Charlie's 9 Month Appointment

Chubby Charlie had his nine-month doctor appointment last week and weighed in at 24 lbs, 2 oz (93rd percentile). He was 28 and 3/4 inches long (72nd percentile) and his head circumference was 18 and 3/4 somethings (95th percentile).

Charlie is a very lazy baby who rolls over about once a month and still doesn't crawl. Skip was almost walking at this age! But I think the fact that he's so hefty make it hard for him to be too mobile. The doctor said that he may just skip the crawling phase and go directly to walking.

Either way, Charlie is a sweet and wonderful baby. He brings me so much joy with his random giggle fits and his sweet and chubby face. I love him!

Vacation to Washington State

Enjoying s'mores in Linda's backyard.

Grandma Linda took all 7 kids to the park and managed them all by herself. Impressive!

Charlie and Skip hanging out on the playground, trying to stay warm!

We've been enjoying our week-long vacation to Port Angeles, WA and only have a few days left. Tori's mom is a great host and keeps us and our kids busy with lots of fun games, mostly outdoors.

Zadie has got to spend lots of quality time with her other twin cousins (only "other" because she doesn't get to see them as often), Bailey and Rihanna. And this weekend Zach's whole family came to visit and we were a full house!

We had some great games of croquet and Shanghai (a card game), ate s'mores, went for long adventure walks in the blustery cold, and somehow ended up watching lots of YouTube clips together. Fun times.

And now for the grand finale: Tori and I are going camping for a day and a half while Linda watches our three kiddos! Linda lives right next to Olympic National Park and we're excited to see it, but truthfully we're more excited just to get away. I could be camping in a landfill for all I care! Well, that would be kind of stinky, but just the idea of getting away is the fun part. No offense, children.

Weekend in San Diego

We had soooo much fun playing in the pool and the jacuzzi. Zadie made great progress with her swimming and didn't even want to go in the jacuzzi. And Charlie was as happy as a fat little pig in mud.

Skip fell asleep on my dad's chest for a whole hour. Very sweet, but I think my dad was starting to feel like a prisoner after a while since he was completely stuck.

Charlie is in a really fun stage right now. Nice photo with my madre.

Last weekend we had a work event in San Diego, and so we brought all the kids down and had a great time with my parents. Not sure if they can say the same. On Saturday we told them the great news that we could stay an extra day since we got permission to work from home on Monday, and I think they probably didn't think it was as great as we thought. They've been on extra duty as grandparents lately since my sister's family is living with them temporarily, but of course they were great sports and we spent a lot of time in the pool and tried to give them a break from our horde.

Enjoy these photos from our weekend!

Charlie Adoption Update

I don't think I've given an update about Charlie's adoption status since I got back from Italy and things were really up in the air. The good news is that we feel really good about the direction things are going and feel like we will be able to adopt Charlie and have him as our forever family. Hooray!

We got to meet Charlie's biological sister, who took care of him for the month that he was away. She is a very nice person who I think has a good heart and I want Charlie to always know that she really wants to raise him and be close to him. But after meeting her, we were able to have a frank heart-to-heart in which we shared with her a few of the reasons why we thought that Charlie would be better off being raised by us. Although I know that it was emotional for her, she ultimately agreed with us, which I think shows that she is really thinking of Charlie and what is best for him.

I am feeling really happy that things are looking so positive for us and I feel really excited about getting to keep Charlie. Nothing has happened in the actual court system to make us any closer to this reality, but this is just a really strong feeling that I have and is also based on the fact that now that the sister isn't going to contest our custody, there really isn't another candidate because of the issues with the biological parents (the birth dad is currently in jail and the birth mom is not easy to locate). I think it's going to take a long time to work it's way through the system, but I think that this is really going to happen.

Although having three kids spaced so closely together is really a challenge and is still a bit overwhelming, I'm really happy with our family and love our three little kids. Can't wait until it's all official!

The Five of Us

Yesterday we went to our friend Suzan and Fernando's house (otherwise known as "Suzando") for a gourmet brunch and time at the park. I wish we had some photos of all the stuff she made for brunch: french toast with fresh berries, nutella, and mascarpone; fritatta; and chicken sausage. Tori brought a watermelon/feta/mint salad which sounds gross but is actually very good.

Suzan took a bunch of photos of all us, including these two family photos. It's funny because I can't really remember the last time I saw a photo of all five of us (maybe our holiday card?). When I look at it, it makes me think, "Is that really my family?"

It seems like we became a family of five really quickly and I don't even know what happened. All of the sudden we just were. And it's still weird for me to think of myself as a mother, although sometimes that part of my identity feels like it threatens to suffocate all the other parts of me (like the me that used to have adult time). When the past three Mother's Days came around, Tori and I both never thought of that holiday having anything to do with us because it's like we still don't realize that we're moms. We just think of it in relation to our own mothers.

The other thing that stands out to me about these photos (and particularly the one at the park) is how we look a bit older and worse for the wear. Especially me. I wonder what I'll think in five years or ten years when I look back at this photo. Maybe I'll think, "Wow, look how tired I look. I'm glad I survived those years and made it to the more fun part of parenthood." Or maybe I'll think what everyone says I'm going to think, which is, "Awww, I sure miss when the kids were little and cute like that. Those were the days." But I really hope I don't think the latter.

The majority of people who come up to us when they see us with three little kids in tow say something to the effect of, "Treasure this time because they grow up so quickly." I know they're just trying to be nice and I'm sure there's a lot of truth to what they're saying, but I find it annoying to hear that because right now I'm sort of in survival mode and I'd like to think that this isn't the peak of the parenting experience and that I'm always going to miss this phase. Having said that, I realize I'll probably walk around saying this to young parents in 10 years, so I shouldn't judge!

But there are also some mothers who will come up to us, especially when one of us is alone with the three kids, and quietly reassure us, "Don't worry. It's gets easier. It really does." And those are the people I want to hug and say, "Thank you for saying that!"

Brothers

Charlie and Skip are really cute together. Charlie cracks up at everything that Skip does, except when Skip gets too rough and pushes him over or rolls him over (we're working on that). And Skip takes special pride in looking out for his brother. When we're in the other room and he hears Charlie crying, he says "I'm toming, Cha-yee. I'm toming."

I think Skip is really enjoying being the older sibling since he's used to being the youngest. Zadie is kind of over younger siblings and tends to not give Charlie the time of day. Sometimes she can be really sweet with him, but mostly I think she sees little brothers as impediments to the projects she loves to work on. They're always wrecking her stuff or their crying or need to drink a bottle is keeping her parents from playing puzzles with her or working on other projects. When I ask her if she wants another little brother or sister, she's very emphatic that she doesn't. Poor thing probably just wants to enjoy a little bit of her childhood!

Sometimes when I'm hanging out with Zadie, I say, "Zadie, isn't Charlie just SO cute? Isn't he just the cutest?" and then she'll smile and agree with me. So I know that she loves him, but most of the time she's just trying to get her share of the parents' attention.

Anyway, here are some sweet pictures of Skip and Charlie hanging out together. Skip tries really hard to be a good brother to Charlie and loves to make him laugh. I also think these photos are funny since they are biological siblings but they look *nothing* alike and their skin color is so different. Also funny that Skip is 14 months older, but Charlie is almost as big as he is!

Bonding with Charlie

Last weekend I went to San Diego for a few nights and I only took Charlie with me. It was fun to just have him and actually be able to treat him like an only child for two days. Sometimes we feel badly that we're always carting him here and there and everywhere and it doesn't really get to be about him.

The exception to that is the mornings. Because he unfortunately wakes up before everyone else (usually 5:15 or 5:30am), one of us gets up with him and just plays with him before the other kids wake up. It's kind of pathetic, but lately we've been taking turns sitting in the car in the driveway until 6:15 or 6:30am when the other kids wake up. He's really fun in the morning, but he screams so loudly (happy screams) that he wakes up Skip, who then wakes up Zadie.

Anyway, this post is supposed to be about how much I enjoyed my quality time with Charlie. He's a really happy baby these days and full of smiles. He's also extraordinarily fat and so that means that he's really fun to cuddle and squeeze. He loves to be tickles and gets the giggles really easily.

We're so relieved that he grew out of that miserable period...and I'm sure he feels better, too!

p.s. This photo cracks me up. I think the look on his face is as if he's taking his senior class photo!