief, but Stephen told me he'd been lying on the floor by our bedroom when he heard a loud thump. He came into the bathroom to find me unresponsive and slumped against the wall. Later he said initially he didn't even realize that I had passed out but just though that I was resting for a minute, until I didn't respond to him calling my name. Then as he was talking to me, he started looking really pale and said he felt faint. We're both a little fuzzy on the details, but I think I told him to sit down. Meanwhile, at some point I realized that Charlotte remarkably ended up in the bathroom sink, when she could have easily crawled right off the edge of the bathroom counter! She had gotten over her initial displeasure and waved at me as I went to pick her up out of the sink and set her on the floor.

Then I realized that Stephen was being very still.

When I tried calling his name, I got no answer. I was freaking out at this point because his eyes were open but he was not responding, Charlotte was still covered in puke, and I still felt very lightheaded and had a throbbing headache. I had no idea what to do since it was approaching midnight at this point. Stephen eventually roused, but we were both practically incapacitated and just sat on the bathroom floor with Charlotte in between us, not knowing what we were going to do. I decided to call my parents, who live in Memphis (just an hour away from us). I'm sure I sounded barely comprehensible to them, but they told me to calm down and that they would be on their way as soon as they could but that I needed to call someone in Jackson in the meantime to come over and help. I called my wonderful friend and former college roommate, Marya, and she didn't hesitate to come over.

I'm so thankful that Marya was able to come and help because I have no idea what Stephen and I would have done. Charlotte still needed a bath, and her crib sheet needed to be changed, but neither of us had the energy for anything. I sent Stephen to bed, where he ended up emptying the contents of his stomach, and after Marya and I determined that I was not bleeding anywhere, I sat in the recliner while she took the sheets off the crib, started a load of laundry, got Charlotte bathed and changed into fresh pjs, and held her. She stayed with me until my parents arrived at 1:30. They watched Charlotte and eventually soothed her back to sleep. I think I fell asleep somewhere around 3:30 or 4:00.

Thus concluded the worst night I remember experiencing. There is nothing so terrible as having a sick child and then being incapable of caring for her. I am beyond grateful to God for protecting Charlotte when I passed out, and I am forever indebted to Marya for coming over at such a late hour. And my sweet, fabulous parents ended up staying until Saturday so they could help us with Charlotte. They put themselves at risk of getting sick because they love us. Just when I thought my parents couldn't be more awesome, they surprised me again. I am so blessed.

But I still have a hole in my bathroom wall.

Maybe She'll Inherit My Supreme Musical Ability

Charlotte's 9 month checkup went well! Here are her current stats:

Weight: 18 pounds, 14 ounces (I am sure it would have been more if she hadn't had the stomach virus last week)-50th percentile
Height: 28.5 inches-75th percentile
Head: 46 cm-90th percentile (I still maintain her large head contains a large genius brain)

And now for your viewing pleasure, a video in which Charlotte reacts to my beautifully operatic singing voice:





How cute is she??? (And please know I don't really sing like that.)

Charlotte at 9 Months

Is my baby really 3/4 of a year old?? Say it ain't so! When I look back at what Charlotte was up to just three months ago, I am amazed at how much babies learn in a short amount of time. At 6 months, Charlotte had just learned to sit unsupported. Now at 9 months, Charlotte:

• Crawls all over the place and can be quite fast. This development happened over Thanksgiving break. Before then she was mostly still army crawling with the occasional slow crawl thrown in. Then all of a sudden, she was on all fours and moving everywhere!
• Can pull herself up. She discovered this fun trick the weekend before Thanksgiving, and now she tries to pull up on anything she can put her hands on, including my pants legs and her toy bin and even the little reindeer I have in front of the Christmas tree. She's obviously still a bit unsteady on her feet, which has resulted in some tumbles. She usually recovers pretty quickly, however.   

   

• Can cruise while holding onto something, like the couch or her crib rails. 

• Has 4 teeth, and I just love her toothy grin! I think she must be working on some more because the drool is simply out of control.
• Squeals with delight whenever she gets near Bailey. Bailey just runs away. Char also gets super excited when she sees us, and now that she can crawl, she'll speed up to get to us.
• Loves to eat pretty much whatever we give her.
• Is eating some food that is not pureed, like bread and puffs and Cheerios and the occasional pieces of fruit or veggies that we happen to be eating. She even had a bit of turkey on Thanksgiving! It's so fun to watch her little mouth figure out how to eat these foods that don't just slide right down.
  
• Loves to clap and wave. Sometimes when we say hi, she claps instead of waves.
  
• Takes a bath without a baby bathtub. 

• Goes to bed around 6:30 and sleeps until 6 or 6:30 (or 7 if we're really lucky). She is great about going to sleep without a fight at night.  
• Is an unpredictable napper. Some days she'll have one short nap in the morning and then a two hour nap in the afternoon, other days she'll have 45-minute naps in the morning and afternoon, and other days she hardly naps at all.  She's never been a very reliable napper, and while she has improved considerably, I think she'd just prefer to be awake and not miss anything.

She has her 9 month checkup tomorrow, so I'll update with her stats then. I'm sure she weighs at least 20 pounds!  Here are some pictures I took yesterday to commemorate her 9 months of life!

And coming soon to the blog: the story of how this hole appeared in our bathroom. It's quite a story, let me tell ya.