Well, it’s more like over the weekend I was… but what can you do?  I would have never dreamt of being late posting Jay’s monthly update posts; however, things have changed a bit and while I have been making sure to take the monthly photos I have not stressed about getting the posts up on the exact date.  I have been reminded all too frequently recently to enjoy my little ones every minute that I can because life is short.  So that’s what we did Sunday- we enjoyed our snuggles, said thank you for the 7 months that we have had with Charlie thus far, laughed hard and celebrated our sweet Daddy.

Now on to the update… My little guy is growing like a bad weed and learning new tricks every day.  It is amazing to me how quickly time is passing and lucky I am to be this little guys Mama :)

Stats:

Teeth- sadly there are still none.  I am keeping my fingers crossed that they come quickly, it would honestly make feeding this kiddo SO much easier.

Things of Note-

* Sleep- Charlie is still a wonderful sleeper.  Aside from when he was sick a few weeks back he has been sleeping through the night for months now (YAY!!) and takes good naps throughout the day.  I did realize that I was getting him up a little to early from his naps… if you let the little boy rest for a bit after his first peeps he usually falls back asleep and snoozes for a little while longer.  Also, he usually plays in his crib in the morning before we get him.  I can hear him talking before we wake up and he will wait patiently until I rouse myself enough to pull his sweet smiling face out of bed.

* Mobility- we are about a hair’s breadth away from Charlie being able to crawl.  He has gone about two knee movements thus far (mostly by accident) but he is solidly on his hands and knees, in full rocking position and has been reaching and moving his arms for quite a bit now.  So it will only be a little bit before he is full on crawling and I will be in real trouble.  As for other forms of mobility he scoots on his bottom (while sitting) to grab things that he wants, he has mastered the backwards tummy scoot (although this one really ticks him off since it usually sends him in the opposite direction that he intends to go), he rolls just about anywhere he wants to go and generally doesn’t sit still.  I adore when he crawls up into my lap and hugs onto my knees and while I know that I am going to have trouble keeping up with the boys when he is fully mobile I am enjoying this new phase too.

*Eating- this is probably the most frustrating aspect of this kiddo.  We started having troubles as soon as the acid reflux kicked in and now that we have moved to solids in a addition to the breast feeding we have doubled our eating issues.  Charlie has pretty much decided that carrots are the only thing he will eat, and not just any carrots- carrots from the jar, not homemade ones.  He  pretty much clams up and closes his mouth so tight that you can’t get a single thing in if he doesn’t want it.  The iron-mouth-gate is applied when I try feeding him any type of fruit (he may not actually be my child after all) and any type of homemade baby food I have tried with him.  He does however really enjoy feeding himself, so puffs, veggie straws and frozen bananas are really winners.  Just yesterday I tried giving him frozen parsnips on a whim, he liked the frozen bananas- he wouldn’t eat them fresh so I figured why not, and he gobbled them up!  Popping the frozen blob in and out of his mouth.  I honestly did a happy dance right there in the kitchen- it felt like such a huge victory.  My list of things to do now includes freeze more baby food options; we’ll see if he likes any other flavors ;)

* Talking- Charlie is “talking” up a storm, he babbles quite frequently and is staring to string sounds together.  Occasionally, I get rewarded with a Mama or we also hear Dada- so sweet ;)

*Charlie’s personality is really developing these days.  He is sure to tell you if he doesn’t like something, he smiles pretty much constantly and has started making this adorable scrunched-nose face that I ADORE!

Likes-

* His brother- Charlie adores Jay!!  He constantly watches him, smiles at him and laughs at his antics.  There is no one that can make Charlie laugh the way that Jay can.  Just the other night Charlie was full-on belly laughing as Jay ran past him over and over again- all of us were laughing by the end of it.  I love how much their relationship has already developed, it is so amazing to watch them together.

*Water- whether it is bath time or pool time Charlie really likes it, he splashes along and smiles the whole time.   One of his favorite pool time activities is splashing wars with Jay- they get within two feet of each other and just splash like crazy!

*His stacking cups, cars and duplo- Charlie’s favorite toys are still the stacking cups and now include a few cars and duplos.  Jay has decided that he has a few cars (they were from when he was younger and are not matchbox style cars) that he is okay sharing with Charlie- we are working on sharing ;) Charlie will push them and scoot around to follow them.  He also really enjoys the boxes full of duplo; which he mostly enjoys dumping and chewing on but he likes them none the less.

*Iphones- Charlie is fascinated with iPhones and well honestly most technology (cameras, iPads etc).  He will do anything to get the phones if they are out and he loves watching what is happening on them.  He is so fascinated with them that we have used them a few times to entice him into crawling and every time (even though he doesn’t really crawl) he gets to them and starts pushing buttons.

Dislikes-

*Being on his own- Charlie is okay as long as some one else is in the room with him or within eye shot (if he can see me in the kitchen he is good).  I don’t know if it’s a second child thing or just a Charlie thing but he really doesn’t like to be by himself.

*Loud noises- He is still not a fan of any loud startling noise, including but not limited to loud Jay Bird screams… which lets be honest who really loves when Jay is screeching around the house?