A Charlie Boy, Squirrel Puppy and the Easter Bunny...

walk into a bar.  Sounds like the beginning of a joke, right?  Nope - just the topics covered in this post.

On Saturday, Charlie turned 4 months' old! 

Despite my inability to capture any smiles on camera, Charlie is regularly giving us big smiles, coos and has this little high pitched laugh.  He's rolled a few times from his tummy to his back and when he is laying on his back, he tries really hard to lift his head.  But with cheeks as full as his, it may be awhile before he can pick his head up when on his back.   Charlie continues to love to be talked and sang to and will crane his little neck to follow our voices.  I took him to the doctor last week when he wasn't feeling well and he weighed 15 pounds...continuing to eat his way into our hearts and all of his 6-9 month clothes.  I take him tomorrow for his 4 month well-baby check-up, but in my untrained opinion, he is reaching all of his milestones.  In all honesty, I shouldn't rely on any of the "milestones" specified in the baby books that I've read because those are the same books that indicate that Charlie should be sleeping through the night and getting him back to sleep.  Charlie, on the other hand, is currently protesting sleep.  It started last about two weeks ago when he got sick and continued through this past weekend.  With the move and spending the weekend in Cascade, Charlie "slept" a lot in his pack-n-play.  As I realized in the middle of the night last night, it is called a pack-n-play and not a pack-n-sleep for a reason. 

Friday was Copper's (a/k/a Squirrel Puppy) 7th birthday and we celebrated with treats from a dog bakery.  Earlier in the day Copper got to go for a long walk around Steve and Jan's pond, so we're pretty sure that he had a good birthday.  Although, his wish didn't come true because when he opened his eyes, Charlie was still around.  It's rough being a puppy that used to get all of the attention.  When Copper is feeling particularly sorry for himself, I threaten that I am going to drop him off at the Humane Society for a weekend so that he can truly appreciate what he has. 

Finally, today was Charlie's First Easter.  We celebrated with my side of the family yesterday afternoon at my sister's house, last night with BJ's extended family and this morning with BJ's family.  We attempted to get a decent family photo in our "Easter Best" after church this morning, but BJ and I agreed that we both looked like death warmed over in the photos, so we'll just post a picture of Charlie in his "casual" Eastern outfit from yesterday.

Charlie was a lucky little boy this weekend - the Easter Bunny was able to track him down in Cascade, despite all of the chaos of the move last week.  Charlie received a couple of teething toys, some new pacifiers, and a little handheld musical toy.

Aunt Jenn also gave Charlie a cute summer outfit, Grandma Jan and Grandpa Steve gave Charlie a summer outfit and book, Aunt Molly gave Charlie a teething toy and Grandma Kathy and Grandpa Bill gave Charlie (and all of the grandkids) a little Zhu Zhu pet.  One of niece's Zhu Zhu pets took a turn for the worse yesterday, but Uncle Marty saved the day and performed a quick outpatient surgery to get the Zhu Zhu pet back on its feet.

It was great to have a three hour drive home today rather than a six hour drive - it felt like we were actually able to spend an entire weekend in Cascade instead of spending half of the weekend on the road.