today I am

11 months old!  Holy cow- right?!  How can he almost be one?!  Time passes too incredibly fast these days :(

I know that I keep getting later and later when posting these monthly updates; however, at least I am getting them up and I know that my 10/15 years-from-now-self will thank me for taking the time (late or not).

Teeth-5 His smile is starting to even out which kind of makes me sad…

Things of Note-

*Sleeping- aside from a few short naps here and there (mostly due to teeth and trouble with his acid reflux) this kid is a champion sleeper, taking two naps a day and sleeping from 7:30PM-8AM (ish in the morning).

*Eating- We have had a tough time generally trying to figure out what Charlie likes to eat. However, aside from a few setbacks because of his returned acid reflux issues he pretty much will eat anything that is put in front of him. We are lucky.

*Acid Reflux- We are unfortunately still having issues with Charlie’s acid reflux.  We had thought that we were past the point of needing medication and had weaned him off of it completely; however, this last week he just hasn’t been himself and has had a cough (a common symptom with acid reflux) so we are giving the medication another go.  I certainly want him to be off of his mediation as soon as possible but I don’t have any problem using it while it is still really bothering him.

*Walking (kind of and not unassisted)- Charlie LOVES his push toys so much.  He gets a kick out of walking behind them and pushing them along.  Frequently, when he is pushing them he will stop turn around and give me a huge proud smile.  He has also taken to walking while holding on to peoples fingers and when he wants to he can really move.  Aside from that and cruising he isn’t really walking yet but I am sure it will come all too soon.

*Waving and giving Kisses- Sweet little boy has been waving for a while now (I may have forgotten it in his last update) but it is too cute not to mention.  He also gives the sweetest and wettest kisses when he is in the mood.

Likes-

*Brushing his teeth- Charlie will just about bounce out of your arms from excitement when he sees his tooth brush or Jay’s for that mater.  He loves to brush his teeth (suck the toothpaste off his brush) and it is quite the ordeal to pry it out of his hands after the brushing

*Bath time- little boy still adores bath time. He can be tired and fussy but as soon as that bottom hits the tub he’s all smiles.

*Being outside- When you are walking outside Charlie will practically leap out of your arms because of excitement.  He squeals loudly and flaps his arms when you head out with him and is usually (aside from those times that he is really hungry) happy as a clam to be outside regardless of his mood two minutes prior to being outside.

*Bananas- Like I said earlier, Charlie is generally a good eater (acid issues aside) but the kiddo sure has taken a liking to bananas within the last month or so.  I can’t let him see one before I am ready for him to have it because he will refuse to eat anything else after he sees it.

*Sippy Cup with Water- for the last month or so I have been trying to get Charlie to use a sippy cup.  I tried a little while ago and he wasn’t interested at all and while he still hasn’t quite mastered it and doesn’t want it used in leu of his bottle he loves to have his own cup (I think he especially likes it because Jay has one too).

*Music- It doesn’t matter what type of music is playing or how loudly Charlie becomes a dancing fool when he hears it.  Frequently, I will notice him swaying and dancing and have to stop and listen to find where the music is coming from- sometimes it’s from a toy in another room, sometimes its a phone ringing in the next room.

*Push Toys- Kiddo likes to walk so this is pretty much a no brainer.  He loves walking behind the toy push toys that we have; however, he hasn’t mastered turing yet and still gets super frustrated when he runs into things and can’t keep going.

Dislikes-

*Being hungry- this is nothing new, little guy likes to eat- enough said.

*Not getting his own way- Charlie is such a little stinker.  He’s cute and mostly happy with anything at any point however, he has opinions and strong ones at that.  If he doesn’t like what is going on, not being picked up etc he will be sure to let you know LOUDLY!

*Sitting still- This little guy has far too many things to do to sit still for long and does not like when you try to make him… diaper changes are increasingly difficult!

Sorry the photos are limited… like I said sitting still is not high on the priority list these days.

 

stopping to look at his brother

spinning

My head is spinning from everything that has been going on lately. I promise I will catch you all up soon when my computer returns to me- it has been on the fritz now going on two weeks. I am hoping we are on the home stretch and that it will be back in my hands and in working order soon; it had to be shipped to the the chief Mac doctor (Mac headquarters) and I don’t know when it will be back- sad face…

I will try to “steal” a few minutes on Jamie’s machine to post a little bit about my sweet 11 month old (yup you read that correctly 11 months old- yeow!); however I will make no promises ;)

Until then or shall I say, until next time here’s a few phone photos of us literally spinning- the boys love it ;)

notice the teeth below, they are coming in quickly now…

notice the gap and missing tooth below, yup we are down one tooth here- details later…

serious house projects

Jamie and I have had some serious house projects going on lately. Within the last 6 months we have re-painted every room in the house with the exception of the bedrooms and the kitchen and along with that we have polished, sealed and waxed the terazzo floors in the office (which was a HUGE job and mostly done by Jamie), purchased and updated (are updating) some second hand furniture for the family room, hung new window toppers in some of the rooms among many, many others things. I am excited to be able to show some before and after photos soon; however, we have a few more things to finish before it’s ready for “after” photos. Until then enjoy these few of the kiddos using our bookshelves (which until yesterday afternoon were in the middle of our family room) as tunnels. They loved the new family room addition and I am glad to have survived it ;)

it wasn’t as high as mr dramatic makes it seem, besides he got there all on his own

today I am

10 months old!

It is so hard to believe that our little man is 10 months old already; pretty soon he will be one- slow down time, slow down!

Stats-

weight and height I don’t know about- I forgot to take them

teeth- 3!!!  Much to my surprise two weekends ago I discovered a bottom tooth when I was feeling around in there.  I say surprise because both Jamie and I felt sure that the top ones would come first.  He got his first on a Friday, the second on a Sunday and then one of his top ones last Thursday.  There are two other top ones that are SO close to peeking through so I am sure that he will get more within the next month.  I will admit though that it does make me a little sad that he has them, he is looking less and less like a baby every day.

Things of Note-

-He is moving- big time!!  He is crawling super fast right now and getting everywhere he wants to be.  He is cruising with confidence around everything that he can pull up on but hasn’t yet gotten brave enough to stand on his own unassissted.  He walks pretty confidently after his push toys and loves that kind of “walking”.

-Eating is going pretty well.  While we haven’t moved on completely from purees we don’t feed him that many anymore.  He still loves anything that he can put in his own mouth and you can barely tell that he only has 3 (very small) teeth right now by the way he eats.  Some of his current favorites are watermelon (he eats big slices of it all of the way down to the rine and LOVES every bite), cheese in any form, peaches and pears (bite sized not pureed)

-Sleep is still pretty much the same as last month although his naps are shorter on some days. Honestly, I am pretty sure that it has everything to do with his teeth and nothing to do with his sleeping patterns.

-Waving.  Along with “Yay, Charlie” he has added waving to his repertoire of tricks.  None of which he does on command.  Right now he mostly waves when he is tired and wants to go to sleep.

-Getting Excited.  When this little guy gets excited he picks his legs up and bangs (when he is sitting) them on the ground and then collapses in half of the ground.  It’s really funny to watch (and also hard to describe) but it is how you know he is really enjoying something.

Likes-

-Bath time.  This is one of Charlie’s favorites times of day, aside from eating.  Throughout the day he frequently crawls into the bathroom and just stands at the tub squealing because he wants to get in so badly.  He will splash in there for hours if we would let him.  Just tonight Jamie had drained the tub completely and the little guy had a blast just crawling and sliding around in the wet tub.

-Sally.  Sally is one of Jay’s pull back cars and it is by far Charlie’s favorite.  I think it fits perfectly into his little hand and he will push it around the office, kitchen, family room for quite some time.  When he pushes it he makes a little car noise that I think he picked up from Jay, it’s really cute.  Sally also makes a  clicking noise if you push her backwards for awhile which Charlie loves, he usually smiles and squeals when she starts clicking.

-Peek a boo.  It’s still a favorite game when he gets out of the bath or really anytime during the day.

-Walking behind the lion.  This is probably Charlie’s favorite activity right now.  He smiles the whole time and is doing a great job really walking behind the toy.  The only problem we are having with this is that he has no idea how to turn and gets beyond frustrated when he runs into something and can’t go any further.  It’s really funny to watch (well it’s funny the first or second time) when he runs into something because he will keep walking in place at first, then the walking gradually turns into a foot stamping and when he realizes that he really is stuck he melts and I mean really melts- big huge puddle on the floor of crying mess.  He will continue screaming until someone comes to get him or until someone helps him “steer”.  Jay has been helping him steer although he doesn’t always go as slowly as Charlie needs him too and Charlie has to flop down onto his knees and walk as fast on his knees as he can to catch up.

-Jay.  Nothing about this has changed.  They are sweet to each other and make each other laugh like no one else can.

Dislikes-

-Being tired.  This pretty goes without saying.  When he’s tired he will tell you and you better start moving to get him into bed.  This little boys knows his bedtime routine (for naps and at night) and don’t you dare try to change it up on him because he will know and he won’t like it too much.

-Being hungry. He likes to eat so this is a no brainer.

-Not being able to steer his lion.  See above for details regarding the mondo fit that he has over not being able to steer.

So this pretty much sums up our little 10 month old.  He is the happiest baby I think I have ever met and he steals my heart daily.  Enjoy some of the most recent photos :)

crazy normal part 2

a few more from the phone

a GREAT mail day- now to get started on some projects ;)

he’s giving kisses now

prepping to wash the alphabet mat

what, you don’t wash foam letters in your dishwasher?

he is not a huge fan of the gate

he couldn’t quite get his hat off when he was riding in the car and this is how he looked when I opened the door

how many pears can I fit in my mouth all at once

paper, scissors, glue

impressive coloring skills for a 2.5 year old if you ask me

crazy normal

My immediate response when people ask lately how we are/ how I am is “Crazy, good but crazy”. However, the more I think about this the more I realize we are less and less crazy and more and more normal.  You see, before we had any kiddos we had plenty of time to do whatever we wanted whenever we wanted and honestly I am not all that sure what we did with our boat loads of free time.  After we had Jay we thought we were seriously crazy and had no free time and then we had Charlie (bringing the parent child ratio up to one-to-one) and actually had less free time.  If you would have asked me about our free time when we just had Jay I would have found it rather laughable; now I am not sure what we did with it all.  Perspective is funny that way…  All this to say that we are crazy or normal; however you want to think of it and here is a taste of our crazy brought to you by the ever present iPhone.

monkey toes

yes that is a towel and yes it is soaking wet :(

the perfect little boy entertainment

duplo towers- Jay is REALLY into building these days

squishy returns ;)

what- doesn’t everyone have a whale and a cow in their pantry?

photographer in the making

his photo

reading the Monster at the End of this Book on the ipad… he really didn’t like it at first but enjoyed it after he realized “the blue guy” (Grover) was the monster

watermelon- Jay eats EVERY last bite

I apparently haven’t dumped my phone photos in forever so instead of overloading you all in one day I will post the rest tomorrow- stay tuned for part two ;)

my predicament

So it’s no secret that I am a little (or a lot depending on the day) OCD. I like things to be in their place, I like the counters to be wiped down, I like things to be clean and I really, really like our floors to be clean. I am sad to admit that how clean our floors are directly affects my anxiety level- SO sad but oh so true. If the floors aren’t clean I start to itch. In my defense, I spend the majority of my days at home AND the majority of that time on the floor. I play with little people and we play on the floor. Cleaning the floors seems a simple enough task right? Not so much in our home… we have two lovable but VERY furry pets- one long haired kitty and a puppy that sheds. They don’t make it more difficult it just means that the upkeep needs to happen more frequently.

Which leads to my current predicament- our vacuum is on the fritz again and is currently on it’s way to Chicago via UPS. It’s on it’s way to be fixed (YAY!) but I have no idea when it will actually get back to us :( AHHHHHHH! I haven’t vacuumed in a week plus (almost two) when I usually vacuum at least twice a week- again, sad but true. I am starting to twitch and itch- BIG time!! Someone might have to send help soon, too bad there isn’t a pill for OCD…

That’s all for now- I am off to enjoy my day with my boys regardless of the twitching and itching…

sghetti head

I have been sitting here for probably over an hour and every time I have started to write, my brain turns to mush and I end up erasing all that I have written and starting over.  So while I intended on posting some of the most recent happenings I am not going to fight it anymore.  I am going to resign to the supremo case of sghetti head (don’t know what that is? ask my hubby) and call it a night.  I will try again tomorrow if I am feeling a little less mushy…

However, since I am physically unable to post without a photo here is one of the four of us in all of our duplo surrounded, crazy hair, not looking self portrait glory.

Night all…

still no maid

Remember these photos of a sweet little boy from a few years back?  Well these ones reminded me SO much of those!

We still haven’t actually sprung for a maid (darn those ‘real’ maids wanting to actually get paid for doing work) but these cuties do help to make laundry more fun!  And apparently I push our little ones around in dirty laundry quite often- please no judgment ;)

Happy Friday to ya!