Ah Christmas!

We've been having a grand time at our house, doing all the Christmas fun stuff: posting Christmas cards, decorating, shop-shop-shopping, drinking hot buttered rum, listening to carols, wrapping presents, getting over our colds and learning to drink from a sippy-cup... wait. Well. Anyway, later this week we'll bake cookies and drink hot apple cider. Somewhere in there I might clean the house... We finally have our woodstove back, so its off with the space heaters (hooray!) and on with the cozy fires. Charlie will be learning the word "Hot!" this week along with "No fuss" and "That's enough whipped cream for you young man." Can you guess which one we think is most important?Did you know that Safeway sells little green plant things that could pass for very small Christmas trees that come with their own little set of twinkle lights and lightweight ornaments? Well, they do and there's nary a pine needle in sight that little Master Charles could gum down. Yup.

Gu.Or.Jus.

Thank you Carlton Builders!

Long time...

no post! Yesterday we went to our church's Harvest Festival for the first time. All the kiddies (and some adults) dressed up and acquired lots of candy. We even won a pie! I made Charlie a costume. Can you imagine? Me spending countless hours making my son a costume that he would only wear a relatively short time. I felt a little guilty as I'm sure it wasn't particularly comfortable and the gym was quite hot, but he was so cheerful, you'd never really know...
He went as the Phillie's mascot, the Philly Phanatic. Got quite a few laughs!

This is how Charlie and I spend a lot of our time these days: me doing housework and Charlie peering over my shoulder inspecting my work. (And also drooling so that I usually end up a little damp. Small price to pay for mopped floors I say.)We also took him to his first Vandals game. He loved all the people and enjoyed helping "make noise" during "thirrrrrrrd downs!"

Whew.

Hiking. Enterprise, OR. Camping. Wedding out of town. Surprise guests. Fall Jolly. Charlie learns to crawl. Parents come to visit!!! Wedding out of town. Bachelor party-Rehearsal dinner-Wedding in town. Done.

Mealtime with Charlie

Whenever Charlie has a meal (solid food), he likes to hold his spoon as soon as he finishes. I'm guessing he's "practicing" for the future. Today, for some reason, he was in a particularly good mood after each of his meals (probably because I decided not to serve "Garden Vegetables") and we got some fun shots.

We have also noticed that he is starting to love the camera and seems to want to put on a good show whenever I pull it out.

Blank

I just logged on to write a post, and realized I have nothing to say... Well... we are heading to Wallowa this weekend. Keith will hike, while I stay in town and do various "town" things. Next week Keith starts school. Charlie has five teeth and weighs 16 pounds 11 ounces. Um... we're getting new woodfloors? So, we have a lot going on, but still nothing blogworthy on its own.

Here, have a picture.

This is from when Keith's parents visited in March. Goodness Charlie looks little! These brave Floridians withstood the uck winter marvelously. Way to go you two!

Scootchin'

Stuff and Things

Charlie loves to look at himself in the mirror. And really, can you blame him? Here's a still from one side and some action from the other.

And here are a few other things we've been up to.

Camping! And would you believe he slept the whole night? If only we had been able to...

"Did someone say mashed bananas?"

Golf is hard work.

They're here!

After months of fuss, Charlie finally has two little ridges on his bottom gums that we like to call... teeth!

Charlie's Greatest Hits 2

Well, here's another update on that little guy we love so much. Charlie can now sit up without support, eat solid foods (if you can call pureed pears "solid"), suck his thumb, grab his feet and suck his toes (blech!), hold out his arms to be picked up, throw mini-tantrums when I don't pick him up fast enough, roll over, giggle and laugh, sleep six hour stretches (!) and continue to break his own daily spit-up records.

Vacation! AKA: A lot of driving and picture taking. :-)

We started off by heading to Cedar Springs, WA to help my grandparents celebrate their 60th wedding anniversary. We stayed at a lovely little "retreat" center, complete with swans and very loud bull-frogs. It was wonderful to see my family again and Charlie got to meet several aunts, uncles, cousins and even his great-grandparents!

(this last pic is not Charlie, but his cousin Johnny)

Then we headed south to spend the weekend with my parents on the farm, where we relaxed and, aside from Keith getting the worst allergies of his life, generally had a very pleasant time soaking up the abundant green of western Washington and trying to convince Charlie that sleeping at night, even on vacation, is something we are in favor of. Then we packed up again and drove down a portion of the Oregon coast, starting in Astoria (hooray Goonies!), through Cannon Beach, stopping to see friends staying at "Family Camp" on Rockaway Beach, toured the Tillamook Cheese Factory, and finally ended up at the Dodson's in Portland for the night. Whew!

On Wednesday, we visited a park in Portland that is home to a volcano, stopped by Powell's book store (which should be one of the Seven Wonders and could have sucked us in for hours had we not had the meter running) and finally headed back to Rochester (where my parent's farm is) after catching a glimpse of this enourmous ship called The World which looked like a floating aparment building. Once we got to Rochester, we picked up a brand-new trailer, loaded it with a freezer my parent's gave us, and settled down for one last night of Vacation.

On Thursday, one week after leaving home, we nosed the Pathfinder eastward. Charlie, who really did handle most of the driving quite well, had finally had enough of his carseat by the time we were halfway home, and really let us know his feelings on the situation for the rest of the trip. Poor guy. But I will say, the day after we got home, you never saw a more cheerful baby. Good to be home, eh Charlie boy?