Big Month for Charlie

Untitled from Kate K. on Vimeo.

In the last month, and really more like the last week, Charlie has learned to crawl (not in perfect form, but he gets the job done) AND finally gotten two teeth. So there have been a lot of new developments.

It's cool to see him scooting all over the place, but it's also a little stressful that he can get into places that are unsafe and he's constantly scouring the floor looking for the most disgusting and dangerous items to put in his mouth. It was kind of cool when he just sat there and smiled. Now he's kind of possessed with an inexhaustible need to explore and see things. He's also really into standing, so he's not quite as chill as usual. But hopefully this will get old quickly and he'll start being a lazy blob again. Haha. Just kidding...but part of me does feel that way.

The other upside of him crawling is that maybe he'll start to lose some weight!! It's cute that he's so plump, but it can also be hard to lug him around. Gosh, pretty soon he'll start walking and we won't have to worry about that!

Skip Turns Two Years Old

I'm really far behind on my blogging -- it's been a very eventful month, not the least of which because Skip just celebrated his second birthday. Many thanks to Aunt Katie for taking these photos.

As part of our annual 4th of July tradition, we went to Tori's dad's house in a small town in the Central Valley and we had a really great long weekend of rafting on the river, jumping on the trampoline, and doing the slip 'n slide down into the river. It was a physically exhausting and joyful vacation and we enjoyed every minute of it. We thought we had a long drive at 3.5 hours, but Tori's brothers drove from 17 to 22 hours, so we should be counting our blessings.

We got back home on the actual 4th of July and had previously arranged to have a big party at our house. I was thinking that was pretty poor planning to return from a long vacation at 1pm and have a bunch of guests arrive at 4pm. Oh well. We had a really nice group of people come over for the fireworks show and some gourmet burgers.

Skip got a cool scooter from my parents (see photo below) and a big donation towards a new kid bike seat from his Grandma Linda and a little bathrobe from me and Tori.

Skip is doing really great with regards to his talking. He speaks in pretty whole sentences and is way far ahead of where Tori was at the same age. He's not big for his age, but he's extremely athletic and coordinated. Tori hopes he'll be an Olympic gymnast. I can see him starring on the high school wrestling group in one of the lower weight groups, though Tori says wrestling is weird and she doesn't want to watch it!

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!"