As many of you have noticed (and complained!), it has been a while since we've posted a new entry. It's no surprise to any of you that life gets busy and things fall by the wayside. But we do want to keep you guys updated and share pictures with you, so keep checking in with us. Send us a comment now and then and let us know who is still reading this after all these months! Matt just reminded me that it has been over a year since we started blogging!
Our Christmas season was full of travels. We spent a few days at Kristi's parents' house in Byron, MN (near Rochester). All of her sisters were home, which doesn't happen more than a couple times a year, so that was really fun to be together. We made a gingerbread house, visited grandparents, watched movies, ate cookies, read books, played games, looked at Charlotte, took a lot of pictures, and ate lots of snacks! And we inherited a new-to-us car, a 1998 red Ford Windstar minivan! Though we always said we'd never be a minivan family, it came to pass that my dad had an extra car and we couldn't pass up a free car! We are now putting it to good use in Buffalo--we actually drive less with two cars than we did with one car. We have different schedules at the clinic, and we ended up doing a lot of driving each other back and forth to work.
After visiting Kristi's parents, we went to Delano, MN to visit Matt's family. His brother Charlie and fiance Olivia were here from New Jersey for a whole week. We spent a LOT of time together! We went out on a double-date with Charlie and Olivia, played in the snow, went to visit aunts and uncles, made bread, played games, sewed diapers (see explanation below), read books, and ate lots of good food! It is always nice to relax at "home" when you visit parents.
We discovered a while ago that Charlotte is allergic to spandex. She reacted with hives to a new shirt she had never worn before that had spandex in it. A few days later she started to get hives from the stretchy tabs on her cloth diapers made with spandex. We switched to disposable diapers for a while, but over Christmas Kristi was busily sewing fleece fabric over the stretchy tabs on the diapers. This protects Charlotte from the spandex, and protects our wallets and the environment from buying disposable diapers. The sewing is still a work in progress. There are 6 left to sew, but over the last weekend my mom broke two sewing machine needles on them while she was helping out! Not an easy job! Anyway, now that we know she is allergic to spandex, we realized that while she was a small baby she always had rashy skin, and now it is totally cleared up. She must have been exposed to spandex in Kristi's clothes (you'd be surprised at how much women's clothing has spandex in it!). Hopefully she will grow out of this sensitivity someday--otherwise she is doomed to a life without swimming suits and bike shorts! :)
Matt tells me that is enough blogging for tonight. So without further ado, here are the pictures you are waiting for. I know that is why you still check this blog.
Our family Christmas tree at our apartment in Buffalo!
Charlotte's first cereal. Daddy is trying to steal some, but Charlotte is a little worried about it.
Yum yum yum!
She likes it!
She can't hold the spoon too long or she accidentally gags herself.
This is Charlotte with Uncle Travis. He doesn't look too happy to be holding Charlotte. But we know deep down inside he secretly adores her!
Auntie Laura!
Charlotte got more presents than everyone else. Look at that pile of loot!
These are Matt's cousins, Megan and Chelsie (holding Charlotte). They had lots of fun on Christmas day with her. They are getting to be perfect babysitting age!
This is Matt's dad, Randy. He got a bread machine for Christmas, so Matt is teaching him how to make a delicious loaf of bread. For those of you who don't know, Matt is our bread man. He has made all of the bread we eat at home--since we've been married we've only purchased 2 or 3 loaves from the store! Maybe if you ask really nicely he'll make you some bread sometime!
Two-headed monster.
Charlotte in her snowsuit that we borrowed from Josh, Joy, and Silas in Duluth. (Well, it belongs to Silas. Josh and Joy are too big to fit in it.)
The best picture ever!
Charlotte went on a little visit to see her new friend Melia Rutherford. They are best friends already! As you can see, Melia is having a ton of fun. Melia's parents, Casey and Alyssa, are good friends of ours from our college days. They live in south Minneapolis, and we try to hang out with them every month now that we live in Buffalo. Melia is just over a month old now, and we anticipate these girls becoming good friends as they grow up!
Charlotte takes a swipe at Melia!
Look at how tiny Melia is! She is wearing one of Charlotte's old sleepers!
Kristi holding two babies at once. Melia is about the size that Charlotte was when she was born.
This is another friend of Charlotte's. Her name is Isabelle, and she is the daughter of our friends Jose and Jesi. They live about 25 minutes away from us. They also have two older kiddos. Their oldest, Audri, can make Charlotte laugh like nobody else can! Charlotte loves Audri. When we were hanging out with them last weekend, Jose and Audri showed off their skills on the video game Sing Star, which is sort of like karaoke.
Charlotte's food repertoire is expanding. She eats rice cereal, squash, carrots, sweet potato, potato, pears, bananas, and once she ate a chickpea. She is NOT a picky eater--she will eat anything. Yesterday I let her lick a pickle. She loved it! She has not met a food she doesn't like. Here she is, gnawing on a banana.
She loves it!
