I miss my baby and I haven't even had a cup of coffee yet.

Firstly, I haven't updated in a long time because so much is going on that I don't have the heart to explain it all. Starting Tuesday, I was back at work at the same place that laid me off. After about 2 weeks they realized that they really had too much work to have laid off all those people, but they wanted to wait and make sure that they would have more work, not less, by the summer. Once they got a few more contracts, they hired me back. I worked in the office Tuesday and Wednesday and today, and then starting tomorrow, it's back to working from home. So that's a big relief.

Epic fail on coffee this morning.

I didn't have time to make coffee or tea at home this morning, so I was jonesing pretty bad by the time I got to work. I put a little coffee creamer in my mug (thanks to Nate for sharing) and then poured in the coffee. The creamer turned instantly to ricotta cheese. Major curdling. I thought that was weird, because the creamer had seemed okay yesterday, but maybe I just hadn't noticed because it was in an opaque travel mug. I dumped the coffee, rinsed my translucent travel mug a few times with very hot water for good measure, and poured a mug of black coffee.

I got back to my desk and took a tiny sip, since it had been steaming hot - oh my god, it was AWFUL. Mouth-puckeringly, eye-wateringly awful.

I guess last night a few people decided to clean the coffee maker by running some vinegar through it. This is an excellent idea, it was long overdue. However, I didn't know that, and I didn't know how many (or few!) times it was rinsed out. I hadn't really smelled a difference because of two things: 1) the coffee maker is right over the dishwasher, and in my family we run vinegar through the dishwasher to combat hardwater, and I always associate dishwashers with a faint vinegar smell and 2) my head is terribly stuffy due to allergies, and everything smells kind of weird and faint.

Blech. Talk about a wake-up call.

This past weekend we visited the in-laws, and they had brought down a little tiny rocking horse from the attic. It says "Matthew" on the side, and is perfect Charlotte size! She loved it, and we got some really sweet pictures.



This weekend is Charlotte's christening. There is so much drama surrounding this event that I can't even begin to post about it. Perhaps later, when time has taken the edge off of the emotional baggage. On Sunday Charlotte will be christened at the church Matt and I were married at, and we'll have a cook-out at my sister's house for all the family that travelled out to be there. I am very much looking forward to seeing my grandparents and my nephew, so that is exciting.

Talent Show

Charlotte's new-extra-special-super-duper talent? Pulling off her socks so that she can suck her toes. She's been pulling off her socks for quite a while now, but only in the last couple weeks has she figured out that she can actually get her feet in her mouth. The other day she was so into sucking her toe that I couldn't stop her - every time I tried she'd just put her foot back in. Her big toe was all prune-y from it! So silly, and a little gross.

Since I will be working during the day again very soon, long shopping trips and walks during the week will be out. So yesterday Charlotte and I made her first trip into Amherst to take a walk and play on the common. She played on her blanket, and tried valiantly to eat her shoes. We then walked to the cemetery so I could take a picture of her by Emily Dickinson's grave, since Charlotte's middle name is, in fact, Emily. I forgot my camera, though, so I took a picture on my phone. If I can ever figure out how to get the picture off, I will post it. It was a really lovely afternoon.

I was trying to channel that loveliness at 4 am when we got up. Again.

Conflicted.

I got some strange news this week - my most recent place of employment, that laid me off just over a month ago, would like to recall me. I'm very pleased about this, because I desperately need a job, and I would be working from home again, with no loss in pay or seniority. This is great, and I'm very relieved.

However.

I am sad that I'm going to be working again - I've loved this time off with Charlotte so much. It's been amazing to just hang out with her every day, to play and be silly and go for walks and just be together without worrying about making up the time at 11 o'clock at night. But kid needs to be fed, and we need to keep a roof over her head, so back to work it is. Starting next week.

Charlotte's been growing in leaps and bounds. In fact, I suspect that she's in a growth spurt right now, or at least I hope it's a growth spurt and not some new, permanent sleeping pattern. Prior to this week she's been going to bed around 8 to 8:30 pm and waking up between 6 and 7 am. Perfect, I really can't complain. But over the last three days she's been waking up between 3 and 4 am for another bottle. Which is, frankly, not a huge deal since I'm not working. It might start being a problem next week if this is a new schedule and not just a temporary thing.

I can't really complain about *how* she wakes up, though. Charlotte is such a cheerful kid! I wake up to hear her babbling to herself and rolling around playing with her blanket or dolly or pacifier. One thing she just started doing is kicking fiercely with both legs on her bed. It's surprisingly loud at 2:30 in the morning.

New food of the week - watermelon. She's been eating it in her little mesh feeder bag, mostly just sucking out the juice. Which is funny and incredibly sticky.

I "lol'd" the baby.

moar funny pictures

Hmm. No page for this in the baby book.

Today's milestone: first time Mommy farted in public and blamed it on the baby.

Finally!

As of Friday, Charlotte is the proud owner of one erupted tooth. Yay!

It's on the bottom, on her right. So cute. I've had multiple requests to photograph it, and all I can say to that is "Ha!" No, really, people. It takes two hands just to kind of see it, there's no way I can take a picture.

Not quite cheerful update.

Still no job for me.

Still no teeth for Charlotte.

Other than that, things are okay, I guess. It's hard to be too excited about everything else when I'm worried about basic subsistence. But we'll work it out.

In other news, Charlotte turned seven months old last week! It was very exciting, landing in the middle of "Dress Week." Last week we had Charlotte wear all of the pretty dresses she got as gifts that we have no need to wear on a daily basis. Some of them are truly cute, but baby tights are a pain in the neck, and it was so cold for so long that tights were a necessity. Last week, though, Western Mass had a crazy bout of late-May-like weather, so Charlotte got to wear cute dresses without tights.

Here's a shot from a visit with the grandparents, in the cute, but totally non-practical dress they gave her at Easter:



And here she is, asleep on her 7 month birthday:



Quick memory points for 6 to 7 months:

* Right now Charlotte's eating rice cereal, avocado, and the occasional banana. She pretty much actively dislikes everything orange, and cauliflower (Dad's idea, not mine) gave her sewer gas. Avocado is her favorite, without a doubt.

* Charlotte's unlocked the sippy cup mystery, and can happily drink from it. We use the Born Free sippy cup, with no BPA and with a low-vacuum valve. It leaks maybe a bit more, but it's a safer plastic, and low-vacuum is something I like, because it makes transition to an actual cup easier.

* As much as I love to wear Charlotte around town in the baby carrier (Babyhawk, yay!) she is totally digging the stroller. She likes to cruise around, watching the scenery roll by, and flinging any shoes, hats, socks, etc. that she can peel of onto the ground. She also likes to nap in there.

* Charlotte is way into the polysyllabic babbling, rather than the joyous shrieks that were her primary method of vocalizing before. She will do the ba-ba-ba and ma-ma-ma quite a lot. It's pretty adorable.

* Charlotte rolls over all the time now, which is too bad, because I keep telling her she can almost crawl on her tummy. She'd rather just flip over onto her back and wave around until I help her sit up.

* Charlotte is verrry interested in the kitties, and will watch them whenever they move. She also seems to like the neighbors' dogs and any other dog she meets. Previously she didn't always seem to even notice them, but now anything that moves catches her interest. She'll watch the birds and dogs outside, and whenever a cat walks into a room she watches it and reaches out her hands in a clutching movement, like, "I want it!"



I'm sure there's more, but that's all I've got for now.