You thought it was Louie Louie?

Zach has been singing a song that goes "Pharoah, pharoah, oh baby, let my people go home" for a few weeks now. But today when he brought a cd home from school, I popped it in the computer and was quite surprised to hear a very recognizable tune:

Pretty smooth moves, huh? And did you see Charlie jamming along at times? :)

Our own private Idaho Thanksgiving

Once we finally made it to Boise, we had a great holiday and vacation:


^ Swimming in Grandma & Grandpa's hotel pool - Charlie's first time! He wasn't too sure about it; didn't really cry but didn't appear to love all that (cool) water as much as he loves his bath. But Zach remembered his swimming lessons!


^ Anybody see a resemblance?


^ Yep, first time in a pool and he gets thrown in the air.


^ Big cousins warming up in the hot tub; Charlie having some fun with Grandpa

^A LOT of Wii sports was played... particularly bowling and golf. I know this picture is blurry, but I had to show Bryn's bowling form - her feet are at least a foot off the ground. Wouldn't you love to see that at the bowling alley?

^ Rather than show picture after picture of us eating (we didn't save it all for Thanksgiving day; we feasted all week long), I'll just include this one of Charlie enjoying a pizza crust. What? Pizza isn't a recommended first food??!?!

^Charlie was the lucky recipient of lots of snuggling and playing - he was fascinated by his cousins.

^ Getting started on Christmas cookies; what do you think of Zach's decorating method?

Our travel "adventure"

At about 2 AM Sunday morning, a fellow passenger commented on my positivism when I referred to our travel experience thus-far as an adventure. But, as I told her, I have to choose my words carefully when my three-year-old is listening. And I have to put on a happy face and turn a disaster into an adventure, in order to keep the situation from getting worse!

Here is the timeline of our travel to Boise, to celebrate Thanksgiving with Scott's family, as best I can recall:

Saturday

3:00 PM: Our friend Adam picks us up and drives us to the airport. Thanks Adam!

3:30: We check in and discover our flight is delayed 20 minutes. Turns out we have a plane, but no one to fly it. The crew is in Billings, MT, dealing with a snow storm.

3:30 - 9:50 PM: Our flight status is updated 7 or so times, always displaying a new delay, 30 to 60 minutes more than the prior one. Now the weather in Billings is cooperating, but the equipment (i.e. the plane) isn't. We race on the moving sidewalks, ride the tram a bit, play in the play area, eat some comped food, drink some wine/beer (that helped tremendously), play a few games of Uno, and so on. In other words, we pass the time as best we can.

9:50 PM: We board the plane. The plane leaves the gate.

10:?? PM: We get de-iced. We taxi to the other end of the taxiway. We feel the plane fish-tail. We are informed that due to freezing rain, the runway isn't exactly safe to use.

11:?? PM: After various explanations and apologies about grounds crews, airport policy, blah-blah-blah, we are finally informed the airport has been completely shut down and we aren't going anywhere. At the moment, not even back to the terminal (about 400 yards away), because we will likely be unable to stop.

Sunday:

1:30 AM: after the tarmac at the gate is sanded, we are towed back to the gate. We de-plane to utter chaos as everyone is simultaneously trying to find out what hotel we have been set up with and what flight we've been re-booked on.

2:30 AM: after a futile wait for our luggage at baggage claim (not going to be able to get our bags after all... something to do with ice/equipment), we head to the light rail station to take the train to our hotels. No taxis are willing to drive, no hotel shuttles will come and get us - the freezing rain is THAT bad.

2:49 AM: long story, but our little family misses the light rail train (my fault). All of our fellow long-suffering travelers are gone, off to their warm hotel beds. We are stuck for another hour, which is when the next train will arrive.

4:00 AM: we walk in the freezing drizzle 1.5 blocks to our hotel from the light rail station. Walk isn't really the right word - I should say slide. I've never seen frozen rain like that, and I was born in the midwest.

7:15 AM: Our wake-up call. We immediately call and learn that our 9:05 flight has been delayed until 10 AM. Scott and Zach go back to sleep, Charlie decides it's time to eat. Then the rest of us eat a delicious warm breakfast (thanks Embassy Suites) and head back to the airport.

The rest of the story gets better, other than the fact that our new flight was not direct. But after a brief stop in Salt Lake City (where we loaded up on more comped food), and a slightly delayed flight, we finally got to Boise around 4 PM Sunday. Our luggage arrived sometime after 11 PM. We got it Monday morning (thanks Ian for going to get it!), and finally got to change out of the clothes we'd been wearing for far too long. Whew.

Lessons learned:

1. ALWAYS pack as if you are going to be traveling for 24 hours. Especially if your kid wears diapers.

2. People are good and kind. Thank you to the fellow mom who gave me a diaper. Thank you to the man on the plane who wordlessly became my extra hand when he saw I was struggling to hang on to Charlie and tie my coat around my waist. Thank you to the people who took the time to smile at our kids and tell us how well-behaved and/or cute they were. There are more examples, but in general our fellow passengers were resigned but dignified in their handling of the entire experience.

3. If I have to experience that sort of travel nightmare, I want to do so with my little family. The boys were FANTASTIC. Yes, I'm their mother and therefore biased, but honestly - they handled it so well. No tantrums, very little crying or whining. Charlie clearly thought it was a grand adventure - his big eyes were constantly looking around, taking in all the new sights and sounds. Zach was so very sleep-deprived, he hadn't even napped Saturday because he was so psyched to go see his cousins. But as exhausted as he was, Zach just went with the flow, asking lots of questions as he always does, finding ways to have fun amidst it all. And Scott was his usual self, calmly dealing with each new roadblock thrown our way, finding the humor where he could.

So I'm thankful. Thankful for so much, things big and small. And I know it's early, but Happy Thanksgiving to you all.

Seven months

Charlie is seven months old! To celebrate, I thought you might enjoy some recent Charlie moments: first his favorite "fffffft" noise, then laughing at his brother, and ending with him trying (unsuccessfully) to put a puff in his mouth. It's a little early for him to have mastered the pincer grasp required to be able to pick up something so small and put it in his mouth. Is it wrong that I find it hilarious to watch him try???

Silly boys, silly pictures

Gorgeous boys, gorgeous pictures

We finally had some professional shots taken of the boys! Our friends' sister-in-law is just establishing her photography business, and we were happy to head out on a beautiful October afternoon and let her snap away. As I may have mentioned before, Zach has a pretty short store of patience when it comes to having his picture taken, particularly with his brother. So I really wasn't sure what to expect.

However, Missy did a great job keeping it casual, snapping pictures of Zach in his natural moments - playing pretend baseball with Scott, running and jumping in leaves, getting up close and laughing in Charlie's face. Other than a small mishap with a large dog who wanted to take a chomp out of the caramel apple in Zach's hand (did I mention these photos were taken at a Mpls dog park???), it went great, as you can see in the results:

^Hands-down, my favorite picture. I LOVE it.

If you live in the Mpls area and are interested in working with Missy, here's her info:

• Melissa Rose Photography
• 612-787-6859
• melissarosephotography@gmail.com.
• View more of her work at: www.flickr.com/photos/melissarosephotographyphotos/

Charlie's turn

(TMI warning... this post discusses bowel movements. Read at your own risk.)

Charlie went in for his six-month well-baby visit a bit late. His statistics at that visit on 10/27: height 25.5 inches (10-25 percentile), weight 14 lbs 8 oz (5-10%), and head 17.25 in (50-75%).

Although he's never been particularly large, he had "fallen off his weight curve," so the doctor encouraged me to increase his solid feedings to two times per day. This has presented an interesting challenge, since once Charlie was regularly eating solids once per day, he started going 5+ days without pooping. Sometimes he seemed uncomfortable with that situation, sometimes not so much. The doctor reminded me that a baby isn't technically constipated until the poop is hard, which Charlie's wasn't (I did warn you...).

So about a week after we went to solids 2x/day, Charlie finally pooped and I had to declare him officially constipated. Sigh. And that was after several helpings of prunes. I'm still trying to find the right balance and timing, and am keeping lots of prunes and pears in the mix.

Charlie loves to eat, and has gotten much more efficient at it. So far the only food he seemed to express any disinterest in was avocado, to my surprise. And it could be my imagination, but it seems like he prefers veggies to fruits. He is also quite determined to grab the spoon, which slows down the process, but I'm guessing this boy will be feeding himself pretty early.

I also think Charlie's own distraction level has contributed to the slowed-down weight gain. The world is way too interesting to sit and just nurse! He has finally decided formula is acceptable occasionally, and is now very happy to see the bottle - he reaches for it with both hands and opens his mouth. Like feeding himself, I don't think we'll have a problem getting him to hold his own bottle or sippy cup when the time comes.

Let's see, what else. Charlie is a master sitter, although I still stick a pillow or something behind him for insurance. When he does fall it's usually the slow-motion kind where he's reaching for something, and he often catches himself. He has not rolled from back to front yet, and I'm curious if he ever will. He does not like to be on his belly; when we put him there he instantly rolls over to his back. He still loves to lay on his back singing to the ceiling, kicking his heels hard enough that the floor seems to shake and occasionally the dog barks. His "songs" have changed a bit; as much as he continues to find great enjoyment in blowing raspberries, he is now working on an "mmmmm" sound. Getting close to saying mama! :)

Several weeks ago now we pulled out the exersaucer. It was originally my nephew and niece's, and then Zach got to use it, and now Charlie is having a blast in it. At first he would just sit there and try to chew on the various toys, but now he's turning himself around, bouncing up and down, and I'm starting to hear more of the noises and songs that are a reward for pushing or pulling on a certain toy.


Charlie continues to be an enigma when it comes to sleep. Perhaps he doesn't want to be compared to his brother, who had been sleeping 12 hours at a stretch for quite a while by this age. But the hardest part (for me, of course; he is doing just fine) is that this boy refuses to be predictable in any way - at night or at nap time. One night he'll sleep for 9 hours, the next night 5. Some days he takes a 30 minute nap, other days 2.5 hours. The combination of a cold with serious congestion, the constipation, and now daylight savings time certainly hasn't made things better the last month or so. But it's not like there was a lot of improvement before all of that happened! So we'll just keep trying, and hope that sooner or later this boy will choose to make life a little easier for his mom.

In general, Charlie remains the content little guy he's been since birth. I wish I had a dime for every time someone said "is he always this content?" or "does he ever cry?" Nothing makes him happier than to sit and watch the world go by, although I'm not sure how much longer that will last, since he's definitely showing interest in getting more involved!