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Thursday, March 14, 2013

Jackson Street Round House

 We spent Saturday morning at the Jackson Street Round House- an old railroad station in St. Paul.  The boys LOVED it, of course! :)  They had lots of old train cars to explore- Henry was very impressed with the soft, velvety seats!
 Henry was able to see what it was like to drive a train using a simulator!
 We were able to go on a real choo choo ride!  The boys sat up in the cupola to get a good view while the train was moving!
 Charlie insisted I take his picture with Charlie! :)
Both boys had fun playing at the many train tables they have set up.  
Super fun morning! :)

AHHHHHH!!

 My good friend, Heather, has dreams of starting her own home organizing business down the road.  I happily volunteered my kitchen for her to "practice" with! :)  Above were the contents of just one cupboard- clearly I needed help!
 Heather, busy at work!
The end result is perfectly organized cupboards that are user friendly!  :)  I'm in love!

Tuesday, March 5, 2013

Charlie turns 18-months!

I can't believe my little buddy is a year-and-a-half already!  He is growing up so fast and learning so many new and fun things (mainly from his big brother!).
 His 18-month appointment was post-poned until last week as he had a double ear infection the week of his big half-birthday (February 15).  Dr. A pronounced him a healthy guy and said he is developing just fine! :)  Just a minor case of eczema, but otherwise perfect! :)

Here are his stats:
height: 31.89 in  (31%ile)
weight: 27 lbs 4 oz (69%ile)
head: 47.1 cm (27%ile)

Short and squat . . . that's how we make 'em around these parts!

 Charlie is a blast right now!  He definitely has a sense of humor and is good at making us laugh!  He did, however, turn 18-months and develop an attitude with a capital A! But we'll focus on the positive first!  Charlie is a born athlete . . . can you say that about a 1 1/2 year old?  He is seriously awesome at basketball, throwing balls, playing hockey, etc.  He is very interested in all things sports!  It will be fun to see where this interested leads down the road!  He LOVES gymnastics class and is getting very good at jumping, walking across the balance beam, and doing his forward rolls. He also thoroughly enjoys swim class, however, he pretty much lounges the entire class- rarely strokes his arms or kicks his legs.  He's just content to float . . . he is quite buoyant! :)  Charlie also loves to color, play with cars, read books, and run races!  And to get from point A to point B, Charlie gallops . . . it's stinkin' cute! :)  Charlie is generally a pretty good eater, but we've had a minor set-back after his two bouts with the flu- poor buddy has some texture issues now (I can't blame him!) but he's getting more and more back to his normal eating habits with each day.  He LOVES bananas and bread!
Now, Mr. Attitude likes things his way and his was NOW!  He's quick to get frustrated when things don't go exactly how he planned.  Henry ADORES Charlie (or Charles, as Henry calls him)!  Charlie, on the other hand, has a vengeance out for his brother!  Anytime Henry comes even remotely close to his "bubble," Charlie yells, "NO!"  And Henry is really good to him, so I'm not quite sure why Charlie is such a pickle towards Henry.  I'm sure part of Charlie's attitude is us not being able to understand all that he has to communicate.  He has many words and can mimic pretty much any word we ask him to (except "Henry" . . . he refuses to attempt to say "Henry" . . . turkey!!).
Overall, Charlie is such a delight! 
Here are some of Charlie's words/phrases:
mama
daddy
NO
mo-wa (more)
mo-wa milk
wa-er (water)
cup
caw (cut- loves the scissors!)
ball
hockey
kick
jum (jump)
up-down
book
read
di-per (diaper)
poop
tick, tick (tickle, tickle)
uh-oh-ed-e-o (uh-oh-spaghetti-o)
animal sounds (woof, meow, moo, baa, neigh, oh-oh-ah-ah, grrr, chirp,cock-a-doodle)
(and so many more that I can't think of at the moment!)
 
 

Sock Puppets

 This morning, while the snow was still coming down in heavy doses, we needed something to occupy our time before we headed to the great outdoors (our play date got cancelled due to the weather).  So we started coloring on some packaging (good ol' Amazon!).  Henry thought it made great "scenery," and insisted on making sock puppets (he knows about this from the book If you Give a Moose a Muffin- not my favorite book but love the vocabulary he picked up from it!).  I just so happened to have cleaned out my sock basket (yes, basket . . . Tom and I have yet to get big boy/girl furniture for our room!!) and stashed away old, holey socks for just that purpose! So after making the scenery . . .
 We colored on some puppets and created a play!  Henry was delighted!  Charlie just thought it was fun to put socks on his hands! :)
Happy guy!

Love, love, love the weather!

 Last week was SO nice out!  It hit at least 32 a few times and we were out for every day of it!  Henry even got out his bike to give it a spin!
And Charlie loved splashing in the puddles!

Now, today we woke up to several inches of snow and half of Minnesota shut down.  I love snowstorms in March!  The weather is warm enough to play outside and by this afternoon the roads are just fine again!  We did some shoveling, sledding, snowshoeing, and lots of playing in the winter wonderland!

Band aids make everything better!

I'm a bit stingy when it comes to giving out band aides for anything other than gushing blood!  I think it's my years of teaching and having kids stop me mid-lesson demanding a band aid for their hurt pinky (no blood involved).  Why do kids think band aids make everything better???  Henry's been told many-a-time that he can't have a band aid because I didn't see blood.  Well, the other day he fell face first into the corner of the cupboard and cut his lip.  There was blood.  He was so excited!  He immediately asked for a band aid!  Sure, have one for your lip, buddy!

Pearly Whites!

Henry made his second trip to the dentist last week (I forgot the camera for the first trip!!).  He did awesome! :)  He insisted on sitting on my lap for the exam but was a super trooper while it was happening!  I'm so proud of him!