Welcome, Charles (Charlie) Hammond Wagner.
..........A Little Love Story............
Charlie arrived 3 hours, 16 minutes past his due date (not bad for a guy, right?). Born at 3:16am on the chilly, early morning of December 29, 2009, he barely made it as a tax deduction for his proud daddy, Rob. Alyssa gave birth via c-section at Good Samaritan Hospital where she had been born 29 years, 6 months, 3 weeks and 1 day earlier! But who's counting...
In the first few hours of Charlie's first day on earth, paternal grandparents, Lou and Corinne, visited Charlie for the very first time, and maternal grandpa (Poppy)
...and maternal grandma (Mimi)...
...visited our first-born grandSON for the very first time. Blessed with two daughters of our own and two sweet baby grandDAUGHTERS, Charlie was the first male born into my family in over 50 years!
We think we caught a glimpse of one pretty blue eye, but Charlie was happy to just keep on napping. After all, he'd just been through quite a transition a few hours before!
Charlie was 19 inches long (same as his Mimi) and weighed 7 lbs. 14 oz. AND.......
Charlie arrived into a family with two little cousins ready and REALLY EXCITED to meet him! But because of the H1N1 (a.k.a. swine flu) outbreak, hospital regulations wouldn't allow his cousins Gracie and Emily to visit him at the hospital. And with it being Christmas time and all, it was soooooooo hard for these two little girls to wait four whole days!
So they amused themselves at Mimi and Poppy's house. Emily better get her eyes checked. You REALLY don't have to hold the mirror THAT close, Emily!
Before they drove up to Morgan Hill, Mommy & Daddy took them to see Santa Claus - and they were VERY good...
But as good as Gracie and Emily were, they still couldn't visit Charlie for a few more days...SO...Meanwhile, back at the ranch, Gracie and Emily's mommy had brought some fun things for them to do and the funnest thing of all was COOKIE DECORATING IN MIMI'S KITCHEN!!! YAY!!!!
There were so many colors and decorations to choose from...
...and lots of fun Christmas shaped cookies to decorate...
...Emily had just gotten up from her nap and was a little groggy and unsure of all this cookie decorating business. But Gracie had LEAPED into action!!
Mommy helped with some of the icing and the writing and Gracie learned about pouring sweet sugars and sprinkles onto the frosted cookie tops. Mimi's kitchen was looking a lot like that of Mrs. Claus...
...and in the beginning, Gracie very neatly worked with the sugars and the sprinkles...
...working on those cookies to get them to look sooooooooo pretty!! But...
...all of a sudden, things started to get a little...well, messy...
...'cause sometimes a cookie decorator just HAS to see what all those pretty colored sugars and sprinkles TASTE like....right? Right!!...
YUMMMMMMMMM....yes, this stuff tastes pretty good..........
....now for a little of that green sugar..............
.....who me? Eating the sugar and sprinkles? Why, NO! Not even a little bit.........
...I have NO idea why my lips are all green...........but maybe you should check out EMI-WEE, Mommy...looks like SHE is having some sugar and sprinkles...but ME? Nope! Not ME!!
Things got awfully quiet in the highchair neighborhood for a little while....good thing Emily has that hand-eye coordination thing down.............
....WOW! WHAT is that taste?? Sure doesn't taste like my strained peaches...or squash....
....Yup! This stuff is GOOD!
....OH, hahahaha, Mommy. You think I'M eating sugar and sprinkles? Nope. Not me. Just Gracie!
WHATEVER this stuff is I just ate tastes so good it makes me want to....
CLAP MY HANDS!! And afterall, that's what "Pattycake" is all about, right? The baker's man? Ok, so I'm not the baker's man exactly but I can play the "Baby and me" part!
....better have a swig of this juice..........all this cookie decorating makes a person THIRSTY! Not to mention that dirty faces and dirty hands means it is...
...BATH TIME!
A hug for baby sister "Emi-wee"
Some sister bonding moments in the tub.... Before it's time to GO MEET COUSIN CHARLIE!!!
Second picture below...This enforced sitting still situation does nothing to make Emily happy and she begins to have a minor meltdown...
...and Charlie sleeps on..........
There were so many colors and decorations to choose from...
...and lots of fun Christmas shaped cookies to decorate...
...Emily had just gotten up from her nap and was a little groggy and unsure of all this cookie decorating business. But Gracie had LEAPED into action!!
Mommy helped with some of the icing and the writing and Gracie learned about pouring sweet sugars and sprinkles onto the frosted cookie tops. Mimi's kitchen was looking a lot like that of Mrs. Claus...
...and in the beginning, Gracie very neatly worked with the sugars and the sprinkles...
...working on those cookies to get them to look sooooooooo pretty!! But...
...all of a sudden, things started to get a little...well, messy...
...'cause sometimes a cookie decorator just HAS to see what all those pretty colored sugars and sprinkles TASTE like....right? Right!!...
YUMMMMMMMMM....yes, this stuff tastes pretty good..........
....now for a little of that green sugar..............
.....who me? Eating the sugar and sprinkles? Why, NO! Not even a little bit.........
...I have NO idea why my lips are all green...........but maybe you should check out EMI-WEE, Mommy...looks like SHE is having some sugar and sprinkles...but ME? Nope! Not ME!!
Things got awfully quiet in the highchair neighborhood for a little while....good thing Emily has that hand-eye coordination thing down.............
....WOW! WHAT is that taste?? Sure doesn't taste like my strained peaches...or squash....
....Yup! This stuff is GOOD!
....OH, hahahaha, Mommy. You think I'M eating sugar and sprinkles? Nope. Not me. Just Gracie!
WHATEVER this stuff is I just ate tastes so good it makes me want to....
CLAP MY HANDS!! And afterall, that's what "Pattycake" is all about, right? The baker's man? Ok, so I'm not the baker's man exactly but I can play the "Baby and me" part!
....better have a swig of this juice..........all this cookie decorating makes a person THIRSTY! Not to mention that dirty faces and dirty hands means it is...
...BATH TIME!
A hug for baby sister "Emi-wee"
Some sister bonding moments in the tub.... Before it's time to GO MEET COUSIN CHARLIE!!!
Now. For another twist on the birth and bringing home of Charlie: Alyssa has a cute picture frame that may have been a gift (I can't remember now) that says, 'COUSINS' - and she wanted me to take a good picture of Gracie, Emily and Charlie for the 'COUSINS' picture frame. And you would think that would be a fairly simple operation, right? Well, you would think.
So in our collective minds we imagined a lovely portrait sitting with three sweet shiny faces glowing and smiling into the camera. And we all know that life doesn't always follow along with imagination, don't we? We know what happens when Reality intervenes. So what follows is the result of the lovely portrait sitting with the three new cousins!
First picture. Yes, this is a nice, casual cousins portrait with no less than three hands attempting to hold two squiggly, wiggly girls in place...while Charlie sleeps on...
First picture. Yes, this is a nice, casual cousins portrait with no less than three hands attempting to hold two squiggly, wiggly girls in place...while Charlie sleeps on...
Second picture below...This enforced sitting still situation does nothing to make Emily happy and she begins to have a minor meltdown...
...and Charlie sleeps on..........Mommy intervenes and removes the now-near-hysterical Emily, Gracie goes in for a little "kootchie-koo" on Charlie's little tummy...but Charlie sleeps on...
And in the next picture of the COUSINS, below, where we just KNOW we'll get a perfect picture for that picture frame, we sense a little conversation taking place:
...which now leaves the OLDEST and the YOUNGEST cousins together on the couch, which turns out to be quite a nice snuggle-fest, considering how excited Gracie has been to meet her first real cousin IN PERSON!
...In fact, when Gracie's mommy was holding Charlie for the first time at Rob and Alyssa's house, Gracie greeted her cousin in a most formal way...she said to him, "Hi Charlie! I'm Gracie!!"
...and thus these two cousins were bonded as only cousins can when they are growing up together in what I happen to think (and of course I am absolutely not biased) is a pretty nice family indeed!
...and somehow Mimi didn't remember to bring her nice flash attachment for the camera and the weather was foggy and dreary outside (it's now January don't forget!) - and the day was drawing closer into night - so it was a bit dark inside and Mimi's camera shutter just couldn't move fast enough to capture two active little girls and one sleepy little boy.
...but we tried...
...and we tried some more, so it wasn't for a lack of TRYING that we didn't get maybe the BEST COUSINS picture in all the world, and if you will look closely at the upper left hand corner of the picture above you'll see Gracie and Emily's mommy about to do a "fly-by" although I'm not sure of the reason why...
...and yes - there she goes...through the back of the shot....Where ya going, Mommy???
...and Emily claps and Gracie gets blurry....and Charlie sleeps on..........
....and we ALMOST got a picture where nobody was blurry and so what if nobody remembered to smile at the camera....
...and Gracie tries another "kootchy-koo" and Emily is checking the bouncy seat to see if she might be able to leverage herself into a standing position here....
....and Emily thinks better of the standing up part and Gracie enjoys Charlie's mobile on the top of his bouncy seat...
....while Emily gets up again for a closer look at this new cousin....
...and Gracie and Emily must wonder WHAT ON EARTH this is all about...all these pictures...while Charlie sleeps on....
...and so Gracie and Emily find greener pastures to roam while Auntie and Mommy come in close and and notice how MY daughters smile so pretty for the camera...if only they were COUSINS....
...and Auntie Ashley remembers what it's like to hold a brand new baby again and loves the fact that she has a new nephew of her very own to cuddle and love....
...and Gracie does a little hamming it up for her mommy and sticks her chin WAY out for the camera although nobody quite knows just why....
...and Emily...for reasons known only to Emily because this is now her "new thing" REACHES for the SKY!!!
....while on that cold winter's night a family comes together, and Baby Charlie sleeps on.........
And in the next picture of the COUSINS, below, where we just KNOW we'll get a perfect picture for that picture frame, we sense a little conversation taking place:-Gracie: "Where are you going, Emi-wee?"
-Emily: "I am SO outta here! SEE YA!!!"
-Charlie: "Zzzzzzzzz"
...which now leaves the OLDEST and the YOUNGEST cousins together on the couch, which turns out to be quite a nice snuggle-fest, considering how excited Gracie has been to meet her first real cousin IN PERSON!
...In fact, when Gracie's mommy was holding Charlie for the first time at Rob and Alyssa's house, Gracie greeted her cousin in a most formal way...she said to him, "Hi Charlie! I'm Gracie!!"
...and thus these two cousins were bonded as only cousins can when they are growing up together in what I happen to think (and of course I am absolutely not biased) is a pretty nice family indeed!
And soon enough Emily had calmed down once more and we took the nice COUSINS portrait sitting to the floor. You know, where nobody could get hurt...
...and somehow Mimi didn't remember to bring her nice flash attachment for the camera and the weather was foggy and dreary outside (it's now January don't forget!) - and the day was drawing closer into night - so it was a bit dark inside and Mimi's camera shutter just couldn't move fast enough to capture two active little girls and one sleepy little boy.
...but we tried...
...and we tried some more, so it wasn't for a lack of TRYING that we didn't get maybe the BEST COUSINS picture in all the world, and if you will look closely at the upper left hand corner of the picture above you'll see Gracie and Emily's mommy about to do a "fly-by" although I'm not sure of the reason why...
...and yes - there she goes...through the back of the shot....Where ya going, Mommy???
...and Emily claps and Gracie gets blurry....and Charlie sleeps on..........
....and we ALMOST got a picture where nobody was blurry and so what if nobody remembered to smile at the camera....
...and Gracie tries another "kootchy-koo" and Emily is checking the bouncy seat to see if she might be able to leverage herself into a standing position here....
....and Emily thinks better of the standing up part and Gracie enjoys Charlie's mobile on the top of his bouncy seat...
....while Emily gets up again for a closer look at this new cousin....
...and Gracie and Emily must wonder WHAT ON EARTH this is all about...all these pictures...while Charlie sleeps on....
...and so Gracie and Emily find greener pastures to roam while Auntie and Mommy come in close and and notice how MY daughters smile so pretty for the camera...if only they were COUSINS....
...and Auntie Ashley remembers what it's like to hold a brand new baby again and loves the fact that she has a new nephew of her very own to cuddle and love....
...and Gracie does a little hamming it up for her mommy and sticks her chin WAY out for the camera although nobody quite knows just why....
...and Emily...for reasons known only to Emily because this is now her "new thing" REACHES for the SKY!!!
....while on that cold winter's night a family comes together, and Baby Charlie sleeps on.........
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