Charlie

This is Charlie's story:

Once upon a time there was a girl who loved being with family on holidays. She was married to a very smart man who got into grad school what seemed like a million miles away from everyone they knew and loved. As they were packing things to go to this far off land, they had to leave many things behind in storage at her parent's house. As they were packing, her mother gave her a cute little wooden turkey that the crafty lady had made so the girl could use it to decorate for Thanksgiving and it could remind her of her family far far away. Thanksgiving came around, and the girl totally forgot to put the turkey out. She found it the next day when she was getting out the Christmas decorations. She was very disappointed, so her husband suggested that they leave the turkey out year round and decorate him for each holiday. The girl thought this was a great idea, so they discussed a name. After much discussion, he was named "Charlie." He is now Charlie the Holiday Turkey.

And that is how Charlie came to be. The holidays were so crazy with our trip, that he just had a simple red bow around his neck for Christmastime, but we had fun decorating him for Valentine's this week! :)

I came up with the heart idea. Mike insisted he have a headband with a heart on it and also came up with his heart mohawk in the back. I think he turned out pretty great!

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!

First Solid Food

Oliver's been ready to start solid food for a little while, so we got some rice cereal the last time we were at the store and Mike set up his high chair last night.

It went pretty well and we think he likes it!

...and so it begins!

After I changed his diaper on Sunday, I left Oliver on the floor so he could play while I finished cleaning up dinner. I peeked around the corner to check on him a couple minutes later to find...

His First Mess!

Good thing he's such a cutie!

So Cute!

Just thought I'd share our cute baby. :)

Cruisin'

A couple weeks ago we got Oliver a walker.

We were so excited because we just knew he would love it, so we ran home and put him in it. Apparently it was a little early, since his feet didn't even touch the floor. Only a little disappointed, I continued to put him in it for a little while each morning, since he really likes to be upright and not on his back much anymore.

He's finally growing into it now! Here's his first time moving around in it...

He's also getting pretty close to army crawling. He can get himself around the floor pretty well by kicking while he's on his back, but hasn't quite figured out crawling yet.

Getting Back Into Things

It took us a little bit, but we're getting back into a nice schedule after being gone for almost a month for Christmas visiting everyone.

Since we got back, Oliver insists on standing, which can sometimes keep mom from being able to do much during the day, so we've come up with a couple different solutions.

First, we tried the jumper...

Doesn't he look like he's just happy as a clam?!

It only took a couple minutes though, and he wasn't too impressed with the jumper.

We're not sure that he's caught on yet that it's more fun if you actually try to jump... lol. He did do a couple circles though. :)

So the jumper will take some more getting used to I think. (Please excuse the closet, it's the only door frame the jumper will hang on and contains quite a bit of stuff since our apartment is quite cozy...)

Next, we found a walker. He loves the walker, even though his feet don't quite touch the ground in it yet, but I think they will soon. He likes how it lets him sit up like a big boy and play with his toys.

Our first week back to our ward in Baton Rouge was fun, Oliver got to try some of his special church clothes that he's grown into. He looks so big in his little sweater vest and corduroys! He also had on cute little brown suede shoes.

He and I have been doing a lot of practicing since I was asked to be the ward organist. I haven't really played the organ, so I had about two weeks to learn, but it's going well and I'm excited to play in church next Sunday!

 Oliver's really started laughing lately and it's so cute!

 

He's still loving bath time and tummy time.

My camera's flash washed this one out, but his eyes are so blue in it!

The weather has been so beautiful here, that we've been able to go on a couple walks. Just today we walked all the way around a little lake in town, it was so nice! It helps Little O get the fresh air he needs to sleep soundly at night.

Here he is ready for our walk. His new hat fits perfect!

Mike's been enjoying his second semester of grad school and just had an article that he wrote get published in a national publication for composer's! His private instructor thought it was so great that he sent it in to the association and they published it in their monthly publication. It was really neat and Little Man and I are very proud of him.

Christmas and New Years

We had such a great time visiting so much family during Christmastime and for New Years.

Oliver loved playing with everyone! When we got back home a couple weeks ago, it took him a couple days to get used to playing by himself more often, again. Poor little guy missed all his grandmas and grandpas, aunts and uncles, great-gmas and great-gpas, and cousins!

For Christmas, I made Oliver his stocking. We looked into lots of different patterns and settled on this simple style, so he can add something special to it each year.

It's hard to tell from the picture, but it has his name along the top in green letters.

Isn't it cute how he just insists on eating everything we hand him lately?

Happy New Year everyone!