Today Charlotte and I met with some of the M&M’s at 903 Mills Market. Although we had a great time, the weather was NOT with us. We had two different periods where the rain was coming down really hard. So much for outdoor venues! Until the daily afternoon rain season ends in Florida (about September) we are going to have to take it indoors. :(
Today we decided to move Charlotte up to the #3 nipples for her bottle. For awhile she would eat four 8oz bottles a day with no problem. Recently it has been a struggle just to get her to finish her bottles much less four each day. We suspect it was a combination of Charlotte getting frustrated with not getting her formula fast enough and painful teething. Changing to the faster flow nipple seems to have done the trick.
Since that made such a difference and we are now sure Charlotte is getting enough to eat we decided to try her out on some rice cereal. Her doctors recommended that we wait until she was six months old but after this past week, with her trying VERY HARD to eat our food AT EVERY MEAL, we decided it was time to at least try her out on some “real-ish” food. She did great and we even had to go back to the kitchen to make her some more. Charlotte still needs to get the hang of pushing the cereal to the back of her mouth but as it was she liked it so much she was trying to take the spoon away from us and shove it into her mouth.
Today Wayne and I rented a cabana by the relaxation pool and beach. We had internet access (too much to do to have time to blog), our own bathroom and outdoor shower, flat screen TV, fridge, pack n’ play, sofa, sun loungers, etc, etc. WAY COOL – we also had our own concierge who was solely responsible for our comfort, poor girl. I lost track of how many drinks I had. Let’s see electric lemonade, frozen lemonade, long island ice tea, palm beach ice tea, palm beach ice tea, palm beach ice tea … you get the picture. My mom, Sheila, was also able to extend her trip a bit and spent a good part of the day with us too. It was fantastic to have her with us. Not only is she fun to hang out with, she also kept Charlotte for us when Wayne and I took breaks to swim in the ocean or cool off in the pool. Unfortunately, Charlotte was a little uncomfortable with being in the heat all day. Fortunately, we were able to keep her cool by feeding her ice chips and keeping her under the fan in the cabana.
Tonight we attended a private dinner for the RPP&TL Executive Council at the Palm Beach Zoo. This was SO much fun as we were able to take our nephew, Brennan, to walk around to check out some of the exhibits when the park was closed. Some of the zoo keepers also brought out animals for us to visit with up close – nothing real cuddly (two toed sloth, owl, bearcat, etc.) but so neat to see them up close. The group sang Happy Birthday to Sancha and it was fun to catch her off guard. Our nephew, Jacob, spent most of the night playing in this huge ring of water fountains with some of the other toddlers. I think he had to weigh an extra 20 pounds in wet diaper when they finally got him to come out if the water. We were really impressed with this zoo, it’s so much bigger than we expected! Next year I would love to take some time to visit all the exhibits. Charlotte wore her zoo dress for the big night and spent more time trying to get at other peoples food. Our little lush was MOST interested in Grandmas Rum Runner, sneaky thing!
This morning started VERY early for Wayne as he had an 8am tee time with our brother in law, Erik. The guys had a great day – not great shots I understand – but a great time together playing The Breakers Ocean Course. I guess the first half of the day was “warm up” because they re-played it later in the day – when no one was looking!
My day started off much slower… Charlotte slept until about 10am and after yesterday I was in NO HURRY to get her up early. Once I did get myself in gear, Charlotte and I met my mom and nephews in the playroom for a little “play date”. Not that they are of an age to actually interact with each other (Jacob 29 months, Brennan 10 months, Charlotte 5 months) - it was more like lion taming for my mom and I. Each kid was going in a different direction or in Charlotte’s “not very mobile” case, just ending up “almost” in harm’s way every five minutes! But, we did get some cute pictures of them. We decided to go back to my mom’s room to get room service and corral the kids into more of a confined space. I spent a lot of time playing pillow fight with Jake and keeping his attention by doing a photo shoot, then showing him the pictures – that was a real hit.Today is my older sister’s birthday, Hoorah Sancha! Celebration plans are kind of on hold until this busy weekend is over but we promise to make good on Birthday plans soon!
Wayne and Charlotte spent the day together lounging in the hotel room and strolling around the extensive property. Late in the afternoon he came by the meeting to visit us and help greet my sister’s husband, Erik, and their two boys, Jacob and Brennan. Jake was so cute running around to the exhibitors with a general “look what I can do” spiel. Wayne and I took a few moments on the veranda to get a break and take some pictures. I LOVE this area of the property and would live on these couches if the hotel would let me.
Wayne and I attended the Speaker Reception to greet and gather with the other people responsible for putting on the seminar. The Committee chose specific wines for us to taste and we happily imbibed glass after glass of wines we would never have been able to afford on our own. We were so proud to see Sancha, my sister, and her committee receive the recognition they deserved for all of their hard work on the RPPTL Legislative Update Committee. She is amazing and always a source of inspiration to me. We were also able to talk travel with my FLSSI boss, Roger, and his wife, Peggy. They have quite literally traveled EVERYWHERE. An innocent mention about dealing with customs during your travels kept us wrapped with interest for thirty five minutes. After the reception, we went to dinner on property at their Italian restaurant. The meal was SO good but I, as you can imagine, was SO tired. I feel sad to have wasted so much food!
Well my day really never “started” as Thursday never “ended”. At the last minute Thursday night we realized that some of the duplicate registrations never printed and with the limited printer capacity fixing this problem literally took ALL night. I guess I could have slept for a two hours but then I would NEVER have woken up for my 5am shower. Luckily, Wayne and Charlotte were able to sleep through all my late night bumbling around. The only thing that would have made it worse would have been waking the baby, and then trying to get her RE-settled!!!
Sheila, my mom and executive assistant, and I were VERY busy this morning registering 500 people for the seminar. Luckily we had help from the LU Committee members and Florida Bar staff. It’s a quick process but there are always people who forget their paperwork and need a little extra attention. Attention which is in short supply with so many other people trying to pull you in different directions. Let’s just say we ordered breakfast to be delivered in the registration room at 6:15am and I did not get a chance to eat it until 10am or so! I took a picture of the meeting room so everyone could kind of see what it is we do…kinda.
Today we started our work/vacation trip by driving down to The Breakers in Palm Beach. We were running late as we hit a couple of “traveling with baby” snafus. We did finally get there, a half hour late for Erin’s pre con with the hotel staff and RPP&TL Legislative Update Committee. Once our meeting concluded we spent some time unpacking and just getting settled. Wayne ordered us some YUMMY cheese burgers and amazing deserts so that they were just being delivered to the room when I got there. Those defiantly gave me the energy to do all the unpacking! I took some pictures of what our room looked like once we “settled in”. I cannot believe how much stuff we packed for Charlotte – I am sure we will need most of it, but it’s a lot of stuff. Luckily the hotel provided a lot of the baby necessities like a pack n’ play, bottle warmer, fridge and diaper genie. I don’t know where we would have found the room in our car if we’d brought our own. Between the stroller and Wayne’s golf clubs the trunk of the SAAB was packed sardine tight. The hotel staff also child proofed the room which was kinda funny since Charlotte is only rolling over at this point and not likely to get into anything by herself!
Sancha and Sheila, Erin’s sister and mom, are also on this work trip and offered to watch Charlotte so that Wayne and I could have a “date night”. We spent the evening rushing to The Gap to get Wayne a button down shirt he forgot to pack and FINALLY watching the Dark Night. The movie was so much fun and I jumped, to Wayne’s amusement, quite a few times during the show. We had a blast tooling around the Palm Beach City Center and generally starting our work/vacation off right.
So in the midst of preparation for our meetings and seminar I needed to pick up a VERY large banner for the seminar today. Coincidentally my sister, Sancha, is the Chair of the RPPTL Committee putting on this program and she also needed to approve the banner. So, the whole group (Sancha, Charlotte, Sheila and I) went to the shop to approve the banner. We decided to stop by one of our favorite restaurants, Vihn’s, on the way back to the office for a yummy lunch. THANKS Sancha! While we were at lunch Charlotte finally started doing something people have been warning me would happen…she started grabbing for our food. We finally gave in and let her suck on a carrot that had been in my dish. I swear, if we did not have our nails dug into one end, she would have sucked the whole thing down her throat! She just loved it. Kinda interesting that the first food Charlotte ever tried was Vietnamese! I wonder if that will become her favorite kind of food in the future...
Tonight our friends Ryan and Marcie came over for dinner. We had such a good time with them and Charlotte even woke up for a little bit to say hi! It was fun to catch up and hear what they have been up to this summer. We had an interesting tutorial from Marcie about her new trainer, sounds like a lot of hard work – Go Marcie! We are very jealous of a cruise they are about to take and a Vegas work trip they are going to extend. I hope we can have them over more in the future. It is so nice to have good friends you can just BE with, not have to create some event to spend time together.
In the interest of full disclosure – Charlotte THREW A FIT today! Just thought everyone would like to know that we are blogging the real deal. Not every moment is adorable, just most! I got her home after our lunch with the Mommy & Me’s and all the sudden my angel was really unhappy. I have not heard her scream like that since she got her two month shots! It was horrible not being able to make her happy for almost two hours. I changed her diaper, tried to give her a bottle, rocked her, tried her swing, burped her, gave her a cold washcloth to chew on, sang to her, did some tummy time … then tried it ALL again – nothing. After the first hour I figured out that she was tired (once I really thought about it, she had only slept twenty minutes here and there today = no real nap ) but nothing I did worked! I eventually worked a burp out but that did not change her mood. Wayne finally came home and was able to wait her screaming and wiggling out! The picture is at the end of the battle when Charlotte finally succumb to sleep and cuddling with Daddy.
Charlotte Morgan Chambers At 4.75 Months Old
So, tonight Wayne and I dropped Charlotte off at Grandma’s house so we could go to dinner for our friend, Kevin’s birthday! Doug & Brittany set everything up (thanks guys) for Opa at Pointe Orlando. We (Kevin, Brittany, Doug, Steve, Ryan, Marcie, Wayne and I) had a terrific time, the food was yummy and the entertainment was fantastic. They had half the restaurant, including us, get up and dance in some kind of Greek conga line around the other diners and even pulled Kevin ON TOP of our table so everyone could sing him Happy Birthday. The highlight had to be Kevin getting to dance with a belly dancer, hooray beer! We really have a great time with these guys and wish we got to hang out with them more often! Brittany shared some of her great photos with us, so here they are.
This afternoon I continued the creativity started yesterday and crafted felt heart barrettes for baby Charlotte. These are based off adorable flower barrettes I bought a few months ago, but at $8. - each, I thought - I can do that! So, I did. Here are some pictures of the pink and red hearts that I created as well as the pink and purple flowers that were my inspiration. I am really happy with the results but since they are more time consuming to make than you would think, I am not sure how many more I will do. On to the next craft … when I can carve out some more time!
So tonight I FINALLY did a project I have wanted to do for Charlotte since before she was born. Problem was, we could not decide on a name and then once we did…she was born like two hours later. Obviously that did not give me enough time, even for my crazy self, to do a craft project! Anyway, tonight I made a name pennant for Charlotte, ya! I first created one of these for my cousin Amanda’s son, Gavin. Then when my sister had Jacob, I made one for her baby shower. They are SO fun to make and very easy too, obviously Charlotte had to have one! I am including a picture of the mess I made on the dining room table. Now that my craft room has been turned into Charlotte’s nursery, this is where I will have to do my crafty projects. I think I will until tomorrow to clean this up…
Today Wayne and I decided to put Charlotte in the highchair for the first time - to see how she liked it. (Thanks again “Uncle” Kevin for the beautiful gift.) Truthfully, we were expecting to have to pull her out right away, before she slumped over and hit her head. To our surprise she sat in it for twenty minutes before she started getting tired. We were hoping for a bigger reaction but this is what we got…
This is what Charlotte does with pacifiers these days.
Keep an eye on the end, YES ... she did throw it across the room!
So today, I did two great things: I spent some quality time with an old and very dear friend, Tahlia, and got my hair cut! Who better to do it than Tahlia, even if – sadly – she is across town. I have literally known Tahlia since kindergarten (she lived on the other side of the lake) and she has always been a fantastic friend – such a good spirit. So, knowing me for so long (aka over, ugh … let’s just say it’s been at least 20 years) she listened to my “I at least need a trim” and took it to the next level. Which is to say she took NINE INCHES off my hair, oh my! Usually crazy hair whims are par for the course (I did have black hair a few years ago) but lately I have been really wimpy. She convinced me I need something hip and more like my old pre baby self – she was right! So, this is it. Tahlia also (very diplomatically) made me promise to go blond again – she said we have more fun that way. I’m gonna work on the blond this weekend. Tahlia and I also had a great visit and I got the update on her two adorable babies – Jessie is eleven and Jackson is almost two! Time is really flying by; I guess we have been lax about keeping up with each other. However, I have found that the best friends, true friends, you can go a very long time without talking to or seeing them and then just slip right back as if no time has passed at all. With life pulling us in so many different directions, those are the kind of friends to surround yourself with.
