happy early (1 week) birthday to me :)

while bill and i were at sam’s yesterday i stumbled upon what i wanted for my birthday. after thinking about it – bill went back and bought if for me. a dell inspiron mini netbook. it is dinky. not weasting. faster and more memory than my current computer. i am pretty happy about it. the other nice thing is that windows 7 has a new program for blogging that makes it super easy – guess i will be blogging more. :)

here is what it looks like.

shooter mcgavin

bill and charlie were hanging out on the deck on this beautiful sunday playing catch with lily. charlie was getting used to his sunglasses.

bill and charlie practicing pointing.

ps. bill titled this post. shooter mcgavin is from billy madison.

boink

today i was reading "guess how much i love you" to charlie and there is a part where the small nutbrown hare is bouncing up and down. after i read it i pointed at the little hare jumping up and down and said "boink...boink". he busted into a huge belly laugh and would start giggling any time i said boink. i had to video tape it incase he decided a couple of hours later it was not funny.

my helper

laura comes down to visit charlie and save me about once a week when she is in town. i love the break and charlie loves the constant attention. after visiting a few weeks ago, she sent these pictures to me. every time laura took out the camera charlie started goofing around. he would squint for every picture. i was cracking up. here are the pictures.

who does he look like?

so people always ask - who does charlie look like?

laura brought me some pictures of bill at 10 months to compare too. (i just took a picture of the picture - i know pretty ghetto. maybe i will get them scanned one of these days) i think they look a lot alike.

bill and laura (isn't she gorgeous!). charlie definitely has the square cheek smile.

bill doing the finger point with tom. charlie also does the finger point.

wanna slobbery kiss?

charlie loves giving kisses. they are open mouth, slobbery kisses, but are so much fun to receive. my favorite thing is that he also has to kiss lily (yes he gets a lot of dog hair in his mouth!) and any characters in books. he kisses paul and judy from pat the bunny, elmo, the dogs in a puppy book we have, etc. it is so precious.

here is charlie leaning in to kiss lily on the nose. she just closes her eyes and takes it.

one sweaty mommy

charlie is really into giving kisses. when i got back from a workout this saturday he slobbered me with kisses, but what he had never experienced before was a sweaty, salty mommy. his reaction was hysterical and bill and i were on the floor dying. the thing is - he kept coming back for more kisses with the same after effect.

giving me the greatest kisses.

the reaction!

bill and i also took charlie swimming at the rac saturday afternoon. charlie had never been dunked underwater before, but saturday he experienced his first underwater experience. bill was holding him as he was standing on the steps going into the pool. charlie splashed bill in the eyes, bill closed his eyes and then charlie bent in half and went face first into the water! not what was supposed to happen. charlie didn't mind it too much so we did intentionally dunk him a few more times so he could get used to it. charlie is slowly warming up to the pool and it has been a fun mid winter activity for us to go swim in the afternoons.

adorable

this video is just adorable. as i posted before, charlie loves to take the rags out of the drawer. this video is of charlie handing them to bill. he is chatting away having an entire conversation with bill.

the end of an era

i am basically done breastfeeding charlie. for the last 19 months, i have been growing or feeding this child from my body. amazing. besides the initial torture of starting to breastfeed, it has been a wonderful experience. i loved the way he looks up at me, pokes his fingers in my nose or mouth, plays/pulls on my hair and is just happy and content. i am so glad i stuck it out, but am also very ready to be done. he started pulling at my shirt and would even point at my nursing tanks and say "da...da" like come on i would like a snack. so that was my cue, it was time to move on. sadly, we can't go right to cow's milk because his stomach can't handle it yet so i just give him a bottle morning, afternoon and night. i have been nursing him a bit in the mornings still to ease out of it so i don't get mastitis, but it is just a few ounces so he takes the rest via bottle. a part of me is still sad to see this era of living off of me end, but it has been such a wonderful, amazing experience.

ready for your bath?

last night bill and i were playing with charlie and he started getting fussy. it was about his bath time so bill said "charlie, are you ready for your bath?". with that, charlie twisted around and hit the ground in full crawl mode. we both looked at each other and said do you think he is going to head into the bathroom? sure enough, he did. he went straight for the bathroom like he thought we were never going to catch on. he does this with other phrases like "do you want to read books, eat, etc", but it was so cute to see him respond like he was really a part of our conversation.

10 months - 2.09.10

another month has quickly passed and charlie is 10 months. i cannot believe in just 2 months i will have a 1 year old! ahhh. each month has been more fun, but the 9-10 month changes have been some of the best. we love you charlie!

10 month happenings...
*his babbling has turned to chatter and it is constant. i love hearing him express himself.
*he loves to be carried around on my hip and look at things in the house. as soon as he gets up high enough to see what you are seeing he just starts chattering and pointing like crazy. he points at the microwave, coffee maker, kitchen aid (which he also points to at other people's houses - like he is saying "hey mom - they have one too!"), etc. he just wants to see what i am doing. i love it, but my arm gets tired!
*he is obsessed with lamps, lights, ceiling fans and will grin and point and say "a dou" over and over.

*he gives the best kisses.
*he is almost walking. he will take about 5 steps towards you alone before falling forward. i think he is just a bit too timid to start walking himself, which i am just fine with.
*loves, loves, loves dogs. he has a dog mobile and every time he wakes up he comes out of his crib with one arm extended pointing at the doggies saying "a dou, a dou".
*he is sick of toys and mostly just wants to empty my cupboards.
*still loves to read books. if he is getting fussy we just ask if he would like to read some books and he gets all smiley and happy.
*he still happily goes to the childcare at the rac (rochester gym), which makes me one happy mom.
*still loves food. he is getting more interested in feeding himself and so we both take the spoon while i feed him. i also made some whole wheat oatmeal banana pancakes that he loves. he shoves as many as he can get in his mouth.

here is charlie's 10 month picture with lily.

here is charlie with his beloved dog mobile on his head!

a favorite pastime

currently, charlie loves taking the towels out of the towel drawer. here is a clip to show what he does best. you will also hear him say "a doo", which might be his "dog" word.

no more one eyed boy

since charlie was born, his left eye has had a clogged tear duct causing drainage that looks identical to pink eye. he would almost always wake up with his left eye stuck closed and so we would start every day with washing his eye. he hated us messing with his eye and due to the fact that it was always gooping we were washing it, rubbing it, etc all day long! it would get red and look like he was sick.

most tear ducts clear on their own, but if they don't you need to have the membranes probed by an opthamologist in surgery. we had basically decided that charlie would need to go to surgery to be probed, but mayo will not refer you to see a pediatric opthamologist until the child is 9 months old. there were many times we were frustrated by this rule. finally at 9 months i took charlie to see a pediatric opthamologist. he did a full eye exam and confirmed that charlie's eye was perfectly normal except for the tear duct. mayo also does not usually probe children until they are 1 year of age, but our opthamologist said he could get charlie in in 2 weeks. we were pumped! we were not excited about having charlie go under anesthesia, but it was his best option.

4 days before his operation, bill and i noticed that his eye was not gooping. we thought - do you think that his tear duct cleared up?? no. it couldn't have. another day went by - no goop. another day. then we realized that in fact his eye might have cleared on his own!

so charlie's eye did clear up on it's own. we think that the cold he had had a few days before had put enough pressure on the membranes and broke through. either way we were so grateful that he did not have to go to surgery. what a blessing! i also love that i don't always have to be wiping his eye or explaining to nursery workers that he is not sick he just has a clogged tear duct.

a very hungie bungie

so this video is from awhile ago (first week of jan), but bill and i were watching some videos before going to bed last night and loved this one so i thought i should put it up. this is to show how hungry charlie is right when he gets up in the morning. remember that he usually gets up around 5:30-6 to nurse and then lays in his crib until around 7 am sometime he falls asleep other times he just chats and hangs out. after he gets up and has a diaper change we go out for breakfast. i just crack up at how vocal he is when he is hungry. must get it from his mommy :).

playing his glockenspiel

here is a video of charlie playing his glockenspiel. he loves to play with this. he should probably be wearing eye protection.

january happenings

here are some pictures from our january. nothing major happened in january - just a lot of hanging out with charlie, which is perfect.

here is charlie just chillin in the morning. he makes this kind of fake smile a lot and i think it is adorable. 

him saying "ahhhahha"

charlie feeding lily cheerios on a typical morning. 

a friend of mine made hand print ornaments for christmas this year and i thought it was a great idea. since i didn't do it in december i decided to make them in january anyway. i had a bit of extra material so i decided to make lily's paw print too. 

charlie was enjoying my cell phone and as you can see in the picture below he was not happy when i took it away. this shows his new skill - tantrums. the funny thing is if you just say to him - "charlie do you think that is going to work?" he just looks at you, stops fussing and moves on. 

this is what happens if you try to take a picture of him. he starts to attack the camera.

all cozy after bath time.

charlie has become such a goof in his highchair. this is his new smile where he shuts his eyes. 

he is also OBSESSED with lights! he has to point at every light, lamp, etc and say "daoo". here he is pointing at the light over our table. he will spend the majority of his meal eating and pointing at the light. 

when charlie gets bored he tries to find lily. when he does find her he crawls on her, pets (ie: smacking) her, sometimes even kisses her. she is so good - she just lays there and takes it. i can't believe she doesn't avoid him more. 

when bill had a saturday off we went to woodbury to visit our friends kris and matt. they just had their 3rd child, blake, and charlie was pumped to meet him. in the picture below, blake is 4 weeks old and weighs 14 lbs and charlie is 9 months old and weighs 20 lbs! he also took a casual 4+ hour nap when we were there! i was amazed. 

we took a family day and went to the minneapolis zoo. it was a fun place to visit in the middle of january. i think we probably had more fun than charlie. 

thanks for visiting nana!!!

charlie had a fun last couple of days because nana came to visit. surprisingly, he was still happy and chatty despite the fact that he had some sort of stomach bug. he had an 103 temp and other stomach issues. thankfully, he didn't throw up!

thanks mom for coming - it was great to have some company and charlie loved the fact that he got to be held during naps.

charlie got the biggest kick out of nana pouring the blocks on him. he was giggling like crazy!

out "sledding" in our backyard. he thought it was pretty fun. lily liked playing catch more.