on the move

Guess who’s crawling?!?! Sure enough my tiny wee one is on the move and he is pleased as punch about it! It’s still slow going for now but man am I in trouble… both boys are mobile- crap! Oh well, we’re moving on to the next phase and going to enjoy every minute of it :)

Will try to post some video soon- the video editing department (Jamie) has been notified of the need and is doing it’s best to fulfill the request- until then here are a few photos. Maybe if you flip back and forth between the two of them you can get the gist until video can be produced.

brothers

When I was taking Charlie’s 7 month photos I was able to grab a few of the boys as well. I love how close they are getting to be and how much they delight in each other’s company. I can’t tell you how often I find Jay trying to do something like Charlie… I know it will be all too soon when the opposite is true.

Charlie was pretty much done with the shoot until Jay joined him.

love this one of Jay trying to be just like Charlie

today I am

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?

are you ready???

Jay is turning into quite the little fish and while he isn’t really swimming on his own I wouldn’t doubt if he was by the end of the summer.  Jay loves to…

-jump off the side of the pool to people

-do “penguin” dives from the spa into the pool (it’s a little dive on his belly)

-stiff stiff (where Jamie, in the pool, holds his ankles and lifts Jay over his head until he drops him and Jay makes a huge splash)

-fly in the pool (think this but imagine a water landing)

-jump into the deep end while people are holding him (tandem jump)

-swim from person to person, which he can do if the people are about 6 feet apart

-hang from the edge of the pool by his arms and go all of the way around

-do “cannon-bobs” (a cannonball backflip launched by Jamie)

-take submarine rides (swimming underwater while riding piggy back on someone)

-have splashing wars with his brother (which makes Charlie laugh and squeal with delight)

However, my favorite part of it all is probably the super cute “ARRRRE you READY!!!” announcement every time he does a trick, especially if it is accompanied with the fist pump. Honestly, he is so fearless in the pool that it is a little unnerving.  So in an effort to prevent him from just leaping in without anyone knowing we make him ask before he does anything if the person he is going to jump/ swim/ dive to is ready.

All of it is precious and makes my heart full when I watch him enjoying every minute.  Fortunately for us we have a great pool within walking distance of the house- thanks Mimi and Pepere for making sure the admittance fee is reasonable ;)

I know that we will have plenty more underwater photos before the summer is through but here are a few that we took a couple weekends ago that I really like.  Enjoy!

this one isn’t actually underwater but Charlie is watching Jay swim and jump

stiff stiff - Jay has gotten stronger and Jamie can hold his ankes instead of his knees now which is harder

I LOVE this next one- they are like two peas in a pod, even their hair matches :)

"cannon-bob" pre-flight

"cannon-bob" landing

We did take some video too… although I am surely not together enough to get that up for you. Maybe I can get that up soon- subtle hint to my video guy ;)

recovering

Unfortunately, I was wrong when I said that Charlie was teething… (well not completely wrong- the little guy is still working on his chompers) however, that wasn’t the reason for last weeks grumpy baby- a virus was.  BOO!

Both boys have been sick now for almost a week with hand foot and mouth disease :(  Just the name of it makes me wrinkle my nose up… It’s not fun- little guys with temperatures and tiny red bumps galore, not fun at all.  We do however seem to be on the mend now- we’ve been temperature free now since Sunday (yay!!!), appetites are starting go back up a bit, the bumps are looking better and they are (knock on wood) sleeping through the night again (double yay!!!)  Keep your fingers crossed for us that this is the end of it, having sick babies is not fun at all.  And maybe, just maybe I will be able to get some of our recent photos up now that they are sleeping a little better- we have so much to share.

While we’ve been hanging a little closer to the house we have needed to be a little creative with our play and laundry baskets are always a good way to do that.

Happy hump day to ya!

charlie time

Jay was with my Mom today.  They went to the beach and, from what I understand, had a grand ole time.  Charlie and I had a pretty great time ourselves.  I had forgotten what it is like to have just one kiddo but it didn’t take me long to remember.  I enjoyed every minute that we got together, just the two of us, today.

playing outside in the morning before it got scorching hot…

a few post-jammie photos, it got pretty warm out there even in the shade

enjoying some toys that were dug from the depths of the closet, especially since he didn’t have to share them with anyone…

evening swing at the park…

teeth

I was on a roll for awhile getting lots of things posted; however I think we are in the midst of teething right now.  Which means that my normally super happy little one has been a little more needy lately and on top of that hasn’t taken a good afternoon nap (which is when I am productive ) in a good week or so… So while I have tons to share I don’t have a lot of time to post.  Will be back when I can ;)

summer has arrived

Aside from the 90 degree weather, another sure fire sign that summer is upon us is watermelon.  I ate so much of it the summer I was pregnant with Jay that I haven’t wanted much of it the last two summers however I seem to have finally gotten my taste for it back.I have grabbed some the last few times that I was at publix and we even scored a huge one for just $3 when we were at the blackberry patch (yay!!) so we have been enjoying it out in the front after supper.  I mean what could be a better end to the day then a super sticky kiddo covered in watermelon juice?

Charlie wanted a taste too…

So we gave him one ;)

berry delicious

Over the weekend we packed up the boys and headed to Pappy’s Patch, the place where we have picked strawberries this year and last, to take advantage of their last picking weekend.  The strawberries were few and far between (the season is way past); however, our mission was blueberries.  Sadly, not long after we arrived we realized that the blueberries were also pretty picked over.  We did our best to get what we could, and we did get some delicious blueberries, but we were a little disappointed with our pickings.  That was until a group of ladies suggested we check out the pick your own blackberry farm just down the road.  I was sold at the word black… so we packed up the boys and headed off.

Man am I SO glad that we did!!  The berries were/are delicious, they were super easy to pick (the bushes were thornless- AMAZING) and I found it much easier to do with Jay than strawberry or blueberry picking.  The way the blackberry bushes grow make it easy for little ones to pick and the farm was set apart from the parking lot so I felt better about Jay just running around on his own.

We have been eating the berries by the handfuls every day since picking them but still have a whole bunch left so I am looking at either of these two recipes… probably both and if we still have some leftover then maybe some jam- we’ll see!

Blackberry Fool or Honey Yogurt Pops

Rows and rows of bushes with my sweet trio of guys down at the end