And we're back!!

After hundreds of comments about where we have been (ok, it was just three..thanks Sue, Molly and Ethan for missing the blog), I am back on the band wagon of blogging. I hope to keep a more regular rhythm instead of once every 5 months...yikes. I realized that we don't take as many pictures if I'm not using them for the blog so for the sake of keeping memories..we are back!!

We've had a crazy busy summer. Mostly good, and some not so good. The good: several trips to South Dakota for long lazy lake weekends, trip to Chicago with my Mom for NKOTBSB (ah-mazing), trip to Denver for Jacquie and Ben's wedding with UNI girls, and fun playdates with our friends. With the ups comes the downs of course and unfortunately while my Mom and I were in Chicago, Brian's Grandma Frankie passed away. We miss her like crazy but are so thankful for the time that we got to spend with her - especially these last 19 months that she was able to spend time with Charlie.

So I'll just try to catch up all the pictures from this summer (the very few we took that are on my camera!) and try really hard to post more often!!

Charlie has really ditched all of his toys this summer for his police car (thanks Micah!), any kind of ball, and/or trucks. Once in awhile he will get out something else like the sit and spin that Grandma Pat gave him but 90% of the time you will find him in his car holding a ball or truck.

So happy about his police car!

Meeting new friend Beau Luskey!



First time finger painting. Way more paint ended up on him than the paper but that's what bathtubs are for.

We only braved the Twins game once with Charlie this year. He isn't as willing to just sit on our laps but he did great at the game we went to. He loves to people watch and there's all kinds of people to watch at a Twins game.

Momentous...first time at Famous Daves. Not really sure about this Daddy.

Hmm..not so bad!

First popsicle at the beginning of the summer. We realized when he knew exactly what to do that maybe daycare does popsicles for snack!! It is definitely a favorite dessert!

We were so lucky to be able to go to Denver for my friend Jacquie's wedding. It was so incredibly beautiful - at this gorgeous museum with the mountains in the background. My Mom came up to watch Charlie so Brian and I really enjoyed a weekend away!

Charlie's first trip to the fair. He DID NOT enjoy the guy who was running the train. Even with his cousins Stella and Piper along, he freaked out everytime we would go past the scary man.

Scary man in red...

Charlie really loves his books. In the morning while I'm getting ready he will just sit on the couch or on his chair in his room reading books to himself.

Charlie is #1!

I bought this chalkboard sticker thing when Charlie was born thinking I would write notes and stuff on it. I never used it so I moved it down to the bottom of the wall and Charlie loves it!!

And we're into fall...

Charlie is king of the yard!

Fun with the leaves!

A quick update

I think maybe Charlie hit the "terrible twos" at 16 months. No, not really but I certainly felt like that yesterday at the store. We went to Jerry's Foods for a few quick things after I picked up Charlie from daycare and about 1/2 way through our trip, Charlie had a meltdown because I wouldn't let him chew on the pasta box. (You'll thank me for that later I think bud.) So here we are - standing in the aisle in full on screaming melt down toddler mode so I looked over and saw fruit snacks on the counter, grabbed them, opened them, and gave them to Charlie to get him to calm down. I officially because "that mom." Oh well - we do what we gotta do I guess!

Here is Charlie and Sasha earlier this spring. They love to sit on the bench together.



We were so lucky to have my BFF Erin and her hubby Dustin and their little guy Declan in town a few weeks ago. They flew all the way from Kansas City. Declan is just 2 weeks older than Charlie so it was so fun to get the boys together. And they ended up on the same schedule so we got the chance to do our favorite thing together - play cards and board games!!

The boys just cracked us up the entire weekend.



I had just told Erin about Charlie and his "stranger danger" and the second he looked at her, he held his arms up. Maybe it was because they had a little guy his age but Charlie just loved on Erin and Dustin all weekend!



Do you have a 7 of diamonds? Go fish.

Charlie also graduated from his first ECFE (early childhood family education) class. I made Brian come to the last class for the picture. Because the class is at 5, Brian could never be off work in time to make it and I think everyone thought I was a single mom! Charlie loved the class and all his friends even though it doesn't look like it in the picture. And the best part of the class - one of our teachers has a high school daughter that wants to babysit Charlie! Score!

Charlie is VERY into books right now. His favorites are "I Love You Through and Through", "5 Little Ladybugs", "The Belly Button Book", and "The Very Hungry Caterpillar". While I'm getting ready in the morning, Charlie loves to sit in the chair and "read" his books.

Charlie probably wouldn't appreciate this picture but he has officially transitioned from 2 naps a day to 1 nap and it's made for some ROUGH evenings for Mommy and Daddy. He is pretty much ready to go to bed at 5:30 so the entire evening consists of trying to keep him busy to distract him from how tired he is! Poor guy. I know he'll adjust but we probably a few more weeks of an early bedtime!

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!