Just Monkey-ing Around

It's hard to believe that October has come and gone and that Charlie will be 9 months old tomorrow! Christmas is right around the corner - not that I am trying to rush it at all! There is much I would like to accomplish before then!

I am enjoying being a stay-at-home mom more than I thought I would. As I have mentioned, I was always the first one to say that I could never imagine staying home with a child all day long - that I would never be able to handle it. But circumstances being what they are, demanded that I do just that. It is better than I expected by far. While I still get stir crazy (in part from staying out of the public eye day after day to avoid germs), it is manageable. And I have so many people in my life who make sure I am okay and step in when I need them. I am very blessed. As I sat rocking Charlie in my arms for his nap this morning (not a common practice, by any means - but nice from time to time), I realized that there is nothing that can compare with the time I am getting with him right now. I cannot imagine being anywhere else.

In Charlie news, he is doing well right now! He has just a bit of a runny nose, but we are thinking it is due to teething because there are no other symptoms. One of his front teeth just barely popped through a couple days ago and the other looks very close. He has woken up at night a couple times in the past few days which is very unlike him, so we think his teeth are causing some discomfort.

So far he has received his first seasonal flu shot and his first H1N1 shot. Our pediatrician has decided to wait a full two weeks between each shot, so he will go for his second seasonal flu shot this Friday and his second H1N1 two weeks after that. We are still waiting on approval for the Synagis vaccines (to protect against RSV). I talked to the coordinator at the ped's office last week and she was having some trouble with the paperwork required by our insurance (BCBS). They have very specific requirements for whom they allow to get the vaccines and Charlie is too healthy to fit into any of their categories. While this is obviously a good thing, we would like him to remain healthy and protecting him against RSV is very important for achieving that. So, we are giving our office another couple of days to try and sort it out and then we may make ourselves more of a force in getting it done.

Feedings are on the up swing again. He has stopped fighting us every step of the way for the time being. We had been waiting a full week between introducing new foods, but we have stepped it up to every four days now. We want to allow him to experience as many new flavors as possible in hopes of building a repertoire of things he enjoys as he gets older. He is not a lover of vegetables. We have gotten him to readily eat carrots only if they are mixed with some applesauce. Green beans went okay, but he usually will not finish them and they have to have something mixed with them. We are going to add some protein and some barley to his Super Porridge this month, so we will see how that goes. He LOVES his organic puffs! I don't think he has any sense of how many he eats and would just keep going and going if we let him!

We had a good Halloween. By upstate New York standards, the weather was fairly nice - - no snow or wind chills to contend with! Our nephew comes over every year to go trick-or-treating around our neighborhood, so Charlie got dressed up and came walking around with us! He was nice and toasty in his monkey suit, but was rather confused by the entire thing. Being out walking around at night with oddly dressed people milling around was a brand new experience for him! He seemed in awe of it all. Emanuel dressed up as Michael Jackson and was quite the hit! He did a little show on the front porch before we left. Enjoy the pics!

"I don't know who thought this would be fun guys!

I think you're crazy!"

Just beat it! Beat it!

Charlie is SOOO not into this whole thing!

Charlie gave us a hard time with dinner last night,

so we gave up and let him have some fun. It was bath night anyways! :-)