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.

amazing

that is how i feel now that charlie has discovered that being laid in his crib does not mean the end of his life is coming. i am not sure what happened around 9 months, but a flip just switched. it took a bit of time and crying, but nighttime and naps are no big deal. the crazy thing is naps now happen when i want them to!!! i just walk into his dark room, give him a pacifier, sing him his favorite lullaby (st judy's comet), lay him down, close the door and walk away. amazing!
i did read some sleep books (i was desperate) and i would not give any credit to the book suggestions. i think a lot of it was he was ready and i let him cry it out alone for a few days. i had let him cry it out before, but this month he was ok with it. no more back arching, standing and screaming at the top of his lungs "moamomamooo", nothing. his naps are still not long (about 1 hour), but 2 breaks a day are what this mom needs. thanks charlie!

what a good helper

charlie now has this thing where he does not want to be laying on his back for a very long time getting dress, changing his diaper, etc. so i now dress him standing up. the other morning i was getting ready to get his socks on and he was holding on to his rocking giraffe and i said "ok charlie it is time for your socks". all of a sudden, a little foot came off the ground. it was too cute. he was "helping" me put on his socks. charlie - you are the best!

pat the bunny

charlie loves reading "pat the bunny". here is charlie reading/playing with "pat the bunny". he doesn't even wait for you to read the page. he just does the action that he know the page asks for. it is too cute.