He Saw Dad Do It

Whatever Matt does Charlie emulates. Dad put stacking cups on his feet so sure enough, Charlie had to put stacking cups on his feet. It went on forever, which is why it ended up on film. He'd put one on then bend down to reach a second one and the first one would fall off. It took him a few tries to realize he need to hold the second one in his hand while he placed the first one on his foot. Its so fun to watch them figure this stuff out sometimes.

Got it! Man that was worth the effort!

Quick Pregnancy Update

Just a quick update. I went to the doctor yesterday and everything is progressing just fine with the baby. I'm at week 14 and starting at week 16 a home care company is going to come to my house once a week and give me a shot of progesterone. The idea is that the shot will help keep the baby in longer (Charlie was only in for 33 weeks). So I'll get the shot every week from week 16 to 37. After week 37 they're fine with me going into labor whenever.

The other big news is we scheduled the ultrasound to find out the sex. It's scheduled for October 30 so stay tuned for that piece of info!

Our Saturday in a Nutshell

Matt managed to get a picture of Charlie smiling (sort of a fake smile though, I believe he's saying 'eese for cheese right at that moment).Charlie still loves his new car toy Grandma dropped by yesterday.
We went to swim class.
I apparently looked like a crazy person.
We got a bike trailer/double stroller at a garage sale.
Charlie instantly decided to hate it. That was $50 well spent. Hopefully by spring when he has a new little baby to ride next to him he'll change his tune.
We're working on getting him a helmet, don't report us, Matt didn't take him very far.
We went to lunch with some friends (sorry, no pictures) and that's been about it.

Look Alikes

A friend put this on her website and it inspired me to see who they thought I looked like. I don't see the resemblance with any of these people except Jason Biggs. Damn.



How they think Charlie looks like Missy Elliott is way beyond me. I may have to run it again with a different photo.



Now they're just being rediculous. I think they're just picking people out of thin air.

A Few More Apple Festival Photos

My friend Rikki sent me these and I thought they were kind of funny because Charlie's throwing a fit in all of them.

This is him hating the tractor ride to the orchard. Trying to escape.

Hating just sitting in the wagon with the other babies.

I don't know what this kid has against wagons and tractors but its getting ridiculous.

Apple Festival

We finally made it up to Greenbluff yesterday to the Apple Festival. Greenbluff is a community of local farmers who open up their farms and let you pick their fruit as well as all sorts of other farm related activities (i.e. pet and feed their goats).

This is the Rings picking 27 pounds of apples. What was I thinking? I've spent all day making 1 pie, 2 apple pie fillings (which I froze for later), and a batch of applesauce. The box is only about 1/2 gone. I'm seriously going to be baking all night.

So after we picked our apples instead of waiting for the little tractor to come pick us up I suggested we put the apples and the Charlie in a little cart and walk back to the store area. Charlie hated the cart so I ended up carrying him through the orchard. So Matt gets to pull the cart with the apples and I get to carry the 25 pound kid. Looking back I think I got the short end of the stick considering my fetus makes me winded just carrying my own body weight let alone carrying another person.

We got back and Charlie quickly got over his fear of the cart once he figured out how fun it was to push around.

My pie. Might not look all that impressive but hopefully it will taste impressive.

Well. Gotta get back to the kitchen. I've got more apple products to create.

When Daddy's Away...

...the boy plays with his shoes.

He can actually walk surprisingly well in size 12 shoes. He made it all the way from the kitchen to our bedroom without falling. I think it helped that he was wearing Matt's shoes along with his own Pumas on the inside.

Not Using the Toilet Correctly, Again

Can you envision a situation where you would drink water out of a toilet? What if the water were in a sippy cup and the toilet was made of plastic and had never been used for its intended purpose? (having technical problems again, not sure why this is underlined)




Yeah, I can't imagine it either. Charlie can though. He has no problem with grabbing his cup right out of the toilet and taking a big swig. Oh to be 1 1/2 again....

Fun Times at the Fair

We took Charlie to the fair the other day. Being the planner that I am I bought all these discounted ride tickets in advance, only to find out when we got there that Charlie was too short to go on any of the rides.

We sweet talked the lady running the car ride and she let him on as long as Alanna promised to keep an eye on him (she's 2). He got in the car and had the biggest grin on his face.... ...until the ride actually started.

This is Matt showing the Army what he's made of. When I climbed a rock wall about a year ago he gave me a hard time for not making it to the top. For the record...he didn't make it to the top either.

He made it further than the kid on the easy side next to him though so that's important.

Charlie and Grandpa meeting a real horse. Charlie likes to neigh like a horse and look at them in books but it turns out the real deal is big and scary (I could have told him that).

Looking convincingly to Grandma for more elephant ear.

Hey, I've got my new shoes on...

We've been trying to get Charlie to wear regular shoes for a while now (as opposed to soft soled shoes like Roobez). We put them on him though and he won't take any steps. He acts like we've cemented his feet to the ground. So yesterday Matt put his Pumas on (thanks Brenda by the way!) and took him outside to his favorite place on our property. Charlie couldn't resist getting out there and chasing the b-ball so he had no choice but to walk in his real shoes.

Hopefully next time I put them on him he'll think back to how fun it was to wear them while shooting hoops and he won't put up such a fight.

He Slides Like a Big Boy Now

Charlie can go down the big slide all by himself now. It may not sound like a big deal but it actually takes a lot of coordination to stay in the seated position when you have no core muscles. Oh and trying to stick the landing when you're shooting off a slide 3 times your length is no easy task either.

The Little Tykes set is now reserved for Cousin Caden.

I tried to get a shot of them together last night while I was babysitting Caden. I know it looks like Charlie's kicking Caden over but I swear it didn't go down like that. Caden's still mastering sitting so I'm pretty sure he was tipping over all on his own.

Drum Roll Please!

My posts have been a little sporadic lately and probably a little dry. There's a reason though. There's something big going on that I haven't been able to write about until now. I'm guessing you've already guessed where I'm going...

I'm growing another human!

I'm about 11 weeks along. Due 3/27/08. We'll find out the sex in November after our cruise.

This pregnancy has already been way different than with Charlie. For starters my hair is falling out big time. Every morning in the shower I have to clean out the drain when I'm done. Second off I wasn't really sick with Charlie until the last 2 months. This time around I'm feeling nauseous all the time. The only time I don't is when I'm eating...so guess what? I eat all the time. And not just during the day either. I'm talking applesauce at 11 pm, cereal at 3 am. Oh and dinner never sounds good. Last night Matt had a steak, baked potato and salad. I had cereal. Cereal seems to always sound good.

So that's the scoop...look forward to many more posts on the topic!

Stick a Fork In It

We're officially calling it. Summer's over. Below are some friends taking their final swim of the summer. Me and Charlie enjoying the view from the dry, warm dock.

This is Lotion Boy sneaking off to hide Grandma's lotion. Amazing that those little hands can hold 3 bottles at once.

A little update on Charlie's skills if you're interested (if you're not into hearing my motherly bragging stop reading here): he signs "more", "please", "thank-you", "all done" and "eat".

He's got a crazy routine of animal noises and motions including his latest: "Charlie, what does a skunk do?" When you ask he wrinkles his nose and waves his hands to fan off the stench. He's also recently added a hiss for a snake, a quack quack (which sounds very similar to "duck duck") for a duck, and a ooh ooh for a monkey.

Another good one is if you ask "Charlie, what does Joey Lawrence say?" He'll respond with a "whoa". This makes a mom raised on early 90s sitcoms ridiculously proud.

He's really into blowing kisses as well. We were getting some deli meat the other day at Fred Meyer and he blew a kiss to the deli lady. She instantly fell in love with him and offered him a piece of cheese (cheese = love (obviously)). He was so thrilled with his cheese he kept blowing her kisses as we walked away.

I think that's the latest. He's also big on telling us when he poops. We got out the training toilet thinking we could get him to use it since he obviously understands what's happening but all he wants to do is play with the lid or put his toys in it. It's probably a little early for potty training but we thought we'd at least get him used to seeing it so it's not such a foreign concept when it really is time.