So the newest thing we're dealing with these days is separation anxiety. Lucky for us, it's not specifically separation from us - when George leaves for work in the morning and leaves Charlie with Pamela, he's not dealing with huge sobbing good-byes - but heaven forbid either of us needs to run grab something, or use the restroom and we have to leave Charlie by himself for 5 minutes. Tears, screaming, drama ensues. Now that the little guy sits up well on his own, we were just starting to feel our leashes lengthen... and now he's snapped them back again. He knows who's boss! He's still pretty good with strangers/new people, which is really nice - as long as someone is with him, he's okay. But he does not like to be alone, even for a minute! Bedtime is tough these days too - we're working on letting him cry himself to sleep, which is totally heartbreaking, but seems to be working. Last night we only had 10 minutes or so of gut-wrenching howls before he drifted off. So we're making progress - but it's so hard to force ourselves to let him cry it out! And the panicked face he gives us as we're walking out the door is really pitiful!
Otherwise, though, things are going well! The rest of Charlie's birthday was great! While he was napping after the first round of presents, I baked cupcakes,
and then once he got up and was fed, we took him on an adventure. First we visited the dermatologist, who pronounced his eczema much better and said we don't have to visit anymore until he gets something new (he gave us a VERY scary brochure about some skin thing that lots of nursery school aged kids get - something to look forward to!). Here Charlie is in his birthday suit at the dermatologist.
After that, we stopped by my office for a very quick hello to my co-workers, and then headed over to deliver our cupcakes to the NICU. It was so fun to see some of the nurses we got to know so well, and we even got to see Dr. Alli, one of the doctors who treated Charlie. Everyone was thrilled at how big and chubby he is, and how healthy he's been. They could hardly believe he was the same baby!
I didn't get a chance to mention during the week what a big Sunday we had last week. Now that Charlie has made it through his first year and been healthy most of the time, we've decided to start slowly introducing him to kids. On Sunday, my friend Carrie brought over her baby Marie, and we took the kids for a walk and then came back to our house for a little playtime. You can see that Charlie was completely entralled by Marie - he particularly loved rubbing her soft head and pulling on her ear. She tolerated it for a while - patient girl!
Then she head-butted him to show him who was boss:
He was very excited to have her over!
After that, he and I went down to Fredericksburg, VA to visit my friend Paula, who I've known since preschool, and her husband and 2 kids. Carter and Charlie were born just weeks from each other, but didn't pay each other much mind. Addison, though, was in love with Charlie, and was very sweet with him - she played with him and fed him and asked if he could spend the night in her bed with her! He had a great time, and was so exhausted when we got back in the car to drive home that he fell asleep within 5 minutes! Here Charlie is with Addison and Carter:
Each day this week, more birthday gifts arrived for our boy - what a lucky kid! Most recently, we received some Red Sox gear and this great mini-basketball hoop. So far Charlie puts the basketball in his mouth more often than in the basket, but he really likes to pull on the hoop, since it sets off a round of cheers each time. Pretty cute - thanks Uncle Mike and Abbey!
Lastly, we had Charlie's 1 year check-up Friday morning. He's 18 1/2 pounds now, a regular chub, and the doctor thought he looked great. He had to get two shots, which weren't much fun, but he was done fussing before we were even back in the car - he gets tougher all the time!
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