The Last Couple of Months

Picking strawberries!

Our Circus Pic - we are kind of a rough looking crew!

Feeding the geese and getting "nipped" - see story below.

My two favorite guys! What cuties!

What a handsome dude.

Well, greetings again! Things have gotten busy around our house since the sun has been shining and the temperatures have gotten warmer. Most of our days are spent outside - aside from the massive amounts of rain this past weekend. Charlie loves digging in the dirt, chasing birds and squirrels, and just getting into any and everything. You can tell by his smiles in the pictures that he is always up to something! To start off spring, we went to the circus. Charlie did really well. He loved eating all of the food - the corn dog, cotton candy, and coke! We went with several friends, and I think all of the children enjoyed their first circus experience. In mid-March, we went to the Great Smokey Mountains with my family. Charlie got to see the mountains, and again he enjoyed eating all of the food - the fudge, caramel apples, candy corn, and other street vendor items. He loved the kugal in front of Ripleys Believe it or Not. If you don't know, a kugal is a 2,000 lb ball of granite that floats on like 1/16 inch of water, and it spins easily which makes it neat. There are only like 3 of them in the US and one is in Gatlingburg and I know one is at my alma mater, Mississippi College - it is one of the top reasons people attend MC! Next was Easter. Charlie loved dying eggs and hunting them. We are still playing with them around the house - the plastic ones of course. We have also made several trips to the zoo this spring - and I'm sure we'll make hundreds more this summer! We are still feeding the ducks and geese. The above picture was when we were feeding them at the pound by the Germantown Community Center. Baxter and Charlie got real friendly with the big white goose. Evidently, it is used to people. It nipped at Baxter's leg when he was petting it, so of course Charlie tries to pet it and it nipped at his stomach. This happened well over a month ago, but if you ask Charlie where the goose bit him, he points to his stomach. The other day Charlie was pointing to his belly button and saying hole. I asked him how the hole got there, and he said "duck"! After this he always says, dada. So he evidently thinks that him and his dada got their belly buttons from goose bits! How cute! We have also picked strawberries this spring at the agricenter. Charlie had the best time. I only had to show him once what a ripe strawberry looked like, and away he went. He insisted on carrying his own bucket as you can see. Near the end of the trip, I said we need to taste one. He bit into it and couldn't get enough. After that, he kept saying "taste, taste" and shoving strawberries into his mouth. Our final story for the month happened as a result of Mother's Day Out. We got a phone call last Wednesday to pick up Charlie because he had caught hand, foot, and mouth. (I'm sure there is a scientific name for it other than the ridiculous name of a list of body parts) Which I had no idea what it was - but it is just a break out of small bumps mainly arounf the hands, feet, and mouth - obviously, but not exclusively. Charlie never realized anything was the matter, and he went on as normal except he would just randomly say "bumps". He is all better now, just one illness to put under our belts in the many to come! Some cute things Charlie is saying right now: "bless you" when you sneeze, "awesome", "cool dude" when he wears his sunglasses, "Jesus" when he stands up because I say stand up for Jesus, "pizza - yummmm" when we pass the new Target because we eat at the Pizza Hut there, he can fill in the words of Jesus Loves Me and several nursery rhymes, "Maggie - hush" because obviously I say that a lot, and he will repeat almost anything we say - scary! We are looking forward to many more adventures this summer - and hopefully lots of pool time. We will be heading to the beach the end of this month, which we are really looking forward to. I'll try to keep the virtual world in the loop.

All About Charlie

Playing in the first snow of the year.

Feeding the geese at Shelby Farms.

Building my first gingerbread house - just like dad!


What a smile! Cracking pecans with dad.

I'm not even going to go through the song and dance - just a simple sorry. I thought since I haven't updated in awhile, I would make this post all about Charlie. I have gotten tagged on facebook a few times to post my 25 things, so I am going to post them on my blog and make them Charlie's 25 things. So, here it goes:

1. First off, I am a pure joy to my parents ... most days.

2. I love to eat berries more than anything. I can even say the word berries, but somehow I can make it a one syllable word. My mom spends $26 a week to buy me my

supply of blueberries, raspberries, strawberries, and blueberries. Thanks to Costco for the giant containers of them!

3. I have no fear, which scares my parents. I will jump off of anything, climb on anything, and put anything in my mouth.

4. I pretty much wear my whole meal on my shirt at any given time. This annoys my mother, but what can she do, I like trying to feed myself.

5. I love to read. We spend probably a good 3 hours a day reading. I'm sure my mom has my favorites memorized.

6. I can point to every body part of mine when asked where it is - even the private ones! In fact, I demonstrated the latter part of that statement for my doctor.

7. I can tell my mom when I poop. I call peep and poop, poop.

8. I love my dog Maggie. I love to stick my hands and arms in her mouth and try to let her attack me! This is really exciting for my parents.

9. I go to Parents Day Out twice a week, where I wow my teachers! I do things for them I would never do for my mom. I even like to flirt with the music teacher, and will take my pacie out for her!

10. I really love all of my grandparents - Mimi, Papa Jim, GG, and Pops. I know my parents love that they are in town and always want to babysit!

11. I have started to say "thanks", whenever I am given something. I know the value of good manners.

12. I love to be outside. The cold weather is no fun since we can't play outside. I could stay out there all day long. I love to drive my battery operated four wheeler up and down the driveway! I also like to pick up rocks and sticks. I also love playing at parks and feeding the geese at Shelby Farms.

13. I also like to be a helper around the house. Whenever mom is cleaning, I take a sponge or paper towel and rub whatever she is rubbing.

14. I am also a helper outside of the house. I like to help dad push the lawnmower and hold the blower. I would rather jump in the leaves though, than pick them up.

15. I forgot to mention that I am almost 18 months old.

16. My middle name is Baxter - oh the joys that will bring in the future!

17. I am a bit of a social butterfly. Whenever we leave a restaurant, I like to walk by all the other tables and say goodbye to them. You know, I do run the place.

18. If you ask me who my friend is, I will say "dada".

19. My mom has started to sew some of my pants. I really like this because it makes my pants so comfy, but it also makes my mom a little more on edge if I get something on them.

20. In response to the last number, my mom goes through about a bottle of stain remover every 2 weeks.

21. I would love a little brother or sister, but I think my parents have pushed that idea back a little while due to the great joy I bring them!

22. I am able to climb all the way up and down our stairs at home - this also puts my parents on edge.

23. I can count to two, really I just skip one and say two!

24. I love that I have so many friends close to my age - I know my mom likes this too. It makes playgroups really fun.

25. We can't wait til spring and summer and all the fun to come!

HELLO AGAIN!

I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry! I have been a very bad blogger, nothing new, I know, but still this is unacceptable. My life is crazy and blogging is pretty low on the list of priorities right now. Here is an update of the past few months. We have moved into our house, finally. After seven months of intense renovations, we are finished (with phase 1). We still have a couple of rooms to furnish, landscaping to do, and a few built-ins to complete, but evenso, this feels like home. Charlie made a pretty smooth transition; after one or two nights of crying it out in the middle of the night, he is back to his normal sleep of 12 hours (thank you, Lord). I am getting used to climbing stairs, but still it is not very fun to have to go up or down when you forget something, which is quite frequent since the addition of mommy brain. Charlie has been in Parents Day Out since this summer and is getting to where he really enjoys it. This semester he actually makes artwork and brings it home. So far, he has glued red tissue paper to a sheet of paper in the shape of an apple, he has also made a footprint and a handprint. I'm so proud. I am just thankful that he seems to enjoy it more. He is just now starting to walk. He takes four or five steps before falling down. He loves to practice walking everywhere by holding your hand. He has really developed a personality, and it seems to be a lot of Baxter! He is a cut-up and loves to laugh. He has already learned how to trick people and try to get his way. I know I am going to have a handfull. Anyways, it is so much fun! Tonight, we went to the MidSouth Fair, which was a little disappointing, but Charlie had a blast. He won a game and ate everything in site, including, a turkey leg, corn, funnel cake, ice cream, fried potato ribbons, and lots of coke - I know I am a bad mom, but once in awhile is fine! We are going to Kentucky this weekend to do some antiquing and fishing. I hope Charlie will be a joy this trip -we shall see! I will post pictures very soon. Once again, my apologies to the blogging world, but I will strive to do better!

Goodbye HighPoint!

Well, it is official, we have left the neighborhood. We close on our house tomorrow, and we just finished our last run-through of the house. It was a little sad since it was our first house and we have a lot of memories there. We brought Charlie home to that house. We are going to miss being within walking distance to so many of our friends. But I can't dwell on it too long, or else I'll start to cry again! I am happy about our new house - it will be great once we are finished. I'll try to post pictures soon. Until our house is finished, we are living with Baxter's parents. It is a little like a zoo right now, since we have added our baby and dog to their house of three dogs! We plan on being here for about six weeks (Baxter is a little disillusioned and thinks it will only be three weeks!) Charlie has slept the last two nights we have slept here, so I pray that continues. Charlie is turning very quickly into a little boy. He started crawling last week and now loves to get into things he shouldn't. He loves to eat big boy food too. The other day he ate meatloaf, turnip greens, white beans, and chili! Crazy! He loves to laugh out loud too. It is so cute. I just know he wants to tell us something - and I have a feeling that once he starts he will be hard to stop. We go to the beach the middle of May, which should be fun to see Charlie in the ocean. That's all for now. I'll try to post pictures once things settle here a little bit!

I think we might be rednecks....

The signs have been appearing for awhile now. I have tried to ignore them, but it has gotten too hard not to admit it. I think we might be rednecks. Sure we love our Blue Collar Comedy and we get excited when International Harvester plays on the radio, and of course we have our chickens. We have relatives who live in trailers and who bring roadkill to holiday dinners. Well now I have something to top this with and it is quite embrassessing. Yesterday we visited a kitchen and bath showroom to get some ideas for our new house. In our current home, we installed a way too expensive Toto toliet. As much as this thing cost, it should require no work to use the restroom; but we have had a problem with it ever since we've had it because it won't fill up to what we think is an adequate level of water. Since everything is energy efficient now, toliets don't fill up like they used to. Well back to my story, we are in this showroom and the salesman shows us a Toto toliet. Baxter tells the man that he doesn't like the Toto toliet because it doesn't fill up with enough water. He then proceeds to tell him that it is just too small of a target for him to hit! I could of died. The salesman didn't look too amused either. Normal people do not make comments like this, only rednecks. It's too bad we didn't have a truck with male parts hanging from the trailer hitch to climb into when we got to the parking lot!

6 Months

We went for Charlie's 6 month appointment on Monday. We are proud to say that our child is weighing in at 21 pounds and 28 inches long - 90th percentile in both! We are going to have a big boy. The doctor said he just looks the size of a 9 month old. We've been told to start adding meats - yum yum. Needless to say, the baby food meat is the grossest concept ever. He has enjoyed turkey so far - it was called sweet potatoes and turkey - aka Thanksgiving in a jar. Charlie has also gotten his first tooth. The beginning of last week he was teething a lot, and then all of a sudden a little tooth appears. It is quite sharp too. It is not all the way up yet, but it is getting there. The doctor said his top ones are moving down too as well as a few others on the bottom. Great - endless weeks of drool and fussiness! Charlie has also started to reach out for people to pick him up. We can tell he is already spoiled. We have been spending most of our days at the new house - meeting the contractor and various subs. It is taking great shape and is going to be a great house to raise our family. No news on our current house. We are praying that it will sell at the perfect time to the right people. I hope to post some pictures soon - once again something has happened to my camera, hopefully it is fixable this time!

Sitting Up!

Well, it looks like my little man is growing up. Last week he began sitting up for short periods of time when I placed him in that position. He has learned to kind of balance himself and stabilize himself with his arms. My goal is to have him sitting well enough for his 6 month picture appointment which is February 15. Since he is sitting unsupported for a little bit, we brought out the door frame jumper. He seems to really enjoy it! He is still eating well and loving baby food. We have now added green beans to the list of sweet potatoes, squash, carrots, pears, and bananas. We tried peaches but he made a horrible sour face, even one of his eyes squinted closed! I had my friend Mitch try the peaches and he said they were really tart, so you can't blame the child for not liking them! (No I do not taste the baby food - I know that makes me a bad mother, but I cannot bring myself to do it!) I cannot imagine how much food this child will be eating in the coming months. Tonight he ate two containers of baby food for dinner - and still downed an 8 oz bottle an hour later! The newest news with me is that I have a new obsession - buying smocked baby clothes on ebay. I accidentally :) bid on several items last week and ended up winning 8 outfits - I have been put on ebay probation by the hubby. We have also officially joined the Y this week. I have been putting it off, but we finally did it. I went to a kickboxing class on Monday which totally kicked my butt; needless to say my rear was so sore the next day I could barely move my legs, which is not good when you have to lift a 20 pound child all day long! Well, Charlie would like to take this time to welcome his new friend Hunter into the world. Congrats Barrett and Becca! This now makes almost 10 boys in a row in our Sunday School class - where are the girls? I guess we will have to wait for now. No news on the sell of our house - I know it has only been on the market one week, but I get anxious. The last picture post today makes me sad, but I know we will be just as happy in our new house!