happy Monday to ya!
Category: Charlie
stats
Our visit with the doctor went really well today- they said that Charlie looks great, is growing on track and even recommended a little something to mix with his pear juice to help with his ‘output’ issue. That last bit might be TMI but it’s super exciting news for us!
Here’s the stats and a few photos I took a couple days ago- love my super smily little guy!
Height- 25.5 inches (25%)
Weight- 17lbs 7oz (50%)
Head- 17 3/4 (75%)
He’s watching Jay in this photo… love how they adore each other ;)

and one of both my boys just because it makes me smile…
today I am…
6 months old!!
I find that the time is flying by kind of like it did when I was pregnant with Charlie… One moment we were announcing that a second little one was on the way and then after blinking I was in the hospital holding my sweet little boy. These days I frequently find myself looking at him and catching glimpses of his personality and wondering when he got so big. He truly is the sweetest, happiest little guy around. He has a sense of peace about him that I envy; he sits back and takes it all in with such joy, amazement and smiles- oh boy does he smile…
Stats- we are headed to the Doctor tomorrow and I will be back to post his stats after we see what they are ;)
Teeth- none as of yet although, he’s working on them and we have he occasional cranky-pants and drool to prove it!
Things of Note-
*Charlie has been sitting up for almost a month now. Just after turning 5 months old he began tripoding really well and since then he has been sitting pretty well on his own. Right now he sits for long periods of time on his own and rarely falls; however, when he does he just rolls to his side or tummy and plays that was for a while.
*Mobility is coming- as of right now he rolls to get whatever he wants. It doesn’t always work in his favor (he has no direction control); however, he is usually content wherever he ends up and with whatever toys ends up closest to him. He is also starting to scoot a little when he is sitting up. He has to be on a slick surface to do this but it’s still movement so I count it.
*Foods- Little boy can eat and has been able to from day one. We have been trying solid foods for about a month now, we started feeding them to him to hopefully help with his acid reflux (the theory is that heavy food in their tummy helps keep him from spitting up milk). The food has helped to keep things down- less spit up- but since he rejects prunes (too acidic), peaches or pears, it has also helped to keep things in. So with one solution we have created another problem and we are working on fixing that right now. His favorites so far are peas and sweet potatoes and he really won’t eat any of the fruits that I have tried to give him other than pears with blueberries- honestly, if he didn’t look so much like me I would swear he wasn’t my kid because of how much he hates the fruit!
*Thumb Sucker- sweet boy loves his thumb. He will take a Paci every once in a while however he only uses it as a teether. But that thumb, oh he has a thing for his thumb… and the way his pointer finger wraps around his little nose when he sucks on it just melts my heart.
*Sleeping has been going well and continues to go well. He sleeps for the most part from 8 or 8:30 every night until 7 or 7:30 and when he wakes up in the morning he usually plays quietly in the crib. Frequently I will go and get him and find him playing with his blankets or his ugly doll (adorable stuffed toy given to him by his godfather Michael), pleased as punch to just be there.
*Pretty much everything within Charlie’s reach these days is fair game- be it toy, blanket, duplo (Jay’s), car (Jay’s), bowl of salad, drink, phone… you get the picture. If he can reach it, it’s his and it will go in his mouth. The phone is a favorite but I think it might be because we use them so frequently… sad to admit… :(
*He is camera shy. If there is such a thing in a photographer’s house, this little boy is somewhat camera shy. He clams up and stops talking, cooing, smiling etc whenever he sees the camera or the phone out. It makes it a challenge to capture just how smiley this little one is; however, I have gotten pretty good at shooting from the hip so he won’t see them camera.
*His relationship with Jay is growing by the minute and is probably my favorite thing lately. He adores Jay, watching him, smiling and belly laughing at the things he does. Jay is just as enamored with Charlie as Charlie is with him. He is always asking where he is (if he’s not around- usually when he is napping), is immediately concerned if he is crying, talks about him all of the time and shares things with him too. Having two this close together is tough on even a good day but seeing their relationship grow the way it has been makes it all the worth while.
Likes:
*WATER!! He loves bath time especially if he gets a few minutes in the tub all to himself to splash around. He does enjoy the bath with company as well, it’s just that he gets to do a little more kicking when it’s only just him in there. The few times that we have taken him in the pool he has been all ear to ear smiles! He loves to splash and spin around!
*He likes to be tickled and when you love on him. Frequently throughout the day I will get his neck and or his belly and he laughs and laughs.
*He likes when we sing songs and read nursery rhymes. He will sit through a few toddler books when I am reading to Jay but he prefers the nursery rhymes and rhythmic stories over the others. Some favorites right now are Hand, Hand Fingers Thumb and a book full of Mother Goose rhymes.
*Watching Piper and Bella. From as early as I can remember he has enjoyed watching Jay, he’s kind of hard to miss these days, but lately he has really taken a liking to the animals. He loves playing with Piper’s fur and feet and he watches both Piper and Bella whenever they are around.
*Being outside- Charlie loves to play outside. We frequently take a blanket outside and sit under the shade to play. It’s a very nice change to being inside all of the time; however, I am not looking forward to the summer when it is even hotter outside than it is now.
Dislikes:
*Honestly, I am at a loss for what to put here… other than the completely normal dislikes of any other tiny human- being tired, being in one place for more than 30 minutes, not being able to poop- he is pretty much a breeze. We are lucky and I know it ;)
Here’s a few from our photo shoot… I took a few in front of our chalkboard wall in addition to the blocks and I LOVE them- it was so hard to narrow it down to even this many!
this one makes him look bigger he is, or at least that is my opinion…
and yes he will probably hate me for the next few but I took similar pictures of Jay so he’ll have company ;)

rich
“i scream, you ice scream”
We have a new wooden sign in the kitchen that says- I Scream, You Scream and it has a big ice cream cone on it. My Little Bird likes to point at it and say “I scream, you ice scream”, makes me smile…
The other day, Jamie was working from home and Jay had been especially good during the day so we had an early supper, packed up the car and treated Jay to his first ice cream cone! If you know anything about us, you know that we (maybe mostly me, but it’s rubbing off on Jay too) have a thing for ice cream. If you take a look in our freezer at any given time you can find at least 4-5 different flavors- it’s our own personal Baskin Robins ;) So a trip to get an ice cream as a family was a very fitting treat.
At the end of it all Jay was a super sticky mess- a head-to-toe mess of melted ice cream. But I am pretty sure he loved every single bite of his super huge “banilla” cone (btw- we ordered him a small cone, I would hate to see what the medium or large looks like). And as for this Mamma, the ice cream was yummy but spending a quiet evening just the four of us was more of a treat than I could ever ask for. Lately, the days and evenings have been kind of crazy, with Jamie’s insane work hours and everything that comes along with having two boys under 2.5 years old, so these moments have been rare but oh so sweet when they happen… Can’t wait to do it again ;)
ordering- he loved watching the cones being made
late sunday swim
Most of our Sunday was spent cleaning up from the shrimp boil on Saturday (many thanks to all who stuck around Saturday to help pick up; many hands made light work). However, when the majority of the cleaning and packing up was done Jamie headed over to help his Dad build a trellis for a new bougainvillaea plant they added during his parents re-landscaping project. I stayed back while the boys napped but joined him after they woke up. Charlie got to take his first turn in the porch swing, or any swing for that matter, and both boys along with me, Jamie and Mimi took a dip in the pool- which was also Charlie’s first swim. It’s still a little bit chilly, Jay’s teeth start chattering pretty soon after getting wet, but it didn’t stop either of them from enjoying the water. Charlie splashed and giggled the whole time and Jay went non-stop regardless of the shivering. The swimming from last year is starting to come back to Jay and right now he adores jumping in and taking submarine rides on Daddy’s back. I am pretty sure by the end of the summer we will have made a full blown fish out of him… gills here we come!
shrimp boil 2012
I am not sure how many years now the annual Shrimp Boil has been going on… I would venture a guess that Jamie has been hosting it with his Dad for a good 10 years and then George probably hosted it on his own prior to that for another 10. This is my fourth year of joining the festivities and I must say I look forward to it EVERY year! I mean what is not to like- good food, good drink and good people. What more could you ask for on a sunny Saturday afternoon?
Since having the kiddos I find myself not as “free” to shoot as much of these events as I would like (putting sleeping babies down, getting not sleeping big brothers up, etc can really eat up some time). However, I did manage to grab a few photos of the day… although none of the pouring and unfortunately very few of anyone other than family… Either way, documented or not, there were family, many great friends and a wonderful assortment of colleagues that joined us in bellying up to the table. Thanks to all that came, it was great seeing you, and for those of you who couldn’t make it- you were missed but there is always next year ;)
pretty flowers compliments of Publix… I really do love me a mason jar ;)

banana pudding bites, check out a recipe here

Pepere and Charlie- prepping the water ;)

I was trying to get a photo of me and Jay but he was way too distracted with all of the people in the backyard to smile… not even tickling really worked

Charlie hanging on the blanket

enjoying some delicious corn- purchasing it fresh was definitely the way to go!

Josh- by the way Jay adores him and rightfully so… he is wonderful to him, they are ‘briends’

couldn’t resist posting this one of little miss Avery- check out those baby blues!!

outtakes
So photographing a 5 1/2 month old along side his 27 month old brother on my own is NO easy feat, let me tell you! I was happy to get the few that I did but I just couldn’t resist sharing a few of the outtakes- happy Monday to you!
Oh and in case you are worried- although it doesn’t always appear this way Charlie was loving all of the snuggles and attention from his big brother :)


thing one and thing two
The other day I was trying to get some photos of Jay and Charlie in their thing one and thing two shirts… We don’t have many of the two boys together in photos right now so I am trying to make a more conscious effort to take some. I wouldn’t exactly call the said “photo shoot” extremely successful- you can’t really tell what the shirts say and I am not wild about the back lighting in the photos. That being said, I will most certainly try again for a ‘brothers’ shoot soon and there are a few cute ones of my fellas that I had to share… enjoy and happy Friday to you!!!
the next two of Charlie are really similar but I couldn’t decide on which one I liked best so you get to see them both. Isn’t he getting so big!?!
lunch
One of the perks of Jamie working from home is that we get to have lunch with Grandpa when he does. We all look forward to it- Piper nearly knocks over everyone in her path once she sees us getting ready for lunch (putting the place-mats out and getting a towel for her to have her kong treat on) and Jay bounds around the house saying “Grandpa, Grandpa” in a sweet sing-songy voice when he sees him pull up or hears the front gate open announcing his arrival. I know it’s only a little bit before Charlie joins in on the Grandpa’s-here-dance too because he loves every bit of our visits as much as the rest of us. I am so glad that I was able to grab a few photos from the highlight of our week; Charlie shared some adorable smiles and the few that I got of Grandpa reading to Jay (which is probably Jay’s favorite part of our lunch routine) make my heart smile. Enjoy the photos and enjoy the next few days of your weekend ;)
























































