Oh yea! Charley met Paula Deen y'all

Mommy :the web and Charley the Itsy Bitsy Spider

1st Christmas

Me and Uncle Dusty before I left for my 1st Halloween
8 months old

A few pics leading up to now

My little Pumpkin

My 6 month photo shoot with Nina and Maw Bear

So fresh and so clean

Cuddling with my Raffie

First time eating blueberries and I loved it!

Charley speaks Chinese

Funny story! During Thanksgiving, my dad was making jokes about how he can translate Charley's "CHINESE". He kept saying she was calling him grandfather and that they were having very intelligent conversations. Well fast forward to that Sunday and she really was saying grandfather in Chinese. Let me explain. Every once in a while, I let her watch Ni Hoa Kai Lan (spelling?) a Chinese version of Dora. Kai lan calls her grandfather (a regular on the show) yeah yeah. On this Sunday night and ever since then, Charley has made this word (sound) part of her vocabulary. I explained the story to my Dad and he just said " I've been trying to tell y'all that!" Funny guy. He love it of course even if she probably has no clue what it means.

Lots of Catching Up to Do

Well, I finally worked blogging into my schedule. Charley has been growing like a little weed. She is more and more fun every day. I haven't been the best at documenting all of her accomplishments, so I must document them here. At seven months my little girl decided to sit up on her own. I was playing with her, went to pick something up, and when I returned she was in a straddle split sitting up. It didn't hit me at first that she was sitting. I was excited about the straddle. Later that week while taking family pictures, she decided to say MAMA. This was 2 months after blarring DADADADADADADA! every day. I was very excited. (However,I am yet to hear it again.). Also on the Saturday of this particular week in November, she raised her arms in the touchdown signal after being prompted with "TOUCHDOWN YaaaH"! Her dad loves this little party trick;) The next mini milestone for my "I'm going to go at MY pace" baby girl was holding her bottle. This step has been a little hard for me because I love feeding her so much. And last but not least, she is on the move. SHe started to crawl (scoot) Monday, Dec. 14th and is already getting around at about 2 feet per 15 minutes or so. She alot of chunk to move around I guess. My goal for this blog is to keep my friends and family updated and to have a place to document Charley's life!

So Much to Say

Okay. So, so much has happened in the past 2 months. I have gotten really busy and just finding the time to blog. Since school started the first week of July, I have experienced some really emotional days. The first one was actually leaving Charley for more than the previous 2 hour time span, the second came a little later and it was dealing with no longer being able to nurse my baby girl ( I think I am still having a few issues with that one), and the third was missing her rolling over for the first time :(. All of these events took me on a major roller coaster ride of emotions. I have since come to terms with working, and I have seen her roll over a couple of times. I have also still been able to be a part of other first. Like her first time eating cereal, peas, and zucchini, or her first time sleeping the entire night in her crib. Another major event that took place was Mommy and Daddy's first night on the town. On August 21st, I had my 10 year class reunion. We, of course, couldn't take Charley with us so we arranged for her Nina to keep her. I had to have a glass of wine just to leave the house. 6 glasses, a fun time on the dance floor, and 2 fabulous IHOP pancakes later, we returned home to a beautiful sleeping baby. She was awesome. She slept through the night, woke up around 9 for a bottle, and was out again until 12. She must have known Mommy had a little too much fun ;) These last 2 months of emotional ups and downs, were unavoidable, and I have survived.

Charley's trip of visiting!

This past Monday, Josh and I took Charley on a trip to Baton Rouge full of meetings with new people and a few of oldies but goodies! We started the first night stay with a trip to her Mimi and Pop's house (Josh's parents). Charley got to see her great grandmaw and grandpaw Guidry and two of her great aunts. The next day we slept in and had lunch with Mimi in town. We continued on from Plaquemine to Brusly to meet Aunt Miss America (Jennifer) at her pageant dress shop. This was so much fun. Jennifer's mom, Mrs. Donna, took Charley around to feel the the sparkly dresses. We then headed to Baton Rouge to visit Nellie, Shammy, IE, Gabe, and Cameron. Aunt Elodie brought Charley more precious gifts. I loved everything and can't wait to put it all on her. That night we went out to dinner with Josh's friends from high school and Uncle Clinton. They thought she was great and we really enjoyed out time with them. We don't get to see them very often. And last but not least, we slept over at Aunt Jamie's apartment. It wonderful to hangout with Jamie and Drew. I hope we can do it again soon. On the way out of B.R. we went to Style Salon where Jamie works to meet everyone who have heard so much about Charley Bug. Our trip was full of visiting, and a bit tiring, but a fabulous time all around.

Sleepy baby girl!

My precious angel

Anyone want tickets to the gun show? Those morning volleyball workouts with mommy are paying off

So many milestones!

Over the past month of Charley's life she has met so many new milestones and I have been watching attentively for each one of them. Some bring tears to my eyes followed by a quick call to Josh and my mom, others send me running for the video camera. All, however, are so precious to me and I want to tattoo them in my brain forever! On June 8th she started putting her thumb in her mouth and just yesterday she decided she rathered her middle and ring finger. She began laughing out loud on June 10th, but this precious occurance only comes for the lucky. On June 14th Charley began swatting at my hair which soon turned into grabbing the monkey then lion on her bouncy seat. Just this past weekend she started petting and grabbing her dad, Uncle Dusty, and Uncle Rutley's faces. She rolled over one time but it was in my lumpy old bed. She took her first proffesional pictures on June 24th and they came out fabulous. And last but not least, she is starting to have cooing conversations. So much fun. Oh! We can't forget her pulling up into a sitting position while on Aunt J's lap! She's so advanced! LOL! New pics to come soon.

Begginings of a Volleyball star

At 8:00 o'clock this morning, I reported to my first day of volleyball workouts with Charley in tow. I was a little weary of how things would go since she seems to be going through a growth spurt and ate every 2 hours last night. I didn't think I would make it and hoped she would be the little angel she usually is. I guess I am sliding into the mommy role okay because it only took me about 5 minutes to get my energy boost and get dressed, fix a quick breakfast for myself, then feed Charley. Josh put us in the car and off we went to Charley's first day of "Big Girl Workouts". I placed Charley in the stroller, gathered all my gear, rounded up all my girls, and to the track we went. It took me a little while to gather my thoughts and get things going but I was soon back in the groove. The only big difference was last year I never changed a baby's diaper on the high jump mat. I think Charley enjoyed herself. She caught up on all the sleep we missed last night.

Retiring one of my favorite nightgowns

So in my premommy days, I would always find myself chuckling at new moms when they would look at a new baby and say "I remember when (insert baby name here) was that small. They grow up so fast". I would look at their 6 month old baby and think to myself; how dramatic. Well, I now know what they were talking about. Last night after bathing Charley Frances, I went to put one of my favorite nightgowns on her only to find it was rather snug. Over the past 2 weeks or so, I've come to notice many of her onsies and night gowns were getting a little short waisted and snug, but I think I was in denial. While I am excited about all the fun things that are around the corner with my little monkey, I wished there was a way to keep her a little baby girl forever. After fighting off a tear or two, I put her little nightgown on for the last time, ( without snapping the back) took a few pictures of her in it, and imagined all the fun things in store in our future. Only more of a reason to soak up every second with my Charley girl!

Mommy's Little Monkey

Daddy's Little Girl

Nanny Gina (NeeNaa)

Charley goes to the Beach.

On Sunday of Memorial Day weekend, Josh and I took Charley on her first trip to Grand Isle. She was absolutely amazing on the way up, during our stay,and on our way back. So, when we were invited to go back to the beach the following weekend, I couldn't turn it down. On Friday, May 29th I packed up my car with several changes of clothes, the pack-n-play, a bouncey seat, a pack of diapers, medicine just in case, bath stuff, oh and a few things for me too. This time I was traveling by myself and was a little nervous since Charley wants to nurse every 2 hours. However, I think she knows when we're going to the beach because once again she was amazing. I was even able to make our usual pre-baby pit stop at the Galliano Wal-Mart. The weekend with Noelle (Nellie), Sham,Aunt Elodie (Ayie), and the rest of the crew was very fun and relaxing. I wish Josh could have made it. I believe Charley will love the beach as much as her mommy does. I look forward to many more trips to many more beaches with her.