Who Dat Baby- then and now

7 months ago in anticipation of the super bowl, this was our little who dat baby:

and this is him now:

Charlie will be 6 weeks old on Saturday and I can't believe how fast he's growing! We've been getting little smiles here and there but yesterday was a day full of smiles! We definitely have our hard days but when he gives me a big gummy grin, it definitely makes it all worth while. We had a really really difficult day earlier this week. Charlie refuses to sleep sometimes and after 13 hours of barely napping for more than 5 minutes at a time, he was a complete miserable little screaming monster. There was absolutely nothing that Dennis or I could do to console him and we both felt defeated. A friend recommended 2 songs to me that she used to listen to during the hard nights. One was "It won't be like this for long" by Darius Rucker. It is such a sweet song and so true but it's about a father and his newborn little girl so it didn't hit home quite as well as the 2nd song.... "If he's anything like me" by Brad Paisley. All I have to say is, holy crap I'm glad I didn't hear that song while pregnant. I don't think my crazy, insane pregnancy hormones could have handled it. I can barely handle hearing it now! I listened to it first thing in the morning laying there with Charlie and looking at him sleeping so peacefully after the exhausting day we had before and just cried my eyes out. Never has a song had more meaning than that one and I knew Dennis just had to hear it. Anyone who knows Dennis, knows that he was definitely a troublemaker growing up and it has definitely crossed our minds many times about what kind of craziness we will have to look forward to with Charlie.

I figured the best way for Dennis to hear the song was to make a little video to go with it.

Here it is:

and so it begins...

Charlie's first official football season!

One Month Photos

4 weeks

Mini Photo Session

3 weeks

Time is flying by! I can't believe that in just a few days Charlie will be a month old! He's already changed so much in the past couple of weeks, part of me wishes I could just stop time and keep him this small. But then the screaming and fussiness starts and another tiny other part of me wants to get out of this newborn stage fast!

My parents were in town the past week and had so much fun snuggling with Charlie. I hate that we are so far away from both sets of grandparents. Only a year and a half to go and we'll at least be attached to the same piece of land as our family!

What have we been up to the last week? Aside from visiting with the grandparents, we haven't had too exciting of a week. Charlies umbilical cord stump finally fell off. This was a huge deal for us because it meant that Charlie could finally start wearing his cloth diapers! They are working so well for us and I'm so glad we made the decision to use them. I plan on doing some more photos of Charlie this week so I'll post some of him and his fluffy butt then!

Dennis never ceases to amaze me with how good he is with Charlie. You would never know that he had never held a baby as small as Charlie before. Or that he'd never changed a diaper, yet he was a pro at changing Charlie's first diaper at the hospital and hasn't stopped since. He gave Charlie his first real bath this week and was a complete natural. Charlie loves baths when he's in the water but he quickly changes his mind when he gets out of the tub. His facial expressions are priceless!

Charlie has been really fussy lately. He never wants to nap during the day and all he wants to do is nurse. Dennis came home today with a Baby Einstein bouncy seat and Charlie LOVED it. He sat in there for almost 45 minutes staring at the lights and listening to the music. He even took a little nap in it. HUGE brownie points for dad!

This is the picture we took for Charlie's birth announcements. I guess I got inspired by the filming of Pirates of the Caribbean on the island. (A few days before Charlie was born Dennis and I drove to the other side of the island and saw the Queen Anne's Revenge ship docked where they were filming.) I found this chest at Ross for $20 and decided to go with a treasure chest theme. Charlie is not a big fan of having his picture taken so we literally had about 30 seconds to get a decent shot before he was completely over it.

Here's the finished product:

First two weeks

We survived the first two weeks!

Charlie has been so much fun- he's definitely shown me that having a newborn is EXHAUSTING. I knew I would be sleep deprived...but I had no idea that I'd be THIS sleep deprived. It is definitely SO worth it though.

Dennis' parents were in town the last 2 weeks to meet Charlie and it was so great spending time with them (even if I was in new mom zombie mode the majority of the time!)

Here's a few pictures we've taken of Charlie over the last 2 weeks:

Daddy decided to play dress up with some of the clothes that Kim and Tanane sent us.

We attempted some "sleepy newborn" photos but unfortunately Charlie never wants to cooperate. He can be completely asleep but the second I start messing with him he's wide awake.

This is the closest we got but his eyes are still open!

His face cracks me up in this picture. I walked in the room and Dennis had him propped up and sitting next to him on the pillows on the couch.

Daddy's little man.