I am now a father! How crazy is that?!
A warm little hot water bottle asleep on pops.
On June 11th 2015 at 5:10 am, Natalie gave birth to our baby boy, Charles John Schnellback. He came twelve days early and was 6lbs 13oz at 20.07 inches. The name Charles was chosen because Natalie and I always talked about having a child and we always referred to the future kid as Charles as a joke. "Charles will do the dishes, Charles can cut the lawn, Charles will make us rich," etc. Don't know why, but it stuck. It came down to two names for a boy, it was either Charles or Henry. I liked Poutine but we sometimes call him that anyway hehe. His middle name John, was named after my great grandfather, my great, great grandfather, Natalie's uncle, and Natalie's grandfather. A lot of people in both of our families have John as their middle name as well. It's a strong family name between our families. We really don't care what people call him by either. Charles, Charlie, Chuck, Chuckie, Chawles, Chollie, Char-Char, Chewie, CJ, Chas. It'll always be him.
Long and lanky like his parents.
It was quite the experience. From early pregnancy, to all the popsicles craved by Nat, all the way to his head popping out, It's been quite a ride. Changing tar diapers, changing mustard seed diapers, getting peed on, pooped on, farted on by LOUD farts (louder than mine!), and burps that pour out milk from both nostrils! But then there's the warm cuddles when he sleeps on my chest, the little laughs and smiles, happy bath time, rubbing his head to hypnotize him to sleep, tiny purr snores, and the big bright baby blues that are in constant observation. I swear he's going to be an art aficionado because he LOVES paintings and pictures hehe. All in all, I am just glad he is a happy, healthy, baby boy. He has changed our lives so much and he has made us happier than ever.
Future Harley owner.
We seem to have gotten lucky with him because he sleeps well, breastfeeds well, and rarely cries. Phew! Sleep is not as bad as everyone has made it out to be. The odd time throughout the night he grunts and moans, but that's just him trying to Houdini out of the sleep sack. As of this post he is eight weeks old and is starting to sleep through the night and smile and laugh regularly. It's great to come home from work and see him looking up at me with a big smile. It makes everything worthwhile. He is starting to plump up for sure! He has the fat bracelets and Michelin man limbs going on. The growth spurts have begun.
Me on the left, Charlie on the right.
I notice in the eight weeks since he has been born, I have taken over 100 vids and 275 photos. I've turned out to be the parent that takes a million pictures 'flip-book' style. It's hard to capture him actually smiling with him flailing around y'know. I figure I am going to get a hard drive and load it up so when he's older he can take a look through it. I am keeping a lot off of social media as well. I don't want to be THAT person. In fact, I still have the Chrome app that replaces pictures of friends' babies on Facebook with pictures of awesome stuff like cats, bacon, cars, etc (check it out here).
Charlie gave me permission to only post 'a little bit' of pictures of him on Facebook.
So stay tuned. I will be writing more about my baby boy and I will be making him a star in future videos - or at least until he's old enough to work the equipment anyways. Thinking of doing a live action Hell Baby short with him (Check out Hell Baby).
In the meantime, check out Charlie's little purr snores here:
Or, the video I compiled with pregnant Natalie in a time-lapse of Charlie starring as a bun in the oven:
When Charlie was turning one, I thought it’d be a good idea to shoot a film with him at certain locations throughout Calgary and surrounding areas in the summer of 2016. That way when he gets older, he could look back and see how much his hometown has changed and see what he was like at age one; a little time capsule you might say. He was JUST learning to walk in the video. Take a look…
Update as of October 2019: It’s been four years now and lil’ cheese has gotten so big! Here’s monthly photos of him for two years, then yearly pics after that:
