Time for Presents

Charlie opening his first present...an art easel!  He was thrilled (Scott, not so much, as it needed assembly!)

 

   

Scott with "Samantha", haha

 

 

With my boys!

Sam got a stuffed animal named "Bigsby"--you read  his story, and when he hears key phrases, he paraphrases it--so cute!  So when I say "Bigsby thought it was very funny", he says something like, "That's funny, hahaha"  Sam loved it.

 

Thanksgiving Day

Thanksgiving morning, Bob and Kyle got out the canoe and took it for a test ride.  

 

Then,Charlie and Becky got to take a spin!  The weather was perfect--chilly in the morning, beautiful, sunny, 65 degrees in the afternoon.

 

  After canoeing, Scott and I took the boys to a playground to burn off some energy.  We didn't take the camera...

Sam with Aunt Becky

 

 Sam was ready to open presents...and took it upon himself to remove the tags off several presents.

 

My trouble maker

 

  Charlie, naturally, has an obsession with Sam's toys...hence, my 2.5 yr old in the walker.

Thanksgiving dinner!

 Sam's first Thanksgiving...he had turkey, cranberry sauce, stuffing, green bean casserole (he preferred plain green beans) and Becky's mashed potatoes (which he surprisingly didn't like!)

 We have so much to be Thankful for...and love spending time with family.  After the boys went to bed, the adults stayed up late playing cards (if you don't play games, you can't hang with the Collevechios).  The perfect Thanksgiving!

Back to Lake Wylie

 For Thanksgiving this year, we drove down to Lake Wylie (North Carolina) to be with Scott's family at his parents lake house.  Since we won't see them for Christmas this year, we lumped the two holidays together.  Of course, Charlie was thrilled to help decorate the Christmas tree.

 Coco brought all kinds of things to make ornaments--Charlie had a blast with the crafts!

 The highlight of the evening was tying bells on his pants and running around the room...

I have so many pictures, and fortunately I'll be more timely on posting.  As I'm writing this, we're driving back to Indiana (late Saturday night) and Scott has me set up so that I can work on the laptop with wireless internet and the car's power.  We had a great time!

From our home to yours...

Constructive Eating

Anyone who has spent time around Charlie in the last, say, 6 months, knows he is REALLY into construction trucks.  At our house, we live, breathe and even eat trucks...or with trucks.  Scott and I were fortunate enough to have a "staycation" trip a few weekends ago to meet up with our friends the Crossleys down at the Belterra Casino (Happy 30th Ryan!).  Ryan and Karen spent time with Charlie in Colorado this past summer and still talk about  his "scoop, dump" excavator routine that is on constant rerun at our house...so when Karen saw this plate, fork, spoon, and pusher at her parent's store, she knew Charlie would love it! And she was right...

Not only does Charlie request this set for every meal (cereal? on a plate?  no Charlie, we have to use a bowl), but using the bulldozer to push the food onto the excavator or forklift has Charlie cleaning his plate at every meal.  And begging for more veggies.  Seriously.

 

and smiling about it!

Thanks, Crossleys, for such a fun gift.  We hope to see you again soon!

9 Months and Cruising

Sam is 9 months...oh how time flies.

(technically, he is now 9.5 months, but don't penalize me for tardiness, I try)

  And cruising!  He hasn't taken any steps on his own yet, but flies like a crazyman with his walker. 

(or your fingers)

 (he thinks he's pretty big)

 

 Last week we went for his 9 month checkup.  

29 inches long (90th percentile I believe!)

19 lbs 14oz (40th percentile?)

And a big head. I don't even note the measurements anymore.  haha.

At 9 months...

Sam cruises (as previously mentioned), and crawls extremely fast

Climbed a full flight of stairs! (with Scott behind him and me up top for motivation)...babygates!

Can pull himself up on anything, even a flat wall

Nurses 4x/day (early am, mid morning, mid afternoon and bedtime)

Pretty much eats the same as 8 months...everything and anything! But is starting to have preferences

Sleep is still a bit of an ongoing battle...He goes down great at 7:30 or 8, but has been waking at 5am or so.  We've had to let him "yell" for 5 min or so the past few mornings and he goes back down for another hour

Does great in the car, soooo much better than his newborn days of constant screaming!

Also does great in the shopping cart, or on my back in the Beco

Loves chasing Charlie around...and grabbing Charlies toys...and is very tough!

Still smiles every time anyone gives him attention

All in all, I think we'll keep him!