so sorry!

ok, so i totally apologize for not having posted any pictures, or even updates, in the past couple weeks. my life has been totally crazy. thalia and i headed to michigan for a week of weddings and vacation. ever since we got back on sunday, work has just been crazy. by the time i get home at night, the apartment is a disaster, i have no food, which is fine because i have no clean dishes to eat the food on! not to worry though, i got the apartment clean this morning, the dishwasher was run this morning, and i have pictures for you!

at the nashville airport, excited to head home!
at a beautiful church in grand rapids at joe and amber's wedding

splashing in hubbard lake in northern michigan! the fact that it was only about 70-ish degrees outside obviously doesn't bother her. i think the water was actually warmer than the air that day

this is my favorite picture! look at her face!! decked out in all pink ready for a boat ride. i did NOT mean to coordinate her outfit this well. in this picture, thalia is watching her daddy jump in the lake to fetch our digital camera that decided to take a swim. so all of these pictures are from my phone (wow!) because we still aren't sure if our memory card is trashed, or just our camera. thalia is excited to have a new shiny play toy with lots of buttons!!

sitting in daddy's kayak. she liked it when chris rocked it back and forth. as it turns out, they actually make kayaks with a CHILD SEAT!! isn't that crazy. chris is maybe going to go look at one in saline for me! that would be so amazing. family kayak trips!!!

obviously not taking after her daddy with her piano skills. isn't her posture great?!
note to self...fountain ponies stay in way longer than pigtails! this is at chili's last night. we went out with a friend of mine from michigan. thalia was excited to get her picture taken...which is a rarity lately. she has been running away from me the past couple days.

so for those of you keeping track of thalia's milestones, thalia put her own jelly shoes on today. she even got them on the right feet! she ended up walking out of the house in a red outfit with pink sparkly shoes, but i didn't have the heart to take them off.

keep us in your prayers still...we should find out in the next week or so about my future. its not so much that i am worried about it. i just need to feel like i am on stable ground for once. thanks for all your love and support. now that i have most everything caught up, it should be easier to keep you updated.

much love and much more sleep kinda (thalia slept through the night, no peeps even every night since sunday...except last night. neither of us slept very well)

c, c, and t

big thalia update

in the craziness of my life the past couple months, i feel like i haven't really given you a solid update on my little lady's amazing abilities! so i am going to try to run through all the stuff she can do, and just how much she is growing up!
thalia can pretty much repeat anything you ask her to (if she is in the mood). most of the time it is pretty clear too! my favorite is "all better", but she'll say anything. the cutest thing was the other night when chris was on the phone. i put the phone to her ear and said 'say hi daddy' and clear as day thalia said "hi dat-tee". it was so precious! she also said uncle ronnie and martha over the weekend, so they are both happy! other favorite words include bottle, uh-oh, blanket, batty (pronounced bah-tee) is her version of binky, cracker, spoon, cup...and HOW COULD I FORGET elmo! of course every kid needs to know how to say elmo!!
aside from words, she is very good at mimicking. she knows that i inhale my Advair. when she sees it, she takes a deep breath in! she knows that i put mascara on my eyes and qtips in my ears in the morning. she gets her shoes in the morning, and is starting to say "diaper" and running to our changing spot when she poops. this latest development is ironic because just this past weekend i told aunt jillian that thalia was not indicating that she was ready for potty training! thalia also likes to brush her teeth and her hair, and wipe her own hands, face, and nose.
in addition to all of these mental developments, she is getting taller. she can now reach the cabinet drawers. she can't reach in them, but she can pull them out. she can lock and unlock the dishwasher, and she can reach the doorknob on the outside door. luckily she can't turn it yet, but i bet i am going to be investing in some of those knob globes before i know it!
thalia is also eating very strange things. because of our crazy schedule, thalia has now tried and enjoyed black beans, guacamole, cherries (see below), baked beans, spinach dip, sweet potato fries, ketchup (oh that's another funny thing! when everyone came down for memorial day, we grilled hot dogs. when chris was feeding thalia, he would ask her if she wanted "dip", ie ketchup. now any time she has something that is bite size she asks for dip. cracks me up!)

thalia is also very particular about how she eats. for example, if there is a cup-holder where she is (high chair, stroller, etc) her cup MUST go in the cupholder. if i put her cup on the other side of the tray, she will stop what she is doing and put it in the holder. if she is in her stroller, her cups usually don't fit in the holder and she gets really frustrated. also, she prefers to use a spoon now, instead of just her fingers. the other day, i put her in her high chair and put her dinner plate down on her tray. i turned to get her milk and as i did, she said "spoon?!"
i tell you what, if i didn't have this little adorable monster keeping me laughing and on my toes every day, i don't know what i would do. she lightens and brightens my days and my life and i am so truly blessed. now we just need to get daddy down here and we can be a family again.
so i was going to try to have this just be a thalia update, but since i brought it up, here is a quick update of my situation...everyone i work with wants me to stay down here on a permanent basis. the problem is, it is unclear if there is a position for me. what that means is i would have to continue doing what i am doing (living in two states). this is wholly unacceptable for my family. so some people are trying to convince other people that a position needs to be created, and that they want me to fill it. unless that happens, thalia and i are coming home september 12. if you could please continue to pray for us, for thalia as she misses her daddy, for chris as he misses his baby and his wifey, and for me, as i come to the potential end of my time here; that i may be patient for God's plan to work out, and that i may accept his plan with grace. there are some big life decisions that are going to be made in the next few weeks, and i want to make sure that God is helping us make those decisions.
thank you for all your love and support over the past 10 months, and for your continued love and support these last 2. thalia and i are very homesick and hope we can see many of you soon.

much love and little sleep (i still am having a hard time falling asleep at night)
c, c, and t

videos

update overload!! this first video is of a guy playing a didgeridoo, which is an aboriginal instrument. the funny thing is that this guy had a stereo system what was playing club music! it was hilarious. also hilarious is his white sidekick playing clapping sticks!

this video shows off yiayia's pride and joy...she taught thalia how to throw away her own diaper!

enjoy! i'm going to try to go to bed!
much love and a bit more sleep,
c, c, and t

16 (and 1/2) months!

i tried to take this picture on monday but my camera died. it took me until today to get batteries. this is as close as thalia would get to her hippo today. no worries aunt seffi - usually when i say let's get a picture with your hippo, she runs to it!


i am including a picture of my girls from june too. aren't they adorable?!


one more update to come!
c, c, and t

funny outfit

i totally forgot that i had this picture stuck in my camera! this is what thalia wanted to wear one day. she refused to put her clothes on...she kept asking for a bib. then she found her shoes...and her hat (all words she can say now). she walked around like this for at least an hour. i was cracking up!

much love and a little more sleep,

c, c, and t

funny story

ok, no sydney pictures quite yet...i am working on it though! but i had to tell you a funny story from this afternoon. needless to say my first day back at work was crazy. thalia transitioned back into school much easier than i transitioned back to work. there are a lot of things going on both actually at work and potentially at work. these two things, plus still not being caught up on my sleep, led to a very grouchy claire. oh well, not many people were there today to witness it.

anyway, i get to thalia's daycare and walked into the playroom where thalia usually is in the afternoon. today she happened to be on the other side of the room. as soon as she saw me, she yelled "MOMMY!!" and started running toward me. now, i must interrupt myself to tell you that thalia just started saying mommy and daddy right before we left for vacation. before then it was just mama and dada. so today was the very first day that i was greeted with an enthusiastic MOMMY! anyway, as i walked in, so did another mom. so her son starts running for her. the two of them met at a bottleneck of toys and bam! ran right into each other! they both slid onto the carpet and looked up so bewildered! then they each got up, brushed themselves off and ran to each of us. it was the cutest, funniest thing i have ever seen. i wish i had it on video. just the "MOMMY!" itself was enough to brighten my whole day.

hope you had a bright day. pics to come soon, i promise.
much love and a bit more sleep,
c, c, and t

home sweet home!

hello my long lost blog buddies! we have finally made it back to north carolina!! what a wonderful and amazing vacation we had! we have literally just walked in the door, so updates and pictures will have to come later. but i did want everyone to know that we survived two 14-hour plane rides and everyone in new mexico thrived with thalia, and vice versa. i can't wait to tell you all the new words she learned!!
ok, off to dinner and an early bedtime. more to come soon, i promise!
much much love and very little sleep,
c, c, and t