Charlie 9 Months

Charlie turned nine months old last week (can you even BELIEVE I've waited this long to post this? Well, believe it......mama's busy). And to mark such a special occasion, he even had the nerve to cut his front teeth on top. Total defiance. Growing older AND changing all at once. But darn it, he's so dang cute. So, he can totally get away with it. This time. Here are his super official nine month photos. Feeling rather deep and nostalgic on his nine month birthday. Hmmmmmmm........is dat a biwrd out der? Or is dat a cat? Oh wait, maybe is just a flower.......gots to learn some new words and stuff. Maybe some flash cards would help.......




  Now he's feeling more like himself.



 





Some fun facts about Charlie at nine months:

 *He just cut two more teeth on top, bringing him to a grand total of four.

*He's still big time into table food, but he has a definite allergy to soy (which, btw, is in EVERYTHING. For real.), and has reacted to the acid in tomatoes and has had some mixed results with peas. So, I'm going to hold off on peanut butter for a bit until we can sort out some of these allergies.

 *He finally rolls over and scoots around. I was starting to worry about this kid. But, some tough love and baby boot camp have proven quite effective. He now gets around and is making me crazy paranoid about all the stuff I have to re-baby proof. Geeze. Harv is really good about alerting me when Charlie is in danger. "Charwie, what do you have buddy?". Or, even better, "Charwie, NO SIR!" (you think Harv has heard that a few times in life??) That's how I know, I need to stop making dinner/drinking water/going to the bathroom/sending a text message and go figure out what he has going on. :)

 *He sleeps like a champ still. Even with his two teeth coming in, he wasn't all that bad.

 *Charlie had his first real illness just before he turned nine months old. He had an ear infection, likely from a virus that the kids passed around plus his teeth coming in. So, first round of antibiotics in the books. Fortunately, he wasn't allergic to that. *He is a blanket and passy lover. I really wish he would suck his thumb, but the passy (upside down) is totally his thing. Whatever makes him happy, I guess. 

*It looks like he's going to have some curly locks. If that ends up being true, I want him to grow a sweet little fro. Perhaps no haircuts for a little while. :)


 *Sizes: Clothes/sleeper:18 months. Shoes:Size 4, I think. Diapers: Size 4.


 *One last fun fact: he wants to sit up, all the time. Including bottle time. It's like bottle feeding a calf. Pretty amazing.


 We'll have official height and weight type stats next week when we go to the doctor. Should be a good time!

Beginning of Baseball Season 2012

A few weeks ago we loaded up the boys and headed to St Louis for our first baseball weekend of the year. We left the house at 5:30. AM. Yes, we're that intense. The plan was to meet up with Tom and Chloe Ann in Benton and caravan into St Louis with them. Literally 1 mile from the exit where we were going to meet them, traffic stopped. We could see a huge cloud of black smoke ahead, so we knew it was potentially going to be quite a wait. Uhhh, little did we know, we would be stuck on the interstate for two and a half hours. Holy moly. With a toddler and a baby. That had both been up since 5:15. Fortunately, they were pretty good. We had our dvd player, and since everyone was literally parked, we got out and played on the side of the road.



 












Oh baby, there's our swagger wagon.

 It was so weird to see all of these empty cars on the road. I told John it looked like a scene from Left Behind. And, bad news, we're still here to see it all. Not good, Clore. Not good at all. :)



 So, once we were finally two and a half hours behind schedule, we met up with Tom and Chloe Ann, and we were on our way. Then, when we were just 10 miles from St Louis, another traffic jam. This time, it was *just* construction. No big semi on fire, but also not good. This put us even further behind. We were listening to the game on the radio and it was going unusually fast. Awesome.

 Long story, but we finally got into the game during the seventh inning stretch. Then all kinds of walking around, trying to get our tickets and get in (yet another ordeal), and we finally got into our seats in time for the ninth inning. Pretty amazing. And by amazing, I mean lame. We spent the night in St Louis, just a few miles from the stadium, so there was no way we were going to be late for Sunday's game. No sir. Here are some photos from Sunday.


  Harv hanging onto his loot.






  The fireworks were so not his thing.





 
Day two with no morning nap AND no afternoon nap----it's hard on a little guy.







 
After much rocking and walking, I finally got him to take a little nap. I was too afraid to even smile for fear of waking the baby beast.   Uhhh, bless his heart, and anything else southern I should say here.







  The aftermath. Such a fun, memorable weekend.

Hopefully less traffic-y next time around. :)

Easter 2012

I almost completely forgot to do an Easter post. So, here it is, almost a full month later. You're welcome. John and I decided when we first started talking about children that we would absolutely never dress them in the same outfits. Ever. Never ever. Then we had little Harv, and it was so super simple to stick to that rule. Then, little Charlie came along, and I lost my mind a little (a lot) and decided it's just TOO perfect to have two little boys, who look so much alike not to dress them the same. Seriously, it's a right of passage, really. And all children have to grow up and complain about something they seriously disagree with their parents about from their childhood. Honestly, I would rather our children complain to their therapists about how they *always* had to wear matching outfits on holidays. I would LOVE to think that's going to be our one and only shortcoming in their lifetimes. A girl can dream. :) Here are a few photos from our attempted photo shoot, in their matching seersucker suites. Oh my goodness, so precious (in my VERY humble opinion). And now for two of the most bizarre photos from the day: Doesn't he look just like the little old man from "Up"?? Such an old, old man look right here.