Yes, We're Saving Money on Swim Diapers

My logic lately is that Charlie can go naked in his pool if no one else is around so that we save a little money on swim diapers. The only problem with my logic is I can't resist posting the pictures on the Internet...so it doesn't really matter if any one's around or not...the world is still going to see my cute naked baby!

Denise's Wedding

On Saturday we went to Matt's cousin Denise's wedding. Charlie stole the dance floor with his moves.

He took a spoon off a table and danced the night away, just him and his spoon.

By the end of the night the pants and shoes were long gone. As long as he still had his spoon though he still wanted to dance.

Updated Stats

We just returned from Charlie's 15-month check up and here's where he's at:

height: 30 1/4 inches 25% percentile

weight: 23 lbs 2 oz 30% percentile

...and our favorite

head: 20 cm 95% percentile

The only thing he's not really doing on their developmental checklist is pointing to pictures in books when we name specific objects. He'll point to his own hair, eyes, ears if you ask him to but he won't point to them in books...so we'll be working on that.

He nailed the talking questions on the checklist. I think he's only supposed to know 4-5 words and he knows ma ma, da da, boom, bump, up, Grandma, Grandpa, duck, uh oh and woof woof.

Now if we could just get him to grow a little and put on a couple more pounds we'd be right on track!

Brilliancy Update (7/24/07): Charlie just learned the ASL sign for "more"! He taps his fingers together when he needs more food or drink. I'm going to start working on his Harvard app right now, clearly he's a shoe-in.

Seriously?

We came home this weekend and found the world's largest hornet's nest right outside Charlie's window. No exaggeration, it's about the size of a basketball. I'm so afraid of it I won't even leave the house to mow the yard, which is normally one of my favorite chores.I guess when it gets dark tonight Matt's going to climb up on a ladder and try to knock it down. Stay tuned for tomorrow's post about our inevitable trip to the ER for Matt's swollen face.

Gettin' Betta'

Charlie spent the weekend recovering from his little bout with croup. By Sunday he was basically back to his old self.

We were at the lake so we had the baby monitor set up for him. I thought I heard him in the monitor Saturday morning so I went down to check on him and this is what I found. Grandma and little Charlie cuddling...very sweet.This is him playing in the sandbox turned pool that Grandma bought for him.

Grandpa and Charlie.

Croup?

Last night around 10:30 Charlie woke himself up with a crazy seal-sounding cough. His breathing was really labored and every breath sounded like his last (terrible thing to say but it's the best way to describe it). Not knowing what else to do I brought him into our bed, sent Matt to the guest room, and made Charlie sleep with me so I could keep an eye on him. I think I maybe got 2 hours of sleep last night, I spent the rest of the night staring at him.

So this morning I took him down to the Urgent Care Center and their diagnosis was he either has croup or he swallowed a toy. Apparently based on his breathing patterns either option was equally viable.

For those of you who don't know croup is an infection of the larger breathing tubes of the lungs and windpipe. It's caused by the same virus that produces laryngitis in adults. The swelling that occurs in the trachea produces narrowing of the air passages and thus the harsh, dry, bark-like cough.

I did my best to convince the doctor we don't let Charlie swallow his toys so we could get the shot of cortisone (which would cure him assuming he had croup). When we left the doctor told us to come back in 24 hours if he's not showing significant signs of improvement and they'd do some chest x-rays and look for a toy in his chest.

Thankfully throughout the day today he's been acting more and more like his old self so I think the croup is clearing up and we won't have to go shopping to replace any lost toys.

Orcas in July

Matt, Charlie and I spent the week of the 4th on Orcas Island where my parents live and have a vacation cabin. My siblings and their spouses were there as well. For the last part of the week Anna, Brenda, Danielle, and Derek joined us.

I mention our bad luck with crabs in the photo captions quite a bit. Over the 6 days we were there we caught 15 total I believe which isn't very many considering we made about 6 boat trips out to check the pots. Justin and my dad were the only ones with licenses so there was a little competition going on there. I'm not sure how it shook out in the end but I know Justin won.

We went over to Orcas last week. When I have time I'll post more pictures. This is just my favorite one so I had to put it up really quick.

Deer Lake in June

Below are a few pictures of our weekend up at Deer Lake. Our friends Rikki and Anthony brought their 3 month old little baby up for the first time.

None of the adults were willing to swim, still too cold for us, but Charlie loved having his feet dipped. Next time we go up we'll have to let him get all the way in.

Grandpa Ken and Grandma Cheryl.

This is my favorite picture from the weekend. I went in to the house to get something and this is what I came back to. I may have to get it made into a tee shirt with the words 'father of the year' below it.

Even though there really aren't any pictures as proof Charlie is walking all over the place now. He does about 8 steps and then sits down for a rest. Slowly but surely we're getting there.