big brothers

charlie is almost 16 months.

he is the exact age that jack was when ellie was born.

i can't imagine what it would be like to go through that again.

seriously.

i wouldn't be able to, because those first 6 months with ellie are pretty much a blur in my memory. I'm not sure if its because i hardly slept, had a baby that screamed 24 hrs a day, and i had some pretty bad postpartum depression or if i have just chosen to forget most of those days. probably a combination of the two.

charlie is exactly like jack was. both boys more physically capable then their young brains could handle. like jack, charlie is a climber and gets onto/into everything. he won't eat in his highchair so most days i am following him around, spoon-feeding him as he runs. which, in case you were wondering, results in banana handprints and yogurt smudges all over the place. with three little ones, i can't keep up with the messes. they seem to mutate and multiply like rabbits. jack always had bruises and cuts all over (as seen in the pic below), charlie seems to fair a little better in that regard. 

i am so grateful that jack and ellie were close together, because if it was going to happen, the first and second children seem like the only time i would have been able to keep up with it all! my memories of that time seem to start flowing around ellie's 6 month mark. she was much MUCH happier then, and as a result, so were chris and i. I'm also very grateful that we don't have another little one arriving any moment so i can focus on charlie and enjoy this happy time with his laughs and smiles. and some day, enjoy that special newborn time with another baby brower. some day.

just for fun, here are jack and charlie's weight/height comparisons from our doctor's visits. jack might be the big brother age-wise, but charlie seems to be the bigger brother of the two! although i think jack had a little more hair :)

charlie: 29 lbs 10oz

jack: 24 lbs 15oz

(jack)

charlie: 34.84 in

jack: 31.3 in

(charlie)