Charlie

Charlie has grown up so much this year.  I can hardly believe that it has been an entire year.  He has learned so many things and grown so much!  Here are some fun things about Charlie:
- crawling super fast
- being on the verge of walking
- has seven teeth with the eighth just about to pop through any day now
- loves brushing his cute teeth
- finally learned to feed himself most foods
- loves playing with his toys
- knows how to turn on the two radios in the house
- understands a lot of words and commands even if he doesn't always obey
- jabbers a ton
- finally on the growth curve at the 4th percentile at a whopping 18lbs
- moves to the beat of the music
- loves being the center of attention
- sleeps 12 hours at night and most of the time takes two hour naps twice a day
- knows how to drink from a cup pretty well, but sometimes misses his mouth
- very happy little boy and doesn't cry about much
- high pain tolerance
- enjoys our cat
- helps me put on and take off his clothes
- wiggly during diaper changes but getting better
- sad when Daddy leaves for work (it is SOOO cute)
- good at having photos taken of him
- enjoys all types of food
- learned to playfully yell/scream extremely loud and piercing
- knows to go feet first off of the couch and bed
- can climb up stairs, but knows not to go down the stairs
- pretty much gets the idea of drawing on paper
- learned to roll a ball back and forth to another person
- tries to put things on his head and succeeds quite a bit
That is all I can think up at the moment.  I am so proud of him.  He has come a long way in one year!

My Favorite Store ... Deseret Industries

Me:  Hi, do you know what my favorite store is?
You:  Yes, you just mentioned it in the title.  Did you go today?
Me:  Yep.  We had to go into Tooele, so I of course stopped into DI, the best thrift store ever.
You:  Did you buy anything good?
Me:  Why yes.  I found one of my greatest finds ever!  I bought a beautiful hutch.
You:  Hmm, it couldn't be that nice if it was at DI.
Me:  Oh, you underestimate DI.  It was BRAND NEW since companies will often donate things that they can't sell for a tax write-off.  It was only $175, we are guessing that normal retail is around $1,000.
You:  Wow, I never knew that companies donated to DI.  Now I think I will go check out our local DI for some good deals.  Do you have a picture of your hutch?
Me:  Of course.  Here ya go.

You:  WOW!!!  That is BEAUTIFUL!  I really need to go to DI a lot more often to get awesome deals like you.
Me:  Oh and did you see the neat light switch that turns on the three built-in lights?
You:  No, ... where is it?
Me:  It's right there.  Don't you see it?
You:  No.
Me:  It's the top right hinge, all you do is touch it.  And it has different brightnesses.
You:  Awesome!
Me:  And if you want to see a picture from the manufacturer, click here.  The portion that was being sold at DI was only the top.  So, yes it doesn't have exactly the same look, but it sure still looks uber nice.

Charlie's Birthday

Charles bought me two bouquets of flowers the night before Charlie's birthday since they were a good price.  We have agreed that if he randomly brings me flowers when they are on a good deal then he doesn't have to buy them for designated flower-giving holidays.  As an afterthought, I figured that flowers were a good way to celebrate that I am the mommy of a one year old.  I know that during Charlie's birthday party I shared the sentiment that children's birthday's should really be to honor the mom that brought them into the world and have taken care of them for so long.

Back to Charlie's birthday party.  We did presents first since he had acted interested in them.

 I ended up doing most of the unwrapping ...

 ... and then letting him do the final little bit.

 But after a while he really couldn't have cared less.  (It looks like I am at a baby shower and not my kid's birthday.)

 We did finally get Charlie to take a picture with all of his presents.

I thought for sure Charlie would want to touch his candle and I was all for it.  I knew that either A) he would learn not to touch fire, or B) it wouldn't bother him since he has a high pain tolerance and it would be a good laugh for us.  Charlie wouldn't touch it at all and really didn't seem interested in it.  He was MUCH more interested at all the people around watching him.

 

Charlie did NOT want to eat his cake.  I even put some of the whipped cream (sweetest thing he has EVER had) and he did NOT want it.  What kid refuses cake?  Apparently my child.  That is fine with me.  Maybe for his 2nd birthday he will shove his cake in his face.

Side Note: We tried feeding him his cake today and he really didn't care to touch it.  He was fine with me feeding it to him on a fork, but he still didn't think much of it.

 Charlie did do one normal thing for a one-year-old birthday party.  He enjoyed the balloons.  Most of the party he was much more amused with all of the fun people and the cat when it was upstairs.

 Here is Charlie's official one year old photo!  I LOVE it!

After most people left besides the Grandparents, Charlie started walking!  What kid learns to walk on their birthday with all the Grandparents there?  He really seemed to love doing it and loved all the attention he got from walking quite a few steps by himself.  The funny thing is that today when we tried to get him to walk he didn't really care to.  He would rather crawl.  My conclusion:  He will perform when given attention by LOTS of people he knows and loves.  Otherwise, "Eh."

* Photos curtesy of Angela and Jan Martin

Visiting Charles' Family

I do not take credit for the following photos.  Charles' sister Angela is now our professional photographer :)

 Charlie's cousin Holly thought it was fun to say, "Hi" by smacking Charlie's head.  He put up with it pretty well.

But then he finally decided to go ... 

 ... visit Daddy and Grandpa.

 He does a very good stink bug crawl over hard surfaces.  He has become quite fast at it.

Some of the adults, including us, played croquet.  Charlie had fun chasing our balls and standing with us.  I love how the angle of the croquet stick is at the same angle as his lips :) 

 Here I am wondering which wicket to go to or asking about rules.  Here is a pretty good pregnancy photo of myself at about 18 weeks along, a week and a half ago.

Baby #2, Name in the Making

I had an in depth ultrasound today with a pretty nice machine so that they can check to see if baby #2 has any heart problems or other such problems.  They wanted to make sure that this baby won't have to go through what Charlie did.  Everything all checked out great.  Even with their amazing equipment they can't always tell if the heart and other things look perfect, but the baby was in the PERFECT position.  They could see everything wonderfully.  They were quite surprised that they could see the entire aortic arch VERY clearly.  In about two months there will be another high tech ultrasound to double check everything.
The baby is a little bit smaller than the doctors had guessed so my official due date is November 23rd.  And of course the gender of this baby is a BOY!  The funny thing is that finding out the gender was a little more difficult than finding the aorta :)  The baby's legs were really scrunched up tightly, but after a little prodding the baby gave us a peak.
If this baby were to be a girl, I already had the named picked out, but now that it is not we don't have any official names yet.  But, I have promised myself this time that the baby will have a name before it is born.  It was just too confusing being in the hospital with Charlie being named Boy Martin before he had a name.  If you have any suggestions I am willing to entertain them, but I am very much a traditionalist when it comes to names.  Nothing too weird.  A name that everyone knows how to say and pronounce without having it explained ten times.  Spelling is hard for me and I really just don't want to make it harder on my kids by giving them a funny spelt name.

** I usually have Charles proof read all blog posts before being sent out to make sure spelling, grammar, and flow of the post is good, but Charles is at a city league softball team and didn't check this.  So, if there are mistakes, ... well, maybe next time will be better.

Charlie's Cheery Charming Challenges

Charlie has finally learned to feed himself for the most part.  This is a REALLY BIG accomplishment for us.  Most kids eat everything; Charlie refused to feed himself everything.  Cheering for every bite was the only way we got him to finally feed himself.  He still refuses to feed himself Cheerios, but he has learned to eat his little foam letters.  

Charlie is sporting his foam letters here in his hair-"DO."

This is the way Charlie "cleans up" his toys.  As long as you can't see them then they must be put away :)  That's how Mommy used to do it, too.

Charlie loves Mondays because it means it is laundry day.  He loves playing in the laundry room since his voice makes funny sounds in the machine and there are pretty lights on the display.  And the spinning of the machine is just so fun.

 We went on a ward campout.  The campsite was more of a manicured park than a campsite, but it was good for a large group of people with kids.  Charlie had fun playing with other people's toys.

 Meeting all of the kids in the ward and hanging out with them instead of his parents.

 And playing with the dog that was there.

It was pretty fun and Charlie sure enjoyed it.  We did have a pretty rough night though since Charlie went to bed at 11ish (4 hours late) and then kept randomly crying until 2 in the morning for one reason or another.  It was a definite learning experience for us to figure out how to camp with a little kid. 

Gaining Weight?

Yes!  I am gaining weight, thank you.  I am pregnant with baby #2!  No gender yet.  The due date is approximately around Thanksgiving.  The doctors aren't super sure how far along I am.