Charlie is Now 10 Months Old!!

Charlie is now 10 months old and I cannot believe we are only 2 months away from his first birthday celebration.  Wow, has time flown by!!

While he is not interested in crawling (just like his sister), he certainly is not siting still and he has changed in many ways since our last post about him.

• Charlie rolls around to get where he wants to be.  And he is able to roll over and over very quickly.  One day, I sat him down, in the family room, to play with some toys while I cleaned bottles and emptied the dishwasher.  I could hear him babbling away, and 5 minutes later, I came in to an empty family room.  After a moment of panic, I found him smiling behind the couch.  To this day, I am still unsure how he managed to get behind there, but now we know that we have to keep a close eye on him.
• The grandparents have been trying to coax him to crawl.  They get him up on his hands and knees and mimic the crawling motion.  Charlie just stares at them and stays still until he either starts to cry or falls over.  He is just like his sister, in this aspect, because he is not going to move until he is good and ready!!

           

• Charlie now has 3 teeth, with another one coming any day now.  In addition to the two bottom front teeth, one of his top front teeth cut through the gums, on February 17th, and his smile is even cuter than before.

• We still haven't found a food that Charlie does NOT like.  He will eat anything and we have been pretty adventurous with the food choices.  He loves meat, veggies, fruits, spicy foods, and sweet foods.  His favorite thing to eat is anything that can be picked up with his fingers, and right now that includes Puffs, Yogurt Melts, and Banana Bread (his top 3).
• Charlie LOVES to play Peek-a-Boo!  Every time we place him down in his crib, he pulls his blanket up over his face and hides until we ask "Where is Charlie".  Then he lowers the blanket and giggles, while we say "There he is"!  It has become part of his bedtime routine and I love every minute of it.  What a little cutie pie!!
• Charlie does not like being cold and did not enjoy the snow.  Last week we got 8+ inches of snow and decided to take him outside, while it was still snowing.  Lauren loves to be outside (you literally have to drag her inside), so she and Chad were already outside playing with the sled.  It took me 15 minutes to get Charlie dressed up in his snow gear.  He was bundled head to toe.  And it took less than 3 minutes, outside, for a complete meltdown.  

• We did take him back outside, the next day, once the snow stopped falling.  He seemed to like that much better and we avoided the tears.

• Charlie has recently learned how to clap.  He watches everyone around him clap and as soon as they stop clapping, he claps his hands 2-3 times.  It has become quite a fun game and usually ends in a big round of giggles.
• Last week, Charlie started giving high fives.  Of course, he seems to save those high fives for his dad, so Chad gets them every time, while Lauren and I have to work hard for them.  But I am very excited to see him develop all of these small motor skills!!
• Charlie still loves his big sister.  He is most happy when she is in the room and he loves to sit next to her while they play.  And I am happy to say that Lauren equally loves her little brother. 

           

Charlie's daily schedule looks like this:

7:30 am:  Charlie wakes up

8:00 am:  I get Charlie up and give him a bottle

10ish am: Charlie goes down for a morning nap (unless we are out and about.  Then he naps in the car seat)

11:30 am: Charlie wakes up and has a bottle

12:30 pm: Lunch time (Charlie either has cereal or baby food)

2:00 pm: Charlie goes down for an afternoon nap

4:00 pm:  Charlie usually wakes up

4:15 pm:  I get Charlie up and give him a bottle

6:30 pm:  Dinner (Charlie either has cereal or baby food, along with finger food)

7:00-7:30 pm:  Bedtime 

Some of Charlie's Favorite Things are:

• Food
• His big sister
• Riding in the car
• Being warm
• Being held and cuddled
• Sleep (He gets very cranky, so watch out if he does not get enough sleep)
• His dog, Wrigley
• His crocheted blanket from Kelley, Bridget, and Chante (No Clark Bear for him...he is a blankie kid)

Happy 10 Month Birthday Charlie.  You are constantly changing but luckily you consistently wake up with a smile on your face and are quite a happy little guy.  And I cannot wait to see what the future holds for you!!

Note: I just noticed that Charlie is wearing the same pjs in almost every single picture and Lauren is wearing the same pjs in her photos. I can assure you that these photos were taken on separate days, but we have about 5 pairs of the same pjs and they are pretty much the only ones that fit Charlie these days.  So he is not getting much variety in his clothing right now!  As for Lauren, she is madly in love with the spiderman pjs, so I have to pry them off of her and they immediately go in the washing machine so that she could put them back on as soon as she wakes up.  =)

Lauren's 1st Solo Swim Class

As Chad and I begin planning for our annual beach trip with the Shafers and the Levys, we decided it was time to get Lauren Bear back into the pool for swim class.  This year, we are renting a house in the Outer Banks for a week.  The house is near the ocean and has a private pool in the backyard, and I want to make sure that Lauren is more comfortable in the water and understands proper pool rules (No running, only go in with an adult, etc).

We looked around for different swim class options, and quickly realized that we needed a class that did not require parental participation.  Lauren and I have done Mommy & Me Swim Class in the past, but I cannot do that anymore because I need to watch Charlie.  So, we found Swim Kids in Gainesville, and it is perfect!!

The class sizes are small (3 per 1-2 instructors), the kids learn the skills at their own speed, the facility is very nice (they keep the water at a balmy 80 + degrees), and the instructors are awesome.  Lauren loves going to class.  She passed through the first level the first day and passed through the second level on the second day.  Now she is working on level 3 skills, which will take a little longer.  She must be able to go under water on her own, float on her back, and jump off the side on her own.  The only downside is that Lauren seems to have 0% fat and she is always freezing as soon as she has to get out of the water.  It is hard to miss the shivering and shaking.  But she always has a big smile on her face and is more than happy to get right back in the water!!

 I am so proud of her and excited at all of the skills that she is learning.  Who knows, we might have a little swim bug on our hands!!

New Year's Eve 2014!!

This year, the Levys were not able to come back to the East Coast from Arizona.  So, Chad and I offered to host our annual NYE get-together.

The Shafers decided to come out our way a few days early and it was a nice and relaxing week.  We hung out around the house, walked down to the playground (although it was too cold for Charlie, so I quickly walked right back home), and watched a lot of bowl games.

                                   

On December 31st, John Albers and Rick Nelson came over to help us celebrate.  And since it isn't an official NYE without the Levys, we were able to facetime with them.  It was nice to talk to Roy and Paige, awesome to see the twins and watch the kids interact with each other.

                               

Once the kids went to bed, we were able to facetime with the Levys again and we played our annual game of Cards Against Humanity.  It was a fun night, filled with many laughs and good friends.

                           

                                   

The next day, we hung around and watched the Capitals play in the Winter Classic, which was the perfect way to end week!!

After this wonderful start to the new year, Chad and I are looking forward to seeing what 2015 has in store for our family!!  =)

Christmas 2014!!

This year, we had a wonderful Christmas break!

Chad was able to take off the entire Xmas week and we spent a lot of time together as a family.  Then the Underinkas flew in on December 23rd, and we spent the night up in Gainesville before heading to the Eastern Shore.  It took 2 cars to pack up everyone and everything, but we all arrived at the Fisher house around noon on Christmas Eve.  After a relaxing day around the house, we enjoyed a delicious meat free meal.  Charlie had plenty of baby food and Lauren had Mac n Cheese, which also satisfied the meat free requirement!!  =)

There were two amazing parts of the day that stand out to me.  The first came when Chad disappeared for a few minutes.  And suddenly, we heard loud footsteps upstairs and some "ho ho hos" from the other room.  Lauren immediately jumped out of her chair and began screaming that Santa had arrived.  We rushed in to the living room and found some new presents under the tree.  She was right, he did stop by!!  The second best part of the day came when we sat Lauren and Charlie down for some photos, and it turned out that Charlie's new Xmas pjs matched the wrapping paper!!

We spent the rest of the evening opening presents and dragged the kids over to the Pali house VERY late that night!

                           

The next morning, Sarah and Kevin came over with their new puppy, Ellie Jean, and woke up Lauren.  Then they posed for the annual "top of the stairs" picture.

And finally, Lauren and Charlie were able to come downstairs to see if Santa arrived again.  Lauren received the Octonaut Octopod, that she had been requesting for months.  Charlie received a new musical tractor and a large Olaf stuff animal.  Both kids were very happy with their Santa loot, so the grownups opened up our stockings, and then we took a break.  After breakfast, we began to open presents.  It took quite a while, and the kids needed to take a nap during part of the gift opening session.  But not to worry, they were able to open their remaining presents later in the evening.

                 


                                               

After the presents were opened, we cleaned up and got ready for Christmas Dinner.  The Fishers and Underinkas came over and we had a great evening together.





                     





                                     

       

On our last evening on the Eastern Shore, we headed over to the Fishers for another huge family dinner, complete with sing-a-longs, going through old photos, and an Organ concert.  I love that everyone is able to come together to spend quality time during the holidays.  And I know that we are creating wonderful memories for Lauren and Charlie!!