This Wasn't In The Book...

So the parenting books that I've been reading stress the importance of giving babies plenty of opportunities to learn how to feed themselves, no matter how messy it gets. So yesterday morning when I gave Charlie a little yogurt in a bowl with a spoon, I expected a mess, but I did not anticipate

how bold Charlie would be while creating the mess.

When I first turned around from the sink, he was holding the bowl over his head, as if to declare, "I have all of the power in this situation  Mommy.  Just go back to slicing the banana and don't worry about what I'm doing over here."

Next, he was threatening to throw the bowl on the floor...nevermind that all of the yogurt was already on his face and jammies.

I give him an "A" for trying to create a Santa beard.  Very festive.

He had the audacity to smile and laugh when I asked him to hand me the bowl.

And to top it all off, he handed the bowl to Copper to lick.  Needless to say, Charlie went straight to the tub, the jammies went straight to the wash machine and the bowl went straight to the dishwasher.  I'm not sure what to do in these situations, but something tells me that I shouldn't be laughing and taking pictures.

I Think He Likes It....

So the ziti recipe that I tried yesterday was a huge hit with Charlie.  We had to keep telling him to slow down and for the first time in a long time, he didn't share any with Copper.

After 9 ear infections in 8 months, Charlie got tubes on Thursday, something that I've been lobbying for a couple of months now.  It was extremely quick and the most "difficult" part was keeping him entertained for the three hours between him waking up and the procedure, without giving him anything to eat or drink.  While we were hanging out in the pre-op area, a little girl was getting ready to be taken to the cancer center for her surgery so we felt extremely lucky to be there for such a minimal procedure.  Charlie was a little out of sorts on Thursday morning, but seemed much more like himself after a long nap and big lunch.

We've been assured by numerous nurses/doctors that he'll become a much better eater after getting tubes...I thought the fact that he already weighs 25 pounds would be obvious to them that eating hasn't been an issue.

Here's to an ear-infection free (?) winter!

Duck Hunting

Yesterday was a true test of our patience as pet owners.  Actually, Copper has tested our patience since he was about six months old, but this weekend was especially trying. 

We have a pond in our backyard and Copper decided that it was his mission to hunt ducks by jumping into the pond everytime that he was outside.  Each adventure led to a mud-soaked dog, which led to a dog bath, which led to me bleaching the bathtub.  One might ask why we would let Copper into the backyard without a leash after said first pond-duck-mud-bath encounter and I plead insanity.  I think the time change has temporarily disabled my rational thinking.  Speaking of the time change, someone needed to tell this twazy baby that even though it may have felt like 6:15, it was really only 5:15 and it wasn't time to play.

 But back to the story at hand.  I was giving Copper his first bath at 6:30 a.m. when I heard BJ giggling behind me.  I turned around to see our camera in his hand and hear, "It's not, but your butt looks huge in this picture.  You're gonna hate it."  For the record, the fuzzy pink robe has never been flattering.  Exhibit A:

But then, when BJ was giving Copper his second bath later that morning, I decided to snap a picture to see how big his butt looked.  I will let the public decide.  Exhibit B:

I think we can all agree that the cutest butt in both pictures belongs to Charlie. 

Finally, Marty pointed out that my 11 month update post originally included a sign "11-11-10" and asked what was up with the date.  I totally screwed up and meant to put "11-3-10".  Charlie is getting tubes this Thursday, the 11th, and I was thinking about that the night that I did his 11 month post.  Anyway, I replaced the first picture, but despite my best efforts, was unable to recreate the entire photo shoot, which is not good for my OCDness.

Have a great week.

11 Month Update

Charlie Boy turned eleven months old today and I'm still frantically looking for a way to make time stop or at least slow down.  I tried to capture the obligatory picture in his chair next to the stuffed cow, but he was not feeling it.  He could sense that the hamburger/noodle casserole was near completion and the thought of waiting a second longer to enjoy his dinner was almost too much to bear.

Charlie is a crawling fool and is starting to walk around the coffee table and the couch.  He also loves to pull himself up to a standing position by pulling on my pants, which is normally fine, but if I happen to have a pair of flannel pants or sweatpants from the Cedar Falls Wal-Mart (fall of 1998, the sweatpants were $12), the pants often end up around my ankles.  Reason 871 why I shouldn't be
wearing those pants in public anymore. 

He loves being "chased" around our living room.  He scream with excitement and then crawl about 3 feet away before stopping to turn around to make sure that we are chasing him.  If we corner him he just comes towards us, ready for a mouth-open, slobbery bobbery kiss.  Charlie also loves when our ice machine is in use.  It used to scare him a little bit, but now he frantically crawls towards the fridge so as not to miss out on any of the action.

Charlie has also started to shake his little booty when he hears music and I always yell "shake what I gave you" which causes him to laugh and BJ to shake his head.  I look forward to many dance parties in our living room.

I think Charlie's really close to getting his first tooth, but his lack of teeth do not present much of an obstacle when eating.  He loves hamburger, roast beef and chicken breast.  His favorite meal seems to be any kind of pasta/meat casserole and he regularly eats faster than I can cool it down for him. 

Charlie also seems to have acquired the gift of gab and he will regularly join any conversation, talking louder and louder until he is acknowledged.  He still loves to say "da da" and rarely says "ma ma".  Whenever I tell him to say  "ma ma", he giggles and says "da da" which is further proof that he and BJ have a major conspiracy against me.  In Charlie's defense, there is no need to say "ma ma" when he knows that I will pretty much respond to any noise that he makes.

This past weekend marked the first night that I was away from Charlie overnight and it ended up being two nights.  BJ and I met our good friends Nick and Catherine for Jon Stewart's Rally to Restore Sanity in Washington DC.  The rally was an experience, but we quickly agreed that none of us would have been able to protest during the 60s because after an hour and a half standing in the same spot in the sun, we started talking about how hot we were, how thirsty we were and what time we were going to leave the rally and find a bar.  That being said, it was great to be a part of it and really nice to catch up with Nick and Catherine.  As with most once in a lifetime experiences, my camera spent most of the time in my purse, but I did capture the following random photos.

BJ held my camera above my head to try to capture the crowd...let's just say that it was large.

This was basically my view - bums in front of me.  

Nick and Catherine - there is no other couple that we would have wanted to eat and drink our way through the DC area!
We were really excited to see Charlie on Sunday so thanks to mom and dad and Steve and Jan for taking such good care of him over the weekend.  He came back a very happy little boy and probably a little spoiled.

Happy Halloween

We eased into the Halloween festivities by carving pumpkins a few nights ago.  I'm not sure who was more disinterested - Charlie started trying to eat bits of newspaper and BJ kept sighing as though he was being tortured.  Ahhh, family memories.

I was busy explaining that pumpkin seeds may look like they would be good to eat, they were gross and presented a choking hazard.  I think he started to shred the newspaper while I was giving my lesson.  We have got to work on increasing his attention span.

I was trying to get a pick of Charlie with his pumpkin but he was more interested in patroling the neighborhood from our deck door.  Good luck trying to tp our house or let your dog relieve him/hersellf while Charlie's on the watch - he's vigilant my friends.

BJ and I won't win any contests, but the last pumpkin I carved was in 2nd grade at Emily Kearney's house so it had been awhile.

After much debate over what his costume should be (more like me tossing out ideas to BJ and him shooting every idea down), I bought a puppy costume for Charlie.  I knew that we wouldn't take him trick-or-treating, but the daycare planned a halloween parade through the hospital and I plan to dress him in as ridiculous/cute costumes as I can before he starts voicing his opinion. 

Here he is thinking - this feels OK, but I think there is something on my head.

Here he is thinking - this is not OK.  Both of you are laughing and I hate my costume.  See, I'm already voicing my opinion.

I decided to stop by the daycare earlier today to help him get ready and loaded up for the Halloween parade.  I thought seeing his little friends in their costumes would be a good distraction.  It worked for a few minutes.  Please see the progression below.  Happy, then sad, then fine without the "ears" on, then sad the minute I try to put his ears back on.

Here's to hoping that everyone has a successful trick-or-treat and that no one makes you wear a puppy costume.

More, Yes More, Fun With Cousins

This post is late for no reason other than the fact that since it gets dark around 6:30, I feel the need to be completely lazy after Charlie goes to bed around 8:00.  The amount of laundry that was done today was enough that BJ and I should have been ashamed of ourselves.  Let's just say that if we wouldn't have done laundry today, Charlie would have had to wear his halloween costume to church tomorrow and the general public would have been exposed to my pink fuzzy robe.

But enough about the depth of my laziness over the last week.  We had a great weekend last weekend when my sister Molly, brother-in-law Mike and nieces (Emma, Claire and Hannah) came for a few days.  They arrived on Thursday night and kept Charlie at home while I went to work for a few hours on Friday.  We spent a few hours at the mall on Friday afternoon and Charlie had his first trip to the play area.  I'd be lying if I said that I haven't been dreading this day.  I realize that from now until years from now, we will probably have to extend all mall excursions by about 30 minutes to allow him to have ample playtime in the petri dish known as the play area.  Charlie had a great time and his crazy Horsfield cousins entertained him during their entire visit. 

I did not have my camera with me, but my sister Molly sent me these pictures of Charlie playing.

Charlie loved going down the slide and would arch his back and cry until I put him at the top of the slide again.  I think 10 months is a little early to throwing fits, but maybe it's a good thing that he is so passionate about something at this early of an age???  Denial can be a mom's best friend.

We all went out for pizza on Friday night and came back and watched Jumanji.  It was good that we had so much fun on Friday because the Horsfield visit was cut short when the flu bug struck them sometime during the middle of the night on Friday.  Despite my bleach/cleaning efforts, I think that they caught it from BJ and Charlie, which was a bummer.  Before they headed home, I gave Emma her birthday present a couple of weeks early - a hair straightener.  I cannot believe that she will turn 11 next weekend.  I still remember watching a movie with BJ in Cedar Falls and getting the call from Molly that she was born.  That day does not seem that long ago, but the fact that she asked for a hair straightener makes me feel very old. 

Unfortunately for Copper, we have not found the fountain of youth as that is Pete and not Copper in the picture.

The rest of the week has been pretty uneventful.  I snapped the picture below after Charlie ate the equivalent of 2 adult dinners.  He ate chicken breast, rice, carrots, green beans, an individual serving size cup of applesauce and (when I didn't have anything else to offer him) about a cup of leftover goulash.  He may have even licked the tray when I wasn't looking and yes, he drank an 8 ounce bottle 45 minutes later.  We were at the table for over an hour and he was so happy after his tummy was full that I had to snap a picture.  At one point, BJ was getting ice cream out of the freezer and said that we should just "cut him off".  I told him that those in glass houses shouldn't throw stones and that was the end of that conversation. 



Pumpkin Patch

We went to a pumpkin patch on Saturday and it will probably go down as our quickest visit to a pumpkin patch with Charlie ever.  It was really cute - there were pony rides, hay wagon rides, petting zoo, a corn maze and Charlie was blissfully unaware of all of it.  In fact, he fell asleep on the way to there, so he was a little out of it during picture time.  We left with a little pumpkin for Charlie's room and a larger pumpkin that we will carve as a family.  BJ cannot wait.

I don't know why I even bother with socks and shoes - they are off within minutes.  It may be a long winter for those chubby feet being shoved into socks and shoes.

It is completely inappropriate to put a 10 month old baby's face through this cutout and I was totally offended that there was a wooden cutout of a woman holding pumpkins in front of her chest.  That being said, this may have been the 2nd picture that I took.

The fun of the pumpkin patch was short-lived when Charlie was replaced for a few hours on Saturday night with a baby that I will call Pukey McGee - a nice baby, but not nearly as cute or good-smelling as Charlie.  Thankfully, after a couple of icky hours and a few loads of laundry, Pukey McGee left and Charlie returned.

In other random news, Charlie continues to prove that he is irresistible as he has been bitten twice at daycare within the last week.  Ann didn't see the latest chomp happen, but when she realized the marks on his arm, she "CSId" the marks in comparison to the two teeth-filled mouths that were in the room and was able to conclude her investigation.  Sticking to daycare policy, she refused to identify the perpetrator, but assured me that she had disciplined her.  I asked if she bit her back and Ann looked horrified.  I wasn't being serious.  Well, not completely serious.

Finally, Charlie's outgrown all of his baby hooded towels, but we've found another good use.