Family Musings

I have been asked a lot when I am going to start Charlotte on solid food. I’ve made it clear that I am going to wait until she is at least 6 months old and begins to show interest. Many moms ask why they should delay solids until 6 months? Interest: It seems their baby is interested in food and that is one of the cues given on Baby Center. However, as one poster noted, our babies are also interested in the watching us type and fold laundry. Does that mean they are ready for these tasks? No. Babies have a natural curiosity about everything going on around them. This curiosity is what helps their brains to grow and develop. If we take away their best source of nutrition, we may impede their development. Sleeping: So, let’s give the baby solid food so we can get more sleep? That seems awfully selfish to me. Setting aside the single mom who has to work 2 jobs to make ends meet (since that is the exception, not the norm), the vast majority of us can deal with waking every 3-4 hours to nurs...

Yeah, I know... I'm a dork. I'm on my laptop on Christmas day. But that's okay... I'm not being sacrilegious or anything. We celebrated the REAL holiday, the birthday of Jesus, yesterday. Today was about giving gifts to family members so it is okay for me to be on the computer. They are watching the movie Cars . I thought I'd share some pictures from our celebrations. The collage we put together for Nana, Charlotte's grandmother on her father's side. We had lunch with her on Friday. Bruce got very excited over his big gift from me - a new camera! I threw him off so that he wouldn't expect it by dropping hints that I had just been too busy with Charlotte and work to find time to order it for him. He wanted the Canon A540 to replace his A80 which doesn't work anymore. We opened gifts with my family on Saturday morning. On Saturday, Charlotte got pooped out from all of the excitement. Isn't it cute how her legs got folded over while she slept? 2 ni...

I am sure most everyone has seen this by now, but it is too great to not share with the last few who haven't. Plus, I want to be able to find it again for myself, so why not archive it in my blog? My family and I are celebrating the birth of Jesus today by going to a candlelight service tonight and having a birthday party for Jesus. I am baking an angel food cake (devil's chocolate cake just didn't seem right!) right now. We'll get to enjoy it along with a reading of the Christmas story later tonight. I can't wait! Tomorrow, we will celebrate the secular holiday with gift-giving to one another and the reading of The Legend of St. Nicholas . It tells the story of the real St. Nick in a way that children can relate to. I know Charlotte isn't old enough to appreciate the story just yet, but we want to begin our family's Christmas traditions this year so they become second nature in years to come. Additionally, we really want to make the focus more on the birthd...

You are probably wondering why my post is titled 'Thanksgiving.' Well, you see, things got a little busy and either Charlotte or I have been sick for the last couple of weeks so I only realized last night that I never posted any Thanksgiving pictures. We spent the weekend at my brothers who, as I did mention here , hosted a wonderful dinner with his wife Michelle. [pause to go search for Thanksgiving pictures] Umm... I don't have any! How is it possible that I didn't take any pictures all weekend? I have no idea. If I had taken them, they would be on my laptop, but there aren't any. Oh my... I've got baby brain bad! Oh well... I guess I'll just share some pictures from last weekend. Charlotte and I went with my mom to St. Petersburg to visit her family. Charlotte had not had a chance to meet her Great-Grandfather or her Aunt Terry and the stars finally aligned to make it possible. Here is Great-Grandpa holding Charlotte like an old pro. She is the first gre...

Merry Christmas! (click above to view our Christ-mas card)

Isn't she adorable... even without pants?!

I finally had a chance today to put up some Christmas decorations. I hadn't really planned on putting any up since we won't actually be here on Christmas day, but I changed my mind... clearly. :-) This is my nativity set. It was a gift from my parents several years ago. They knew how much I admired a similar one my mom had so they got me my own. Hopefully I will have it for a long time and be able to pass it on to one of my children. There are 2 angels that go with the set but I don't have room on top of my entertainment center for them too. Yes, it is a pretty large set. It takes up 3 large boxes! I love nativities and have a few around the house. I'll try to take more pictures to share with you in the next week or so. I am also missing a box of nativities (I had several) and hopefully I will find them soon! Here is Charlotte's first Christmas ornament. It is, of course, a Hallmark ornament. They make the best ones, don't they? Since I am not putting up a tree ...