Almost 13 Months!

Charlie turned one about 4 weeks ago!

Happy Birthday Charlie!

At his 12 month check up he weighed 26 pounds, 4 ounces and was 31.5 inches.  He is in the 96th percentile for height and 97th for weight.  His head is in the 98th.

For his first birthday, we celebrated alongside cousin Stella in Golden Gate Park on July 8th.  Aunt Kari and Uncle Paul got a jumpy house and we jumped and socialized and ate cake for a couple of hours and before I could blink it was all over!  Aunt Kari made the cakes from scratch (a dinosaur cake and a mermaid cake).  Anyone remember my baby shower cake?

On his actual birthday, Nana and Grandpa Kirby visited and brought him a cupcake.

A few days later he started walking and I think I can safely say that as of today, he is no longer crawling (it was about a 3 week transition).  It is true that he gets cuter and that we love him more each day.

To sum up the last year's experience is to say I am a lucky girl...

Happy almost 13 months Charlie!  Mommy and daddy love you very much!

Goodbye Los Altos, Hello Danville

We moved 7 days ago!

Bye to Thursday night Farmer's Markets

Bye to Cuesta Park

Bye to our little house on San Luis

So far our new house is great.  It is very baby friendly.  I am happier here, we have more space and half the house has carpet.  The best part?  We have a dishwasher!  Charlie's room is far away from the common areas and the floors don't squeak.  We have a second bathroom, wow!

We have had a lot of visitors since we moved.  On Wednesday Aunt Jessie, Lucas, Wesley, Cassidy, and Nana (Scott's mom) visited.

Lucas and Wesley played with Charlie at the water table.

Cassidy fed Charlie lunch outside.

We all walked to the pool in the late afternoon.  Here is the new wagon from Nana for his first birthday gift.

Nana and Charlie after swimming.

Our house is still a major work in progress.  I can't wait until we are all unpacked and everything is baby proofed.  Right now Scott is working on the child locks on the kitchen cabinets and Charlie is napping.

I am glad the hard part is over, saying goodbye to Los Altos and all my friends I met there.  I was teary eyed when Charlie's room was all packed up.  We spent a lot of time in there his first year of life.  I will not miss how hot our house got in the afternoon or how squeaky the floors were but I will always hold that house close to my heart because of the memories.  It was Charlie's first house!

I loved our neighbors, especially Margaret and Betty.  I hope our new neighborhood will have people as friendly.  

Hello Danville!

Almost 12 Months

Charlie turned 11 months on June 12th.  He still has 8 teeth and he's still crawling but two bottom molars are coming in and they need to break through so that demon baby moments will go away for a little while.

He is communicating with us now in different forms of babble.  I can tell when he's frustrated, or wants something out of reach, or when he bumped something, or when he's tired.  It's so fun to see his progress.  He also understands the simple routines in life like when he sees a hairbrush he grabs it and takes it to his hair, or when he sees a sock he tries to put it on his feet (in his very uncoordinated baby way).  He also has a sense of humor.  He likes to make us laugh and to applaud him.  He claps and we clap.  His grandma taught him 'so big!' where he puts his arms up after we say, 'how big is Charlie?'  Now he just puts his arms up all day long so that we will yell 'so big!'  It's the new cutest thing ever.

Whenever we take a sip of something Charlie says "Ah!"

We got a new tricycle and he'll sit in it for a long time.  He's always had an aversion to his stroller (and everything else where he is strapped down) and so the tricycle is nice in that I have a way to get out and not be completely stressed out waiting for the meltdown.

He is a great sleeper.  Right now he sleeps 6pm until 6 or 6:30 am (although this morning he woke up at 5:30am) and takes an hour and a half nap in the morning and an hour nap in the afternoon.  I am obsessed with sleep, it is my most important thing and so I am trying to figure out how to get him to sleep longer in the afternoon.  Any tips?

Two weeks until his birthday!  I love you baby Charlie!!

10 Months and two weeks

I can't believe how much I love my baby.  He is so fun and cute and it's just getting better.

Charlie is 10 months and 2 weeks old!

He has officially been out of the womb longer than he was in it so he can no longer use that as an excuse when he's fussy.

At his 9 month check up, Dr. Brown told us that Charlie had a double ear infection!  It took two rounds of antibiotics to get rid of it.  I hate antibiotics and so does Charlie.  It wreaked havoc on his tummy.  Probiotics were used but who knows if they helped.  Right after his antibiotics he got a runny nose and was stuffy for a couple of weeks.  I hate when he has a runny nose.

Last week Charlie got a bad virus.  On Monday night he started shivering and got a fever.  The fever lasted for about 12 hours.  He managed to sleep through the whole thing.  We took his temperature with a forehead thermometer every few hours.  It got up to 103 but then started to go back down and was gone by the morning.

Here he is the morning after.

The fact that he is sitting still is proof enough that he wasn't feeling well.

Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday he slept 18 hours each day.  It would have been great had I not been so worried.  We went to the doctor on Tuesday and Thursday to make sure he was okay.  He was fine.  It was just a virus.

Thursday, Friday, and Saturday he had a rash from the virus!  He was very uncomfortable.  Grandma thought baking soda might ease the discomfort.

It might have helped because the next day he was significantly better!  By Monday he was back to his normal self and he's back on his regular sleep schedule.  He's feeling much better.

He hasn't gained any weight since his 9 month check up, I think due to all the minor illnesses he's suffered.  It's nothing to be concerned about, he had some weight to spare.

Charlie is 25 pounds and has graduated to size 5 diapers.  He is wearing size 18 month clothes!

Right now, Charlie sleeps from 6pm-6am, takes a 1 1/2 hour nap in the morning and a 1 hour nap in the afternoon.  He needs lots of sleep because of all the growing he's doing.

 He's so big!

I just took this video a couple hours before bed today.  When he gets tired, he gets hysterical, meaning he laughs a lot but it's a volatile laugh that could go south at the slightest shift in the wind.

Charlie is now dancing, waving bye-bye, working on standing without holding on, and working on his words.  All of a sudden it seems like he understands some of what I'm saying.  My mom noticed that when he's hungry he goes to his high chair and stands up and holds it.  When he's done eating he does the 'all done' sign and it seems like he is trying to say it too.  It sounds something like 'ah-dah' and he says it over and over and rips his bib off.  

Happy 10 months baby Charlie!  We love you very much!

9 months old!

On April 12th Charlie turned 9 months!  At his checkup he weighed in at 23 pounds 12 ounces and he is 29.5 inches.  His head is in the 97th percentile, his height is in the 90th, and his weight is in the 95th!

It's hard to get good photos anymore now that he's on the move...

We got the all clear to eat anything except strawberries, honey, and nuts and to encourage finger foods.  The next weekend we met up with Kari, Stella, and Paul at Q in SF for breakfast.  Charlie ate everything we put in front of him.  Black beans, eggs, pancakes, bacon...

Uh oh, bacon!  He loved it so much that he sucked some of it into his wind pipe and Scott actually had to do the baby heimlic maneuver on him.  Scott was very calm about it.  He picked him up, put him face down over his leg and after the second shove, two little pieces of bacon popped out.  Good thing we took that class!

Charlie is crouching now and his consonants are becoming more clear.  It seems like he can say 'no' and 'yes' now and sometimes his babble sounds like words.  He definitely knows his name now.  He's starting to remember things like where the cable cord is coming out of the wall, where the glassware is stored, which furniture is the most dangerous.  He seems to get bored and frustrated at home now so we are out a lot more when he's awake.

This month he got double pink eye and a double ear infection.  He's on his second round of antibiotics and it's causing havoc on his digestion.

Charlie is a water baby!

His favorite thing in the world is being in the water.  He splashes and dips his face in the water and screams and gets very upset when we take him out.  During his first baby pool experience we just wanted him to test the water by leaning into it from the outside.

Instead he decided to leap forward into the water.  He wanted to be in the pool.

 And... success!

Stella was not happy at first to share her baby pool at grandma and grandpa's house.

But she warmed up once she realized he's here to stay.

Happy 9 months baby!  We love you!