Proud Parent Day

Earlier this summer, we spent a day at Silverwood theme park.  They have rides, food, and a water park.  After Keith spent some time on the coasters (I don't do heights), we decided to see what kinds of rides Charlie might like before we headed to the waterpark.  Charlie had already mastered the carousel at the park, so we felt sure he'd have some fun on the kiddy rides at Silverwood.  We couldn't be more wrong! 

Flying elephants?  No!  Butterlfyer?  No!  Froghopper, Red Baron? NO NO NO!  Hmmm.  So much for family day at the park.  Finally, we put our foot down.  Our feet, I guess.  Antique cars.  Surely Charlie would like that.  All you do is sit in an antique car, ride around a track at 2 miles an hour for about 5 minutes and get out.  Charlie knows all about riding in the car and this time:  no carseat!  When we got to our car, it was like trying to put a cat in a bathtub.  He screamed, fought, pushed, pulled.  And then he sat down, and SNAP, he was a happy kid.  What?!  I kid you not, the transformation was instant.  He was smiling, talking about the color of our car, the car ahead of us and how we were "drivin."  Whew!  Fun at last.

Well, after that experience, we began to seriously doubt our upcoming trip to Florida this fall, which includes a visit to Legoland.  Would every ride be a battle?  Should we even try to push him?  He's only two after all. 

Later in the summer we received a tip to visit Riverside park downtown to see a real live, close up Fire truck.  As we could have guessed, Charlie wasn't actually too interested in sitting up in the cab like the other kids, but he accepted a sticker and waved at Smoky the Bear.  What we didn't guess, was that actually the whole park was alive with booths, games, food... and rides.  Kid's day.  We wandered around, eating up our hour on the meter.  When we got to the rides, Keith asked, doubtfully, if Charlie wanted to ride the Airplane ride.  "Yeah."  We asked him if he was sure. "Yeah."  We must have asked him half a dozen times, pointing out that Mama couldn't ride with him and that it might be fast and a little high.  "Yeah."  Ok we thought, he'll get on and then we'll get to witness a melt down for the duration of the ride.  Spending far too much money, Keith bought enough tickets for three rides.  "We'll just see what happens.  But we've gotta try it."

And what happened was, we were the Proudest Parents of a Toddler that day.  With astounding calm, Charlie was placed in a plane, by himself and left there.  And once the ride started, he smiled, laughed, forgot to pull the lever to go up, but who cares?  He was having FUN!  And, so were we.  We were elated.  Sounds so silly to think so.  I mean, for goodness sake, if we're this proud over a carnival ride, what happens when he graduates from high school?  And Charlie went on to use up all the tickets.  "Driving" a train and riding the bumper boats.  Our son.  A ride rider.  So proud.

And so, some of you may be asking, why can't Mama set a good example and start riding the roller coasters?  My response to that is, "Don't make this about me.  This is about the kids."

I Found the Camera

Well, okay, Keith told me where it was. But, that means I have lots of pictures to show you as well as lots of new ones we've taken since I last posted.  I should warn you that you'll see some untidyness.  What can I say?  People live in this place.

 These two are of the "master bedroom."  That just means its where Keith and I sleep.  No bathroom attached.

And here's Charlie's room, a shot at the other window.  Check out the cool cars on his wall.  A gift from Keith's past.  Thanks Mom-in-Law!

Here's the living room.  I have since put up valances, or "curtain toppers" as I've dubbed them, to soften up all that brightness.  Like the brightness, just needed some color.  And we now have white slip covers on those chairs and I have big plans, people, big plans to get pretty pillows on them, say next fall some time...

And finally a shot from the living through the kitchen into the dining room.  Follow the cabinet line on the right and you'll notice a lovely fade up from light to dark in color.  That's a real nice feature.  (Thank you for smiling, Brian Regan fans.)  You can't tell, but the piece with the microwave on it is Charlie's old changing table.  My idea.

And here's a peek into the dining room.  Its quite cozy with our NEW used table from Craigslist.  We heart it very much, but it adds some bulk so recently we've pushed it under that window on the left.  Makes it much easier for Charlie to run straight from the dining room into the living and throw himself on the slipcovered, pillowless chair.  Whew.  Glad we got that one figured out.

And then a lovely shot of the backyard.  This one was taken fairly early on in summer and those two ornamental cherry trees were just gorgeous.  Of course, Charlie calls them "mental cherries" but at least he knows he's not supposed to eat them.

Here's a look of what I see right outside my kitchen window.  The picture below is a little more clear.  Sometime in June this huge rose bush put forth the prettiest yellow flowers.  They didn't last long but they made washing dishes much more fun.  We are very fortunate to live next door to an avid gardener.  There isn't a day she isn't outside tending something.  And the results are lovely. 

I thought I had better pictures of the basement, but I don't!  And right now isn't the best time to snap a shot.  Boxes, toys, stripped beds.  I've been trying to purge this week as well a sort through what we have and don't have for baby girl.  Due in about 4 months.  Gulp.

Tune in next time for a story about the afternoon we spent as "Proudest Parents of a Two-Yearold."  And no, unfortunately, it does not have to do with potty training.

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!"