We're in trouble now!

Charlie has now perfected the "army crawl" and is regularly making his way around the family room to objects he should not be touching. A barrier was quickly constructed to keep him from pushing all of the buttons on the receiver and DVD player, and to keep him from the computer keyboard that sits under the TV.

He's still a little slow moving around, since he's only using his right hand and his left elbow to drag the back half of his body around, but he does get places.

Charlie's clapping ability is also getting better by the day. He hasn't yet figured out that clapping is a positive reaction to events-- he seems to do it whenever he's stimulated emotionally (good or bad). It's quite strange to see him fussing and frowning and clapping at the same time!

Charlie had his first Cheerios a little over a week ago. They gave him some at daycare instead of his usual babyfood puffs. He seemed to like them alright.

Charlie and Lucy continue to get along well. Lucy is amazingly tolerant of Charlie's tugs and pokes. She even walked over and laid her head in his lap the other day.

Tomorrow is a day off for both John and I, so we'll be enjoying an extra day with the little guy before heading back to work.

More milestones

Charlie moved up to the size 4 cruisers on Tuesday night. He has been blowing out diapers on average once or twice a day, so we hope this helps to stem that.

Charlie is also really close to pulling himself up on the ottoman at home. They've noticed him pulling up at least to his knees at daycare, also.

His new trick is clapping. He doesn't really make any sound, but he gets his hands together really well. And he thinks it's hilarious when you clap in response.

He's getting really good at getting finger foods (puffs) to his mouth now. There's been a big improvement in just the last few days.

Charlie is sure keeping us on our toes!

Happy New Year!

We've just returned from Syracuse, where Charlie got to see his first broomball tournament. He tolerated the trip really well, even the 9 hour drive home today. There were other milestones this weekend, including the Cincinnati men's team's first ever shutout win at Syracuse. They came dangerously close to having to play on Sunday, since they also just barely missed winning another game in the final minutes (eventually losing in sudden death overtime). It would have been the first time a Cincinnati team ever made it past the Saturday games. It was also the first time we could remember seeing green grass in NY during a January trip to Syracuse for this tournament. The temps were in the high 40's today for our drive home-- much better than the blowing snow we often drive home in.

I continued my streak of being interviewed for TV when we stopped at a service center on the NY thruway on the way home. Apparently the tolls were increased at midnight Saturday, and they wanted to get opinions on what people thought of the increase. I basically said it didn't really impact me much, because I only drive that road once a year. Anyway, I'll have no idea if I made it on the local news there, since we were just driving through, but the way things go for me, I was probably on!

Tomorrow night is the national championship game, so our new TV will be tuned in to watch Ohio State. A victory sure would help us start the new year off right!