The first Baby Belly picture...

So this is the belly at 8 weeks, and also the last time I got dressed in anything other than pajamas for a week.

What Charlie Is Up To

As I have been incredibly nauseous for awhile, and get up off of the couch only to feed Charlie foods that I can barely tolerate the smell of, Charlie has decided to turn to other activities for fun. She now enjoys forming imaginary romantic relationships between her Disney Princess dolls and her Seven Dwarves dolls-- just today I caught Cinderella and Grumpy under the bookshelf together and stopped them just short of sin. I have also seen Ariel making eyes at Doc on top of the TV cabinet, but at least they are behaving themselves. Charlie also enjoys getting on my cell phone and racking up huge bills talking to all her friends and checking her stocks with her broker. I also happen to know that she has taken to ordering pizza since she is tired of the spaghetti and chicken nuggets I keep feeding her. She loves to kick back in her "easy chair" and watch a movie on her personal DVD player, especially while "yucky poo-poo Daddy" watches football on the "big" TV. She actually called him that last week in utter disgust when, after the third game of the day, she asked for "Ella" and we told her no, because Daddy was watching football. She was told that calling Daddy "yucky poo-poo" was definitely not acceptable, and she later made it up by hugging him and saying "I love you, Daddy." She has taken up playing the guitar and is quite good, but only plays one song: "Sweet Child of Mine" (thank you, Jeff). Charlie is also now capable of telling the difference between little and big things: whole "big" pieces of bread are acceptable; half pieces are not. Quarters of an apple are "big" and okay; eighths are "little" and not okay. No more cut-up banana; she now has to have it whole, even if she only eats half and then leaves the other half in the middle of the living room, where I inevitably step on it on my way to the kitchen to make more peppermint tea. One very exciting skill she has recently developed: now when she spits out her chewed up food that she no longer wants onto the floor, she knows to pick it up herself and throw it away in the trash. Very exciting for me with all this nausea! Now if I could get her to not spit out chewed-up food at all...

The Puyallup Fair

We decided to take Charlie to the huge local fair, the Puyallup (that's pronounced pyu-wal-lup for you Californians) Fair that is going on this week. Although it was strongly hyped to us by our new friends, we did not have high hopes. After all, we are cynics from the city, and the fair slogan was "Happy is good," the kind of lowest common denominator advertising that we love to scoff at and mock. However, immediately upon our arrival, we looked at each other and said, "Now this is a real fair." We were surrounded by energetic spa salesman, young 4H club members jauntily toting hay bales and dumpsters marked "Poo-Poo Only," fire-juggling unicycle-riding comedians, fiercely competitive pygmy goat shows, really terrible and earsplitting yodeling demonstrators, booths offering anything from the ever-popular "Miracle Car Chamois" to homegrown honey, and a sea of vendors all claiming to provide the "original" and "authentic" and "historical" fair cheeseburger. Incidentally, we did not have any forewarning from any of these "fair" hypers that any food item you may purchase at the fair that has the word "fair" in front of it on the menu is, in fact, smothered in grilled onions. For example, the "fair cheeseburger" was indescibably delicious, the "fair chili-cheese fries" were a risk but also highly palatable, but I was considerably apprehensive when it came time to order a famous "fair scone." I love scones, in all of their humble glory, and I also have a growing affinity for grilled onions. But never the twain shall meet, in my opinion. Happily, the only thing my scone was smothered in was some sort of berry jam, and my full pregnant tummy was spared what could have been a disastrous event. We took Charlie to see all of the different kinds of animals, and she was delighted to see in person what she usually reads about in books: tiny chicks cheeping in the warmer, fluffy white rabbits stretched out in relaxation in their cages, giant cows and horses contentedly munching in their stalls, and goats bleating and butting heads in their pens. Although, with the chickens, she couldn't decide whether they were hens or roosters, and as they didn't make any of the sounds they should have, she decided they were all hens. Poor rooster, all he had to do was crow to keep himself from being emasculated, but he didn't know. We also got a special treat at the fair--we got to see Billy and the Hillbillies perform, and two of them were Billies we recognized from the Disneyland Billy Hill and the Hillbillies. They even sang some of the same songs and told a few of the same jokes we knew from Disneyland, which was so fun for us but also a little homesickness-inducing. Altogether, as Jeff Foxworthy would say, "We had a good day at the fair... let's go buy us a spa!"

Jeff's on nights

Jeff's recent schedule has required him to leave for work at 7:15 pm, and then he returns home around 6:30 am. This has caused us to adjust some of our home behaviors, such as eating dinner at 5pm instead of 7, sleeping opposite times of each other (I sleep with a body pillow at my back; he sleeps in the middle of the bed), and Charlie getting to watch movies every morning so I can catnap on the couch (you know, that mom sleep where your eyes are closed but you still hear everything) while I decide if I'm going to throw up or not (I haven't yet, but I have gone through 3 boxes of Saltines this week). I did, however, find several benefits from this schedule change: first, I have lots of time to clean up the house after Charlie goes to bed without husband interference; second, I have time to sew after Charlie goes to bed, and I am halfway finished with a new quilt for her, a "Daddy quilt" made out of Jeff's and Charlie's old shirts and patches of things they like or have done together, and third, I get to see my smokin' hot husband in his police uniform every night he works. Who doesn't love that? Also, Charlie loves Jeff's uniform, and says "pretty badge" when she sees him wearing it. When I get weary, I remember this too shall pass; next week he starts the equivalency academy and will be living there for two weeks while he learns state and local law, more self defense, and other fun stuff. Then once he comes home, he will work days again, and I can stop telling the body pillow to pick its socks up off the floor before I fall asleep.

You can take the girl out of the city...

It's not a Washington thing, it's just not a California thing. I am learning, thanks to a talented and enthusiastic group of mom-friends, how to can fruit! Last time it was blackberries, and that jam is amazing, by the way, but this time we did applesauce and grape jelly. The apples came from Amy's yard (or a nearby yard--she was picking them quite early--maybe not her tree?) and we picked the grapes together from Anya's grape arbor in her yard. Incidentally, if your picking style involves pulling on a bunch of grapes until they break free, not only will you immediately be showered with rebounding sticks, leaves, and spiders, but also you will acquire a few grapes down your shirt and in your bra. I'm not saying who did this, but she knows who she is. We did have a great time, and ended up with quite a lot of grape jelly- 72 jars, I believe, although I was not there during the second half of the day when a pot boiled over and caught Anya's stove on fire. These ladies are so much fun, and have been so gracious and welcoming to me, that I can't say how thankful I am for them!