Goodbye Summer!

It's been a long time since I posted and I don't have anything funny to talk about but I felt the need to get some pictures posted!! One correction that Brian pointed out from my last post - Charlie's height is really in the 95th percentile and not 85th percentile :) The pediatrician said it's not a good estimator of his grown up height until they are 2!

We have been out of town the last few weekends and are going back out of town this weekend so the weeks just fly by when you don't have the downtime on the weekends!

This past weekend we went to Grinnell, IA for my brother's wedding so I made us stop in Cedar Falls so we could eat at my favorite restaurant - The Other Place (The OP). In college I'm pretty sure we ate OP breadsticks at least twice a week - they are an institution in CF. I even made Brian bring some back for me when he was in Cedar Falls for work awhile back. I just knew Charlie would enjoy them as much as his mommy!!

He mostly just sucks on them and then bites off a litte bit at a time. Here he is enjoying his first OP breadstick!









The Vikings season kicked off this week so Charlie was very excited to wear his new Vikings digs. Brian had a long pep talk with Charlie on what it's like to live a life of disappointment as a die hard Vikings fan :)

We also spent some time with my parents and Charlie got to show off his I heart Grandpa onesie. We have noticed that the majority of baby stuff either says I love mommy or grandma and the daddies and grandpas are left out. So I was pretty excited to find this one at Target a few weeks ago!

Charlie has become a side sleeper. A few times he'll roll all the way to his stomach but most of the time we put him in his crib and he immediately rolls to his side and tucks his buddy under his arm. We used to call his "buddy" a "lovey" but we have a terrible habit of calling Charlie's things the same word as the dogs' stuff. For example, when I was looking for a teether the other day, I asked Brian where Charlie's chewtoy was. And he knew exactly what I meant. It's no wonder the dogs are confused on what is theirs!

Random self portrait Charlie and I took of ourselves after bathtime!

My phone rang the other day while I was feeding Charlie and when I went to go get it, I wasn't thinking and just put Charlie's bowl on his highchair. I came back to this....lesson learned.

We also have an exciting new development....TEETH!

The first one popped through about 3 weeks ago and the 2nd came in a week after that. We are pretty sure he's getting another one because he has been up a lot at night and a little more crabby than normal. Sometimes I feel like I have an infant again with as much as Charlie is getting up but hopefully he'll be back to normal soon. I also had a loooong talk with Charlie about what it means now that he has teeth and I'm still nursing. :)

This one was taken shortly after the 2nd popped through a few weeks ago.

Charlie just adores Brian. It's a little irritating because I'm pretty sure he doesn't GAZE at me like he does at Brian when he walks in the door :) But it is darn cute. He's so proud of himself when he can sit next to Daddy on the big couch.

We've also started practicing on the sippy cups. Charlie loves water in his sippy cup. He's not very good at the tipping up part but is getting better!

6 months and counting!

It has been awhile since I've posted and my only excuse is that we're exhausted!! There seems to be so much going on this summer that by the time Charlie is in bed or the weekend is at an end, I'm just ready to go to bed too! Also, I have to admit that I've been sucked into "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo" series. It took me forever to get into the first one. I must have read the first 20 pages 10 times. But I finally kept going and just became addicted. Such great books. I just finished the 2nd in the series and made myself put down the 3rd so I can read my book club book before next Friday!


This week is fantasy football mayhem in the Kippley household. I have 2 drafts for the leagues that I am in and Brian has 1 draft on Wed (he is also in two.) I only have 1 criteria when picking my players for the team. They have to be hot :) So far this strategy has worked. I even won my league my first year playing!!



Charlie has been growing and changing like crazy. I can barely keep up with all the new developments.

Last weekend we went to my parents' and took Charlie swimming in the lake for the first time. We have a cool innertube thingy but I forgot to take a picture of him in it. Maybe over Labor Day! Here he is with my mom ready to take a nice cool dip!




We've also started giving Charlie "biter biscuits". He's been teething like crazy and these are great little cookie things that he can gum on. Somehow he has figured out that Sasha would like him to share so now she sits very close to the highchair and he has already been "sharing" with her.





Last night we were over at Brian's mom's because she watched Charlie during the Twins game. We have brought Charlie to several games and he's always loved them. But yesterday it was close to 90 and it was a day game. Thankfully Pat watched Charlie while we sat and sweat our tushes off. It was almost unbearable. The place was stinky with all the hot people in the stadium. I even bought a handheld fan water bottle thing for $18. I probably would have paid at least $100!


Somehow we convinced Pat that not only should she babysit, but she should have dinner ready for us when we got back. Not sure how we did that but we were very grateful! Brian had Charlie sitting on the counter and he leaned forward for the salad bowl. We wanted to see what he would do with it and Charlie just dug in. I think he liked the texture of the lettuce. It was cool and wet. He didn't eat any but he kept bringing it up to his mouth, would look at us, and then throw it on the counter and dig in for more!



Digging in...

What is this stuff?!

I'd rather have money instead!


Charlie also turned 6 months a week ago on the 12th! Brian and I look at eachother and then at Charlie and wonder where the time has gone?!

6 mos stats:

Weight: 18 lbs 12 oz (75th percentile)

Height: 28 inches (85th percentile)

We got the ok to start with veggies and fruits along with his cereal. So far we have done sweet potatoes, green beans, and some pears. He's liked all of them! We don't like the green beans though. All 3 days that Charlie had green beans he had major blow outs. Disgusting! One of the nights Brian was holding him and I looked down and said, "Oh - I think you dropped some of the green beans on your shorts." Had it been me, I probably would have just used my finger and then licked it. But thankfully (can you see where this is going) Brian just wiped it off with a rag. About 5 mins later he moved Charlie to the other knee and there was poop all over his shorts. I mean everywhere. Had I taken a second to think about it, I would have taken a picture for the blog but we were both yelling about the poop and Charlie was laughing at us and it was just chaos.

Charlie has gotten really good at going from front to back and back to front and now he'll go quickly from sitting to on his belly. Sometimes it's not such a graceful transition but he's always so proud of himself when he gets there!

Everytime we lean in to Charlie to kiss him he opens his mouth up WIDE. So we knew he would go in for a big one with his teddy. Here he goes...

SMOOCH!

We're back in business!

Sorry it has taken so long to update since the last time. I actually cannot get my photos to download on our home computer so I had always blogged from my work laptop. Well when I switched jobs, I obviously had to give back my laptop and tonight I figured out that I can get my pictures on my new laptop too! Yippee for low security lockdowns. So sorry for the marathon post! My friend Ethan told me that my blog is best read on the crapper since it's so long...thanks buddy! Haha :)


Things are going great at my new gig. I'm starting my 2nd week so still in the honemoon phase of course but I'm loving the culture. The week I was off, my new boss and co-worker actually sent me a beautiful arrangement of flowers saying that they were excited to have me join the team! It was such a nice gesture!

Charlie and I had an amazing week off together. We had a lot of fun and kicked off the week with our friend Carter's 1st birthday party! They had a little pool so it was Charlie's first time "swimming". I realized I didn't think this through because he's not quite stable enough to sit up completely on his own so as soon as I dipped him in the pool, there was nothing left to do but take him back out and lay him on the grass. Thankfully he's so good natured that he didn't mind drying off in the grass so I wouldn't get wet!

Playing with his pal Henry who we found out actually doesn't get in the pool. He just sits outside of it :)

Charlie has changed so much in just a few weeks!! His new favorite toys are his toes. Every chance he can get he pulls his legs up and sticks that big toe in his mouth. He's always so proud of himself too that he can get it in there. Probably because his Daddy is so NOT flexible..he's showing off.

This picture just makes me laugh. He thinks it's really cool to sit on the big beds so when I was sorting laundry tonight he was just giggling sitting there.

Charlie has also started to REALLY notice the dogs. And they are both so awesome with him. Even Stella, who has the personality of a cranky old woman, is really patient when he grabs her ears or eyes. Sasha is really good though - she is just as patient as can be with his fingers poking and jabbing at her and she loves him just as much. It's pretty sweet.

We realized last week that our days of going out to eat and leaving Charlie to sleep in his carseat the entire time are over. He's still awesome and we can take him but no longer will he be content in his carseat. He enjoys sitting on our laps and checking out the view. We also have to be careful at what is in reaching distance because his eyes get really big when we bring a glass or bottle up to take a drink!

Here he is with Daddy at Crave last week.

Eyelashes that I'd pay money for. Not sure who he got these from but I'm jealous!

Playing in his muscle shirt!

A few weeks ago we finally got a highchair. We'd been using a bouncy seat but Charlie is definitely ready to sit up and eat. He gets so excited when he gets in it because he knows what's coming.

We have Charlie's 6 month appt in a few weeks so we're excited to see how much he's grown since his 4 mos check up. Developmentally I feel like he changes everyday! We're pretty sure he's teething because he's drooling, putting everything in his mouth, and he's been waking up a lot in the middle of the night (not impressed) but hopefully all that means some milestones coming up!

Brian can get Charlie to laugh more than anyone else and I caught a little of it tonight! Don't be concerned that it looks like Brian is scaring Charlie. He likes that. No really, he does. I promise.

Times they're a changin...

I haven't posted in awhile because so much has been going on and I feel like the weeks have just flown by. The big news in the Kippley household right now is that I'm leaving CHR after 8 years!! I've only worked at one company since I graduated from UNI and so it kind of just feels like a good time. Plus, I like a lot of change all at once. New baby, new job...maybe we should buy a new house this year! Just kidding Brian. Calm down. My last day is tomorrow and then next week I have off to spend some time with Charlie. My new company is called American Medical Systems - a medical device company that specializes in pelvic health. I need to figure out a way to explain the company without giggling like I'm in 5th grade. It's a great opportunity and best of all, they have a really flexible work schedule so that means more time with Charlie!!


We had a going away happy hour tonight and Brian brought Charlie to it - his first happy hour - and Charlie was flirting like crazy with my co-worker Robyn. It was hilarious. He must have liked her long red curly hair!!



Charlie is growing like crazy. My friend Heather told me that she has been using their wii to measure their son Drew's growth. So I thought it was a great idea. I just created al little boy mii and was going to have Charlie sit on the scale thing but when I put in his birthday, the wii asked, "Charlie, are you a baby?" Apparently they have "baby stats" and it made the mii character a little baby with a bib. He even crawls towards the other mii's. It's so cute I had to take a picture. So here's out little chubby wii family :) (The blonde girl is my mom's mii)



According to this scale, Charlie hasn't gained much weight since his 4 month appt!



Charlie has really started enjoying his excersaucer. His legs are geting so strong and he loves all the fun toys on it.

Charlie has really gotten good at grabbing things..and of course then he puts it in his mouth. It's fun to watch him finally play with his toys instead of us just shaking them around for him!

Charlie also turned 5 months old on July 12th! I'm not sure where the time went but he is getting to be such a fun, expressive little boy!!

This one just cracks me up.

His legs are getting so strong and he loves to stand up with some help!

Sometimes needs a little more help Daddy!

He's just starting to get the hang of sitting up but most of the time ends up crouched over like this.

And sometimes tips over when sitting up.

Charlie has really started to get the hang of cereal no thanks to me. I was keeping it so liquidy (not sure if that's a word) that he wasn't really getting what we were doing. I finally followed the directions on the box other than the "first time feeding" ones and now he just scarfs it down. He's been sleeping really good and he's been doing the funniest thing in the AM. Usually he starts to cry and that is our wake up call to go in and get him up. But for the past several days, he just wakes up and hangs in his crib. I'm not sure how long he's awake until we get him but we can hear him laughing and cooing before we go in. Usually he's playing with his toes (his current favorite toy!) And he's so darn happy when we walk in. He loves to scream and squeal when he's happy. I caught a little of it the other morning.

PS. I forgot to add 1 thing I hate about World Cup soccer. I don't understand why at the end of the game, if they feel like the other player did a good job, they give them their jersey. How ridiculous is that?! What do they do with all of those sweaty jerseys from the other teams?? I think tomorrow for my last day, I might take my shirt off and hand it to one of my co-workers who I really respect. That ought to go over well :)