Swings

Last weekend Charlie had his first experience with the swings at the park. As you can see by the pictures below he LOVED it! I don't know if he was trying to "taste" the air or shows his excitement by sticking his tongue out, but he had his mouth open and tongue out the whole time. It was pretty cute. I'm sure we will be making many, many more trips to the park during these next few months.

4 months

4 month picture by the monkey...look at how big I've gotten!


Charlie's 4 month birthday was actually a little over a week ago but today was his 4 month appointment. The doctor said he looks like a well fed healthy baby! I had many questions that I'm sure most first time mothers have, but I think it makes it worse that I work at a hospital with many children with disabilities and developmental delays. I question everything! :) I was reassured that Charlie is absolutely healthy and developing normally... always a great thing to hear.

Here are his stats:
Weight: 15 lbs 14 oz (75%)
Height: 25 1/2 inches (75%)
Head circumference: 16 1/2 inches (50%)

Things about Charlie right now:
-Tons of baby babbling...I think he talks more than I do :)
-Can kind of sit on his own for a few seconds before toppling over
-Sucks on his hands constantly
-Chews on our hands, toys, anything he can get into his mouth
-Drooling!!
-Laughing (this is a new thing for him, we've only gotten a few belly laughs)
-Watch us and track us as we walk around a room
-Loves to play on his activity mat and grabs the toys with a death grip
-Is content playing on his own but prefers to be active, he loves to stand now
-His hair is growing back in quickly and seems like it might come back in dark again, I'll miss his cute bald head :)
-Eats every 3-4 hrs, takes 6-7 oz bottles when I work
-Goes to bed at 8pm and sleeps til 6 or 7 am, usually wakes once to eat around 3 am. He will sleep through the night about once per week (which I love!!)
-Takes 3-4 naps per day, short morning and late afternoon naps (30-45 min) and a longer (1 hr +) nap around lunch time
-Wears size 2 diapers during the day, size 3 at night
-Wears size 3-6 onsies but is fast outgrowing them
-Is in 3-6 month and 6 month clothes and wears size 2 shoes

Charlie you are such a happy smiley baby. We love you so much!! We love the happy smiles you give us early in the morning and and your easy going personality. We are so blessed to be your parents!!

We put Charlie an exersaucer for the first time and he loved it!! I thought he was still too little for it but he proved me wrong


Tummy time- my head is getting stronger!


Smiling while Daddy plays with me

Memorial Day Weekend

I'm so behind in blogging! Here's my Memorial weekend post:

We had a fun weekend at my sister's lake home on Memorial day weekend. It was such a gorgeous weekend! We spent Saturday and Sunday at the lake lounging around, playing with the babies, taking Charlie for his very first boat ride and swim in the lake, grilling, and lots of eating. Charlie and Bethany had fun doing tummy time together and had many photo sessions of the two of them. It was a fun time- thank you Heather and Dan for the fun weekend!

We came back and spent Memorial Day at our house. Brent and I went out on a date to Bar Abiliene and then had dessert at Cold Stone. It was a lot of fun...a date was long overdue. Thanks Becky for watching Charlie for us! We will have to make it a point to do it again soon.

While I went back to work, my Mother-in-Law Becky came from Tennessee to stay with us for a few weeks to watch Charlie. She hadn't seen him since he was 2 weeks old, needless to say he had changed so much! We had a lot of fun spending time with Becky, we were very sad to see her go back home. She was way too kind and helped out a ton at our house cleaning, doing laundry, and watching Charlie. I appreciated it a lot! We made sure to plan things so that they have to come back every few weeks :) They are coming back over Father's Day weekend because we are having Charlie dedicated at our church that day. I'm sure we will have to make a trip to see their new house in TN sometime this summer.

Here are some pictures from the past few weeks:

I love the lake!




Cousin tummy time


I love snuggling with Grandma Gilchrist!


Ahh...lounging after a fun day in the sun


Charlie wasn't a fan of the life jacket


He quickly got used to it and fell asleep within 2 min


Charlie loves to watch Bella running around the yard, he's also starting to grab her ears and fur. She is a pretty good sport about it :)


Just woke up from a nap and is snuggling with Morfar


Sleepy smiles


Right before Charlie's first dip in the swimming pool


Looking cute after bathtime


(Side note: I just about cried! I must have accidentally sent all my cute pictures of Charlie over the past couple weeks to the recycle bin. Luckily they hadn't actually been deleted off the computer- phew! I honestly would have cried...sometimes I kind of like having actual pictures that have been printed, then you know that they can't be deleted.)