Paternity Day!!

It's almost hard to get her up for her meals when she looks so sweet laying there asleep...

Josh and I have been enjoying one of his "paternity days" today~it's so nice to have him home. We get our hubby and dad around, and it also helps to run errands with four adult arms rather than two :)

We ran some errands and had our first meal out with Charlotte in tow..harkening back to my Scots-Irish roots with some lunch at Celtic Cafe, and then a visit to Harmon Creek BB&T where it was great to visit with Josh's old crew from the Kernersville days.

We've been having a great week, fun times with Kindra and Alivia on Monday, dinner with Josh's parents that evening, a little American Idol action Tuesday night, and last night Brooke and Caleb Vuljanic came over to help us polish off the last of our lasagna-fest 2008 stash. it's good times, good times in Shaw Hills :)

More pics to come...for a Charlotte update, she is holding her head up very well, being adorable, enjoying ceiling fans/lights/mylar balloons/close-up faces, growing (as of 1 month checkup she is 10 lb, 1.6 oz and 22 1/2 inches long...90%ile in height and weight), cooing, waving her arms and bicycling her legs, saying "hey" (okay, maybe just an exhale that sounded like "hey"), and perfecting her "hiccup cry" which goes something like: "uh huh [breath in], hic huh [breath in], hic ahuh, etc. about 500 times in a row... It's actually not that irritating, for a baby cry. We are definitely LOVING being parents!! It's so awesome :D

Charlotte & Valentine's Day!

Charlotte and Alivia (Kevin & Kindra's daughter born the day before Charlotte, even though she was due the first week of March!) at their first (of many to come) playdate!
Our freakish snow last Wednesday night!? Totally crazy, very pretty :)
My gorgeous roses from my gorgeous Valentine :)
At Mom and Dad's after eating at Frankie's..yumm yumm
Poppy and Charlotte snoozin'

Well, the whole gang headed down to Charlotte for a long weekend, and it was a blast! Josh is using his paid paternity days up at a steady pace, and he used 1/2 a day Thursday afternoon and an entire day for Friday...so, we packed up and headed southwest on Valentine's day. We arrived in Charlotte late in the afternoon, visited for a little while with Nana and Poppy (previously spelled "poppie" in this blog, but after reading Charlotte's card from Nana and Poppy to her, we now have a correct spelling :)), then headed out for a night on the town. We were originally going to try and eat at Firebirds (where we had our first date~different location thought), but since they don't take reservations, I made a back up reservation at Frankie's - an Italian place near/in downtown Charlotte.

As usual, Firebirds tried to disguise the amount of time you'd be waiting by giving the wait time to you in minutes (So lame...do they really think people can't figure out the real time?)... However, having in my posession a college degree, I was able to decipher that 130 minutes was not going to be a viable option for us :) So....we headed to Frankie's! It was great! We were able to be seated 1/2 an hour before our reservation time, had a romantic little table overlooking the street (it was really nice, trust me), and a delicious dinner. Josh had started the day off right with some beautiful roses first thing in the morning and the evening had a perfect ending too. Thanks for babysitting Mom & Dad!

On Friday we had such a relaxing day, and were even able to run some errands while Nana and Poppy watched Charlotte. Well, I guess I should say, Nana watched Poppy and Charlotte take a nap (pictured above~love that bib!). Saturday we were able to introduce Charlotte to some of my dad's side of the family...speaking of those lovely folks, this Thanksgiving we'll have a real kid table again! This Christmas dinner featured Sam, my cousin Scott and his wife Jamie's son, ...but next holiday season we'll have Sam, Charlotte, Twins!!(courtesy of Scott and Jamie) and another sweet baby (courtesy of my other cousin Lee and his wife Dana). It was certainly a prolific year for the McGraw-Stewart clan!

We headed home Sunday morning having enjoyed a wonderful relaxing weekend with family! Can't wait to do it again! This week Charlotte, Josh and I are going to be very busy. Today, us girls will go visit friends at Fair Grove, have Charlotte's one-month checkup and possibly try a return to small group at church. Then on Thursday we'll have a visit from Nana and Memaw (my grandmother) and hit up the church league basketball game to cheer Josh on, and then Friday we'll leave Charlotte in Maw Maw and Paw Paw (Josh's parents)'s hands and head to Chapel Hill for the Will Ferrell Funny or Die comedy show!!! Whew, what a week!

Hope y'all are all doing well :)

Now where did I put that baby manual??

Okay, I read several baby books, polled friends with babies, and asked our doctors lots of questions, but I still can't remember where that manual is that tells me exactly what I need to do every time I have a question. In this instance, the Tummy Time Issue....

So, the other day I introduced Charlotte to the "tummy time mat"...(thanks Chris and Melissa!)..the only problem was, I couldn't remember when you're supposed to begin using those things..So I quickly picked her up and googled "tummy time"...only to find that there are 50 million official opinions on when to begin this. Considering she hated each and every one of the 120 seconds she stayed awake (as evidenced in pictures), I decided we'll leave the tummy time mat alone for a little while. Any suggestions on when to begin using this (and for how long)?

Josh has totally excelled in the role of father. :) I think her favorite place to snooze is on his chest. Seeing how protective he is of her already, I know Charlotte is going to have to bring home some great guys if she expects to be allowed to date..haha! I'm envisioning a porch and a gun...you get the picture.

We're headed to Charlotte with Charlotte (yes, I know, won't that sound funny for ever...haha moving on) this weekend to visit Nana and Poppie! I know we are all looking forward to that, especially Sweet Pea and Maverick since they'll have a fenced in back yard and puggle manor (pictures and thorough description to follow)..

Hollar at y'all when we get back! :)

Sweet Time with a Sweet Girl

Good Times in the Bouncer Seat!

Charlotte thoroughly appreciates the classics in music. She loves the Mozart songs on her swing. She also has an early affinity for teddy bears, as she loves to look at the three bears on the bouncer seat. I'd love an adult size for both toys.

Fun Friends

Fun visits from friends...Thanks Erin C., Mel B., and Megan C. for coming to visit us!! (Megan not pictured because I'm an idiot and didn't think to grab the camera :( )

Sweet Jack and Finn (aka John and Erin) sent Charlotte (aka Me...well, I let Josh have one) some delicious cookies in a "cookie bouquet" with her name and birth stats iced on-too cute! Also, I have to admit that usually stuff like that is so fun to look at but not very tasty...NOT THESE.. they were so good. I was going to freeze one for her first b-day party, but yep...it has been devoured already. Thanks Usserys!!

Great-Grandparents!