Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas from the Kippleys! I'm not sure if we were bad this year but Santa brought us the flu for Brian and I and double ear infections for Charlie. Poor us!! Last Saturday all of the Bakeman family got together for Christmas and I think about 1/2 of us ended up getting sick -either food poisoning or the flu but since Brian got sick with the flu this weekend...it makes me think it was probably the flu. Last Tuesday Charlie came home from daycare with a lot of eye gunk so we took him to Urgent Care incase it was pink eye but it wasn't. Just a double ear infection!! Apparently that's the way we can tell with him because he sure doesn't exhibit any other syptoms.

Santa was very good to me this year - he brought me NKOTBSB tickets in Chicago for this summer!! I guess when Santa saw me almost pee my pants when they performed at the AMA's he thought that would be the perfect present..and he was right. So watch out Chicago...my mom and I are coming this summer and you might never be the same :)


Charlie was anxious to open some presents before Christmas and I told him no - love the pouty lip!






One of the many crazy outfits my Mom got Charlie for Christmas. This isn't very "parent friendly" as it zips up the back but it sure is cute.





But other than being sick, we had a great holiday and are very exited to head to South Dakota this weekend to have another Christmas with my family! Apparently the weather gods are trying to keep me out of SoDak. Shouldn't they be trying to keep people in?? It is South Dakota...:) Anyway, we were supposed to go a few weeks ago but it snowed so we had to stay home. Here's to hoping the weather holds out so my mom can see "my Charlie" this weekend. Oh yeah..and the rest of us are invited too I think!

On Thursday, our daycare had their Christmas party. The kids drew names and exchanged gifts. We got Kate who is one of the only girls. During the day when school is in, our daycare has only boys at home!! Then there are 2 kindergarten girls. I don't know how she stays sane with all those boys all day long!

Charlie with Karen. We are so blessed to have Karen watching Charlie - she's amazing and takes such good care of him!

Kate opening her Barbie. Charlie is hoping she likes it!

All the daycare kids.

Charlie had fun opening the presents but mostly he just loved all of the bows. He also was pretty content after opening the first gift so it was hard to keep him focused and put something down to open the next one! Our house is beginning to resemble Toys R Us though...

Santa knew Charlie liked the basketball hoop at his friend Colin's so he brought him one of his very own!




A present as big as Charlie from Grandpa Frank!




Notice him clutching his ball from the previous toy...




Charlie is getting into books and loves to sit and read them (or chew on them.) Here he is opening a book from his cousins in NY!

Grandma came over for dinner on Christmas Eve and brought Charlie some toys to open up before Christmas morning. He got a book with a coordinating puppet which he thought was hilarious.

Charlie also loved Grandma's bows on all the presents.

We had dinner at Grandma's on Christmas day. Here Charlie is just chillin out with Uncle Ben.

Charlie loves to crawl under things..like Grandma's table.

His Christmas sweater was a little too tight...too many cookies I guess!

Christmas jammies from Grandma

Charlie has grown so much in the past month. Brian and I just keep looking at him and saying, "He's such a BOY now." He's just into EVERYTHING and shaking his head no at us all the time. We went and visited a friend today who has a 6 week old and let's just say I'm glad I don't have another baby around the house because Charlie is not what I would call gentle. He's really giving Stella and Sasha a run for their money lately too - he pulls on their hair and uses Sasha's backfat to pull himself up to standing. Good thing they are so gentle with him!!

I'm sorry for the horrible quality of the video but Charlie's new favorite game is peek-a-boo and he could play it for hours! He loves crouching behind the ottoman and then when we say "Where's Charlie?" He pops up and giggles uncontrollably. He also will lay down on the ground and turn his head away which is another version. I guess he thinks if his head is down, then he's "hiding."

Snowmaggedon!!!

Wow - today is Charlie's first blizzard. He's pretty unimpressed only because he doesn't get to go out in it! My mom asked if we were going to take him sledding. Umm..not today Mom, it's a BLIZZARD! Poor Brian is on his second round on the driveway. So much for a relaxing snowday for him. Luckily, I don't have to help shovel because I'm very busy watching Charlie! A big first (need to get photo documentation still) is that Charlie can crawl up the stairs. Exciting but at the same time, now we have one more thing to watch out for!

Really bad lighting but the side of the house had such big drifts, I had to let the dogs out the front door after Brian was down shoveling the sidewalk because I couldn't get the side door open! Charlie wanted to go out with them.

Here is Brian doing the 2nd pass on the driveway. I don't know how many actual inches we've had but both times he has plowed, it has been about a foot tall.

We tried to take a little Christmas photo shoot for Grandma in his pj's because you never know if they will fit at Christmas time. It is so hard to get him to sit still - he's just too busy!

His top says, "What Santa doesn't bring me, Grandma will!"

I think he's concerned because there's only 3 presents under the tree. Amazingly, he's been really good around the tree. Normally we get a huge real tree but this year between Charlie and the dogs, we took pity on ourselves and just got a small fake tree to see how things go. Charlie likes to look at it but I think it might scare him (probably because I make a loud buzzing sound when he gets close, hehe).

A few weeks ago we thought we'd brave a night out with all the kids. We fed the kids (we didn't give them beer contrary to the pictures!) and then Colin went to bed in his crib and Eloise and Charlie went down in their pack and plays. Charlie had a hard time getting to sleep (and woke poor Eloise up once) but he did great when we woke him up at 11 to drive home and went right to sleep when we tucked him back in. It's not ideal for many nights but if we are all needing a night out to play cards, we now know we can do it!

Charlie also had a big first a few weeks ago with his first haircut!!! He was looking a little rough aorund the edges when his hair would fall over his ears. I guess I'm not that sentimental about his hair but it's because I know as it grows, it's not going to get all cute and curly. He's been cursed with hair like his mommy and daddy - straight, fine, unmanageable, and lots of crazy angles.

Lucky for him, his godmother is a hair stylist!! He was a little unsure but sat very quietly throughout the whole thing! She even used the trimmers :)

Not looking so confident...

Hey - this feels nice.

Saving some for Mom to put in an envelope.

All done!! Looking good :)

We didn't do a very good job taking pictures at Thanksgiving but Charlie enjoyed a taste of all the food and quickly went into a comatose after eating (following in Daddy's footsteps!) But we got one quick picture before we cleaned up.

Gotta run - someone is up from their nap!!!

9 Months!

9 months??? Are you kidding me? I'm having a hard time believing that my little baby is 9 months old. And a sassy pants to boot (gee, I wonder where he gets that?!) Tonight I was changing his diaper and his new thing is that he wants to turn over and sit up. It's so irritating. So I said "NO" pretty firmly and he just laughed. I had to try not to smile at him. I sat him back down and he immediately tried to turn over so I said "NO" again sterner and slightly louder...more giggles. He obviously doesn't take me seriously. He must get that part from Stella!

As a 9 mos old, I guess he's really starting to become a man. Don't believe me?? I picked up Charlie from daycare last week and his daycare lady said he had a really bad rash "down there." So when I got home and saw the redness, I called the pediatrician right away - this wasn't a normal diaper rash. Apparently it's a yeast infection! She told me to get some lotrimon. I asked the pharmacist what to get and he said the same stuff that guys use for jock itch! So yes, my 9 mos baby already has jock itch! Brian of course recommended a little Goldbond (his cure for everything from a blister to the sniffles) but I said we were not putting Goldbond on a baby!!

Here he is with his BFF's. "Hey, what are you guys doing out there?"


One of his new favorite things is the dishwasher and our tupperware cabinet. We're pretty lucky that he knows which cupboard has tupperware because he doesn't try the other doors...yet.

YB's - if you're reading this, thanks for the great idea to keep all of our butter, sour cream, and cottage cheese containers. Those look like great stackable toys!



"Wow, we have a lot of tupperware."


"Look, there's tupperware in here too!"


Charlie's 2 top teeth broke through this weekend and these teeth gave him fits compared to the bottom 2. He's been cranky and chewing/biting on EVERYTHING! As you can see below, we may or may not resorted to plastic frozen shot glasses as teethers! This is going to be a good one to pull out when he's in college!

Our buddy Drew came over while his Mommy and Daddy went to the Vikings game (Childress' last game! Woohoo!) The boys had a great time together. The table was especially their favorite.

Here they are in Charlie's favorite spot. The ottoman! Now that Charlie knows how to pull himself up to standing, that's all he wants to do. His daycare lady said he took no morning nap and 1/2 hour afternoon nap because all he wanted to do was stand in his crib!

Notice everything in the mouth..toys, fingers, shot glasses...

Crazy grin before bedtime. This is his "I'm so tired but I'm not going to admit it" face

We went out for dinner with the Kriegs and Endorfs Saturday night and I think we were pretty daring. 6 adults and 3 babies under 1. They all did great. Gwen looks like she's trying to cozy up to Charlie but he's got his eye on some older women at a different table.

Sometimes I may or may not irritate Brian when he is home alone with Charlie. My intentions are all good but apparently I call to check in just a little too much. I ask all normal questions like "What is he wearing?" "What are you doing" "Why is he eating breakfast now? It's 10 AM!" So yeah, probably a little annoying. A few weeks ago Brian was home with Charlie when he was under the weather and mid afternoon Brian got fed up of me calling so he sent me this email titled "Charlie's Day". I had to share - he's a funny guy!

8am – bottle

815-845 playtime

845 – 900am – fighting his nap

900-945am nap

947 – Charlie removes socks

948 – socks found, put back on

10am- eats ½ macaroni and cheese with veggies

1005am- eats ½ pineapple fruit cup

1015 – playtime – he really likes the vent in the backhaul (along with the dog’s water bowl) and Sasha really loves his play ball thing (We need another gate)

1015 – laundry

1016 – Charlie removes socks

1017 - socks found, put back on

1050 – still playing, he really loves that fire truck – especially the hose on the back connected by a string

11am – vacuum family room and Charlie

1101 – Charlie removes socks

1102 - socks found, put back on

1135 – bottle

1150 – nap

1210 – lunch for Byron

1212 – Sasha snoring in the front window

1254 – Charlie awake

1255 – Charlie removes socks

1255 – Sasha sleep growling / barking to herself

1256 – Stella pawing at me to give her my lunch plate while Sasha is still sleeping

1257 – Sasha awakened to the sound of Stella licking my lunch plate and joins in

114 - socks found, put back on

115 – mac and cheese and veggies & fruit

133 – playtime

143 – Charlie removes Socks

144 – Charlie “reads” (aka eats) a magazine

145 – Magazine (pieces) removed

147 – Charlie tries to climb drapes

148 – Charlie hides socks in drapes

149 – Charlie finds wall outlet, tries to plug in sock –

150 – Outlet covers retrieved and installed

151 – playing with the talking table on his knees while never dropping his sock

155 – back to the fire truck

211 – More magazines!

240 – nap


It makes me laugh even rereading it now!

And last, Charlie loves the feel of wind in his air. He's recently discovered "Stella's vent" in the kitchen. At least once a day he puts his head over the vent so it blows his hair. Usually he opens is mouth at the same time. It's pretty hilarious and sometimes I think Stella would like to nudge him off the ledge and off her vent!

Gesundheit!

Bless you! Between Charlie, Brian, and me, I don't think there has been a day in the past 2 months that one of us wasn't sneezing, coughing, or sniffling. It has been a rough fall with the Kippleys. I'm hoping that we're all building crazy strong immunities that will make all this misery worth it. 2 weeks ago, Charlie had an ear infection and we just finally finished the amoxicillin a few days ago. Last night he really started coughing a lot and this morning after about 1/2 way through with this bottle, he started coughing and puked all over me, Sasha, himself, and the couch. It was pretty magical. Sasha hasn't come near us since. She's been sitting in the front window giving me the stink eye like it's somehow my fault.

On the plus side....hmm I can't think of a plus side right now but I'm sure there is one.

Charlie is officially crawling on hands and knees and he actually has mastered the stair from our living room to the kitchen. I'm working from home this morning and I was sitting at the kitchen table with my computer and all of a sudden Charlie was next to me. It took a few minutes until I realized that he shouldn't have been there! I took a video (below) of the 2nd time he did it and as I was watching my video mastery on my computer, Charlie went the opposite way and took a slight tumble down the step. Oops. I think it scared him more than anything. I'm sure it will happen about 10,000 more times over the years. My dad still misses that step EVERY time he is at our house.

We have a busy weekend with Drew's 1st birthday and a football get-together at my new boss' house. Hopefully Charlie doesn't have any more "incidents" while we are there!
I have to get back to work and Charlie will probably be up from his nap soon so I thought I'd finish off the post with "the faces of Charlie." Some of these are over a month old because Mindy sent us a bunch of funny ones from the pumpkin patch.

Much happier!

Our daycare lady sent this to us - notice Charlie likes to be in pictures by himself!

Charlie and I at Henry and Trey's 1st bday party!

Anne: if you're reading this, what the heck do I do with this hair???

Unfortunately, Charlie seems to have gotten Brian's cowlicks so his hair just goes in crazy angles in about 3 or 4 places!

And the 2nd time that he crawled up the step. We have a lot of bigger fancy toys but Charlie loves the links and his bath letters the most. I guess they are easy to hold onto while he crawls around.