Standing, Smiling, Uncles and Fires...

Well our little buddy is now 10 months old! Such a big boy! The month of August brought us a lot of surprises, such as Charlie pulling himself up to stand on his own! He is quite proud of himself for this, as you can see;


We're so proud of our little guy! Except this really puts a damper on bed time seeing as he never wants to lay down anymore. :)

Charlie also crawls now too! Finally! Well, he crawls in order to get to a place where he can stand up :) He also loves to hide under his Jumparoo, like it's some little fortress or something. I was going to take a video but the camera's battery died! Boooooo!!!

August also came with the arrival of many many new teeth! He has four top teeth and three bottom teeth (and probably more that we haven't noticed yet!) Which Charlie loves to show off with cheesy grin, I love that face!


And Charlie finally got to meet his Uncle Alex for the very first time! Alex was in town on vacation for the month of August all the way from Japan, and he came up for a BBQ with us;

We had a great time hanging out, having BBQ and swimming. Charlie is still a little timid of the pool, not so much of being scared, he just hates being cold.

But on another note Charlie has made amends with the bunny and they're friends now! Hooray! Instead of crying whenever the bunny gets near he giggles. But he doesn't giggle nearly as much as when there's a puppy nearby! Even if there's a dog food commercial on TV Charlie will laugh! He also loves whenever the Backyardigans comes on (that's a kids TV show on Noggin) Thank goodness because that's a show that we all enjoy to watch. We've also found that Charlie loves to play with pillows. He's a little daredevil and plows right into them and laughs and laughs! We got Charlie one of those kid sized bean bags and it's shaped like a bird and Charlie will go to town smashing it and bopping it around. It's so adorable! I'm hoping Charlie will be my roller coaster buddy when he gets big enough (which at the rate he's growing should be in a couple of weeks now).

August for us parents was very busy too. The company I do work for told me they needed more help, so I dropped Bill's name and they sent him an art test to take and he got the job! Hooray!! Bill is still working his full time job too because we need the benefits, so he'll be doing this on the side. Also this month Bill has been helping out a studio that we found at Comic Con. He had to cut back on that though because he got the Slide job (it's a very small studio and currently they can't pay until their show gets picked up) but we might be able to participate in their art show coming up in September here in LA! I'll let you know if we get in! Overall August has been very exciting but also a lot of hard work. *whew* And I'm sure you've also heard about the fires going on practically EVERYWHERE. Well they're a bit of a ways away from us but last night the wind changed and we woke up to smokey air! Normally I love a good BBQ but having it smell like the world's biggest BBQ is a bit much. So we have the AC on and we're staying inside until this all blows over. Keep a good thought towards everyone that is being affected and let's hope the firefighters get it all under control soon!


Until next month!

~Karen, Bill, and Charlie

A month of adventures!

So now we have a 9 month old baby on our hands! And he's ADORABLE! And he is working the room wherever we go! Everyone told us that he'd get stranger anxiety and really the only time he does is when he gets into a new loud situation but it only lasts a couple of minutes and then he's smiling and talking and melting hearts again!! He loves the ladies and is always a big flirt :) He has his top teeth coming in and teething has not been fun. But those teeny tiny teeth are so cute! He's still not a full blown crawler but he scoots, rolls and shakes his way to wherever he wants to go. He also now grabs our hands and pulls himself up to stand! Walking here we come! He's also quite a big boy now too weighing in at 23 pounds and wearing 12 month clothes! A lot of people are surprised to find out that he's so young yet so big! But then again, look at Bill...are you surprised? :)


Our first big adventure this month was our trip to Vegas for July 4th when we visited Uncle Chris, Auntie Tami and cousin Maggie! We had a great time! Except for when it came to the fireworks. It was past Charlie's bedtime and they were awfully loud so that equaled one fussy baby. But he came around in the end and got into the spirit;

Charlie also enjoyed visiting with their dog Scooby. He's such a dog lover, and we don't even have a dog!



One major event from this month was Charlie's first Comic Con! We headed down to San Diego and Charlie was ready to roll in his costume!

Everyone adored baby Yoda! And the highlight of his Con was when he got to meet Snoopy!
Charlie LOVED Snoopy! He laughed and hugged Snoopy and loved him so much! I was so proud! That's my boy!


On a not so fun note Charlie did come back from San Diego with a virus :( He's ok though, he got tested up and down and there's no infection. So we're giving him Pedialite and baby Tylenol and a lot of cuddles and he is slowly getting better. There's just a lot of fussing and a lot of sleeping going on. Poor little guy. But while we were at the ER when he had a fever we were waiting for the Doctor to come and I guess the Motrin they gave Charlie kicked in and Charlie was ready to party! He was playing and laughing and while he was laughing up a storm he even got the guy in the next room laughing with him! Charlie is a born healer ;)

Believe it or not Charlie's 1st birthday is just a few months away! And because his birthday falls on a Thursday we've decided to throw his party that following Saturday...which is Halloween!! Woohoo!! But when it comes to dressing up, Charlie is an old pro;


Until next month!

~Karen, Bill and Charlie

8 months! Woohoo!!

So Charlie's 8 month birthday is upon us ALREADY!!! What is that all about?!?!? But with the new month comes a new level of cuteness!!! See for youself;
We also celebrated Bill's first Father's day! Charlie got him a card, which he ate...of course...
And here's Charlies little chompers! He's had them for a while but I finally got a picture!
He's getting more and more character every day! He also LOVES to be on the move! While he still isn't crawling he's scooting, rolling, and rocking like a madman! He's also getting much better at feeding himself, and sometimes even prefers doing it himself than having us feed him!
He is all about doing things his own way and hates whenever anyone tries to tell him otherwise! He's definitely our baby alright. We go for walks every morning and he loves getting out and seeing the world! He's a huge flirt and smiles at anyone that'll look at him! He's melting hearts left and right! We've also found that he loves balloons! It's so cute because while he puts everything in his mouth he will hold onto a balloon and bop it around rather than try to eat it. I think he likes how it bounces. I'll have to get a picture sometime. It's adorable!

So our big boy is getting bigger everyday! His newest babbling includes the ever famous "Na Na Na Na." He loves to be a part of the conversation as long as the conversation is all about Na Na Na. Currently everything is a Na Na. I'm a Na Na, you're a Na Na, wouldn't you like to be a Na Na too?

Anyway, that's all for now! This weekend we plan to visit scorching hot Vegas for the 4th to visit Tami, Chris and Maggie. Happy 4th of July everybody!!

~Karen

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Ahh the magic, it was there, until Charlie pooped.

That's it for Baby Train, thank you all for your support and wonderful comments. We plan on doing more of these types of stories in the future so stay tuned. Right now though, we're going to to be putting together the Baby Train book if any of you would like to get updates and be the first to know when its out, send me an e-mail at billdrastal@hotmail.com and I'll put together a mailing list with updates on our progress. Thank you

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Oh man we don't have nearly the space available to go over the stuff that happened during the delivery. Needless to say I was a little to camera happy at Karen's expense. Check in on Thursday for the last strip!!

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Let the craziness commence!!

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The horror, the horror!!!