I'm a Big Kid Now!

Saturday turned out to be a day of milestones. Wade woke up early and then took a so-so morning nap. I just have to mention that Wade's Saturday morning naptime is one of my favorite times of the week. Usually Andrew sleeps in so it's just me up. I'm not quite sure how this is different from all the other days of the week. I guess there's something about knowing Andrew is home and also that I don't need to feel the pressure to be as productive during naptime. Anyway...moving on with what you really care about.



After his nap we packed the diaper bag with all manner of entertainment. Uncle D had somehow managed to get us all a lunch reservation for the pre-grand opening weekend at Red Robin. If you're a parent of a little one you will quickly agree that going out to eat is pretty much hit or miss with the kiddo. Lately it's been a lot more miss for us so we've been sticking to the "eat at your own pace" joints (i.e. Jason's Deli, Moe's, Panera). But I had packed stuff to keep him busy for a while.



So, milestone number #1 happened at Red Robin. (By the way, they do not give discounts or free meals to people named Robin...I asked...and Anna made sure I knew that was the dorkiest thing she'd ever heard me say) Wade got to sit in a big boy restaurant high chair! We tried it once before but his sitting up skills weren't quite there yet. He had so much fun eating coasters and talking to Aunt Anna. And he lasted through the entire meal! I think the ticket was that I brought food for him to eat while we were eating (even though he doesn't eat solid food at lunchtime yet)...he also may have been a little drugged (I gave him a dose of Tylenol-see the last paragraph).

Oh yeah, I'd say it was the Tylenol.

Then, tonight at bathtime we accomplished another milestone. Wade has officially graduated from the infant tub into the Big Boy/Regular Human tub. The lifeskill of sitting up opens all kinds of doors for ya!

On another note, I've been real hesitant to say that Wade is teething. For months he's been putting his hands in his mouth and drooling. He's also been pulling on his ear. Apparently sucking on the bottom lip is another sign (notice 2 of the 4 above pictures). Anyway, it's likely that to some degree he's been teething for a while but there's been absolutely no sign of teeth. And it's really easy to dismiss grumpiness as teething when it's actually likely there's something else going on (i.e. tiredness, bored, hunger, sickness). But I'm going to go ahead and say it. I think he's teething. The last 2 days I have noticed some unexplainable grumpiness on top of the other symptoms he's already had. Anyway, I'll keep you updated on the teeth front.

I'm getting sleepy and am not really on top of my game here tonight. Sorry if it was a boring, babbly post.

The Jawbreaker

Ladies and Gentlemen, I introduce to you the new kid on the block. His intense training has included oatmeal; applesauce; mashed bananas, peaches and sweet potatoes; pureed acorn squash, green beans, peas, carrots; and rice cereal. With focus so intense he demands no distractions: his trainer must place the food in his mouth so he can fully concentrate on completely filling his monstrous belly. Step back Joey Chestnut and Kobayashi, you ain't got nothin'.

Recently this phenomenon has entered into a new realm. His training has taken on a life of his own. Constantly he visualizes the food. He is taking jaw strength to a new level. He will reign as ultimate Major League Eating champion OF THE WORLD (echo: world, world, world, world).

And now, new footage has become availabe of his unique strength training methods. Behold, the breathtaking, the lifechanging, the dream catching . . . I present to you THE JAWBREAKER.

Cowboy Baby

I do not like it, Sam I Am

I have recently acquired some new knowledge. Apparently you are supposed to dump poop out of diapers into the toilet before putting them in the trash can. Sorry, I gave you absolutely no warning that this post was about poop. But now you're reading and too curious to stop. So, since Wade's diaper productions are now solid (since he eats solid food) I am feeling obliged to follow this practice. And I just don't like it. There is really no totally clean way to do it. It requires touching the dirty wipe again. Then hoping that no little poop pebbles miss the toilet. And those that do, ultimately cause a plop and water splashes everywhere. Listen, I'm really sorry to paint this picture so vividly for you. But I really don't like doing this. Oh, and I forgot to mention the most unpleasant part. After taking off the dirty diaper you have to set it somewhere before you can go dump it out. Where should that be? And what if you forget you set it there? Or what if you have a crying baby and cannot immediately dump the poop?



You don't have to feel convicted to report me to the authorities, I'm still going to dump the poop. I just needed to share with someone how I despise this task.



You're lucky I'm not including pictures.

It's About Time!

August 23rd @ 6:48pm

Finally, Wade decided to roll from back to front! It's been over 3 months since he rolled front to back. He isn't doing it much without prompting (read: holding an object over his head just out of reach and expressing extreme excitement over that object). But soon he'll be rolling across the room!

(Email readers: if you didn't get the video in your email, you'll probably need to click here to watch it)

Goodmorning

I use that phrase to greet you, not so much to describe our morning at 1112 Pineville Rd. It rained all night long here. Cats and dogs. What a day for a duck! Lately I've been longing for a good batch of rainy days. Except I expected the rain to stay outside. Yup, leaky roof. Very thankfully although there are several spots, the roofer thinks they can all be fixed for under $1000 and he didn't even charge us for coming out and getting on our roof in the pouring down rain! I am continuously reminded that our dwelling here on earth is so temporary. Despite our best efforts we cannot build ourselves a home that will last forever! I long for my home in heaven where no roof will leak (or toilet get stopped up or shower stink b/c the p-trap is missing)!

On a completely different note I need some advice. As you see, I've changed my blog layout design lately. I'm not sure how I feel about it. So I've decided to take a survey. Do you prefer the new layout or the old one? Now if you read the blog via email, you'll have to click here to actually see the new layout. Be honest, my feelings won't be hurt!

Coming soon...exciting post that's actually about Wade!

Reduce, reuse, recycle!

The final act of the Disappearing Photos Saga occured today. An old friend, Greg, gave us some good advice. He said we ought to focus on recovering the pics from the computer rather than the external hard drive. So we started researching the software you can purchase to find files once they've been deleted. In the midst of that research, one of us (I think it was me but I'm not usually prone to such brilliance) says "wait, have we checked the recycle bin?".



Pause: for those of you less computer literate, your recycle bin is kind of like a holding cell where files go when you hit delete. Eventually they are deleted from there and go somewhere mysterious on your computer (the software we were going to buy finds them from the mysterious black hole).



Ok, continuing with the story. We click on the recycle bin and pray.......woooooohooooooooooo! There they were...every single one of our beloved photos appeared before our eyes! Hallelujah!!! Happy day!



So, in order to celebrate this blessed occurence I will share with you a handful of my favorite pics that were lost but now are found.

Good Idea Gone Bad

(Names have been replaced to protect identities)

Approximately 3 weeks ago...

Scharff Family Member #1: "Hey, SF Member #2, let's transfer all of our pictures from the computer onto this external hard drive. Then we won't be taking up all this memory with pictures. And if something were to happen to the computer our pictures would be safe. "

(Anyone remember that word from English I called "foreshadowing". This conversation would be a PRIME example of the literary term.)

Scharff Family Member #2: "Great idea. That'll also motivate us to finally get all our pictures of Wade organized by month."

SF Members # 1 & #2 spend HOURS organizing and transferring pictures that weekend (and deleting the originals from the computer). They are so pleased to be able to easily locate any picture they want. One member is even motivated to work on Wade's scrapbook!

Approximately one week ago.

SF Member #1: "Honey, the computer won't read the external hard drive."

SF Member #2: "Ok, stay calm. Maybe it's just a fluke. Wait and try again later."

They try again later...and then again later...and then a week later. No luck.

Turns out the external hard drive crashed. Was this related to the massive dumping of pictures onto it...who knows? We have discovered that the files may possibly be recovered if we send it off to a "clean" lab where they can take it apart. As you are probably guessing, this costs a pretty penny. They charge by the file! Woah! You can imagine how many pictures are on that thing. It could cost upwards of $500!!!!!

Stay calm, Robin.

So, does anyone happen to have a "clean" lab in their basement and the mad skills required to recover files? Yah, I didn't think so.

Plan B (like we would even consider the costly plan A, ha!) is to amass the pictures of Wade we have loaded on the internet and that we can beg, borrow & steal from you guys.

Today's lesson: Always back up your files immediately.

My apologies...

It's definitely been a while since I've posted. But you get a post plus a new layout, so no complaining. As Laura Wilkinson takes her final dives, I'll try to sum up what's been going on around here for the last couple weeks.


After my mom's visit we hurriedly packed for a week in Pigeon Forge. We headed out on Monday to meet Andrew's mom, Connie at a massive, all entertainment included, cabin in a secluded piece of the Great Smoky Mountain National Park with a breath-taking view. Ok, that may not be entirely true. While the cabin was nice and completely served our needs it was located about 1/2 mile from Dollywood. I definitely wouldn't call is massive. And there was some entertainment included but you can't really play pool 2 feet from where your kids are napping. The view was breath-taking...of the cabin next door. But it wouldn't be a Scharff vacation if we got what we expected (we once expected a lake house and ended up with a double wide trailer that hadn't been redecorated since 1960)! The purpose of the trip was to get away and relax & play together while remembering Andrew's dad (Wade Scharff) who passed away one year ago. To that end it was an amazing week!

Cousins Sydney and Wade (8 months apart)

Since we've been home Wade and I have been concentrating on sleeping! His sleep-not mine. Throughout this summer Wade has digressed in his nighttime sleeping habits. Between travel, moving, sickness (of Wade & mommy & daddy), visitors and more travel he had gotten to where he was waking up at about 2am, then 4am and then 6am. So Sunday night I went to bed early prepared for a long night. When Wade woke up at 2:30am I was determined not to nurse him (as I had gotten into the habit of doing). As you can imagine he was not thrilled about this plan. He continued to be "not thrilled" (code for "cried") until he fell asleep at about 4:30am. I set my alarm and checked on him every 10 minutes. Surprisingly naptime went much smoother on Monday. Monday night I was all geared up for another rough night. He woke up at 3am or so and whined/groaned for about 30 minutes (I don't think he was even fully awake) and then fell asleep. Tuesday and Wednesday nights he slept right on through until 6am! Woohoo! AND naptime is continuing to improve as well! I am so so so thankful that this process has been so quick.

Aside from that life has pretty much returned to normal. Andrew and the guys are working very hard on the upcoming 1st Annual Wade Scharff Memorial Charity Golf Tournament planned for Sept. 20 in Spartanburg, SC. I am SO proud of all they are doing and know that their dad would be so proud of them.

Well, the hurtles are about to start which means I've been working on my blog for way too long!

Halfayear Birthday!

Bocce Ball

This is Andrew's pre-victory celebration. He was totally unprepared for the beating he was about to receive.

Bocce Ball involves one person tossing a little ball (like a ping pong ball) onto the court. Then the players take turns throwing large heavy balls attempting to get as close to the little ball as possible. Now this is our version of Bocce Ball. Or at least how we played at a picnic once. As we were playing a guy came along and tried to tell us how to play. His way sounded fun but

involved more people and little balls than we had. Well, looky there. It's a little hard to tell but that's my green ball about 5 inches from the little ball. Andrew is starting to get a little scared.
Wade cheering for mom!
So, in the end the score was Robin-5, Andrew-4, mom-3!!! Woohoo. Let this post serve as the record that I beat Andrew at a (somewhat) athletic game!

72.7%

Apparently the steepest incline railway in the WORLD is right here in Chattanooga. But it only earns that title for a couple feet. I guess the grade is record breaking for just long enough to top some other incline in the Himalaya's or the Alps or Pike's Peak.

Just like Disney
View from atop Lookout Mountain...
wow...i'll pay you $100 to wear that all day

we practiced this pose all morning

look, i can put my ENTIRE paci in my mouth