Cuddlebugs

Mother's Day 2010 started off with a bang on Thursday when Charlie's daycare hosted a special luncheon for the moms.  I didn't know any of the other moms before the lunch and I'm pretty sure that I've been branded as the resident idiot after the lunch.  When I got there, Charlie and I mingled around the food table, trying to make small talk with a roomful of strangers.  Despite being chubby and cute, Charlie isn't great for starting conversations yet, so the bulk of the work fell to me.  Anyway, when talking to two different moms during two different conversations, I was asked if Charlie was a ladybug or a grasshopper.  I thought that the conversation was really bizarre each time and just smiled and said, "oh, he's neither - he's a cuddlebug."  I should have known by the blank stares from the moms that I was missing something.  It was only after I was leaving Charlie's room that I noticed the sign above the door that read "Grasshoppers".  Oops - I'm sure the two other moms thought that I was an idiot.

The "teachers" helped all of the babies make gifts and it is ...(gulp) beautiful.  A homemade kleenex box cover, complete with a quote, a picture of Charlie and a smudged footprint on the one side.

While this gift has special meaning for me and I will cherish it always, I had to laugh thinking about how everything comes full circle.  I remember picking dandelions for my mom (which she proudly displayed on the kitchen counter as if they were roses) and even going as far as wrapping a pair of earrings that she already owned for her birthday or Mother's Day.  She told me that she loved the earrings and I remember thinking that of course she loved the earrings - she wore them all the time.  Needless to say, I'm sure that this is the first of many gifts that I will proudly display that will be considered works of art in our house only.

We had a great weekend - we met  our friends Arch and Jenn for dinner on Friday night, a friend of mine from law school on Saturday for lunch, and our friend Zinn and her boys for dinner on Saturday night.  Today was pretty low key.  I slept in for a few hours while BJ and Charlie had some bonding time starting around 5:45 am and then we went out for lunch and ran some errands.  Charlie was in a great mood while we were at the mall and was laughing and smiling most of the day.  It was one of those afternoons that I didn't want to end.  

Charlie is apparently a genius and read on the blog how much I hated my digital camera so he, Copper and BJ surprised me with a new digital camera.   

Me and my two boys.  Charlie was too busy polishing off a bottle to look at the camera.  Please note that Charlie didn't realize that most gifts are specially wrapped and not in a brown paper bag.  It's ok Charlie Boy - it was your first time giving me a gift.  Please ignore the fact that Copper looks like he is homeless.  He is going in for a much-needed hair cut tomorrow morning.  Even he thinks that he stinks. 

The actual camera, which I can't wait to use (it's currently charging).  BJ said "milk" and Charlie looked in his direction (just kidding).  Thanks Charlie for a wonderful first Mother's Day  - you've made me smile more than I thought was possible and my heart happier than its ever been.  Just imagine how much I'll love you when you start sleeping through the night.  I kid, I kid.

BJ and I are really lucky to have grown up with the moms that we have and it really makes us appreciate that we get to see them more often now that we've moved back to Iowa.

5 Month Update and Other Tidbits

Happy "five month" birthday Charlie Boy!

When we took you to the pediatrician's office last week for your cold/cough, you weighed a whopping 16 pounds and 6 ounces.  You have started to zone in on Copper and love watching him!  We're sure that you're excited to grab onto him too, but that will have to wait.  You're little personality is emerging everyday and most days, you are a happy little boy.  You love laying on the floor and kicking your feet, being talked to, being read to, going for walks, splashing during bathtime and eating continues to be a favorite hobby.  So far you've pretty much rejected rice cereal, carrots and sweet potatoes, but we plan to try baby food again next week with the hopes that it may lead to some longer sleep sessions at night - a girl can dream, right?

It's been a busy couple of days with a somewhat unexpected trip back to Cascade for the weekend, but it was great to get to see some family.  On Friday night, Charlie got to hang out with his cousin Max for a little while.  Then it was on to see Uncle Randy, Aunt Carrie and his cousins Anna, Lauren and Julia (I failed to snap a picture which drives me nuts).  Finally, we stopped by Troy and Jen's house to meet their beautiful new little girl, Paige.  Paige is absolutely beautiful and Charlie looked like he could have eaten her.

On Saturday, we were able to spend some time at my mom and dad's house with my nieces Emma, Claire and Hannah. 

On Saturday night, we enjoyed a great dinner with Steve, Jan, Jenn, Sam and Max.  Jan had graciously offered to watch Charlie if BJ and I wanted to go out and do something Saturday night.  We must have talked about it a dozen times on Saturday - we could go to a movie!  Out for a drink!  Shopping!  The possibilities seemed endless.  Then, after getting Charlie to sleep around 8:30, BJ and I were too tired to do anything but watch TV...which should have been a sign for how the rest of the evening was going to go.  I woke up at about 2:30am with the flu and realized that BJ had the same thing.  We proceeded to have the chills, a headache, throw up and nap from 2:30 in the morning until about 5:00 Sunday night.  It wasn't pretty and thank God that Steve and Jan came down and swooped Charlie away from our makeshift sick bay in their basement.  We don't know what we would have done without them and as BJ pointed out between Tylenol and a Sprite, "at least we got to spend some time together."  Not exactly the stuff found in romance novels, but oh well. 

Finally, we were able to capture a few pictures of Charlie smiling courtesy of our Blackberries.  Proof that the child isn't as stoic as previous blog pictures have indicated.

Hope that you all had a puke-free weekend!

Wait Til We Get Our Hanes on You...

A few weeks ago, Charlie started crossing his feet while he ate and it always makes me smile.  He was in desperate need of some bigger socks so I picked up his first package of "Hanes" socks.  I didn't even know that Hanes made socks for babies, but they do and for reasons that BJ thinks is crazy, I think that the socks are adorable.

Yesterday, Charlie was enthralled with staring at BJ and as I was snapping some pictures, I realized that they were wearing similar socks, which I thought was very cute.

We had a pretty quiet weekend, but went over to our friend Birdie and Zinn's house for great homemade pizza.  Thanks for having us over!  Congrats to our friends Troy and Jen, who had a little girl on Friday night.  Paige Abigail is beautiful and we're very excited to get to meet her soon!

Come See the Amazing Charlie...

who sleeps less than any other baby known to man.  Apparently Charlie read my previous post about his end to protesting sleep and decided to revert back to his old ways.  He's only taking 2 "cat" naps (anywhere between 25-40 minutes) at daycare per day and although he may fall asleep between 8:30-9:00 at night, he usually wakes up around 11:30, 1:30 and again for the day at 3:30.  He doesn't really need anything at those times, but seeing as how we are living in a small apartment, we are awake whenever he is awake.  So, we start the routine of rocking with him and walking around with him in the hopes of him falling back asleep, which usually happens around 5:00.  It dawned on me last night that I should clip a pedometer on my shorts and look at these middle of the night rituals as a good way to sneak in some exercise. 

If you happen to have one of those freak babies that started sleeping through the night at 6 or 8 weeks, please do not tell me.  If you think that Charlie is not sleeping through the night because of some horrible mistake I made months ago, please do not tell me.  If you know of a safe and legal drug that I can give him so that we can sleep at night, you know my number.   

Thankfully, Charlie's moments of cuteness and sweetness far outweigh our lack of sleep, but we'd be happy to take the cuteness, sweetness and more sleep whenever his chubby little cheeks desire.  On a positive note, I feel like I still get to see him quite a bit at night/early morning...something that I feared I would miss out on when he went to daycare.  Little did I know...

Charlie's daycare uses the Bumbo seats so we decided to get one the other week.  It always makes me smile to walk in the door and see 2 or 3 babies sitting in the chair.  It always catches me off guard at how old he seems when he's in the chair and I half expect him to say "hey mom, how was your day"? 

Charlie continues to love his bath and is still obsessed with sucking on his fingers.  I think he's going to love to swim as he gets older.

Other than the late night "bonding sessions" with Charlie, we had a really nice weekend.  We checked out various neighborhoods and suburbs on Friday night, saw my parents for a few hours yesterday, met up with friends last night and took Copper for a long walk at an area park today.  We hope that you all had a great weekend. 

Who Needs U-Haul When You Have In-Laws?

Yesterday marked our last trip to our house in Kansas City to pack up our remaining items.  It was a little bittersweet as we loved our house and have a lot of memories in that house with planning for Charlie's (f/k/a Poppy) arrival, but we are still thrilled to be back in Iowa. 

BJ is very focused when packing/loading, so many items were loaded into Steve and Jan's trailer before I had the chance to deem them "No need for the next few months - to storage in Cascade" versus "Cannot live without - must go to Des Moines".  Let's just say that I've come to realize that neither Copper nor Charlie were sent to Cascade to be stored for the next few months, and that is all that matters.  I'm sure that after repeating that line over and over again in my mind the next few days will help me believe it. 

Charlie's first week at his new daycare went really well, as did my first week at Iowa Health System.  Everyone has been very friendly and its been a great move for us so far. 

For most of the week, Charlie was protesting sleep, but on Thursday night he crossed the picket line and only woke up twice (which was a major accomplishment compared to waking every 45-60 minutes).  Not to be outdone, Copper was protesting his kibble and refused to eat anything since we arrived in West Des Moines last Sunday.  I finally broke down and bought him new kibble last night and he happily gobbled it up last night and today.   

The last couple of weekends have been really busy between packing and unpacking, but we owe many thanks for our family and friends for helping us load and unload.  We are especially grateful to Steve and Jan who made not only one, but two trips to Kansas City with their truck and trailer and who are also storing the bulk of our things in their storage room for the next few months.  We doubt that they planned to run a mini U-Haul business during the first year of their retirement, but we surely appreciate it. 

Steve and Jan came as far as West Des Moines on Friday night and as you can tell from the photos, they completely ignored Charlie and Copper.

In other random news, I've been wondering why Charlie seems to be sporting a Jennifer "Flashdance" Beals shoulder in some of his outfits lately.  Earlier tonight I saw BJ undressing Charlie for his bath and noted that BJ pulled Charlie's outfit down over his waist instead of pulling them over his head. Intrigued, I asked what he was doing and he firmly told me that taking Charlie's outfit off that way was "better for Charlie and for me because he won't cry."  With reasoning like that, expect to see Charlie playing with matches and running with a pair of scissors in the near future.

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.

Is This Heaven?

No Charlie Boy, it's Iowa.

We're 95% moved back to Iowa.  We still have some winter clothes, patio furniture, a ping pong table and other random items at our house in Kansas City that we will get in a few weeks. 

I'm not sure what all took place in the last two weeks, but it involved bubble wrap, boxes, masking tape, goodbye lunches, a couple of trips to Des Moines, work, Charlie, pack, work, Charlie, pack, work, Charlie, pack...you get the idea.  Sans the bags under our eyes, I think we survived.  Although I will admit that after dropping Charlie off at day care on Monday, I hopped into the passenger side of the car.  Oops.  It only took me a second to realize that driving myself to work from the passenger side of the car wasn't really an option.

BJ's first week of work at the American Heart Association has gone really well and I start at Iowa Health Systems on Tuesday.  In the meantime, we're going back to Cascade this weekend to celebrate the Easter festivities.

My picture-taking was on hiatus for awhile, but I did snap this picture of BJ and Charlie watching basketball.  We make an effort to keep Charlie away from the TV, but this particular game was just too good to ignore. 

I have a feeling that this was just the first of many March Madness seasons that will be shared between BJ and Charlie.