Beach Baby

It's time for summer vacation. Charles and I visited my Grandma Wall in Oregon. We drove to Oklahoma City to fly out with Uncle Brian and Aunt Heather. The flights were uneventful and there was little turbulence. Charles decided it was time to dirty a diaper the minute we boarded the plane in Oklahoma City.

We spent a few days in Dallas. The Body Worlds 3 exhibit was at OMSI (Oregon Museum of Science and Industry www.omsi.org). Everyone raves about it and with Brian & Heather working in the medical field it was a must-see. A European scientist discovered a way to preserve bodies through a technique called plastinization. You MUST check out this link, the bodies are amazing http://www.omsi.edu/visit/featured/bodyworlds/index.cfm. We hit the outlet mall on the way home and enjoyed dinner with our cousins and their families.

The next morning we packed up the rented mini van (now I really want a van) and headed for the beach. The first two days were rainy so we did indoor activities--outlet mall shopping and eating out. We found a few bargains and of course Christy and I ended up buying two pairs of capris each--we'll have two pairs of matching pants.

Charles wasn't too sure about the sand. He liked feeling the texture between his fingers. He also liked trying all the new foods--clam chowder, crab cakes, Tillamook ice cream... He's been awake in the night several nights in a row. Last night he was up more than he slept. He's definitely teething, but he also has been eating different foods and drinking different water. I think his system is off. I don't think his tummy is used to all this new, rich food.

We had our first dip in the pool. At first he wasn't sure and then he decided he did NOT like the water. We tried again the next night and Charles was a little less upset. The third time is the charm, he was actually laughing in the water. Christy and I got him to kick his legs and he even did it on his own.

Charles and I are ready to be home, see Daddy, sleep in our own beds, and return to our "normal" schedule. Our normal schedule, including bed times and nap times, is flexible but the routine is consistent. That doesn't work on vacation. We can't let Charles cry himself to sleep when we're in a hotel and surrounded with rooms full of people trying to sleep.

The weather has been beautiful. Grandpa, Uncle Brian, and Aunt Christy went salmon fishing and came home with two fish. The man cleaning Brian's fish said it was the biggest he had seen all season. The water was calm, but Christy still lost a battle with sea sickness!!! One day we even saw a whale just off the rocks in Depoe Bay. It jumped out of the water head first.

We had a bond fire and it was even warm enough to be on the beach without a sweatshirt. We grilled hot dogs (and argued which is better-- Hebrew Nationals or Nathan's) over a bond fire. Charles and I headed to bed but the rest of the group sat around for quite a while. Just as they were going to put out the fire, a group came and asked if they could have it. They had been watching us from the restaurant that overlooks the ocean. We decided our hot dogs were better than their expensive meal.

Fall Down, Go Boom

Charles has learned to get around--fast. The other day he got to the dog's water bowl (from the middle of the living room to the foyer) while I was in the bathroom. It wasn't the first time. It's since been moved to the basement!

Wednesday morning I go to a women's Bible study at church and Charles plays in the nursery. When I came to pick him up he was waiting in the arms of the nursery worker with a bright purple goose egg above his right eye.

Evidently he got away from them too and had fallen and was crying before they knew he was gone. I think there are at least 4 kids about his age so that room is busy. Maybe now he'll graduate to the next room up! Sunday I was talking Fran, the woman in charge of the nursery, about if he should be moved up. It gets complicated because one kid moves up it creates a domino affect. A kid from the class he's moving into has to move up to make room and it continues up through the ranks.

Back to the boo boo...he was pretty crabby when I picked him up, but I carry Tylenol in the diaper bag. He got a dose of that before we left and was in good spirits the rest of the afternoon. We had to deliver something to Grandma & Grandpa over their lunch breaks and they were shocked to see the bump. Of course Grandma worries a little too much, and I probably don't worry quite enough.

His head is healing quickly, hopefully it will be about gone when we get to Oregon and see all the aunts, uncles, cousins, and Great Grandma. I did hear his cousin Emma will have a matching bump since she fell outside one evening this week.

Charles got to play in the kitchen while I made some banana bread. I pulled out some of my aluminum bowls and lids to keep him out of trouble. It worked, but just long enough to snap some pictures!

In addition to a bump Charles has some "cradle cap." I rubbed some baby oil on his head which made his hair a greasy mess. On the bright side, it's working and he has a funny little spiky hairdo, a little like Daddy's!

Project--Bookshelves

Russell just finished our second set of bookshelves. These are in our basement and will house our HUGE collection of books.

We've accumulated so many books between college, graduate school, and attending the Bookstore Convention with Mom & Dad Sharp.

Our storage room floor is full of boxes of books from "the convention." I told Russell we couldn't go to another convention until we got bookshelves to store our library. We ended up going two more times--3 total. We're sad we didn't get to go last year or this year, we've got too much going on. Maybe a few years from now we can go again. It's so much fun and it really keeps us up-to-date on what's going on in the Christian publishing and music worlds.

Back to the bookshelves--Russell did a great job but couldn't have done it without his brother Randy. The worked really hard over Christmas break and then Russell was able to finish them up between the spring and summer semesters.

We still need a few pieces of hardware so we can add the last few shelves. Each one has 5 shelves. We're having a dilemma about what to put on the shelves that are within Charles' reach. We don't want anything ruined--Charles' favorite thing is to rip paper to shreds.

We've had many inquiries--Russell is not building anything for anyone or taking any orders (except mine) until he's done with his Master's Degree!

Mobility

Monday Charles was glad to be home. He ended up in the dining room while Russell and I measured a wall--all of a sudden we turned around and he was under the table and standing at a chair. Little did we know that was foreshadowing what was to come later in the day!


Charles was exhausted from the trip. So exhausted in fact, that he fell asleep sitting in his crib. I can't believe he didn't wake up after the photo, or that he slept so long in that position. Later in the week I found him sleeping in the same position.





Monday Russell saw Charles crawl about 3 steps while I was grocery shopping. Later that evening Grandma and Aunt Christy saw him take about the same number of "steps."


Charles goes to Grandma's house on Monday nights while Russell is in class and while I'm giving my Weight Watchers lecture. This week was an eventful evening. Stephanie, Paul, Brooeklyn, PJ, Mason, Carissa, Elena, and Aunt Christy were all at Grandma's house for dinner. Rumor has it that Charles was the life of the party. He laughed and enjoyed watching the craziness and all the activity--there's lots of activity with Brookeyn--age 10; Paul IV (PJ)--age 5; and Elena--age 21 months.

Since Memorial Day Charles has been "almost" crawling. Tuesday there was no almost, no few steps like on Monday--it was full blown moving around the house.

And, to add fuel to the fire, he pulls up and stands next to anything he can find. Basically, crawling is just a means to get to a place where he can stand.

He's already crusin' around the furniture. From the fireplace to the ash bucket to the end table to the couch (with Russell's knees for help) and to the coffee table. I left the room only to return to find my drink spilled all over the coffee table. Lillie, of course, was there to help clean up the mess even before I discovered what happened.

This weekend Charles found his way to the dishwasher and decided to pull out some dirty dishes. I was able to distract him with a trip to look out the back door. I doubt it will work a second time.

Saturday evening we stopped at Grandpa and Grandma's to give Russell a hair cut (it is so much easier to do it on a floor without carpet!). As we were sitting in the family room and kitchen we noticed Charles heading for the steps. Grandpa and Grandma's family room is sunken with two steps the width of the room. He got to the first one and tried to use it to push himself to a standing position. It was too low and didn't work. So...he put his hands on the top step. A few seconds later the knee went on the step, followed by the other knee. Before we knew it he was up both steps. It wasn't a fluke, he did it twice and again this evening when we were there celebrating Father's Day.

My life is now much more complicated. Like this afternoon when he pulled the dogs' water bowl on to the carpet, splashed around in it, then preceded to dump it on himself and all over the floor. I've got my work cut out for me. We've got to get the house baby proofed ASAP. And, we must invest in at least one more gate, if not two.

Texas Wedding

We've been busy. Last Thursday we drove to Oklahoma City on our way to Post, TX for Russell's cousin Amy's wedding.

Post, TX was in the middle of nowhere, for those of you who know Texas geography it's about 30-45 minutes south of Lubbock. We had to drive two-lane roads for a good portion of the trip.

Thankfully we had a good drive. Charles was okay in the car seat for most of the drive. It helped breaking up the trip into two legs. From Wichita to OKC is about 3 hours and from there to Post was about another 6 hours.

Saturday after the wedding we headed back to Uncle Brian and Aunt Heather's so we could be home on Sunday. It was Brian's birthday, so it was nice to see him.

Sunday we met Russ' friend, Kris Daily for lunch in Oklahoma City. He was in Wichita at a wedding at our church and stayed at our house. I guess June is the time for weddings. We were disappointed we weren't home to entertain him, but we were glad we got to connect. Kris was Russell's roommate for two summers. Kris had a summer internship at Cessna while he was in college.

I've included some photos from the weekend. Charles was excited to get out of the car and play in our hotel room, especially with a "new" toy from Grandpa & Grandma Sharp. Charles loves to sit on your shoulders, so Russell came up behind Uncle Randy and put Charles on Randy's shoulders. Charles was very curious about the way Randy's hair felt.

There is a picture of the whole Norman clan as well as one of the three of us. Of course we didn't take any pictures of us all dressed up, so I just cropped one so it was the three of us. Aunt Kim was excited to play with Charles while I ate lunch.

We got home Sunday evening around 5pm. Unfortunately we didn't get to stop and see Grandma Heusel on our way home. We weren't sure when we would be heading home so we called her from the road.

Grandma is always busy, so of course she wasn't home to get our call. I predicted she was probably at some kind of shower at the church--later that evening we got a message from her and sure enough, she was at a shower! It seems like summer is always full of both bridal and baby showers.

Monday Russell was home to recuperate from the weekend. There are always lots of chores to catch up on, even when it's a quick trip. I was able to get to Wal-Mart without having to take Charles along. It made the trip so much quicker and easier.

Russell had class and I had to teach my Monday night Weight Watcher's class. The day slipped away quickly and it was time for our afternoon and evening responsibilities.

Updated Photos

Russell & I went to the dermatologist today. I have one mole they want to check in 6 months. They did a scraping of Russell's hand and looked at it under the microscope. They are trying to determine if it's a fungus or psoriasis. It didn't look like a fungus. They will try to grow it in a test tube over the next 6 weeks which will give a definitive answer as to whether or not it is a fungus. I think we're praying it's a fungus because that can be treated with medicine and cleared up for good. Psoriasis, however, is just something that has to be managed and will never go away.

All I could think about when the PA was talking about a fungus was my cousin Victor, age 3, talking about the "humongous fungus" that was growing in his front yard.

Charles had a fever again today--101.3. Of course he was napping when it was time to leave for the doctor and was fussy the entire time. He was better when we got home and was good while we ate our Friday night pizza. I sure hope it's teething and it's not a cold. It's hard to know when the symptoms are so similar.

Now for some much-awaited photos...

From our 9 month photo shoot...I don't know why the photographer at JC Penny can't get good grins like these. Maybe because Russell wasn't there to make funny faces. For some reason Charles thinks his Daddy is hilarious!

Some of you may not have seen our nursery. We painted the walls "celery" and put brown & white stripes on one wall to coordinate with the Amy Coe bedding I got at Target. It turned out looking really good in spite of some measuring mishaps. With the crib in front of it, I get the feeling Charles is in "baby jail!"

You can see his five teeth in these pictures. He now has six, another one on the top right has broken through the skin. We'll see what comes next. He needs some more on the bottom.

Here are some pictures of him from last night. He was dozing off during dinner. I was afraid to put him to bed at 6:30 for fear he'd wake up in the middle of the night like it was morning.

I think these may be a little fuzzy, that always seems to happen to pictures I take in the kitchen. It's either the lighting or the fact that he's wiggling. Maybe it's just the photographer!

Charles has to watch what's going on. Tonight there were lots of people in the restaurant and he was watching everyone. Sometimes I think he's too alert to his surroundings--like when they distract him from what he's supposed to be doing. For example, watching Casey, Lillie, or Daddy when he should be eating.