Hide your bubble wrap!

Cheeky boy

I made the mistake of leaving the pantry doors open while I finished up some dinner prep.  I knew Charlie had discovered the security breach, but figured he would go for the spices like his sister always does.  I quickly finished up, washed my hands and found this…

It figures that he would go straight for the soy sauce since I spend a lot of time trying to reduce the sodium in his diet.  Cheeky boy.  He smells like a Chinese restaurant now.

Ellie’s first day of school

Miss Ellie is back in school two days a week (from 9:00 to 12:30).  She’s been very excited about seeing her friends and her teachers (although she didn’t understand, until today, that she doesn’t have “Ms. Bord” and “Ms. W” this year), and I’ve been very excited about having some one-on-one time with Charlie and maybe, just maybe, getting some things done around the house.

Here are the requisite first-day-of-school pictures from this morning and last year.  I can’t get over how much Ellie has changed!

The backpack is still just a bit too big, but at least it doesn’t drag along the ground this year!

On the way into school, we saw Cain and Jess.  This is Cain’s first year, so he was a bit nervous, but he did great!  And I’m so glad that he and Ellie are in the same class  -- Ellie just adores Cain!

Ellie lost no time finding her classroom

“Hello, School.  Did you miss me?”

Ellie’s feisty little friend, Ella, is also in her class this year.  I feel a bit sorry for Mrs. Huckaby because these two can be trouble together, but they’re also so sweet together.

Ellie and Cain got right down to work.  Cain’s expression in this picture cracks me up – I guess he was really thinking about what he wanted to draw!

I’m kicking myself for not getting a picture of Damian with the kids, but here a few of me with the kiddos outside of Ellie’s classroom.

        Charlie and I were excited to pick up Miss Ellie and hear all about her day – she told us all about how she glued buttons on a big “B” and learned about how God made the Earth.  She also said “tell Mrs. Huckaby when I need to go potty” about a dozen times – I was a little nervous about sending her to school in big girl pants, so I guess I really drilled that into her, but it worked – no accidents!

Ellie's buying!

I think Ellie may be potty trained-ish! She's been going without diapers for the better part of each day (we even left the house without a diaper twice -- man, that was scary!) and today she went without a diaper all day, except during nap, and didn't have a single accident. Woohoo! So it seems that we'll soon by buying half as many diapers as we're used to; so, thank you, Ellie -- you just "bought" Daddy and me a date night!

Charlie's first green smoothie

Peach, strawberry, banana, spinach and sprouted quinoa -- it was a big hit!

He had another one today that was peach, strawberry, banana, spinach, celery, carrot, and sprouted quinoa, and he loved it too; which is a very good thing because he's on a bit of a hunger strike -- he won't nurse at all and he won't eat baby food...or finger food other than eggs. So I guess it will be eggs, milk, and green smoothies for a little while.

Not just a pretty face

Our big, bad 1 year old and our sweet treat of a 2 1/2 year old

Charlie had his one year well visit today and he was actually well for this one! As a reward, he got another vaccine and some blood drawn (I think he'll do his best to have a fever again for his next well visit). He's such a brave little guy -- he didn't even cry when they pricked his finger, but he did wail for a short time when the nurse gave him the shot; mostly I think his feelings were hurt that the nice lady who was just smiling at him, jabbed him in the leg.

As we all know, Charlie is a big boy. He weighs 25 lbs, 13.5 oz. (90th percentile), he's 31.5 inches long (85th percentile), and his head is in the 96th percentile. At one, Ellie weighed 25 pounds and was 31.25 inches -- pretty close! And Miss Ellie is now 39.5 inches tall and weighs 34.2 pounds. The nurse didn't calculate Ellie's percentages, but according to the internet, Ellie is in the 92nd percentile on weight and off the charts on height.

Both kids are in such fun phases right now. Ellie has really gotten into role playing and pretending -- I just love listening to her talking to (or for) her stuffed animals and toys. She has tea parties with them, feeds them, puts them down for nap, changes their diapers, tells them to share with each other, etc. And she's gotten SO much better about sharing with Charlie. She certainly still has her moments, but in general, she's really sweet to him and genuinely enjoys playing with him. She's still a bit of a tomboy and loves being outside, rough housing, etc., but she's also very into princesses these days. She often tells me that she's "Princess Ellie" and she's insisted on wearing the same "princess skirt" for three days in a row. Although I never seem to find time to work with Ellie on her letters, numbers, etc., she knows most of her letters and can spell her name, she can count to 20 (as long as you're not fussy about 14-17), recognizes many numbers, knows her colors and lots of shapes, including a rhombus -- I had to use google to figure out what rhombus is! She's still super expressive and makes me laugh out loud at least once a day with something she says or does.

Charlie also makes me laugh daily because he has such a good sense of humor -- he loves playing peek-a-boo (he's great at covering his own eyes), making (or really, viewing) funny faces, screeching back and forth with Ellie, and blowing enthusiastic raspberries. And I just don't think I will ever get enough of his squeals of glee that follow his discovery of something he's not supposed to get into, and precede his double-time crawling. It just cracks me up. He isn't walking on his own, but he's getting very close -- he can walk with very little help and he's experimenting with standing on his own. The biggest challenge with Charlie right now is that he does not sit still...ever! Just changing his diaper is absolutely exhausting. I have to change him on the floor now (otherwise he'll flip off the changing table), often with one leg thrown over his chest to keep him on his back. I left him with a 12 year old last week and forgot to warn her not to change his diaper. I came home to find her standing in the middle of his room, holding him by the armpits (he had nothing on from the waist down), with a look of absolute panic on her face. She said, "it-it-it was going so well, but HE WON'T STOP MOVING" at which point I noticed that they were both absolutely covered in poo, as was the changing table. Poor girl! She had gone through 4 diapers and almost an entire pack of wipes, just trying to get a diaper back on the little (actually, ridiculously big and equally strong) wiggle-worm. In addition to not wanting to sit still to have a diaper changed, Charlie also doesn't want to sit still to nurse very often. I'm still doing my best to nurse him several times of day, but he much prefers a sippy cup of milk on the run. He also wants to feed himself, which is wonderful, but he doesn't like many finger foods other than eggs (his fav!), cheerios, cheese, chicken, watermelon, peanut butter and bread, and banana. I'm desperate for him to like pasta because it's one of our staples, but so far, I haven't had much luck. In the meantime, he still gets at least one "baby food" meal a day. So just when I was to the point of making only one dinner per night (at least 5-6 nights/week), I'm back to making at least two breakfasts, lunches, and dinners per day. Oh well. Hopefully Charlie will start eating more "adult" food soon!

I just can't get over how blessed I am to be these kids' mama! They're so sweet, and funny, and generally wonderful. Every minute that I get to spend with them (even the minutes that make me crazy) is such a gift. As kids headed off to school on Monday, I started panicking thinking about the fact that I only have three more years before Ellie will be out of the house most of the day. Almost half of my "full-time" time with her has passed already. Sniff, sniff. Anyway, it's made me even more grateful for every day I have with them...and for my incredible husband who makes this time possible! Oh how I love my little family!