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).

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...

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."

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!

Who says you can't start 'em young...

Click here to see Charlie in action.

Summertime and the living's easy

Charlie is 15 months old and just the right age to really enjoy the warm weather and all that comes with it! Everything looked good at his 15-month appointment. His weight ranks in the "average" category at 26.8 lbs. His height is still at the 95th percentile, so hopefully that means he'll be tall someday. Not sure if it's due to all of his injuries or what, but he didn't even cry when he got his two shots which was a pleasant surprise for mom!

To Charlie, summer is all about getting wet and getting dirty. This translates into a lot of sand in the car and a whole heck of a lot of laundry too. He's always sporting what one friend dubbed "summer knees"--all scrapes and bruises. He loves to visit the Y to go swimming or to play in the spray park, hitting the beach with cousin Aaron and playing with his friends and family in the sunshine. It's so sweet a joy to watch our little boy grow into a happy toddler!

Sending lots of hugs down to South Carolina!