Baby, Schmaby!! The Wonderful World of Charlie Rose Lernout

Charlie here. Coming to you yet again to tell epic tales of courage, sacrifice, joy and laughter. 

Friends...Another Summer has (almost) passed again and I realize I have not been good about my blogging and keeping y'all updated on my latest adventures. This summer I've been quite busy traveling the globe, meeting up with family and friends and just generally chillaxing under the sweet summer sun.

So what adventures did I get up to? 

Hung out with the local hipster crowd in my hood:



Tripped it down to Portland, taggin' the parents along with me:


Did some more tripping all the way to Tuscany:


Spent quality time with the people I love:






Danced in the streets:


Became obsessed with tents:


Found a BFF:


Ate my very first ice cream:


...and:

• Got an iPad AND an iPhone 4  
• Watched a LIVE Sumo wrestling competition  
• Got my first haircut  
• Shopped at the Hello Kitty Store  
• Went to visit a newborn baby  
• Played with a dog called Bear  
• Went to a bunch of BBQ's   
• Danced to Chuck Berry  
• Tried out the new community pool 

Hope you're all enjoying the summer as much as I am!

Until next time,
C.R.L.

Charlie here. A very good day to all my friends and fans!

To begin, a slight frown and a few stern words directed at certain grandparental Facebook campaigners who seem to imply I do not value my blog audience. Babying around is more challenging and time consuming than people often realize. I take my role of baby very serious and sometimes that means that my blogging frequency has to suffer. Don't I always come through in the end, however? Patience is a noble thing, dear audience!

The reason I write to you today, friends, is to demonstrate my web presence! All this Flickr-ing my mom has been doing since I was born has finally proven to be a good investment for my rep. Check out my lovely self on these web sites:

1. Before being born!
2. Still not born here, but already on your Spanish interwebs!
3. I iz reading in yur inernetz
4. My internet fans like to accentuate my love of books
5. A little something special for my Japanese web friends
6. Behold my black and white grandeur!
7. Vegan folks love them some Charlie Rose now and again!

Yes indeed, CC license for the win!

There's tons more of my pictures out there. Go forth and find them all!  

As always, with affection,
C.R.L.

As per the previous, Charlie's been quite sick this week and today was my turn again to stay home with her. Luckily Charlie is usually pretty good at entertaining herself so that I can still get my work done, even from home. 

Today at one point during the morning she had parked herself next to my chair and was having fun unloading my purse. Before long, the floor was littered with business cards, pieces of chewing gum and bank cards. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw her reaching for a wrapped chocolate truffle that was hanging around in my purse - a remnant from last weeks stay-over at the Pacific Rim.

Just minutes later she came to stand in front of me with a strange, zoned-out look on her face and big, round cheeks. A little more investigation revealed that she had unwrapped (!) the chocolate truffle and stuffed it in its entirety in her mouth! My removing it from her mouth was met with great protest and she did indeed end up eating the whole thing, one small chunk at a time.

Someone is definitely not sick anymore and going back to daycare tomorrow!

Charlie here. Good evening everyone!

Friends, forgive me if this post doesn't display my usual witty remarks and sharp observations. My poor body aches and is being plagued by snot and fever. 

My fever's been so high that the parents took me to the hospital on Sunday to get me checked out. 

Short parenthesis: no reason to panic, grandparents, nothing serious is going on. Just a mean old bug that they're seeing all over the place here in Vancouver. 

In aforementioned hospital, I got probed with all sorts of thermometers and stethoscopes, something I did not approve of at all. Add to this that I had to skip my nap and that I had to sit in a hot, crowded waiting room for over 3 hours, and I'm sure you'll all appreciate my grumpiness.

So to sum up...

The bad news is: I feel crappy and achy.
The good news is: I get to stay home for the week and the parents feel so sorry for me that they're now allowing me to watch the Quatchi cartoons again on the computer. Win!

Charlie here.

Does it seem that I am always talking about myself? What can I say? I'm a baby, my circle of interest is pretty limited and my social skills and sense of decency have not yet fully developed.

So just this morning I realized...I totally forget to mention on my blog that we moved to a new house last month. I'm hoping my estimated readers can pardon me my childish self-involvement.  


It's true, we moved houses! We left our beautiful West End, kinda-waterfront, featuring-awesome-slippery-hardwood-floors penthouse! So what does this move mean for an urban baby such as myself?

• No more introspected evenings on the patio, gazing pensively at the sun setting over English Bay.  
• No more Stanley Park walks whenever I feel like it  
• No more saba at Kingyo's  
• No more shopping at babyGap on Robson  
• No more quick Starbucks runs  
• No more red balloons on my bedroom wall  
• No more seagulls and crows to watch from the dining room  

But it's not all tragedy. We moved to a great little town-home near Main Street and Kind Edward. Here's a bunch of terrific new add-ons in our new home:

• There's stairs! Oh the newfound joy of climbing stairs!  
• Yoghurt lassies at East is East (Himalayan High FTW!)  
• Chocolate babkas from Solly's (yes, babies can actually eat chocolate and don't let me catch you say otherwise)
• Squirrel watching from our living room!
• Falling down doesn't hurt so much anymore since this home comes with carpet everywhere.

Charlie approves!

Kind thoughts,
C.R.L.

Charlie here.

This week I had a sleepover. My first night away from home.

I tried to break it to them gently, I tried reasoning with them. All to no avail: the parents were inconsolable. They begged, pleaded with me not to leave them. Tears were welling up in their eyes as they -quite pathetically- clung to my legs when I was trying to work my way out the door. 

It sure wasn't easy...But, damn it, I need some me-time as well. Can't they understand that? I mean, come on, I take care of these parents every day. 24/7/365, people! A girl needs a break once in a while to maintain her sanity.

So off I went on my adventure. I spent the night at Elaine's, my most wonderful daycare host. We had a nice dinner after the other kids had left and of course a couple of kick-ass cocktails to close off the night (I kid, I kid). 

Honestly, even though I did miss the parents and it was sorta weird to not have them around at night, I did have a blast. I went home the next day totally relaxed and completely recharged. Happy to go home to my lovely parents and kick off the weekend in style.

Oh yeah, and I guess they were kinda happy to have me home again as well...


Chill,
C.R.L.

Charlie crawled for the first time ever today. 

At 15 months. 

I don't know whether to laugh or cry, but I am leaning towards laughter.


It's a real funny move she has taught herself too, something between scooting and crawling. It's like she's not quite sure which way to go yet. Of course, one major downside to crawling is that it won't allow you to hold stuff in your hand as you move, which is something Charlie likes to do always. I'm sure she'll figure something out though.

The good news is that, if things continue along the same trend, she will probably walk by the time she's 2 years old! Rejoice!

Charlie here.

Happy weekend to everyone! Let's jump right into part 2 of my monster sized brag list, shall we? Be prepared to stand perplexed in admiration.

Part 2 Gross Motor Skills

- Crawling: Status quo. Nothing to report
- Walking: Status quo. Nothing to report

On the other hand...

- Scooting around on my butt: Yes! All the time! Love me some scooting!
- Rolling around in our new house on the wall-to-wall carpet: LIKE!
- Pulling up on stairs and furniture: Finally figured out how to do that. The best part of standing up -by far- is falling back onto my bum seconds later. Hilarious!

To illustrate, behold one of my daily routines:
Grab a nigiri piece from my wooden sushi playset.
Scoot over to the stairs in the living room.
Place the piece of nigiri (neatly!) on the second step of the stairs
Pull up to standing and quickly grab the sushi piece
Fall back onto my butt
Repeat endlessly and try to avoid weird looks from the parents

With kindest personal regards,

C.R.L.

Supposedly we can enjoy two more years until the end of the world! Happy 2010 and best wishes to all!

As ever,

C.R.L.



'Crowded' by inoc (via Flickr). CC BY licence.

Charlie here.

My friends, in shame I bow my head for this long blog silence. A lot of things have happened the past few months, but more about that later.

First things first. Behold Part 1 of my latest monster-sized brag list. Charlie Lernout currently displays following kick-ass skills:

Part 1: Conversational skills:
- Mama: means either milk and banana
- Papa: means daddy as well as mommy
- Yggg: yoghurt
- Boo: means book and cat
- Gaa Gaa: Duck
- Coo: cookie
- BaBa: bye-bye
- Ba!: I make a point of shouting Ba! whenever the parents sternly tell me not to do something. They are completely clueless as to what I mean to express in these instances. Keep 'em guessing
- Uh-oh: This one is pretty self-explanatory.
- Lalala: I love to sing and dance. Current favourite is Elmo's Song.

Obviously my vocabulary is far greater than the above snippet, but admittedly I haven't exactly attached meaning to everything I am blurting out yet. I feel a New Year's resolution coming up!

Hang in there for the soon-to-be-released Part 2 of my latest monster-sized brag list!

Yours 'til the cat meows,

C.R.L.

Charlie here. Good evening!

A most wondrous day today was. Started it did with a giant yellow chicken who bestowed upon me some candy. Him and his wise companion, a duck in a tutu, very fascinating I found. 

Many younglings in the streets gathered this afternoon and up to me they came, seeking guidance and counting their many tales. These younglings smiled and cooed in my presence. In their glory I basked!

May the Halloween be Happy!

C.R.L.

Charlie had a birthday and is now officially 1+ years old.

I am only posting her birthday entry 2 weeks after the facts. Surrealistically and also surprisingly, this makes me feel guilty. It seems only appropriate that I would have made a huge fuss on October 13th, with a page long blog entry full of sentimental musings and tearful memories of Charlie's newborn days. 

Long before she turned one, I expected her birthday would indeed be an emotional day, more for myself than for her. It seemed like such a gigantic milestone for Charlie and unimaginable to me that she would no longer be a baby, but a babbling and crawling toddler (Well, this was back in my blissful, naive days when I still fully expected her to crawl at some point). 

The truth is though, that her birthday was a very happy day. She had fun, we had fun and somehow nobody transformed into a mushy ball of emotions. 

So happy blog-belated birthday, sweet Charlie Rose! We love you to an insane degree and can't wait to see what you have in store for us this coming year.

More pictures than words today. Poor Charlie has a case of the flu and is taking the weekend to rest up:

Charlie here. Since I don't yet have a Facebook account, I can go all the way today:

Welcome aboard Tram 3, father. Enjoy the ride!

Your adoring daughter,

C.R.L.

My last day of maternity leave. 

Today should feel like the end of an era. But because Charlie has been going to daycare for over a week now and because we know that she enjoys herself over there, I actually feel very relaxed about returning to work. 

In the few days that we've been apart this week, I have missed her like crazy. It is a strange idea that a part of her life now doesn't include me. For having followed her every single move this past year, I still have to get used to not knowing what she is up to all day. 

Those mornings when Charlie cries as I drop her off are tough, although she is steadily showing progress in that department. 

But then I love watching her as I return to pick her up, in those few moments before she has spotted me at the fence. She'll be sitting on her bum on the lawn, playing with one of the kids, the dog or the cat. Or she'll be giggling while Elaine bounces her off her arm. Or she'll sit in her stroller. Singing, waiting, ready to go home.

And here I was thinking she'd cause all sorts of drama at daycare. 
I'm very proud of her.

I found Charlie a Sushi baby book at the library and am still squealing with delight. 

It is too adorable not to share:

Charlie here.

Blood, sweat and tears but I've finally been able to lure my mother away from her new computer so that I can send out this cry for help to all my loyal friends on the interwebz! 

Friends, today my indignation is of an unfathomable magnitude, as these so-called parents once again banished me to my own room to spend the night. This after letting me sleep in their bedroom for the past month while we had family over who needed my room. As I long suspected, their affection seems to be a product of convenience.

My protest cries don't seem to do it this time, which is is why I am reaching out to my online community. Please pass this on to your friends and family!!

With gratitude,

C.R.L.
Founder of the Charlie Lernout Liberation Front

Update: My mother just read this post and insists that I mention how her and dad's affection for me is unconditional and wholly independent of my sleep behaviour...To which I say: "Less Words, More Action, mother!" 

Our visitors have all gone home (that is until the next visitors arrive in 2 weeks), which means more time and therefore, hopefully, more blog posts. 

Our little girl is not quite so little anymore. Time for a few random updates!

- Charlie prefers Starbucks Passion Iced Tea to the mundane and more widely accepted apple juice. She is also of the opinion that sippy cups are for losers (her words, don't shoot the messenger) and insists on drinking from a regular glass only. The puddles of Passion Iced Tea on the table and the carpet are an added bonus in this wonderful drinking adventure.

- Charlie had her last nursing session 2 days ago. It was emotional. I cried. Charlie did not. 

On that note, she drinks formula like a tiny champ nowadays, so long as I don't forget to add a drop of vanilla. Urban babies drink lattes (readers with infants who visit the library story-time will surely recognize this reference).

- Charlie added a new gesturing song to her repertoire (Handjes Draaien), taught to her by her aunt Tineke. 

Be back for more!

Today was supposed to be Charlie's first time at daycare. But the poor thing has been running a fever since yesterday and thus, has escaped her first day away from home. 

This time Charlie wins. There will be a rematch on Monday. 

Charlie here.

My mom and I went to visit some guy named Dennis today. I wanted to pet him, but my mom wouldn't let me (supposedly, I can get over eager and scratchy?). 

Cool guy, that Dennis, and very entertaining. He makes the craziest faces and was constantly mumbling some words I didn't quite understand. At one point he even fell asleep, right there with all of us in the room! Oh man, it was just too funny! 

My mom was holding that Dennis dude in her arms and got all mushy (like, so embarrassing). Then to make matters worse, she just had to point out how insanely gigantic I am next to 9 pound Dennis? 

I was mortified.

C.R.L.

Charlie here.

We are having lots of visitors this summer/fall. Last week I had my uncle Vincent all to myself but as of this week all sorts of uncles and aunts are staying at our place and are fighting for my gracious attention. 

So, just a heads up that blogging will be slower from now on as I entertain these visitors and mentally prepare myself to start daycare. Things should be back to normal in a month or two.

Love
C.R.L.

Milk out of a bottle has been consumed by C.R.L. for 4 consecutive days! She's not drinking a whole lot yet, but at least she is opening her mouth for the bottle and getting some of it down. 

The kid is pretty particular about how she wants her milk served. Turns out she'll only take it ice cold, straight out of the fridge, with a drop of vanilla extract. 

Charlie's uncle Vincent is visiting with us and we all witnessed a small miracle: Charlie is not afraid of him. At all. 

She was smiling at him from the moment he walked in the door. After only half an hour he was able to pick her up without her crying or even frowning. She's still a bit shy around him, as in she'll smile charmingly and avert her eyes when he walks in first thing in the morning. All in all though, she's very social with him. No red eyes, tears and drama anymore. They play peekaboo, she giggles at his funny voices and she loves (LOVES!) his watch for some reason.  

After months of stranger anxiety, this is a welcome change, especially now that she'll start daycare in 2 weeks.