9 Months and still growing!

We had Charlie's 9-month check-up this week and he continues to be his tall skinny self.  The latest stats are 18lbs and 14oz (25th percentile, though I swear he was higher than that before we all got sick), 29.25 inches tall (90th percentile) and 18 inch head.  The doctor thought he was doing great and encouraged us to continue trying  more and more finger foods.  Up until now, we've been a little slow to introduce more than soft fruits and veggies but he said to add some yogurt and even meat so we'll see how that goes.

Today, we also went to get his 9-months pictures done.  As usual, we are a little late so they are more like 9-and-a-half-month pictures :)  Portrait Innovations did a great job again!  And their price is right too but perhaps for his one-year birthday we'll get some fancier ones done.  Below are some of my favorite ones (as usual there are a lot :) )...

Bright eyes!

This one looks like a school picture to me

So happy!

The beauty shot

Standing up!

Little coy face

"Check out my teeth" (there are still just two)

Naked boy in a tie

With some cheesy props

The basketball rolled away

Another "c" block

Silly face :)

Another Month, Another 10K

James is doing a great job continuing his quest to get healthy so this morning completed another 10K.  He has races scheduled every month for a few more months too so I image I'll continue to have new pictures for each race!  This one was in Carytown, just a short walk from our house.  Mitch came up again from North Carolina (he did the Monument Ave. one too).  They said that the route was really cool... down River Road to Libbie and then back down Grove into Carytown.  Charlie and I met him at the finish line and then we all went out to a nice breakfast.  Below are some pics of the still-shrinking Daddy... we are so proud!

Mitch and James at the finish line

Charlie and Daddy

Schools to Watch Celebration

James' school was recently designated as a National School to Watch!  They had a wonderful celebration at the school this week and I was lucky to be able to take the day off to attend.  James gave a great speech and they were joined by the US Congressman Rob Whitman and a representative from the Schools to Watch committee.  It was a great celebration for the students and staff who have all worked so hard to create such a wonderful school!  Below are some pictures from the day...

James receiving the award from the School to Watch representative

Giving his speech

Photo for the newspaper

Superintendent Rusty Fairheart, Representative Rob Whitman and James

Mother's Day Weekend

This weekend James and I started to feel a little better but Charlie woke up Saturday again with a fever and with a rash all over.  The pediatrician said this is a common end-of-virus phenomena but you can imagine I was pretty freaked out upon seeing little red bumps all over his body!  He took some really long naps (just as he did all week) and on Sunday he was finally feeling better.  With all the "free time" provided by his naps James and I got a lot of work done around the house.  James attempted to grow grass in the backyard for the 4th year in a row while I did our annual Spring-time re-do of the front garden.

The front with a good trim and new flowers (or soon-to-be-flowers hopefully)

The front planters

James mentioned to our neighbor Mark that we are trying to buy and eat organic vegetables and that we wished we had room to start a garden.  He is really into gardening and told us that our upstairs porch would be ideal for growing a few things in pots.  To our surprise he gave us a bunch of stuff for us to plant so we got  some planters and set it all up upstairs... tomatoes, peppers, basil, rosemary, cucumbers, etc.  Because they were given to us, I feel a little more pressure to not let them die so we'll see :)

Our vegetable "garden"

Finally, on Mother's Day James and Charlie treated me to a nice late morning of sleep, shopping trip out, fancy Quinoa dinner and as well as with lots of fun gifts.  You can see my loot below.  Included is a sushi set (I always say how I'm going to eat sushi for a month straight when done breastfeeding) and two types of homemade cookies to fatten me up :)

The loot

Mom and the boy

Still on the move!

The whole family was hit hard last week with a little virus (or two) so I'm behind on taking/posting pictures.  We don't have much new news but Charlie continues to stretch the bounds of his mobility.  He is now pulling himself up on the coffee table and couch and can crawl up and down the step between our kitchen and living room.  Below are some pictures of these new tricks.

Standing up!

Standing and thinking very hard (by the look on his face)

Taking the stair

Super-duper-close up

The best toys money can buy...

A glimpse at Charlie's favorite toys these days...

Measuring cup and spatula at Grandma's

Dad's glasses

Dad's nose

Receiver lights

Marley's ball (his is the orange one being ignored)

Comb and brush (but no "bowl full of mush" for you Goodnight Moon fans out there)

Funnel and measuring cup

And finally, a real toy! We bought this little table for his 9-month mark yesterday since it seemed like he was sick of all of his older toys (see pictures above of the top sought-out items in the house these days).  It is a big hit so far... when he spotted it this morning from the kitchen, he dropped his measuring cups and made a bee-line for it :)

Bedfellows

So a strange thing to me about parenthood is that you are just supposed to "know" when it is time to introduce or encourage new things.  We try to do our best keeping up with reading about milestones and activities from BabyCenter but sometimes you just don't think of everything.  When we were in Atlanta two weeks ago, my dad commented that he thought it was sad that we didn't put anything in Charlie's crib during naptime or bedtime... no blanket, stuffed animals, etc.  He has never been into those sorts of "comfort" items and since at birth they warn you not to put things in their crib, we just didn't think to let him have anything.

Before sticking anything in there, we looked it up and technically they say not to put things in their crib until a year old.  He is so mobile that it is hard for me to imagine a scenario where anything would actually present a danger to him though.  James and I debated and after he displayed to me the manner in which a blanket could be a choking hazard (picture James flailing around on the bed with our sheet to demonstrate), we decided to give him his stuffed monkey but no blanket.

He seems to really love having the monkey in there. Waking up from naptime is now such fun as his buddy is right there ready to play... through the monitor we hear shreaks of joy when he discovers the monkey in there... like it is still a fun surprise even a week later.  Then last night, I went in before going to bed and found this...

He found the monkey at the foot of his bed and was snuggling with it with his rump in the air.  Heart-melting.

Spring Break 2010!

For James' Spring Break we had a whirlwind week travelling up and down I-95, visiting many folks and places...

On Saturday, we drove down to Raleigh to celebrate Easter with the Lanes.  We played outside, had a great Easter dinner and Charlie got an Easter basket with lots of goodies from Granny and Grandpa Lane.

Swinging with Granny in his new hat

Pretty boy

Easter basket

Posing in the adorable Easter outfit from Granny!

Playing with his new loot

Later that night, we headed down to Atlanta.  James and I then headed to Miami for a few days while Charlie spent time with Grandma and Grandpa Grover.  Miami was beautiful and very relaxing.  We missed the little guy A LOT but enjoyed having the time together as a couple and knew that he was having a blast back in Atlanta.  We also enjoyed spending a day at the front and back of the trip in Atlanta with Grandma and Gramdpa too.  Our friend Phil came over for dinner the first night and we also got to celebrate Grandpa's birthday with a nice dinner out later in the week.  While in Atlanta, Charlie...

...took his first real sink bath...

...ate well...

...experienced grass (and didn't really like it)...

... rode in his first swing...

...played with some new toys...

...and cruised around a new house.

We headed back up north the following Saturday and stopped in Charlotte to visit friends Emily, Colin and Marley's brother Beans.  It is always so cute to see the two of them together.  We stayed the afternoon and had a nice visit and great dinner then headed back to Richmond later that night.

Sister and brother after a long afternoon chasing balls

Charlie with his new friends Emily and Colin

Back at home, we had the most beautiful day in Richmond to settle in before getting back to the grind on Monday.  Charlie and I made the long trek down to the Lombardy Street Park to check out the swings there.  He really loved it and had fun watching the big kids play too.

So happy... this could be my favorite picture of him yet :)

He would do this all day if we let him...

(the quality is pretty bad but you get the picture)