Charlie is growing like a weed and is developing a personality that is all his own! He is literally changing in looks, size and demeanor on a daily basis.
Here's a little bit about Charlie this month:
- He is wearing size 3 diapers and 9-12 month, 12 month and 12-18 month clothes. He is getting longer and longer!
- He is mesmerized by my wedding ring.
- He loves anything new! New places, new toys, new foods....he loves "new"!
- I can't even believe it but he still has NO TEETH! I literally think he will be getting one (or five) any day but they are still hanging out below the gums just causing pain!
- I have a feeling that he has a love for cars, trucks and tractors just like Johnny. Any time Johnny has one of his out, Charlie is completely intrigued by it and will even go after it (more on this below!)
- He loves going for walks in the stroller
- He will hang out in the stroller while we play outside or work in the garage and as long as we are doing something to entertain him, he's pretty content
- Our infant carrier expired in April so he recently got moved from the carrier to a convertible car seat. He really loves that he can see out the window now and seems to be happier in general riding in the car.
- Diaper changes are getting even more difficult because of his rolling and crawling!
- He is sitting up in his "little" bathtub very well and even enjoys splashing the water all over his mama.
- He can "high five"
Sleeping:
We've taken a step back in the sleeping department. The month started off good and then Charlie got sick (see more on sickness below) and had diarrhea for right at a week, which made his belly hurt pretty bad. This meant that sleeping was interrupted from gas pains pretty frequently.....the poor guy was just so uncomfortable. And now, even though he is over the sickness waking up has become a habit (or he's hit a growth spurt).
In general he's taking two naps a day, one in the morning around 9:00 or 10:00 and one in the afternoon around 1:00 or 2:00. If he happens to miss one of those naps he is actually still pretty decent as far as temperament is concerned. There are times when he will fall asleep in the swing but we are continuing to phase out of that I feel like-he'd much rather you hold him while he falls asleep. He has no interest in being laid down in his bed to go to sleep; and because of the reflux, we haven't started that yet.
Overall, we are still improved from what his sleeping previously was!
Eating Habits/New Foods:
Bottles: 4 ounces every 3 hours with 2T of oatmeal.....On the rare occasion that I try to give him 6 ounces because I think he wants more, it all comes back up
New Foods!!: Peaches, Apples & Chicken and Mixed Berries with Oatmeal. There isn't a whole lot for new foods this month because I'm pretty sure that after I fed him the mixed berries with oatmeal, the diarrhea began......His poor bottom got so bad (and I thought he had blood in his stool) that I took him to Dr. Fahler and he wasn't convinced that he had a food allergy, he leaned more toward him having a virus. Either way it was so awful; that we basically cut back down to just formula and started over.
Charlie is still spitting up formula and baby food as well as just acidic saliva.....the reflux continues. He also gets pretty gassy when we introduce a new food.
New Discoveries:
We have recently discovered that Charlie loves to be scared.....either through peek-a-boo or literally jumping out and scaring him. The anticipation of it makes him laugh just as hard as actually being scared.
Accomplishments:
*Kisses!
He loves giving kisses and will give as many as I ask for.
*Army Crawling!
He is in absolute heaven now that he has some freedom and can army crawl. He crawls after anything and everything and it doesn't matter to him if he's on carpet or hardwood floors. We have had to set up the pack 'n play because the bouncy seat while we shower just doesn't cut it anymore--the boy needs space to move!
Places:
Mellany & Johnny's preschool, Mellany's ballet, church, bible study, Meijer, Kids Club at the gym, McDonald's, the bank, the library, Johnny's soccer practice, daddy's office
Special Memories:
Taking dinner to John's office was definitely a special memory for me. John's company recently moved offices so he stayed late to pack up one night and we took him dinner. The kids love John's office and Charlie was no exception. He even had a diaper blowout to commemorate the occasion!
8 Month Photo Shoot
This is the month where things get difficult; his mobility makes taking pictures very interesting! At least he was happy this time right?! We took the pictures while Mellany was at preschool but Johnny still joined in on the fun.
Crawling in action!
