family road trip

We just got back from our first road trip with Charlotte.  Jay and Charlotte are sacked out in the bedroom, Charlotte not even out of her car seat and I have a chance to contemplate.  Of course I do my best thinking while pumping.  I think in the past three months I know that it is the only time I have to think, so let the self reflection begin.  Charlotte did pretty good, but Jay and I learned some lessons on the way of course. 

We have never traveled with so much luggage in our lives, which is fairly comical seeing how we were only gone a little over twenty four hours.  Jay has been fairly lucky over the past six years by traveling with such a light packer as a wife.  Charlotte on the other hand has some stuff, and most of it is big, bulky and does not fit neatly in suitcases.  

I would say that the trip going was much better than the trip coming.  Charlotte slept most of the way there, and when she was not sleeping she was pretty happy.  We left the house after Charlotte’s usual eleven hour sleep so she was in pretty good spirits.  This was a wonderful opportunity for me to get some major things completed in the car: embroidery on the beach quilt, some circles cut for an upcoming surprise quilt and letters cut out for Charlotte’s next play quilt.  It was lovely, just how I imagined a family trip to be: sleeping baby, husband driving and singing to the ipod and me happily sewing.  We made a couple stops including for lunch where Charlotte talked to everyone who would make eye contact with her.

When we got to the hotel we had planned to swim in the indoor pool with our little water lover.  We were officially in the pool for five minutes and little C’s whole face started to shiver so we took her out and talked with our legs (ours, not hers) dangling in the hot tub.  The rest of the day went wonderfully, Jay went to meet his appointments, Charlotte napped, we had a pizza picnic in the hotel, went for a walk and got root beer floats.  At nine o’clock Charlotte was still in great spirits and ready to take on the world.  I am not sure if Charlotte ever got really sleepy, ever, the whole night.  Between Jay and myself we must have gotten up thirty times to replug with the pacie, but she never even let out the tiniest cry.  Her crying in the hotel had me really worried.  I could just see her having a rough night and us keeping the whole floor awake.  I will call the night a success, no major crying, no major sleeping for that matter, but we didn’t get any complaint calls.

On our way back the ride did not go as smoothly.  Charlotte was constantly sucking on a bottle, awake and crying or asleep with the bottle in her mouth.  Not exactly the picture of perfection as the day before.  The major highlights of the day was a blowout so big her car seat had to be dismantled and washed when we got home and a relaxing and charming picnic behind a subway for lunch.

At the end of the day I really did feel sorry for the little tike.  All cooped up in her car seat, tired and bored.  It is a good thing that parents think there kids are so cute or road trips would never happen.  I was reading a blog the other day and she described her feelings towards her children as she can see why some animals  reproduce over and over purposefully and also on the other hand why some animals eat their spawn.  That made me laugh, now I understand.  Again, that is why they are so cute!  The rest of today I am sure will be filled with recovering from the forty hour trip, really it will probably take another forty hours just to get things back to normal. In Jay’s words today has been kinda like half death, half Saturday. That is what parenting is though right?!  Half bliss and strangely have destruction.  Of course Charlotte and in turn Jay woke up after I finished the first paragraph about them peacefully slumbering.  It took Jay a solid ten minutes to calm her down, because she was still coming down from her “I have been in this car for two whole days perspective”.   Major lessons learned and we are all the better for it which is good because we have some major travels planned for this month!  

-melissa

father's day

I think Melissa and I both were pretty lucky that Charlotte was born so close to mother’s and father’s day. It’s pretty special the first time someone refers to you as daddy or poppa, but it’s extraordinarily special when the server at the restaurant says happy father’s day. I’ve said it dozens of times to other people, but today was the first time I’ve ever had it said to me.

My first father’s day started out like usual...getting up to feed Charlotte at some point in the middle of the night. But when I woke up after that, Melissa had made my favorite breakfast casserole and we started off the day with sausage, hash-browns, cheese and gravy all mixed up into one. It’s the best breakfast casserole I’ve ever had and the funny thing is that it is the recipe on the back of a 75 cent gravy packet. I was scheduled to play drums at church this morning, so I had to leave the house around 7, but before I left Melissa gave me a gift from her. They are silver cuff links, with a great quote from Abraham Lincoln and Melissa told me that I’m supposed to wear them on Charlotte’s wedding day, which if the card she gave me didn’t already have me a little misty, the comment about Charlotte’s wedding day definitely did. It was a very thoughtful gift and I like it because it’s almost like a time capsule that I don’t get to open or use for quite some time, so in the meantime I pray that Charlotte finds a good man some day and that when the time comes I would have shown her what it looks like to be a good husband and father.

Charlotte did a great job on mother’s day. She cooperated when I put her in her “I love mommy” onesie at 6:00am. She slept all the way through church and even slept through our mother’s day lunch. So when “parent of child 1H2G” came up on the screen at church and all of the parents scrambled to see if their child was connected to that number, wouldn’t you know it, the nursery volunteers had requested that “parent of 1H2G (Charlotte)” come over to the nursery. Now, we’ve been leaving Charlotte in the nursery for about a month now and every time we pick her up we’re just sure that they’re lying when they say, “she didn’t make a peep.” Needless to say we’ve had good luck so far. So since I still had one more song to play at the end of the service Melissa went to go check on child 1H2G and said she’d text me with details. It turned out that Charlotte was just tired from not getting a nap before church and after the nursery volunteers tried feeding her and rocking her, they called in the experts for reinforcement.  Melissa was able to get Charlotte to sleep and so we decided for plan a, which meant we were going to lunch instead of dinner.

After Melissa asking me all week I finally landed on PF Chang’s. I’m pretty indecisive when it comes to restaurants. So we made the drive there, got inside and were sat at a table in the back corner, which was perfect for our sleeping girl. At lunch I received my gift from Charlotte and I’ll post a picture, but when you see me you’ll have to ask to see it in person. It’s a key chain that Melissa found on etsy. One side has the words, “dad, encourager, comforter & teacher.” The other side has an imprint of Melissa’s thumbprint and Charlotte’s thumbprint. It’s the best gift I’ve ever received.

Charlotte slept pretty much all the way through lunch and after a few ounces from the bottle, she passed out again. We decided to walk around the outdoor mall, that PF Chang’s is connected to and spent an hour or so just window shopping and using the Gap dressing room as a changing station. It started to rain and it was a little hot so we decided to head home.

Melissa really did a great job to make my first father’s day one that I’ll remember forever. I plan to have that keychain forever and even though I’m sure it’ll be a mixed day of emotions, I can’t wait until the day that I put those cuff links on. So happy father’s day. I’m thankful for a great family that’s healthy and happy. Charlotte is teaching me so much about God these days. I know my love for her is just a fraction of God’s love for us, but every day I’m learning a little bit more about that that really means.

-jay

i’m a liar, charlotte is psychic and my mom is a genius!

The month of May was a different and challenging month here at the hess residence! Charlotte really did give us a run for our money at times and was the most charming, adorable baby at other times. The minute that I published the blog about Charlotte being two months old and how much I was in love with her gummy grin, I believe she did not grin again at night for three weeks! We had our ups and we had our downs.  But as a mommy I really did learn a bunch.  Charlotte took me to mommy school and I think I might have passed.  Some valuable lessons that I learned at this schooling that Charlotte put me through are as follows:

1. I am a liar.  No matter what I say or think (we will get to that with point two) Charlotte will do the opposite.  If I email Jay while he is at work and brag about what a good mommy I was that day...give it about 60 minutes and it will be a different story.  If I make the comment that we have gone a long time since we had a rough night...bam, not anymore.  It actually has gotten fairly comical.  Jay and I find ourselves starting to say something about our lives with our little cutie and then abruptly stop, afraid that we would jinx ourselves.  We have never been superstitious people, but children can do crazy things to people!

2. Charlotte is psychic.  It is true.  My baby has the rare gift of reading minds.  Once Jay and I stopped conversing about our luck or trials of the day she started to be able to read minds.  It is amazing at the speed that she can accomplish this unbelievable task.  You will be thinking to yourself that you are going to do this or that and she will look you in your eyes and change everything that you planned.  She can also perform this amazing ability while sleeping.  Don’t dare think how wonderfully she has been sleeping, she will know what you are thinking!

3. My mom is a genius.  Mom’s never cease to amaze me.  We have already had a miracle healing from one mother and now my own mom swoops into town and fixes Charlotte once again.  We had a gotten the gas, sleeping and schedule all figured out earlier in the month, but that did not last long. My mom came for a week long visit last week and the day before she arrived Charlotte hit her three month growth spurt and with a vengeance! To make a very long, sleepless story short.  We don’t think the big C was getting enough to eat through her growth spurt and after a doctor’s visit and some decision making on our part we have her nursing and taking some little snacks of formula.  I do not think we could have clearly diagnosed what was the matter with Charlotte without my moms help.  Fresh experienced eyes are always a blessing!

Along with my mom being able to really identify Charlotte’s needs.  We also got all the squares completed for the beach quilt!  It took me two months to complete the first 30 squares and a day and a half to finish the last 30. We had an amazing system of my constant sewing paired with my mom constantly ironing.   What I can accomplish with some help from my momma!

I am glad that the month of May is over.

I am looking forward to the summer and all of the fun trips we have planned.

I am curious about what Charlotte is going to teach me next in her mommy school that she is putting me through!  

-melissa

grandma comes for a visit!

I do not know who had more fun or who teared up the most when it was time for Grandma to leave!  We had such a great time with Grandma this week!  It was great timing for her to come in so many ways.  First I was coming off of a pretty bad cold when Jenanne got here and Charlotte was unusually fussy- what a horrible combination!  But Jenanne quickly figured us all out!  I think she was in town for about fifteen minutes and she had decided that Charlotte was having a hard time burping, was uncomfortable and quickly solved the problem with some heavy pounding and gas drops...she figured all of this out by staring at me holding Charlotte for just a few minutes.  I was thoroughly impressed!

While Grandma was here she also helped us get on a schedule that involved Charlotte sleeping in her, wait for it..........crib during the day!  What a revolutionary idea!  She is now taking about four naps a day and staying down in her crib for about 45-60 minutes.  What a crazy difference it makes to have just that much free time during the day!

Besides some really hard work on Jenanne’s part, we also had some great fun.  We started every day with a great invigorating walk, followed by endless giggles from both grandma and the little girl, we had some great talks and ate like queens! 

I know that the time that she spent with us was enjoyed by everyone.  It was great to see Jenanne with the grandbaby that she has been praying for for years!  It is just the beginning of a very sweet relationship!  It was a wonderful bonding time for all three of us girls!  Jenanne’s help was priceless and her love was  immeasurable!  Thanks Grandma for your great visit!

-melissa