World Cup Crazy!

If you walk into our house anytime between the hours of about 6 and midnight, you are likely to hear what sounds like a swarm of bees. What you would actually be hearing are the vuvuzela's that are played non stop during every.damn.game.

Apparently every 4 years, Brian's favorite sport becomes soccer. And he has to watch every.damn.game. Do you see a theme here? Literally, he records (on Hi Def so it eats up all our room on the DVR) every game. Some games he will actually watch the whole thing. Sometimes he listens to just the national anthems and then fast forwards until he sees a goal. Hits stop, rewinds, and then watches the goal. It is so weird.

So in honor of the World Cup invading my house, I've created a short list of all the things I love and hate about the World Cup.


Things I hate about the World Cup (and soccer in general)
1. Vuvezela's - the most annoying sound ever and every single game they are blaring
2. The "magic" cold spray. Everytime someone is injured, the trainers run out and spray what appears to be hair spray on the injured body part and magically, these players go from writhing and rolling on the ground (do they have no dignity?) to running around on the field again.
3. There are no time outs. Why don't they just follow every other sport and give each team a certain number of time outs? Because they don't have them, towards the end of the game when the teams are tired, players will just fall down and pretend they are injured (more rolling around on the field) until everyone has a little rest and then they pop right up.
4. "Extra" time at the end. I don't know what this is called but if they waste time during their time outs that are not really time outs they add a +3 or a +4 to the end of the game. It's very confusing because you don't know until the 90 mins are up if you are going to have any + minutes.
5. Not letting players sub out. Once a player leaves the game, they can't come back in. Which again leads to more rolling around on the field to get the rest because of no time outs. It's a vicious cycle.
6. Yellow and red cards. They have fouls that don't mean anything but if you foul too aggressively (causing the other player to roll around on the field seems to be the threshold) then they give you a "yellow card". There are all kinds of crazy rules around these like if you get 2 then you can't play in the next game and stuff and if you get a red card you're out but they don't seem to have any consistency on when they are held up.


Things I like about the World Cup (and soccer in general)
1. The eye candy
2. See #1

Speaking of some eye candy. Last Saturday our friends Sara and Brendon went to a wedding so they asked us if Colin could come over for a playdate with Charlie.

Colin really liked our big screen TV and was craning his neck around to watch. Guess what was on? Soccer of course.

A little tummy time for the boys. At one point it looked like Colin was going to roll over but he didn't! Apparently Charlie rolled over twice at daycare last week but so far he has resisted doing it at home. I will ask him to roll over but he just smiles at me and instead Sasha rolls over. :)

They had a great time with eachother!



I couldn't resist adding this one. We've been lucky to be able to put Charlie down at night in his crib wide awake and then he'll fall asleep pretty quickly but one night last week he needed a little extra snuggle time with daddy.

After bathtime and looking very sleepy!

Last week we also started Charlie on some cereal. So far he doesn't really seem to love it but he doesn't hate it either. Some nights I feel like he's catching on and some night he just spits it back out at me and grins. But we try it at least once everyday!

We also celebrated Brian's first father's day. Unfortunatley I realized after Charlie went to bed that I didn't take any pictures of them together (big Mom fail.) For the weekend we went to my parents house and Charlie got to take his first boat ride. He slept the whole way through it so I'm hoping to get some good awake pictures when we go back this weekend for the 4th of July!

Charlie loves to stick his bottom lip out when he's either mad or sleeping. I will work on getting one where he's mad but here he is one night after we got home from daycare.

4 month birthday!

Brian and I can't believe that Charlie is 4 months old already! Where did the time go?!?! Part of me feels like he just got here and the other part can't remember life without him. He had his 4 month appt (and shots) today. They confirmed what we knew - the kid is growing like a weed! He handled his shots great and fell asleep before we were out of the office again!

Weight: 16lbs 2 oz (75th percentile - up from 5oth percentile at 2 month appt)
Height: 26 1/2 inches (90th percentile - up from 75th percentile at 2 months)

The kid is going to be long and lean (unlike both of his parents!)

Charlie is now sleeping mostly through the night. He goes down around 8:30ish and then gets up around 6:30ish. Lately he's been waking up around 1 but we can put his pacifier back in and he passes right out..usually. We did get the thumbs up at the doctor today to start some cereal which I'm excited about and should make for some entertaining pictures!

Here's a few flashback pictures. It's already hard to remember him being that tiny. Look at those skinny little chicken legs back then!





And now all smiles!


Stella is really lovin this if you can't tell... I think she wonders when we can give him back to wherever he came from. She thinks the same thing everytime we take Sasha anywhere.




Looks like he's dancing the Irish jig

We took Charlie to the Twins game on Sunday. I wanted to introduce him to my boyfriend Chipper Jones but Chipper didn't play. Anyone who knew me in high school and college will know what a HUGE Braves fan that I used to be. But now I'm completely committed to jumping on the Twins bandwagon.

Charlie really enjoyed the game...

Charlie finally got to meet his Grandpa Frank this weekend. He lives in Ohio so it was a lot of fun that he came to visit us for the weekend!

Brian's cousin gave us this adorable rhino for Charlie's baptism. Why a rhino? We're not sure but it is huge and soft and cute. Obviously Charlie is too little for it but we knew he would love it eventually. We decided to just put it in the corner of Charlie's room until he could enjoy it. Apparently Stella thinks we installed a doggie bed for her in Charlie's room. EVERYTIME we are in there, she curls up on it.

When I found out that Charlie was going to be a boy I was just a little bummed because I loved walking through the stores and seeing all the girl clothes. There are some seriously cute stuff for a pink and sequin lovin' gal like me if I had a little girl to dress up. But as I was organizing Charlie's clothes the other day, I realized that this kid has some style (unless Dad dresses him in the morning)! I feel like I'm in a rush to get him into all these cute outfits before he grows out of them! He's so long that he's busting through everything with feet or that are long pants. Thankfully a lot of his 3-6 mos clothes are shorts and tops so we're good although the onesies get a little tight in the length.

We also took Charlie to the game last Wed (Charlie has way more Twins clothes than we do.) But he also wore his first pair of tennis shoes. He doesn't need them but they complete the outfit which is the most important thing :)

Brian bought his very first outfit for Charlie the other day. It's in honor of the World Cup starting and is his very first little soccer outfit. I saw this line on facebook the other day and it was so fitting for me. Yes, I get all my best poetry from facebook. :) Charlie LOVES singing and all kinds of music.

"The worst feature of a new baby is its mother's singing"~~Kin Hubbard

El Baptismo para Carlitos Kippley

This weekend we celebrated Charlie’s baptism – or El Baptismo as it will always in the future be known. Charlie’s godparents are Brian’s Aunt Anne and her hubby Michael. We have grown really close to them over the years and couldn’t think of anyone who would be a better fit. Anne has taken the role of godmother to heart and spoils Charlie and every time they are together she does a “photo shoot”. It’s so cute. Charlie is a lucky boy. A few weeks ago she told me about a baptism present she ordered that “didn’t turn out quite right” so already I had some anticipation about this whole thing. Then last Thursday (3 days before el baptismo) I called her to talk about the blessed event and she said she had something to tell me. Apparently she was up late ordering Charlie’s baptism present part 2 and made a teeny tiny mistake. The package she ordered came and the bib was beautiful, the socks were precious, and the little shoes were adorable….and in SPANISH. Yes, everything says Mi Bautizo. When she told me I couldn’t stop laughing. She was all upset and telling me that she was going to take it back and I made her promise me that she would do no such thing. I mean, how fitting that it should be in Spanish when Brian and I got married in MX! But then it became the joke of the whole weekend and his El Baptismo. Our gift to them was a salsa and dip tray J This theme isn’t going to die anytime soon! We love you Madrina Anne and Padrino Michael!





With Grandma Pat and Great Granny Frannie



With Madrina Anne and Padrino Michael :)


Charlie with my Mom and Dad

I love these next two photos. My mom brought up my baptismal gown that both my brother and I wore at our baptisms. She actually made the gown, booties, hat, etc but apparently my brother and I were smaller than Charlie and only the gown fit (barely). I think Grandma might be squeezing a little too tight but she sure loves him!

If you look closely, you can see the shoes say Mi Bautizo! Ha!

I knew the gown would be really tight and not knowing if the weather would be super warm, I ordered Charlie this onesie that had a cross with his name on it. Brian says I enjoy spending money on things Charlie will only wear once. Umm yep :)

This was Anne's first gift for Charlie. Apparently she found a website where you can order cool personalized gifts. Again, late at night Anne placed an order. She just picked the choice where they translate the baby's name but you don't get to know what that is until the gift shows up. Apparently Charlie stands for manly farmer which is pretty hilarious. My little Carlitos is one manly farmer! Ha! But the colors match his room perfectly.

And this last picture just because I think it's cute. He's definitely over me taking pictures of him sometime but our new thing is for Charlie to sit in his bumbo on the kitchen counter while I do dishes or wash out bottles at night. He just watches, drools, and usually has his entire hand in his mouth while he watches.

So glamorous!

No one told me just how glamorous motherhood was going to be. Oh wait. It's not? You're right. It's probably the most unglamorous adventure a person could go on. Worth it? Absolutely ten times over again. But glamorous it is not.

Pregnancy for me was pretty great but I should have known that it was just the tip of the iceberg. I thought that being pregnant gave me the license to wear granny panties and I loved pants with elastic bands. A second helping of ice cream was encouraged and people always tell you that you look cute even when you don't.

If you read back to "my biggest fears" post, you'll see that my fears were all kinds of horrific things happening to my body during the labor. Most of which happened to me. Stretch marks. Check. Hemorroids. Check. Poop during labor. I'm 90% sure I didn't but still horrifying to think about.

Then comes bringing my sweet baby Charlie home from the hospital. A few weeks into my maternity leave I realized that if I laugh too hard, I might regret it if you know what I mean. It became common place for Brian to come home to me pumping on the couch with Charlie sleeping next to me. Our relationship went way past it only being somewhat comfortable to pee with the door open! There were no secrets anymore!

I reached the new low of how unglamorous motherhood really is last weekend. I was at my friend Erin's parents' house because we were getting our boys together in Des Moines. I was sitting on the floor upstairs in her room pumping before we left and in walks HER HUSBAND. The next few minutes are kind of hazy because I think I blacked out a little bit. It's one thing to walk in on someone changing but it's quite different to walk in when someone is pumping - that is something no one should see!! I was mortified. But we all laughed about it later even though it definitely is in my top 3 of embarassing moments!

Anywho - we've had a fun and busy last few weeks. We had some friends over for Memorial Day to help break in our new grill (Happy early Father's Day Brian.) After the party, Charlie was exhuasted and had to take a nap with Daddy on the couch. (Sasha was tired too.)





Here is a picture of Charlie taking a nap. At night we still swaddle him because I think he sleeps better but during the day we just lay him down and he loves to spread out!




Charlie also got to attend his first Twins game. It was very fun even though the Twins lost. Not every kid can say they saw the Yankees play during their very first major league baseball game. Charlie was great during the game - just watched everything and chatted away.


I thought that after going through labor and delivery, any amount of dignity and modesty would have been ripped from me. But I was wrong. I do have a shred of modesty left in me. It was bad enough for my best friend’s husband to see me pumping but the Twins game brought to a whole new level. I had heard that this brand new multi million dollar facility had a “mother’s room.” So at our first game, Charlie and I decided to give it a whirl. I walked down to guest services and was shown to a very small, stuffy room that had no circulation and the only furniture was a few old desks and chairs that I’m positive came over from the Metrodome. There were no partitions so you literally sit elbow to elbow with the other moms while sitting in the stifiling hot room. Thankfully there was a TV so we had somewhere to focus our eyes! The worst part is that there is a 75 year old man who sits at guest services and shows all the moms back to the room. But when he does, he opens the door as wide as he can without knocking and then covers his eyes while cackling “I’m not looking, hehe. I’m not looking, hehe.” It’s pretty special. By the end, I was hot and Charlie was dripping sweat and we both agreed to bring bottles to the rest of the games!

A few weeks ago I was honored to stand up in my BFF Meggie's wedding. Megan is a very detailed person. I remember going over to her house in high school and she would have an erase board with all of the outfits she was going to wear for the week including matching socks and accessories. So it was no surprise that her wedding was absolutely meticulously planned and every detail was beautiful.

As you can probably tell, I went spray tanning a few days before the wedding. I loved how it turned out but maybe I should have told Brian and Charlie to do it too! After I got home from spray tanning, I realized that it kind of stays wet and sticky for a few hours. Brian got out an old sheet and put it on the floor and wouldn't let me sit on any of the furniture all night. He even made me lay on that sheet when we went to bed. I also wasn't allowed to hold or feed Charlie - he was worried about it rubbing off and we'd have an orange oompa loompa looking baby.







My parents also came to the wedding so they were able to take Charlie back to the hotel once the reception really got started. At one point Megan's Aunt Sally came over to hold Charlie and I thought my mom was going to rip him out of her arms. Apparently she doesn't like to share "my Charlie" as she calls him.


Before the rehearsal we got the babies together. The little lady on the left is Erin's sister's baby Layna who was born in December. Declan is just 2 weeks older than Charlie.




Here are the 4 of us with the babies. This was right after "the incident" so I think my face is red more from blushing than the spray tanning.

These pictures are a few weeks late and Charlie's 4 month appt is right around the corner! I can't wait to get a check up on his measurements. Some new developments this month have been:

- grabbing for toys and trying to bring them to his mouth

- grabbing onto his feet for just a few seconds

- he's talking and laughing up a storm - sometimes he squeals which makes us laugh and Sasha gets concerned

- follows everything with his eyes and when Brian or I walk away, he cranes his neck to follow where we are going

I bought these "not socks" leg warmer things when I was pregnant thinking Charlie could wear them all the time. Now that they fit, it seems weird to put him in them and there is no way Brian would take him anywhere with them on but I had to at least have him wear them once! (I do have 5 other pairs though..)

In my pictures, I try to suck in my belly but Charlie looks like he's pushing his out!