Breakfast with Santa 2009

Saturday was our annual Breakfast with Santa at our church. And, as I expected, Charlie was hesitant of Santa. When we first walked in and Charlie caught sight of Santa, he stared at him for a minute and then went to crying and ran into the kitchen. Santa worked the whole time trying to get Charlie to warm up to him...but, without much luck. Charlie didn't mind Santa being around him as long as he didn't approach him. So, our pics are taken with Santa "nearby".Charlie spent the majority of his time eating and dancing...

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Charlie's Christmas tree

We have yet to get our Christmas decorations up at the house but I did buy Charlie his own Christmas tree today. It stands a whopping 10" tall! It's a fiber optic tree that uses batteries. He seems to really like it though and has been carrying it around the house today. I found it at Target for $5 and found some little pom poms to use as decorations...

bikes!

Charlie and I took our usual trip to Walmart this week. As we pull into the parking lot, Charlie always asks about the bikes. We park on the side of the building where there is a large covered area before you go into the building. During the summer months and, of course, at Christmastime, they always have bikes out in this spot and Charlie loves to look at them. He always makes a point to show me the ones inside as well. My usual answer to his query is, “no. no bikes today.” But today was different. There were bikes. And, lots of them. They weren’t hanging on racks like they normally are. They were all lined up, ready to be ridden. And, of course, Charlie wanted to ride. I let him try one out and he was just beside himself. I couldn’t help but take a picture...

Thanksgiving 2009

We had a good Thanksgiving in AL for the most part. Other than Daniel’s dad having a stay in the hospital, we enjoyed our time with family. Daniel took the whole week off from work so we headed south on the Saturday before Thanksgiving. Our accommodations were scheduled to be at the Wards’ house for the week but we tried to split our time as much as possible between the two families...well, until my FIL got sick. He came home Monday feeling bad and, well, never got back out of bed for a few days. He ended up in the hospital in Elba on Thanksgiving Day and was diagnosed with bacterial pneumonia. We moved our accommodations from the Ward house to the Hall house on Wednesday night since we first thought he had a stomach virus. I never imagined he would end up in Montgomery in the hospital there. Luckily, he is home and recuperating but he gave us a scare.

This led to many hours spent at the Hall house (which I don’t think they were complaining about). Daniel spent a few nights with his mom at her house while his dad was in the hospital so that was a little strange for us but he just said it felt like old times before we were married. I would have said the same except that I had a two year old staying with me.

On Thanksgiving Day, Daniel’s extended family on his mom’s side, always get together to eat dinner. It’s a potluck and is always such good food! We did go and visit a while and fixed Daniel’s parents a plate to take back to the hospital.

On Friday night, we celebrated Thanksgiving at my parents’ house. My sister and BIL had to work that Friday so we ate once they made it to the house after work. Mom always fixes some of our favorites so I was looking forward to this meal. I mainly just wanted to eat her brown rice and pumpkin pie. If that’s all I had, I would have been happy.

So we filled our bellies quite full for a few days.

Grandma and Grandpa took Charlie to the playground in town. I tagged along just so I could get pictures. We visited it on Thanksgiving Day so we were the only ones there. Here are pics from our playtime:

Charlie has really come a long way with his vocabulary. He had recently begun to use a different name for my mom so that they both aren’t “wee” anymore. For the first part of the week, Charlie was calling her “dada”. This is what he calls everything that he hasn’t figured out how to say its’ name. But, one morning, Charlie came in and started calling her “am-ma”. It took us a minute to figure out what he was saying since we weren’t used to him calling her that but it finally dawned on me that he had figured out her name! That was so cool to me!

We also made a couple of visits to Daniel’s grandmother’s house. She had been sick the first part of the week so we didn’t get to see her until Wednesday. One of the funniest things that Charlie does with her is playing with her mirror. He doesn’t forget a thing so he remembered it from our last visit a few weeks before.

Charlie would get upset and start to pitch a fit and she would go, “oh. oh.” and would pull out a little mirror she had close by and say, “Change that face to a pretty one.” He just thought this was funny and would just smile. So when we visited her, he would just out of the blue make an upset face and she would pull out the mirror and say, “change that face to a pretty one.” and he would laugh. It was just funny because just every so often during our visit, he would think about it and make a bad face. Out would come the mirror.

Here is the usual picture of Charlie and Big that I try and take each time we visit. They are playing cars.

thanksgiving celebration at WCCA

Today was the Thanksgiving celebration at Charlie's school. It was a planned potluck (if there is such a thing) for lunch. The parents were invited to come and eat. Each of the classes, including the elementary kids, did a little performance. It consisted pretty much of just them singing. They brought the little kids out first. Let me preface this with the fact that the parents did receive and e-mail stating that the kids were going to sing and not to let your child spot you in the crowd by waving at them, etc. I followed instructions but and tried to stay out of sight in my seat but Charlie still spotted me and began to cry. He did finally calm down some but still wasn't happy about being up there instead of being in my lap. Here's a little video of one of the songs and a few more pictures:

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My contribution to the potluck was a drink, rolls and "turkeys". They were made of nilla wafers, pb cups, candy corn and caramels. The glue was icing. I found this idea on someone's blog but couldn't find it again to thank them. They turned out really cute and needless to say, I didn't take any home because they were all gone.

more two year old moments...

Here are a couple of funny moments with Charlie just from today:

emptying the recycle bin...in the hallway?

trying out the dog house...

What will tomorrow bring?

one cool dude...

pit pat pit pat pit pat

Saturday morning I was awoken to...pit pat pit pat pit pat pit pat...then, in a whisper..."mommy." "daddy." Charlie has taken his maiden trek from his room to ours when he is ready to get out of bed in the morning. I didn't immediately respond to him when he walked in. I wanted to see if he would come and wake me up or go about his own business. To my surprise, he just walked right over to my side of the bed and I guess waited on me to move, which I didn't, and then he just started playing with Khaki's kennel by the bed. Khaki has a nervous licking habit and she was licking a spot on her leg. I spend my days telling Khaki to stop licking so it didn't surprise me when Charlie said to Khaki, "no licking." Still in a whisper though. I couldn't help but giggle inside. Charlie never tried to wake me up and proceeded to go back out of the room. At this point, I sat up in bed and he froze. The look on his face was funny to me as well. I think he wasn't sure how I was going to react...was he in trouble for getting out of bed? Was I going to get on to him? I just said something like, "Did you get out of your bed? You silly." in a laughingly way. He then came back to my side of the bed and said and signed "eat." Boys. Is that all you do...eat? But, then again, that is the usual next step in his daily routine. :)

Charlie's room stays much colder than anywhere else in the house so we usually open his door back as we go to bed to let some of the warm air from the rest of the house creep in. Daniel usually closes Charlie's door when he walks by in the mornings so that the TV doesn't wake him up. We were guessing that since it was Saturday and we were sleeping in that Charlie saw his door still open and decided he could get up.

However, this morning, when I got up to take a shower, I closed his door so that he would stay in his bed. After getting ready for worship, I headed downstairs to iron my shirt and Charlie must have heard me walk by. He got out of bed, opened his door and walked into our bedroom. I heard the pit pat of little feet while downstairs and knew immediately that he was up on his own again. So, it has begun. Charlie has yet to wake up from a nap yet though and make his way out of his room. He has been woken up both days. I'm curious to see how tomorrow morning goes when everything is back on schedule. I think I am going to have a little boy come wake me up...

raking...

Raking leaves...it is an inevitable task at our house each fall/winter. We have to rake atleast twice during the season. We should probably do it more often but we just don't. I don't think it's because we don't enjoy it, even though it is a big task. I think it's just hard to get up early on a Saturday and do it. It's impossible to find the time any other day of the week.

Last year, Daniel and I raked one afternoon while Charlie was sleeping. This year, we decided to try it with him outside with us. It went as well as was expected. He had some fun in the leaves, playing with the rake or my gloves and then he was ready for something else. He kept trying to push his stroller up into the grass and up our hill of a lawn and this task was just too much for him. He just got put out with it and one of us would have to go and help him. The only problem with that is that Charlie is all about him doing things. It's "Chardie" as he points to himself. This is with everything now so he got mad if we tried to help.

Daniel and I got the front yard raked into piles or rows so I took Charlie into the back yard to play while Daniel hauled leaves to our "pile". I tried to rake some in the back while he played with the dog and with the bubble blower. It was a challenge but I managed to do enough until I was just give out. Apparently this stay-at-home mom has lost her stamina.

Charlie can be a big help to a point. Here are a few pics and a video from our Saturday morning...

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a reunion and a birthday party

We spent last weekend in AL with our families. Daniel's family had their annual Bryan family reunion at the NS conference center on Saturday. It was beautiful weather and all the kids played outside for most of the time we were there. Charlie got his share of outside time as well.

The food was incredible as always...and lots of it! There were probably around 100 people there.

When we got back to Daniel's parents' house, Branson (my nephew) and Charlie rode around in the 'stang. Charlie loves to sit and press buttons in the mustang. Any button will do except he won't push the accelerator. He freaks if you try and get him to push it with his foot. However, Charlie LOVED being chauffeured around by Branson. As you can tell...

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The rest of the day was spent resting at my parents' house and watching football that night. Since my sis and BIL were out of town for the weekend, it was just the 5 of us and it was quiet...well, except for the two year old running around. He kept Grandma and Grandpa busy!

After worship on Sunday we quickly went to eat lunch at Tonda's and then got back to my parents' house to get Charlie down for a nap. My nephew was having a birthday party that afternoon so we were strapped for time and Charlie cannot go without a nap...or atleast I wasn't going to test him on this day. :\

Branson's party was at Adventureland in Dothan which is about an hour from my parents' house. Charlie got a nap in and then we were off! Adventureland is putt putt golf, go karts, bumper boats, an arcade and batting cages so all these 7, 8 and 9 year olds were having fun! There were a couple of older kids (Daniel and Michael to name a few) that had some fun as well! We enjoyed some cake and ice cream and then they were off to the races!

Here is Daniel and Charlie watching the kids drive the go karts around the track...The go karts were the most popular. Charlie was having a blast watching the kids drive them around the track. Charlie didn't get to ride with the big boys but he did get to atleast climb in and out of one of the cars. There were some parked off to the side so he spent a good while enjoying the "arck" (Charlie-ese for car).

Charlie got even more excited when Daniel, Michael and Branson were all on the track.

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In the video, you also saw Charlie's first experience with skeeball, Daniel's favorite arcade activity. We didn't stay for putt putt. I think it would have been fun with Charlie but it would have also probably been a challenge with him as well.

Daniel took Monday off so we wouldn't have to try and rush back on Sunday night for him to go back to work. This worked much better since Charlie will sleep in the car during the afternoon hours when his normal naptime is. Charlie will not sleep in the car if it is dark outside, no matter what time of night it is so we prefer to travel during the day!

We spent some time with Daniel's grandmother before hitting the road. I always try and get a picture of Big and Charlie each time we visit. It is becoming more of a challenge each time.

piece car...

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While Charlie was taking a bath tonight, he heard a police car siren outside and, of course, starting saying "piece car". He also starting patting the bottom of the bathtub which means that he wanted the police car to come to him. I just said, "No Charlie. The police car can't come inside. He's out chasing the bad guys." And the nonstop talking about the piece car and the bad guys began...

no more baba

In the last day or so, Charlie has started calling me "mommy" instead of "baba". It's weird to hear. I'm excited about it but I'm a little sad to see "baba" go. I think he picked it up from his friend Alex the other day. Charlie kept hearing him say it on our trip to the zoo. It really is quite sweet though to hear him say "mommy".

Scarecrow Day at MMO

At Charlie's school last Friday, they had a Scarecrow Day. All the kids in the MMO, PreK3 and PreK4 classes wore their costumes. They got to eat lunch at school...hotdogs, chips, juice and dessert. They had a bouncy for the kids to jump in and had special crafts and stories for the Halloween season.

I decided to stay and help with food, crafts, etc. in Charlie's class. Little did I know, Charlie would cling to me every minute he saw me. His teachers say he is an angel (when I'm not there). So does that mean I can't come back. :\ Charlie did start to detach himself from me the longer we were there.

Charlie did not like the bouncy. Well, let me rephrase that. Charlie only liked the bouncy if mama was in there bouncing him. I peeled him off of me for his class while the other moms and I got the food ready. We then served his class and he did well while he was eating. Figures. The kids gobbled up their food and DEVOURED the desserts. About 10 minutes later, they were all bouncing off the walls! Well, after two cookies and a cupcake, I'd probably be doing the same thing! I did manage to get a couple of shots of his class while they were eating and during storytime...

zoo atlanta

Charlie and I received an invitation to go to Zoo Atlanta. A friend of mine, Becky, who I met through a friend at church, has a little boy that is just a few months younger than Charlie. His name is Alex and is just as cute as a button. They have season passes to the zoo which comes with a guest pass so our admission was free. Becky and I have been trying to plan a playdate for the boys but every time we tried, something came up or one of the boys was sick. We finally found a day to get together and it was worth the wait. We just enjoyed the day so much with the two of them.

Becky dropped off her oldest at school and I met up with her and we rode to the zoo in her car. I was happy about this since I had no clue where to go. I have only been to Zoo Atlanta once and that was before Daniel and I were married when he was co-oping in ATL.

This was Charlie's first visit to a zoo and he had fun. He was excited to see the animals. Since Becky has been there many times before, we just followed her lead. We ran into a couple of school field trips but other than that the zoo wasn't all that crowded and the weather was perfect!

We walked and saw many animals...zebras, rhinos, a giraffe, monkeys, gorillas, snakes, turtles, lizards, a lion, warthogs, kangaroos, many birds, lemurs, pandas, etc. We went in the parakeet house which was alot of fun. This was the first thing we did and Charlie was a little uneasy at first but warmed up to it all pretty quickly. I kept hearing him say, "beer" which is bird in Charlie language. He and Alex were fixated on the ducks for a while at first but when they were both handed little feeding sticks, they soon moved their attention to the parakeets. Here are pics from our day...

Charlie learned a new trick today from Alex...

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I think Charlie's favorite part, by far, was riding the train. It is only about a two minute ride but he was having a ball! Here we are on the train, waiting on it to depart...

going bump (well, thump) in the night

As Daniel and I climbed into bed last night, we heard a tha-thump over the monitor. I was on my feet headed to Charlie's room before I even realized what I was doing. Daniel stopped me and said, "Let's see how he reacts if he did actually roll out of the bed." With hesitation, I climbed back into bed. Charlie whined a little and then we heard a rustle of the sheets so we assumed Charlie climbed back in his bed. I felt awful for the little guy but couldn't stop giggling at the mental image I had of him rolling out of the bed. A few minutes later, after not hearing anything else over the monitor, Daniel said, "I think I feel ok about you going and peeking your head in Charlie's room." (We had been discussing this already.) I hesitated for oh...half a second and I was headed that way. Charlie's blanket was spread out on the floor so I assumed he rolled off because it would just be in a wad on the floor if he had just kicked it out. Charlie was lying in his bed. When I woke Charlie up to go to school today, his blanket was back in the bed with him so he apparently either rolled out again or got out of his bed and got it. He has yet to leave his room though (that I know of). :)

the big boy bed...

Charlie just keeps growing and growing...to the point that he has outgrown his crib. *tear* So, this afternoon was his last nap in his crib. You can see from the pics that it was time...

Tonight, Daniel took the front rail off Charlie's crib to convert it to a toddler bed...

Once it was off, Charlie realized it was just his height to climb on and he just kept getting on and off the bed. He was so excited! He would climb up, lie down and say, "night. night." He slowed down for a second for me to snap a picture (even though he doesn't look very happy).

We were encouraged by his enthusiasm but were both dreading the hours to follow. I went through Charlie's usual bedtime routine with him...bath, pj's, snack, teeth brushing, night night to daddy, read, prayers and then bed. I laid him in his bed instead of letting him climb in on his own, hoping he wouldn't realize that he could easily crawl out. He laid right down, blew me kisses like always and I walked out of his room and shut the door. As I'm typing this, it has been an hour...and not a peep! I totally expected to be putting him back in his bed multiple times with screaming and crying in there somewhere. I guess I'll get the heart attack moment when he comes in our room in the middle of the night and wakes me up. I'll try and update tomorrow.

I did snap a quick picture before I walked out of his room...here's our big boy sleeping his first night in his toddler bed. *sniff sniff* My little boy is growing so fast...

Next day update: Last night, Charlie slept the whole night in his big boy bed. He never crawled out. Even this morning when he was ready to get out of bed, he cried and called for me, just like the rail was still there. I went in and sat on his bed as he handed me George, bear bear, lion and blankie. Then, he scooted to the edge and got out of bed.

Naptime came about 20 minutes ago. I changed his diaper as we discussed that it was bedtime. I put him down on the floor. He crawled right up onto his bed and laid down. I moved his animals to where he likes them and covered him with his blanket. We blew kisses and I walked out and closed the door. Haven't heard a peep. I wonder how long it will last before he realizes he can get up. Then again, he may just surprise me. He has so far...

Fall Festival 2009

Saturday night was the Fall Festival and Trunk N Treat at our church. Daniel and I are in charge of this event each year so it was a busy day for us but was all worth it once we saw how much fun the kids were having...especially Charlie. He had a ball! It took him a little bit to warm up to the chaos of it all but as soon as he realized he was getting candy, he was hooked! :) We did the lollipops first. He just enjoyed pulling them out and then was introduced to the prize bucket. This brought a smile to his face. Charlie then tried the ring toss. This is just tossing rings onto a sheet full of prizes. Whatever is inside the ring when it lands, that's what you get to keep. Charlie didn't care about the prizes on this game. He just wanted to keep throwing the rings. I did finally get him to do the can toss. He enjoyed just putting the bean bags in the hole on the bean bag toss. He had such a great time getting to shoot the gun on the turkey shoot. But, by far, the ring toss was his favorite of the games.

Charlie enjoyed eating hotdogs but wouldn't eat the popcorn...Out of everything he did, like all kids, his favorite thing to do of the night was the bouncy. It was a 5 in 1 deal that had a place to jump, an obstacle course, a ladder to climb up and a slide to go back down. I'm not sure why they call it a 5 in 1 because that's only 4 things but I digress. This was not the first time Charlie has seen a bouncy but this was the first time we got him to go in. Daniel went in with him first. I went in a few times with him. The ladder to get to the top is next to impossible to climb, especially trying to get a 2 year old up with you. I don't know how the kids kept doing it. I would get about half way up, lose my footing and slide back down...Charlie in tow. He just laughed at the whole thing, luckily. I did manage to make it up once. I was out of breath by the time we slid down though. All worth it when I saw the smile on Charlie's face. It was funny to see the picture later and see what reaction Charlie had going down though! Charlie and I rode the hayride which he was uneasy about at first but didn't want to get off once it stopped. We then did trunk n treat. The decorations freaked him out but again, once he realized they were giving candy, he changed his mind. :)

We had a costume contest for ages 6 mos - 5 years old, 6 yrs - 13 yrs, and 14 yrs and up. Charlie won the best costume in his age group. I was flattered since I made it myself, even though he was truly working that costume! He really was quite cute in it! I got many, many complements.

The three of us had a great time at Fall Festival this year! I can't wait to see Charlie at it next year! Here are more pics from the night...