March was better

If you recall, February was rough for us.  But March was better!

No one stole our credit cards!!

Only two kids got (mildly) sick!!  And it was easily fixed with a (uninsured) trip to the doctor for some (uninsured) antibiotics for an ear infection and Zyrtec for allergies!!

We celebrated!!  Something special for Emma Grace (more to come) and Charlotte's 1st birthday!!

Jereme was rehired!!  He is back with his former employer (you know, the one he left, thankfully on good terms), and he will soon get his first paycheck approximately 2 months after his last one!!  Shew.

And here's what I've learned:

Medical insurance is a luxury.  Paychecks are a blessing.  It's easy to take wellness for granted until your whole house is sick.  While answers and getting to the bottom of something might make us feel better, some things just happen and we won't understand them.  We expect to have doors close in our face, but sometimes doors close after you've already walked through them and you have to turn around.  One of the hardest things we've learned and are still working through is this: while it feels like what happened was a missed opportunity (and a really good one!), it wasn't our opportunity to have.  To quote the Beatles, I get by with a little help from my friends.  I can't tell you how meaningful it was to have family, friends, and co-workers reach out to us, check in on us, pray for us, bring food to us, and more.  Jereme has good friends.  I have good friends.  Our family?  Can't beat them.

March, I've enjoyed you.

Charlotte's 1 year check up

I took Charlotte for her 1 year check up last week and baby girl is healthy, healthy, healthy!  She got her finger pricked and didn't flinch one bit.  The 3 shots that followed?  Now that's a different story.  I HATE holding down the arms of my baby while she looks at me screaming.  Caroline was with us and patted the top of Charlotte's head and said "Charlotte!  Shhh!"  Nothing helps you get over your pain like big sister telling you to shhh!

I had to take this picture while we waited for the doctor.  I LOVE CHUBBY BABIES.  Thankfully the Stouts are 3 for 3.  I also know these rolls will soon disappear and the belly won't push down the top of the diaper for too much longer so I'm probably going to kiss her thighs every day until then.

I don't know if you can tell from this picture, but Charlotte is fully dressed and her leggings are around her ankles.  The exam was over and we were waiting on shots.  I have a lot to learn about parenting, but one thing I learned REAL QUICK: get that baby as dressed as you can before the shots come.  You don't want to be dressing a screaming, kicking baby post-shots.  We almost always wear a dress to these appointments just to make it even easier, but it was chilly this day so we had to wear leggings, too. 

Charlotte has her bottom two teeth, and the top two are close to the surface but not through yet.  BUT, she has two molars that have come through.  I thought that was weird since it doesn't really follow the typical schedule.  I talked to her doctor about it, who then did a pretty good oral exam, and it looks like Charlotte is actually getting her whole top row at one time.  The doctor saw 6-8 teeth near the surface of her gums about to come through. Totally explains her recent fussiness.  (Also, one of her top teeth has popped through since this appointment, so we're moving right along!)

Charlotte's stats:

Weight: 22 pounds

Height: 30 inches

Head: 18 inches

For comparison, Caroline:

Weight: 22 pounds

Height: 30 inches

Head: 18.5 inches

Emma Grace:

Weight: 22 pounds, 9 ounces

Height: 30 inches

Head: 18.5 inches

So, if you're keeping score, I've basically bred the same baby three times.

Thankful, once again, for a happy and healthy baby girl!

Going back to Christmas

I found pictures of Caroline's Christmas program at school and can't go without posting them.  I also can't allow myself to post them in March because...three kids haven't quite killed some of my OCD tendencies.  So here's a link to the backdated post somewhere in December where it should be.

http://astoutstory.blogspot.com/2014/12/carolines-christmas-program.html

Charlotte's First Birthday Party

We celebrated Charlotte's birthday on Saturday with about 30 friends and family.  The weather was perfect for an indoor/outdoor party, Charlotte was as sweet as ever, and we loved having people who love our girl with us to celebrate her life!

The theme for Charlotte's party was Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star with lots of gold and pink.  It was a sweet little theme for our sweet little girl!

I made Charlotte's top with a gold, glittery number one as well as her pink and gold tutu.  She wasn't really happy about the accessories but I carried her for 9 months and have a scar to prove my love for her so I get to pick the first birthday outfit.

I made her name banner, and the cardboard ONE blocks on the mantel came from Hobby Lobby.  I just added some gold glitter.  I added some pink and gold tassels to an old window frame, picked up some star balloons from the Dollar Store and mantel complete!

Actually, NOW it's complete!

With the same materials I used for the mantel banner, I made a little sign to hang from her high chair.  Then I added more tassels and more star balloons.

This is a horrible picture, but here it is nonetheless.  I put up this backdrop behind the food table.  Keep it in the back of your mind because you'll see a future Father/Daughter Dance post coming up soon where I made this for the photo booth.  The beauty of being in charge of an event at the church is you can then loan part of the decorations to yourself for your daughter's party.  It's pink and gold but hard to tell here.

I mean, really, why didn't I turn on the flash?

I made star shaped PB&J sandwiches for the kids.  We also had pimento cheese sandwiches, chicken nuggets from CFA, chicken salad, pasta salad, fruit, veggies, star shaped tortilla chips, cheese, and crackers.  

I made cupcakes for the kids, a big cake for the adults, and a smash cake for Miss Charlotte.

We had pink lemonade and water for drinks.  I love using mason jars and paper straws.

For favors, I made pink star Rice Krispie treats and pink Play-doh with gold glitter.  I'm sure all the boys were stoked!

My mom always makes a balloon wreath for the girls' birthday parties and then I added some glittery gold stars.

The weather was perfect.  After a few cool and rainy days, it was sunny and 70 degrees.  I knew we had anywhere between 12 and 15 little ones coming and I didn't really have an activity planned, so I asked Nana and Papa to bring their bouncy house thinking it would be fun for the kids and it was!  We left the back doors open and kids ran in and out between playing and eating.   

My sweet birthday girl!!

After everyone ate, we sang Happy Birthday to Charlotte and let her dig in!  She was a fan!  Not timid at all.

Love this shot of the oldest and youngest party goers.

It goes without saying that her future husband will come over one day and we will pull out this picture.  I kinda want to frame it.  There has got to be such freedom in face planting into a whole cake with a room full of people watching you.  AND YOU DON'T CARE.

I didn't think to take any pictures of the kids playing or adults hanging out which kinda stinks, but my memory will just have to do (which means in about 4-7 days I'll have no recollection of the party at all).  But, I do have to say thank you to my mother, grandmother, and mother-in-law for their help cleaning and prepping food and cleaning again.  

Charlotte, we LOVED celebrating you!  You are certainly our little twinkle star and are as sweet as that little cake you enjoyed so much!!

Happy First Birthday, Charlotte!

Happy FIRST BIRTHDAY, Charlotte!

One year ago today, my heart grew again as we welcomed you into our family.  We are so proud of you (and, really, ourselves!) for marking this milestone!  It has flown by and there was no part of it that was overly challenging (at least nothing that was solely because of you).  You were an easy newborn and you are still easy.  You have been the perfect third baby to our family!  I like to think of your first few months of easy newborn life as our reward for surviving your biggest sister's first 6 months of life.

So here's what you are up to at 1 year old:

-You have two bottom teeth, two molars (what?), and your two top teeth are nearly through the gums.  I'm sure if we gave you a big piece of toast they would pop through.  You have been a little fussier than usual but I'm sure the molars are to blame.

-You sleep all night and take one or two naps a day, it just depends on our day and your willingness to settle down.

-You walk behind toys and cruise down the sofa, but no walking on your own yet.  Fine by me!

-You give kisses, wave hi and bye, dance, clap, and say "daddy," "ma" (rarely but, sweet mercy, I'm counting it), "ah-oh" (when you drop something), and I know this sounds crazy but it REALLY sounded like you said "hi dee dee" to your great-grandmother several times this weekend.  So I'm already on the phone with Harvard.

-You eat anything and everything.  Cee Cee made us Greek pastitsio this weekend and you ate every bit of your three helpings.  Your great Papou and Yia-Yia would have been so proud.  You are drinking cow's milk from a sippy cup now (we started the milk a tad early but you know what they say...third child problems).

-You are happy, happy, happy but you do get mad!  If we take something away from you that you wanted, watch out!  We went to CFA on the day of your birthday and when they heard it was your big day they asked if you could have some ice cream.  Once you had had a few spoons and we took it away from you, you threw a fit!  I mean, I get it.

-In true third child fashion, you don't know a lick of sign language.  I think a couple of weeks ago I started thinking about your sisters knowing several signs before they were one and I started trying to teach you.  It's sort of like cramming the night before an exam...it's probably not going to do much good now.  So maybe we'll just skip to words.

-You LOVE your sisters.  You follow them around and get so excited when they play with you (and you give them A LOT of freedom to have their way with you).

-You are loud!  I don't know if you're just trying to be heard, but you really have some lungs on you.  So that's fun when we're in public.

Charlotte, words just can't say how much we love you and feel blessed to have you in our family.  I get tickled thinking about how you were once God's secret as we (briefly) thought we might be done having kids.  Only he knew you would be part of our family one day.  I can't think of any baby we could love more.  Having your itty-bitty baby turn one kinda tugs on the heart.  But then I get so excited to see you grow and see who you will become.  We love you, sweet girl.  Happy first birthday.

March 20, 2014

On the night you were born,

The moon smiled with such wonder

That the stars peeked in to see you

And the night wind whispered,

“Life will never be the same.”

Because there had never been anyone like you…ever in the world.

So enchanted with you were the wind and the rain

That they whispered the sound of your wonderful name.

It sailed through the farmland

High on the breeze…

Over the ocean…

And through the trees…

Until everyone heard it

And everyone knew

Of the one and only ever you.

Not once had there been such eyes,

Such a nose,

Such silly, wiggly, wonderful toes.

When the polar bears heard,

They danced until dawn.

From faraway places,

The geese flew home.

The moon stayed up until

Morning next day.

And none of the ladybugs flew away.

So whenever you doubt just how special you are

And you wonder who loves you, how much and how far,

Listen for geese honking high in the sky.

(They’re singing a song to remember you by.)

Or notice the bears asleep at the zoo.

(It’s because they've been dancing all night for you!)

Or drift off to sleep to the sound of the wind.

(Listen closely…it’s whispering your name again!)

If the moon stays up until morning one day,

Or a ladybug lands and decides to stay,

Or a little bird sits at your window awhile,

It’s because they’re all hoping to see you smile…

For never before in story or rhyme

(not even once upon a time)

Has the world ever known a you, my friend,

And it never will, not ever again…

Heaven blew every trumpet

And played every horn

On the wonderful, marvelous

Night you were born.

-Nancy Tillman