9 Months Old!

Our tiny, little peanut is now a hefty little chunk. When Charlie was about a month old I can remember thinking to myself how I couldn't wait until he had nice, fat legs (at the time he had these scrawny little chicken legs). Well now he is nice and plump with what we like to call "the rubber band effect." His arms and legs are so chubby that his wrists and ankles look as if he has rubber bands wrapped around them. So cute - I love the chub!

So let's see what have we been up to....

Recently we celebrated Charlie's first Christmas! And Santa did not disappoint! Charlie got sooooo many toys! We have a pretty decent sized Chevy Tahoe and had a hard time fitting all the gifts in it. He's a spoiled little stinker but that's what Grandparents are for right? I think Charlie really enjoyed all of his presents but what I think he liked even more was eating the wrapping paper! This kid is a human shredding machine I tell ya! We were super blessed this Christmas b/c two of our family members, both battling deteriorating health prior to the holidays, took a turn for the better right around Christmas! Meme Madeliene (Charlie's 100 year old Great Great Grandmother!!) and Pap Pap (Charlie's Great Grandfather) are both doing much better at the moment and we were so thankful that they were here with us for the holidays!

Other happenings: In mid-January the Gardner family took a ski trip to Snowshoe - Charlie's first ski trip! Next year he'll actually be up on ski's - oy. This was Mom's first trip in two years and we all had a blast! Charlie got to stay indoors with Auntie Lin Lin Darling (aka Titi) and Uncle Adam while the rest of the fam tore up the slopes. This was good practice for them b/c they have a little one on the way! Adam said Charlie melted his heart every time he smiled - awwww!

Charlie turned 9 months old on January 25th (my goodness is his first year just flying! ) He is still not crawling but we're thinking he might just skip the whole crawling thing and move right into walking! His legs are strong and he loves when we take his hands and let him walk! His personality has really changed over the last couple of months. He giggles all the time at things we don't quite understand. For example, he can take one look at our dog Billie and just erupt into a 5 minute giggle fest! Billie is hilarious apparently. He also thinks Mom and Dad are pretty stinkin funny too (yessss!). Moreso Dad than Mom but mom tries the hardest to make him laugh. His eating habbits have really improved! He's graduated from pureed mush to little bites of food that he has to chew. So glad that he can finally eat some real food - so much better than that rice cereal business. His favorite foods include sweet potatoes, biter biscuits (aka cookies), fully loaded mashed potatoes (aka fully loaded with butter and sour cream - before you judge we only gave him a couple of bites but he LOVED it!), pasta, turkey, peas and apple oatmeal! Yum - this kid has good taste! What helps is he now has 2 teefers! Yay! And the teething wasn't even all that terrible! Charlie's fine motor skills are getting better too - he loves to stick his his fingers in our eyes and up our noses - it's not going to be adorable for much longer - haha. He also, kind of, er, we think has maybe said his first two words - he has babbled Mamamama and Daddadadada! Pretty sure he has no idea who or what he is talking about but we'll take it!

So that's all for now. In 3 short months Charlie will be a year old and he'll have a brand new baby cousin! Lots of excitement to come! Stay tuned!