time flies when you're...

having fun??

I would not say that we have not been having fun - - we have actually been enjoying life quite a bit these past few weeks! However, Charlie may have his moments of disagreeing with saying its been fun. Three molars have been working their way into Charlie's mouth and its been less than fun for sure!

Our normally great sleeper has been waking up almost every night. He will usually put himself back to sleep, but its still disruptive to his rest and ours. His nose has been perpetually snotty and he HATES when we go any where near his nose to clean it. Our typically happy go lucky little man has had days of crankiness and just not acting like himself. This is so understandable when you see how sore his mouth looks! He handles it better than we would! And we have had to accept that eating is something Charlie will do in his own way and on his own terms. Luckily he is a very healthy size, so we are not overly concerned about his lack of eating having detrimental effects. We have come to the conclusion that force feeding is not worth the frustration it causes us, the tears it causes him, or the other possible long term effects that we may be instilling.

So, he has taken to eating mainly Kix or Cheerios other crunchy options. We did find a way to get at least a little bit of fruit into him by offering him freeze-dried fruit. Gerber makes freeze-dried diced apples and a banana-strawberry mix. We also went to the natural store hoping to find some cheaper options. There was not much of a price difference, but we did find some more variety. He loves the big dried strawberry slices, blueberries, and pineapple chunks. It adds some more options into his crunchy diet!

We have started offering him the sippy cup with water or sometimes diluted juice throughout the day with more regularity. He is slowly, but surely getting better at it. Though we cant help but wonder if the sippy cup aggravates his reflux somehow. He seems to have more trouble with drinking when it is from his sippy cup and has actually puked a few times while using it. We are just continuing to give him time and see what he can do.

Despite his teething and reflux flare ups he still manages to enjoy everyday and continues to impress us! He now imitates words we say to him and seems to understand more and more. After months of engaging him in it, he seems to finally get the hang of peek-a-boo. He will cover up his face and wait for you to say "Where's Charlie?" before uncovering his face with a huge smile. He says "tee tee boo", though not when he uncovers his face. He says "dog" and "duck" but they sound a lot alike. He will point to his belly and feet when you ask him where they are. He will also point to his hair, but prefers to point to yours. He will only point to other people's nose, not his own! He loves to stop whatever he is doing and break out in dance when he hears a tune he likes (such as the sweet and sour Twizzlers or Amazon Kindle commercials)! And whenever he hears applause he gets a huge smile on his face and claps his hands. This includes the applause at the end of each song on the Jack Johnson live CD or from the high school playing fields across the street from our house during lacrosse games. It amazes me that he is SUCH a happy baby! We are very blessed!

So, I guess time does fly when you're having fun. Charlie is such fun no matter if we are all sleep deprived and covered in snot and whatever food he has thrown at us in protest that day (and he does have a very good arm, for the record!)

Cheeks completely stuffed with Kix and very concerned

that we may try to sneak something else into him!

For awhile we could convince him to eat

something more if we let him feed himself!

Success = Mess

Charlie's first slam dunk on our newly installed basketball hoop

Daddy - Charlie bonding time

Our neighbors bought Charlie a water/sand

play table and he absolutely loves it!