Sunday, December 9th - Eating

So, Charlie has started eating solid foods. So far he's tried bananas, sweet potato, pears, apples and (pictured above) avocado.

Watching Charlie learn to eat is ridiculously fun. It's also an exercise in patience since most of the food ends up on his face, in his ear, on his clothes, on our clothes, and on the floor. Every once in while you get lucky and some actually goes into his mouth. And then sometimes you get even luckier and it stays in his mouth.

The first taste of each new food is especially fun because Charlie's reaction to everything (the first time) is total disgust. But by the 2nd or 3rd time he tries a food, he loves it.

We managed to get a decent video of Charlie's first time tasting sweet potatos. This is what it's like every time he tastes something new (at least so far). My favorite part of this video is around the 40 second mark where Charlie (as clearly as six month old could ever communicate) indicates he does NOT want another bite. He gets one anyway, of course.

But within a week, Charlie not only learned to love sweet potato, but wanted to try feeding it to himself. 

First, trying to figure out which end of the spoon is the right one to shove in his mouth:

 Nope, let's try again.

There we go.

Success!

Grandpa Joel and Grandma Vida came over on Saturday for their first solo babysitting job with Charlie. Joshua and Jessica went out on (gasp) date (we saw Au Revoir Parpluie at BAM, which was TERRIFIC). Here's Grandpa Joel with Charlie just as we were heading out for the night. Looks like we were leaving Charlie in good hands, eh?

Saturday, December 1st - Bouncing Charlie

I'm really going to be sad when Charlie outgrows this bouncer.

Monday, November 26th -Spoons

Charlie and Grandpa Joel playing spoons.

Sunday, November 25th - Cold in Connecticut

Spent Thanksgiving in CT with Grandma Vida and Grandpa Joel. Charlie and Satchmo (Joel & Vida's Portuguese Water Dog) got acquainted.

Satch comes and sits by Charlie.

Charlie debates his next move.

Charlie makes his move.

But Satchmo doesn't reciprocate. Charlie tries to play it cool.

Tanya, Doug and Hugo (their French Bulldog) came up to visit as well. Here we all are about to go on a hike. Hugo needs to be about a foot taller to get in the photo.

Charlie also got a taste of his first beer (or at least, his first beer bottle).

And last, Charlie and his dad tried out the jacuzzi at the house in Easton. Wasn't bad.

Monday, November 19th - Natural

A little story about our neighborhood (Forest Hills) I've been meaning to tell for a while. We live around the corner from a wonderful grocery called Natural. From about 2 months to 4 months, Charlie more or less lived in the Bjorn carrier attached to my chest, and he seemed to really enjoy going on outings so I always took him with me to go shopping. Here's Charlie's view of those outings.

When we enter the store, a chorus of "Charlie! Charlie!" rises up from the checkout counter. They all clap and smile and tickle his feet and try their absolute hardest to wring smiles from Charlie. It's shameless and wonderful. Jessica and I have shopped at Natural for over ten years and we don’t know the names of everyone there nor do they know our names. But everyone knows Charlie's name and now we have the names, "Charlie Mommy" and "Charlie Daddy."

Sunday, November 18th - Happy Six-Month Birthday, Charlie!

Sunday morning here in Queens and Charlie is thriving. He seems to have so many developments it's hard to keep up with them, but the most noticeable to me is how he suddenly put together his complete hand-eye-mouth coordination. This has largely changed the world for him, since he can see something, reach for it, grab it, study it, shake it (because lots of things make noise you shake them) then put it in his mouth. Everytime Charlie sees something he puts it through the paces: "What is that? How do I pick it up? Does it make noise? What does it taste like?"

Oh, and he's just starting to try to crawl. He can make it a couple of feet commando style on his belly, but I think we're a ways away from full on crawling. Still, he's got enough mobility to crawl from the picture above (in the middle of the blanket) to the picture below, (half-off the blanket), which is both wonderful and frightening.

I won't go into too many details about the sleep situation (maybe later), but I will say we made radical changes this week and everyone, especially Charlie, seems to be benefiting. The periodic fussiness we thought was just part of his nature for the first six months has largely vanished as the amount of uninterrupted sleep he gets has gone up and up and up. Last night Charlie went to sleep at 7:00 and slept (with one waking/feeding at 3:00 AM) until 7:00 this morning. This is revelatory for everyone, especially Charlie. Of course, he's decided he likes sleeping on his belly, much to the chagrin of pediatricians across the country (sleeping on belly is a SIDS risk). But apparently, if he rolls himself onto his belly to sleep, it's OK to leave him there, so be it. His dad likes sleeping on his belly too, so I guess it's hereditary.