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.

Ringing in 2011

Matt and I both took the week between Christmas and New Year’s off and had planned a trip to Madison, then to Wisconsin Dells to meet up with our friends for New Years Eve. In Madison we planned to stay at a hotel with a water park and take Charlie swimming for the first time, which did not happen. Charlie and I were both came down with the flu, so our mini-vacation plans were halted. Instead, Charlie and I laid on the couch and tried to stay hydrated – it was not much of a vacation. We did finally make it up to the Dells on New Year’s Eve and were able to celebrate with our friends, not quite the vacation we had in mind, but we were all just happy to get out of the house.

Charlie reached many milestones over the past two weeks despite his illness. His first tooth cut and not long after the second, third, fourth, and fifth! (Poor kid). He started clapping, which is a nice addition to his already spectacular dance moves. And he started saying “ball”! I think the ball pit brought it out in him. We can officially say that he knows, “mama”, “dada” and “ball”! There are additional photos in the gallery.

Happy New Year!