Gone Baby Gone

Charlotte is on the move. Go, Go, Go!!!! She is crawling all over the place. It has made life interesting. She wants to open everything and nothing below two feet is safe. She is pulling herself up too. She has a leapfrog learning table and she pulls herself up to standing while holding onto that. We walk over to Dave and Monya's at night and sit on the porch and talk, they have a cute little dog (Gracie) and Charlotte loves crawling after her. It is so funny. Gracie will play along with her game. They go back and forth across the porch. And Gracie runs up to her licks her face and turns around and waits for her at the other end.(Yeah I know dogs mouths are full of germs Blah Blah Blah). It is really cute. Then they share a Popsicle, not literally, but Monya feeds it to Charlotte and she drops most of it on the porch and Gracie cleans it up. Everything and anything she can get her hands on goes straight to her mouth. Speaking of mouth, she can now say Dada and Mama. Jim hasn't heard her say it yet because he is hauling sweet corn this week. He is going to be so happy to hear her say it. I think he was really hoping she would say Dada first, but I had an unfair advantage because I have been drilling Mama into her head since the day she was born. Today when I put her down for a nap, I went to check on her and she was sitting up in her crib and she was on the verve of standing. I am defiantly going to have to lower her crib again, I lower it once but I don't think it is low enough now. She is just growing so fast. I really can't believe that in roughly four months she will be a year old. Where has the time gone. I don't even remember what it was like to not have her. Things here have been so crazy lately. It seems there are not enough hours in a day. I have been going all week. Monday I was sick and Tuesday Jim came finally came. Wednesday we had Laurie and Herbie here for Dinner. That was nice. When Charlotte was first born we would have dinner with them every Wednesday, lately life has gotten in the way. Charlotte is scared of Herbie. I think it is his beard. It is funny and sad at the same time. He want so badly to hold and play with her but she doesn't want any part of even looking at him. She only seems to be afraid of two people. Herbie and Jim's mom. She will grow out of it soon. We don't see them as much as we use to so I think that may have a something to do with it. They are so good to Charlotte and to Jim and I. It was nice to have them over. Laurie bought Charlotte this really cute camouflage jumper. Jim thought it was great. I have a camo onsie that has ruffles on the butt. We are going to have her pictures take in it with Jim's camo bucket hat an one of his duck calls. He wants a picture like that for his wallet. Thursday, Friday, and Saturday I was at the store, and today I had to clean my dad's house, drop a highchair off in Poynette, Go Portage to get some pictures from my brother Pete. I have started doing a family tree scrapbook for Charlotte. All of the family has come together to share pictures, memories, and information. It is so great to look at pictures of my mom when she was little and of my grandma when she was younger. I am going to Poynette on Wednesday to start copying a family history book. I am really starting to get into finding out all I can about my family. I will post some pictures of the book and my mom tomorrow after I get them scanned onto my computer

What's in a Name...............

Well Charlotte has went crazy in the learning department this week. On Tuesday she decided it was time to utter her first word. It was of course Mama. I have been drilling it into her head for months. There were two things I wanted when I found out I was pregnant. First I wanted the baby to look like me (Check) Second I wanted it's first word to be Mama(Check). Now she can grow up to do whatever it is she wants to do. I really wanted to prove the "expert" wrong. Most people say that babies usually say Dada first because it is easier for them to say. Well take that experts!! I was so happy when she finally did it. Then she kept saying it and I got it on tape because I knew no one would believe me. The other thing she start is to crawl. She has been so close this past month that I knew it wouldn't be long. She started out crawling backwards so she could get into a sitting position from being on her belly. Then on Tuesday she was sitting outside and she had scooted herself to far away from one of her toy and she got into the crawling position and just started crawling forward. It was so amazing to watch her gain her Independence. She was so happy that she could actually move herself to where she wanted to go. It was pretty cool. Then Jim taught her to do "give me Five" She usually gives him 15 or 20 but she understands the concept. It is pretty cute. I am really hoping I can get the video of her saying mama to upload. I have a Sony Mini DVD camcorder but I can't get the video to upload to this site or you tube. It is driving me crazy. What good is this damn camcorder if I can't share my videos on the computer. I have been trying everything under the sun to get it to work. So I am hoping to get it posted.

The Goat Whisperer

Our neighbor "Big Steve" just bought two goats for his daughter Kimberly. Why he bought goats is a long story. Jim has wanted a goat for a long time, so Jim and Steve got talking one day and they decided it would be a good idea to get A goat. They decided a pygmy goat would be the best because it wouldn't get very big. Well as things progressed and they started talking to people who had goats or raised them for a living they found out that fainting goats would make better pets because they are more friendly and just have ab all around better temperament. The only down side is you have to have two goats other wise they will get depressed. Yes that's right depressed. Well Jim thought that was hilarious because Steve only wanted one goat. So Jim kept making fun of him that he was going to have a suicidal goat that would probably drowned itself in his bird bath. Well last Friday Steve brought home TWO goats. I guess he didn't want to take the chance of being responsible for his goat killing itself. The funny part is they are fainting goats. SO if you scare them they literal fall over and faint. They get stiff as a board and the look dead. It is hilarious. They are very cute. One is brown and white (Ace)the other is black and white.(Jackson).So I took Charlotte over to see them. She had a little bit of a puzzled look on her face. It was cute. So now we have The Krueger Family petting zoo next door. There is a two beer admission fee. It is funny because Steve has had every animal under the sun over there. Goats, Chicken, ducks, dogs, rabbits, a fox, guinea pig, and fish. Well this morning I was sitting outside playing with Charlotte on the lawn and every time she would let out a little scream the goats would call back to her. Neither her or the goats could figure out where the noise was coming from. It was pretty funny because they sounded exactly alike. So Charlotte has a new nickname The goat whisperer......

Roll on 18 Wheeler

Jim is hauling sweet corn this week. So he is going to be gone tonight through next Tuesday. I really miss him when he is gone. He usually come home and plays with Charlotte while I clean up and cook dinner. She loves playing with him. He also help with the baths. Tonight we had to go it alone. She loves taking a bath, and it is just so much easier if she takes a bath with either me or Jim. But it is harder when you don't have someone to come and get her out when she is done. Tonight when I went to put Charlotte to bed in her crib Jim had left her a note, it said "Charlotte Goodnight I love you Dad" I just love that he thinks of little things like that. He is such a good dad. He is always thinking of little things like that, that will put a smile on my face. I just love him so much.....

On another note the store has done really crappy this week. I think it is because this is the first week all the kids go back to school, but I sure hope it gets back to normal. It didn't even pay for me to drive over there the past two days. I only brought in 100 dollars for two days. That is really bad. I just hope this store works out. I think I will feel better once the loan is paid off. Right now I am making enough to cover all the expenses for the store with nothing extra. So once the loan is paid off it will be better. I am also running some ads in the paper. I know it is going to take time for people to know that I am there and build my customer base. So it continues. Some days I think I am absolutely insane for doing this with a new baby and everything that is going on in my life right. I guess only time will tell if this was the dumbest thing I have ever done. I just keep think of what my sister Cherie says "You only regret the things you haven't done." So I have taken those words to heart and hope for the best.

Running on Empty............

The past couple of days have been pretty crazy. Jim's mom has been in the hospital and she finally got out today. Then last night I get a call at 11:30 from my dad and he is in North Leeds and his truck stopped running. So thank god Jim was home because Charlotte was sleeping. So I had to go half way to Madison at 11:30 at night. What the hell is he doing going to Madison at 11:30 at night was all I could think. I guess it is his business.... I could have killed him though. Then this morning I had to take the neighbor's daughter to school at 7am. Then We had to take Jim's truck over to my dad so he could get his truck towed. Then Jim had to go and pick his mom up from the hospital. It has been go go go the past two days. I hate it because it throws Charlotte's schedule off and then she ends up cranky. I try to keep things pretty steady, so things run smoothly. Even with running the store I try to keep things in a orderly fashion. It drives me crazy. The other thing lately is Charlotte doesn't want to eat baby food. I don't understand what has changed. She use to polish off a full jar of baby food and now she only wants things she can do herself. She is still eating some baby food, but no where near what she use to. I know she is eating enough with all the bottles and regular food she is getting but is it weird she isn't eating baby food? When she was cutting her first two teeth she didn't want to eat and I understood that but she isn't getting any teeth in right now. So what is the deal? I guess I will ask at her next check up.