Tuesday, April 30, 2013

Big, little boy wonder.


IN the last few months, Raf's expressive speech has really exploded. He has a really funny turn of phrase, especially as he often uses quite grown up expressions and sentiments. The other day, for instance, after Rich went to the loo, he said, 'good job, daddy. Good effort'! On Sunday morning, as he climbed down the stairs where I was already up with Charlie, he called down, 'great party last night, mum?', and as I returned from my run, he asked, 'good run, mum?'

He's really growing fast. Yesterday, after a very busy day at work in which I didn't get to speak to him on the phone, he lamented, 'I missed you, and you didn't even speak to me on the phone'. And the endless negotiations... '20 minutes', 'just one more show', '3 more clues', etc. etc.

At the same time he likes to call everything 'poo', and instead of using his words he sometimes likes to throw things - including his angry little fists - around.



Sunday, April 28, 2013

Spring.

After a busy week we had an even busier weekend planned. Gym class on Saturday followed by our friends' son's fifth birthday party, followed by an evening auction and dance (a benefit to support our friends' Maggie and Greg who are dealing with a devastating cancer diagnosis). Today, after some early morning fun playing at home and a run for mama, Rafi and I popped to the shops to buy some ingredients to make some soup for Maggie and Greg - and after we delivered it we headed to the beach with a bag of chips. We finished off a very busy weekend with a 'nature walk' which took in a trail near to our house that we'd yet to explore.



Birthday party fun at Jonah's birthday!



Raf was very excited to have so much vegan cake!



Snotty, dirty, sandy and now covered in cake... Glorious.


Morning run.




Raf regressing!

Sweet Charlie.





Yum yum... vegan ice-cream cone :)




Fun playing on the building site next door.


Getting ready for our 'nature walk'.



















Fun and busy weekend. I am ready for bed. 

Wednesday, April 24, 2013

6 month appointment

Charlie has his 6 month wellness check-in today. It went very well. Charlie is looking good and seems super happy. He is 27 inches long (60th percentile), 17 and a half pounds (51st percentile), and has an 18.25 inch head (off the charts, of course). He's bigger than Raf at the same age, and even has a bigger head! How is that possible :)

Here are some photos I took of Charlie this morning before work. This is Raf's old shirt and I remember the Christmas photos I took off Raf wearing it. Sweet little boys.  This is the link to Raf's photos wearing the same little shirt: 












Thursday, April 18, 2013

Half a year old!

So... today we celebrated Charlie's half year birthday - except that I JUST realized, at 8pm, that it was in fact yesterday. I am not sure how we all managed to get it wrong. Of course Charlie doesn't have a clue so that's a bit of luck.

Charlie continues to be a cheerful little chap. His personality is beginning to shine through even more. He's laid back and easy to please. He's sitting up all by himself really well, though he seems to have almost zero interest in really moving and so has no interest in rolling. On the other hand he loves to play with his toys and he sits and plays so contentedly. He also loves his exersaucer and loves to 'run' in it while I cook dinner. He loves his brother and is never happier than when Raf is getting up to something he shouldn't.




The big event today, though, was Charlie's first attempt at solids. As we did with Rafi, we're sort of doing baby led weaning. Weaning in the UK means something different than the US. In the UK it means adding solids - and "baby led" basically means that skip the puree foods and go directly to table foods. Today Rich and I had lunch together and Charlie - as he has been this past couple of weeks - made a grab for some of our food. He enjoyed sucking on a slice of cucumber as well as an avocado strip!





For dinner we tried a bit more avocado and a bit of banana. He definitely had fun banging his spoon, and while he wasn't loving the avocado he did enjoy a bit of smooshed banana that found its way into his mouth. He had so much fun, and he even tolerated his new highchair.








And then there was of course his half year birthday cake... Alas poor old Charlie tried to grab some icing but I wiped it off his fingers before he could have a chance to lick them. Raf helps him out after singing 'happy birthday' to his little brother.



And a good night hug... quite vigorous.