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.