Easter Sunday(s)

It just so happens that I am one of those cheesy-love my kids to match and coordinate-kind of moms. Especially on Sundays. Usually, I try to coordinate too. It's super ridiculously nerdy and I'm sure garners some eye-rolling, but  I can't help it. You can probably imagine how much I love special holidays when I can usually talk CJ into joining us too... especially Easter. It's like mom-crack for a girl like me!

Well... some nasty awful stomach bug found it's way into our house the week of Easter and Leah got it BAD!

Poor sick little thing was miserable. 

It's by far the worst sick I've had to deal with as a mom so far. She couldn't keep anything down, We had some pretty rough days and nights snuggled together in her bed lined with towels. We washed a lot of towels and jammies those first few days.

                        

It started on Wednesday and I had hoped that it would be a 24-48 hour bug that would pass quickly. No such luck. This girl was in a bad way. I have never seen a child so tired and lifeless. She didn't eat a thing for days and slept all.day.long for several days (except for throwing up and emergency baths...we had a lot of those). It was heartbreaking.

She stayed flat in bed most of the time...

I got her out to the couch a few times, but she would end up fast asleep again within 15-20 minutes.

By the time Saturday rolled around and she was still lethargic, feverish and sickly... it became pretty clear that we would not be dressing up and enjoying Easter the way I had planned. 

Luckily... Easter morning she was feeling a little better and was excited to find her basket loaded with a few special treasures. She put her game face on and hunted for the handful of eggs that we had hidden around the living room. It wasn't the perfect Easter, we didn't color any eggs, we didn't get out of our PJs and we didn't even eat any candy... but we still felt love and gratitude just the same.

Luckily... after a good solid week, she finally got feeling better! Two weeks later, we had a do-over//take two//"Second Easter" and finally got a chance to dress up in our matching outfits.

As we were sitting in the chair taking pictures, Leah looked over and hidden behind a lamp... she excitedly discovered a special pink tube of Easter m & ms left especially for her on "Second Easter". (turns out we just forgot to find them on our lackluster hunt on "real" Easter)

She was so excited!

And just like that we captured the magic of a holiday even when we were just pretending!

Happy Easter!

Carrots

Honestly, these pictures are too funny not to document.

Charley's first encounter with anything other than mama's milk and his faces say it all...

"What the what?!?"

"Honesly, that is awful. Why on earth would you put that crap in my mouth, what's wrong with you people!?"

"Trying not to gag here, folks"

"If you think I'm just just gonna open my mouth and take it, you are sorely mistaken."

"Maybe if I just keep my mouth open like this, it will fall back out"

"There. I swallowed it. Are you happy? Well, I still don't like it"

"Well then, let's do that again soon. Not"

six months

{Six Months}

An ENTIRE half of a year.

It's amazing how quickly you can fall in love and not even be able to imagine your world without someone that you didn't even know six months ago. (I guess that also happened with the mister and I)

This little chunkychuck has wiggled and melted his way into every single crevice of my heart and soul. Honestly. He's a sweet one.

It's been a busy month with a lot going on for him. He's growing like a weed and learning new things every day.

::6 month stats::

weight - 18lbs 6oz (75th percentile)

height - 28in (95th percentile)

head circ - 17.52 in (75th percentile)

He's still hovering at the top of the charts, though his weight leveled off a bit. But my back assures me daily that nearly 18 1/2lbs for a dead weight 6 monther is nothing at all to be ashamed of. Ouch.

Other notable things to report:

We changed his name this month. 

Well, not so much his name... just the spelling. 

It's a long story, one that his daddy will have to explain to him one day. Daddy learned a valuable lesson about speaking up when in fact you have an opinion and Mommy learned that some battles just aren't worth winning. So now hopefully we got it right in honor of his namesake. I am still a little sad about it, but I have a load of baby keepsakes to help me remember what used to be.

The good news in all of it is that I love him just the same, whether he's CharlIE or CharlEY. 

He also graduated to the big tub this month. His chubbachub was spilling out of the baby tubbatub and he was ready to have a little more splashing room. We got him a sweet little bath chair and he loves it. Sissy loves having him in the tub with her and delights in splashing him and making him laugh. And last but not least, I love that we are only doing one nightly bath instead of two. 

Another highlight around these parts is that Charley graduated from the cradle and into his crib. Hooray! We finally made the jump and did the bed shuffle so that we could get him out of our bedroom in hopes that we would all sleep better. It worked!!! This boy, that gave us so much grief in his first few months of life is now consistently sleeping 9-11 hours a night. 

We attempted to also try breaking him of swaddling at the same time, which was significantly less successful. That first night was a little rough, however we swaddled him the second night and he slept 10 straight hours and hasn't looked back. At this rate, I'm totally willing to swaddle him until he's 9 1/2.

He is sitting up all by himself, unassisted, and loves the new outlook and perspective it gives him. He still topples over occasionally, but he is getting better every day at keeping his balance and owning his position. He is really starting to play with toys now. I love to watch him work his hands and watch the wheels turn inside his head as he figures new things out.

Charley got his very first "grandpa swing" this month... courtesy of the little rocker for a little more stability.

I think it's safe to say that he's a fan...

Solid Food.... the day that I thought this chubby kid had been living for. 

Turns out, he's not a fan. Like, at all.

At least not yet. Hopefully he'll come around and those carrots will grow on him.

He still doesn't have even hardly of a whisper of hair on his head. He's as bald as a q-ball.

Hopefully it will grow someday. 

 He is happy and content most all of the time. We are getting ready to start weaning him off of his reflux meds and I have started re-introducing dairy without catastrophic results. It was a hard few months...but  we did it and it finally seems to be getting better and this sweet, happy boy is more than worth it! 

This boy is super ticklish. Like really, really ticklish. 

And his laugh? Oh my, his laugh. 

ihaveacrushonthisboy

Six long hard months in and I wouldn't trade it for anything. This little Charley Chunk is a keeper!

A certified, bonafide, make-my-heart skip-a-beat keeper!

Happy 6 Months Little Buddy!

I love you to the moon. 

...and back.