Learning About Eating

Did you know that eating is a learned skill? It's one I sometimes wish I'd never learned. I think my waistline would be much slimmer if I never learned to eat certain foods like cheese, chocolate, maybe beer?

Anyways, Matt and I tried feeding Charlie his first actual food the other day and watching him is unreal. The kid has no idea what to do with his tongue when the spoon is in his mouth. It's on top of the spoon, it's sticking out next to the spoon. It's everywhere but under the spoon. Then there's the swallowing of this unfamiliar substance. His first bite sat in his mouth for a second, he thought about it, and then he spit it out, clearing his bib, right onto the side of the highchair.

So we're going to keep practicing with the rice cereal because Matt's dying to put pizza and steak in the food mill and let Charlie taste real food. However, he doesn't want to do it too soon because wasting said foods is not allowed in this household.

One last note: I know you're thinking maybe I should put the fact that he's eating a little now together with the fact that he's sleeping a little better and see the correlation. However, if you saw how much he actually swallowed you'd agree there's no connection this at this point. Oh and Charlie slept for 9 hours again last night and Quincy is back on Orcas so it appears he wasn't the reason for it either. Charlie must just be growing up. Today: sleeping through the night. Tomorrow: packing up for college. Time sure flys with this little guy!

Sleepy Sleepersons

Charlie's been sleeping for 2-4 hours at a time each night since we brought him home from the hospital. This makes for one cranky mamma (as I'm sure anyone who's come in contact with me can attest to). I've even given up caffeine in case he's getting some through my breastmilk hoping that would help (certainly doesn't help with the crakiness on my part let me tell you).

So when on Monday and Wednesday nights Charlie, for the first time ever, slept for 9 hours at a time I was in disbelief! And look how happy he was when he woke up. No screaming his head off for food, just some noises so I'd know it's time to come in and pick him up. He has been kicking his mobile on in his sleep though so its not like I slept 9 hours. My sleep was broken up by Mozart drifting through the baby monitor on more than 1 occasion. But somehow Mozart has a way of working its way into your dream and allowing you to fall back asleep so it wasn't too bad.

The only thing I can think of that was different from what he's used to is he was baby-sat by Grandpa and Grandma Anda on both days while I worked. I don't think they did anything unusual, like drug him, but I do think that Quincy (their rat terrier) played a huge part in messing up Charlie's naps. I'm going to go out on a limb here, and I could be wrong, but I'm thinking that constant yipping and barking is hard to nap through. So when bedtime came around the kid was dead tired from having not slept much throughout the day.

So I'm making a list of reasons why/why not to get a rat terrier. So far I have: Pro: I get to sleep through the night like a normal human being. Con: I go insane from the yipping. Still working on the list, I'll keep you posted.

Weekend Update

This weekend our friends Julie, Brenda and Brian came over for a visit. Julie hadn't seen Charlie since the first weekend of July and Brenda hadn't seen him since the first weekend of August. They were both amazed at how alert and personable he's become. He looks at you when you talk to him and laughs when you laugh at him. I think they both agree he's come a long way from the fragile little 4 pound baby we started out with. We may have to change the website to bigcharliering.blogspot.com because he is a serious giant now.

They stayed long enough to watch the Seahawks game with us, one of Charlie's (and by Charlie's I mean Matt's) favorite things to do. Also pictured is Grandpa Anda - Grandpa and Grandma came over to Spokane for a week long visit and had to swing by to catch the game as well.

They kind of resemble a happy little family don't they?

What does your shirt say Brenda? It looks homemade. Weird. Grandma Anda entertaining Charlie during halftime.

That's about it for the weekend. Thanks everyone for making the trek over the mountains to see us!

Dressing as Randy

Remember The Christmas Story? Ralphie's little brother Randy was always bundled up to the point where he couldn't walk. I did that to Charlie this morning. Fall came with a vengeance over here in Spokane and we already had plans to go on a walk this morning with a couple of friends downtown. I figured better to make the kid overheat than freeze. Of course by the time we were done walking the clouds had burned off, the sun was out, my gloves and coat were off, and Charlie was still stuck in his giant sleeping bag outfit.
Sucks to be an immobile, non-speaking little baby sometimes.

Aunt Charlotte

Aunt Charlotte and Uncle Justin just found out their first baby, due in February, is a boy! Even though his cousin will be living in Phoenix I think Charlie will like having another little guy in the family to pal around with a couple times a year when we get together. Maybe someday cousin Finnegan will move to the Northwest and he can be Charlie's little buddy...maybe someday?

This is Aunt Char in all her pregnant glory. We're going to have to teach her how to upload her digital photos onto the computer when we visit in November so we can have photos of the baby when he comes along. For some reason she doesn't know how to do this yet?

When I have better computer skills than someone I have to take a moment to make fun of them because these people are hard to find considering my skills are pretty limited.

5 1/2 month weight

Charlie's about 5 1/2 months old now and we just got back from our breast-feeding support group with a new weight. He's up to 14 pounds 10 ounces! He's getting pretty close to catching up with the other babies in the group that are about the same age. Most of their babies are learning to sit and crawl a little though so I'm working with him on picking up those skills as well. So far when you try to make him sit he leans way over, grabs his feet, and falls over to one side. It's cute to watch but it's not really what we're after. I'm sure he'll get it soon though.

He's turned into quite a little laugher though. Once he gets going he laughs so hard that it makes Matt and me laugh, which makes him laugh harder. It's a good time. Someday maybe I'll get savvy enough to put video clips up here. Someday.

Attempt 2 at Watching the Seahawks

Charlie improved upon his game watching skills greatly this week. Not only did he stay awake for the whole game but he allowed us to get some cute pictures which is really my main objective. I should point out that his jersey was purchased by Aunt Katie at a garage sale a few weeks back. It may have been the find of a lifetime because now there's one day a week where Matt takes a ridiculously keen interest in what Charlie's wearing and it's pretty cute to witness.

Charlie pointing out the Seahawks are #1!

(I swear he held his finger up on his own, I had nothing to do with it)

Charlie was so into the game he couldn't take his eyes off it to smile for the camera.

Finally, Charlie's super serious victory dance.

Hiawatha Trail

This post has nothing to do with little Charlie whatsoever. Yesterday Matt, several of his family members and I biked the Hiawatha Trail while Charlie was baby-sat by Aunt Teresa. Since there's no little Jeannette website my activities will be showing up here from time to time as well.

So the trail goes through several old train tunnels and over old steel trestles. In the tunnels you are required to have a flashlight on your bike since it's pitch black. There were many times where you couldn't tell if you were going straight or if you were going to ram your bike right into the wall. I was generally the last one out of each tunnel because I'd develop an instant case of claustrophobia and convince myself I wouldn't be able to find the end of the tunnel (even though you could usually see the light at the end of the tunnel) so I'd slow way down and peddle at about 1 mile an hour. The trail is up in the mountains between Idaho and Montana so it was a bit brisk to say the least. If you ever get the opportunity to bike the trail be sure you have lots of flashlights duct taped all over your bike and go in the summer when its a little warmer. All in all it was a great day despite the frigid temps and scary tunnels.

In the photo you can see one of the trestles in the background. I was going for the coal miner/Russian immigrant look for the day. I'm surprised Matt agreed to be photographed with me.

Latest Weight

Charlie is up to an even 14 pounds. Below is a picture of him trying out his swing. He seems to like it until he leans too far to one side and can't sit back up by himself. He also doesn't seem to like it unless he has an audience. So basically its not exactly the best idea to leave him in it while you try and catch a shower. Lesson learned.

Celebrating Victory

I don't think dad was too happy at Charlie's reaction to the Seahawk's win today. To his credit he is only 5 months old, I'm 28 and can't stay awake for an entire 3-hour game. Maybe he'll do better next Sunday.

Seahawks Sunday

Matt and Charlie are enjoying Charlie's first Seahawks game in the basement right now.

The real test is going to be to see how long Matt can watch a game and not curse. So far he's gone about a half hour. Not bad.

Tour d'Dave

Matt's buddy Dave made a stop in Spokane on his most recent tour of Washington. Dave lives in New York so this was his first time meeting little Charlie.

We also had to capture and publicize Matt and Dave playing Batman and Batman at the lake.

Today's Textbook Weight

Charlie weighed in today at 13 pounds 12 ounces. You'll notice that's 14 ounces heavier than he was 14 days ago. Like I said before, the doctor tells us the kid should gain an ounce a day and we take him as literally as humanly possible.

Upset Baby

Grandma Cheryl baby-sat today while I went in to work. When I got home she told me about how Charlie just hasn't been himself today. He wouldn't look her in the eyes, he fussed all day, he squirmed when she tried to burp him. He was just acting crazy all day.

So as Grandma and Grandpa were getting ready to leave after dinner we were trying to diagnose his issues. He was screaming his head off and Matt and I hated for them to leave with that image in their minds. So we changed Charlie, fed him, burped him, took his temperature, took him outside for fresh air, we did everything we could think of. Finally they just left us alone with this crazy, unhappy baby. Not 2 second after they left Charlie let out about 4 farts and filled his pants. He filled them so full that poop oozed out the leg of his diaper onto my shirt. Needless to say he's back to his happy self. All he needed to do was take a big crap on mom and life would be good again. If anyone ever feels like questioning my love for this child just refer back to this picture where I'm changing his diaper before changing my own poop-covered, poop-smelly shirt.

Rocking out at Pig Out in the Park

On Friday night we brought Charlie down to Pig Out in the Park at Riverfront Park in Spokane. He watched as his dad maneuvered the stroller through the swarms of people, past 60 unique food vendors serving anything from alligator on a stick to Clinkerdagger's pulled pork sandwiches, over to the Zips booth for a cheeseburger. I point this out only because Matt has Zips at least once a week. We go to Spokane's equivalent of Taste of Seattle and Matt chooses to eat at a place he already eats at on a regular basis. Unbelievable.

After we ate we watched the Clumsy Lovers put on an awesome show. I think Charlie really liked his first concert. He slept through the first half however he woke up in time to dance with me for the second. The photo is us 'dancing'.

On Saturday Uncle Pete and Aunt Vanessa were in town and they too wanted to Pig Out, so we went back for more. Again, Matt killed me when he walked up to the Papa John's booth and asked when the next pepperoni was coming out of the oven. I intercepted and made his share some Mexican with me, it just didn't seem right to eat at a chain restaurant 2 nights in a row at an event like this. At least Pete and Vanessa didn't let me down. They had sushi, crepes, bratwurst, and cheesecake on a stick. They know how to get their money's worth.

So this time after we ate we took a Gondola ride over the falls. The falls were pretty much nonexistent this time of year due to the low water level, but the ride over the city was nice. The photos are us on the Gondola.

Google Twins

There was an article in the local paper today about researching your 'Google Twin'. Years ago I had lots of fun with Matt on this because there are tons of Matt Rings out there. Our favorite was the Matt Ring posing in front of his trailer talking about the good times he has in band class. The article made me want to see what kind of twins Charlie has out there.

My favorite can be accessed below.

http://www.charlie-o-ring.com/

It's not a person, but a flotation device to protect your pilings. From now on every time I see an unprotected piling I'll be thinking of my little Charlie.