Tuesday, September 29, 2009

18 Months

Charlie turned 18 months old last week. Here's what I want to remember about him at this age:

-He has a tender heart. He loves to cuddle, doesn't like to be far from his mama, and blows kisses freely.
-He eats all the time. He eats more than anyone else in our house at breakfast then needs a snack an hour later. He still chants "cracker! cracker! cracker" all day long.
-He loves watching football ("ball") with his daddy. He snuggles up with Jeff, raises his hands for touchdowns, and cries when commercials come on.
-He thinks his big sister is pretty much the coolest person on earth. Whatever she does, he wants to do. This is good and bad. =)
-He is curious about everything. When he goes to a new place, he wants to look at every picture and touch anything that looks the least bit interesting.
-His mischievous grin is about the cutest thing in the whole world, and he shows it often.
-He calls most animals by the sounds they make. He's learning more animals, but many furry animals are still "woofs" and anything yellow is a duck. He suddenly really loves cows.
-He is startingto pretend. He likes to crawl around on the floor and bark like a dog. He also cooks food in the play kitchen and eats it like cookie monster.
-No matter how hard I try, I can't get him interested in cars and trucks. He's much more of a ball kid. We have A LOT of trucks that sit in the toy bins day after day untouched. The only exception is trucks with doors that open and close. The boy loves doors.
-If he does something that makes someone else laugh, his whole face lights up with a grin.

He is such a blessing and we love our little Charlie Bear!

Thursday, September 24, 2009

Botanical Garden

My mom and I took the kids to the Bellevue Botanical Garden this morning. When Grace heard it was a park without a playground, she was not interested in going. When I told her I was hoping to take her picture while were there, she hid underneath a pile of toys in her room and declared that she would "not take a picture!!"

I was so surprised at home much the kids both LOVED the gardens. They ran all around discovering things. I don't think we actually made it to where most of the flowers are, but we had a blast walking down the trails finding interesting rocks, trees and streams.

And, of course, you can't go to such a beautiful place and not take a few pictures. I took over 200. I have issues, I know, but it seriously takes me that many to end up with a few that I like. Here are my adorable kiddos playing at the gardens:



My favorite from the day...

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Little Ballerina

Grace recently started going to ballet class. She absolutely loves going to her class and practicing her dance moves at home. Today after class she contorted her body and told me she was in "first position." I'm no ballet expert, but I'm pretty sure she was a ways off from first position. My favorite part of the class is when the teacher has her lift her chin and smile as she runs on her tiptoes. She always get the most hilarious expression on her face as she prances around the room.
Here are a few picture of our little ballerina.



Saturday, September 12, 2009

It's starting...


From the time Charlie was born, he has loved his big sister Grace. He thinks pretty much everything she does is funny or amazing, and he loves to copy what he sees her do. Grace, likewise, has loved being the big sister and "mothering" her little brother. She has always found delight in making him laugh or leading him into some mischief. But up until recently they haven't really played together. I'm starting to see glimpses now of what is to come, and I love it. They cook together in the play kitchen, push each other in the wagon, and build with blocks together. (Well, actually, Grace builds and Charlie knocks over, but they do it together and have fun.) It is so fun to watch these siblings' friendship grow.

History Repeated

Charlie is starting to practice feeding himself with utensils. He's mastered the fork, but the spoon is a different story. A few mornings ago I took these pictures of his messy face after eating yogurt and was reminded of one of my very first blog posts about Grace. The ironic part is that it was posted two years ago almost to the day. Then I went back and read other blog posts from when Grace was the age Charlie is now and was reminded how much I love the 18-24 month period. It is definitely a time of discovery, experimenting, and lots of mischief. I'm looking forward to all that Charlie will do and learn over the next few months and all the funny memories that we will make!