Face Plant

Since Charles is becoming a experienced in the art of crawling he hasn't had to many problems. He has pretty much mastered getting where he wants to go even though he isn't the quickest, which includes crawling over obstacles instead of going around them. He is most proud of being able to sit up on his own and then continue on crawling at demand. He has started to stand up along furniture, walls and loves pulling himself up on mommy and daddy's legs. However; he sometimes loses his grip on what he is climbing up and end up falling down, which usually means that he ends up being so close to what he is climbing up that his hands no longer become an effective defense for the fall, so he has to use his face. Even though he has done this several times he has only managed to draw blood once, he is improving though.

State Fair

We made it out to the Eastern Idaho State Fair again this year. We figured it would be a lot of fun and Charles would enjoy it as much as Adahleigh did last year.

It ended up being quite a learning experience. Some of the things we learn were:

• A couple months makes a huge difference, Charles liked being at the fair for the most part but wasn't as interested as Adahleigh had been last year. I think the big difference was she was walking last year when we went.
• Double strollers and fair crowds don't mix well, especially when the fair is experiencing record attendance. Although, when it came nap time it was nice to have a place to put both of them to sleep.
• Independent kids are also a pain to take to crowded areas, Adahleigh had to walk around on her own and didn't want to stay by the stroller or be held, so we had to chase after her a lot.

Even with the inconveniences we still had a good time and will probably go again next year. Some of the highlights included Adahleigh pointing out the animals for Charles and telling him what they were and the sounds they made.

Although he wouldn't always look were she was pointing.

The milk goats are always the most inquisitive and entertaining. Adahleigh had to go around to each pen and pet them, but she'd only pet their side when they weren't looking at her and avoided the ones that stuck their heads out and were interested in interacting.Charles even was able to get in on the action.

One of Adahleigh's favorite places was the petting zoo that was set up by McKee's (a local pet store). She walked around and petted all the pygmy goats that were loose.Tried to get a hold of the rabbits, but they really weren't that interested in being touched. They'd only cautiously approach and she wouldn't sit still long enough for them to become comfortable with her. We also convinced her to touch an emu and llama.

We took Charles in and let him touch the goats also. He tried to grab everything, from ears to horns to noses. This was probably the most enjoyable part for him.

There was also a little activity area for kids where they could do different activities found on a farm. Like driving a tractor.
Bang on farm equipment.

Milking a cow, for some reason Adahleigh didn't want to touch the plastic cow at all. They could also stuff a scarecrow, play in beans, saddle a horse, and shop for fresh fruit and vegetables.
Once everyone had had enough fun we headed out and passed by an animal show that was about to start, so we go a seat and waited for 15min. Now one was really interested in sitting in the stands.

Unfortunately, the show wasn't really worth sticking around for. The animals didn't preform as well as you think they would for a traveling show. The actor's roles needed to be rewritten. Worst of all they tried to sell souvenirs at the end of the show that were ridiculously over priced, like a coloring or story book for $10.

It did make for a fun day out, Ashley hoped that it would rain like it did last year but no such luck.

Kids and their Tools

It's amazing how observant kids are and the activities that they are able to accomplish just from watching others. Adam brought home a little screwdriver and Adahleigh must have been eyeballing it, because she managed to get a hold of it and went straight after her toys with it. It wasn't as easy a she thought to get a screw out of her bus, but she didn't try that long either. She did know that you take screws out with screwdrivers though. Charles also tried to get in on the action at first, but Adahleigh wouldn't let him.

Charles also got a hold of a fork to play with the other day. He thought it was a musical instrument at first, or maybe a key for the cupboard, but he knew it went in his mouth (I guess everything goes in his mouth though, at least he put the right end in).

First Hair Cut

Ash finally convinced me to let Charles get his hair cut. I didn't want to cut it since he has been loosing his hair and didn't have much to begin with (Adahleigh still hasn't had her hair cut), but his mohawk that he has had since birth got so long that he looked funny with it; she also wanted to be able to spike it again. He was cooperative for the most part. I just took clippers and shortened the top and cleaned it up with scissors. He wasn't the slightest bit scared by the clippers.

Before

During

After

He still may need the back and sides shortened, but for now well just stick with the top being short.He wasn't too keen and Adahleigh bugging him, now that he has gotten mobile he doesn't like to be held much.

Summer Time

Now that summer has drawn to and end we really enjoyed ourselves. Once we got back from Oregon Adahleigh and Charles were able to enjoy the few warm days that we did have by playing outside. They really enjoyed playing in their pool (only if the water was warm enough for Charles). One of the days we brought out the frog too so they could play with it. Charles has no fear of animals, like Adahleigh use to be.

Once he showed her the frog was okay to touch and wouldn't do anything, she felt it was okay to touch also.
He was even comfortable enough to grab it by the head. We had to be careful and watch him so he didn't grab too hard.

Charles did keep a pretty good eye on the frog while it was swimming in their pool.

Adahleigh's friend Jacobi came over to play in the water a couple of times, she has a lot more fun playing in the water when she has someone the run around with.

8 months

Charles is now 8 months old and how time has flown. He is still happy as ever no matter what. People always comment on never seeing him cry or fuss, about the only time he does is when he's starving, exhausted or being beat up by his sister but he still tends to laugh at her more than not. Not even being sick can get him down.

He has now realized that he is actually capable of getting around one way or another and doesn't have to depend on everyone else to get him what he wants. He started out sitting when we'd put him up and then he started to scoot around on his bum mainly in circles. Adahleigh was suppose to get him to spin in a circle so we could film him, but she is just too fast to get any results, so mom had to help.

His crawling has started out as a cross between an army crawl and an inch worm, but he manages to get to where he wants to go and what he wants.

He is getting up on his hands and knees now, but hasn't quite figured out how to get around effectively this way. He'll stall and can't decide whether to try and sit on his bum or move forward.

As you can see he prefers shiny things to go after whether it be a ring or coins.

¡No Fear!

Adahleigh has decided more and more every day that life just isn't thrilling enough so she has to come up with more ways to make things exciting. At first, walking was good enough (at 8 months), then walking was replaced by running a couple months later, from there she moved onto climbing. Once climbing lost its thrill jumping became the norm, then jumping off things. Now it has become a combination of different ways to get a buzz, including going down large slides by herself.

Bouncing on her toys from a standing position.

Then balancing on her toys,

followed by leaping off of them.

As evident from the pictures she likes to run around naked after her baths and its a chore to get her dressed.

And the latest is suicide runs on her bike down steep hills. The first time she went down she made it all the way down, then Ashley scared her about doing it so she tried to put her feet down to slow herself and ate it. If you look close you can see her right shoe on the ground behind her, it show how bad the wreck was to be able to knock her shoe off.