see ya Kindergarten

Charlie's last day of Kindergarten was May 28th!

Fun year, he learned a lot! He's a reader now, at least simple words, and has about 30 or so sight words. He easily met all the requirements of a Kindergartner. Charlie has also become much better at writing and expressing himself in words as well as numbers and drawing! If you ask him what his favorite part of school is, he'll tell you "recess, PE, and lunch". My favorite part of kindergarten has been to watch how independent he's gotten.

In January after Christmas break, the kids all had to write a New Years Resolution for Kindergarten - something that they wanted to accomplish in the remaining months of Kindergarten. Most kids answered things like, learning to tie their shoes or learning to spell. My little outside the box thinker's goal was to learn to "hang upside down on the monkey bars" to which his teacher, Mrs. Roberts said was an original. It was a lofty goal, and I'm quite proud to say he accomplished it! He's a big fan of the monkey bars. He's also learned to climb trees, even really high ones... He uses his massive arm strength (attained from all his monkey bar training) to pull himself up. I loved climbing trees as a kid! It's good to see some things don't change. He's asked for a huge rope, so that he can "climb up the tree and tie it to a really high branch" so he can swing... Only thing is, I don't think he knows how to tie knots yet...

Here's to a fun & happy summer... and learning how to tie knots in ropes...maybe by the end of 1st grade??

boys boys everywhere boys

I told you 2010 was going to be a great year!

I have been lucky enough to meet an amazing man this year, who just so happens to have 3 amazing little boys! Wow, what a change (mostly as far as noise level) for Charlie & I! We love having Jason, Cole, Elijah & Luke in our lives! Charlie is in hog heaven having buddies to play with, and I'm pretty happy myself! Adding 4 men to our lives (well 1 man and 3 men-to-be) is a pretty fun adventure. I've always been pretty girlie - but I have to admit boys are pretty darn fun - fishing, mud, dirt, sweat that turns dirt to mud, bike rides, sword fights, NOISE, constant action...never a dull moment!

Last night was no exception. We had "dinnerables" (like lunchables - meat, cheese, crackers -but at dinnertime), listen we aren't fancy, but it's a crowd pleaser... Anyway while Jason and I were preparing our gourmet dinner, Charlie and Luke were sword fighting...not with real swords... anyway Charlie got Luke - "right where it counts" ... conversation as follows:

Luke said "Charlie you got me in the nuts"

pause pause

Charlie "touche!"

funny kid... Loving life!

the very best medicine

I believe in laughing! It's my favorite thing to do. I love to be around people who make me laugh, there's nothing better than it. I don't have a lot of "skillz" but I can pretty much find humor everyday even on the worst days. It's important. So with that in mind, I've raised Charlie to be able to laugh at himself as well as to find humor in most situations. Life is too short to be serious all the time. SOOOO this morning we had one of those, uncomfortable, could have been serious but turned humorous moments...

(WARNING if you aren't a parent, this may gross you out)

Charlie was taking a shower this morning and yelled for me "MOMMY!! My butt hurts realllllly baaaad" so I said "OK, use SOAP, and wash yourself really good, then when you are done I'll take a look". gross. So he got out of the shower, and had one of his pathetic "poor-me" looks, kind of pouty with the eyebrows furrowed faces... I asked him if it still hurt and yes in fact, washing it with soap had made it worse!! WHINE (whatever) So I got the miracle cure, Aquaphor, and said OK bend over.... so he did... so picture this (and no I did NOT capture this moment on film, digital or otherwise, it's more of a mental picture) he's bending over, grabbing his ankles, butt full in my face, and so I begin to do my mommy magic, and Charlie goes " I WANT TO LIVE, MOM, I WANT TO LIVE!" Well after that we busted out laughing, both of us... I said why did you say that, he goes "well I don't know I just thought it was funny" and it was! I may use that line at my next gyno visit...

Being a mom is the BEST.

A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to School today...

For those who know, love, and have cared for my little boy, it's no secret that Charlie has a way of charming/negotiating a better deal for himself. He'll work any situation to his advantage, whether by being cute, or bringing up his excellent behavior, or really any angle he can get. For example, when he was 4, he'd ask for a cookie, and I'd say "sure honey you can have a cookie" the automatic response would be "can I have 4? Because I'm 4 years old"... I'd lay bets that he would be a successful contract negotiator.

This morning, he was up early, I heard him up while I was in the shower. As usual, he was invading my presonal space and in the bathroom with me within a minute. He asked if we could go to Sonic for breakfast ths morning, because "Mom, I'm dying for a breakfast burrito, and I'm going to go to Albuquerque in a couple weeks, and I have had good days at school everyday". So I told him if he got ready for school with no whines and with complete cooperation, I'd take him there for breakfast this morning. So our morning progressed easily and as promised I took him to Sonic.

After he'd been eating for a bit, he said, "Oh mom, my throat, it hurts, like in the back, reeeealll bad.."

uh-oh we were both on antibiotics for strep the last 2 weeks, and I automatically thought it wasn't cleared up for him.

So I said "well I guess I'll have to take you back to the doctor to have them make sure you are over the strep." PAUSE, Pathetic face, PAUSE, "well I'm sure a mint would help, oh look there's one in the Sonic bag" hahaha! He had to set up the mint request because he was sure it would be denied (no candy in the morning)...

toothless wonder!

Today is Sunday, 2/28/10, and Charlie is one tooth shy of a mouthful!

The loose tooth literally popped out in the bathtub, no pain, no blood, but A WHOLE LOTTA TEARS. Charlie has taken the loss very hard. I'm not sure why, but losing that first tooth is akin to losing something that he loves very much.

I'm hoping the next 19 losses are a bit easier on him.

We've been discussing the tooth fairy for a while now, we even saw the critically acclaimed movie "Tooth Fairy" starring the great thespian Duane "The Rock" Johnson. But it seems as though that didn't really do anything to appease the fear that some person/thing? is going to break into Charlie's room and take his tooth. I offered the option to just not put the tooth under his pillow and I could just pay him, but he didn't accept. I asked him what he thought that the tooth fairy would bring him for his very first lost tooth and he said in between sobs this morning "probably 5 dollars and 4 cents" ... typcial

Happy Twenty-Ten

Happy New Year! Twenty-Ten/Two Thousand Ten/TwoO-OneO...whatever you want to call it, so far it's been a dousy, and by dousy I mean sick, and not in the irritating teenagery slang way to say cool, we've actually been sick (me first, and him now), sandwiched with a birthday in there...

January 8th, the day my life forever changed, has once again rolled around...My baby is 6! I know it's not fair to call him a baby, but like he himself said on the morning of his birth in TwoO-OneO, "mom, don't be sad, no matter how old I am, I'll always be your baby, oh my gosh is my tooth still there?"

Yah, he's got a really loose tooth, which he is determined NEVER to lose, EVER. He's been on a liquid diet almost since the day he realized it was super loose, anything to avoid the inevitable. Tales of the tooth fairy are of no comfort to him, afraid of the hurt that he perceives will come and the blood that may or may not come , the promise of a gift under his pillow means very little at this point. I've created a monster.

Here's to a happy twenty-ten! Loose teeth, 6 years old, graduating kindergarten, learning to ride his new scooter, losing training wheels, and tying shoes! And probably about a million other awesome things, I think this is going to be a great year!

The Polar Express!

What an amazing weekend we just had! I'm pretty sure that in 30 years when Charlie & Noah have their own families and are creating memories, they will most likely remember this weekend.

We (my sister's family, my step-brother, and Charlie & I) spent last weekend in Branson, we planned the trip around Sam's birthday, though unfortunately we didn't get to spend much time with the birthday girl, AND the Polar Express!

We boarded the Branson Scenic Railway (aka Polar Express) at the depot downtown near the Branson Landing, traffic was...well...Branson. In other words very, very, busy. Lucky for me, I was a passenger and Uncle Paul was driving! Branson is new to the Polar Express experience, and it showed - organization was severely lacking. HOWEVER!!! The kids had a magical time. It was a nice long and beautiful ride thanks to Branson's gorgeous scenery and light shows throughout. That all led to the culmination of the trip (according to Charlie) the "hot" chocolate, followed closely by the "hug from Santa" .

Loved Loved Loved it!