I. CAN. NOT. FIND. THE. CAMERA.

Arg. And that camera has so many pictures of our new place that I took specifically to show you all. At any rate, we have a few from Keith's iphone camera that made it to the computer, so I can show you those for the time being. The quality is, well, what you'd expect from an iphone, but I wanted to leave you with some proof that we are in a different house! And doing well. Above is our front lawn. Below is Charlie kickin' it with some lunch, in our dining room which you can't see at all. Behind him you can sort of glimpse our backyard.

Here's the length of our kitchen. In the background is the living room.

These two shots are of our downstairs "finished" basement. It encompasses our guest room, office, and sewing room as well as plenty of floor space for Charlie to play. And the last pic is Charlie's messy room. I wish I could say its much more organized than that now, but it rarely is.

All these pictures were taken before we'd really gotten settled. And we're settling still. Maybe soon I'll show you better pictures and more. But for now, this is it!

Excuses, excuses...

I will give you none! I have perfectly legitimate reasons for not posting recently. Morning sickness for one. Oh, wait! Forget I said that because "No excuses!" So. To show you we are all just fine and Charlie is as cute as ever (maybe cuter), I will appease you for now with some of his most recent remarks.

As I made lunch, Charlie came into the kitchen and said "Look! You found lunch!"

As we got out of the car, it started to rain. Charlie said "Its rainin' again. God turned on the rain!"

Charlie doesn't miss much. At the playground, every once in a while he will overhear a mom calling to her child. She might say something like "Come on David." Helpful Charlie often chimes in "Come on David! Come on David!" The mom usually smiles. I'm not sure how David feels about it.

Strangers at the park beware. If you so much as smile at Charlie, he will start pontificating. He will lecture you in his semi-gibberish language about fans, generators, the slide, ladder, whatever. Its best to smile again, and walk slowly away. He won't stop until you do.

We are currently working on getting Charlie to ask for things nicely/politely instead of outright demanding them. It's not sticking so far. Last week at the grocery store, the change slid out of the cash register. As I picked it up, Charlie loudly and clearly said "Give me some money!"

Lately, when we get into the car, it can be rather warm if not hot. Before I say a word, Charlie pipes in with "Its not hot. Its warm." Which I can only take to mean that its hot.

When Charlie likes a particular food item, he'll say, while eating it, "I'm so hungry, hungry for yogurt" Or, "I'm so thirsty, thirsty for juice."

We often remind Charlie that Mama has a baby in her belly. The other day I ate something and Charlie asked me where it went. I told him it went in my belly. He said "The baby's eating it!"

He is a little confused about the baby in the belly. He really thinks he has one in his belly too. I hope this clears up when I start to show more.

I guess with early verbal skills come the early questions. Charlie wants to know how everything works. While we drive along, or walk along, or just sit around, Charlie will find something, anything, even if he already knows what it is and ask "Mama what's that?" My answer is promptly followed by "What do's wiff it?"

For instance: "Mama, what's that?"

"Those are trees."

"What do's wiff it?"

And then there are often the reptitive questions:

"Where's my hammer?"

"Downstairs."

"Where's my hammer?"

"Downstairs."

"Where's my hammer?"

"Downstairs."

"Where's my hammer?"

"Charlie, Mama said DOWNSTAIRS."

"Where's my hammer?"

(Me cluing in) "Shall I get it for you?"

"Yeah."

Ahoy there!

Yes we in Moscow are still alive and chuggin' along. We've been busily packing, cleaning, and finishing up school (yay Keith is done!). At this moment, every room in the house has at least one packed box. Actually, we've worked a little too hard, and are now coasting along waiting to pack more. Because, as Keith pointed out, if we pack anymore, we won't be able to live here!

Charlie's been a peach. He really has been pretty patient as I've been running to and fro, scrubbing this, boxing that and just generally appearing very unorganized.

For those of you reading who might not be aware, we're moving to Spokane next Saturday. New house, new friends, new church, new job, new town. Oh my. Even a new state! God's provision in giving Keith a job, providing us with renters for our house here and planting us in a new rented home up there has been abundantly evident and we are grateful.

Well, I hope that's caught you up. I'll leave you with a story about Charlie, because really, that's why you read this blog anyway, right?

The other night, after finishing up dinner with my aunt and uncle, we all sat chatting around the table while Charlie played in the other room. At one point, he tripped and fell. From the beginning we could clearly see this was no big deal and encouraged Charlie to "be tough." He lay, fake crying and said "Mama picks you up!"

"You want me to pick you up?"

"Yeah!"

"Ok, I'll hold you if you come here."

So, he gets up, comes over to my chair, lays down on the floor in the same position, and asks me to "picks you up." What could I do? I picked him up amidst tears of laughter!

A Little Trip

A couple of weeks ago, Charlie and I took a little trip over the mountains to visit my family, while Keith stayed home and hunkered down with his studies. (One month to go!) We had a great, relaxing, fun time. The timing was perfect for us as it was spring break for some of my nieces and nephews. Oma (my mom) ended up babysitting four of those rugrats, and so Charlie had some quality time with his cousins. One thing I discovered about Oma is that rules have changed since I was a kid in the house. An option for lunch was chocolate sandwhiches. Yum!

Here's Charlie with cousin Johnny. Surprisingly, Charlie wasn't too fond of his chocolate sandwhich, but peanut butter cookies made up the rest of lunch, so it all worked out.

Chillin' with Uncle Dawit. The way to a toddler's heart? Let him play with your cell phone.

This picture with the bad lighting is of my niece Emma. She's nine and plays a mean game of Monopoly. My brother Dawit had to take over for me. The competition was just too intense! (And Charlie's messy diaper might have had something to do with it...)

The next day, we had a playdate at my brother's house, where three of the same cousins live. Charlie had a great time with their amazing train set!

We took a couple of trips to Opa's farm. Charlie gets very excited about trackers and cows. He kept saying "Hi cows. How are you well?"

Once we spotted Opa, it was all over for me. Charlie wanted to be wherever Opa was and even coerced him into playing in the fabulously big mud puddles on the farm. Charlie also go to sit in one of those amazing trackers he admires so much.

Unfortunately, trackers make loud noises once you turn them on and the charm was a little lost for Charlie after that. Oh well! Maybe when you're bigger, Char Char, you'll have fun riding, and not just sitting, in that good ol' John Deere.

Thanks Oma and Opa for a great visit!

More Charlie Charm

Charlie's latest thing is to make whiny sounds, stop and ask himself "What's wrong?" Especially, if I don't ask him first.

He also asks himself, "That fun?"

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He sure knows how to make us laugh. When we put him to bed at night, we used to get him calmed down by saying, "How about a song?" He has now taken the responsibility upon himself to encourage us to sing more songs, thus delaying our inevitable departure. We'll sing one song, and then he'll pipe in with "How 'bout again song?" Lately he's been so pleased with our laughing response he just says it over and over "How 'bout again song?" Until he's worked himself into a fit of giggles. We think its pretty cute, so we laugh too, and pretty soon everyone's laughing at everyone laughing but nothing funny actually happened!

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Charlie's beginning to understand the concept of "later" and "not right now." So, when he asks me a question and I say no, he get's a big grin on his face and says very cheerfully, "Later maybe!"

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Last month I took some coins to the Coinstar machine and let Charlie help me deposit them. When the jar ran out, I told Charlie we were finished and it was time to go. He erupted, very loudly with "I want more money!"

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My social butterfly called out to some friends on our walk this morning, "Hi peoples!"

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Charlie is very affectionate with his stuffed animals and will often get on a roll with kissing each of them smack on the lips. The other day he kissed his truck too.

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Charlie is dilligently working on figuring out colors and is convinced that almost everything is blue. Or orange/blue.

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Does your toddler narrate? Because at the park the other day, Charlie was so excited he described everything he was doing as he was doing it. "I jump on that. I climb up this! Charlie go down the slide! I'm jumpin'. My reach it. Dat blue!"

Charlie turned 2!

Boy oh boy! We have a two yearold. And we love it! Charlie's official birthday was last Friday, so on Saturday we invited some special people over to help us celebrate. Charlie was showered with love and some groovy gifts. We all ate cake (stylishly shaped thanks to some pans from Granny and Grandad). Charlie held up pretty well considering all the commotion. And of course, his favorite part was opening presents! Here are some pictures that need no explanation. Enjoy!

Charlie also received a toy kitchen for his birthday, but I have yet to retrieve those pictures from Keith's email (someone else took them!). I'll try to put them up soon. And just as proof that he's enjoying that particular git, he has been making coffee and pizza pretty consistently for the last two days.

Charlieness

Tonight at dinner we had a little battle. Charlie refused to eat his chicken and wanted to be excused from the table shortly after we sat down. Oh boy. Keith set aside one small bite of chicken and told him he had only to eat that and he could go play. After lots of tears and pleading we were in a stalemate. Charlie wasn't complaining but he also wasn't eating. We did our Bible reading and things were starting to look bleak. What, I thought, if he doesn't do it and we're still here at 7:30? I should mention that I was not having a good attitude. I was down right grumpy and silently excused myself from having to take very much responsibility. Out of nowhere, Charlie held his hand out to us and asked to "pway." So Keith prayed as we all held hands. During the prayer of course, I realized I needed to confess my uncheerfulness and apologized to Keith after the amen. Not one minute later, Charlie ate his lonely, cold piece of chicken. And do you know what he said once he swallowed? "I want more."
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And here's some other bits of Charlie-ness for you to chew:

Lately Charlie has been putting his toy kitty down for a nap on the bathroom scale, complete with a little fussiness from the kitty. I guess it is universally understood that naps should not go unprotested.

Charlie also likes to ask questions which he helpfully answers himself. Questions like, "More cracker? SURE!"

Whenever we get to a destination, he always very cheerfully calls out, "OKAY!"

The other day I said, "Charlie, you're so cute." He responded, "Mama cute." Bestill my heart.