Charlie turned 9 months old on Friday and he suddenly seems more like a little boy than a baby. We had his 9 month check-up on Friday and he weighs 22 pounds. I was concerned at first because I thought that he weighed 22 pounds when we were there a few weeks ago, but they assured me that he weighs more now than he did at the last appointment and that because he is at the 86th percentile for weight...he isn't wasting away :).
I don't know if what he is doing could be crawling, but after rocking on all fours, he ends up scooting backwards and getting himself in a sitting position. Unfortunately, this only frustrates him since what he usually wants is in front of him instead of behind him. I suspect that he will be crawling any day and for now, I (and Copper) are enjoying the last few days of a fairly immobile baby.
Charlie is pretty much "over" the baby food, which is a little heart-breaking considering what a serious, committed relationship they had a few months ago. He's better about trying table food and drinking water from a sippy cup, but still loves his bottle more than anything in the entire world.
The babbling has become pretty standard, especially in the mornings or if there is an "audience." If BJ or I don't look at him right away, he babbles louder or grunts until we give him attention. He has the only child thing down pat. He says "da da da" and "ma ma ma" pretty regularly, but I don't think that it is directed toward us. Charlie also started "giving high 5s" - which entails him holding his hand up and expecting you to lean forward and slap his hand. The whole thing cracks him up.
I took him to get his 9 month pictures this morning and while we were able to snap a couple of good ones, he had some definite "stranger danger" with the photographer. It seemed that whenever I would get him to smile, she would laugh really loud, which scared the bejesus out of him. I tried to think of a polite way to say "can you not laugh or speak", but I couldn't come up with anything.
We had our informal 9 month photo shoot on Friday and I've included many outtakes as I do not have the cat-like reflexes that I once (maybe?) had to capture him smiling and sitting still.
Copper sat next to me as I was snapping pictures and whined. I finally took the picture below and he stopped whining after I took his picture. I wish that I was kidding. I'm pretty sure that he has a score card hidden somewhere and he counts how many times we do something for Charlie versus something for him. He has an incredibly difficult life. In fact, if anyone could call the local humane society on his behalf, he would appreciate it.
Finally, we've been able to see quite a few friends over the last week or so and it's been great. We had Mike (Birdie), Sarah (Zinn) and their boys (Zach and Drew) over for lunch on Sunday. Zach and Drew will meet their new brother or sister in November and they will make great big brothers. I did a poor job of taking pictures, but Zach did a great job of entertaining Charlie.
BJ was out of town for work (or so he says) for a few days this week so my parents came down for a night to see Charlie Boy and help out with some projects around the house. Stupidly, my picture-taking was on hiatus, but mom and dad got to be one of the first "audiences" for Charlie's performance of going to bed at 8, only to wake up an hour and a half later ready to start his day and full of energy and life. Let's just say that when it was 10 at night and Charlie was laughing and jumping up a storm in his exersaucer, grandma and grandpa thought that the whole thing was cute. I, on the other hand, was what you could call a tough audience member. Mom and dad - thanks again for coming down and for doing the painstaking job of installing all of our hardware on our cabinets and drawers - we really appreciate it!
This weekend, our friends Dave and Laura came to stay with us with their three kids - Avery, Alivia and Connor. Sadly, it had been 3 years since we've seen the Nielsens (never having met Connor) and one would think that I would have taken some pictures of this event, but between the donuts, Chips Ahoy cookies, cheeseburger, taco dip, pizza and some ham/pickle/cream cheese things that I'll call "heaven", I couldn't muster up enough energy to find my camera. I should be ashamed of myself.
The Archer clan (Kevin, Jenn, Gavin, Rowen and Claire) came to hang out with all of us for a few hours on Saturday afternoon and it was nice to have 3/5 of the Wartburg crew together again. For those of you keeping track at home, that is 6 adults, 7 kids and a dog (who was "napping" in our bedroom...I wanted all of the children to leave with their fingers) at our house for most of the day and it went great. The "older" kids never really met and it seems like they had a great time playing with each other. There was only one instance of kids marching toward the pond and I broke out my "get back to the house right this minute" voice and I've never seen little legs move so fast. I'm sure it was pretty scary to have a lady that you barely know yell at you, but I was not in lifeguard mode.
Nielsens - thanks again for making the drive. We promise that it won't be another 3 years before we see you. Archers - it is always good to see you and I consider any visit of your's to be successful so long as Kevin doesn't forget a pair of shoes.
Happy Labor Day to all of you laborers.
