eight months

getting cuter every month.

period.

(most notable achievement this month is that he's finally sleeping unswaddled...just like a big boy, and like a champ, I might add)

seven months

Gah! This boy melts me.

• He's sleeping through the night like a pro. 10-12 hours consistently. Bless him. (still swaddled, but that's okay)
• Finally a decent daytime schedule, with two good naps (1.5-2.5 hours) and a predictable bed time and wake time.
• Sitting up like a champ... his balance is better all the time.
• Rolling over every which way. Still much better going from back to tummy, rather than tummy to back
• Two bottom teeth appeared this month, without too much drama.
• Getting better with the solid foods... eating and enjoying almost everything we've given him, which includes: squash, sweet potatoes, spinach, green beans, peas, oatmeal, brown rice, carrots, parsnips and avocados. We have just barely started introducing fruits and so far he has tried and loved bananas, pears and apples.
• Still nursing 4-5x a day and loving it almost as much as mommy.
• Size 3 diapers, almost all 12-18 month clothes. He's such a chunk!
• This sweet boy is happy and ticklish and content. Finally the sweet, good natured boy that I knew was in there all along. I am happy to report that I am eating anything I want again and its heaven. 

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.

five months

The months seem to be zipping by faster than I am comfortable with. Just a few short months ago, I was having a hard time imagining my life with a baby boy in it. However now, just five months after meeting him... I literally can't imagine my life without him.

This squishy, chubby, happy smiley boy definitely makes my world a better place!

This was a month of firsts...

Charlie made his first road trip this past month and had it been a test, he would have aced it! 

Such a good little traveller! 

The worst news of the month was that he also got his first sick bug and it was a doozy!

Poor buddy got RSV and was miserably sick for about a week, terrible cough, high fever, runny/stuffy nose and diminished appetite. It was awful. For a few days we had to take him into Primary Children's for suctioning and breathing treatments. I'm not sure who hated that worse... me or him. 

He was a hot mess much of the time, but he was also especially sleepy and snuggly, which doesn't suck. I realize that the it won't be long before he will no longer sleep on my chest and rest his head on my shoulder and I just wanted to drink him up like this.

  For the most part, he was a pretty sweet little sick guy, just so puzzled and confused as to why he felt so icky.

As if that week wasn't bad enough.... I had some sinus/oral surgery that had been scheduled for months. It was horrible timing, however we decided that I should go ahead with it and get it over with. I wasn't able to nurse him for about 18 hours, due to the anesthesia and it was miserable. We have never been super successful in getting him to take a bottle and he was definitely having none of it. Poor Chris had to feed him from a medicine dropper that whole time. His poor sad little face kind of ripped my heart out!

Luckily, we survived all of it!

In better news, he is finally sleeping better for the most part! Though we lost some ground when he got sick, we are back to getting a 6-8 hour stretch most nights. Nowhere near as good as littlemissbigsis was doing at this age... but still a significant improvement and we'll take it. Unfortunately we still have some crummy nights mixed in there... but the good nights are slowly starting to outweigh the bad. 

I have gradually been adding soy back into my diet and it hasn't seemed to be a problem. He still seems to have some issues with dairy, so I am still trying to avoid it for the most part. However, my pediatrician suggested that I start taking some digestive enzymes, which I have and that seems to lessen the severity of his reaction to it! I am no longer as totally militant about it as I was and it feels soooooo good!

He is still growing like a weed and I suspect he has surpassed the 18 lb mark. He's enormous and ridiculously heavy.

He is very near growing completely out of sister's hand me down pink bathtub... yet not quite ready for the big tub. We gotta figure something out and soon because this boy loves his baths and its hilarious to see him bending his legs all crazy just to try and get his chubby torso under the water! 

We have started venturing out on walks a little more these last couple of weeks, since we've finally had some days above freezing and he seems to love the fresh air almost as much as his mama! 

Being cooped up in the winter isn't good for anyone's soul.

He is hitting that age that is so fun as he becomes more active, playful, alert and interactive. He is hitting new milestones all the time. He is rolling all over the place and is getting closer to being able to sit up on his own. He is finally really interested in toys and is working his hands really well. He loves to watch Leah play and no one can make him smile and laugh better than her. 

This boy definitely has me wrapped around his chubby little finger.

He is sweet, happy and content and his dimples are pretty much my favorite thing on the planet.

happy five months littleman

*****

Road Trippin'

We've had a bit of cabin fever this winter. To say the least.

It's been one of the coldest, snowiest, grayest, yuckiest in recent memory. Couple that with an infant and a toddler and enough said. We haven't been getting out much. Period. 

We figured that Charlie's 4 month birthday and our 6 year anniversary was reason enough to celebrate and get out of town for a few days, so we loaded up our car and our two little nuggets and hit the road in search of blue skies and a bit warmer weather. It felt a bit monumental, seeing how it was our first adventure as a family of four and Charlie's first family trip.

It felt a little scary since Leah has never been known for her awesome road trippin'-car lovin' skills and Charlie is still a mystery to us in general. However, both of them were incredible. Leah didn't sleep a single wink on either drive (going or coming), which we were hoping she would do, however she was delightful just the same. She read books, played on the Ipad, sang songs and kept us entertained. And Charlie.... that little turkey slept most of the way down and every solitary minute of our trip home.

Expectations sufficiently exceeded.

We rented a condo and it was the best decision ever for our growing family. It was so nice to have lots of space to stretch out and hang out. We are going to have to look at our travel habits... as a hotel room (even a nice one) no longer sounds very fun with two little people in tow.

We did lots of hanging out, sleeping in and staying in our pajamas way too long. Hmmm... that sound a lot like what we've been doing allwinterlong. However it seemed much more fun in a new place and with Daddy around.

We ate out at yummy restaurants and I even danced with the devil a bit and cheated on my elimination diet. I couldn't resist this creme brulee french toast and the pizza I ate later that night. The repercussions were swift... but not as severe as I had anticipated. That being said... for the most part, I am still off of dairy. Boo.

The sunshine that we were searching for did not disappoint. It was heaven to see that the sky is in fact still blue and that the sun does still exist. 60's felt a little like the 90's to us!

We spent loads of time soaking up every bit of it we could and Leah was in heaven being outside.

Swinging

Sliding

Running

Climbing

Laughing

Smiling

It was exactly the kind of getaway that we needed... lowkey and lots of together time.

While away, we with thrilled with the news that Punxsutawney Phil didn't see his shadow and predicted an early Spring. It made coming home not so bad.

I could kiss that overgrown rodent right on the lips.