Eight Months

Baby Charlie is now 8 months old and it is hard to remember what life was like before he was here...but at the same time I feel like we just brought him home from the hospital yesterday. How is that possible? I really really LOVE this age because his little personality comes out more and more everyday. He loves to throw balls and his pacifier. (If you keep getting it for him, he will play this game for 20 minutes straight). So far he throws with his right AND left so we're thinking maybe he's ambidextrous. :) Before Charlie, Andy and I would hear parents brag about their children and we'd always just laugh. Andy would always say he would never ever brag about his children the way everyone else does...so it is hilarious to overhear him telling his brother or his dad how well Charlie throws. Or how he is so smart. haHA!

Nighttime Antics

Charlie has been a great sleeper since he was about 4 1/2 to 5 months old. He goes to bed around 6:30 p.m. every night and a lot of mornings I have to wake him around 6:30 a.m. to get him ready before I go to work. He never cries and if he wakes up he grabs one of the 5 pacifiers in his crib (an ingenious idea my husband came up with long ago) and goes right back to sleep. I typically never hear so much as a peep out of him. However, a few weeks ago I woke up in the middle of the night to him shrieking. (I immediately assumed the worst and thought there was a kidnapper trying to climb through his window). I grabbed the baby monitor and he was just happily playing in his crib at 2 a.m. Once my heart stopped racing,  I thought it was so funny and grabbed my iPhone and started taking a video of the monitor screen. He put himself back to sleep about 10 minutes later...

Who knew playing with a pacifier could be so fun?

 

Daycare always tells me how happy Charlie is and how he is constantly belly laughing at them all day. Well, I almost thought they were lying to me because I never could seem to make him laugh. I can make funny faces, sing silly songs, or try to tickle him to death....and NOTHING. So I was thrilled that Andy got him to start belly laughing at home one day after work and actually got it on video. The quality isn't great b/c it was on his iPhone and then he sent it to me. But you can still hear that adorable giggle! 

The Charlie Scoot

Charlie started army crawling across the floor a little over a week ago. I call it the Charlie scoot because it looks like his legs don't work, so he just drags them behind him. He won't even try to get up on all fours, and when I attempt to make him, he face plants into the floor. (I suppose his chubby little arms can't hold up his body weight yet). In the last few days his scoot is getting extremely fast. He mine as well be crawling! Check it out :)

School fun with my best buddy, Tommy

 We are lucky enough to get photo updates from the ladies at daycare. They help get me through the day! Here are a few of my favorites from the past few weeks.

Woo Hoo! This stroller ride is SO fun!

...and he's mobile!

I LOVE bathtime!

Charlie will be 8 months old in exactly 2 weeks and is growing and changing by the day. His two little bottom teeth have popped up and he started scooting across the floor last night. I guess it was really more of an army crawl, but at any rate, he gets were he wants to go. He's officially mobile! Bath time and meal time are his favorite times of day. He's still drinking 6 ounces 5 times a day and eating 3 meals of cereal and/or baby food. We also give him a nebulizer treatment twice a day because he is so wheezy. Poor baby! These milestones are so fun to watch, but it also makes me a little sad. My baby will be a toddler before I know it! Here are a few more photos from our recent visit to Mimi and Mumpy's house last weekend...

Trying on Mumpy's hat for size

Wow those prunes don't taste as good as my sweet potatoes!

Charlie's sweet cousin, Ivy

Bundled up and ready for our morning walk!

Look at all that hair!

Emergency Room Visit

Andy and I are in full "Weaver 2012 budget" mode right now in order to save for our new house. So I decided that I would save some money by attempting to take Charlie's 6 month pictures on my own instead of paying a professional. When Charlie was 5 days old, we paid someone to come to our house and she did an AMAZING job. So I decided to copy some of her tactics by recreating her set-up in front of our big sliding glass doors. I used my white comforter as a back-drop and threw it over a dining room chair and our end table. In order to get this heavy comforter to stay, I had to place an enormous phone book on top of it. Perfecto! Now all I needed was my little model. I stripped Charlie down to his diaper, sat him up, and began snapping away. One thing I should mention is that he sits up really well for the most part...but can fall overboard if he begins reaching for a toy or his tiny toes. Well sure enough, he started to topple and before I knew it he had dove into the comforter...which pulled the phone book off the end table...which knocked the picture frame over...and landed directly on his forehead. A goose egg the size of a walnut immediately formed as he turned red and began screaming. Although, I think I was probably screaming louder as I tried to call Andy from the bedroom to come help me. I'm glad Andy was there and somewhat calm because I was a mess. We sped to the emergency room as I bawled in the backseat with Charlie...partly because I was sure he had a brain bleed, and partly because I was afraid the hospital might call Child Protective Services on Charlie's irresponsible and careless mother. Two hours and many tears later (on my part) we left the hospital relieved to find out that there was no permanent damage...just a very bad bruise and broken blood vessel. Here is a picture of my brave boy at the hospital!

The worst part of it all, is that I put him through all of that...didn't get a great shot,,,AND ended up spending the $100 I could have spent on the professional photographer on the ER co-pay. Go figure! Here are a few decent ones I managed to snap before the head trauma.

Charles William- 6 months

Finally getting some hair!

Guess I need to work on the draping of my back-drop!

The last photo I captured prior to the incident :(