Sense of Self

It occurred to me over the weekend that there could be some question regarding the title of my blog, "Charlie's Mom".  Obviously, yes, that's me -- but I want to mitigate concerns anyone may have that over the past 5 months I have lost my identity and become a "Stepford Mom".  :o)

I define myself as much more than a mom -- a Christian, a wife, a daughter (in law), a sister (in law), an aunt, a friend, a neighbor, a redhead (natural for at least a while longer), a professional, etc, etc.

But the thing is, since the day Charlie was born I've felt like Miss America, the President of the United States, the Biggest Loser, a Lottery Winner...like I've achieved a role that I worked for, wished for and dreamed of for so long.  I love to be referred to as "Charlie's Mom"!

Also, as funny as he is, I'm not sure Jason would enjoy me blogging about his daily activities, and I guarantee that noone is interested in the ins and outs of looking for jobs, setting up Business Expo booths or washing sheets.  :o)

In that vein, here is a picture of Charlie driving the boat with Jason on Sunday -- he's the cutest first mate I've ever seen!

 

Sunday, Sunday, Sunday...

It's amazing how much can happen in one day.  Granted we are up every morning before the sun, but still...  Our morning pre-church was fairly uneventful, other than the fact that we got out of the house on time to be there 40 minutes earlier than usual for a meeting!  I finally realized that despite any crazy ideas I may have, it takes me a full hour to get ready and pump, and that's with Jason watching Charlie.

Charlie fell asleep on the way to church and transitioned beautifully out of the carseat into the sling to sleep through our meeting.  Then five minutes before church was about to start, he woke up and wanted to play!  As we were talking in the hall with a couple other moms, one of them asked if he'd gotten a tooth.  I said, "No, but he's sure been working on it for a long time."  She asked if I was sure, and upon further investigation, yes, Charlie has his first tooth!  It's his front, lower left.  Now, I have to admit that I have mixed emotions about this milestone.  Deep down I truly want him to stay a baby forever, I admit it.  But even worse than that, I missed it!  Someone else had to point out to me my son's first tooth.  It's completely irrational, but I feel like I missed out.  Realistically I will miss a number of Charlie's firsts over the years because he has a loving father, Miss Donna and a wonderful extended family who allow me to have some time to myself -- but I'm not too thrilled with it.

My mood did improve a few minutes into church, though.  Charlie was fairly well-behaved (aka drowned out) during the singing, but Jason had to take him out as soon as the hymns were over.  As I was sitting there wondering if Jason was going to hear any of the message, I felt an urgent tap on my shoulder, looked back and saw Jason motioning for the diaper bag.  I grabbed it and met him in the hall, thinking that we'd had a blowout.  Luckily I had 2 spare onesies in the bag, so I assumed we'd be fine.  Well, not so much.  As prepared as I was with Charlie's wardrobe, I had nothing for Jason.  Charlie had peed all over Jason's shirt.  There was a wet stain the size of a salad plate.  Of course, I immediately started laughing.  We took Charlie to the lobby and changed him and agreed that not only was Jason uncomfortable, he quite possibly smelled -- we should go home.  There was one problem though, in my rush to save the day I'd left our Bibles at our seats.  So, while Jason hid in the hallway, I walked in and grabbed our Bibles.  I'm sure everyone around us wondered #1 - why were leaving 5 minutes into the service and #2 - why I was visibly laughing about it.

But wait, there's more!  When we got home Jason and Charlie played on the floor while I made lunch -- and Charlie crawled!  Talk about a banner day. (Yes, I missed this one, too.)  He only made it about a half crawl, but later this afternoon he's made it about 1 1/2.  He still prefers to roll his way around, but I think he'll be crawling like crazy within a couple days.  We've already moved the coffee table out of the way, and I'll probably start stashing away valuables and breakables soon.

I'm not sure I can handle any more "firsts" this week. It's all happening so fast! 

Unfortunately, instead of taking a picture of Charlie crawling I accidentally took a movie...so this is just my latest favorite picture  As you can probably guess, he's looking up at Daddy.  :o)

Here we go...

I feel like this first post should be profound, but I'm not feeling it...  Throughout my life I've tried time and again to keep diaries, journals, etc, but never been able to follow through. This is my first try since Charlie, though, so  I'm optimistic that having an infinitely more interesting (and adorable) topic will keep me going -- that and the fact I have some grandmothers and aunts desperate for the latest Charlie news.

So, what's Charlie up to? At this exact moment he's napping (woohoo!).  He's actually improved his napping skills exponentially over the past 2 weeks.  Donna (his babysitter) and I are consistently getting a 2 to 3 hour and a 1 hour to hour and half nap out of him each day -- the order varies, but we don't care!

In addition to napping, Charlie is trying so very hard to learn to crawl.  Unfortunately, he struggles with coordinating the straight arms and straight legs so he either army crawls (like Otis) or does a very convincing impression of a bull dozer -- which is hilarious to watch, but I'm worried he'll end up with rug burns on his forehead.

Charlie will be 6 months old in 2 weeks and based on my hit or miss reading (I was much better about keeping up with things while pregnant than I am as a mom!) he seems on track.  We plan to start solids in the next couple weeks -- and when I say "solids", I mean the rice cereal and vegetables that babies are supposed to eat, not the ice cream, yogurt, potatoes and barbecue potato chips that he has been sampling over the past couple weeks.  Jason and I just can't help ourselves when he begs, but the recent increase in spitting up has convinced me that we need to show a bit more self control -- 2 outfits before noon is ridiculous!

Well, based on my wonderful video monitor (which I highly recommend to all moms out there -- I'm planning to use mine until Charlie goes to college), it appears that my little man will be waking up soon.  Off I go for cuddles and kisses -- a fabulous experience with Charlie if you don't mind losing handfuls of hair and aren't opposed to open-mouth, milk-breath kisses that sometimes turn into chomps on your nose or chin. I absolutely adore them!