6 Months

Well this is a little delayed in being posted. Charlie is actually over 7 months old at this point. But I never did a post for this 6 months, and since I don't journal, it's necessary. Bare with me.

18.5 lbs ~ 60%
17 3/4 Inches ~ 78%

Charlie went and sprung up and thinned out. I'm working on getting the baby fat back on him, cuz I love some baby chub.

Some highlights of the last couple months before he turned 6 months old:

Started eating solids, didn't like them.
Got to go swimming in his pool. Loved that. He likes to splash.
Started getting up on his knees and hands like he was going to crawl. Didn't.
Started sitting, but still was liable to topple over for no apparent reason.
Jabbers quite a bit, including saying what sounds exactly like, "HI DAD".
Is a total daddy's boy already. As soon as John walks in the door he's like 'Thank heavens, I'm saved!'
LOVES to be outside. Just sitting in and pulling the grass.
He's really getting responsive to his surroundings and is becoming so very fun.

Jackson Hole Vacation

So John and I have been to Jackson a couple times, but this is a brand new (out of the womb) experience for Charlie! :) He was really good on the way up, which you always worry about when taking long road trips with babies. He didn't even wake up till the last ten minutes, so we decided to let him drive us in. He's gotta pull his weight, and also we think Britney Spears is a good parenting role model.



We didn't get a hat packed for Charlie, cuz we have no idea where his went, so we purchased something there that says, 'stepp off foo!'


The first day we spent enjoying nature and liberally applying of bug spray. We dressed Charlie like a park ranger, so in case he got lost, yogi bear would take care of him.



Instead of actually hiking we thought driving and then sitting by Two Ocean Lake sounded like a more relaxing kick off for our vacation.


Later on in the week we worked up more ambition for a hike. We decided to take the traditional hike to Hidden Falls, however this year we were slightly less lazy and we didn't take the boat out there.




We spent a lot of time in Grand Teton Park. This is from Signal Mountain, if you look at that smoke behind me and Charlie... well we're not responsible.... all I'm saying.



We made it up to Yellowstone this time. Spent a lot of time waiting for old faithful to go off. Charlie loved it... no no, he didn't. He really didn't care, but he had a good time people watching.


Here it is, old faithful.... nope wait, this is some other spout of water, of which I don't know the name. But I did get this picture, so there you go.

Some Firsts for Charlie

So I'm trying to catch up with some of the stuff we've been up to. I'll make a picture list. This is from awhile back a few months ago, the pool finally got to where we thought it was warm enough for Charlie, so he got his first dip:

He got a floaty, and worked that out for the first time:


John decided to give mommy a break in the morning, AND try out his baby bjorn again before we went on vacation. So Charlie got to mow the lawn for the first time! :)


Charlie had cousins over to stay with him for the first time. Granted they're a little older than him, but they sure did love on him!

It's Finally Summer When...

...you no longer have time to keep up on your blog. Here's a list of what we've been doing instead:

Enjoying a delicious beverage in the pool.


Picnicking outside.


Planting a garden. We've even had swiss chard out of the garden
twice, mmmmm, it's delicious. This was our 'small garden' we were
going to make, because we had a lot going on this year.
When we got to the garden center we couldn't help ourselves
it was like, Oooo, cucumbers, we have to do those,
Ooooo, beans, we have to have beans, CORN, I need corn
and so on. :) Currently I know, our garden is equal
parts veggies and weeds. But weeding is not
as fun as harvesting.


Laundry.


Observing summer holidays.


Just recently we started feeding Charlie some baby food.
He'd been getting very interested in what we
were eating. If you had him on your lap during a meal
he'd try to grab the spoon out of your hand
or your plate (ask daddy, he got a bowl of
soup on his lap caused by this little guy).
So we decided he might have fun trying some new
food of his own. It doesn't go well!!!
He certainly spits a lot of it back out at me, but it's
entertaining seeing his funny/messy faces. He
still seems to prefer his original method of eating,
which is fine by me since nursing is free and easy,
but it's been fun to see what happens when we
branch out a little!

Party

So we made our friends Dallon and Reed help us put up our pool. (It was compulsory, we didn't actually ask, we told.)

Also Dallon and Reed were going to leave and spend their summers (and beyond) in Hawaii, so we thought it would be fun to have a going away party, since we owed them dinner anyway. So we did, and it was really fun!





We invited a lot of the guys' friends from High School, a few friends from college, and a random assortment of other people we've picked up along the way. And nearly everyone was able to make it which is rare. Some of these guys don't see each other, well like ever.

(Almost all the guys - one is MIA here.)

Almost all the guys in the picture above are married, and almost all of the married ones have kids, which makes for this...

(Crazy as this is, there are 4 kids missing, just among the boys pictured
above, that are not sitting on that couch!!! WOWSA!!!)

"Ladies..."
These two cute little girls were having a photo-op together, and I decided to plop Charlie down in the middle of them, so he could have a couple of cute little girlfriends. The things we do to our children, haha.

Fun times, thanks to everyone who came, we should do such things more often!

John Completes a Triathlon

Yep, that's right. A triathlon. I'm very proud of him. John decided he really needed to get back into shape, hadn't worked out in way too long, and my little sister threw out the idea of training for a triathlon as a goal for working out. Well he accepted the challenge, with the idea being to be ready at the beginning of June, his friends however decided they were going to do a a different triathlon a month earlier and last minute peer pressured him into doing this one with them. He was nervous as he didn't know if he was ready, but he did just fine. He actually came across the finish line like he was jogging in the park, didn't look distressed at all. He plans to do another one in a few weeks! GO BABBBBYYY!

Ah Oh, Better Start Child Proofing!

Charlie started rolling back to tummy at the beginning of this month, and now he's a pro. I actually missed it the first time. I left him playing on his back on the blanket, walked to a different room and walked back in just a few seconds later. He was on his tummy. I sat there thinking....'I left him on his back? Didn't I? Maybe I didn't? No, I KNOW I left him on his back.' So I flipped him to his back again, and sat there for a second, and he obligingly showed me how he did it. It was amazing, but it feels too early, I don't think it should be allowed at 4 months.