Supposed movement

Supposedly Jack can crawl. According to Chip he crawled after his turtle (she has batteries and rolls along the floor) on all fours Saturday while I was in the shower. I say supposedly because that was Saturday and this is Tuesday and I've still not seen him do it, nor has anyone else. Meredith and I did see him get up on all fours and rock back and forth several times Monday while playing with the same turtle. Maybe he'll show me in the next couple of days and I'll post pictures or a video.

Meanwhile several other developments are as follows:

Last Monday Mimi and Aunt Sara took the boys swimming at mom's. I forgot their sun hats so we tied dish towels around their heads to avoid sun burn. Thus the picture.

Friday we went to an organized Moms thing at a local church. The boys went in the nursery, I went to a class. They give you a pager from the nursery. I got paged. We had to leave early. We are going to try again this week (the class is supposed to go through Christmas) but I'm not sure yet if this is the thing for us.

Saturday we set up the Superyard XT in the family room. It's like a fence. Chip says it looks like we are getting ready for a steel cage wrestling match. I said it might come to that before it's over.

Tickle me Charlie

I still have not been able to get Charlie to sit up in front of me. He almost exclusively does it in his bed and only when no one is looking. He has started pulling up some and spent most of the day climbing me and aunt Ria as if we were mountains. When Jack sees Charlie "in my lap" (I use that loosely to mean hanging off me in some way) he always wants to be there too. So I have to find a way to pick him up while keeping Charlie from falling and seriously hurting himself.

Last night my dad came over and helped us lower their mattresses. Not a moment too soon, as Charlie spent all day finding new things to do. I went out to run some errands and when I came back he crawled over a ride on toy to get to me.

He also truly believes that he can walk. He will pull up on one thing and then launch himself at something else. He has been taking steps while holding your hands for quite a while now (since before he could crawl) but you have to do all the balancing. He seems to not know that you are helping him and will let go if your not careful only to fall on his face.

Jack practiced lots of steps today too and is getting much better about standing flat on his feet. Maybe he is going to skip crawling all together. On the other hand he may be planning to "employ" Charlie as his go get boy.

Anyway, I thought Charlie deserved a little video time too. He is very ticklish, so here you have it.

What is so hysterical?

I never was able to get Charlie to sit up for the camera. Usually he practices some in his crib when no one is watching before he'll show you how he does it. When I was putting them to bed tonight he did it once while I had my eyes closed. I was convinced earlier that he must have used the side of the crib for help but as I caught the very end this evening I know he did not. Maybe I can get it on film tomorrow. Instead, I got this great video of Jack laughing at nothing in particular.

My mom was over at lunch today and she, Chip and I were talking about how it might be harder to hold Jack's kind of bottles than Charlie's. So for their afternoon snack, I gave Jack one of Charlie's bottles. He can definitely hold it but doesn't have the tipping part down yet. For some reason the whole thing struck him as very funny. Enjoy!

And things change again

This morning I put the boys down for their first nap and left the room as usual. They talked for about 10 minutes and then Charlie got quiet. He is my good sleeper and usually nods off long before Jack gives in. 20 minutes in Jack was still talking and fussing some so I went in to settle him down. To my surprise Charlie was not asleep at all but sitting up in the middle of his bed sucking his binkie and playing with blankie. While both boys are great sitters this is the first time either one has been able to go from lying down to sitting up without help. He knew he had done something because he looked at me and smiled big around his binkie.

Since then he has started to do it twice while playing but has yet to show me all his moves. I'm hoping to get it on video and will try to post it later.

One free hand

OK, I've been meaning to update this for days so here goes:

On Monday my aunt Phyllis gave both boys a trim. Just a little off the sides and in the back. Neither of them cried but Charlie was a bit of a challenge and will probably get a revision to his 'do this week sometime. Jack sat very still on my lap watching Einstein during the whole process. Charlie kept trying to get a good look at the scissors (and maybe a taste, just for good measure).

On Tuesday we were installing some baby gates when we found out that Charlie is afraid of the drill sound. While Chip was fussing about the gate and I was calming Charlie down, Jack was quietly feeding himself his entire dinner with no help at all. This may not seem like a big deal but I have been putting most of his food into his mouth up until this point. In fact I was starting to worry, he wouldn't pick up much himself but it seems to mostly be a case of "why should I do it if you'll do it for me."

On Wednesday aunt Ria came over and discovered that Charlie had finally mastered the fine art of drinking his own bottle. He has been able to hold it for a while now but could not tip it up enough to actually drink from it by himself. By Friday he was an expert and wants very little help now (as with most everything). Thus, I now have "one free hand". Jack, true to form, is much happier having you do things for him than doing it himself. He'll try it but only for a minute.

Today the boys are 11 months old. How time does fly! At church we left them in the nursery for the first time. (We had visited briefly several times before, but never spent the whole service in there.) My aunt Julie was scheduled to help in there today. When we first got there she hadn't arrived yet. Charlie lost it. The ladies in there assured me that he would be fine and they would come to get me if he didn't settle. I knew Julie would be there soon so I left, and immediately began to cry. I have never left him with someone he didn't know before. Within a minute Julie came in saw me and went to get him. She and my uncle Brown took care of him for the rest of church and said he was fine. She mostly stayed in the nursery with Jack, who couldn't figure out what all the fuss was about. Charlie hung out in the lobby with uncle Brown because, while he was fine out there, he cried every time they went back into the nursery. Jack just kept trying to get Julie to put him in the swing, which he is way to big for, but otherwise had a ball with the other kids. I know it had to happen sometime, but boy is that stuff hard on a momma.

The last couple of nights the boys have really enjoyed their baths. They also love the oscillating fan we borrowed from Grandpoppa to keep them cool at night. They love for you to hold them in front of it and let their hair blow.

Boy are they finding each other funny. One will laugh, then the other, and back and forth for 15 minutes or so. I took these pictures tonight.

Duck race

Last weekend I took the boys to their first duck race (first of many I'm sure). My uncle John is the big wig at the Boys and Girls Clubs of the Tennessee Valley and the Great Knoxville Rubber Duck Race is one of their biggest fund raisers. It is also a family tradition. We ride the river boat up to see the ducks be dropped into the Tennessee then back down towards the finish line.

They really seemed to enjoy the boat ride which was surprisingly cool due to the nice breeze. Aunt Phyllis carried Jack around while aunt Julie wrangled Charlie, giving me a nice break as well. I did feel like a terrible mother though. While slathering Jack in sunscreen, I apparently got it in his eye which was swollen and red the whole time we were there. He didn't act like it hurt but I felt bad none the less. (Shortly after this picture was taken of Charlie he threw his green duck overboard. I guess he wanted his own entry. Apparently, it landed on the lower deck and was returned to us by a nice deckhand later on.)

Hidden chicken

Today, when the boys woke up from their afternoon nap, I was standing over Jack's crib talking to him. Suddenly this piece of pinkish stuff flew at me from out of nowhere. I picked it up thinking it might be something out of his mouth caused by his molars coming through. It was a piece of chicken. It wasn't wet so I guess it didn't come out of his mouth. I think he must have been holding it in his hand, although I did wipe their hands before nap. I can't believe he held onto it and kept it hidden for all that time. They had napped for over 2 hours.