A Growing Girl

Good morning all! My mom took these pictures over the weekend. The weather has been beautiful here! People keep talking about this record-cold winter we've had, but I don't see it. I feel like I've been waiting for winter to get here, since we've all been in short sleeves every other week (or so it seems anyway). We went to Rome for a long weekend, and had a great time. We spent some time walking around our soon-to-be new neighborhood and met a couple of our neighbors. They seem very nice, and there seem to be a good many kids on our street, so I'm extra excited!

Christa is now cutting her top teeth. She had a rough weekend getting one of them through, but she's been fine since then. She is sitting up like a pro, now and pulling her legs up when she's on her tummy. Apparently, all you have to do to get your kid moving on the milestones is blog about it :) I put away her boppy last night (sniff, sniff), and Cline lowered her crib mattress.

Cline's new rotation isn't too bad so far. He's got most of the stuff he's supposed to do scheduled, and it worked out at convenient times. They may add a project here or a lecture there, but at least he doesn't have to work nights or weekends for the month! We're looking forward to another trip to Rome and a few days in Hilton Head at the end of the month!

Well, that's all of our news for now. We're going to an Easter Egg hunt on Saturday morning, so if I get some good pictures, I'll post them over the weekend. Speaking of Easter, has anyone else started looking for an Easter outfit? I have about 4 to choose from for Christa, but couldn't find a single thing for myself when I went to look yesterday. The only dresses I could find were these silky, flowy dresses with a lot of black and wild patterns - the ones like you see on What Not to Wear. I got one, because I really liked the dress, and it was cheap ($22 at Ross; then I saw virtually the exact same one at Macy's for $98). But I'm not convinced it's Easter appropriate because it's black and white and blue (a darker blue, not a pastel blue). All I could figure is that since Easter is so early this year, the Spring lines haven't caught up yet?? Or everyone else is going to be wearing these darker dresses since that's the style this year?? Or that was the style in the fall and winter, and I'm going to look like an idiot wearing it in the spring??

Christa is 8 Months!!

Here are the promised pictures! Sorry for the delay - we had a busy day, and the computer wasn't cooperating earlier. I had a girlfriend over this evening to watch a chick flick and didn't want to be rude by messing with it right then. Apologies! But I'm thoroughly touched that two of you were interested enough in my daughter to check this site AND leave a message scolding my tardiness - thanks!

(This one is actually from yesterday, but I liked it for today's posting anyway.)

We had a great day. It was Resident Day, so we were treated to free lunch at Wild Wings, and Cline had a few extra hours off in the afternoon. We wore little Christa out today. She only got a 20 minute nap this morning due to us having to leave for lunch, so she had long, frequent naps this afternoon. I can't believe how fast she's growing! We're loving every stage.

Our Week in Quiz Form

***Note: while reading the following questions and answers, please recognize that some of the statements are "slightly" exaggerated for humor.... other statements are minimized so that I seem less crazy than I actually am***

1. Your taxes come back and GOOD NEWS - you're getting a bigger refund than you expected. You:
a. make arrangements to invest the money in a solid CD
b. set the money aside to pay the upcoming mortgage on your new house during the month and a half you won't have any income due to your husband's job change
c. use the money to pay the upcoming credit card bill that will be higher than normal due to your addiction to paying other people to take pictures of your child
d. research charities that could use the extra dollars
e. think to yourself, "ehhh.. lets forget about our ability to pay our bills this month" and proceed to go eat dinner at the Japanese steakhouse

answer: e

2. Your husband is due for a "vacation month" in his rigorous and grueling residency for the month of March. What was supposed to be a relaxed "do as much or as little as you want to" experience is now going to require 90 plus hours of activities. You learn this information 3 days prior to the rotation beginning. Your response is:
a. realize that the situation stinks, but acknowledge that it probably is a good educational opportunity and might provide some needed skills during your husband's last few months of formal training
b. prayerfully consider your negative attitude about this last minute change of plans and focus on the potential benefits
c. respectfully admit that many of these "new" activities have actually been a requirement all along, and the fact that they weren't enforced before now does not change the fact that the right and responsible thing to do is to cheerfully complete the assigned tasks
d. mentally reflect on how lucky you and your husband are to have leaders who are so involved with the quality of your husband's education that they are willing to spend all of their own, personal, spare time constantly thinking up more stuff for him to do
e. resist the urge to curse and throw things while discussing with your husband how unreasonable it is to drastically change things up in the middle of the year on 72 hours notice. point out how unfair it is that some residents aren't having to do this extra work since they've already done this rotation, and if he'd only been lucky enough to have done it earlier, it wouldn't be an issue for us; proceed in this mature fashion to express your anger at the many unexpected and arguably unfair changes this training program has thrown at both of you. breathe a sigh of relief that the program leaders only have 4 more months to rule your lives and say a quick prayer that your weekend and vacation plans won't be ruined for the month

answer: e

3. Your child will be 8 months old in 2 days and is neither sitting up well nor making an effort to crawl. You:
a. recognize that each child develops at a different pace, and just because the kid you babysit for has been crawling since she was 6 months old doesn't mean your child has to be doing it that early
b. remind yourself that her doctor said she looked great a mere few weeks ago, and it is highly unlikely that anything concerning has changed since then
c. observe that she *can* actually sit up just fine; she just chooses not to most of the time, and appreciate the fact that you don't have to constantly chase her around just yet
d. say a quick prayer that everything is alright and increase her floor time so she can perfect her skills
e. grill all of your friends about how old their babies were when they started crawling and repeatedly ask your medically knowledgeable husband about all of the various illnesses that could cause such delays; proceed to worry for a day and a half that your child has an incurable disease of some sort; finally, consult your trusty "What To Expect the First Year" book where you immediately discover that your daughter is not only right on track with her milestones, but she is actually excelling in several of them

answer: e

4. After 6 months of trying, you FINALLY lost 4 or 5 pounds after a vicious stomach bug weeks ago. You:
a. take advantage of your shrunken stomach and motivational boost and make an effort to eat less so that you can continue your weight loss
b. step up your working out efforts to continue the trend
c. integrate healthier, low-calorie foods into your diet
d. substitute water for the unhealthy amounts of soda you drink
e. increase your number of daily meals and snacks; take home 7 pieces of leftover cake from a friend's birthday party and eat them all within 2 days; begin a new routine of eating a candy bar at least once a day; feel sick all over again when you realize that you wasted a perfectly good weight loss opportunity and are on the verge of gaining even more weight

answer: e

5. Your talented but overpriced photographer is offering "Mommy and Me" and "Daddy and Me" sessions in a week and a half. Your child hates getting her picture made, and you just purchased 6 pages worth of pictures for her baby album. You:
a. vow to have a family picture made along with her 1 year portraits
b. research alternative studios for a cheaper "Mommy and Me" session
c. ask a friend to take your picture together in the 70 degree, sunny, February weather with your nice new camera that you just got back from the Canon repair shop
d. tell yourself that your child is only going to be a baby once; that this is your first little girl and you'd envisioned a sweet picture of the two of you all along; that you haven't yet regretted a single penny you've spent on her pictures; that you do have that extra tax money coming after all; that you'll only buy one print for the wall, so it really won't be that expensive since they're not charging a sitting fee, all the while knowing that's a flat out lie and you'll likely end up with a regularly priced package; that your husband happens to be off the day they're doing this promotion, and what are the odds of that happening??? so it must be fate telling you that you need to have these pictures made
e. go get the friend who recommended this photographer to you in the first place and who's already paid for her own "Mommy and Me" session to validate the reasons listed in answer d and promptly schedule your appointment so as to get a good time slot

answer: d and e

Check back Thursday - it's Christa's 8 month birthday, and I'll post some pictures of her with my good camera that I am oh so glad to have back. Have a great day!

A Little of This and a Little of That

I love this picture - I think her expression and position is so cute!

The twins and their girls. We did not plan for Maggie Beth and Christa to match, but they wore outfits from the same Carter's line and looked adorable.

A last meal with our good friends Liz and Justin before they move to Charleston :(

Hello all! We've been relaxed and busy at the same time this past week. Cline worked a long stretch of shifts last week and over the weekend, so Christa and I caught up on a little R & R, and I tackled some laundry and housework. Cline's in the process of getting his credentialing paperwork together to start his new job in July, and I've been busy finalizing our taxes and talking to our attorney about setting up an LLC for Cline. These are the classes they should make you take in college. I do not remember the first think I studied in Algebra or English Literature. What I could use is an understanding of tax laws, business laws, real estate, and investment/retirement options. I'm sure half of Rome thinks realizes for certain that I am a complete idiot. But I'm doing my best navigating this new territory. I do feel like I should know this stuff by now. My 10 year high school reunion is this summer. (If THAT won't make you feel old and gray, I don't know what will)!

In other news, Christa is babbling and saying, "ya-ya-ya-ya" and "da-da-da-da" now. She is also cutting a new tooth on the top, so we may be transitioning to the bottle exclusively soon. Last night, we drove to Atlanta for dinner with 2 of Cline's brothers, since the one from Washington D.C. was in town. We had a great time. Cline and I took her to the park today and to get some new Springtime clothes, since apparently, Spring is starting in February this year. Tonight we had a delicious Japanese dinner with two of our good friends (Liz and Justin) who are moving to Charleston soon. We will miss them dearly, but we're not too upset with them for leaving us since we're leaving ourselves in a few months. Justin had never held a baby before. I was horrified at that thought, and quickly corrected it by thrusting Christa into his arms. He's a natural - they had a whole conversation in baby talk! I also finally picked up some moving boxes today. FYI - Publix is very nice and accommodating with the moving box request. I called them yesterday, and picked the boxes up today, and was only able to fit a third of what they saved for me into our trunk!

I am missing my good camera. According to UPS, it made it safely to the Canon repair center, but I haven't yet heard when I can expect it back. My Kodak does the job, but it's painfully slow now that I've experienced the joy that is the SLR. Hopefully it will be back soon, and I won't have to remove the battery after each and every use!

Well, that's all of our news for now. Have a great week! Oh, and thanks for your thoughts on car seats. They were very helpful. I was leaning toward the Britax, but since it sounds like ya'll have had success with Graco and Evenflo, we may just go with one of those models and use the money we save on moving supplies!

Park Place

Hello all! We took advantage of the 74 degree weather in February and went to the park for the first time today. Christa thoroughly enjoyed the swing! It was a beautiful day. I made sure to get some shots of her because I'm sending my camera off to have the battery checked out tomorrow, in hopes it will be back by the time we go to the beach next month.
We've had a great couple of weeks. We enjoyed this past weekend up in Rome with both of our families. We enjoyed a couple of great meals with my parents, and on Saturday, the Jackson girls went shoe shopping. It was a fun experience, and we left Shoe-wee with some adorable white shoes. The owner was very nice, and I have a feeling we'll be seeing her often once we move back. They had a great selection of infant and children's shoes, and it was nice to be able to try the shoes on Christa. Her feet are tiny, so I seem to guess wrong at Wal-Mart. We also went to Room Service to check out car seats. I'm eyeballing big girl car seats, even though we're months away from that. She's still plenty tiny enough for her carrier. But I'm convinced she is going to grow sooner or later, and I like to look. I've been told mixed things on car seats - everything from "Buy the Britax" to "Evenflo is great and affordable" to, "Whatever you do, don't buy Evenflo." Do any of you Mommies have any advice on this?? I usually choose things like this based on how well I like the pattern. But most of the neutral patterns are pretty ugly right now, so I guess I'll have to look at things like safety and practicality :)
Well, unless anything super interesting happens in the next few days, this will probably be my post for the week. Thanks for checking in with us!

More Mundane Happenings

Good morning all! We are doing well at the Jackson household. 5 months and counting until we move to Rome! We are excited, but the anxiety about such a big change is starting to build. I'm already obsessing about which doctors I'll use, what the utilities on a house will cost, and where I'll shop for clothes. I'm not doing so well on the packing front. I definitely have plenty of things I could go ahead and pack away, but I just can't seem to get motivated to go get boxes from anywhere. Oh well - all in good time.
Yesterday, I picked up the proofs from the traumatic photo session last week. They are beautiful! I was shocked. My photographer is a genius. We even got one good smile and lots of pleasant expressions of Christa sitting up. The best ones are the ones we got at the very end when she was really mad at us, and we were just trying "one more time" to get a good shot. We stuck a prop in front of her as a distraction, and it worked nicely. I'm very pleased.
Tonight we are headed to Rome for the weekend. Cline has 3 whole days off, and he's not even post-night-shift. This is a rare treat! The weather has been beautiful here, too - 80 degrees and sunny! I hope it lasts through the weekend.
I will try to post pictures later today, but I don't know if I'll get a chance before we leave. I am going to have to send my camera into Canon for repair because, apparently, it's not normal for the battery to run down overnight by simply leaving it in the camera. I'm a little reluctant to send it off, but I do want it fixed, so I guess I'll have to make my peace with it. In the meantime, have a great day!

How to Wash Strained Carrotts

So, I've been out of commission for a couple of days - hence the delayed blog posting. Thursday started out normally enough. I did my morning babysitting, checked the internet a few times, ate a little lunch, and figured I'd get to the blog later that day or perhaps Friday so as to give you all plenty of time to admire the recent pictures of Christa (because you're obviously not getting anymore with this post:) But somewhere around 3:00, things fell apart and I found myself in the ER by 6 getting IV fluids and sweet, sweet drugs. Pherergan is good stuff when you feel like you are going to die. I'll spare you the gory details, but whatever illness I had went away as suddenly as it came on, and I'm back (sound applause).
So today I thought I'd try a little something different for this post and offer a helpful tip that I have learned the hard way. (Notice new "Tip of the Week" section to the right and take a moment to bask in my brilliance). Since many of you who read this have young children, I will dedicate this post to educating you on how to get set-in pureed carrot stains out of baby clothes so as to make your life easier.

1. Remove clothes, rinse, and Shout immediately after contact.
2. If you can not complete step number 1 because you are, say, in the hospital, wait 24 hours to tackle stain.
3. Spray liberal amount of Oxy Clean on stain, scrub vigorously with toothbrush, and let sit for 10 minutes.
4. Wash with huge pile of other dirty baby clothes with equally unappealing stains.
5. Pull outfit out of laundry and realize the stain did not come out. Blast your stupid virus for ruining your child's outfit.
6. Repeat steps 3 and 4.
7. Pull outfit out and feel blood pressure rise when you realize stubborn stain is still on cute outfit.
8. Call mother-in-law who is stain remover expert.
9. Blast - her phone is turned off.
10. Hurriedly call grandmother-in-law who is sure to come to the rescue.
11. Immediately leave husband and child to run to grocery store to pick up Ivory soap, per grandmother-in-law's instructions.
12. Mentally fuss at husband for picking cute outfit for child to wear in the first place. Why couldn't he have taken her to the doctor in ratty pajamas?
13. Have husband vigorously scrub Ivory soap into outfit. Let sit for 30 minutes.
14. Wash for 3rd time tonight and try not to think about electric bill for this month.
15. Realize if you add gas, cost of Ivory soap, electricity, and laundry detergent expenses, you could have just bought your child new outfit.
16. Hope this works because you're out of ideas.
17. Realize all your daughter's other clothes have set-in stains that were not removed with Oxy-Clean on the first wash.
18. Frantically scrub Ivory soap into remaining stains and re-wash.
19. Vow to never, ever get sick again.
20. Stop feeding your baby strained carrots.