fun fun fun

First, some scrunch faces with Mommy.



The weather turned cold last week for a little bit and we enjoyed bundling up and heading out to Panera for breakfast.

Fall is coming! It's not here yet, but the excitement of the seasons changing seeped through breakfast to turn it into an exhilarating outing

...though it may have been helped out by the caffeinated coffee I drank by accident!


We are done teething for the moment. Two sharp bottom teeth are through and starting to grow. I got this shot of his top teeth hovering above the gum line, waiting to inflict themselves on Charlie next.



Charlie's friend Nathan came over for a play date this week. (Which meant I got to hang out with his mom. Hooray for having friends in St. Louis!) The boys got along pretty well, though Charlie did try to eat Nathan's head. .



Nathan is a month younger, but crawls way better than Charlie, who doesn't--at all. (Charlie just flounders on his stomach like a beached whale and kicks his legs at the air.)

Charlie sat and observed him. I think he was trying to see how it's done so he could attempt it later in private.



That's all for now!

joylights-banana faces

Bananas...






nothing like a good banana ...

First tooth

Charlies first tooth appeared today. It is right at gum level so far so there are no pictures yet. This explaines all the snot and general crankiness yesterday. Hooray! ...I think?

Grand time with the Great Grands

This summer was full of Great Grandparent visits for Charlie.

In July we visited Great Grandpa Pat in San Francisco.


It was a wonderful three days filled with lots of second cousins (or are they once removed?)

and great Aunts and Uncles.

Here is Great Aunt Alice doting on Charlie!

We ate the traditional Dim Sum lunch and had a wonderful, wonderful time.

When we left it was with feelings of regret that we don't live closer and can't spend time with our wonderful family more often.

In August we visited Great Grandpa Elmer and Great Grandma Ruth in Waxhaw, North Carolina.

They were just so happy to see him that they didn't stop laughing all weekend.


The time was also full of good meals and Uncles and Aunts(both great and not)

Grandpa and Charlie having a horsey ride--there was some debate as to who was giving who the ride!

And speaking of rides, Charlie is getting bad ideas from his Great Uncle Morris' motorcycle keys!

Charlie just loved Great Uncle Morris.

Uncle Erik also came to see Charlie...so Charlie took the opportunity to wake him up

And take him for a stroller ride,

And spend some quality time making scrunch faces with him on the floor.

I really wish we didn't live so far away! We love our family and miss them already.

Sleepless in Saint Louie

Ever pulled an all-nighter and had that sick headache feeling in the morning? That is becoming me....every morning. Though we have gone to the baby sleep clinic this week and now have a plan to help Charlie start learning to sleep longer than 2-3hours at a time at night and for more than 30 min during the day, it isn't going to go into effect until Labor Day weekend when we have some time to devote to it. And even then, it will be a slow process with many sleepless nights down the road for us.

It is funny to me how much time during the last three months that we have spent trying to elongate his disappearing naps. So far, approaches such as patting him back to sleep, and turning him over at 20 min (like a hamburger patty) have only had success for a few days or weeks. We have now officially given up on trying to get him to sleep longer, and just praise God when he naps for longer than 35 minutes during the day.

Anyways, when you have a baby who doesn't sleep well at night and doesn't nap either you can't make up for your lost sleep, so here's what I've been doing to cope.

Praying....lots and lots of praying around here, especially for my emotional stability, patience and that I would be able to still have joy and hope in the midst of a situation that I'm sure cannot continue on for the forever it feels like it will. Your prayers are of course highly appreciated!

Swimming....I'm not sure why, but going swimming with Charlie when I feel exhausted always perks me up. Charlie also he loves the water so I know we'll have fun.

Laughing....this one can't be forced, but when I find myself enjoying Charlie and Jonathan for any reason I try to milk all the fun out of it that I can. These little moments of joyful living are what carry me through when I'm discouraged and depressed. For our mutual delight, I offer here the latest little moment I'm treasuring up in my heart.

Clicks and Implosives

One set of Charlies grandparents are linguists, which means they know more about the sounds language makes than most. I showed my Dad a video and he commented on Charlies excellent implosives (sounds you make while breathing in). "Too bad he won't ever need to use them again!" Apparently as babies develop they make all the sounds possible, and then as they get older they narrow their set of noises to the ones they hear in the language around them. Since English doesn't use implosives, he probably won't be making them for much longer.

This week Charlie started clicking his tongue. I would never have noticed, except that I've had to sing a few songs in Swahili...and there are clicks as consonants. It made me sad to think about all the wasted potential of sound-making that clicking represents. Just because boring English doesn't contain all the sounds of the languages, should his world of sound be limited? So, to celebrate the amazing way language development is sprouting up in my son, I've been clicking back. We have clicking conversations now.

AND, if he ever moves to Africa, that will be one less thing he needs to learn!

New Noises New Face

Charlie started screeching this week...so loudly it hurts to be in the same room as him...for no apparent reason other than that he figured out he can do it.



Also newly discovered is this scrunch face, which he makes even when he is not slightly tired, as he is in this video.