no words

these shoes are adorable. they are still a bit too big, but i cannot wait until charlie fits into them.

charlie, can you say...?

charlie is now repeating some words that we say to him. it is adorable. he will repeat "uh oh", "da da", "ga ga", "dog" (or some version of dog - probably sounds more like "dooo" with a soft "g"), but he will not repeat "ma ma or mom". if you ask him "charlie, can you say ma ma?" he responds "da da" and seems to giggle. i know he can say moamaoamao because i hear it when he wants something or is melting down, but must not be able to figure out how he forms that sound.

here is a video of charlie saying a few words. his voice is a bit soft, so i will try to get a better clip soon.

thankful

i am so thankful for my wonderful friend nicole and her little boy addison. i was blessed to meet nicole almost right away when we moved to rochester. we both were pregnant and due within a few days of each other. addison was born 7 days before charlie and we determined they were going to be great buds.

charlie and addison have been almost spot on development wise so it is a perfect match for playmates. currently, charlie is more aggressive. here are some pictures from play date a couple of weeks ago (before the black eyes).

here they are playing nicely.

then charlie decides he wants to be really close to addison and begins attacking him. look how calm addison is.

apparently, what he really wants is just to show addison how much he loves him by giving him a wet kiss.

again - charlie getting close to addison.

going in for another one. addison is so patient with charlie. he just keeps trying to play.

thanks nicole for your great friendship and play dates!

11 months and black and blue

here are some updated bruiser pictures. as you can see – he is not too bothered by his bruises.

another month has quickly passed and charlie is 11 months old. he brings us so much joy every day and we are so grateful God has entrusted him to our care (or lack of care from the pictures above).

below are things charlie is doing at 11 months:

*walking. not like a pro, but he does take off on 2 feet quite often.

*eating basically everything we eat, which is fun and a lot more work cleaning up.

*he has really begun to enjoy swimming. we go almost every day. it totally wears him out and then he takes about a 2 hour nap (yeah!). after swimming in the pool, we sit at the top of the hot tub stairs and it is so funny to watch him relax and get a little loopy from the hot water. it always makes him crash on the way home. i can’t wait for summer so we can be outside!!!

*takes rags, blocks, clothes out of things and also puts them back in. he just loves interacting with someone as he is taking rags out of the drawer. he hands them to you all nicely and says “da dou or ga or ba” and then all of a sudden he says “da da da dou ba ga” and then yanks them away from you to put them back in the drawer. you feel like you are getting scolded, but before you know it you have more rags on your lap so you just get back to refolding the rags so you can restock the drawer.

*enjoys doing things (i wonder where he gets this from – whoops). he does not like chilling in our living room playing with toys. he wants to see new things. so we are spending a lot of time at our athletic club, which has fabulous kid play areas, pools, etc. we also go to target, on walks/runs, or go outside and play catch with lily.

*he still likes reading books, but definitely is more into turning the pages very quickly than focusing on what is going on in the book. we still read billions of books a day though – just very quickly.

*charlie is so affectionate. he will be playing and then come over to me and give me a hug and lay his head on my chest for a few seconds. it is so peaceful when he is just resting there, but before you know it it is over and he is on to another thing. i love his hugs and kisses.

*he still loves any kitchen appliance. he makes coffee with me every morning (on my hip). he watches when i mix dough in the kitchen aid. my dad brought his huge blender when they came to visit a few weeks ago and charlie was mesmerized by it.

*charlie likes to play with lily. he will crawl over and around her. the best is when he pulls up her lips to check out her teeth. they also still play with toys together.

ok – i could go on and on, but it is so fun to think back about the things he has learned these past few months. here are lily and charlie.

constant abuse. lily is just bracing for it.

going in for a kiss. what a lucky dog.

i tried to get one of him standing so we can see how tall he is getting, but he was quick to take off.

it’s a bruiser

here is a picture of charlie this morning. definitely moving towards 2 black eyes. he is taking it like a champ.

on a different note – charlie is so sweet. he is really into giving me big hugs, kisses and laying his head on my chest or stomach. when he lays his head on my stomach he gets really quiet and will just rest there with his ear against my belly button. it is precious. bill said he thinks that maybe charlie is hearing my gut sounds and it is comforting because that is what he heard for over 9 months when he was chillin in my womb (kind of weird, but sweet all together). i am soaking up this time with him because some day he will definitely not be doing that.

warning…worst parents ever

so here is our adorable charlie before “the incident”. it was so cute he was riding his rocking giraffe and actually dismounted independently. he was having a great little sunday.

then, his inattentive parents were in the kitchen and left him to his own devices in the living room. he became curious about what sat atop a tall skinny table that we have always talked about affixing to the wall. we heard a crash and then a scream and found charlie with the edge of table resting on his chin and a ceramic bowl (which now has a crack across the middle of it) lying next to his face. he lost it, but i flipped out. bill grabbed charlie and i started hysterically crying and running laps around our kitchen island in an attempt to turn back time (i didn’t even know i had this defense mechanism until today).

the space between his eyes and directly above his nose (bill calls it his nasal root or radix or a bunch of other things i cannot type or say) immediately began swelling and turning black and blue and was bleeding a bit. overall, he handled it pretty well. i, on the other hand, did not. it was so hard to look at his little face, which now looks like a character from the movie avatar. we are so thankful that the table and bowl fell like they did. it could have been much worse. thank you Lord.

here are a few pictures of the damage.

his profile shows how swollen he is. i still think it looks worse in person.

pretty much there

charlie has enjoyed being on his feet from about 4 weeks old. ever since he started pushing his truck around at 6 months i thought he would walk early. his cautious personality has definitely held him back from walking independently these past few months (which i have been quite grateful for). but, this past week he has gotten a bit more courageous. he will now evaluate the surroundings and very carefully let go of the chair, couch, or person he is holding on to and walk to something else. he often gets freaked out mid-walk and drops to the ground to crawl the rest of the way. it is so funny to watch him. i figured he would just one day start walking and that would be it. i guess not for charlie. either way, it is so fun to watch him slowly get it. here is a video of him walking this afternoon. keep an eye on his right index finger.