Happy Independence Day!

We hope everyone has had a safe and fun 4th of July! As I type this, the big fireworks shows are probably just kicking off around the area. This is the first time in my entire life that I can remember not watching some type of fireworks show somewhere on the 4th--but you do what you have to do when you have a fussy, teething, gassy baby who craves a routine and who has already stayed up late too many times recently. Now I am just hoping nothing nearby is loud enough to wake him up! Maybe next year, Charlie, you will get to have a little fireworks show of your own.

He is doing so many cute things now. I want to remember every single one of them! He hasn't really started the stranger anxiety thing but he definitely wants to know where James and I both are at any given moment. He would much prefer that we are both in the room. He will crane his neck to see us around things now. He also loves peek-a-boo and laughs if you put something over his head and then remove it quickly. He has still not mastered crawling but he can get around pretty good anyway, by scooting or doing this push-up thing on his toes and then lunging back down to his knees (which gets him maybe a few inches before his arms push him backwards again). He can go from sitting to the crawling position and back to sitting. He can spin himself around to get things. He has also started just jabbering away, and gets this very intense look on his face while he's doing it. He says a lot of consonants like "dah-dah-dah" or "lah-gah-dah". And--you will all call us crazy for this--but we think he knows what a "doggie" is now. It just so happens those are his favorite consonants so he can actually say the word, and he is mildly obsessed with our pets. :) He is sleeping pretty well in general, although some nights are still bad if his teeth are really hurting or he is gassy. No actual teeth yet.


He tries to wave but he doesn't know why yet, he is just trying to copy us. In fact he tries to copy everything we do. He wants to pull up on everything around him, and he jumps non-stop. He is eating a ton of food and we have added a lunchtime meal and veggie puffs too. He weighs around 18 lbs now. He is so big that we finally changed over to the big carseat, and he loves it!! We thought he would seem tiny in it, but he just looks normal. He is turning into a little boy so fast!



We had a great holiday. We spent time with friends last night, including his best friend Gage. Gage and Charlie are both at about the same place development-wise so they each crawled backwards away from each other, despite their best efforts otherwise. It was funny to watch.


We went to my mom's house today and Charlie had lots of fun. He got to watch his first fireworks, just a couple of small fountains, with his Papaw. Here are a few pics from today.




Congrats to our good friends Sabrina and Jeff on a beautiful new baby girl! Reid was born early Monday morning. Sabrina was Jack's daytime nurse at Children's and we are so happy for them.