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.

Oh Dios Mio!

We made it back from Mexico without getting kidnapped and beheaded by the drug cartel! Yay us :) But seriously, we didn't encouter any problems at all and felt very safe while we were there. We didn't venture off the resort very much but the times we did, we still felt very safe. It's amazing how quickly 3 years of high school Spanish comes back to you once you're in a foreign country. Lucky for us (and all slothenly Americans), most of the staff at the resort spoke a little Spanish. There's really only a few words you need to know:

cerveza - beer
pina colada - pina colada (universal language of alcohol I guess)
Donde esta mi esposa? -Where is my husband?
Lo siento - I'm sorry (Ex: I dropped my pina colada in the pool, lo siento.)
Mar - Beach
Donde esta el bano? - Where is the bathroom?


See - not many you really need to know!



We had a GREAT time but we missed Charlie a lot. I probably could have come home on Thursday and been just fine! We knew he was in good hands with my mom. I think Charlie and Grandma had a great time together and neither looked especially excited when we got home!




I don't know how this happened but we got what I call the "penthouse" room. We had paid for an ocean front so we knew we'd be able to see the ocean and be close but somehow we got this awesome room on the top floor with 3 balconies and an outdoor shower!!! It was unreal! Unfortunatley the sand fleas were AWFUL there so I didn't spend as much time on the balcony at night as I would have liked but it was still an awesome room! We didn't end up taking very many pictures. Apparently we only think to get out the camera anymore if it includes Charlie.

Even the jacuzzi had an ocean view.



On one of the balconies



The outdoor shower. Quick funny story. The first day there I decided to go out and shave my legs in the outdoor shower. You can't really see the shower from the ocean but I was wearing my swimsuit. Brian came out to see what I was doing and we quickly found out that the door automatically locks when it shuts!! So here we were...out on the balcony, I'm in the shower shaving my legs, and we can't get in. THANKFULLY our friends we went with were playing in the ocean and Brian had his key in his pocket. We wrapped it in a t-shirt and shoes to weigh it down (Brian is a regular McGyver) and then threw it down to Erin. She ran back up and let us in. Lesson learned!



From balcony #3

That's our room on the top. Balcony on each side...seriously amazing.

Pool with swim up bar and ocean just beyond. We were here from about 10 AM- 5 PM everyday.

Drinking some random blue drink with a shot glass inside.

Mexican fiesta night!

Our friends Erin and DB. Her future is so bright...

When we got home we couldn't believe how much Charlie had chnaged in just one week! He is on the move! He's crawling (still mostly an army crawl) but he is FAST. I think he kept grandma on her toes! He gets into everything now, opening drawers, pulling down books - we have a lot of baby proofing to do this weekend!

This is his new goofy grin when we try to take a picture!

For anyone who read our blog wayyy back when it started a year ago, one of the first posts was of me "proposing" to Brian because he had lost his wedding ring and I bought him a new one. He lost his ring by taking it off at softball and putting it in the "super safe" plastic baggy. Well lo and behold a few weeks ago as he was cleaning out the garage, he came in the house looking so proud of himself. He held up both hands....with a ring on each hand. He found it!! Apparently it fell out of that super safe bag and got into his travel golf bag. So now he has a spare which I'm sure he'll eventually need!

And because I haven't posted a video in forever, Charlie has been doing this new thing since we've been back where he scrunches his nose and then sort of does some lamaze breathing and eventually starts snorting. It cracks me up. I took this video tonight after he was done eating and it represents life with Charlie...his new snorting, screaming, a yawn, and a sneeze :) I'm only missing a good belly laugh!

The Apple Dumpling Gang!

I actually can't remember what that show was about but we went to an Apple Orchard today with some friends and when Mindy sent out the email she mentioned that movie so it seems like an appropriate title. My favorite time of the year is fall - I love apple cider, pumpkin candles, candy corn, sweaters and sweatshirts and fall leaves. Unfortunately (some might say fortunate), it feels like summer right now but looks like fall! I'm sure the cold will be back before I know it but it just felt odd going to the orchard today and most people were in shorts and tanks!
Everytime I post I say that we've been having a busy week or month but I'm starting to think that's just what life is like with a child. It doesn't ever seem to be slowing down!

We had some professional pictures taken a few weeks ago and the photographer posted a few on her blog. They turned out so cute (I might be biased) and I can't wait to get the rest of them back. Check them out here:

http://grumanphotographyblog.com/

The weather and leaves were just perfect today. We had a nice little family outing! This is the road you drive down to get to the orchard. So pretty.

Charlie really enjoyed being in the red wagon. It's his own little version of Driving Miss Daisy I guess.

Henry and Charlie.

Charlie and I have both been dealing with a miserable cold for the last 3 weeks so we finally are better and got a chance to meet the adorable Amelia - Henry's new sister! I held her for a bit and I couldn't believe how small she felt to Charlie!

Charlie's actually not standing on his own quite yet. I strategically let go of Charlie's hand while Brian took the picture. I'm pretty sure we're on our way to shooting a major motion film soon.

This one's mine...stay away or else.

Still guarding his pumpkin. He's very competitive...I wonder where he gets that?!

It was impossible to get a picture with Charlie, Trey, Henry, and Anja where they were all sitting and no moms were in the picture. Notice how Charlie just stays in the same place and we try to negotiate the others closer to him. Now this was probably harder than shooting Titanic!

The Twins lost in 3 games to the Damn Yankees. Here's Charlie's reaction. It's his poop face. That's how he feels about the Yankees.

Our friends JoAnn and Miguel had tickets to Game 1 of the Twins game so we watched their little boy Brayden for the evening. Charlie and Brayden were fast friends after about 5 minutes. After Charlie's bath I set him on the floor and Brayden laid down next to him. They just sort of rolled around babbling at eachother. It was pretty cute!

We also officially have an army crawler. He goes up on all fours and rocks back and forth but then uses his forearms to pull himself forward. Poor Stella..he loves to follow her around the living room and she's so awesome with him. Pretty much his favorite toy is her tail. :) I took a video of him scooting but it's too big to upload so I'll have to get another one and post it later.