So Behind, and Never Gonna Catch up.

Once upon a time there was a girl named Karen who started a blog. She didn't know that in the process of blogging she would run into the common problem of falling behind. So she decided that she would never ever be able to catch up. So all of you wonderful readers get a nice list of all the things you missed. Sorry for the lack of detail. But really, I'm not going to go back in time for you.

-Charlie started to crawl!
-Pretty much the day after he started crawling he learned how to stand up. I almost cried, I was so not ready for that one.
-It was my birthday. I'm 24 now, and I got some awesome presents. (Blue Man Group Tickets!)
-Charlie turned 8 months! Holy Cow!
-I got a gym membership, which I actually really enjoy. All Steve has to do is mention how I get to take a break from Charles and I am out the door.
-We went to Target! Man I love Target. Its a shame we have to drive an hour for it. I'm so excited for next fall when we will move closer to one. That is seriously in my top ten reasons I'm so excited to move.
-A good friend had her baby, and my brother and sister-in-law had their baby. I haven't met either of them yet, but I am looking forward to it.
-This morning I ran another 5k. I think I will not post my time this time though... But I will say that I'm happy I didn't die. I really thought I might this time around. Running on a treadmill is nothing compared to running on the street.

And now we are at my in-laws house in Richfield celebrating Thanksgiving. I think we always head down here for Thanksgiving, and we will probably keep it our tradition for a few more years. I am grateful to have wonderful in-laws. It would be very difficult to come into someone's family and not get along with them, but I am lucky enough to have found my perfect fit. I'm also grateful that Charlie is such a good little boy. People tell us all the time how sweet he is, and now staying away from home it is clear how easy to handle he really is. My sister-in-law asked us this morning if he ever cries. The answer to that my friends is: nope not really. He whines. Then he gets over it. Hopefully he will stay this sweet as he gets older and more capable.

I'm also grateful for wonderful friends and friends of friends that make me feel included always. I've never been outgoing. I'm working on being more bold. Stepping up to people and making my own friends instead of expecting people to come to me and initiate everything. I have some very wonderful women in my life who are helping me come into my own, though they may not know it. I'm grateful that we were able to move into our current apartment so that we'd be exactly where we needed to be for these women to come into my life.

I'm grateful for the opportunity and motivation I have found to better myself physically. I have found that I enjoy exercising more than I thought I would. It makes me feel strong and healthy, and it give me a huge emotional boost, which I really need.

I'm grateful to have a friend who is an amazing photographer. My family pictures are the bomb. We don't have them yet, but you will all seen them soon enough. Then you will all be jealous and want to hire her. Yep, that's pretty much my master plan. She actually finished her website, and you can peek at my pictures there. elisecreates.com is where you will find them. In the family section we are the one with the wagon wheel. Also there are a couple of Charlie in the babies section from the same photo shoot. You'll know its him because he is the cutest baby on the page. Also he's the one eating leaves.

And to help you forgive me for skipping so many potentially awesome posts, here are a whole bunch of up to date pictures of my sweet boy.

Steve was standing behind him do he wouldn't fall over. Charlie love everything to do with standing.

As soon as he saw me taking pictures he wanted to come to me. This is a nice action shot of his mad crawling skills.

Look how big he is in his bouncer! He used to be so small!

He learned that he could crawl up into his bouncer and pull things off of the couch. Nothing is safe from his grabby little hands anymore. Its only a matter of time before he learns to use his bouncer to climb up onto the couch.

Every time I sit down he crawls over to me and stands there. Sometimes he chews on my knees . Other times he's content just to stand by me. But a good chunk of the time he just wants to sit on my lap while he plays with his toy. I really like that he likes to sit with me, but I also really like when I can just ignore him and have a moment to myself. I'm kind of torn.

He really likes to crawl into the laundry basket and play. He just gets really upset when he's done playing and realizes that he's stuck. He does not enjoy being stuck.

And finally, this is how I know Charlie is ready to get out of bed. He stands up and yells at the door. Its pretty funny. I like that he doesn't cry in the mornings any more.

Well, that's all for know. I will try to blog more consistently so that I don't have to skip things. No promises though.