Weee!

Charlie took his first ride in a park baby swing! He absolutely loved it! He giggled and smiled the whole time
Tony's outside right now hooking up Jon and Mindy's swing to the big oak tree.

I forgot my camera, so we have to settle for phone pictures.

Yummy!

Charlie has been eating cereal for a few weeks now and loving it! We decided it was time to introduce some new flavors to him! Since avocados were on sale, we started with those. We made the choice to make our own baby food because in the long run it's cheaper and has no preservatives in it.

Here's the monster food processor we have. The avocados could be mashed, but I wanted to be sure I got all the chunks out!

I put them in ice cube trays, or a baby food tray from my friend Kelly, and freeze them. After they're completely frozen, I put them in a labeled ziplock bag. When we want to use them we pop one cube in the microwave for 30 seconds and it's good to go! 

Here's an after avocado shot. He LOVED it! 

He also loved getting cleaned up afterwards. 

Today I also made green beans. They are fresh from my aunt Marybeth's garden. I steamed them, then I processed them. After a few days of watching for any allergic reactions to avocado, we'll try some beans! 

ARTiGraw

Yesterday was the third annual ARTiGraw at Mayo Park in Rochester. Tony's jazz band, Med City Jazz, played again this year. Tony isn't the best communicator at times, so I reminded him that his family probably would love to come see/listen to the band...Therefore, we had quite the showing! Jon, Mindy and the kiddos, Laur, Jill, Charlie and myself were all there tapping our toes.

Here's a taste of the awesomeness that is Med City Jazz:

Natalie and Harvey really enjoyed the music. Check out their dancing skills. It seems like to Harvey, dancing is a lot of running and falling...

Med City Jazz! Check out that good looking drummer!

There he is close up! 

Dancing and playing. 

Charlie enjoyed the show from his aunts and uncle's laps

Impromptu Visitors!

This afternoon Charlie had some visitors stop in from Iowa bearing delicious gifts! Hannah, Michelle and Marybeth brought cake balls for me and cupcakes for Tony. When I say cupcakes, I'm meaning 12 giant fully frosted cupcakes! He's one spoiled guy...

Charlie was taking his 2nd nap of the day when they arrived, but quickly awoke to have some play time. Here are a few pictures I stole from Hannah

Michelle and Charlie. Note the "rock star in training" onesie. This is for going to watch Tony play in his jazz band at Artigraw later today. Charlie would like to follow in his daddy's footsteps.

Hannah and Charlie. 

Mom Truth

I don't typically do a lot of "feeling" writing on my blog. I use this to share with family and friends what we are doing in the Stewie Knutson household. However, I feel it is time I share a few "feelings" since this week has been full of them!

Last Monday, Charlie started daycare at Nessa's house. We visited the week before, dropped off his things and generally put my mind at ease again that we chose the right daycare mom. However, when Monday morning rolled around I was a wreck! I didn't have to be in Austin until 8:30, but I woke up early to help Tony get Charlie all ready. At 5:30 I was feeding Charlie and tears started slowly falling down my cheeks. I kept thinking, "This is ridiculous! I was able to spend 5 wonderful months home with him! Why am I so upset?" I was even more confused because I've been so excited to get to school and start my career as a teacher. I quickly wiped those tears away before Tony could see me. He would think I'm silly...

I changed Charlie and decided to have a little play time before Tony got him in the car. The entire time I couldn't stop thinking about how time has flown so fast. 5 months ago he was this tiny little peanut who never left my side; now, he's this big boy, rolling around, eating baby food and going off to daycare. Those pesky tears returned....

While Tony was getting his work things in order, Charlie and I sat on the stairs cuddling. Finally, Tony had to pry Charlie out of my hands...I couldn't seem to let go of him! As Tony got him buckled in and set in the car, my tears were out of control! I sat on those stairs and cried for a good 15 minutes.

I've heard this is normal, but I figured I would be just fine. I wasn't the one dropping Charlie off, and again I had those 5 months with him. All day I checked my phone and resisted calling or texting Nessa. I barely heard the material from my class (which was an amazing week--talk more about that later...)

The second I was out of class, I called Tony. He said that Charlie was a perfect angel all day. Nessa absolutely loved having him! That night, Nessa text me giving me ALL the details from the day. When I told her I resisted texting her all day, she told me to text or call whenever I want. She doesn't mind one bit. Again, so grateful we found her!

Charlie was a tired little boy all week, but he is still our happy healthy little guy. It hasn't gotten easier for me yet, but I'm sure there will come a morning when the tears don't return...

This is the newest smile from Charlie. He sucks in his lower lip. What a silly boy!

This ball is a favorite in our household! 

Eco-Tri = Exhausting!

Wow, the blog has gotten away from me for a while. Sorry about that! Life has been extra busy these days, but I will blog about that a little later...

Last Sunday, Tony and his brothers competed in the 4th Annual Rochester Eco-Triathlon. Jon and Brian "live" for this event. They work hard training day after day, and it shows! Tony however, likes to fly by the seat of his pants for this event. Don't get me wrong, he runs, bikes and kayaks every once in a while to keep him semi in-shape, but he does not train like his elder brothers do. He does have fun at this event though, and to him, that's all that matters. He's happy to be doing something like this with his brothers regardless of what place he took.

I would like to note though that I'm quite proud of my brothers-in-law: Jon took 9th and Brian took 12th this year! Awesome job! It was so fun to watch all 3 of them.

The title of my post is Eco-Tri = Exhausting! because I was completely spent by the end of the day. It started with waking up very early and getting Charlie all ready for the day. It was raining, so that made getting ready even more difficult. What do we wear, what do we bring?? Should we even go? Well, we went.

We went to Fisherman's Inn and watched the boys take off in their kayaks. I didn't take my camera out because of the rain. Thankfully, my dad lent me his golfing umbrella, so we were dry! Charlie hung out in the Ergo baby carrier. So much easier than lugging a stroller around.

After they took off, we all hopped in our cars and drove quickly to Camp Victory to catch them coming in. It's a long walk from our cars to the river. I had Charlie on my front (weighing in at 17 lbs), a backpack on my back (weighing in at a little less than Charlie), a water bottle and an umbrella. As we're waiting for the boys to come in, Charlie was not a happy camper. I finally had to feed him while he was in the carrier. At this point, my shoulders are already getting a little sore. We still had a long day ahead of us.

We watched all 3 boys come in, watched them bike and watched them run. The entire time I stood holding my big boy! He slept most of the time, but that didn't make him lighter. By the time Tony finished, I was ready for my own nap. We stood around talking for quite a while until Tony had to take off to make it to the theater for the afternoon matinee of Young Frankenstein. I headed to Cher and Alans to nap the afternoon away until the delicious zucchini fry!

Charlie had other plans. He was wide awake when we got to Willow Hill. It took me quite a while to get him down for a nap, by that point all I wanted to do was sit and put my feet up. That's exactly what I did, until people started showing up for supper. I moved around like a zombie visiting and helping out where I could. When it was time to eat, I could only have a plateful of zucchini before I NEEDED to go home. I was sore and tired. I still had a long evening of getting Charlie down for bed ahead of me.

Needless to say, it was a very fun day, but very exhausting day for me. Next year we're bringing the stroller...

Here's Laur at the Eco-Tri! Got you for once!

Miss Maya walking towards us after watching her daddy go by on his bike. 

There goes Tony off on his run!

Here he is finishing strong!

The tired little family. 

While I was resting at Cher and Alan's, I discovered  Simon on top of Brian and Kate's car/kayak!

The girls getting our zucchini all ready for frying!

Here's my beautiful niece with her medal for running the 1mile race at Kasson the morning before! I am SO proud of her! 

5 Months

I posted some pictures on Facebook, but I figured I should share them on here as well. On Charlie's 5 months birthday, I spent the morning taking pictures of pretty much everything he did...Yup, I'm THAT mom...

Time with Maya

This week Charlie turned 5 months old! Whoa, life is speeding by.

On Wednesday I went to my LAST class ever! Well, until I decide to go back for something else. Just kidding!

Here are some pictures from a little time we had with our niece Maya last night. She is very interested in Charlie and his toys!

The kitty was underneath the glass on our coffee table...

Wisconsin Bound!

Yesterday, Charlie and I decided we needed to take a trip to see Becky and Spencer before school starts. We headed out around 9. By the time we exited at Forest Lake, Charlie was getting a little hungry. We were meeting Becky in Taylors Falls, so I really didn't want to stop and feed him yet. I finally had to call Becky and say I was stopping. Charlie was just very upset with me. She told me about this "weird sculpture place" right off of 95, Franconia. We stopped there, fed Charlie, and Becky met us there to tour the "weird sculptures". Weird was right....It was difficult to find the beauty in many of the sculptures, that's for sure!

Here's Becky on one of the sculptures that you can climb up.

I climbed into this one. 

Becky was contemplating how this is art. 

This was a very neat playground sculpture there. I for sure will come back just so Charlie can play on it someday. Very cool!

One of the sculptures had a ramp going into it, so Charlie climbed on in! 

He was pretty happy about it! 

After our walk around the sculpture garden, we headed to Interstate State Park in Taylors Falls. It's a beautiful place along the St. Croix River. Here's the three of us under the bridge. Charlie wasn't looking for the picture, but I promise he's behind his beach hat. The trails for the park were not stable enough for a stroller, so I strapped Charlie on in the Moby wrap. He really enjoyed it!

My phone does not do this view justice. I couldn't carry my camera and Charlie, so I chose Charlie. Therefore all my pictures are a little off due to my iPhone. 

This is Becky with one of the glacial pot holes. They're everywhere! Crazy....

After we hiked around, we went to the big creamery between Trade Lake and Siren. Very close to where Becky lives. I enjoyed my Butter Pecan cone and Becky enjoyed Pirates Booty. 

Charlie wasn't the best sleeper for me, so I was up at 5am this morning. We played for a bit and then hit the road. It was a quick but fun trip to see one of my best friends! Now she's roughing it in the Boundary Waters for 9 days! Hope she stays away from those bears!