Lots of videos and a couple firsts for Charlie

Charlie started officially crawling with hands and knees (no more army crawling and rolling) on Thursday night, January 12th.  I'm not sure when/if he did it at daycare first; although I think it did happen based on his teacher's reaction when I was talking to her about it.  Now that he has is figured out, he's fast and on the move to get into all kinds of fun stuff.  I didn't get a video that night but as you can see from the video tonight, he's perfected the crawling. 

On other news, Charlie clapped for us tonight for the first time tonight.  He's pretty proud of his new talent and so are we!

And just because I have it on video, I'm including one of Charlie playing with one of his favorite toys for the moment, his fish tank.  It's especially cute when he takes his face and puts it close to look down inside the top of the tank.  :-)  (Please ignore my annoying voice trying to get him to clap.  It's obvious at that point, Charlie only had one thing on his mind and it was not clapping.)

Bathtime Fun

So, I'm behind on the big 8 month post which I hope to get up in the next couple of days.   (Don't hold me to that though...I'll get it up eventually!)  For now, I have a video to share from tonight.

Before that, I must put a little more on the blog.  Friday was a busy day for me.  I cleaned out Charlie's room.  How did my boy grow up so quickly?  (I'm sure I'll continue to say that often.)  Friday was a bit emotional as I realized how small he was and how big he is now.  And I even found myself thinking about a next baby which is definitely not a thought that I've had since Charlie was born.  :-)  Don't get me wrong.  I love my boy but Matt and I are very happy with just Charlie for now! 

I was just telling Matt that lately I've heard a lot of people make reference to how easy they are when they are newborn because they sleep all the time.  Well, I think Charlie is easier these days.  I'm not sure what that says for the newborn days but we are definitely having fun with this stage, even if he is into EVERYTHING!  (He showed us a lot of things that we need to do to baby proof just today.)

Ok, enough about that, here is my silly boy in his new bathtub seat that I got out on Friday and he LOVES it!!!

How can this boy not be the cutest that you've every seen?

Happy 8 months Charlie from your Mommy

Charlie,

Time is flying because you are 8 months old already.  I'm not sure where to start but I guess the biggest highlight is your first Christmas which got its very own blog post.  What joy you brought to this family over the holidays! Your smile lights up any room and you showed off that smile to a lot of friends and family this month.

I think of significance during this month is when Mommy and Daddy got to see exactly how much you really love daycare. You’ve never minded being dropped off and have seemed pretty content. Mommy and Daddy have received many good reports from your teachers. Besides throwing up on all of your teachers multiple times, you seem to be one of the best babies. You are very well tempered and don’t require a lot of extra attention. You love to be put down and are content playing.  Your pretty agreeable to whatever is going on.  Your Daddy and I are so lucky that you have such wonderful teachers. You love all of them and they all love you very much. Here are some of the pictures of you enjoying yourself at daycare.

You aren’t crawling but are so close that it is going to happy any day. In fact, your Aunt Ali was really worried that it was going to happen when she watched you one afternoon and that your Mommy was going to be mad that she missed it.

You seem to do pretty good with foods. You seemed to have tried every fruit and vegetable out there. You are on Stage 2 foods mostly and eat cereal. Mommy just started yogurt and cottage cheese which you seem to like. We have tried some puffs. You have some real texture issues which these so far. You have no desire in picking up food and putting it in your mouth. You sometimes gag when your mommy tries to give these to you.

Your reflux has been a little better this month so we're hopeful that it will continue to improve.  You have had your share of crud.

Oh, buddy boy!  We love you so very much.  You sure do keep us busy and everyday you are more and more fun!!  You are into everything and love to be standing.  You can't quite pull yourself up but you sure are trying.  You are very proud of yourself when you stand up!

I love you lots my crazy busy boy!

Charlie and his football dance

Happy New Year's

I'm not a fan of resolutions because I think they are many times made and broken quickly.  I have made many in my day that have not stuck.  However, it's a great time to sit back and reflect on the prior year.  What a wonderful year and of course, the birth of Charlie would be the pinnacle for Matt and I.  It's going to make it hard for 2012 to live up to 2011 but I'm still looking forward to the up and coming year.

I am one lucky lady to have Matt as my husband.  We celebrated New Year's with great company!!  A BIG THANKS to Courtney for babysitting so that we were able to do this.  It was just what both of us needed.  A fun night out with wonderful friends!

So, here's to 2012!!

(Sorry to the grandparents for a Charlie free blog....I'll make up for it in the next blog!)

Our Christmas (Recap)

It seems to be the norm that I'm behind on my blog posts.  There doesn't seem to be enough hours in the day and here it is almost half-way into January 2012 and I need to back up to write up a little bit about our Christmas.  I took plenty of pictures to document Charlie's first Christmas.  Charlie had so many cool Christmas outfits and bibs for this holiday season and I'm hoping that I got a picture of him in all of them. 

Honestly, a lot of the month is a little bit of a blur and seemed more hectic than any past year.  So, without pictures, I will have fond memories this year of going to Bon Air Baptist Church's Christmas Choir Special to see Matt's mom and to hear the wonderful music as always.  We spent time with family and also enjoyed our friends.  We went to the Hamrick Holiday Potluck and did a very quick mini-Tacky Light Tour which got shortened due to Charlie falling asleep at the first house (oh well...next year!).  Charlie didn't know what really was going on but he did love the Christmas tree and all the lights and glimmer and he sure is enjoying all his many gifts.  He enjoyed the paper on the packages even though he wasn't quite up for unwrapping a gift all on his own.
We celebrated with Matt's family early this year. We had such a wonderful day with a huge delicious breakfast.  Following breakfast, Matt and I realized that I forgot the most important thing for Charlie...his bottles!   Ugh!  I was pretty disgusted at myself and we realized it about 5 minutes before he was due for his next bottle SO Matt had to drive 40 minutes round trip to grab his bottles while we tried to keep Charlie happy and content!  Charlie actually did great and I felt pretty bad about the whole fiasco.  It feels like whenever we go anywhere, it takes me about an hour to pack up the house before we leave. 

Anyways, back to the wonderful day...Charlie so much enjoyed his time with his Aunt Courtney, Grandpa and Grammie. (so did Matt and I!)

Grandpa and Grammie read to Charlie.  This is a tradition in the Wheawill house to read 'Twas the Night Before Christmas' and the Christmas story of the birth of Jesus from the Bible.  Of course, this year, instead of it being read to Matt and Courtney, Charlie got to hear it.

 

We enjoyed visiting and we were blessed with many gifts.  It was a wonderful day with family.

On the 22nd, we traveled to Grundy to stay and Pop's and Mim's house.  We took it easy while we were there.  Charlie did great with the traveling.  He likes (and we like) to travel at night because he sleeps. Mim had a rocking chair that her grandfather made which was perfect size for Charlie and he loved it since she carefully placed 'his' ornaments on the tree that he could grab and play closest to the chair.

Meredith and I decorated Christmas cookies which reminded me of old times. 

So, we just relaxed and enjoyed time with family as you can see from all the pictures.  (Sorry if it's picture overload.)

Mim is an excellent cook and always seems to fill our bellies full when we visit.  We enjoyed Christmas Eve services.  Unfortunately, no pictures of the whole family but here are some prior to leaving to go to Church.

Charlie spent more time checking out the nursery with Mim than in services. 




Christmas Day was such fun.  Matt and I brought Charlie in to see what Santa brought.  We were very surprised that Santa was crazy enough to bring us a cat since Wally doesn't get along too well with cats.  (Luckily, this cat is still around and has survived even though Wally does bark at her.)

 

We just spent a lot of time with the family and Charlie had a blast rolling around on the floor and practicing crawling while we were opening presents and he played with the gifts as I opened them for him.

 

We headed home on the 26th and enjoyed a visit with Matt's family.  Christmas came and went quickly.  The decorations are put away and it feels nice to have space.  Everything came down just in time because Charlie is officially on the move.  Oh, how different things will be next year.