Here's a fun exercise...after viewing these pictures of my goofy son, leave a comment telling me what you think is going on here...be nice, he's only 3!

pictures

Charlie and Bode...I cannot believe how big Bode looks now!
Cousins ready to go to a Halloween party together

And....Aarons new skill! He gets up on all fours and rocks back and fourth and stays like this for several seconds! He literally couldn't support his weight when placed in this position just a few days ago...now he's doing it himself!

Happy guy!

Mid-roll

"Why mommy"

So Charlie has become a little guy full of questions...just in the last three days. He literally woke up one morning and asked, "mommy, why does the sun go away and it becomes night and then the sun comes back and it's day? Where does the sun go and why does it go away and not always stay day"? That was how he greeted me. Holy cow, I was barely awake, let alone ready to figure out how to answer that one! I squeaked out an answer and hoped that it would end there. Not that I don't want him to be inquisitive, but it wasn't the normal, "why", it was a full blown question and he wasn't taking any crap answer...he really wanted to know! The following are just several of the questions he's asked me in the past few days. Mostly, I want to remember them so I am documenting them here, but also, some of them are really funny and so cute!

-"mommy, what makes boogies get in half pints noses?" (half pint is the name they give to his class at school)
-"mommy, what's that noise?"...my answer was the microwave..."oh, what's that do, why don't you just use the oven, tell me all about how it works again, explain that to me again, okay mommy"
-"mommy, how does the water go down the drain, where does it go, why does the water go down all the time, will the water stop coming out ever?"
-"mommy, why do I have such big poops, what does poop come from, why's it so stinky?"
-"mommy, why does baby aaron grow teeth, how do they get in his mouth, why do they not come out at the same time, why they only grow a little at a time?"


I can tell that the "where do babies come from" question is coming any day. I'm not really ready for all of this! I am amazed at how inquisitive he is, and how much thought he puts into everything he does. He literally studies how things work, how they fit together and really tries to figure things out. I'm gonna have my hands full with him!

Another funny thing he said yesterday...when he was asking me about boogies, and asking me to help blow his nose, I asked him if he was getting a cold. His response, "no mommy, I think instead I'm getting a warm"...I was cracking up!

That's all. I will try to post later today with some pics of Aaron's new trick he learned! I can't wait to show it off to his physical therapist this morning!

recent pics...

This is a self taken picture of Aaron and myself while waiting in the doctor's office. I just thought it was cute!

Aaron sucking his thumb while waiting for his breakfast. He sucks his thumb now at times when he's tired or needing to be soothed...it's really adorable and he makes these little sucking noises while he's doing it...I love it!

Charlie eating his breakfast...the usual...peanut butter toast.

Now for the really cute pics...we went to the monster mash party at the Please Touch Museum last night and the boys, of course, dressed up...it was really adorable!

"To infinity and beyond"

Close-up of sherrif Woody

My boys!

Charlie dancing to the DJ music...he was trying really hard to dance like one of the professional dancers...it was so cute!

Most of this is just cute pics of my boys. There's not a ton of stuff to report. Aaron is getting more teeth and getting over a terrible ear infection. We go to the genetic doctor wednesday which I am anxious for. I'm just curious if he/she thinks he looks at all "syndromy" or like his chromosomes are screwey. I just think he's gorgeous!
He's been particularly pleasant lately which is surprising considering his ears and teeth. He's very much like his brother in that the only clue that his ears were bothering him was night time waking and less eating. Otherwise, happy little man! At the docs he was 18+lbs. Still smaller than Charlie at this age but definitely longer!

Above is proof of his latest skill! He can sit like this for longer than 15 seconds which is awesome. He doesn't love it as I think it's alot of work for him, but he's getting there!

Here he is snoozing through a birthday party that we went to today for his little friend Lily. It was at the Garden State Discovery Museum which is where we are having his party this year. It was fun. Charlie loved all the "toys" to touch and explore. HE really loved the car (below picture). It was scary how comfortable he looked in it!

WARNING: SCARY BUG PICTURES BELOW!

So the museum felt it's necessary to have scary prehistoric bugs as part of the "learning" experience. I took these pics partly as therapy (I hate this type of bug) and partly to prove how terribly disgusting and uneccesary this bug is to the well-being of planet earth!

Behold...the giant hissing madagascar cockroach...seriously...is this necessay to have in a kids museum?!

Ugh, my skin was crawling!

Then there was the nasty giant tarantula...also terrible and aweful and nauseating! This one's for you Christy!

He went "fishing" which he loved...

And he danced on stage to MJ's Thriller...he is so his father's child sometimes!

Then we went to Alex's dad's for his birthday dinner. Here's Alex wrestling with Charlie and Ethan

Charlie and his Zayda

Sorry for the neglect oh wonderful blog of mine!

I've been slacking, no blog posts in a while, sorry for anyone who reads this regularly! We've been a bit busy and not much has really happened except lots of brotherly cuteness!They take a bath together now thanks to the fact that Aaron holds his head up much better and can sit supported for longer, so he sits the other way in the tub and Charlie entertains him while I scrub them both down!
Aaron covering up for the camera!

I was off work for a week (I go back Tuesday night). I took one vacation day and just scheduled my other days to give me a long stretch off. I needed it, and although it went quickly, I was glad to have the sleep every night and the time with the kids. We made our guest room into a play room for the boys. I'm mad because I am just now realizing that I don't have any pictures of the guest room as it was. It was really pretty and a very comfortable room with its own bathroom...oh well. We decided to make it into a playroom because, living in a philly row-home, there's not a ton of room. We were getting tired of all the toys in our living space and Charlie having to put his trains away when Aaron was napping. The guest room was great when we needed it but it was only really used a few times a year. SO now it's a playroom and our basement will have more space for the office to be bigger and less crowding in the exercise area. Charlie loves it, and it's already been great. That was our big project while I was off this week, but we have some more to do before it's all done!

My parents took the kids Friday to Sunday for us so we could go out for our 5 year anniversary. We so needed the break and were so grateful for the time we got to spend together. We went out to dinner twice and saw a funny movie...the Hangover...very funny! We were able to go for a nice run together on Sunday and slept in past 9 both mornings! Thanks mom and dad! It was our first time without Aaron for more than one night while I was working or something. It went very well though!

Today we went to the pumpkin patch at Linvilla Orchards and had alot of fun. They have a great playground and tons of fun things to do. We ate yummy food and spent almost 4 hours there! We met up with Sam and Kim and Ethan there so Charlie was happy to run around with his cousin!

Daddy and Aaron

Ethan Aaron and Charlie

Charlie and Ethan driving the apple truck

Pony rides...he looks like a total natural on the pony...maybe he'll love riding like me!

Aaron being his cute goofy self

My adorable boys!

Visionwalk

Alex and Charlie getting ready to hit the walk site...

I don't know what is up with Charlie's face in pictures lately...he makes goofy faces and thinks it's his normal face. As for his "tool belt" he has an obsession with Handy Manny and I was at home depot the other day and found this "apron" for 77cents. Now he can put his tools in the pockets rather than in his pants. He didn't take it off for three days, even to pee and sleep, amazing how easy it is to please him!

Hangin with Swoop

Henry and Charlie with Pablo from the Backyardigans

Bode and Christy

Bode and Charlie and Alexandra staring in awe at the bounce house being blown up

Quinn and Ethan

The kids dancing with Pablo to "No Rain" by Blind Melon (the inspiration for our team name)

We had a great walk. We raised over $160,000 for vision saving research and had over 500 walkers. It was a fabulous time, and it didn't rain amazingly enough! Thanks to everyone, especially our family who came out on walk day and supported us in our fight against blindness...you all mean the world to us!

My boys playing together...they are best buddies right now!

Charlie and I went to a birthday party that was pretty cool. We went on a nature walk and looked at bugs and tadpoles and turtles and plants. I even picked up a cricket and a rainbow beetle that Charlie and I found for the other kids to see...what I won't do for my little guys! It was alot of fun and Charlie loved it!

The kids building a house for the fairies and elves.

Alex and I just celebrated our five year wedding anniversary which is totally crazy that we've been married that long. Time really does fly when you are having fun! Also this past week, Alex was accepted into Drexel's graduate school so that was super exciting! Onto a new chapter in his life!