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Charlie - 7 months old

I would have taken these pictures on the actual day (Sept. 24th) but I couldn't find that silly button pin anywhere. I was hoping it would turn up in a day or two, but nope. Still took a few pictures yesterday... 

CQ doesn't go back to the doctor until he's 9 months old, so no new stats for you today, but his appetite is widening.  He's now eaten rice/barley cereal, sweet potatoes, green peas, carrots, squash, bananas, pears, peaches, and prunes.

But wait, there's more!  Bonus pictures!!

 Yep, I'm still applying false eyelashes each morning.  ;-)

More Charlie videos

Charlie starting to CRAWL

Giggling with bad videotaping

Who needs toys when there are shoe laces?

Nude Photos

I'm normally scared to leave Charlie undiapered for just a minute, but I risked it big time today!  Here's my little fat rolled cutie in the buff!

 Well, I guess he's not completely naked, he does have on socks.  ;-)

 Woah woah woah, don't get too far behind me, Mom! 

 That's better.

Hopefully Charlie won't kill me for this someday, but I couldn't resist a few naked baby photos.  He'll be 7 months old tomorrow!

Basement

Continuing with our house tour...

I showed you our renovated kitchen a few weeks back.  So let's head downstairs now.

There is this funny little set of mini doors that open up to the family room/den/man cave.  (I will be calling it the play room though)  I guess it's to easily pass in snacks??

Here is the view from the little set of doors to our newly painted room.  The book case and trim is all painted white but the walls are a very light grey, I think it was called Ash.

But back to the hallway.  When you head down the stairs from the kitchen, there is a back door to our large backyard, also a bathroom and this door that leads to the true basement.

But if you hang a left there, you'll see this: The closet under the stairs (now home to Winnie's litter box) and the entrance to the play room.

View of back door.

Ahh, that looks more like a basement.  There is actually a one car garage to the left of those bikes.

Our laundry area which has been getting way too much action (I'm blaming you, CQ)

And a few more pictures from the play room.  Can't you just picture a ton of puzzles in there??  And Scrabble, and Boggle, and Catchprase oh my!

We have some light fixtures that will be installed soon...and the only other thing left is figuring out the floor.  We had some old tiling ripped up and we're leaning towards carpet so the little guy can roll around comfortably, but we don't want it to end up getting damp or wet so we've been monitoring that... seems like it would be totally fine.  We had a lot of rain a week or so ago and it kept quite dry.

Heading back up the stairs is what I call my pantry area.  We took their doors down for easier access since they were hard to move, but it means all our stuff is pretty visible, oh well.  I've showed you all now anyway.  :o) 

Reporting Live from Side Porch

Sunday Dinner

On Saturday we went to a great concert at the Franklin Theatre, just south of Nashville with Sarah and Matthew. The theatre was built in 1937 and recently underwent a renovation. It was really nice and we thoroughly enjoyed a little country music from the husband and wife duo Joey and Rory.   Mom and Dad had gotten the tickets because it was a benefit concert for Saddle Up, where my Mom volunteers.

Charlie enjoyed some quality Aunt time while my sister Elizabeth babysat!  Thanks E!  When we got home from the show Pat put a pork butt on the Big Green Egg around  11PM or so. 

I had seen these sliced potatoes on Pinterest and wanted to try them.  I basically cut them thinly 3/4s of the way down and stuffed them with a little garlic and gave them a nice coating in butter.  They were pretty good but not amazing.

But this Orzo Salad was pretty amazing.  My Aunt Carole had made it several weeks ago and I loved it.  I based it loosely off Ina Garten's recipe here, but did not use eggplant or roast my veggies.  

It's orzo, red onion, red/green/yellow pepper, toasted pine nuts, green onions, diced feta cheese, and is dressed with the juice of two lemons, olive oil, and salt and pepper.

It made for a delicious dinner and excellent leftovers.

Centennial Park

My new neighbor friend up the street, Rebekah asked me to join her for a walk with some of her friends at Centennial Park last Thursday.  They are mostly moms and want to get together for visiting and some exercise - perfect!  We made 4 loops around the park and all the women were really nice.  I think I'll join them again this coming Thursday.  A few pictures:

 CQ all bundled up for a chilly morning

The Parthenon

And something else exciting - Charlie is doing some sitting up all on his own.

A lot of times I sit around him so he won't topple over, but he is getting better at supporting himself.

Heartbreaker ;-) 

Recent Happenings

1. We went on a late afternoon hike last Friday at Radnor Lake.  Pat had never been there and it had been several years for me.  We tried out our Kelty backpack which one of our old neighbors kindly handed down to us.  Here we are testing it out in our front yard.  (and you can see Pat's new haircut!)

2. I received a care package from my sweet Mother in Law, Kate today.  How unexpected and nice.  "A little Autumn from our favorite store"  :)

3. Winnie has been enjoying brief trips outside.