Pretty Blanket and a Great Sign

Kenny's Aunt Barb passed away last November very suddenly and we miss her alot. One of the great things she always did was when a baby was born she made the baby a beautiful blanket. She never knew that we were pregnant with Charlie before she died, but we know that she would have made him a blanket had she been here. Her younger daughter, Lauren, Kenny's cousin, has picked up the wonderful tradition of making the beautiful baby blankets for the babies in her life. We were so excited when Lauren told us that she had picked up the family baby blanket making business! I think it's great when a family "tradition" can carry on. So here are some pictures of the beautiful, soft blanket that she made for our Charlie. We know that he will use it for years to come. It's so soft that I want to steal it sometimes!! :) It's a dark blue with a light blue border on it.




Really...Charlie is not sticking out his tongue at the blanket...I think it's at his Mommy since she tortures him with "photo shoots" about every other day!

And below are some shots of a great sign that Kenny's parents had made for Charlie. It was a surprise to us when we walked in the door from the hospital to see the sign. Since they were in Iowa when Charlie was born, they enlisted the help of my dad to get to our house to hang the sign. It says Welcome to the Family Charlie and has pictures of all of our family on it.

Bath time isn't so much fun...

Charlie had his first bath tonight. He finally lost all of the rest of his cord at the end of last week, so we were able to try out his great bath tub. He doesn't find baths so exciting...so we tried to move quickly!!

Here he is...Mommy is filling the tub and Daddy is holding Charlie...he already wasn't happy!

Look at this great tub and duckie...but Charlie wasn't interested!
He thought it was torture!!!

Out of the tub and in his froggie bathrobe was slightly better.

He still wasn't so sure about all of it until he was dressed in his pj's and Daddy was reading a Dr. Seuss book to him! Maybe next time he will like it a little better!

Some "early" photos of Charlie

Here's a few other photos of Charlie taken a few weeks ago. I stole them from Grandma Friedrich's camera today since I didn't get some of these on my own and wanted to share them.

Grandpa and Grandma meeting Baby Charlie in the hospital.

Rich Mazzuchelli (a friend from New Hampshire), Grandpa and Daddy sharing a toast in the Lake Forest Hospital parking lot..."to baby Charlie!"
Home from the hospital...and no, Kenny's not smoking a cigar in the house with Charlie...it's a bubble gum cigar still wrapped in plastic.

Grandpa feeding little Charlie.

Mommy, Aunt Joan and Charlie. We were so happy that Aunt Joan, Anna and Kate got to come over to our house after we got home to meet Charlie.

Aunt Joan with Charlie and Uncle Ken with Kate...they decided to swap kids!

Anna really wanted to see Baby Charlie, but all I heard that day was her calling "Uncle Ken, come and find me." She looked at Charlie, but didn't want to hold him that day and asked me lots of questions about when he could crawl. We decided that if he wasn't trying to crawl by Christmas, she could teach him.

Our sweet Kate enjoying some of Charlie's toys. Kate is almost exactly 11 months older than Charlie. We are so excited that they are close in age. Now Charlie just has to catch up to Anna and Kate so he can play with them.

Uncle Ken, Anna and Kate playing.

Kenny's Little Hemi

Charlie was born at 426pm and as soon as Kenny heard the time, he said "I'll always remember that because he'll be my little hemi." Of course, Kenny has equated his son's birth time to an engine on a car! 426 is a hemi on older model cars...so Kenny frequently calls Charlie "his little hemi" --- especially when he is crying or making some Charlie noises.

We went to the Mundelein Cruise Night with Charlie and is was also featuring Packards so we saw some friends too.


Here's Kenny and Charlie with a Plymouth Duster...the license plate says HEMI DST --- meaning it's a hemi engine in a Duster. Of course, we needed a picture of Charlie with a hemi engine.

Here's a hemi engine...and you can see the 426 on it.
Charlie...enjoying his first car show.

Kenny and Charlie ready to roll after hanging out with the Packards for a bit.

Some of the Packards...
more Packards...
and more Packards...

and more Packards...
And this is how I find my boys from time to time. Charlie's done eating so he's sleeping and Kenny also thinks that napping is a good idea too.

Today, we also had Charlie's 2 week appointment. Now, I realize my son looks like his father...but apparently he's trying to catch up to his father's size too! At the doctor today, they told us he weighs 8 lbs 5 1/2 oz. and is 21 1/4" long. That's 1 whole pound more than he weighed at birth two weeks ago! The nurses actually weighed him twice to make sure because they couldn't believe it! He also grew 3/4" of an inch in the last two weeks!

Besides a great, clean bill of health for Charlie, the doctor also told us the FABULOUS news that he doesn't need to eat every 4 hours throughout the night...in other words, we can sleep until he wakes us up now!!! And many nights, I've been waking him to eat every 4 hours, so maybe 5 hours of sleep is in my future tonight! :)

Charlie

In no particular order, here are some Charlie pictures from the last week or so. We can't believe that we are taking him to the doctor Thursday for his 2 week check up already!!!

Time is flying, our little guy is a GREAT little guy...he's calm (except when naked during diaper changes) and sleeps really well. We even have to WAKE HIM up at night for a feeding...not every night, but many nights we have to do that. He's loved having both his Grandma and Grammy over since Daddy has gone back to work...and Mommy has loved it too! Grandma and Grammy let Mommy take a nap, do some normal adult things like read email and they spend their time loving little Charlie.

This green pillow thing is a Boppy and we love it!!! Charlie is happy sitting in it, being fed in it or whatever. Here's our wide eye guy!

Cousin Lauren (as little Anna has named her) came over to meet Charlie...and he took full advantage of her lap! He loves to sleep with his hands around his face.

Our first real outing in the stroller...to the Packard Club meeting. As you can see Charlie was just so engaged in the discussion that Grandpa, Great Uncle Jim, Gary and Bill (below) were conducting that he slept through it! :) They were discussing the Des Moines Meet that we missed this year due to the birth of little Charlie...

Just hanging out with Mommy...

"Aunt" Adele came over to visit Charlie and spent hours just holding him while chatting with Mommy.

A little half smile in his sleep...and part of his dimple on his right cheek!

Trying to be a little festive for the 4th! Of course, the firecrackers on this shirt couldn't be shown without a truck too!

And with Great Aunt Donna when she stopped over for a visit with Charlie. That is his favorite spot to sleep...resting on anyone's chest.

And more...

Kenny feeding Charlie for the first time. Kenny is doing so well with him!!


Who can't love that face!!!

Uncle Ted just agreed right away to hold little Charlie. He has a lot of things on his "to teach Charlie list" that Kenny and I never will!

Grandma Friedrich holding Charlie for the first time!!

Mommy, Daddy and Charlie...all SOOOO happy to be going home. Lake Forest Hospital is great...but after 3 full days, we were all ready for our house!

More Pictures of Charlie

Finally...back in our hospital room, Kenny and I got to enjoy our sweet little Charlie that has totally turned our world upside down. Who knew that a little 7lb guy could bring us both to tears and smiles and make us be so thankful to have him in our life. I almost can't remember what it was like without him here and we've only been home for one night.

Daddy and Charlie...


Mommy and Charlie...

Proud Grammy Peck and Charlie. We owe a huge thank you to my mom for staying at the hospital ALL day on Thursday, helping keep me company and giving Kenny a break from sitting in our hospital room as we waited for Charlie's arrival. I'm not sure where else she would have been since she was so excited to meet him...but thanks anyways. :) You've been a huge help the last few days!

And Pops Peck with Charlie...always makes me smile how a little baby can get my dad talking. And I think Charlie won him over pretty quickly.

Our little Charlie makes some crazy faces...moves his lips funny, looks so serious too sometimes. And his poor little cone head that he has...that's what happens when you try to arrive sunnyside up and Mommy pushes for 2 hours.