And he's off!

Well, it's official...I think. Charlie can crawl. Kinda. If "crawling" is defined as forward movement on one's hands and knees, then he's not crawling; but if "crawling" is defined as forward movement achieved by sheer will and tenacity, then he's a crawling fool!

More pearly whites

One of Charlie's top teeth finally broke through! He's been working on it for ages, so I was so relieved to feel it's jagged little edge poke through his swollen gums. Hopefully the other one will break through soon and give the poor little guy some relief.

Ellie's end-of-year program

Ellie's end-of-year program at school was last Thursday and it was so cute! She was originally chosen to say a short bible verse, and apparently did well during rehearsals...until the microphone was introduced, at which point she refused to ever say it again. So another girl in her class said the verse and did a great job! The theme of the program was celebrating God's love and it was just so sweet to see all of the kiddos singing and dancing in such joy.

The pictures are out of order, but it was too much work to rearrange them...

This is the final "number" with all of the kids on stage -- sweet Jackson is in orange, kind of crouching behind the speaker thing; Ellie is in a yellow t-shirt with white pants in the front row:

And here is Ellie's class (the Toddlers) and The Little Ones. Seeing her here made me realize just how tall she is -- she's nearly a head taller than everyone else in her class:

This is the very beginning of Ellie's song -- everyone is laughing because the second the music started, all of the kids started jumping like crazy -- so cute!

Sisterly "help"

Charlie is trying to learn how to use a sippy cup...and Ellie is SO helpful!

That’s my girl!

Happy birthday, Auntie Jamie!

Another not-so-well visit

We had Charlie’s 9-month check-up this morning and it was perfect timing because the poor guy has been running a fever for the last two days.  So it was no surprise that he has two ear infections…again!  Unlike most of his earlier ear infections, this one is really bothering him – he’s not eating, he’s fussy, fussy, and even though we’re giving him Tylenol AND Motrin, he still has a fever.  Poor little dude.  His sissy is sick too – she’s also been running a fever for two days and doesn’t have much of an appetite.  I guess if she doesn’t get better soon, we’ll be heading back to the doctor.

So anyway, Charlie’s check-up…other than the ears, Charlie is just perfect…perfectly big, that is!  He weighs 22.5 lbs (80th percentile – given the impressive size of his thighs, I’m surprised that it’s only the 80th), he’s 30.25 inches long (95th percentile), and his enormous melon is in the 98th percentile!  The doctor actually re-measured his head himself because he didn’t trust that the nurse’s measurement was right – he did the same thing at Charlie’s 6-month visit, so I assume that at some point he’ll just trust that Charlie has a big, big head.

The scariest part of the visit was when Damian temporarily lost his hearing.  It happened right when the doctor said that Charlie doesn’t need to eat at night anymore and that Damian needs to go in anytime Charlie cries.  He said it would only take a week of Damian handling the night-wakings for Charlie to drop the feeding.  Luckily, Damian’s hearing seemed to come back as soon as we changed the subject.