Happy New Years

Happy New Years!  It's 8:57 and I'm in bed.  Last night Charlie had five wake ups.  I think he had an upset stomach from the introduction of sweet potatoes.  We all woke up feeling exhausted and crazy.  Rather than feel sorry for ourselves at home we got in the car and spent the day in San Francisco.  Charlie slept every time we were driving, awesome.  We ate lunch at Betelnut and visited two parties before they started.  We drove home, got pizza for take out, put Charlie to bed then ate dinner, had a glass of champagne, and watched some of the Karate Kid.  Scott is still out there watching and I can hear him laughing.  He laughs out loud often, even in his sleep.

Here's a photo of Charlie in the car today.  He fell asleep drinking a bottle and he has a rash due to his fair sensitive skin, like mommy. He also has vaseline on his cheeks.  Not the best photo of him but every time he's asleep I have to take a photo because I need a reminder that sometimes he sleeps.

Christmas

Christmas was at my parents this year!

Here is a photo of Charlie and Stella:

Stella let go of him once she was tired of taking photos.  Charlie slowly fell to his left and we all lunged to grab him.  We got to him before he hit the ground.  Babies are so cute.

No one planned Christmas dinner and by the time it really hit us the grocery stores were all closed so my sister threw together a salad from veggies my parents had in the fridge.  Like my sister said, no wonder we were so skinny growing up!  To my mom's credit, she asked us a dozen times what we wanted to do for dinner on Christmas and we just kept saying we would figure it out later.  I love you mom!

Career

I went on maternity leave in June and it's now the end of December.  My company never re-assigned me to a new job once my maternity leave was over.  Today the Program Manager called to say there was a reduction in work force and I would be receiving a letter in the mail and it was really nice to work with me.  Wow.  Laid off.  I've been in construction for 5 years with the same company and as of the end of this month I am no longer employed.  Looks like things were figured out for me and I get to stay home with baby without questioning if it was the right move or not.  I think this is a good thing.

Charlie had his first cold this week.  He is on day three and he is so much better than he was yesterday.  I put him in his crib while his eyes were still open and he actually fell asleep on his own.  Oh, and yesterday I noticed that his second tooth came in, did I mention that already?

Unemployed.  Cool. 

Welcome to my blog!

When Charlie was a newborn I was told the days would seem like an eternity as I was going through each one but the weeks would fly by.  This statement is so true!  In tribute to this statement, I named my blog 'and the days go by' in reference to the Talking Heads song.  I like what that song has to say, it's all so true for me right now.

Charles Harris was born on my mom's birthday, July 12, 2011 weighing 8 pounds 14 ounces and measuring 20.5 inches.  He is our first baby.  I call him Charlie, sweet pea or fussy pants.  His daddy calls him Bud, Puffy, or Little Guy. Charlie is loud, expressive, opinionated, and stubborn.  


One week old:

He's so tiny there but his little feet look so long!  I want to go back to that time with the body and brain I have now so that I can really appreciate my little tiny baby.  

Charlie was colicky from weeks 2 through 8.  I won't go into detail because those who have been there know and those who have not should not know.  Now that he's through it I wish I could ask him, "Charlie, what the f*&k was that all about?  Poor little baby.  He so wanted to be happy but we didn't know how to help.  He still met all his milestones right when he was supposed to though.  Here he is at his first major milestone at 6 weeks when he started smiling:

He didn't wear clothes for a few months.  It was too hard to keep him clean and fed, let alone dressed.  It was also so hot.  We just moved down to the peninsula from San Francisco and I was not acclimatized to the summer heat.  I also don't like heat and I've decided that Charlie does not like it either.  

We had our first family photo session a few days before Thanksgiving.  Charlie was cutting his first tooth so we were all very tired.  Here is our sullen baby at the photo session:

Yesterday we went to see Santa Claus.  Charlie was happy and social in line.  He was doing his typical 'social' screaming meaning he wasn't crying, just screaming to see how loud he can be.  He hadn't had stranger danger yet so when it was our turn I handed him to Santa with his face in towards Santa's face.  I wanted Santa to see how cute he was.  Here's what happened:

It was so sweet to see this photo.  Santa tried to comfort him but Charlie wanted his mommy.  As soon as I grabbed him he stopped crying and burrowed into my neck.  I decided to buy the photo even though the photographer said I didn't have to.  I'm so glad I did.

Each day is different and there are a lot of really tough moments but the tough times always end and are replaced with the sweet moments that make this all so worth it.  This morning Charlie woke up happy and when he saw me he gave me a huge smile and flapped his arms and legs in excitement.  It made me so happy I could have cried.  I love my perfect little baby.