Christmas 2011

Christmas was an exciting time this year as we celebrated Charlie's first Christmas. With Charlie only being 3.5 months old much of the excitement is a bit lost on him, but we still were excited to share with him the love and joy of the holiday season. It seems that Charlie's favorite parts of the season are the lights and the photo Christmas cards. As Mike and I sat down to enjoy our Dewey's pizza for my birthday dinner yesterday, Mike noted how we would miss these times when we could put Charlie in his pumpkin seat in front of the Christmas tree or our display of photo Christmas cards. Next year will be a different story.  This year we stayed home and celebrated Christmas with family. On Christmas Eve we enjoyed a scrumptious dinner of beef tenderloin, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole and pear salad followed with dessert and gift opening. 

Here is our little family:

  

Charlie and his cousins minus a sleeping Joseph. It's exciting to know that next year this little clan will be even bigger.

 Joseph & Charlie:

Christmas morning we actually slept in till 8 AM. We woke to a crock pot breakfast casserole, which I found on pinterest. While we were impressed that breakfast was cooking while we slept, the recipe itself wasn't all it was cracked up to be. After eating we facetimed with Mike's family and then opened presents. We aren't huge gift people, but Charlie received a playmat and book. Mike received a Dave Matthews lullaby cd and Journey lullaby cd. I also gave him frames with pictures of Charlie for his desk at work and a tour of Busch Stadium for this spring. I was the big winner scoring a Kindle Fire as a joint Christmas & Birthday present. In the afternoon we went to my parents house to relax and have dinner. We enjoyed some time outside as it was sunny and 51*. Here are a few pictures from our day:

Facetime and relaxing on the new play mat

Tummy time

Opening gifts 

 

Charlie liked the wrapping paper

Cuddly guy waking up from a nap

We hope you had a wonderful Christmas and were surrounded by those you love. We are blessed to continue our Christmas celebration into the new year with Mike's family.

Three Months Old

Changes in the last month:

• more alert & awake time
• talking
• during tummy time will roll from his belly to back
• grasping onto toys we put in his hands 
• smiling a lot 
• when placed on his back and is slowly pulled up by his hands to a sitting position he can hold his head straight

Sleeping/Eating patterns:

• naps are getting more predictable-his only cue is when he yawns, we use the exercise ball to bounce him to sleep, not a huge fan of the rocking chair
• night sleep continues to improve , wakes up to nurse and then usually goes right back to sleep, ranging from 2 hours to some 6-7 hour stretches
• eats every two and half to three hours

Activities:

• celebrated Mom & Dad's five year anniversary with breakfast at Half & Half in Clayton-slept 6 hours straight for the 1st time :)
• Met my great Aunts, Uncle and Great Grandpa Frank
• Baptized at St. Francis Xavier Church where Mom & Dad were married 5 years and 2 days before
• First road trip to Indianapolis, IN-did great slept the whole way, had to be woken up to eat
• Celebrated Thanksgiving with the Logars in Indy
• Met some of Mommy and Daddy's college friends 
• Decorated my first xmas tree