So much fun, so little time.

Even with a bought of strep thrown in the middle - Charlie has had some very busy weeks and playdates with his buddies and family. I should probably try to post more often so I don't have 8000 pictures every time I post.

We were so excited that Easter turned out to have such beautiful weather. We decided not to go all out with Easter candy - much to my chagrin - and instead bought some BIG easter eggs that had little trucks in them. Turns out those were perfect for my little guy. The Easter bunny also brought Charlie a fun swing.

But he still loves to go in the big boy swing a few times with some help from Daddy.




Even though Charlie can't get up the steps yet, he loves for us to lift him up so he can slide down. Safety first - he always turns around to go on his belly!

The Easter bunny also brought some sidewalk chalk and Charlie likes to make dots on the patio.

We strategically "hid" his eggs by just laying them on the ground. He was so excited when he would "find" them.

His new swing and his awesome hair!

All dressed up at Granny Frannie's! The bunny ears fit better than last year. So does the sweater vest :)

We had a playdate with our friends Eloise and Gwen. Charlie really liked the pink bike!

How cute are they? (although Gwen is kind of covered up in the background!)

We also went on a playdate with our buddy Drew and Heather to Edinborough Park which is a huge indoor play area. The space wasn't the best for our little ones but they had a ton of fun anyway!

You can see Drew on the inside of the tunnel.

Climbing up the stairs so he could go down the slide on the other side.

I wish I had a good picture of it but at one point, Drew was pushing Charlie around in this little chair. It was hilarious.

I think Charlie has sucked all the funny out of me lately so I thought I would do an addition from Brian. Brian stayed home with Charlie one day last week when he had strep. I told Brian to make sure to write everything down so I can see what he did (read: criticize their every move together.) This is what Brian sent around 2 o'clock. The funny part is that this all probably did happen. Charlie is BUSY and the days of "working from home" with Charlie are pretty much over!

Breakfast – 745am
· Blueberries (6) – ate all of them
· Rasp (2) - did not eat
· Mini Pancakes (3) – only ate 1
· Gatorade – took a couple of sips
· Milk – took a couple of sips
Playtime: 8am
· Threw metal coasters onto the floor
· Played with plastic hammer – hit random things that needed it
· Laid on Sasha
· Played with X-box controllers
· Played hide-and-seek with Dad….. didn’t tell dad
· Dad found me in the tub
· Played hide-and-seek with dad again…. Didn’t tell him again
· Dad found me hiding behind the fan in the spare bedroom
· Played hide-and-seek with dad again…. Didn’t tell him again
· Dad found me hiding behind the toilet in the bathroom – this Dad guy is pretty good
· Stacked Tupperware
· Found glass bowls next to Tupperware, stacked those
· Dad gave me metal and plastic bowls to play with instead – those aren’t as much fun
· Sat in the front window with Sasha looking at people – 9am
· Tried to be very quiet and get down a bottle of wine for dad, he found me again
· Found Xbox controller – doesn’t seem to work (Brian takes the batteries out now because Charlie is obsessed with them)
· Found dad’s hat – used it as a disguise to get a bottle of wine – didn’t work
· Playing blocks – 910am
· Found Glass dishes next to the wine bottles – score!
· Dad erected a barricade around dishes – nuts
· Tried to climb over barricade
· Back to stacking metal bowls – I like loud noises!
· Nap – 940
· Up and at ‘em – 11am
· Read books with Daddy
· Pretending the remote is a phone, and walking around saying “hew-wo” while holding the phone up to my ear
· Wandering around getting into stuff
· 1200 lunch!
· Mac and Cheese
· 1 whole hot dog
· 4 carrots
· Milk / water / Gatorade
· Playtime
· Snuggling with Dad
· Making Dad read me books
· Nap – 1.30


Charlie has been taking swim lessons on Wednesday nights. He is so tired as we head home and this last week was no different. Charlie was babbling to himself trying to stay awake and then just started to make a monotone sound. I turned around and saw this. He tries so hard to keep himself awake he'll do anything (don't worry - Brian was driving).

A month in a post!

It has been a crazy month! So I will try to blog the happenings of a VERY busy 14 month old in one post. There will be lots of pictures of Charlie...not so much words from me (Brian's dream life).

March came in like a lion that is for sure. The week after my birthday (29 again!) we found out that Charlie had whooping cough. We were so confused because he has been immunized for that, apparently we are in a high peak of whooping cough and the little ones are especially susceptible because adults can carry it without knowing because it is the same symptoms as a cold. Charlie also had to go on a nebulizer which started out rough but after a few days (and a lot of fruit snacks later) he was a pro.



It's pretty impossible to get a "good" picture of Charlie anymore especially when you want one. This is the best picture I could get of Charlie on St Patrick's Day. In the dog bed, with his nook, and a metal spatula. Who needs kid toys?!



Charlie started a new thing where he doesn't really like to eat unless he has a fork on his plate. For awhile we let him have one of our forks but when we realized how dangerous that was to him, us, and the dogs with flying metal forks in the kitchen, we bought some baby forks. Sometimes he holds the fork in one hand and eats with the other hand. Sometimes he actually can stab the food and get it in. Very impressive.



Ravioli is easy..



Here is Hurricane Charlie. He likes to take ALL of his books off the shelf. He thinks he's pretty hot stuff in the hat.





We had our first trip to the Como Zoo. It is such a great place because it's free, you can get through it pretty quickly, it's free, the animals are all pretty easy to see, and the best part...it's free. :)

Brian was a little nervous about going back. Apparently they went to the Como Zoo a lot when he was little and a giraffe "allegedly" took a nip from Brian. Brian's like a fine aged wine because I swear that giraffe got a look in her eye when she spotted my handsome hubby.

A big buffalo in the background.



We always laugh because our little friend Eloise has this look that basically is "I will cut you if you keep looking at me." It's hilarious because she is the sweetest little girly girl and then will give you this look. Charlie has also been perfecting that look as you can see below.



Ahh..there's my boy!



We also had a visit with the Schneider cousins. I didn't do a very good job of taking snapshots..I guess that's what happens when you have 7 cousins running around!!

Here is a cute one of Micah and Charlie reading some books.



Garrett was such a great buddy to Charlie. He just never tired of playing with him. Here Charlie is "allowing" Garrett to read him a book while he plays with plastic cups.

Random picture but this was taken the last week of March..look how much snow we still had!! Today, less than a month later it is all gone (thank goodness!) No we don't have 3 dogs...we were dogsitting our friend Hunter.

Charlie's 2 favorites toys right now. The popper and his lion. Brian tries to watch TV and Charlie will move the popper back and forth and then turn the music on his lion by hitting his nose. It gets pretty loud!

Good multitasking!

Charlie really loves the vacuum. Lately when we try to vacuum we have to give him the shortened swiffer and he follows along with the swiffer while we vacuum. Maybe he got his Daddy's cleaning gene...that would be awesome!

So as you can see...we've had a busy month!! We also had our first trip to the Children's Museum, a visit with Grandpa Frank, our first 4 swim classes, and lots of playing outside in the few days of nice weather!! We have a busy weekend coming up with our first trip to Edinborough Park with Heather and Drew and Easter at Granny Frannie's on Sunday!

Also, even though we weren't there Happy 40th Anniversary to my parents!! What an amazing accomplishment. We love you!

Happy Easter to you all!

Spring is coming...right?

We have some serious cabin fever!! It has been so nice out the last few days but Charlie and I have both been getting over a cold so we haven't been able to get out and enjoy it much. I'm really looking forward to this summer with Charlie. He'll be able to play in the park now and hopefully enjoy a few Twins games. We didn't realize how easy it was last year just bringing him in the carrier and he'd sleep through 90% of the game. We know we're not in for that easy of a time this year...

Charlie is also in a "nook" phase so it seems as if a lot of our pictures - especially the ones around bedtime - has the permanent nook in it. I think part of it is that he's been sick and the other part is he is getting his molars towards the back of his mouth and they are giving him fits so anything in his mouth is good. We've been giving him ice chips - thanks Grandma Pat for that idea! - and that seems to help too.

He often uses Sasha to stand up. She's such a good sport. Stella has no tolerance for wrestling or pulling on ears, etc.

BFF's.

He was trying to crawl on Stella but she takes off so he starts to lean on
Sasha - who is just gazing at Brian.



Charlie is so goofy when I go get him up from a nap. He's so excited to see me, and then he falls to the mattress and rolls around giggling like it's a big joke that I "got him". So goofy.



Plus he has some wicked cool hair when he wakes up!






I don't think I've posted a picture of the damage Charlie did awhile back to his crib rail. I did get a cover for the front rail but didn't order the side one in time and now he's pretty much down with that. Good thing when it converts into a big bed, we don't need the side rails!

Charlie is officially now a walker. It's his preferred method of transportation but when he falls, then he usually just finishes crawling to where he is going. He's getting pretty fast too. I'll have to get a video but he always claps when he pauses. I think it's because we always go "yay" and clap when he walks. He must think we're idiots that we clap and cheer every time he walks. He's going to think we should throw him a party when he rides a bike!

This is what Brian showed Charlie how to do while I was traveling. Now Charlie is obsessed with getting up on the counters or standing on a chair so he can reach the counters. Maybe he'll be a chef like Daddy.

He also loves when we let him up into this cabinet and he gets the tomato paste can- it's just small enough for his hands.

After every meal he crawls underneath his highchair - not sure why but it's pretty cute. You can see his black eye from a few weeks ago in this picture.

Homesick

I'm traveling for work this week. It's actually a pretty short trip. I left on Monday afternoon and I'm flying back out tomorrow morning but now that we have Charlie, days away from home are hard. I try to remind myself to ENJOY the quiet and the reading but especially now that Charlie sleeps through the night, it's not as much of a treat and really I just miss being home with my boys and the dogs. On top of that my pity party is not being helped by the fact that Charlie started to WALK while I was gone!! That little stinker! Brian said he's been taking up to 5-6 steps at a time all of a sudden both at home and daycare. He and my daycare lady were discussing whether to tell me or not or let me think he did it when I got home. I thought I had told them to push him down if he got close to taking a step!! Darn them!

I was watching Teen Mom 2 last night - hey traveling is a good way to get in shows that Brian won't even let me put on the DVR - and even watching those dumb girls made me miss Charlie! I was in my office this afternoon and started looking through pictures of Charlie on my laptop and I just love looking at how much Charlie has grown. It's really fun to see glimpses of his personality in the earlier pictures too.

Here are a few of my faves. that I just have on my desktop.

He looks like sloth in Goonies. I can say that because I'm his Mom. :)

His adorable Rolling Stones shirt from Anne and Michael. We got this awesome toy from Grandma Pat for his birthday. It's a magnetic alphabet singing toy. He LOVES it and it's saved us from having to get out the tupperware (and then wash them every night).

Last Saturday I don't know what happened but Charlie fell 3 times in 5 minutes. He's just in such a big hurry to get everywhere he doesn't even pay attention to where he's going. So he got his first shiner! I have a few better pictures on my camera at home but you can still see it here. You can also see his new tooth. He's up to 8 now. 2 more have come in on the bottom since his birthday.

His eyelids look bruised but I think that is just a trick of light.

This is a video I took the week after Charlie's bday. I was trying to get a good shot of him dancing but he only does it at the beginning. It's kind of uneventful but I love when he reaches back to start the music again. You can also just see the wheels in his head turning to see if he can reach the table without dropping first.