Crossing Borders!

This past weekend, Charissa crossed the stateline for the first time. She went all the way to South Carolina! YEAH! We went to Columbia for our friends Gary and Ashley's wedding. Here are the highlights:

• 3.5 hours in the car talking and laughing with my husband while the baby was content to sleep and hang out.
• Britt changing the name of the Boppy to Bilbo.
  
• Charissa enjoying her first trip to a real pool (not baby pool!) She loved it! I think she's going to be a swimmer!
• Fellowshipping with some old friends from Providence at the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner.
• Finding out some friends of ours are expecting their third child!
  
• Meeting new friends who were also in the wedding party (Britt was a groomsman).
• Going to the Columbia Zoo and seeing lots of amazing animals. It wasn't the most impressive zoo, but in the middle of the summer, in the middle of the day with a 4.5 month old baby, it was just big enough for us.
• Having a little girl ask me if I was a Jehovah's Witness, and when I said "no" her proceeding to ask me why not and if I wanted to become one. And she was four!
  
• Gracious friends going out of their way to accommodate us by allowing us to use their hotel room.
• Charissa behaving herself so well during the ceremony - she only made two little noises the whole time!
  
• Charissa had her first real daddy-daughter dance at the reception. It was very, very precious.
  

It was a very fun weekend. Charissa traveled well and was generally in good spirits despite her whole schedule being thrown out the window and being in two new places for bedtime. Again proving what a good natured, flexible baby she is!

What is "one rib?"

Last night as Britt and I were talking before bed he was teasing me about something and said, "I want my rib back!" I laughed and said something about him wanting just one instead of the whole side. This comment launched a 10 minute discussion in which I realized that for 23 years I had been thinking that when God took "one" of Adam's ribs, I had been thinking that God took one whole side of Adam's ribs. How have I come this far without ever realizing my error? After this came to light, there was much teasing by one party.

Oh well ... I guess we all have our bad theology that needs to be rooted out! :)

Happy Father's Day!

We had a fun Father's Day together. We went to church together (side note: Charissa went to nursery for the first time this morning! And apparently she was a "delight") and heard about how God is our Good Father. Then we had lunch, hung out together for the afternoon, and then we went to a friend's house for dinner. Of course, I should add that the "dinner" mostly involved talking to a bunch of Turks (and one Iranian!) and learning what it is like be surrounded by people who are very different and speaking a different language. But it was actually really fun because we got to work on our gesturing, slow speak, and that words often mean very different things in another culture. Also, I've discovered that no matter what culture you're from the bonds of motherhood are still strong. There was another family there with a 7 month old girl and they were really fun to get to know. Charissa was very excited to play with another girl and was all smiles. In fact, she was all smiles the whole night! It amazed us how happy she was with people she's never met. She got passed all through the group and thought it was a fabulous opportunity to touch a lot of new noses (her new favorite activity).

And to end the day, Charissa decided that the best gift she could give her Daddy was to show him that she wants to follow in his foot steps as a hard rocker. I think she has potential.

Say What?

Last night before putting her to bed, Britt read to Charissa from The Big Picture Story Bible (which I highly recommend you get/read even if you don't have children). I was down the hall listening to him talk to her, and he started off by saying, "Now in this episode the Israelites..." My head jerked up, and I looked down the hall quizzically and thought,"Did my husband just call a chapter in a book an 'episode'? My husband? Who hardly watches television?" I started laughing and asked him about it, and he just said, "Oh ... yeah, I meant 'chapter.'"

Strange times in the Treece household ...

Charissa's First Swimming Adventure!

Charissa went swimming in her baby pool for the first time today. The doctor my mom works for gave Charissa a bathing suit right after she was born, and we were very anxious to us it. Can you blame us? Have you ever seen such a cute baby bathing suit? Strike that - have you ever seen such a cute bathing suit?


Charissa was a little hesitant at first ...

... and it was a little cold for her liking, but once we warmed it up ...

... the real fun began!

SPLISH SPLASH!!

What a happy little girl!

I love this picture because of her feet.

I thought she was going to throw that duck at me!

Again with the happy feet!

After about 45 minutes we took her out because we were afraid she was getting chilly. She definitely would have stayed in if we had let her.

A $4 pool + 1 inch of water = one happy girl!


I'm so glad that Charissa and I could enjoy an afternoon outside splashing around on the front porch. I foresee many an afternoon splashing around this summer!

So Many Wonderful Things to Share!

I haven't written in a week and normally that means nothing has happened, but in this case it means A LOT has happened! So let me update you ...

Hand-Holding Fun
Charissa and I went down to Charlotte to take care of my mom because she was having surgery on her eye. It's a 2.5-3 hour drive which means that it'd be really hard to make it non-stop with a four month old. We got about half an hour from my parents' house when Charissa realized that she was starting to feel hungry. I reached my hand around to find her pacifier, but she grabbed my hand and quieted down. It was about 1030 at night, so it was pretty dark in the car, and I guess she thought she was alone before and now that she could hold me she felt better. So for the next 30 minutes we just held hands. It was so tender and special. I'm not I've ever been able to alleviate or solve anyone's problems by just being near to them. It was a special mama-daughter moment.


Nana's Great Surgery
My mom had surgery on her eye last Thursday. It was an outpatient surgery, but was still pretty serious as they had to go through the eye and the surgery was almost an hour and a half long. But she did really well! She's recovering nicely and is able to see out of that eye, and should be back to normal in a few weeks!


1st Anniversary Celebration
Sunday was our 1st Anniversary!! YAY!! Praise God! Britt met me down in Charlotte and after giving plenty of unnecessary instructions to my parents about how to take care of Charissa for the next 20 hours, we left and went to the same hotel we stayed at last year. Apparently the hotel is very good about celebrating with those who are celebrating because our room had a bottle of champagne on ice, chocolates, strawberries, and pastries. We went swimming and relaxed and then went to a dinner at the hotel's restaurant. The hotel was especially accommodating - we had VIP seating away from the other diners, a wonderful waitress, the manager came over several times to make sure our every need was being taken care of, and to top it all off they made us a very special dessert - individual chocolate cakes with molten lava, Haagen Daas ice cream, pineapple pieces, and chocolate syrup swirled in beautiful designs around the plate. AND THEN - Britt made me a DVD slide show of our relationship. It was beautiful! I wish I had a way to post it and share because it's so fabulous, but I haven't figured out how to do it yet. It was a wonderful anniversary. But by the end, we were ready to see Charissa again. We missed our little girl!


The Double-Rolling Wonder
Charissa rolled over! Twice! And I know what you're thinking - the same way two times. But that's not what she did. She rolled over from her back to her stomach and then within 1 minute she rolled from her stomach to her back! Two milestones in 90 seconds! I had predicted for a long time that she would roll from her back to her stomach first and then be so irritated that she was on her stomach she'd roll right back over. In case you don't know, Charissa hates to be on her stomach. In fact today at her 4 month check up, the doctor observed Charissa on her stomach and immediately said, "She's gonna crawl real soon if for no other reason than she's mad that she's on her stomach!" Ahh CJ ... the never-ending entertaining wonder!!


It's been such a wonderful week!

A Tiny Heartbeat

I was playing with our daughter tonight,
and I leaned over and listened to her little heart beat -
it was quieter than her breaths,
and softer than her thumping feet;

but, oh, what a joy!
oh, what hand divine!
could make not only big hearts but tiny ones,
with one word, in a moment of time!