8 months!

here is our adorable 8 month old baby!

grabbing a fist full of lily's hair is charlie's way of petting lily. check out his big belly and cheeks!

at 8 months he is:

*crawling well

*walks while pushing a truck

*babbling like crazy. i think he almost says "dog" when he sees lily, but i am probably hearing things :)

*he still loves to eat. he consumes about 4 big meals and nurses 6 times a day

*loves seeing his daddy

*sleeping better at night, but still gets up around 4 am for a snack

*points at everything with his index finger

*whenever he meets someone he likes to touch their nose before anything else

*loves reading interactive books like "where's spot?" and touch and feel books

*smiling more than ever. he is such a happy boy. i think he is getting to be a more easy going baby...as long as i keep him full he is happy as can be!

improvement...

well i think setting "rules" for myself at night has helped a bit. charlie's waking up stints are getting shorter and he is dealing with it better. last night he went to sleep at 7 and slept soundly until around 3, i fed him and then he was down again until 5:30 when i fed him again and we slept in the chair until 6:30 together. sleeping in a chair might sound pretty rough for a lot of you, but we have this amazing recliner and it is so comfortable (if you are having a baby - you must get one)!

i guess letting him cry it out this past time must have really helped him. we had let him cry it out before, but never saw much of an improvement. maybe he was just ready for it now. either way - i think we are moving towards better sleep habits.

while charlie doesn't sleep perfectly at night, he still is taking at least 2 naps for me - usually between 1-1.5 hours long. not bad. i think i would rather have those nice breaks during the day then have a perfect night and no naps!

sleep - where are you????

charlie is almost 8 months. i thought we would definitely have a baby that would be sleeping like a rock by now. i mean bill and i used to race each other to sleep before we had kids - we both fall asleep in seconds and sleep the whole way through. that does not happen for us (mostly me) anymore.

for awhile charlie was sleeping until around 4, eating and then going back to sleep until around 6:30-7ish (pre-daylight savings!). now - not so much. currently, he goes to sleep around 7ish and then ends up needing a few comfort pats before 11pm. he wakes up/gets restless at 11:30, 2-3, 4-5 and then wants to be up for the day at 5:50am! what?? it used to only takes a pat on the back and he was back to sleep, but lately it is requiring more effort. the issue i have is that i am a zombie at 2-3 am and cannot figure out if he is hungry, etc so i usually feed him because it is my easiest option and means i can go back to sleep earlier. however, last night he did his freak out at 11:30 (an hour after i had finally gotten into bed) and i was still somewhat with it. so i let him cry it out. i knew he wasn't hungry or sick (as the case has been the last few weeks). he cried until 1 am and then was out until 4:30 when he ate and went back to sleep. i think charlie is now dealing with more separation anxiety at night than before so once he wakes up and realizes he would rather have us with him he works himself into a frenzy.

as i was laying in bed trying to sleep through the crys i made some sleeping ground rules for myself so when i am delirious i can follow them. 1. once i hear him up i can go in and give him a "you're ok" back rub and pacifier. if he doesn't fall back asleep - i leave and let him go to town. 2. after i leave i can't go back in. easy to say hard to do.

one thing that happened last night is that he learned how to pull himself to standing in his crib (good thing bill and my dad put it to the lowest setting this past weekend). i had to go in and lay him back down and put the railing up. he really didn't like that, but at least i know he can't flip himself out of the crib!

christmas time

bill was post call on saturday so we went to get our christmas tree! it was great because my parents were able to come with us and get some pictures.

i found the tree :)

us "discussing" the tree choice.

yep - we decided on it :)

king in the castle...

me and my baby

in keeping with tradition - my mom gave charlie an ornament for his first christmas.

putting up sweet baby Jesus in a nutshell - our tree topper.

the schmitt fam all wearing our green patagonia tops.

(we looked back at our last 3 christmas pictures and i am wearing my same green r1. apparently i wear it a lot. if you don't own one i would definitely recommend it - they are so comfy and last forever)

poor lily - she put up with a lot of abuse.

adorable charlie

i was making our bed and charlie looked too cute so we snapped some pics.

thanksgiving

we have so much to be thankful. here are just a few things we are thankful for -- our Lord and Savior and His presence in our lives, charlie, our families, mayo and bill's job, our marriage, fantastic friends and so much more.

we hosted our first thanksgiving - my parents, siblings (sans tommy) and mary came to rochester to celebrate (and for my dad to do some work around our house :) thanks dad!). charlie loved the attention.

"the core" thinking they are winning the gingerbread house challenge. of course - bill and i won. i will post the winning gingerbread house pic in a bit.

danny, dad and suzanne "watching" charlie. my mom and i were cleaning up in the kitchen (surprise, surprise) and they said they were playing with him. if you look you will see - danny playing with his new PS3, my dad on his mac, suzanne on her mac and charlie "standing" by holding on to danny's foot. thanks guys! to their credit - they did play with charlie a ton i just could not resist posting this picture.

suzanne and danny frosting and decorating christmas cookies.

one thing i am not sure if i should be too thankful for is the new skill charlie picked up. nana and pops gave him a new cat dump truck. the bucket of the truck clicks in the back to make a "pushing" station for charlie. the first time we set him up against it he started to walk! i was like - where did that come from.

here is a video of him showing off his new skill.

loving his new toy.

what a trooper

this video was taken a few weeks ago, but it shows how great he is at eating anything we put in front of him. these are his vitamins and he obviously hates them, but after getting half of the dropper down he opens his mouth for more. too cute!