Playing is fun!

Charlie's almost sitting up on his own, and is able to sit and play with the support of the boppy pillow. He seems to think life is much more fun now that he can easily sit up and play with his toys!

He's a big fan of the pacifier now, which is actually a treat for us, since it helps settle him when he occasionally wakes up in the middle of the night.

Charlie still moves constantly when he's awake. He is finally growing some hair back in the giant bald spot on the back of his head, which is nice. His mood these days is great - he's a very laid back baby, even with all the wiggling he does. He still doesn't love going down for naps and nighttime, but a little rocking in the glider usually sends him on his way. And considering he sleeps about 10 hours a night and takes good morning and afternoon naps most days, we feel very lucky! Here he is, knocked out for his morning nap yesterday.
And fast asleep in his crib:

This weekend, he tried his first REAL food, sweet potatoes. I'm trying to make his baby food - I thought it would be super high-maintenance until my friends Wendy and Susie suggested it, and I realized that it's as simple as boiling or steaming and pureeing vegetables (not sure why I thought it was going to be complicated!) and can save lots of money! The book they recommended, Super Baby Food by Ruth Yaron, has great tips, like freezing pureed food in an ice cube tray, so we now have 16 meals worth of sweet potato cubes in our freezer. Charlie is no more sure of the sweet potatoes than he was of the cereal, but I think it tastes pretty good!

Last night we ventured out for a VERY early dinner out with Charlie - we timed it to his naptime figuring he'd sleep in his car seat the whole time, but of course it didn't quite work that way... as soon as we got to the restaurant, he woke up and wanted to play. Clueless mommy didn't think to pack any toys, but improvised with a crumpled envelope I had in my purse. As it turns out, toys are really overkill - we should have just bought him a ream of paper for Christmas, as the crumpled envelope was a big hit. We batted it around the table while we ate. Charlie was VERY well-behaved, so hopefully we'll be able to take him out to every now and then - when we don't mind eating dinner at 5! He's such a good boy - we're really blessed.
Here's Charlie resting with his daddy after his exciting evening out on the town.