Pass him a bottle

Great new - Charlie just ate from a bottle for the first time! We were at Grandma's and he slammed four ounces like he's been doing it for ages.

We're at the park now, where Grandma is teaching Will how to spell his name using sign language. Good morning!

The smoke has cleared ...

... on Will's fourth birthday. There wasn't one big celebration like the past few years, but a series of smaller ones. The little bugger still hasn't told us what he wished for here - good for him!

Grandma

Will didn't exactly cooperate for a picture with Grandma on one of her recent visits, but Charlie's a pretty good sport about such things.

Hiding spot

Believe it or not, this is Will's go-to spot for hiding when we play hide-and-seek nowadays.

Touchdown!

Dreaming about the Badgers' opener ...

Presents

Will got around to opening some of his birthday presents today. Included were his very first credit card - for McDonald's purposes - which he will be using to pay bail for his friend the Hamburglar; and a Transformer figure of Slave I, Boba Fett's ship from Star Wars. Don't try to pretend you didn't know what that was ...

Brothers

We'll let this early morning photo speak for itself ...

What a clown

Auntie Sara got Will a clown nose and funny glasses as part of his birthday gift. For some reason, he initially treated them like a request to pick up his toys, but he eventually warmed to the costume and embraced it.

Nice collar, dude!

Whenever we hold Charlie like this, or sit him up, he gives us this look like "Why in the world are you doing this to me? I would much rather go back to lying on your chest!"

Finger toes?

Jana has a thing with baby's feet. Her biggest goal for the tens of thousands of pictures we took of Will in his first year was for a great shot of his feet/toes.

Here is her early work on Charlie's feet/toes. What do you think? The consensus here is that he has finger toes -- long, skinny toes. Like mine.

Hungry Hungry Hippos

A few weeks ago Jana and I were talking about games from our youth that Will might enjoy. We came to quick agreement on one: Hungry Hungry Hippos. Shortly, we learned that our good friend Angela planned to give Will a version of the game for his fourth birthday, a few days early.

Thankfully, Ang got to play a few rounds, with the exciting action of two of those games caught here on tape.



I chose not to post the one in which Angela's poor showing is blamed on a "bulimic hippo" because I got a little bit too excited about winning. So you know where Will gets that from.

A visit from Erin

On Thursday my cousin Erin was gracious enough to stop by and see Charlie for the first time. She had just finished the semester at UW-Eau Claire, she hadn't been home in 3-1/2 months, and still she took the time to pay us a visit. We really appreciated it, and Charlie did too -- he slept for almost the entire hour Erin held him, even with lots of commotion going on around them.

New baby, new tree

Four years ago, my aunt Joann and uncle Dan brought us a Colorado Blue Spruce tree to commemorate Will's birth. We thought it would be cool to get the same to celebrate Charlie's arrival. The tree's needles tore up my arms, but it was worth it. Watching our boys race the trees in growth rate is fun ... although our boys are running laps around the spruces!

Thursday

One week old today! Time sure flies ...

Parts

Some close-ups of Charlie. Hoping to get some foot shots soon. In case you weren't sure, those giant hands next to his belong to his big brother.

The eyes have it

As promised ...

Monday pictures

Three new pictures of little Charlie from Monday morning, courtesy of Jana. Pictures of the baby with his eyes open are forthcoming - I swear. Thing is, his eyes are still open most at night, and we don't like to use the flash then ... working on it!

Gaining weight

Charlie weighed 7 pounds, 8.4 ounces at birth. Right before we left the hospital a day and half later, he weight 7 pounds, 2 ounces, an expected drop. This morning, he was back up to 7 pounds, 6 ounces, and our lactation specialist told us she expects Charlie to be back to his birth weight by tomorrow or Wednesday, much sooner than the typical 10 days. So his feeding is going well.

Racing sheep

Yesterday on the way home from the grocery store, Will noticed some sheep in a field off 49. Clary asked him why the sheep, recently shaven, had numbers painted on them.

"Because they're racing sheep," Will answered.

Ahhh ... now it makes sense.

Day Four

It's Day Four for Charlie, and things are going well. He eats every two hours or so, and is good for one or two three- or four-hour periods between feedings. He doesn't open his eyes very often, mainly at night. Jana had a profound discussion with him at 4:45 a.m. this morning.

Last night we were reminded of how challenging it is to change a newborn. Charlie had one blowout and two wet-throughs in about a six-hour span.

Will has apparently gotten the cold Jana had two weeks ago, so we're trying to keep him away from Charlie, which is really hard and which we really don't want to do. But big brother understands. He is acting out a bit more than normal, talking loud and being crazy ... although we might just have a shorter tolerance for that now with Charlie around.

Charlie photos: Day Two

We took Charlie home from the hospital yesterday, where he was welcomed by Will and Clary. Soon after, my mom, dad, grandma, brother, and Sara and Katy from work came by to see our little bundle of joy. Today he made his first Saturday morning excursion to Grandma's apartment in Waupaca to meet my aunt Karen.

He is a night owl right now - that's when his eyes open the most - and sleeps more in the morning and middle of the day. Still eating well.

Big brudder sings the classics

Ever since he found out we were having another baby, Will has been excited to be a big brudder. He was terrific with Charlie right away. "Aw, look at how little his ear is!" is the first thing he said. He loves holding Charlie, and is very protective of him, warning us to talk quietly because baby is sleeping.

Will also loves singing to Charlie. He basically has two songs: "Rockabye Baby" and "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star." The first time he sang them to Charlie after we got home from the hospital today, the baby was crying; Will got him to stop. This has given him great insight into the ways of child care: "See guys, you don't say 'Shhh' to get the baby to stop crying, you sing to him!"

Here's a video of Will singing to Charlie at the hospital Thursday evening.

Charles Edward Tappa

This morning at 2:22 a.m., Jana gave birth to Charles Edward Tappa. Charlie was 20.5 inches long, 7 pounds, 8.4 ounces.

The process went as smoothly as a pregnancy can go. We left for the hospital at 10:30 p.m., Jana started pushing slightly after 2, and Charlie came out 20 minutes later. Once again, she's a major league trooper. He took to feeding right away, which made the post-delivery much better than last time.

Charlie is wonderful - already sleeping for several hours at a time and a willing eater. His brother is in awe; Will wanted to hold him as much as possible, and kept saying things like "He's the best baby ever" and "Isn't he cute?"

Our new addition: It's a ... minivan!

Four years ago, right after Will was born, Jana and I took are slightly larger family to Oshkosh to visit friends. As we rolled up to our friend Shu-Ling's house, she came outside, took one look at our new car, and announced:

"Oh my God, you middle-aged!"

That new car was a Toyota Camry.

Saturday, we bought a Honda Odyssey — a minivan! So if a mid-sized sedan made me middle-aged, what does a minivan make me?

I feel like that Mike Myers Saturday Night Live character, Middle-Aged Man. The guy whose theme song included the passage "... developing skills and a gut ..."!

Well, whatever. We bought a minivan because our family is about to grow by 33%, and we need the room. And I'm guessing this thing can outrun other minivans. Especially ones from Detroit.

By the way, Will is in these pictures. Not sure if you saw him, you know, because of all the camouflage he has on. This is what happens when 4-year-olds dress themselves.