it is march 31st and today it was 78 degrees! not kidding, i kind of wanted to put the air on. this spring has been amazing. charlie and i enjoyed the day with spending time outside swinging, playing with rocks, and going for a walk with a friend. i can definitely get used to spring starting at the end of february!
another random piece of information is that this was charlie’s original due date last year. little did i know i had another 10 days to wait until we forced him out!
what a week! charlie and i have not had a lot of daddy/bill time and we are ready for the weekend. bill worked a ton this week. monday he was home at 9. tuesday he was on call so he was at the hospital (we did go have dinner with him in the cafeteria). wednesday we were able to see bill for a bit. he was post call and should have been home around noon, but instead got home around 4:30pm. thursday he was home after 9. tonight (friday) he walked in after 9. bill thought he would be able to get home to see charlie before his bedtime tonight, but when i paged him in the OR around 5:30 pm to check in the scrub tech said bill had said “i should be able to call you back soon”. then about 45 min later i received another call from the scrub tech saying that bill said “to just put charlie to bed because he would not be able to make it home in time”. i was so sad to hear that he was going to miss seeing charlie again! it breaks my heart to see how sad bill is when he misses seeing charlie. i also ache because i know how much charlie loves seeing his daddy.
but, i am excited that bill is off for the weekend (while he still has to go in and round on patients tomorrow morning, but then he is “off”). we have great friends coming to visit for the day tomorrow and then my mom is coming to see charlie and celebrate her birthday. i can’t wait for some much needed family time!
we explored rocks. we touched, threw, licked (while only charlie did that), clanked, dropped and held rocks. in charlie’s current world, there is no longer a quiet day. quiet days are for babies. almost 1 year old babies want to explore – so explore is what we do.
just to give you an idea of what i mean by on the go…today, we had a meeting for sbs in the morning, played outside before lunch, ate lunch, put charlie down for his nap, he woke up and we watched the kitchen aid knead our bread dough, we went out for a quick 5 mile run, then came the fun part – we explored rocks, leaves, dirt, woodchips, grass, played catch with lily, went to petsmart to get lily’s nails trimmed, met daddy at the hospital for dinner, came home for bath and bedtime. whew!!! charlie is like my third arm. we are bffs.
loving the sunshine, the tree, and the rock.
picking up the rock.
throwing the rock down with force.
i am SO SO thankful of the time i get to spend with charlie. the weather has been beautiful here and perfect for seeing new places. yesterday, while we were downtown for an oil change, we walked up and down 2nd street and checked out the trees, light posts, saw mayo 1 the emergency helicopter coming in for a landing, hung out at some gardens and more. we stopped in caribou and had a snack and charlie basically turned sideways in his highchair with his back to me and waved and smiled at every person walking in and out of caribou. it is so fun to see charlie delight in seeing and learning new things. while it is sometimes frustrating that he doesn’t enjoy hanging out in our living room anymore playing with toys anymore - i am sure this is just for a season (or at least it has to be!) so i am enjoying his willingness to go anywhere and do anything. i think our vacation to san diego in mid-april will be perfect for his stage of life!
bill was able to complete his “peg board wall” today. he was glowing with how it turned out and his new technique to hang our skis.
here bill is just starting to hang things on “the wall”.
here is the new ski set up. they hang by hooks on the bindings so that there is not any pressure on the ski tips.
as you can see we have tons of space to hang more things…lucky us.
charlie was lucky to be able to take 2 trips to menards with bill. on his last trip, bill put charlie in the main part of the cart standing up holding on to the front of the cart. bill said he loved it and was in hysterics when leaving the store. i am a bit worried about the tantrum he will throw the next time he has to sit in the front of the cart at target. thanks bill :)
here is charlie enjoying his menards ride (the pic is from bill’s cell phone)!
we have had beautiful weather here the last couple weeks. charlie and i went out for a walk and it was so sunny i was worried about him getting a sunburn. so i busted out his 3 mth sunshade shirt and sun hat. i was so glad i could squeeze him into both things so we could get outside for awhile. but as you can see below charlie was definitely a fat guy in a little shirt. his big ‘ole belly was sticking out.
that same day – charlie was besides himself with his obsession with the kitchen aid. i would hold him up to see it and he would get all excited. then when it was time to leave the kitchen, he would instantly crawl over to where the kitchen aid sits and whine. i was pretty fried so i decided to just put the kitchen aid on the carpet and let him hang out with it. here he is finally sitting still and checking out the kitchen aid (you can also see how short his shirt was!)
these shoes are adorable. they are still a bit too big, but i cannot wait until charlie fits into them.
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.
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.
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.
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.
