Thanksgiving On The Farm

The House on Strathmore Family took their first big Family Trip with Charlie to spend the Thanksgiving Holiday with the Krebs family in Cameron, Missouri.

Here is a look at the trip with a series of photos and videos broken up in a few chapters:

Chapter 1: Charlie's First Flight

Charlie proved to be a pretty good little traveler. We saved his feeding for take off, which meant he was a bit upset during boarding because he was hungry.

But once we got his belly full, Charlie spent the rest of the flight asleep, giving us a very peaceful plane ride.

Chapter 2: Everyone Gets Pictures With Charlie

The trip to Missouri was the first time for some to meet the newest member of our family. Obviously, everyone wanted there time with the little man.

Me-Maw a.k.a. Mi-Mi:

Pops:

Uncle Erich:

Grams:

Ryan (Soon to be Uncle Ryan):

Charlie:

Chapter 3: Scenes From The Farm

Here are just some scenes of us hanging outside on the Farm

Chapter 4: Thanksgiving Day Football

Thanksgiving Day was a beautiful day which started with some football:

Maggie wanted to play too:

But found the parking cone to be more entertaining then the pig skin:

We also had some great spectators:

Chapter 5: The Meal

After working up a hunger, time for the Thanksgiving meal. Here is Pops giving us the run down:

Yum

We even tried to get Charlie in on the meal

Looks like he was already too full

Chapter 6: One Final Group Shot

We had an excellent visit and we are very Thankful for the times that we get to spend with our expanding family.

6 week check-up

Charlie's 6 week stats:

Height: 22 1/2 inches
Weight: 9 lbs. 8 oz. 

He seems so big to us but I know plenty of babies, including his Aunt Katie, that entered the world over 9 lbs.

Here's a picture of the big man all dressed up for his doctor's appointment.

11/17/11

Trying to Get Charlie's Attention

On Sunday, I spent sometime with Charlie on the floor trying to have a little "play" time. What I was hoping was to test his alertness by using toys and noises.

Most infant toys share a number of similar qualities that help grab the attention of infants - like contrasting colors (especially black and white), they will make sounds, and will have different textures. These bugs that I have certainly did the trick.

Check it out . . .

However, these only seemed to work as long as Meet The Press wasn't on. Check out this video (You hear Meet The Press in the background and the TV set is on Charlie's left, where he is certainly focused on more).

It seems that the bugs were no match for David Gregory's silver hair and some good political fodder.

Great Saturday in Lauraville

The sun hasn't gone down yet today but we've had a great day already.  We started out with a trip to our favorite Lauraville/Hamilton Diner, Lost in the 50's, where I enjoyed scrapple, egg, and toast and John had a ham, egg, and cheese sandwich!  Charlie managed to sleep through the whole experience so we thought we'd take advantage of his nap and go on a long walk.  We stopped by the house to pick up Chelsea and headed to Herring Run Trail. I haven't been back to the trail in a year or longer because Chelsea started getting really agressive with other dogs so it got to be too much.  We had a good chat today about how her good behavior could lead to a big return to the trail and she seemed to take it seriously because she was fantastic.  Here's a great pic from the walk:

We got back home around noon and had some great Laur visitors and Charlie got a fantastic monkey outfit and blanket with his name embroidered.  And now the boys are clearly exhausted, I just captured this sweet moment. 

Fall rocks!

Charlie @ 1 Month

Today marks the big ONE month birthday for our little man.  Here are some fun Charlie facts from our first month as a family. 

Charlie's favorite activity: The Swing for sure, he loves to check himself out in the mirror mobile and its his favorite napping spot. 

Charlie's least favorite activity: Having Dad dress him in anything that isn't a sleeper onezie with a zipper.  It's equally as painful to watch. 

Charlie's food: He is going through a bit of a growth spurt we think and in just the past few days he's transitioned from 3 oz bottles to 4 oz bottles and he's been powering through them every 3 hours or so.  As for what's in the bottles, enfamil newborn.

Charlie's favorite song: We would like to guess "The Weight" by The Band.  Dad plays this during his late night feedings replacing the lyrics to say "take a load off Charlie." Take a listen:

Charlie's stats: I'd like to give you Charlie's one-month stats but we don't go back to the doctor until next Thursday when I'll be sure to publish them.  At his two-week appointment he was:

• 7 lbs. 5 oz. (5th percentile)
• 22 inches (75th percentile)
• 50th perecentile for head circumference

Charlie's best tricks:  Bearing in mind he can't do too much yet his best tricks are sneezing, hiccups, and snoring (in that order).

It's hard to believe its only been a month because it feels like he's been in our lives forever but at the same time it feels like just yesterday we were meeting him for the first time. 

Big First for Charlie: First piece of mail, his social security card!

Random Photo: Charlie and Chelsea

Halloween On Strathmore

For the past 4 Halloweens Strathmore Ave has been a growing hot spot for the Halloween hang out session. We got in the Holiday spirit a few days early by having all those in the household who are able to play with knives to carve the pumpkins.

John's Pumpkin

Bobbie's Pumpkin

Charlie's Pumpkin (done by John)

Chelsea is upset about not getting a pumkin

The whole family

Charlie starts off the evening by posing by his pumpkin (Note: outfit #1)

The festivities really got kicked off at the arrival of Evan-Saurus

Always plenty to eat at a Strathmore party including Katie Laur's 7 layer dip . . .

. . . Bobbie's Bat Cake . . .

. . . and the traditional Crabs and Boh's on the front porch.

Chelsea got dressed:

Time now for Charlie to get into his costume (Outfit #2):

and for everyone to have a turn of getting a picture with him:

Aunt Katie:

And Rhiannon (outfit #3)

All in all a successful night! Trick-or-treat-er count was placed at somewhere above 160, we did not run out of candy, good food, good drinks, good music, and the Sing-Off were enjoyed by all!