We have a stander...

Charlie has been mobile for a while now. He is still perfecting his crawl, but he drags himself around really well :) He has started getting up on his knees and getting into things. He loves to play with his bucket car seat. Our job has just gotten a lot harder because Charlie has started pulling up to stand. He was hanging out with me in my (messy) office and he pulled up so he could play with a package of printer paper. He was so serious about it. It is really funny. He isn't very stable so he falls over a lot. Charlie is really starting to ham it up for the camera.

It is hard to document his activities. It looks like all he does is look at us and smile :)

We met with Charlie's developmental pediatrician. It was a great appointment! She thinks we should aim for Charlie to catch up to his actual age by 15 to 18 months. She also feels that we can now rule out any serious motor problems or developmental delays. Charlie may be clumsy when he grows up...but that should be about the extent of it. Preemies are at a higher risk of learning disabilities...but she told us not to worry about it for now. We are so excited! She really thinks we can relax now and just enjoy Charlie. We love just hanging out with Charlie...but we still take him to weekly therapy appointments and try to work with him as much as possible. He doesn't love to eat solid food, but we are working on it and his speech therapists aren't worried yet. We are in a really good place as Charlie approaches his first birthday!!

Charlie loves to pull things out of baskets...

One of Charlie's favorite toys...

Not the most stable position...

What I saw when I peeked under my desk...

So serious!

So big!!

Piano lessons from Daddy.

Piano playing on his own...

Crazy man ready for his bath!

Charlie is rolling onto his tummy!

Charlie is rolling onto his tummy now! We put him on his back on his mat and found him on his tummy a couple of times and now we have seen it (and captured it) in action! We are so proud of Charlie, he is currently on track developmentally and it is so exciting! Wow, that is a lot of exclamation points...

Happy Halloween!!

Charlie celebrated his first Halloween this past weekend. While we did NOT go trick or treating for germs, we did go to one house that we knew was relatively clean (Grandma and Grandpa Duffs'). Charlie still didn't get to eat any candy, though, until we thoroughly checked it for razor blades. Then we just put a few pieces of candy in the blender and he took it just fine. Ok, not really. He did get to have his picture taken an inordinate number of times and is consequently blind. The pictures posted make up about 3% (generous estimate) of the pictures taken.

Shannon thought Charlie should be a giraffe because of his long eyelashes and I thought he should be a bug because of his stubby proportions. You can all see who won that argument.

Sorry for the lack of posting on here. The medical update at the moment is that Charlie is doing great. Last weight check, he was at 12lbs 5oz, so we're assuming he's about 12 1/2 or 13lbs now. The developmental, physical, occupational and speech therapists all say that he is right on track for his adjusted age of about 4 months. He "talks" a lot these days, plays with his toys, loves standing while being held, rolls over (stomach to back), likes to put toys (and all his fingers) in his mouth and is really interested in the dogs (he likes pulling trying to pull out their fur).

RSV season has started, so we even have to be more careful than usual with keeping Charlie away from germs. He is going to start receiving Synegis (sp) shots this week, which are kind of like a vaccinations against RSV. He has had somewhat fewer doctors appointments lately, but still one or two a week. Otherwise, everything is pretty much like having a normal baby (not that we'd know).

I have added Shannon as an author on this blog, so now when we fail to update it for a dew weeks, it will be her fault too.

"I think this pumpkin weighs more than me"

"I can almost stick out my tongue as far as a real giraffe"

Playing it cool in Halloween PJs

Trick or Treating at Grandma Dorie's House

"Cheese!"