Furniture Surfing

Charlie is not walking yet, but we think he is getting close. He is walking around holding onto anything that is stable enough to hold him.  It is only a matter of time now!

Snow Day!

The "Blizzard of 2011" left behind two feet of snow and we were eager to take Charlie out. We could not actually open our front door or back door, so Matt had to push snow away from the doors until he could squeeze out. Once he was out he made a path for us and we bundled everyone up and headed out. Our first stop was a trek down the street for lunch at our favorite pizza place. Then we headed back to the house and excitedly put Charlie down in the snow. All day, we had been imagining the joy on his face when he first experienced snow. Our vision of Charlie’s happiness quickly vanished when we sat him down in the snow and a look at terror came over his face (proof is in the photo gallery). The first time Charlie stepped foot in the snow was after the Blizzard of 2011, although he is not anxious to go back outside it was a day we will never forget. There are photos in the gallery of our neighborhood (we are still waiting for a plow) and our front yard.

Shedd Aquarium

This weekend we took Charlie on his first trip to the Shedd Aquarium.  It was his first trip to a museum. He was in awe of the fish swimming past him in the aquarium. He would try to touch them and bump his head on the glass as he tried to get closer. There were a couple larger fish that scared him, when they swam past us he would grab onto us tighter or shiver with the he-be-geebies.  It was a memorable day for all of us.

Now, I must explain the “funny face” you will see in most of the photos from our adventure.  Last week Charlie discovered that if he made his funny face he could get a laugh from anyone watching.  It is very funny to see him make this face and it always seems to make us laugh, which I think has contributed to the frequency.  In our music class last week, he crawled around the floor and made the funny face to every parent and child in the room and this was just the start. Fast forward to the museum where we tried to take lots of pictures as you can see in the gallery, but in almost every picture is Charlie’s funny face.  Every time we took a picture with the camera or our phones he made his funny face, no smiling just the funny face. His personality is beginning to show and it is fun to watch him evolve, but I have a feeling 15 years from now he will be asking me why so many pictures of him at 10 months have him making a funny face…and I will have no explanation. I am hoping that he will start smiling for the camera again by the time we are ready to take his one year pictures.  Keep your fingers crossed!

Money See, Monkey Do

Matt was snacking on pretzels and mustard and Charlie was eager to eat what daddy was eating. We gave him a pretzel it was instant love. Charlie even tried to dip his pretzel in mustard just like daddy! Charlie loved his first pretzel and once he tried it he did not want to let it go.

There were actually moments of tears when we would take the wet and soggy pretzel out of his hand to feed him dinner. So, he ate dinner with the pretzel.

Bath Time

One of the bath toys Charlie got for Christmas is a xylophone that floats. He loves it both in and out of the water, but his favorite part of the xylophone is the mallet. If he likes the mallets this much, wait until he can have a real lollipop made of sugar! There are more photos in the 9-12 month album in the photo gallery.