Chawlie's howse!!

(August 22-24, 2013)

We were so glad Jake and Natalie stopped in for a visit on their way to Canada! It was a few days of fun and craziness! One thing is for sure, they will never forget Ottumwa!

^^Trav is everyone's favorite uncle. He's at the bottom of the dog pile!

^^ These two little buds just melted my heart. I can't wait to see them grow up together and be little terrors I'm sure. 

^^We found a corn field. ;) 

^^ Maggie bumped her chin in the pool and had to get stitched up! Brave girl. 

^^ After the hospital visit we decided to hit up the awesome mall here in Ottumwa and Maggie got her ears pierced at the biggest Claire's in America. She figured if she could make it through getting stitches, earrings were a piece of cake!

^^ Then we hit up the nail salon in the mall and got pedicures. 

^^ We were all driving around in their suburban when Ezzy reached his hand up so I grabbed it and he held my hand for a solid minute. Cutest thing ever.

^^ A trip to Ottumwa is never complete without a visit to Graham's for ice cream!

^^ On their way out we all went to Nauvoo. Maggie and Charlie were zonked out in the first two minutes of the trip.

^^ This is the best-look at the posing going on here. Love it! 

^^ We all loved the old pioneer toys. Even the big kids. ;)

^^ Obligatory family selfie. We seriously have over 1000 photos of Charlie and like 2 with all three of us. We need to be better at taking pictures!

^^ Sure am going to miss these crazies! Can't believe they moved to Canada. Me and Charlie need passports ASAP so we can go visit! 

Hello October

***Got this "Taking Stock" list from over at The Daybook.***

Making: lots of lists for fall. caramel apples. pumpkin patch. lots of afternoons at the park.
Cooking: chocolate chip banana bread. delicious. the recipe can be found here.
Drinking: lots of water and emergen-c. trying to combat this sore throat.
Reading: nothing at the moment but this is on my list. this too. bossy pants and bringing up bebe if you're not fond of links. ;)
Wanting: to get some family pictures taken. i printed out a bunch of pics from the last few months and there are about a million of Charlie, a couple of Travis and Charlie and like two with all three of us.
Looking: around for christmas presents. is it too early for that? i'm just so exited.
Playing: on the floor with my little scooter. no crawling yet but i have a feeling it won't be long.
Wasting: no time getting the fall/halloween decorations out. first day of fall means it's totally ok to tape paper bats up on your wall right? right.
Sewing: nothing. but i have some regular crib sized sheets that i need to make into mini crib sheets. they've only been waiting for about seven months now. ha.
Wishing: time would sloooooooow down. instead it seems to be going faster and faster.
Enjoying: breaking pointe. Trav thinks it's dumb. it kind of is...but the dancing! so good!
Waiting: impatiently for halloween.
Liking: my new haircut. i had a little meltdown at first but i'm starting to get used to it.
Wondering: when those little baby teeth are going to pop through. (****i started this post last week and he got two teeth over the weekend!)
Loving: having Trav back on days. night shift was the worrrrrrrrrrst.
Hoping: for the best.
Marveling: at this little boy we've created. he is so wonderful and it is so fun to watch him grow and experience things for the first time.
Needing: to floss more, according to my dentist. oops. but no cavities!
Smelling: the top of Charlie's head when he's fresh out of the bath. it's my heaven.
Wearing: some baby puke on my shirt and drool in my hair. and loving every second.
Following: several different tv shows. fall tv is the best!
Noticing: things i never used to. having a baby will do that to ya.
Knowing: how lucky i am to have such a great husband and sweet baby.
Thinking: about cleaning up my living room. blogging instead.
Bookmarking: yummy fall treats. fall baking is the best. really i guess fall is just my favorite all around.
Opening: our windows. it's cooling off around here and i am so excited about it!
Giggling: lots. i have an 8 month old who giggles non stop and a really funny husband. we do lots of giggling around here.
Feeling: happier than ever. :)

Charlie: Seven Months

^^ I'm sitting here putting this post together while Charlie is napping. This picture makes me want to go get him up just to see his cute smile. He pulls the best faces. Love this boy!

^^ And then of course he rolled over and that was all the pictures I was going to get. :)

^^ He also looooooves to grab my camera. 

It is so bizarre to me that Charleston is already seven months! It's just so weird that he is closer to being a year old than is is to being a newborn. Such a cliche but seriously we blinked and the time is gone! He is such a joy and we don't even know what we ever did without him.

Sleep: Finally sleeping again. For the most part he sleeps about twelve hours, waking up to nurse once or twice. Still taking two naps and sometimes three. Pretty much only naps in his swing still. We're going to work on that. Haha. He puts himself to sleep at night and that is so nice.

Eat: Still nurses about every three hours during the day but can go longer if we have something going on. He's eating solids now once a day. Usually right before bath time so we just strip him down, feed him and then give him a bath. Makes clean up so much easier! So far he has had: avocado, banana, sweet potatoes, pears, sweet peas, peaches, squash and applesauce. His favorites are bananas and sweet potatoes!

Wear: He's now in size four diapers and 9-12 month clothes. We just got him some new jammies and they don't have the feet and Trav goes-I don't like these, they make him look too grown up! We are such nerds. I just went through his stuff and put away a bunch of things he has grown out of and definitely teared up. Trav teases me but he is the same way! It's so sad that he is growing so fast and isn't a little baby anymore! And then it's also really fun that he's getting older and doing new things. Oh parenting.

Play: He likes to sit in his bumbo and jumper. He loves his little play mat still and rolls and scoots all around the living room. Not crawling yet though and I am not even mad about that! Wait as long as you want kid! He's sitting up pretty well. If he's on your lap he can sit great. On the floor he can only sit for about 10 seconds before tipping over. We put him in the cart at the grocery store now, instead of his car seat, and it makes him seem so grown up!

• At his six month checkup (which was closer to seven months) he weighed almost 20 pounds and was 27 inches.
• He has been to eight states.
• He's been on eight plane rides (two trips to Idaho).
• He loves swimming and playing with his little cousins and our friends here.
• He has really stopped puking so much which is so great!
• He's getting easier to take places-he's easier to distract with toys and stuff.
• This is huge-he can drink out of a sippy cup! So far he hasn't had any milk, just water. But it is so nice to know that he will finally. It was really nice on our recent trip to Kansas city-if he was getting hungry we could give him some water and it would tide him over for a few minutes until we could get somewhere I could feed him. It also helped keep him cool with the terrible heat wave!

I had to add this funny thing-the other day we were at the grocery store and lately we have been putting Charlie in the cart (sitting up) but I just needed to run in so I had him in his carseat sitting down in the cart so that makes this a tiny bit more understandable. I was stopped in an aisle looking for something and this little old man came over and started chatting with Charlie like most people do. Well he says to me, "He's really cute-how old? About six weeks?" Haha. I just had to chuckle a little bit.

He's such a happy boy-everywhere we go people just love on him and he will smile and laugh for everyone. It is so fun to see him learning and experiencing the world around him. We love our little Charleston Bennett!