Charlie is Back in Business

You would never know that he had been sick! Mommy on the other hand, still can't quite shake whatever she had! Charlie bounced back much easier!

Charlie walks like crazy now! One of his favorite activities is just walking around in circles over and over and over, while occasionally bouncing off the furniture. This is somewhat impeded by the fact that he also enjoys spreading his toys all over the floor, so he often stumbles over them when he is trying to walk (he never looks down when walking - always straight ahead!).

We are slowly working our way back up to eating normally again since he was sick. When he was sick he really wanted nothing to do with eating food, so we just focused on the bottle and keeping him hydrated. We are back to food three times a day, but only stick with the things we know he loves (cereal, applesauce, bananas, sweet potatoes). Now we have to start reintroducing all those things (particularly green things!) that he doesn't really love, but we trick/convince him to eat! He takes three 8 ounce bottles a day as a rule, but doesn't always finish them all. So, he probably gets about 20 ounces a day give or take, which is not quite as much as he used to take, but he is still holding steady with his weight/gain so we are not concerned. Finger foods are still stuck in a puff rut, but we have broadened his horizons a little with those. We started to give him Cheerios and Kix instead of the organic puffs. And he still will eat the Gerber cheese puffs and wagon wheels . We also tried the Annie's Organic whole wheat crackers (they look like little bunnies!) and he likes those too. Still not much luck with any other kind of finger foods, but he loves his crunchy puffs!! He still wants next to nothing to do with the sippy cup either, but we just keep giving it back to him! Someday he will learn how to drink out of something other than a bottle! :-)

Overall he is just so much fun right now! He laughs and plays and interacts with us so well. He tends to get fussy for an hour or two each afternoon for no apparent reason, but it is manageable. We call it his witching hour! :-) He has been really enjoying spending time with his cousin Emanuel when we babysit him. It has been very good for both of them. They were not so sure of each other initially, but they have come to love each other. Charlie tries to hug Emanuel all the time and Eman makes a big deal out of sharing his toys with Charlie.

It is hard to believe that Charlie will be a year old in just a couple of weeks!! We are planning a party, but it is going to be later in the month because we were trying to coincide the party with when Vince's brother and sister would be visiting. We are so excited that Uncle Dave and Aunt Colleen will be able to join us and are keeping our fingers crossed that Aunt Sheri and Uncle Trevor will be able to work things out too!!

I mentioned before that Vince bought me an amazing new camera for Christmas and we are slowly but surely getting used to using it. So, here are a few pics from the past couple weeks. Vince practiced some editing on some of them. Enjoy!

"Yup, these teeth things are still in my mouth!"

Poor baby sleeping through a breathing treatment when he was sick.

"Guys! I can't really move, but this is great!"

"Smile?? You want me to smile??"

Such a big boy!!

"Let's go SU basketball!!"