Your First School Year...

Dearest Charley Cate,

Your first tiny school year has come and gone, and you have grown as a little lady SO much! 

During the first few months at tiny school you were timid, a bit of a loner, and you cried your little head off when mommy dropped you off. Now you absolutely adore going to school, looking forward to playing with friends Cassie and Frunwi. You rarely even notice when I leave, let alone cry or tell me bye bye! You have learned so many sweet songs about Jesus, the itsy bitsy spider, happy and you know it, and some mommy can't even understand (like the one you sing at bedtime when you say, "carver, carver..." with praying hands!). 

You've picked up some not so good things at school too.  Like step throat, three total ear infections, and several gross runny noses. That's ok though, as we all know it's just part of being a kid! 

Here are some adorable things you've accomplished as a direct result of attending tiny school:

-You are potty trained and love to pull your panties down on your own. You even like to use the big potty but occasionally still ask for the little potty :)

-Your vocabulary has grown tremendously! You've always had a keen awareness of words and their name association with objects, but I think tiny school has helped you become more vocal and taught you extra words! Some of the most impressive ones? Otoscope, diagnosis, please and thank you, excuse me, windmill, batteries, and motorcycle. Also, for the record, I make you say California all the time because it's so cute the way you say it... Ca-liiii-fowww-nya. :)

-You are no longer a loner around other kids and you ask for your friends all the time! "Play Mason Mallowy" "Play Frunwi" "Play Cassie" "Play Laindey (Laney)" "Play Kip". 

-You no longer take a paci. I finally made the jump to get rid of those bad boys after learning you napped at school without one. You also nap at school without a diaper (but not at home because at home you sleep much longer). 

-Mommy: "How does the dinosaur say I love you?" Charley: "raaaaaaaaawwwr"! Yup, you learned that at tiny school! 

-You have become more outgoing yet still decide when you want to be shy. Typically before we go on an outing where we will be around friends you will either tell us, "play" or "shy". In which case do you say shy then it takes you a while to warm up. 

-You have learned impeccable manners. While we work on these at home daily and mommy and daddy are sticklers about this, I can tell it's being reinforced at tiny school. You are getting so much better at no thank you's rather than NO, bless you's, excuse me's, and please and thank you's. We are currently working on may I's but it might require the ability to form more complex sentences first :)

-You have learned the social norms and rules for playing with other kids. This is evident at home when you interact with Liza and tell her things like, "no kicking, Lizie", "no touching Charley", and "share toys". Tonight when daddy asked you to go with him for bath time you requested that he say please! You even told mommy the other day that daddy needed to "share toys" when I was dusting his model sail boat! Haha! 

-You've certainly developed a style all of your own, all of a sudden wanting input on your outfit and shoe choices, often telling mommy, "nother one shirt" or "different shoes". Sigh. Adorably so, you want to wear your "cowboy hat" Fedora most every day and always pick something that totally mismatches. Still, you're individual and unique and we are eager to see where that takes you! 

Charley Cate, you make our family world go round and we are constantly proud of your many daily accomplishments and milestones in toddlerhood. You are such a kindhearted, compassionate and sweet spirit, but you've got some fire under your tail too! 

The first day of tiny school...not too thrilled about mommy taking a picture :)

The last day of tiny school. Mommy forgot to take one before we got in the car, but it's ok, you're precious anywhere! 

You and your first tiny school teachers. Miss Jessika and Mrs. Kristie. 

Crazy sock day at tiny school! 

Superhero day at tiny school! You and I made this paper cape together and then you decided you didn't want to wear it. But you DID insist on wearing those rain boots. In hundred degree weather. Sigh...

A little bit of your personal style: dress and Toms, backpack, and kitty cat ear headband! 

You absolutely adore your daddy and everything daddy does, so naturally, you love all things music. You ask daddy to dance and when daddy plays guitar in the music room, you pull up a chair and play guitar with him. 

Daddy also works with you on the piano, although at this point it's him guiding your fingers or you banging and singing :)

You're getting better at washing your hair at bath time and love to play in the water with Liza. After bath, you run around declaring, "Nakey baby!"  

You are so gentle with Liza and love her to pieces. You call her Lizie :)

We look forward to many more years of progress at school and at home! Love you little one! 

What if...

this baby is NOT a girl.

penis or no penis?? (sorry if this picture is crude to you. i find it hilarious!! my favorite wall art in all of midland :)

Because, you know, we don't know for sure. We just know that at our 15 week sonogram the tech told us she thought she saw "girl parts". Well that was enough for me :)

I remember laying there with the jelly on my belly (warm surprisingly...on movies they always squirm because it's cold) and giggling because of course it would be a girl...we had only picked out boy names!

So when I got home that afternoon (Joseph was unable to go because of class for work so both our mommas went with us. Awesome experience to share with them!) we began discussing names. The old name we liked before was Matilda Joe, but Joseph declared he didn't like that name anymore. We really argued for almost a week before one day Joseph said "why don't we just call her Charley". I was hesitant at first, but then the more I thought about it, the more I LOVED it!! :)

Originally Charley had been one of the two boy names we had picked out, and so if this little baby does decide to grow a penis, then he will be called Charley Thatcher instead of Charley Cate. It's as simple as that.

As far as nursery planning goes, I really want to use gender neutral things throughout so that we can reuse all our big ticket items for the subsequent babies we have in the future. Of course if Charley Girl is born she will inherit my antique Snow Whites that were my mother's, and if Charley Boy is born then he will inherit his daddy's boy stuff :)

So if the gender changes I will be sure to let you know. But for right now, I deeply feel connected to this little baby and my bet is that it's a little girl :)

15 weeks (about)

16 weeks

Crafting with Steph

When my sister is in town my life is just sooo much easier. For one thing, she usually does my laundry and helps with housework (thank you Stepho). Also, she is just way more fun than it being just me during the days when everyone else is at work. It's so fun. We can lay in bed and watch HGTV or the Glee reality show, we can go junk shopping or actual shopping (if we have monies), and she just spoils me when she is at home by helping me out because I'm preggers. I mean it people...she drives me places, lifts things for me, helps pick up doggie poo...she's just THAT great :)

And also when she is at home we love to pin on pinterest and attempt to make crafts. Usually I'm more creative than her (just saying), but occasionally she will out-craft me, as she did when we made these river stone abc rocks.

my rendition

Her's were MUCH cuter, and she actually made the entire alphabet. If you have a picture Stephanie, email it to me so we can add it here!

I'm actually very sad right now because I just bought an amazingly cheap dresser from craigslist and I want her to help me redo it for Charley's room. Guess I'll have to suck it up and do it on my own though!

Anyway, I love you Stephanie Ann and you are the bestest seeeester any girl could ever ask for. You will make Charley Cate an amazing aunt and we are so blessed by having you in our lives.

Books for Charley

Midland has a very well kept secret...Friends of the Library Bookstore. It might not be such a secret, but it has been a rare and gem of a find for me, especially the month of July, since everything is 75% off of the already ridiculously low prices!!!!! Keep in mind that they are only open Wednesdays and Saturdays from 9 am to noon, so plan accordingly and try to make it this week!

I have been almost every Wednesday and Saturday for the past two weeks and I now have a pile of old and new books to read to our sweet Charley Girl! And the best part; I probably haven't spent a grand total of over $25!

Look at how pretty:

I am totally and completely in love with all the bright colors and the faded/oldness of the books. I can't wait to be in our new house so Joseph can build her some bookshelves that are similar to this:

i'm thinking maybe two-four rows should do us just fine!

Another thing you can buy at the Friends Bookstore, vinyl records! I'm choosing the nursery color scheme from this one and have several others I can't wait to frame as well!

Moral of this post: Go and shop at the Friends of the Library Bookstore in Midland. They are located near the hospital on Michigan street. If you can, go this week!!! It's the last week of the 75% off sale...and trust me, it's quite the bargain. Joseph and I scored a stash of vinyls for him last Saturday for 18 CENTS a piece! Cents people!!!!

(Be sure to bring cash or checks :), no cc machine available here!)

a post I cannot post yet

I will write this tonight and post it later. Much later. Until everyone knows! And then it won't be a secret anymore, and I can declare to the world that, I, am going to be, very soon...


A MOMMY!

And Joseph will be a daddy ;)

So let me first just say how beyond excited we are and how incredibly blessed we feel to have such a miracle impact our lives. We are giddy with excitement and can't wait to love and hold and cuddle our sweet baby. Due December 30, 2011.

How did all this happen, you ask? (and no, this won't get into the birds and the bee's :)

I can remember my LMP (last menstrual period) so vividly and it plays a huge part of this story. And that is because we were pregnant at that time. It was a Friday, and I had a sub job booked for the day. I was only five weeks preggo, and woke up early that morning to get ready. When I went to the bathroom there was the thing that every woman dreads seeing when she is pregnant. Blood. And not just a little "spotting", but lots. (Sorry for the TMI).

So panicked, I woke up my mother-in-law, Valerie (a nurse) to ask her what to do. She recommended putting my feet up for the morning and cancelling the sub job for that day. She said it was normal for some women to bleed and that all was probably fine.

But deep down I think I knew that all was not fine. I was lucky enough to be able to see my OBGYN that day and she did a vaginal ultrasound. She found no indication that I was pregnant and said that most likely I had had what was called a "chemical pregnancy" when the sperm and egg meet and fertilize but the egg doesn't latch on to the uterus for unknown reasons. This news was just so devastating to me. I have wanted to be a mommy now for a long time, and I was so excited for the opportunity to finally arrive. Joseph was such a trooper and really held it together for me. While it was a tiny loss, it was still a loss, and I will forever feel like that little baby was a sweet baby boy.

So fast forward one month later to April. I remember washing dishes and getting this very strange sick feeling. Not nausea or anything, just severe weakness, like wow, I might just pass out right here. Immediately I knew that something in my body was off. I had a pregnancy test left over from last time (I took two then, as I was in disbelief at first) and headed in to do the deed. And guess what I saw? A bright pink, absolutely positive, double lines! I tried to nonchalantly grab Joseph to show him and he was ecstatic as well.

We decided to wait until we were at least six weeks along to tell even our family. At the time I took the test I was only maybe four weeks pregnant (I have very regular cycles!) and we did NOT expect nor even think it was possible to get pregnant again so soon. We just didn't want them to experience the same heartache as last time. Our "plan" was to drop the bomb on Mother's Day. But one sneaky little momma found out before then...

One night I was sitting at the dinner table and had my head down. Valerie very jokingly asked me, "Brandi, you sure have been tired a lot lately. I wonder if there's a reason for that?" She had a little smirk on her face. Joseph and I looked at each other and intuitively knew that she knew. Come to find out that day we took that home pregnancy test we didn't disguise our happiness so well. Apparently our huge "smirks", as Valerie refers to them, gave us away and she knew right then. Mother's intuition I guess!

On Mother's Day we did get to surprise my momma and my lovely grandmother and aunt. It was so special and I love that our families are so excited for this sweet baby.

We had our first ultrasound at 15 weeks and the sonogram tech said she thought she saw "girl parts" but didn't want to be sure until we were further along. I'm saying it's a girl though. I just feel it. And I guess if I'm wrong then that's ok too! It won't be the first time I've been wrong about something :)

profile shot; 15 weeks

tiny baby feet; 15 weeks

We are enamored and completely in love with our little Charley Cate Minefee. Joseph already calls her his Charley Girl and right now I'm a little obsessed with picking out antique nursery finds to make her room one of a kind. So far I have a great collection of vintage children's books and cute vinyl records! One is even the very old school Winnie the Pooh!

But as I said earlier I won't post this until everyone we want to know via face to face message knows! So until then... (UPDATE: I guess everyone that is going to know by now knows!)

Pray for the health and loveliness of our Charley Girl, as we are so excited to be her parents in December! What a wonderful Christmas gift!!!

my big ole belly and sweet charley girl; 17 weeks