Charlie: 5 Months

Today, Charlie is 5 months old!  

This month, his little personality has really come to life!  We love love love his laugh and happy demeanor!  He truly is such a joy!  

Charlie is now consistently sleeping through the night!  He nurses exclusively 5 times a day with his last feeding at 7:30pm.  He will wake up around 6am and I move him to the swing until 7:30am for his first feeding of the day.  We are completely done with swaddling and he transitioned great into the sleep sack.  Although we tried rice cereal for the first time for fun, I don't think we will really start eating it until closer to 6 months.  However, he still really enjoys sitting at the table with us in his high chair!  Charlie is also loving playing in the exersaucer this month and of course watching Hayes' every move.   He recently discovered his feet and plays with them every chance he gets!  

Below are a few pictures from today... 

Hayes' 1st Hair Cut

Over the weekend, we took Hayes to get a much needed first hair cut!  I had been reluctant because I knew it would make him look like such a big boy.  I knew he wouldn't like it, but had no idea how terrible it would be!  We made our way to "Divas and Dudes" to make the experience as happy as possible.  I figured with movies, toys and suckers, surely he would be OK.  Boy was I wrong!  It ended up being a very traumatic experience for us all...

Here is our big boy afterwards...

As a reward, we headed across the street to the "Learning Express" to visit Elmo!  Apparently Elmo had a way to make everything better...

Winter Routine

Now that the holidays are over,  we are settling into our new winter routine.  Winter is my least favorite season and January/February are my least favorite months!  We are trying to make the best of the cold weather and staying as busy as we can.  My baby weight "grace period" is coming to an end, so we have started back at the Y!  Hayes actually really enjoys it and Charlie does great as well.  Charlie seems to be pretty consistent lately with sleeping so i'm actually feeling rested enough to go.  Although i'm excited that we have survived the newborn months, i'm also sad to see them go!   Anyway, it's so cold and dark lately that it can be really hard to get motivated to get the kids out of the house in the mornings, but we try our best!  The Christmas toys have made it more bearable for the days that we stay home.

We usually spend our Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings going to the Y or a play date.  Tuesday and Thursday mornings we drop off Hayes at school and usually run errands for an hour or so and then go home to let Charlie play/nap while I get stuff done around the house.  After school, we usually run errands or meet up with friends if it's nice before heading home.  Saturday mornings we have been hanging out at home mostly unless something is going on around town.  And Sunday mornings we are really loving our Life Group and church service while the boys play in the nursery.  Although most my pictures lately are in our pajamas, I promise we are getting out as much as we can! 

Here are the boys having a PJ party in our bed...

Hayes put his toys in Charlie's crib for a nap...

Charlie has been enjoying playing in the exersaucer!

And Hayes has brought home lots of fun crafts from school lately...

We've been spending lots of time in the playroom with all the new toys...

And taking warm baths at night with his new bubble bath...

Hayes wanted to play in the exersaucer too...

Sweet boys watching cartoons...

And Charlie testing a bite of rice cereal!  Not a success, but he sure looked cute...

Charlie's 3 Month Pictures

A few weeks before Christmas, I took Charlie to have his 3 month pictures taken.  We had to reschedule several times due to weather, so it is actually closer to 4 months!  We tried out a new photographer named Emily Lavender who was referred to us by a friend.  We were really happy with how they turned out!  

Below are a few favorites of our blue-eyed boy...

And some with big brother...