C.'s new favorite toy... not annoying at all

A big thank you to Aunt Lisa for this nice and quiet new toy :)

Family Reunion in San Antonio Part 1

This past week Charley took his first airplane ride and his first trip out of California to attend a family reunion for my Nonna's side of the family in San Antonio, Texas. Charley kept us on our toes, and made sure my mom, dad, and I didn't try to do anything crazy like read or relax on the plane. Overall, he did pretty well, and we didn't get too many dirty looks from the other passengers :)

Charley traveled through airport in style, riding on my dad's carry-on bag.

Charley has his Grampie wrapped around his finger!

Really happy to be on his first airplane ride ever :) Luckily, a nice little boy sat in front of us on the way there who didn't mind Charley's amusing game of slamming his tray table up and down over 500 times...

We were off to the family reunion dinner shortly after arriving in San Antonio. Charley was a big hit with the Porterfield side of the family. This is the four generation picture: My Nonna, my Dad, me, and Charley.

Immediately after arriving at our hotel, Charley made a beeline for the bathroom. I knew he was being too quiet!

Strolling with Grammie and Julie on the Riverwalk.

Check back for Family Reunion trip Part 2: the Alamo!

July is flying by!

It seems like July just got here, and now it's almost August! Where is the summer going? We've been keeping busy with beaching, birthdays, weddings, and a whole lot of Charley chasing :) Here's a little slide show of what Charley has been up to lately:

Getting ready for the beach.

Happy Birthday Grammie!

Some pool time with Dad and Uncle Matt.

Good thing Charley left the pool before things got crazy...

Getting a horsey ride in Montrose

Charley snacking on his toes...


Charley was my pre-wedding date while John-Paul was hanging out with Eric and the groomsmen.

John-Paul and I on the way to Eric and Rose's wedding.

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.