Six months ago today...

Happy half birthday Bode! You make me a very proud Auntie!

A boy and his dog

Goodbye naps, we will miss you terribly!

These are pics of Charlie sleeping last night. He sleeps so soundly once he's asleep. I could put clothes away, turn lights on, and he'd stay asleep. I know I should count my blessing because he has ALWAYS been an amazing sleeper. But I'm not ready for what he has decided lately...
he's done with naps. I am so saddened and so not ready for this stage in parenting. He's not even 3 years old...can naps be given up so early. Until two weeks ago, if he missed a nap because we were busy and didn't feel like getting home by 1pm, he'd make us pay. He would be a monster and make everyone around him wish he had taken a nap earlier in the day. The past 4 days however, naps are no longer needed. We try, we do what we normally do to get him to rest his eyes in the afternoon, but to no avail. It has nothing to do with how busy we have him all morning, and his room is as dark as dark can be...

I fear he has simply outgrown them. I thought switching from two to one naps a day was traumatic, but this is tough. I'm thinking of making "quiet time in his room" mandatory, even for an hour, with books and the lights on. Has anyone tried that before? Hmmm, just when you've got your little one figured out, they throw you a curveball!

New Hair

Charlie got his hairs cut the other day. It has needed to be cut for several weeks now but I just couldn't find the time to do it, and didn't want the hassle of fighting with him to have it done (he's been very willful lately and I figure a haircut would certainly mean a fight of some sort). So I picked him up early from school last week and we went to Cookie Cutters for his haircut. The appointment was for 4:30 but he wasn't seen till 5 so I thought I'd really be in for it. It's dinner time now, yikes.

Can I tell you that he was a complete ANGEL! No fighting, not even a whine. He let them put the cape on (which is never allowed, even if he sits still for the cutting, the cape is never allowed near him), he sat quietly in the police car watching Dora on his own personal TV, and they were able to use clippers and buzzers and the mister, he got the works. And not one peep out of my willful little man. Just when you least expect it, they act like perfect little dolls. Of course, now I'm all confident that he'll be great getting his haircut from now on and he'll have a melt down for the record books. Such is the nature of being a parent!
So here are some shots of his new hair. We left it long on top so I could still spike it. I think he's really looking like such a boy lately. I am sad that he's growing up so much, but with it comes some cute times, more "rational" conversations, and some great imaginative play on his part.

He's still very into cars, but he now has a few Thomas trains and he has full stories that he enacts with them. They all have specific jobs, there are things that happen to them (Gordon falls off the track, Thomas slips down the hill, etc) and he really gets into it. I love sitting back and listening to his little scenarios. He also did something the other day that I found hilarious. He started reciting lines from Bambi (which he hadn't seen in at least two weeks) and recited the whole part where Bambi learns to talk, using all the correct inflections, and incorrect ways that Bambi spoke. He even laughed at the times that Thumper laughs at Bambi in the movie. I was amazed by his accuracy.

Another thing he did in the car which was funny but made us think of the movie RainMan in a way was, we were saying something and mentioned the number 116 (and said it "one sixteen") and he said, "kids stuff". It's the Sirius station that we listen to when he's in the car "one-sixteen, Kids Stuff". We were floored and then Alex started reciting the RainMan lines where Dustin Hoffman does that with the station 97X. Anyway, it was a good laugh we had!

Hope everyone has a good weekend!

The rest of our weekend

After Dutch Wonderland, we spent the rest of the weekend at Gampa and Tutu's house to celebrate Gampa's (pictured below) birthday. He went out back and played some golf with Gampa...always a fun time. We then had a yummy dinner (homemade fried chicken, broccoli, bread, salad, etc) made by my mom (aka Tutu).
I took some 6 month pics of Bode who was looking so cute! This is his new funny face that I just thought was too adorable. He's getting ready to blow bubbles but looks like maybe he's trying to poop...could be both!

Couldn't you just eat him!

Christy and I must have had some kind of sister telepathy and packed matching pj's for the boys for Saturday night (I bought them for the boys b/c I thought they were too cute, but what are the chanced that with all of their jammy options, we would have brought the same ones). So we had to get some pictures of them hanging out Sunday morning in their jammys. Charlie is really obsessed with books so he's reading Bode a book again. This one is about the Hawaiian alphabet (thanks grandma Tutu!).

They are so cute together and I cannot wait to see them running around the beach together in a year or so.
Bode getting tired playing with his "rocket ship". We bought this for him and Charlie has named it the rocket ship. Don't know why but now we all call it that. Just like he calls him "baby Koa" and I call him that more than I call him Bode.
Charlie teaching Bode some important life lesson...

Dutch Wonderland Rules!

We had another fun filled weekend. This time we headed out to Lancaster County to visit Dutch Wonderland. It is seriously the best place for kids under 5 years old. There are a ton of rides, almost all that accommodate a child Charlie's age, or him and his dad. It was great. I highly recommend taking the trip out there if any one's looking for a fun place to visit with a toddler. Here's Charlie driving a truck. He was looking ahead to see where the traffic was coming from. Daddy was in the backseat helping him "drive".
Here he's "milking" a cow statue. It was a little weird but Charlie thought it was so much fun. I don't think he knew that cows made milk before this encounter. See, fun and educational all rolled in one!
Charlie and daddy rode the log flume. You can see their log in the distance about drop down the hill. I was worried he may have been freaked by the drop but he liked it...daddy held on tight!
Here they are passing under the observation bridge...he's such a big boy now!

This is his thumbs up after sharing ice cream with daddy...it was a fun day!

Here we are waiting to see the "Thomas and friends" show. It was a 15 minute wait but he loved it!

And at the end of the show, he got to meet Thomas. He really wanted to go touch him but restrained himself and sat nicely on the bench. I think we're going to try and get to the Strasburg Railroad this fall to ride on a real Thomas train. He might think that's the coolest thing ever.

Note to self:..

...when a doctor tells you to do something to your child "until pain", don't just nod and agree and leave the office...find out what kind of pain, how bad will the pain be, and how do you alleviate the pain. Charlie followed up with his ENT the other day to hopefully clear him of their services since his tubes were placed. His right ear tube was blocked with old infection material so we were not cleared and I was told to instill peroxide, full strength, into the ear twice a day, up to a week, until pain. Well, we had pain last night. It was terrible. I felt so badly for him and was able to keep myself calm somehow but felt like the worst mother in the world. He finally fell asleep in my arms after screaming and writhing for over an hour (Motrin kicked in) and I went to bed convinced that I had scarred him for life. He hasn't mentioned it yet today, I'll keep my fingers crossed. I paged the ENT doctor on call last night who assured me that it was normal and is equivalent to pouring peroxide on a dirty cut inside your head. OUCH! Poor baby. Had I looked more into it, asked more questions, I would have been better prepared. At least I learned!

Delayed posting...

Sorry for the long delay in posting. I am usually much better at taking pictures of the big boy and getting them up for the whole world to see. This week was a hard week for me, work wise, and I was tired. That's really my only excuse. So anyway, it has been nice having Alex around this week to help with Charlie and around the house. His resume is up to date and it's been sent around. We are hoping that with his incredible experience and skill-set, and with his numerous contacts, that he will have a job again in no time!

So I made Alex breakfast (his favorite meal on the weekends) on Saturday and I made such a perfect omelet that I had to take a picture. It was a combination of perfect pan temp and perfect spatula skills, but really, isn't this a beauty! I'm not even a big egg fan and I thought this looked appetizing!

We went out to dinner Friday night with Charlie's friend Henry and his parents. It was a fun time and the boys were very well behaved. Ted's Montana Grill is very kid friendly and has great food and very reasonable prices. Everyone wins! So here he is looking super cute. Sadly, he has outgrown his 2T pants and we are now onto 3T. These looked like capris so I lowered them a bit on his waist. Today, I just picked the 3T's. I need him to stop getting so big! Soon he'll be off to college.
Christy and Mike came put to our house Saturday afternoon so they could go out to dinner and we could watch Bode. It was alot of fun and the boys liked each other's company. Here Charlie is reading Bode a book. He's so into books lately. He still calls him "baby Koa" most times which I think is so cute!

Bode chilling with Uncle Alex before his nap.

The happy family...

Charlie telling Bode a story this morning. Bode doesn't seem interested!

It was a nice weekend and the weather this weeks seems like it will be perfect for walks in the park and lots of time outside! Enjoy!

Meet me on the street

This has been quite a week! We found out on Tuesday morning that Alex lost his job. It was completely unexpected and very upsetting. The housing market sucks, not everyone is in the market for luxury condos, and the owner hired his daughter-in-law two months ago who is conveniently filling in for Alex now. We are very bummed and pretty stressed, but are hopeful that he finds another job soon. His background is in hotel management and that's what he's gearing his search toward now. So needless to say, Alex was home with Charlie and I this week which was wonderful despite the reason!

We decided to cancel our scheduled trip to Waterloo (to visit Alex's Aunts) and save the gas and hotel money. Instead, we went to Sesame place on Friday. I have been planning to take Charlie there this summer, but it's always 100 degrees and humid and from what I could tell, all of the rides are spinny rides...I don't do spinny rides. You can put me on the biggest baddest roller coaster that goes through 50 loops and I'm great. Put me on a carousel and I am dizzy and a total mess. So it was nice to have Alex there to go on the rides with Charlie. Since you get another day free when you buy a ticket, we decided to come back another day next month to do the water parts of the park.

How fantastic that they had a GIANT firetruck when you first walk in! I think Charlie was too psyched for words! He actually got off without a fight when a line formed for other kids to get up and try it out! I thought for sure I'd have the fight of the century on my hands...just when you least expect it, they act like little angels!

He road the flying Elmos with daddy. They were in the piggy Elmo...he had a great time. They actually rode lots of rides together, all of them were spinny rides, and he kept asking for me to go on them, but I really can't. Poor kid thinks his mom's a total wuss!

Here he is meeting Big Bird. Big Bird is very tall and I was a little worried that he'd be afraid of the giant yellow feather duster. Not at all. He couldn't stop staring at him and he shook his hand (wing), and kept saying "Hi big bird", and touching his legs and feathers. It was like me when I waited on Katie Holmes in college (she was only famous for Dawson's Creek at the time) and I acted like a total awe struck goofball. I'm just very glad that he wasn't afraid!

He also met Elmo. Just as excited and wanted to hold Elmo's hand, he got a big hug from Elmo and gave him a kiss!

Here we are in the air conditioned studio waiting to see a live Elmo's World. He liked in but thought that Mr. Noodle was the best, as was the real Dorothy in a fish bowl.

He climbed the nets with Alex but seemed a little freaked to be that high off the ground and watch people walk under him.

The end of the day, watching the parade from daddy's shoulders. Alex and I placed bets on how long it would take the boy to fall asleep in the car. We hadn't even backed out of our parking spot and he was passed out, tongue hanging out, not a peep out of him. When we got home, he woke up briefly to have his shoes removed and then passed out in bed for two hours. This is unheard of for him (to fall asleep in the car and willingly get back in bed once at home). We had a great time and can't wait to go back later this month for some water fun!