Announcing A Newer Nelson

When we started this blog, we called it The Newest Nelson instead of Charley's Blog because we had a strong feeling he wasn't always going to be the newest Nelson in our family. Although Charley James has held the title of The Newest Nelson for just over one year (his 1st birthday was on June 22nd), as many of you may already know, Charley is going to have a sibling in late October or early November. We decided to find out if it is a boy or a girl this time since it will make proper planning a lot easier, so without further ado, we'd like to present the first official photos of Charley's soon-to-be little brother! We will refer to him as Baby Bean from now on since we have no idea what we're going to name him yet.

Yes, we're sure he's a boy!

His "cute" little face

In the meantime, since Charley James is technically still the boy of the household and we don't want him to feel left out, here are some pictures from his 1st birthday party and his first vacation with Aunt Angela, Uncle Matt, Cousin Braden, Aunt Maria, and Uncle Billy. We stole these pictures from Braden's blog because Braden's Mom is such a talented photographer!

Happy Graduation Betsy!

Last weekend we took a day trip to Santa Barbara for my cousin Betsy's graduation from UCSB. We all had a delicious brunch at the Bacara and celebrated Betsy's big accomplishment :) The highlight of the day was getting to meet a hawk and two baby owls that the resort uses as "pest control" to keep away seagulls. The owls were only three weeks old and already huge!

Charley petting his owl buddies


Charley is always happy when he's with his Grampie, because he does whatever Charley wants him too!

Getting in some walking practice...he's so close! He'll take a step on his own every once in a while, and I think he's going to be walking all over the place pretty soon...

Checking out the hawk with Grampie.

Haircut + chocolate pudding = a big mess!

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John-Paul gave Charley his first haircut last week! It was a very messy endeavor, but it looks really cute :)

Water Baby

Charley has been preparing for summer by playing in the water every chance he gets!

C. trying out his floaty for the first time. He only liked it if Matt would pull him around the pool super fast :)

Swimming with Sofia, Ava, and Auntie Jennie. Jennie had her hands full!

All decked out in his beach gear from grammie.

Hanging out in his hippo pool.

Mind Your Peas & Blues

For the last few days, it's just been Charley James and me hanging out in Seal Beach because Kristen and the rest of the family is in Arkansas for JD & Rachel's wedding (CONGRATULATIONS!). I decided it would be a good idea to show some proof that I'm doing a stellar job acting as a temporary single dad by posting some pictures of Charley eating a couple of his favorite foods. It's a little hard to see in the picture because I'm a better father than I am a photographer, but here's a picture of CJ enjoying some frozen peas and blueberries and then a picture of the 2 men of the Nelson household.

It's been a while but we're back!

We took a little blog break but now we're back with a vengeance!

Charley's been keeping busy doing some modeling work for our friend Danielle's new baby clothes business. She makes and sells super cute monster onesies, and you can go check them out at her website mylilmonsters.

It's hard work being this cute :)

My Two Favorite Guys

Charley hanging out at the beach with his favorite guy in the whole world, his Dad :)

Going Swinging

Today Charley and I hit the beach playground to check out the swings. Even though he's still a little small for them, Charley liked hanging out and swinging. He was especially fascinated by the big kids at the playground, and would just sit and stare at them climbing on the play equipment and going down the slides. I think he was a little jealous :) It's hard to imagine that one day soon Charley will be the one running around and jumping all over the playground!

Happy Valentines Day!

It's been pretty cold and rainy here the past few days and Charley was getting pretty tired of staying inside all cooped up. I had the idea of bringing out some Valentines supplies to make Valentines cards for our friends and relatives. We did have a lot of fun, but between making sure Charley didn't ingest any heart doilies or red glitter and trying to not get smacked by paint brushes (which Charley thought made great drum sticks), we didn't actually get around to making any real Valentines. We just decorated Charley instead! So consider this a virtual Valentine to you from Charley with lots of love!!! XOXO

Thanks for the Valentine Auntie Robyn!!

Thats my Valentine. Yup, the guy with the hearts on his face :)

Charley giving his serious pose.

Charley's version of arts and crafts:

mmmm! Valentine hearts taste pretty good!

Rockin out with the Boys

On Thursday, Charley got a visit from his cousin Braden and we all had so much fun! Charley couldn't get enough of his cool, older cousin and tried to climb all over him. Braden thought Charley's toys were pretty fun and he can't wait until Charley gets older and can keep up with him. John-Paul got his guitar out, and Braden and Charley loved rocking out to the classics like "twinkle twinkle little star" and "itsy bitsy spider." They both tried out strumming the guitar a little too (well Charley mostly hit it). I'm thinking maybe a family band is in their future?? :)
B. and C. checking out the guitar.

Braden's favs were "the wheels on the bus" and the ABC's. He was rocking out!

Jennie and I told John-Paul he should start a career as the next Raffi :)

Charley and Uncle Matt, or "Hunkle Matt" as Matt likes to call himself

Braden tore himself away from singing long enough to give Angela a kiss good-bye.

Hanging out with the girls

Charley loved hanging out with Sofia and Ava at Sofia's 5th birthday party. Ava couldn't get enough of "baby charley" and was very excited to hold him :) We want Sofia and Ava to get a blog soon, so we can see all the exciting things they are up to in Shanghai.

We also loved getting a visit from cousins Ari and Maddie a few weeks ago. Charley was a big flirt, and he hopes they can come back for a visit soon, now that Ari has her license and a car! woo hoo!

Charley "Danger" Nelson

In most cases, the sight of a fire truck conjures up feelings of safety and security...in our house, it represents risky, dangerous, unacceptable behavior, courtesy of Charley James.

How unsafe can a brightly colored playpen be anyway? After all, we use this area to contain the C-Man so he doesn't hurt himself in other areas of our home. Well, thanks to his wonderful Aunt Maria & Uncle Billy, and the addition of a toy fire truck that he loves (and his parents want to throw out of the window due to the cacophony of sounds it produces), Charley discovered a way to use his new toy as a step stool to climb out of his enclosure.

As displayed by the incriminating photos below, our barely 7 month old stuntman figured out a way to climb on the seat of his truck, stand up, and reach for the adjacent desk as a means of escape or other form of mischief. This was accomplished in literally under one minute of silent determination while both of his attentive parents sat oblivious approximately 5 feet away.

Part of me was overflowing with pride as I witnessed my son's ingenuity, while the other part of me was simply horrified...

Beach Day in January!?!

It has been beautiful, warm, and sunny here in Seal Beach for the past few days...perfect beach weather. It's kinda weird weather for January, but we're not complaining :) We decided to take advantage of this crazy winter weather, so we walked across the street and had a Mommy and Charley beach day (well it was more like a beach 20 minutes until C. started trying to eat the sand and the trip ended). Charley seemed to like putting his toes in the sand and the ocean, and he also loved watching seagulls and pelicans.


Sandy Feet!!

Just hanging out :)

Hello 2009!

We took a little blog break over the holidays, and are back to report that we had a great time and that Charley loved every minute of his first Christmas and got super spoiled with presents :) Lately, he has been crawling everywhere and pulling himself up on all the furniture. We can't keep up with him! Here are some pictures of Charley enjoying his first holiday season:
Visiting Nana on Christmas with Aunt Maria. Charley had fun showing off and crawling for Nana. Charley also loves the firetruck he got from Aunt Maria and Uncle Billy :)

















Charley modeling his new beanie from Grammie











Charley loved his new rocking horse from Auntie Jennie












C. and I loved getting a visit from my old roomies from college Jessie and Jen. Charley can't take his eyes off Jessie in this pic, what a flirt!













Charley out with Grammie on January 1st wishing all the neighbors Happy New Years!