Monday, July 30, 2007

16 going on 17 (months that is)

Hard to believe that Charlie's approaching a year and a half of life. He's saying so many words now that I've had to start writing them on the back of my list on the fridge. He loves to copy whatever we say too (so we have to be careful now):) Reading through a list of toddler personality descriptions in a magazine the other day, I had trouble deciding if Charlie was "the explorer" or "the spitfire." He definitely has a strong will and just loves to be on the move constantly. It's hard work keeping up with him, but it sure is fun watching his eyes light up when he discovers something new. Here are a few of Charlie's most-used words that seem to reflect his personality quite well :

no (this is the clear winner frequency-wise)
uh-oh (when one of his toys "falls" into the garbage, or worse, the diaper champ)
stuck (when he squeezes himself between the computer desk and the wall --again)
down (as soon as you begin to buckle him in his car seat)
please (when he grabs a box of cereal out of the cupboard and brings it to you in hopes of a snack)


A treat from Great Grandpa






Charlie is so blessed to be able to spend time with his great grandparents. At 89 and 88, they do more in their day than most 60-somethings! We stopped by after berry picking and Grandpa gave Charlie a ride on the lawn mower and the four-wheeler. Grandma picked some sour cherries from their tree for us to snack on during the ride home. Good times!



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ALL ABOARD!! (for the blueberry patch)



Charlie and I joined some other moms and headed out to Brown's Berry Patch in Albion for some blueberry pickin'. My plan (which is always subject to modification with 'Charles in Charge') was to actually try and pick a bunch of berries so that I could make some pies, etc. I figured my best chance to accomplish this would be to hoist Charlie into the backpack since his "stroller window" is pretty brief if he's not experiencing a constant change in scenery. He was being so good at first that I was shoving the berries into my pail as fast as I could to take advantage. Then I noticed that he was grabbing at the blueberry bushes and shoving everything his fist could grab (green, white and brown berries included) into his mouth. Once I slowed down the smorgasbord he became restless pretty quick and started pulling my hair for entertainment. Needless to say I was happy to get one pie's-worth of berries out of the deal!




This picture may look innocent enough, but after it was taken Charlie started to vigorously pump the metal handle--so much so that it "spooked" one of the cows in this pen and the cow began booking around in circles and making a mournful noise. I'm surprised we didn't get kicked out of the petting zoo.

Charlie was showing the cows his plastic leopard. They didn't seem to be impressed.

Our poor boy continues to "bark" at every animal. I did catch him making a cat noise the other day, but as a rule it's barking for dogs, cats, cows, even llamas!

Charlie and his friend Benjamin were having fun running down the lanes in the blueberry patch.
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"So what I do is I hide the cooked carrots next to me in my chair when my parents aren't looking, then by the time they start cleaning up and find them, they figure dinner is over and they don't bother to make me eat them."


"Keep squirming Ben, I think we're almost free!"

"Ok, bro, you do the pedals and I'll steer. Let's head for the ice cream stand on three! 1-2- ah shucks here come our moms."

"Hey Mom, can you grab my booster seat?"

Thursday, July 26, 2007

Later at the wedding...


At every wedding, there is always one guest who gets out of hand...


...one rowdy freeloader who throws decorum to the wind and sees it as his mission to sample every free beverage he can get his hands on.


Although it may be a bit unusual for this rebel-rouser to be...a toddler


(belch)


Then, inevitably, this guest ends up on the dance floor...


...making a spectacle of himself with his other drinking buddies. Our sincere apologies to Rachel and Doug (he he).

Tuesday, July 24, 2007

A July Wedding


We joined the happy Bannister clan on July 7 to celebrate Rachel and Doug's wedding. It was a beautiful day and the setting at the pond was perfect--the weather too. Rachel looked stunning of course-- what a sweet couple!


Jayne looked so cute walking down the aisle...


Emily looked beautiful and so grown up!


There were several well-behaved children in the audience, but unfortunately Charlie wasn't one of them. Actually, we didn't even try having him sit with us. Bob walked him around the outskirts where he found some other rowdy toddlers-- cousins Lincoln and Aaron.


Cousin Aaron loves to swing and it helped pass the time between the ceremony and reception...


...until he discovered the pond, and the sand. We kept them away as long as we could, but to no avail...


"Read any good books lately Aunt Jan? I've really been enjoying My First Book of Tractors and Where's Spot? Are you familiar with those?"

Aunt Kat is so much fun (even though she won't let me throw sand at my cousins).


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Thursday, July 19, 2007

And more 4th photos...

Swingin' with cousin Victoria


Cousin Aaron still LOVES to do dishes, so Uncle Bob gave in and let the little guy help with clean up in the trailer. At times Aaron gets a bit out of sorts when the dishes are done, but luckily ... we were able to distract him with a campground staple--cheese puffs.

Charlie had enough of the action in the sandbox and headed off to do a little four-wheelin'. Grandma buys the best toys!


Not sure exactly how this soccer game ended, but looks like-- in this photo-- perhaps Aaron (in the camo) just scored a goal and Charlie is walking off the field disgusted. Watch it Charlie, you already have a yellow card...
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4th Photos


On the 4th of July, we went camping with Charlie for the first time. It was Grandma's idea and when she said that she would keep Aaron and Charlie in her tent, we couldn't really refuse! The boys had a great time playing in all the wide open spaces around my Uncle's pond in Albion. Swimming and playing with all the cousins was awesome!


Grandma and her boys. Can you tell there's no place she'd rather be?


Is is so fun for us to see the way that Uncle Jon enjoys his nephews. He's really helpful too, always offering to play with Charlie while we eat, etc. Looks like above Charlie was carefully contemplating the pointers he was getting on dribbling, he'll have to work on that...



"Bad news Cuz--I think it's your transmission."
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Sunday, July 15, 2007

A little phone call...a lotta mischief


OK parents, you know those times when you just have to take a phone call? I was talking to a friend from out of town and I figured I'd let Charlie roam the downstairs so that I could actually listen and pay attention. Now you also know that when it gets quiet, that's when you really have to wonder what's going on with your toddler. Maybe ten minutes later, I walked into the kitchen to check on my trouble maker...I spotted this telltale drawer and then followed the trail to find my boy.


...past the littered ziploc bags...


...to the dining room where an (almost) entire role of aluminum foil had been folded into various shapes and sizes on the floor. It kind of looked like the take-out containers of a large formal dinner party had been strewn around my house. But where was the culprit?


I finally found him stowing his sippy cup in a storage container for our vacuum cleaner parts-downstairs closet. He has a strange habit of doing this lately to the joy of whoever comes across the day or week-old cups of milk in the oddest places. Gleefully happy, he then toddled into the dining room, pointed his chubby finger at the tinfoil and said, "Da da!" Sorry buddy, nice try, but Dad's not even home.

Now, we have a gigantic roll of rewound tinfoil sitting on our kitchen counter to remind us of our boy and how much fun he is having discovering the world!

Swimming buddies


Lucky us --got to join our friends Eric and Danyelle and their 10-month old at a Keuka Lake cabin for the weekend. The weather was beautiful and the kids enjoyed hittin the lake to cool off.


Mallory is such a sweetheart!




Charlie was pretty content to float around the lake, guess he was really comfortable because we eventually noticed that he had fallen asleep!
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