Cutest Baby in the Universe

Cards on the table...I think Charlie is the cutest baby in creation.  Really.  I do.  I know I should probably say that other babies are cute too, and they are...but my kid is cuter.  I can say this confidently because at this point he looks nothing like me and he resembles his father 110%.  So I'm still being modest.  I'm just proud of the cute men in my life. :)
So since I am the mother of the cutest baby, I plan to prove it by entering him in a cute baby contest....and winning all kinds of prizes. Help me pick the picture that you think will get us in the top 30.  Here are some options.  New submissions also welcome.  Pictures have to have been taken since he turned 6 months, so I only have 17 days of pics to work with here.

Okay...let the voting begin!!

Love Affair...

It all began December 26th, when Uncle Quinn gave Charlie a stuffed monkey from his college.  This boy has tons of toys and stuffed animals, but none are quite as special as the monkey.  It was love at first sight.  Here's our man at 2 and a half weeks old with his newest toy.  I don't know why...but this picture REFUSES to go the right way...so turn your head. :)

They are holding hands.  Come on.  Just about a month later, they still loved one another.

I took this video on January 31st showing how much Charlie loves it.  He searches for it when he gets down on the floor and then locks eyes with him.  They are in love.

 Here are some more pics chronicling their mutual affection for one another. :)

Love,
Claire, Brian, and Charlie...and the monkey :)

Can you believe I am almost THREE months old?

Hey everyone! My mommy is typing for me until I learn how to do it myself!  This last month has been amazing for me.  I can hold my head up about 80 degrees or so when I'm on my tummy.  I can hold my head pretty strong when Mommy or Daddy is holding me!  I flip from my belly to my back a lot now!  I am SO smiley and I love to "sing" a little bit.  I sort of set my own bedtime and I am ALWAYS asleep by 9.  No matter what time Mommy and Daddy start my bedtime routine, I fall asleep at 9.  I am happiest when they let me do my thing and start bedtime at 8:30 or so.  If they start it too early or too late, I just cry to tell them that I hate  that.  :)  Oh!  I almost forgot!  I love the bath now.  It is so awesome.  I love to play and look around and sing songs with my Mommy.  I am all around pretty fab (at least that's what my parents tell me)
Love,
Charlie
P.S. Here are some pictures of my being awesome.

2-28-2012

2-28-2012

2-27-2012

2-25-2012

2-22-2012

Our baby is 7 weeks old!

Whoa.  We have a baby.  We just keep grinning from ear to ear loving our new family.  This kid is THE. BEST.  Even when he wakes us up crying in the middle of the night, he is so cute-I can't help but smile.  He is truly the best gift from God.  He reminds me of what a fabulous gift he is every single day and I'm not sure what we did to deserve him, but I'm sure glad we have him here with us!  Here are some recent pictures showcasing his adorable-ness. :)

1-1-12   4 weeks old in this picture.  He likes tummy time but at 4 weeks, it frequently ended like this.

 

1-3-12  This is from his 1 month "photo shoot" he and I had one afternoon-he is just so tiny, I had to put him on his bookshelf.

 

1-7-12  5 weeks old in this picture-having serious thinking time with Daddy.



1-8-12  5 weeks at tummy time.  More alert, but not so interested in doing much.  He found his thumb in this picture, which is adorable.



1-11-12  I'm not sure where we were going on this Wednesday morning.  Probably the doctor, because we haven't gone anywhere but the doctor.  Seriously.  This kid isn't getting close to any germs.

1-16-12 Charlie turned 6 weeks old just a few days prior to this picture being taken.  We are amazed with how strong his little neck has gotten!  I realize you can't see either of my men's faces in this picture, but check out the neck strength of the little one!  And notice how teeny he is in his daddy's hands.

1-17-12  We JUST figured out a week before this picture that Charlie likes the bath when he is in the bathroom as opposed to the kitchen counter.  I think because it is warmer than the kitchen counter.  Boy, this fishy is cute.



1-21-12  This is my new guilty pleasure.  When Charlie wakes up around 8 each morning, I get him and bring him into our room to snuggle.  He is so alert at this time and it is just too cute to see him look around our room.  Brian loves to be a part of it on the weekends.  He told me he couldn't wait for Charlie's "power hour" on Friday night. :)



1-22-12  Sigh...

Charlie

Brian and I had a list of things we wanted to finish before Charlie joined us this year.  At 33 weeks, our list looked something like this:
-clear out spare bedroom    
-pick out paint for nursery
-paint nursery 
-put crib together
-get dresser
-get bookcase
-assemble furniture
-have last 3 baby showers
-purchase remaining items on registry
-wash baby clothes
-hang curtains in the nursery
-fill frames for wall
-hang frames
-hang something above crib
-install carseat
-decorate for Christmas
-have Christmas
-anxiously await the baby!

...you get the idea. :)

Well, our little Charles had other plans. :)  We did accomplish some of these things ahead of time with a little help from our friends.  A lot of these things were done for us as we sat in the hospital with our sweet baby boy, and some of them just won't happen.  And that's all okay.  Because our little boy made it here safe and sound (just a little early) on December 3rd (36 weeks) at 8:58 p.m. weighing in at 6 pounds, 1 ounce and measuring in at 20 inches long!

So here's what really went down...
-clear out spare bedroom
11-12-11 Brian did this 100% on his own. He took apart 3 beds in one day, and carried SO much stuff to and from the attic.  He is my hero for this and many other reasons.
-pick out paint for nursery
11-13-11 We went to Lowe's and picked out Soft Duckling and Grass Stain Green.  We painted swatches on the wall and picked Grass stain Green. 
11-14-11 Brian fought the crowds at Home Depot to pick this up one Monday after work. He then realized the color we wanted was at Lowe's.  Bummer.
-paint nursery
11-15-11 I have always thought that Stephen Barnett was an amazing man.  He sat in a fume filled room late the next night before a UK game to help Brian paint the nursery.  Brian then stayed up and painted during halftime to finish it off.  As per Troyer household tradition, we ordered Mad Mushroom cheesesticks.  I was asleep by the time they arrived.  Brian had to eat a bunch of them on his own.  Lucky duck.

Brian had to leave to go to Atlanta the next day and didn't get back until Friday.  On Thursday, the girls at school threw a shower for us and gave us the swing and bouncer seat.  I have pictures from this 11-17 shower, but they are at school.  And I am not. :)  Brian returned on Friday, when the one and only SLB hosted a shower for us that night!  We had an amazing time with our friends and parents and filled up on bacon-the theme of the shower. :)  P.S. While Brian was in Atlanta, he went to Pottery Barn Kids and bought Charlie's bedding...because he is the most thoughtful man in America.

11-18-11

-get dresser

11-19-11 We spent Saturday at IKEA with our dear friends Farrah and Jim, they helped us overcome our indecisiveness and purchase a bookshelf and dresser. 

-put crib together

11-20-11 Brian did this pretty much on his own while I organized all of our amazing gifts from the fabulous people in our lives.  I helped a little, but it was pretty much all my amazing hubster.  We also went to a nursing class this day!  Apparently, we were both nesting. :)

-assemble furniture

-fill frames for wall

11-21-11 After work, Brian picked me up and we went to Babies R Us to look at gliders for the nursery.  We bought our chair and headed home.  Farrah and Jim came over and ate pizza with us. Jim and Brian assembled the dresser while Farrah and I sorted clothes and picked pages from The Very Hungry Caterpillar to go in the frames we got at IKEA.

11-22-11 Brian put the glider together all by himself.  He is seriously Bob Villa. 

-wash baby clothes

11-23-11 Brian had to go to work today, but I didn't (the day before Thanksgiving).  I folded and organized clothes and set up the dresser and the bookshelf.  It felt good to put all those presents away!  We also Scotch Guarded the glider right before we left for Bowling Green so we didn't have to breathe in the fumes. 

11-24-11 We spent Thanksgiving in Bowling Green.  All four of Brian's grandparents made the trip.  Brian's grandpa Troyer, a retired OB/GYN guessed my due date (January 1st 2:30 AM) and Charlie's birth weight (7 lbs, 15oz) just by poking around my belly.  Chris (who has guessed both of their kids birthdays) said it would be December 28th after he saw me when we Skyped.  They were both wrong...fun anyway. :)

-have last 4 baby showers

We only had one to go!  Julie Owens was hosting a couples shower for us on December 3rd.

-purchase remaining items on registry

Funny story-Brian and I laid in bed the morning of the third and made a plan for buying remaining registry items on Sunday, December 4th. :)

-hang curtains in the nursery

My mom bought the curtains for us and Brian and his mom Julie just installed the rod and hung them today.  They look amazing!

-hang frames

We're working on this tonight!  As soon as I finish blogging.

-hang something above crib

Julie and Val made the CUTEST banner for our baby shower that we didn't get to go to :)  We are hanging that above his crib!

-install carseat

Thank goodness for Julie Owens!  After Julie and Mike ran out to get our carseat on Sunday the 4th, Julie came over and installed the bases in our car and brought the carrier to the hospital so Charlie could do the "Car Seat Challenge".  It is basically where they hook preemie babies up to monitors and stick them in the carseat for an hour to make sure they breathe okay.  He passed, so we got to bring him home. :)

-decorate for Christmas

Our amazing families took care of this.  Mike and Julie went and got a Christmas tree for us, my sister and mom decorated the tree and my mom decorated the rest of our house and even put the storage bins back in the attic!  I wonder if they'll come back to take it all down...:)  Joanna texted this picture to me in the hospital. :)

-have Christmas

-anxiously await the baby!

The rest of the list will just have to happen with our sweet baby!  We couldn't be happier that he is here to help us celebrate the season. 

Welcome to our world Charles Marker Troyer!

Happy Halloween!

I made Brian and I's costumes this year-they turned out pretty cute if I do say so myself!

Well in 11 weeks or less...

We will have a baby.  Like in our house.  Insane.  We are getting ready to take our house off the market and hunker down here for a while.  We are a little disappointed, but excited to set up a space for the babe here in our first home.  It seems like every day I am more pregnant than I was before.  Brian has been gone for 5 or 6 days at a time and home for just 1 or 2 days in between.  I feel like he will be shocked each time he sees me, but he seems pretty unimpressed. :)  Yesterday he said, "It looks like you had the baby while I was gone..." Meanwhile I was thinking, "Holy Cow, I can't believe how pregnant I feel...".  Everything seems to be happening really quickly now.  We are getting ready to have some showers with our friends in the next month or so and it just seems like there is so much to do!  My glucose test is Thursday morning-so here's hoping I pass that.  I hear it is disgusting once, and three times as disgusting if you fail it and have to re-test.  So say a little prayer for that.  And that someone decides to buy our house before we take it off the market.  And that this baby has Brian's eyesight.  And anything else you feel like throwing out there for the Big Guy to consider.