Pooh in Disguise

Charlie wanted to go as Pooh this year for Halloween but he insisted on a little twist. He thought Pooh dressed as a bee would be a little more inventive so he picked out the 2 in 1 costume from the store.

We trick-or-treated a few days early at some friends and relatives houses with our little Pooh Bear. He got turkey soup at one house, a popcorn ball at one house, a Baby Ruth and a dollar at another. Not a bad haul for just 4 stops. Too bad for him all he actually got to keep was the dollar.
We're laughing because right as our friend went to take our picture Charlie made a raspberry noise with his mouth (picture a spitting /tongue-out kind of a move). Guess he was a little tired of wearing his sumo-suit at that point.

Sister Blog

Charlie's Aunt Charlotte, my older sister, is expecting in February so she set up a little blog to keep friends and family updated. I thought since we probably have a very similar fan base I'd post a link so everyone can check in on her as well.

Almost Sitting...

Charlie is getting so close to being able to sit by himself it's ridiculous. Last week he could sit on his horse by himself, now he can sit in his rocking chair by himself. Any day now he should be able to just sit...without props.

Ring Inn

We stayed a night at the Ring Inn, also known as Grandpa and Grandma's house, last weekend. Pictured is Grandpa Ken, Aunt Katie, Charlie, Matt and me. Despite the Seahawks losing it was still a nice weekend. We had great weather and we got to relax a little and get away from all the fall projects going on at our house.

Zillionaire

Matt wrote a post for his website detailing some of the games he plays with Charlie. I thought I should post a few pictures to corroborate his stories.

This is 'Get to the Chopper'.

It basically consists of Matt army-crawling around the living room and Charlie watching him intently and laughing his head off.

This game didn't get mentioned in his post, however it's becoming a new favorite of Charlies. We call it 'Cowboy'.

Charlie can't sit unsupported yet, however he can ride a horse on his own...sometimes.

Wine Tasting

On Friday I had some moms from the meetup.com group I'm in over for a wine tasting/mom's night out.

The other moms and I had fun but Charlie spent a good portion of the night crying upstairs with Matt (just to clarify Matt wasn't crying, Charlie was).

I firmly believe Charlie's a genius and could pick out my voice from upstairs and was upset that I wasn't there to put him to bed. Before Friday I didn't think he cared or noticed who was cuddling with him and trying to get him to fall asleep. Matt did everything I usually do but Charlie wouldn't sleep until I came upstairs for 5 minutes to hold him. We decided next time the mom's night out can't be at our house because Matt said he's never like this when I'm actually gone. I don't know when it happened...probably some night in the last 6 months around 2 am... but Charlie grew attached to me. It's flattering, however it's definitely something we're going to have to figure out how to fix.

Visit From Grandma

Grandma Anda showed up this week for an impromptu visit. She claimed she has a homeowner's meeting and wanted to check-out the Spokane Quilt Show. I'm speculating that the underlying reason for the visit was to get in on the feeding action with little Charlie though.

Charlie's liking food better these days, however he still prefers his own fingers over anything we've tried so far. It could be that he's only had rice cereal, carrots, and sweet potatoes. I know I wouldn't be too excited about any of those menu items if it were me.

Oh, I almost forgot. He loves to eat books or anything with words and/or pictures. Matt gives him the ads out of the newspaper to read everyday and Charlie tries to eat them every time. Also, we can no longer read him a book without him trying to grab it and try to fit it in his mouth. Hopefully this phase will pass before he actually gets one in and we have to explain to his doctor why the x-ray shows Goodnight Moon floating around in his stomach.

Carseat Comparison

I think these pictures speak for themselves in regards to how much Charlie's grown.

Coming home from the hospital on May 9th.

Charlie's outgrown the maximum length on his carseat as of his latest measuring on October 6th.

A new carseat should be arriving via Fed-ex any day now that should keep his massive head and body safe for several years to come.

6-Month Check Up

Charlie had his 6-Month check up today with his pediatrician and we have some amazing stats to report. Most impressive is the size of his head. He's in the 85th percentile for his head circumference. Meaning only 15% of babies his age have bigger heads. Super news right? Maybe if his height and weight were equally impressive this would be good news. For his weight he's only in the 15th percentile (15 pounds 8 ounces) and for his height he's in the 50th percentile (26 1/2 inches). So basically we have a skinny, medium-length baby with a giant head. The nurse said not to get too hung up on percentiles but I just can't look at his big head now and not think about it. In the photos the Grandmas are packing him full of rice cereal trying to get his body to catch up to his head.

Falling Asleep

Recently Matt's expressed some concern that he can't get Charlie to fall asleep on him like I can. See photo.

I'm not bragging. It's really just that I have breasts and he doesn't. After Charlie is breastfed he generally just passes out and sometimes I just take the opportunity to snooze as well.

Today I caught Matt holding Charlie and verbally telling him to go to sleep just like he does with mom. See photo.

They weren't too successful, perhaps because Charlie was wide awake and didn't really understand his words. Matt even attempted a made-up lullaby...with lines like 'it's time to sleep on Dad's chest, it's not time to be awake'. 'Go to sleep for the love of God...' And so on. Maybe once Charlie's old enough to be reasoned with Matt's tactics will work.