Walker and Charlie: October 2010

October 29, 2010

Halloween Cookies

Walker is really into play-cooking right now. He's always brewing a pot of coffee or stirring up a batter. So today, I thought I'd let him have a crack at real baking! He did really well with the rolling and cutting of the cookies. Decorating, however, got a little out of hand. He poured half a bottle of orange sprinkles onto a bat cookie. Yikes! We distributed the sugar sprinkles as best we could and saved the cookie.

October 28, 2010

MRI Day

Yesterday, a lovely package arrived in the mail from Richland, OR. In it were various goodies and this adorable set of Halloween pajamas, purchased by the Yaya Aunties at a thrift store in Halfway, OR called Jacob's Dream. Its one of my favorite shopping spots while visiting Grandma Happy. Charlie looked festive for his MRI today in his new duds.

Here's Daddy, holding Charlie in our waiting room just before sunrise.

Charlie was in a particularly good mood this morning and spent the majority of our "check-in" time chatting with Daddy. Here's a quick video of their pre-MRI conversation.

The MRI was a mostly smooth procedure. We waited around a little bit while the doctors figured out which of the bajillion blood labs they were going to draw. There were so many blood draws requested by our specialists that they couldn't do them all - otherwise, we'd have a baby with no blood left in his system. So, they decided on the priority draws and we commenced with the MRI. They took photos of his brain and his spine. We'll hear back about the results in a few days. So until then, we'll cross our fingers and know that good news is on the way! Here are some shots of Charlie after his photo session. He was really fussy - well... pissed is more the word - because they had cut him off of nursing at 4am. So, after almost 6 hours without milk, we sat down to nurse and Jack changed his diaper. Once dry and fed, Charlie came home and promptly fell asleep for 3 hours.

Stay tuned.... more news at eleven.

Cousin Katie!

Catching up here on some photos from the past few days. Charlie had his weekly meeting with Lori, his ECI therapist. Here she is below playing with Charlie on the living room floor. She is currently working with Charlie on strengthening his mid-line awareness, trying to get him to rotate his shoulders forward instead of splaying backwards. Charlie loves talking with her and doing the excersizes. Then, when she puts him on his tummy, the party's over and he gets mad.

Here's a shot of Jack and Charlie having a little chat. Charlie is making all sorts of cooing, heart-melting baby sounds.

Jack's cousin, Katie, made a surprise visit! She is doing some travel for business here in Texas and was able to spend the evening with us. Charlie LOVED Katie and spent most of the evening happily in her arms.

October 25, 2010

Sock Monkey

Lots of running around today. Charlie had a Chiropractic appointment followed by a meeting with his cranio sacral therapist. Walker tagged along and chatted up all the front desk help he could find. I would have snapped some photos of Walker today, but he didn't stand still for a second. The boy is high on life and setting quite a pace these days. One big milestone today: Walker spent the whole day in big boy underwear. This was a risky venture being that we were running errands and going from public bathroom to public bathroom. He handled it beautifully without any accidents! Charlie, however, made our bed into a puddle of pee this morning. I took these photos of Charlie just after waking - noticed the stripped bed. You know you're a mom when you respond to a mysterious wet bed by saying "Oh thank goodness, its just pee".

A quick afternoon snooze:

October 23, 2010

Friends with Cameras

We had some family photos taken last Sunday... or the Sunday before - I can't recall. Anyhoo... here are a couple of sneak peeks. A friend of mine, Jacki Reitz, took them for us. I can't wait to see more!

Today, we met up with a family we adore (Alison Power and company) to spend some time together and fawn over our babies. Alison's son, Max, was born a week before Charlie. She took this lovely photo of Charlie gazing up at me. I love it.

In the afternoon, we met our best buds, Mosely and James Charles for a little birthday party at the gym. Walker had a ball running around and trying out all the gym equipment. The birthday party entailed a gym class, which Walker also loved. We had him in gymnastics last fall and I think after today, we're going to re-enroll him. He really loves it. In the middle of doing some group jumping jacks, he ran up to me and shouted, "I'm having so much fun!". Can't beat that, eh?

Here is a shot of the kids sitting down for cake and ice cream. Walker declined the cake and went straight for the ice cream. He is a kid after my own heart.

October 22, 2010

Infant Massage

Pa John left us this morning for a very quick 48 hours in California before returning home to snowy Scotland. It was a superb visit and we can't quite believe its over. Lucky for us, Pa John will be joining us for Christmas - only two short months away. This morning Walker read from Charlie's new baby book, while Pa John gave Charlie a little baby rub down.

This evening, we had Jack's friend and voice mentor, Catherine Fitzmaurice to dinner. She is in town, at Jack's invitation, conducting a voice and speech workshop at SMU. Here she is giving Charlie a little foot rub. Its hard not to squeeze and love on little Charlie once you've got him in your arms.