Charlie Attacks Solid Foods

A little rice cereal is no match for Charlie. We started him on "solids" (actually, just some organic brown rice cereal :) on Sunday and Charlie is LOVING it. His first experience with real food was just too funny. He was slightly confused about the first bite or two, but after he got the hang of it, he was on fire. He was grabbing at the bowl and lunging at the spoon, trying desperately to get the cereal in his little mouth. At one point, he lunged forward so quickly that the rice cereal went right in his eye. That didn't stop Charlie--he did NOT want me to stop feeding him to clean the rice cereal out of his eyelashes--he much preferred to keep on eating! Clint was videotaping the whole debacle and we laughed the entire time. We've been doing rice cereal for a few nights now, and it really is so fun feeding dinner to Charlie. I had been holding off on solids because I had read that there are health advantages to exclusive breastfeeding for the first 6 months, and, honestly, because I was nervous about introducing another step in our already crowded days, but I am so glad that I did. As with everything else, Charlie makes every little task so much fun!

Here's the little eater sitting in his high chair before the "meal." He was so excited--he was banging on his tray and seemed to sense something great was coming. I cannot believe how big he looks when he's sitting in his chair!!

Cautious first bite...
Now he's liking it!

Yum!

This is only the beginning of the mess...unfortunately, we didn't get pictures of the very messy ending!

Charlie Meets Cousin Charlotte

Charlie (and Clint and I) was lucky enough to meet his littlest cousin last weekend--the beautiful Miss Charlotte. She came into town with her parents (my cousin Amy and her husband Jack) on Friday and we just had the best time. Clint and I are good friends with Jack's brother Edward, his wife Abbey, and their son George, and so the Grays came over as well to join in on the fun. All 3 kids behaved beautifully, went to bed promptly at 7:15, and allowed us to have a wonderful "adult" evening. AND, the Rangers won the ALCS that night, making the evening even sweeter. :) All in all, we had a great time with the Skaggs and the Grays, and SO enjoyed meeting little Miss Charlotte. She is a sweet, beautiful, TINY baby!

Here is sweet little Charlotte. I do not think Charlie was ever this tiny and delicate.

We tried very hard to get a good picture of all 3 kids together, but due to Charlie's sub-par sitting skills, we failed miserably. Here's Charlie trying to stay upright long enough for George to get in the picture...
...but to no avail. It looks like George is looking sternly at Charlotte, but I think he's really chastizing Charlie for not having enough core body strength to stay upright for a decent period of time. :)

And this picture is from the baptism weekend, but I just had to include it. George has the cutest little straight-leg walk--I just love watching him toddle around. You can get the gist of it here...

Thanks Skaggs and Grays for a wonderful evening!

Charlie Gets Baptized

Charlie was baptized at our church in Dallas last weekend (on October 17, 2010), and it was such a special ceremony, celebration and weekend. As I said in my last post, some of Charlie's favorite people came up for the occassion--my parents (Papa and Ali), my aunt (Dede), Clint's parents (Pawpaw and Mimi), my sister and brother-in-law (and Charlie's godparents) (Meg and Graeme), and my brother and future sister-in-law (Sam and Audra). We also had some of Charlie's favorite Dallas friends (Edward, Abbey, George, Ann, and Brad) join us for lunch after the baptism. Charlie felt so loved and so lucky to have so many of his favorite people gathered in one place--and to honor him! The weather was beautiful, the day was wonderful, and I so enjoyed all the smiles and laughs over the course of the weekend. Charlie enjoyed getting to be a part of the gathering and got in quite a few laughs of his own--this little one loves a party!

Here's Charlie in his baptism hat. I think he looks like a precious little Colonial boy, but Pawpaw was horrified. :)

My only regret is that we didn't get a big family picture in the church. When you see the picture below (Charlie with Clint, me, and his beloved godparents), you will see why. :)

A group picture before the ceremony...

Little Colonial boy joins the Kirkendall kids for a picture.

Charlie got in some good laughs with the group after his nap...

And then on to presents! Charlie loved his little lamb...

And was particularly excited about his silver spoon.

Proof that Charlie was born with a silver spoon in his mouth (or born trying desperately to get it in there :).

Relaxing with Uncle Graeme and his new dinosaur while Mom finishes opening...

And on to pictures outside! Here's Charlie with Papa and Ali...

and with Mimi and Pawpaw...

and with Sam and Audra.

After all that fun, Charlie was spent!

Charlie Goes to the Texas State Fair

Charlie was baptized last weekend (details to come in an upcoming post :), and we were lucky enough to have some of Charlie's favorite people come into town for the occasion. Papa, Ali, and Dede came from Seguin, Uncle Graeme and Aunt Meg came from Austin, Uncle Sam and future-Aunt Audra came from Houston, and Pawpaw and Mimi came all the way from Bronco! We spent Saturday morning (before the football games started, of course) at the Texas State Fair and had so much fun. We were definitely glad we got there early--it was packed by the time we left!

Here's Charlie eagerly anticipating his big day at the fair...

Our first glimpse of the ferris wheel--of course, we had to try it.

Here's Charlie waiting in line for the ferris wheel with Uncle Graeme. Don't they look happy???

Here's Charlie about to board the ferris wheel with me and Clint. He's still looking a bit shell-shocked. :)

Graeme, Meg, Sam and Audra taking off (Ali, Dede, Clint, Charlie and I followed behind in the next car).

Aside from the ferris wheel (which really was pretty great), the petting zoo was our other favorite part of the fair. The animals in there were incredible! I'm used to small town fairs where we'd get really excited about some baby chicks and a lamb (and I still love those animals :), but this was a whole different experience altogether--we even got to pet a zebra and a giraffe!

You can just barely see a glimpse of the zebra in the background here...

Although he enjoyed the fair, Charlie was VERY happy to get home and stretch out on the floor with his adoring public around him. His favorite part of the day was spent rolling around on a blanket talking to all of us and cracking us up with his screeches and his giggles. Here he is at his most excited (heading home :).

We have a tooth!

We have had some painfully long, restless nights recently, so I was so excited to feel Charlie's first little tooth (bottom left) poking through yesterday! The other bottom tooth looks like it's close behind, so I don't think we're through with the sleepless nights (or the refrigerated teethers, Oragel, or teething tablets...) quite yet. Although I will miss that adorable gummy smile, I am excited about this new development--and ready to get some sleep!! :) We are so proud of you Charlie and ready for you to start feeling better again!

Charlie Goes to Day Care

I left my camera at the daycare the other day just to see what materialized. It was so fun to see all the photos of Charlie's day when I arrived to get him. He really seems to have so much fun there and the 3 ladies who take care of him (Nicole, Crystal, and Blanca) could not be sweeter. It is still really hard for me to leave him, but it helps to see Charlie so happy and content every morning when I leave and every afternoon when I get there to pick him up.

Here is Charlie on a buggy ride--one of his very favorite activities (hard to tell from the serious face, I know).Here is Charlie posing suggestively next to his Whoozit.


And here's how I learned Charlie could sit... (I know, worstmotherintheworld)

This is how Charlie looked one morning when I left. He was WAY too busy "working" to say goodbye to me. :)

And finally, Charlie's first art project! In addition to these very scary Ghost Feet, Charlie has also been finger painting! Hard to believe, but he loves it! And we are SO proud of our budding artist. :)

5 Months Old!

It is hard to believe that Littles is 5 months old--that sounds so OLD to me! This has been a big month for Charlie--I have gone back to work and he has started daycare. Not surprisingly, Charlie has handled all the changes like a champ (he loves having extra people in his life to love on him :). And at 5 months, Charlie is starting to seem older all of a sudden. His actions (and reactions) are more deliberate and he is getting more and more interactive with us. He is still just a sweet, sweet baby and is so easy to make laugh, which makes life with Charlie especially fun. He laughs at Peek-a-Boo, being tossed in the air, being turned upside down, being tickled, being surprised with Mr. Frog (this boy LOVES his frogs), singing Wheels on the Bus, being wheeled around wildly in the stroller, getting rasberries on his belly, and just about any other funny game we come up with. He is a big talker and loves telling us stories about his day during our evening family walks--we are treated to lots of babbling and excited screeching--Charlie loves trying out his vocal cords!

Charlie is reaching and grabbing more and more. He scoots over to and grabs for toys (and anything else that his eyes land on), and puts everything in his mouth. His feet are a major source of fascination and he can spend long periods of time rolling around on his back with his feet in his mouth. He is still rolling over both ways, but after a couple bumps on the head, doesn't seem a huge fan of that trick. His biggest milestone this month is his sitting--although we need lots of padding around him, Charlie can sit straight up for short amounts of time! He is very proud of himself when he does this. :) [Disclaimer: I found out that he was sitting only after seeing pictures of him doing so at daycare. I felt like the worstmotherintheworld, but it is so hard to get him to ignore his feet and actually sit up! We have remedied this problem by cheering loudly and clapping after we get him sitting--this distracts him, makes him look away from his feet, and gets him sitting... :)] Charlie still loves standing and still looks SO proud when you help him pull up from sitting to standing (and we are still so proud of him for doing so, of course :).

Charlie's sleeping habits are all over the place these days. His good, regular naps have gone out the window since we started daycare and his night sleeping is beginning to suffer as well. We are hoping that the last few sleepless nights are an aberration caused by teething, but I guess only time will tell. Charlie has been a great sleeper since birth, so I have faith that we can get back there! He still loves his stories before bed (Green Eggs and Ham is a new favorite) and he loves to cuddle his lovie and pull it up around his face. He rubs his little eyes when he gets tired and it's just so sweet.

All in all, Charlie's 5th month has been wonderful. We just love each minute with him so much and cannot imagine life without this sweet, silly, funny little guy.

Poor Charlie--I didn't realize his ear was smashed until I saw this picture. :)

I had the bright idea of doing his 5-month photos outside, but the grass was WAY too distracting to get any good photos. Charlie is looking up here only because Clint was causing some major distractions.

Most of the pictures I got look just like this. Can you blame him??? Grass IS pretty amazing.

Quick glance up to make sure we're still around.

I thought maybe a standing picture would be cute, but again, the grass was way too distracting. Charlie loves the feeling of grass under his feet and will stand like this, picking up one foot at a time and putting it back down again over and over and over, for as long as we will let him. It's the simple things...

Congratulations on a great 5th month Charlie--we love you!!

Free Time

Now that I have gone back to work, I have been treasuring my time with Charlie even more than before. The nice thing about working is that it makes all of our "family" time together feel so special and precious (the bad thing is that there's less of it, but oh well...). Clint and I have been making an effort to maximize our free time together and it's been really fun. Recently, we've been taking a lot of fun walks around the neighborhood and the lake and hanging out at the Arboretum. It helps that the weather has been so beautiful!

Here's Charlie relaxing at the Arboretum. This boy still loves nothing more than being outside, and I've never seen anyone so thrilled with the gorgeous fall weather. We are all loving it!

Slightly serious...

Now we're having fun again! :)

Big smiles!

We have some of our best "conversations" with Charlie when he's laying on the floor playing and looking up at us. He loves to just roll around and chat with whomever might be sitting next to him. Charlie hasn't progressed too far beyond "ah-goo" and loud screeching, but we still love it. :)

I love the pumpkins at the Arboretums. What a great sign of fall!

A few tosses in the air before we headed home...

This picture cracks me up. I was hoping to have a cute picture of me and Charlie during our walk around the lake, but unfortunately, I didn't realize until too late that we were looking into the sun. As soon as I turned around with Charlie and the sun hit his eyes, he whipped his little body around so fast we couldn't get a picture of him. I also love how the photo shows off the sweet hair fringe Charlie has been sporting. :)

Charlie always loves just hanging out at home and talking to his daddy (again, lots of "ah-goo," but I'm sure we'll get those consonant sounds soon :).