What's so Funny?

This morning I brought Charlie into the bedroom with me to lay down for a few minutes before my alarm went off. He had been fussing a bit and it woke me up. I put the binkie back in his mouth and he went right back to sleep, so I knew I could put off feeding and changing him for at least a few minutes.

After a minute or so, he smiled, and the binkie fell out of his mouth as he relaxed. Then, all of a sudden, he let out the cutest giggle I think I've ever heard. I sure wish I knew what he was dreaming or thinking about.

I was so sorry that John missed Charlie's first laugh. Hopefully he'll do it again while we're on vacation.

The jinx is broken!

The jinx of my Albert Pujols t-shirt has been broken! I wore the shirt and the Cardinals still won! I guess that Charlie's identical little Pujols t-shirt cancelled mine out.

We had a successful outing to the Reds (Cardinals) game tonight here in Cincinnati. John's already on the road to New Mexico, so I handled the expedition on my own (a good practice for tomorrow's venture to the airport). Charlie did really well overall, although he did spit up all over "uncle" Steve's arm. "Uncle" Steve and "uncle" Greg also came up with an ingenious plan to "sanitize" a dropped binkie in Greg's beer. I hope Charlie doesn't get a hangover.

They had a big fireworks show after the game tonight, also. It was loud with the echo inside the stadium, but Charlie didn't seem to mind. He would get startled sometimes when there were some bigger bangs after a quieter period, but he didn't cry.

Someday, we'll be telling Oscar and Charlie about their first baseball game. They sure turned a lot of heads!

Time for a haircut?

This morning Charlie grabbed at my hair for the first time. I'd been letting it grow longer for the summer so I could easily pull it back into a ponytail. I guess it's time to set up an appointment to get it cut shorter before I go back to work.

John was actually the first to have his hair pulled on by Charlie-- but it was his chest hair! That happened a couple of days ago.

On other notes, John and Beth left in the car for New Mexico this morning. Charlie and I saw them off from the driveway. Lucy is already over at Grandma's house, so Charlie and I have the house to ourselves today.

We're going to Charlie's first Cardinals game tonight with a group of friends. I bought him a little Pujols t-shirt to match mine. Hopefully I'll get some good photos to post.

Tomorrow we head to the airport for Charlie's first airplane ride. I'm going to leave extra early so I can have enough time to manage all the extra gear I'm going to have to shuffle by myself. After a long debate, we decided I should take the carseat and stroller and check them at the gate. It will be fun going through security with all that, plus having to declare all my liquid formula, etc.!

More when we get a chance to jump on the internet-- hopefully while we're in Santa Fe.

--Michelle

Try this on for size

This week I had to buy new tennis shoes-- my feet have apparently decided to stay a bit longer than they were pre-Charlie. I also took my rings in to be resized-- still can't get them over my knuckle, despite having lost all my pregnancy weight already. I guess my sleep pattern isn't the only thing to have changed.

Charlie is now definitely smiling for us. Last night he also grasped one of his toys for the first time. I'm not sure it was intentional, or that he even realized it. But it was still cute to see. Not so cute was the vomiting of milk out the nose that he did just before bedtime. That one scared us a bit.

Only three more days before we leave on vacation.

TGIF!

Today Charlie and I went to lunch with his Grandma Robenalt. The two of them played "lizard"-- sticking their tongues out at one another.

Now that Charlie is getting better control of his hands, and no longer reaches to scratch his eyes all of the time, I've started to let him go more and more without his protective mittens. As a result, he's started to find putting his fingers in his mouth as a way to soothe himself. This is good news to his mom and dad, who get tired of running over to reinsert the pacifier he has pushed, pulled, or dropped out of his mouth.

Charlie seems to be getting longer faster than he is getting wider. As a result, I'm having to pull out some of the 3 month clothes because they are the only thing long enough for him to wear. They look pretty baggy on him, because he's not very chubby, but I think that may be a trend we have to live with. Can't wait to see what he measures at his 2-month appointment in July.

Three letter words

Yesterday Charlie uttered his first "goo" and "gaa"-- graduating to using the occasional consonant in addition to the "ooh" and "eh" vowel sounds we've been hearing for quite some time. He can actually be quite the talker at times.

I think he might be starting a social smile as well, but I can't be sure.

On Tuesday we visited John's work and had a nice time passing Charlie around to folks while eating delicious cake. Photos are posted on flickr.

Our First Fathers Day/ 6 weeks old

John got to enjoy a lot of time with Charlie for his first Fathers' Day. He also got to eat some of his favorite foods. I made him a special quiche for brunch, and I picked up takeout from PF Chang's for dinner. After dinner I made some fresh cookies for him with some refrigerated dough that was leftover from earlier in the week. (I didn't say I cooked it all from scratch!)

While John was spending time with Charlie in the afternoon, I took Lucy to the dog park so she could have some "mommy time." I knew she had been feeling neglected.

Today did not go as well. Our AC at the house went out, as did one of our DVRs. I also found a bunch of mole trails in the front yard. I guess all the watering I was doing to save the lawn made for good digging! Hopefully by the end of the week we'll at least have AC and our DVR back. The mole is another story.

On other notes, John now thinks maybe Charlie is left handed. He seems to use his left hand for grabbing his binkie and other similar tasks. I'm not completely sure I'm convinced yet.

Tomorrow I will take Charlie in to John's work for a visit. At least I know they have AC there!

Busy week

Charlie and I have had a busy week. Over the weekend, John and I took him on two separate shopping trips to gather items we need for our upcoming vacation to New Mexico. He did pretty well, only getting fussy on the way home from the last trip. I also took Charlie with me to a volunteer event at Cincinnati Bell on Saturday morning. He was an absolute angel.

On Tuesday I had a dentist appointment, so I took John's mom along to sit with Charlie while I had my teeth cleaned. He was an angel again. We took him to lunch at Frisch's after the appointment, and I stopped to buy a new garden hose at Home Depot. (The weather has been so warm and dry here I wanted to try and save the back lawn.)

On Wednesday we visited my work group at Cincinnati Bell. Charlie did well on this trip also. But last night he was pretty irritable, and didn't sleep much between 3 and 7 AM.

Today, Thursday, we went to visit my friend Jodi and her new daughter Julia. Julia is 5 days older than Charlie. We took a long walk and went to lunch down the street from their house. We had a chance to compare the two little ones, and also determined that Charlie definitely looks like his father from the nose up.

Tomorrow we will hang out at home-- it has been a long week and we're tired!

On other fronts, Charlie is making more and more vocal noises. He is moving up in clothing sizes, wearing some 3 month or 3-6 month pieces, depending on the brand. He can go longer between feedings now as well. I'm also starting to get him used to one bottle a day this week. I'll work my way up to 3 or 4 a day by the time we leave for New Mexico. This will be a good chance to see how he'll do for daycare in August, also.

New photos are posted on Flickr.

I am one month old!

Charlie had his one month check-up today. He now weighs 10 pounds, 2.5 ounces-- a 2 pound gain since his one week visit. He has also grown 2 inches, and now is in the 90th percentile on length.

One month photos will be posted on my flickr site shortly.

Champion Spitter

John came home from work on Tuesday just in time for burping duty. Charlie decided to show him just how far he could spit up. Thank goodness the Maloney's sent us those great burp cloths--just in time!

Look Ma, No Mittens!

I left the house today to run to the store, and left Charlie with no mittens on. John had trimmed his fingernails, and we wanted to see how he did without the mittens. When I returned, he was wearing socks on his hands!

John could not find the clean mittens, so he used socks to protect Charlie's eyes from scratching. How resourceful Daddies can be when faced with adversity!