August Wrap-Up

After our trip to Grundy, we were in a short stretch where we were getting ready for our vacation.  We did manage to be silly.

 

 Charlie and I went on a date to the park and to get ice cream while Daddo did his fantasy football draft.

 

We also went to Henry's birthday party.  Unfortunately, this is the only picture I took.

Matt and I went to Colin and Leah's wedding.

Lastly, we got ready for some VT Football.  Go Hokies!

Instagram

So, a while back ago, actually last year about this same time, I decided I wanted to try to use Instagram.  I couldn't really get into it so I gave up.  Well, while Charlie was away at his Pop's and Mim's house, I found myself having a few more spare moments to just sit around and I got hooked.  So, I'm now using it probably more than Facebook.  I wasn't great at posting on Facebook but I love putting random pictures on Instagram.

Anyways, check me out: 

http://instagram.com/swheawill/#

Charlie-isms

Charlie is pretty funny these days.  He has lots to say and I find most of his comments pretty funny these days. 

Just a few weeks ago, he was visiting his Grammie and Papa.  Charlie had a good dinner and was really good for them so Grammie thought he deserved some dessert so she offered him Oreos or M&Ms.  Charlie thought long and hard and chose Oreos.  Once he was done, he decided he would rather have the M&Ms.

Charlie came home from school this week singing a special song.  It went something like..
Chop It, Chop It
Eat It, Eat it (with hand motions to go with it)
Peanut Butter
and Jelly!

I tried to get him to sing it for the camera.

These days, Charlie's favorite TV show is Mickey's Clubhouse.  He wants to watch Mickey everyday when he gets in.  He starts it out with Mickey, saying "Meeska Mooska Mickey Mouse".  Then when Mickey needs help, Mickey says "Oh Toodles" and always requests help.  Charlie yells proudly "NOODLES" every time! 

Charlie loves to watch You Tube videos.  It's part of bedtime routine.  We let him to get to pick a couple of short ones.  If he tries to pick a long one, we may or may not say that they are broken!  :-)  Some of them are pretty educational.  He loves these videos about shapes and letters.  He also loves these videos that we came across that have a kid in it named Charlie.  Recently, he found some Thomas videos.  One is a song called "Never Give Up".  Tonight after he watched it, he turned to me and said "I like that song". 

Some of what he will tell you is true.  Some, well....  I'll let you decide.  :-)

Charlie loves to give a little commentary on what's going on.  So, while with Mim and Pops, he was doing his normal and talking about Pops driving which sparked a conversation that my Dad found HILARIOUS! 
Charlie: Daddo drives his car.
Pops:  He does?  Does Mommy drive too?
Charlie:  Yes
Pops:  Is Daddo a good driver?
Charlie:  Yes
Pops:  Is Mommy a good driver?
Charlie:  Nope

Charlie told Mim....Mommy says Cock a doodle do. 

Charlie has been talking about hair lately.  He's very observant.  The other night, one of my long hairs was on the side of the bathtub and I told him that it was a Mommy hair because it was so long.  He said, "Daddo doesn't have hair?"  I explained that Daddo has hair, it's just short and not long like Mommy.  Well, last night, he was really examining Matt's hair.  I happened to catch it on video.  :-)

 

I'm sure I'm forgetting half the stories but I have to write these down before I forget them.

 

I love this boy so very much.  

Grundy Trip

Charlie spent a week with his Pops and Mim and he had a BLAST!  

He was way too busy to talk to me other than to say Hi and tell me what he was doing at the moment.  He did not ask or cry for us anytime the whole week.  :-)

They were busy during the week going to the library, school, park, church, etc.  He got to hang out some with his Aunt Meredith.  I don't know what his favorite part of the week was but I think it had something to do with getting to take Kaiser on walks.

Matt and I went this weekend to visit and pick the boy up.  We went to Cuz's.  Yum!  Charlie was impressed with the décor. 

We went back to the park so Charlie could show us the best playground equipment.  I absolutely love the Poplar Gap Park. 

We had a pretty good trip home.  Charlie was excited to get home and back to some of his toys. 

Now, we are all adjusting to the work week and trying to get back into the routine.  :-)

Thanks Mim and Pops for keeping our boy! 

Dance then wherever you may be....

 

 

26.5 Months

Charlie started wearing pull ups a few weeks ago.  Since May, he has been having dry diapers in the morning.  It was concerning to me when it first started happening.  He also will wake up from nap dry.  It's about 50/50.  Daycare wanted to try to introduce him to the idea.  Many of his friends about his age are already trained but he hasn't really wanted to sit still long enough at home to get on the potty so I hadn't really pushed it.  Anyways, the first couple of weeks, he wasn't consistently sitting on the potty and he would NOT sit on the potty at home.  I was ready to give up for a few months until I came home and saw this:

So, it's a small step.  We'll keep moving forward and hopefully get serious after vacation.

As for random other things, Charlie is so funny these days.  He tells me things like Matthew Brown (a kid in his room at school) is a troublemaker.  He also likes to tell me that he eats tuna salad for every meal.  He loves to give me a kiss attack.  Anytime he hurts himself, he will tell the inanimate object, "Not nice".  I think Daddo is going to change over to Daddy as he goes back and forth.  He is really good at brushing his teeth, but no so good at spitting out the toothpaste.  I'm sure he will learn to spit and then he'll spit all the time.  Yuck!  He's a great sleeper now.  He tells us sometimes when it is time to go to bed.  :-)  He can stall bedtime but doesn't typically.  I'm sure that is coming.  He loves to eat.  I couldn't even begin to pick his favorite foods as he has quite a few but I would be safe with saying M&Ms.  The boy loves to snack but he will eat his vegetables and meats pretty good too.  As for TV, he used to only watch Sesame Street.  Normally, he gets to watch one show as soon as he gets home.  It gives us time to get dinner ready and his a few minutes to rest and drink some juice.  However, on the weekend, he normally watches TV when he first gets up and is waking up.  Right now, his favorite show is Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.  He also loves Chuggington and Curious George when he isn't watching Mickey Mouse or Sesame Street.  He's all boy as far as what he wants to play with:  balls, cars, trucks, lawn mower, golf clubs, baseball bat, etc.  He loves Spiderman.  Not sure where he was introduced to Spiderman but he picked out for his napper at school to be Spiderman and also got some new tennis shoes that are crazy wild Spiderman and light up. 

He loves to name shapes and colors.  He's really good at it as you can see from the video.

He also is loving playing with flash cards.  They have them at school and do them a lot and I found some in the dollar section at Target.  They are now in my purse as an activity for when we go out to eat.  :-) 

I am loving this stage of development. 

Tonight, I asked him if he knew what was going to happen tomorrow.  He said "Yes" so I said "What".  He said "It's going to rain".  Haha! 

ABCs

Cute Little Conversations

Summer Vacation **Caution: Picture Overload**

I took a little hiatus from blogging for the summer.  The blog can be hard for me to maintain.  It gets very easy to get behind.  My personality isn't really to procrastinate on anything.  Thank goodness! It stresses me out way too much.  I hate catching up so I just don't do it and then when finally it's too much for me, I can't figure out where to start.  So, here it is and I haven't blogged in a couple of months and what a busy couple of months it's been with many pictures and fun things that we have done.  I definitely was looking forward to the summer, but I didn't really expect it to be as fun as it has been. 

So, I feel like I need to get some very memorable moments on the blog.  While I may not have pictures from everything we did, here's what we've been up to:

- Matt has worked hard on keeping up the yard chores.  Charlie, Wally and I have tried to stay out of the way as much as possible.

 

 Matt got himself a new lawnmower.  Yay!  It was definitely time.  Charlie was a little sad that he didn't pick out a tractor.

- Charlie has had several sleepovers at his Grammie and Papa's house.  He definitely makes himself at home over there and I think they are just fine with that.

- We spent a nice weekend with The Hamricks in Williamsburg. 

We went to see where Elmo lives and as it turns out, in Charlie's world, that would be Busch Gardens. 

We had such a great time and Ali and I were able to quickly find Elmo and the Sesame Street gang. 

We went to the park both on Saturday and Sunday.  I was pleasantly surprised at how much the boys loved it. 

 

- Matt and I took a trip with our friends, Dave and Lyndsay, to do a winery tour.  Matt and I did this last year and I think it's definitely going to be an annual trip.  We really enjoy doing a few tastings.

- Charlie and I met Mim and spent the night at a hotel, where we enjoyed the pool, and then headed on a trip to see my grandparents.

We enjoyed a visit with Grandpa Bill and Nanny. 

My sister and Dad came and met us there so the family got together and had a nice time.

 

- We celebrated Independence Day with friends and did the cookout thing with the kids running around playing. 

We even stayed up for the fireworks.  I wasn't sure that this year would be the year but Charlie was all for it.

- We went to a Squirrels game.  This was actually Charlie's third game but the first one where he paid attention.  He kept wanting them to "hit the ball again." 

Charlie met Coach Beamer and we even have a picture to document it.

- We celebrated Grammie's birthday.  Charlie says he wants to have a birthday.  He apparently doesn't remember the one he had back in May.

I'm sure there is more but with all that, we've managed to go to the pool some several times with friends.  This boy is a water boy.  We've played at home and done a few smaller outings like going to the Children's museum. We've cooked out a lot with friends and family. 

We've enjoyed so many veggies this summer.  Although, when asked, Charlie would probably tell you his favorite veggie is M&Ms.  Don't let him fool you, I don't think he's passed up too many vegetables.  I'm fortunate that he's not too picky.

Last night, Matt and I celebrated our 5th anniversary.  While there may have been a flame a little before, we had our official first date the night before I moved to Alabama.  I left not knowing what was going to happen and I think we both wondered if a long distance relationship was worth pursuing.  Luckily, we didn't hesitate.  I texted him within the first few days and even though he didn't see it and couldn't figure out why his phone was beeping at him, he called me within the first week.   Matt said it well last night when he said thank goodness we gave it a shot because we have an incredible life with one another and an amazing family!  In some ways, it seems like yesterday that we got married but in others, it seems like a lifetime away.  Our life is so different now.  I love seeing Matt as a Dad.  I couldn't have imagined it getting better, but it sure has. 

I'm sorry if I've left many of you hanging and you've missed out on pictures like this one.

I'm not saying goodbye to summer just yet.  We have a few more fun things planned.  Charlie is going to spend a week at Pops and Mims house and we are going to go to the beach for a week. 

This week, I'll try to post a few videos we've taken over the last month.