I know, I know…I’ve been out of commission for….2 months now. Then I all of a sudden pop up out of nowhere to say MERRY CHRISTMAS! Hopefully after the holidays I will once again be able to post at least weekly!

Jenna, Scarlett, and Charlie ~ 2006

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This week’s theme was difficult for me. I browsed through 100’s of photos that I had taken, but had no luck. So I stole a pic my husband took instead. This was taken at a ranch here in town, where my brave boy couldn’t get enough of riding the horses. I chose this as my “safe” pic since I am holding his hand keeping him from falling from the horse.

“Mommy, I want to go spit my hiccups into the potty.”

I really had no way to respond to this.  I tried to make sense of it in attempt to play along or to have a conversation about it, but it was no use.  I had a good little laugh, however.

We were invited to a lovely Labor Day picnic at Maclay Gardens with our good friends, Tassy, Jeremy and their children, Caroline and Charlotte. I just recently got this one developed, which was taken with my old 35mm, and fell in love with it. Charlie and Caroline wanted to go down by the water before we had to leave. The expressions on both of their faces are priceless. It’s hard to believe by looking at this picture that Charlie had a massive meltdown right after this was taken. He didn’t want to leave! Who can blame him, it was a good day!

The kids were driving me crazy in the house today, so I thought I’d take ‘em out front in our cheapo ten dollar kiddie pool. Turns out, I really should have been doing this all summer! They were all so happy and content for a good hour! My little Scarlett was hesitant at first, but I think she ended up having the most fun! She was PISSED when I took her out!

Really, I have living, breathing proof laying in their beds right at this very moment! I now have TWO toddlers under my roof. My neice (Jenna), who is two and half, is living with me. So I now have a three year old, a two year old, and a nine month old to take care of every single day. My nine month old is my angel. The majority of the time she sits there, plays, smiles, and looks cute. The other two, however, are constantly trying to piss each other off which, in the end, pisses me off. I called my friend, Jill today in desperate need of adult conversation. I told her that I am so sick of saying the same things over and over and over….”Get off that chair”, “Leave him/her alone”, “If a problem arises, come tell ME, don’t hit the person you’re having the problem with”, “No, you cannot have a cookie at 8 am.”

Of course there are the good moments, too. Like when they decide to stop tormenting each other and actually play. It’s very cute to watch and listen to…especially when they don’t know you’re spying. I’ve even heard them utter the words “Ok, now it’s your turn” and “You can play with my batman yoyo and I’m going to play with your phone.” I’ve walked in the room and witnessed them “reading” together, pretending to be basket monsters (with plastic blue and green baskets over their heads), having tea parties, playing knight and princess, and superman (where one jumps onto the floor from the bed and yells for superman to come and save them).

I will be posting some recent pics soon….maybe…hopefully.

This was an awesome experience for my kids and myself.  I had never been to a butterfly garden and it was so magical!  We walked into this small greenhouse where there were over 500 butterflies fluttering about.  They would land on us and we could also lure them with a gotorade soaked q-tip.  Here’s a pic of a proud Charlie with his butterfly.

I couldn’t believe that Charlie actually wanted to put this on. Last time I tried, he totally “wigged” out….oh, SNAP! Man, I am so lame…

Charlie at the park…he is one handsome little boy. I think he gets sick of me taking pictures of him all the time! Oh well, he’s just going to have to deal with it! He’ll thank me one day… (oh, and that’s Eric in the top left corner)

Charlie amazed me with this masterpiece a few weeks back. He wanted to paint a motorcycle for Papa Harley….and for those of you who know my dad, also know this is a very appropriate picture for him.

Wow, two of these in one day?! Actually, the firework utterance was spoken lastnight. This is a conversation I just had with Charlie:

Me: Charlie, did you know that you’re two years old, soon to be three years old?

Charlie: Three, really?

Me: Yeah, you’re such a big boy. You’re getting old!

Charlie: (VERY upset…yelling at me) But I don’t want to get old! And Scarlett (who was laying right beside us) doesn’t want to get old either!!

Anyway, I just thought this was cute, and of course I agreed with him and told him I don’t want to get old either (although, I did tell him it was fun getting old so I didn’t freak him out any further)! How does someone of his age know it’s no fun getting old?? I mean, sure it has it’s perks… but he was so upset over it like he all of sudden understood life/death/aging etc. (I know he doesn’t understand it all, but that’s how strongly he reacted).  Sometimes the things he says blow me away!

“At Kaylee’s, we watched the fireworks and they were sparkling in the night.”
(I think we read “The Very Lonely Firefly” way too much!)

Yesterday evening was dragging along very slowly, so we decided to brave the heat and humidity of Florida by taking the kids out for a wagon ride. This was a first for Scarlett and she was more than content sitting in front of her big brother. She just stared at every little thing that we passed by, taking it all in. Charlie was also very good (until it was time to go back inside, of course) and didn’t mind that Scarlett was so close. He’s very good with her, but he’s a person who needs his space…usually he sort of flips his lid. I might even go as far to say that he actually enjoyed having her so close. Anywho, here is a photo of them together, enjoying the ride.

So yesterday Charlie surprised me by bustin’ out with some pretty cool dance moves. Usually he just kind of moves from side to side or jumps up and down….but yesterday he had much more rhythm and booty shakin’. Which, by the way, I have no idea where he gets this from because Eric and I DO NOT DANCE. I may do an occasional little jig in front of the kids only (I wouldn’t want to expose anyone else to this frightening display that I call dancing) but nothing like what he was doing. He even had names for each move he did. Let’s see, one was called the “Shose-e-ha”, where he would do a little shuffle to the side with his feet and point/shake his finger all about. Another was the “Hoo-ha-hoo”, and this one consisted of walking like a duck and shaking his butt. I was able to take a few pics through my laughter. Nothing great, but it still gives you an idea of his sweet moves. (This one was taken while he was dancing on the coffee table) Oh, and when Eric got home I had to show him Charlie’s new passion for dancing. This time he spotted his reflection in the glass doors to the fireplace and kept doing these big pointing gestures at himself while dancing. And to top it all off, he had the straightest face while doing all of this like he was really focused on what he was doing…it was priceless.

“Don’t touch the water because it is wet.”

This was taken at a playdate with the mom’s group I’m in about 3 months ago or so. Charlie loves transportation of any kind, so you can only image how ecstatic he was when I told him where we were headed. I had one of those proud mommy moments when he decided he wanted to brave walking through the firetruck! So, Dean, if you’re reading, I’m sure you’re loving this!

I have no story or explanation to go along with this picture…since I’m just starting this site, I really wanted to have a pic of both my kids up!!! But, come on, you have to admit this is one of the cutest kids you will ever see!