book tag

I got tagged by Lindsay :)

The rules of the game:
1. Find the nearest book to you.
2. Name the book and author.
3. Turn to page 123.
4. Go to the fifth sentence on the page.
5. Copy out the next 3 sentences and post to your blog.
6. Tag three other people.

Book: The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11

Author: Lawrence Wright

"The heresy of takfir, or excommunication, has been a problem in Islam since its early days. In the mid seventh century a group known as the Kharijites revolted against the rule of Ali, the fourth caliph. The particular issue that triggered their rebellion was Ali's decision to compromise with a political opponent rather than to wage a fratricidal war."

Rob borrowed this book from a co-worker and I read it and now he is reading it. It sounds dry I guess, but is REALLY interesting.

So I guess I'm supposed to "tag" 3 people now... I choose Felicity, Tiffany and my mom.

healthy, happy and hungry

Charlotte had her four-month check-up with Dr. Vento today, and she is doing very well. She is now 25 inches long and weighs 15 pounds exactly. Rob and I had been wagering on her weight beforehand... yeah, we weren't even close! Anyway, we were glad to hear that all is well with her health and maybe this week we will venture into oatmeal and maybe even an exciting vegetable. Woo-hoo! :)

Okay, with that last sentence some of you probably re-affirmed that stay-at-home motherhood is definitely not for you, but I will have you know that this week I actually feel like I'm hitting my stride--- I'm finally starting to do those things that I said I was going to do "being home all day." I have been baking apple nut bread, taking Charlotte for walks in the stroller, scraping the textured junk off our bedroom ceiling (in prep for fresh paint) and I even returned to a quilt that I haven't worked on since about this time last year. Overall, I'm really enjoying having this time in my life to focus on being a wife and a mother. :)

Baby, you can drive my car

My family :)

We are livin' in a cereal world...

... and Charlotte is a cereal girl!

Okay, so I have no patience when it comes to fun things. :) I've been dying to let Charlotte try rice cereal for the first time, and since we were snowed in yesterday for Valentine's Day we decided to see how she liked it (even though I had previously said we'd wait until after her 4 month check-up next week.) Well Mikey, she likes it!

We used my mom's silver baby spoon for Charlotte's first bites just so we could tell her that she was fed with a silver spoon (clearly, the bowl we used is not so fancy.) ;)

"Mmmm... here Dad, let me help you with that."

106 candles!!!

That's how many should've been on this cake for Pam, Melissa and I to celebrate our birthdays together this year. Three was a much more manageable number. (All of our birthdays are within a month of each other.)

Happy birthday to Linda as well this week... Charlotte had to warm up to Pop-Pop a little bit, but he had her making faces and sticking her tongue out before too long.

Rob even took a few runs down the hill on a sled at the Haydt's.

It was great to see everyone and have a nice visit to PA... now you'll have to come visit us for a weekend sometime!

a week of firsts

This week has been very busy and exciting!

As previously mentioned, Rob & I went on our first BIG date since Charlotte was born...

I was so excited to see Wicked at the Hippodrome in Baltimore and also just to spend the evening with my handsome husband.

It was great to spend time with some of our old friends as well- like Owen and Laura... congrats to Laura & Peter on your engagement!

Also in the past few days,

*Charlotte has learned to roll from her tummy to her back. I'm afraid she's going to be mobile before we're ready for it... we better finish that childproofing stuff!

*I accidentally cut Charlotte's finger while trimming her nails. I realize it's about impossible to see in this picture, but it was traumatic- more for me than for her I think. She was over the pain fairly quickly but I made frantic phone calls to both my sister and Rob and apologised to Charlotte for about 24 hours afterward.

* And last, but definitely not least, Charlotte slept last night for SEVEN HOURS in a row!!! This makes for a very happy mommy.

In other news...

While we were being Wicked in Baltimore, Charlotte had a play date chez Hancock...

http://nathanielandfelicity.blogspot.com/2007/01/baby-test-drive.html

1-2-3 months old!

Yeah, sometimes we aren't happy about getting older either... but we sure are enjoying all of the expressions that Charlotte makes now! Whenever she gets that lower lip WAY out there it just makes Rob and I laugh- which I'm sure is not the desired effect, but oh well.

Charlotte is generally a very happy girl these days- although she seems to spend a lot of time thinking about things and studying people's faces. She loves to show us how strong she is- standing (with our support) or lifting her head up when she's lying down on her back. And I suspect she is starting to teethe, as she chews on everything she can get her hands on.

Happy Birthday little girl! :)

Charlotte, giving moral support

...while Mom does Tae-bo.

update

Charlotte has fully recovered from her illness, yay!! Since she is a well baby again, she finally had her two month check-up and shots this week. She is 12 weeks old today and weighs 11 lbs 10 oz and is 24 in. long. She'd also like to show you some of the neat things she's learning to do...

This is Charlotte doing yoga- her cobra pose is awesome.

She likes to talk to her friend Lambert while she exercises.

She has come up with her own original method of using a pacifier- apparently it's very soothing to hold onto the handle while you suck on your hand. (We just love those big brown eyes!)

There's no place like home!

Well, what a week.

On Monday we had planned to go to the Spiveys' to watch football, but Charlotte had been fighting this nasty cold since Saturday and we didn't want to get Josh sick, so we decided to stay home. That was a good decision! Charlotte got much worse on Monday evening and it became clear that she was having a tough time breathing, so Rob gave her a blessing and I called the doctor's office. I left a message and the on-call physician called me right back and told me to take her to the hospital right away, which we did.

The emergency room was amazingly empty for New Year's Day we thought, and we were able to be seen right away. They determined that Charlotte had RSV (http://www.rsvinfo.com/) which is basically a common cold that in an infant has attacked the lungs and made a great big mess since they are still developing. They gave Charlotte 3 "breathing treatments" but she still wasn't getting enough oxygen so they admitted her around 2 am Tuesday. We just got home from the hospital at 6 pm today.

While at the hospital, Charlotte had an IV and oxygen and received breathing treatments (Albuturol) and steroids periodically. She was a trooper! She smiled at the doctors and nurses and managed to sleep a little bit in the crib there- but definitely preferred to be held. She also gave both Rob and I nasty colds- but oh well. We are just glad that she is well enough to be home now and that we get to sleep in our own beds. :)

Here is Rob giving her a breathing treatment at home tonight...



Anyway, we hope that you are all well and had a very happy New Year! Kris & Lindsay- we will get together someday! And Linda- we are glad to hear that you are home from the hospital as well- take care of yourself!

Christmas in Dixie

We had a great time spending Christmas this year with the Andersons in Georgia! It was so nice to get to visit with all of Rob's family and for all of them to meet Charlotte.

There was much watching of movies, and playing of games, and singing around the piano, and yummy foods- as we expected. And Charlotte was a great traveller- which we certainly did not expect. She slept the whole way home- from the ride to the airport in Atlanta to the baggage claim in Baltimore... of course, then she was wide awake until midnight, but that's alright. ;)

We went for a long walk with Ally and her kids (+ 1 neighbor) on Saturday. L to R - Joseph (who dressed himself), Hailey (the neighbor), Savannah, Elizabeth and Charlotte.

3 adults, 3 strollers, 5 kids under the age of 4. It went amazingly well.

A family picture at the park.

The Anderson Family Singers!

Rachel, Becca (Tom's wife), Tom, Mom and Rob singing Christmas carols around the piano.

2 months old today

Happy Birthday to our baby girl! ;)

Yesterday I thought that Charlotte was sick. She was just so mellow- nothing upset her all day- also nothing was making her smile. It was just too weird. So I took her temperature with the ear thermometer and it said 98.6... now, I could've sworn that I was told to add a degree to whatever that thing said, so then I was convinced she was sick. I decided to take her temp again with the rectal thermometer just to make sure before I called the doctor and sure enough it said 99.6.

So I called the doctor and they told me to monitor it and call back if it went up. Sure enough, 2 hours later I got 99.9 on the rectal thermometer (I also got pooped on, which was delightful) and we made an appointment to have her looked over.

We met with the nurse practitioner- Rochelle- and she said that Charlotte was fine... no fever, no signs of illness, etc. Also she informed me that 99.6 is NORMAL when taken rectally. Why didn't anyone tell me that before?? So I felt like a goober... but at least we got to find out that Charlotte now weighs 11 lbs exactly and she is 23 in. long. Oh, and she has a clean bill of health for our trip to GA. :)

1 week until Christmas!

On Saturday we went to the Palmer's house for their Christmas party. It was nice to see all of my family again before Christmas. Oh and Melissa, the moldy ham was great- I'm so glad we stayed until it was done cooking- it made a great dessert. Hee hee.

(Info on "country hams" for the uninitiated can be found here- http://ces.ca.uky.edu/lyon/fcs/Cooking%20a%20Country%20Ham.htm and it wasn't the ham she had ordered but they cooked it like a pro.)

Anyway, we will be in Georgia for the big day and we can't wait for Charlotte to meet all of her Anderson family and cousins! We'll definitely have photos to share when we get back home.

We have certainly been feeling blessed to have so many wonderful friends and family to share laughter and tears with during this season of love and giving.

We wish you all a very merry Christmas.

Rob, Julie & Charlotte

2 weeks until Christmas!

This past weekend we had some friends over to celebrate the upcoming holiday and enjoy their good company. Charlotte and Josh are finally starting to recognize one another's existence. They even tolerated their moms propping them up on the couch to take a picture of them in their cute holiday clothes. ;) We can't wait until they are big enough to play together!

a day in the life... part 1

Several people have asked me how I like being a stay-at-home mom, and I tell them how I really do love it... then they ask me what I do all day, and I tend to draw a blank. Although I feel like I am always busy. So today I thought I would photo-document our morning. When I have more time another day I'll do our afternoon and maybe our evening too. :)

This morning after Rob left for the vanpool (5:30 am), Charlotte awoke in her crib- she was not this happy, but it didn't occur to me until later in the morning to do this little project. She has only been sleeping in the crib for about a week now, and last night was the first time I was able to lie her down awake and have her fall asleep on her own without major screaming or crying! Yay, Charlotte!!!

After I got her up and changed her diaper, we snuggled up in bed, fed her some breakfast and slept for a while longer. She woke up again around 8:15 and I fed her some more breakfast before heading off to take a shower.

Despite playing music for her and setting her up on her "activity boppy," she never likes when I go to take a shower. This morning she seemed to quiet down once I left the room though, so I think this is more of a show than real anxiety at this point... it's nice to know she misses me! :)

Once I am all ready for the day we hang out in the bedroom for a while and play with her toys. This bumblebee is her favorite thing to look at right now. She tries to reach for it but hasn't had much success yet in hanging on. Some days I spend an hour with her like this, just talking and looking at different objects.

Eventually it's time to get Charlotte ready for the day- today that happened around 10:30. Here she is all dressed and cleaned up and ready to go! The cell-phone is next to her because we had just finished chatting with Rob.

Next we headed downstairs and looked at the Christmas tree for a while... of course she decided to ignore it as soon as I was ready to take a picture. Oh well.

Then we sat down on the couch and thought deep thoughts and had a meaningful conversation. Charlotte is a VERY good listener. For example, I told her some of the options for dinner tonight and she responded by grunting and then tipping over to emphasize her point. All that talk about dinner made Charlotte hungry for lunch so I fed her again after which she promptly fell asleep.

12 noon and it is naptime in the swing. This is the time of day that I do other things like laundry, dishes, eating food for myself and oh yeah... blogging. :)

the sweetest thing

Charlotte enjoys a little U2...

Thanksgiving weekend

In Pennsylvania...

Cousins Connor and Leah enjoying the newest addition to the family. Leah is of course flashing her best Hollywood smile at the camera.

We visited lots of friends and family over the weekend; Charlotte got to meet her Grandpa Kaufman for the first time. Charlotte was five weeks old on Turkey Day! At her last appointment, she weighed 9 lbs, 5 oz, and was 22 inches long. She is growing so fast!

Saturday night, we had our first date sans bébé. Aunt Pam babysat the Charlotte while we went to see the new Bond flick in Lehighton.

our growing girl

Well, Charlotte was supposed to have her 1 month check-up today- but mom goofed on the appointment time so we had to reschedule for Wednesday. We'll let you know next week how it goes but in the meantime I thought we'd share some of Charlotte's current tastes. It's fun to see her personality developing more each day... and, okay, so yeah, maybe we spoil her... a little. ;)

Likes:
Snuggling
Having her diaper off
Bath time
Being tickled under her chin
Tummy time
Swinging
Reading the Economist on the couch with daddy

Dislikes:
Lying down alone
Gas pain
Being tickled on her feet
Getting in her carseat
Being told she has to wait for anything

It's hard to catch her smiles on film- I just missed this one!

as promised...

Here are a few pictures from last weekend.

Life as art

Julie's mom

Selves-portrait

At rest

time flies

Wow it's been almost a week since we posted! Charlotte is obviously keeping us quite busy with all of the usual baby activities... mainly eating, sleeping, burping, and pooping. To make things more interesting (you know us, always looking for a challenge) I managed to break my big toe last Wednesday going down the basement stairs. Luckily for us, Mom Anderson flew in on Thursday and has been a HUGE help to Rob and I the past several days. We will definitely miss her when she flies home.

Additionally, we had LOTS of visitors this weekend. Mom Kaufman, Aunt Dot, Haydts, and Palmers were here on Saturday to visit and Sunday for Charlotte's baby blessing at church. It was a lot of fun to see so much of our family- but exhausting as well. ;) Rob gave Charlotte a beautiful blessing and we were glad to have a few of our friends there for that as well (thank you!- you know who you are!)

We'll post pictures from this weekend as soon as we get them loaded onto the computer. (But no worries- we won't post any of my nasty foot.)