Yeah it's been awhile...

It's been awhile since I updated...and a lot has happened since then. The main reason for the delay is Charlie and I both have been battleing the cold from you know where. It's bad enough when baby is sick, but when mommy is sick too...obiviously not a lot gets done.

So...where to begin. I guess I will start with his 4 month check up. Everything was great other than head and neck (more on those later) and he got his second round of shots...poor little guy. Here are a few picutres...
Waiting for Dad to load him in the car seat to go to the Dr. Looks really happy about it huh?

His stats

Waiting on the doctor

Sleeping off the shots


A few days later we attempted baby rice cereal. I've kind of been lazy and have only done it twice because...let's be honest...it's a lot more work than just nursing. But here are a few pics of the event...
Here is Trey feeding him

And me

He actually did really good except he kept wanting to grab the spoon...so I gave him his own to hold

He got pretty messy, but overall he really enjoyed it


Here he is after clean up. On a side note he really loves Trey. I know that may sound like an obvious statement, like of course your baby loves his daddy, but for a while there he would just stare at Trey and make no expressions or turn his head away when Trey tried to kiss him. But now Trey just has to look at him and he grins and stares at him. It is adorable.


Also, since I've updated last we got Charlie a new carseat. It is for when he gets bigger, but we got such a good deal on it we couldn't pass it up. Babies R Us was having a sale so it was already $50 off, then we had this old carseat a coworker had given me that we traded in for another 25% off. Plus it's orange which we love!


Ok so about the head...we finally got insurance approval (Thank the Lord!!) so we picked a company (Star Cranial) and took Charlie in for his final head scan to have the helment made for him. Next Tuesday we go to get the helmet put on and so the process begins. I want to take a few moments to talk about this whole helmet thing...whenever people ask me how I feel about it, I usually so...oh it's no big deal...in the long run it is for the best and only for a short period of time...yada yada. But if I can take a minute here to be honest, I'm really sad about it. I feel like Charlie is so beautiful and when he gets this helmet no one will look at him and his beautiful face...they will just look at the helmet. It makes me sad to think that he will be ignored or even stared at. I know that rationally everyone will argue that it doesn't matter what other people think and it will be over before you know it. But, these are months in his life that I can never get back, all the photo oppurtunities and cute outfits will be over shadowed by this huge white thing on his head. I know that is just me being superficial and silly, but it's my true feelings...and hey isn't that what a blog is for?? I do plan on decorating his helmet to make it less of an eyesore, but I guess I just have to buck up and get over it. Ok, enough of my pity party...here are some BEAUTIFUL pictures of Charlie waiting to get his head scanned...



Now his neck...it is actually get much better. The PT is really helping and as he gets stronger he spends more time looking around and really streching it on his own.
Here are a few tummy time shots from today...this was really the first time he has ever pushed up that far and held his head up...he is a little behind on this stuff so I was extrememly proud of him!

Here is a video of the event...


And then there was the sickness. Charlie and I both woke up Sunday morning with very stuffy noses. All week we have been battling the sickness. I fortunatly can take medicine...Charlie on the other hand was stuck with rounds and rounds of saline nose spray and snot sucking. He started out the week sleeping in his swing that sits him upright and then as he got better we started him sleeping propped up on the Boppy. I felt really bad for the little guy. You know when you are so congested and you blow your nose over and over...I'm sure that is how he felt, but couldn't blow his nose. He is FINALLY feeling better today, but here are a few pictures of him at various stages of the sickness...


And finally...some random pictures and videos just for fun


Talking to me...this never gets old to me :)


Falling asleep while playing with his giraffe

Charlie's first snow & first valentine!

So we had an epic snow storm yesterday. Here are a few pics of us in the snow.

Trey building a GIANT snowman for Charlie.




The final product.



Then we bundled Charlie up to take a few pictures.
Now you might notice the snowman is leaning to the right in this picture...


So we had some fun with it...

He didn't actually kick it over...it fell on it's own...but we couldn't resist :)

Then we took a few pictures of Charlie in the snow. He wasn't too pleased about it...


It snowed all day yesterday and all last night...so when we woke up there was quite a bit more snow on the ground...so we attempted pictures again.

But as you can see...he still wasn't too thrilled about it.

Also, today Charlie received his very first Valentines!! It was from Grammy so he had to read it right away...

Then eat it...silly boy!

Thanks Grammy!!

Charlie is growing so fast...

So we are four days away from the Charlie man being 4 months old. It has been an amazing journey so far and each day he learns something new. Yesterday was a big day for him and me. He slept upstairs in his bed last night. I've been toying with the idea for a couple weeks since he has been sleeping so good at night (he usually gets to sleep about 9:00-9:30 and sleeps until about 5 then I feed him and he goes back to sleep for another couple hours). When he has been sleeping in our room, the dogs, TV in the living room, etc. has been waking him up so I thought now is the time for him to move upstairs to the quiet. Now, those of you who aren't mothers might think...wow that's great...he sleeping through the night in his own room upstairs at 4 months old...me as the Mom...I was pretty torn...sad that he is so far away. I actually missed him. Sad that he is growing extremely fast. Worried that he might need me and is so far away...worried he is cold...worried... But, also happy that I can relax a little for the evening...spend some time with Trey...not having to worry about waking him up. I will say I did have two monitors and a video monitor that was hooked up to our TV so I could turn it on and see him at any moment. So that made me feel better. I did cry at first when I left him up there...but I am glad we did it. He did great! He feel asleep on his own listening to music in his crib about 9:45 and he didn't make a sound until about 3:30am when he woke up and fussed a little. I turned on the TV so I could see him and he was still half asleep so I let him fall back asleep and he slept all the way until 7:00 am!! He never cried, he just woke up and started talking to himself. So overall it was a great experience and we will keep moving forward.

Now regarding his head/neck. We had the Therapist come to the house on Wednesday for an evaluation of his overall development and neck. He is on par (or above) on everything developmentally except the head turning, neck control. So the physical therapist is going to start coming to the house once a week to work on his neck and show me additional things to help him. He did great at the appointment. He talked to them and smiled, he didn't cry when they put him on his tummy. She said that his Torticollis wasn't as bad as she has seen before and the stretches I'm doing are really helping. So we will see how that goes.

Friday we met with a different company for his head called Star Cranium. The did a bunch of measurements and scanned his head. The also recommended the helmet. So we have one more meeting next week with a final company and then we will make our decision. I am leaning towards Star Cranium because they specialize in only babies heads and they are in network for our insurance as opposed to Cranium Technologies. The place we go next week does all sorts of Orthopedic issues so I am skeptical about that. So we will see what happens there.

Trey got back on Thursday from his 6 day trip to Canada for work...I almost went crazy, but survived long enough for him to return to me. To say thanks, Trey took Charlie and me to Olive Garden last night and then watched Charlie while I took a nice long bubble bath. Today we are cleaning up and just enjoying family time together. Tomorrow we are having a few people over for the Super Bowl.

So that's it for now. I don't have any new pictures, but here is another video of him listening to his music. Also, occasionally the videos on here won't play, but if you come back later they work...not sure why, but just keep checking back if it tells you it won't play.

New Pics & Videos!

Upon the request of my dear husband, the following are numerous updated pictures and videos of Charlie man!

Charlie checking out the fire.


A few tummy time shots.





Chewing on a toy...new talent he has discovered!



Smiley boy!



Guess the physical therapy is working...sleeping on the "bad" side.




And now for the video portion of our segment...


Listening to his music.


Playing with a toy.


Charlie finds his feet!


Sitting in the Bumbo chair.


Also, on a side note...today is little Bella's 4th birthday!! Happy birthday Bella!