C-H-A-R-L-I-E

Last night I was tucking Charlie into bed and we had the following conversation:

Charlie: Mommy, how do you spell Charlie?

Me: Charlie is spelled C-H-A-R-L-I-E

Charlie: (Clapping) Yay Mommy! You spelled Charlie!! Good Job!

When is a toilet bowl brush not a toilet bowl brush?

When you are using it to scrub your brother's head!

Earlier today I had my friend Tonya and her cutie newborn daughter Natalie over for lunch. While I was feeding and cuddling Natalie the boys were playing upstairs. I didn't think much of it until we heard the water running in the upstairs bathroom. When I went up to investigate I found the boys, naked, in the tub. Charlie was scrubbing Noah with the toilet brush. BOYS!

Inspiration

So…it has been two and a half months since my last post. The reason for the lack of posts this summer hasn’t been because Charlie and Noah have not been up to doing cute, blog-worthy things. They are as cute and rotten as ever. The combination of being abnormally busy this summer and just not being in the mood to sit down and write are the reasons I have neglected to post.

This afternoon while dusting I was hit with inspiration.

What is that? That would be Noah’s yellow fruit snack.

Noah HATES yellow fruit snacks. It is just one of his quirks. Instead of eating them, he scatters them around the living room. It is kind of a scavenger hunt for Charlie to find them instead of just giving them to him to eat. Noah is probably one of the strongest willed toddlers you will ever meet. He challenges us every day. One thing that comforts me is knowing that as he grows up, he will never be pushed around or peer-pressured by the other kids!

Other news: we had to get a new vacuum. I vacuum two or three times a day, and ours dies last week cleaning up two pounds of powder sugar Noah dumped in the living room. I like that the new vacuum is green, the boys in the house (all three of them) like the retractable cord. Charlie and Noah played with it for a while this morning. Each time the cord whizzed into the vacuum Charlie told me how awesome it was.

And more random news for the week: Isn’t this cute? I made it this week to hang on the front door. Also, I will be going to Michigan at the end of the month to see Corie and her baby girl, due next week. I have had my ticket for a few weeks and it was going to be a big surprise for my parents…but I spilled the beans while talking to my mom last week. Maybe I can surprise her with a visit five years from now.

Jacksonville Trip: Part Four

This morning we took the boys to the Jacksonville Zoo. I have lots of pictures like this of the boys looking at the animals:
We got to go on a train ride around the park:
...and feed the giraffes:
...and look at some snakes:
It was actually a little concerning how much the boys loved watching the snakes. Noah giggled like they were the funniest things ever. We even got to see one eat a mouse.

Over all, I think the elephants were the biggest hit. Noah picked out a stuffed elephant from the gift shop (Charlie picked out a penguin, but we didn't go see those, it was getting hot and approaching lunchtime. Charlie impressed Sam by telling him penguins are birds that walk and swim.)

Jacksonville Trip: Part Three

After our trip to Mr. Crabs house, we walked to the beach. We stayed right on the beach so this was very convenient. The water was all choppy and Charlie LOVED it!

This random dog decided it wanted to play fetch with us.

Noah HATED the ocean. He screamed every time Sam got close to the edge of the water and was clinging to him.

Charlie and Sam tried to talk Noah into sticking his toe in....but he would have no part of it!

Charlie really loved the big waves and pumped in and tried to splash back. He didn't want to leave!

Jacsonville Trip: Part Two

By the time we made it to our hotel, Charlie was happy to get out of the car and looked like this:
Our poor Noah baby was worn out and looked like this:
...so we decided we would try to get them to take a nap. Yeah, right. They were ready to keep going! We decided we would take them to an arcade/water park place. We tried to get them to play putt-putt, and they got the general idea that the ball goes in the hole, but failed to participate in an orderly game.
Later, we took them on the go-carts. They both really seemed to enjoy going fast...we will have to find some closer we can take them on.
We went to dinner at Joe's Crab Shack, which Charlie called Mr. Crabs House and kept asking where all the characters from Spongbob were.

Jacksonville Trip: Part one

The first leg of our Jacksonville trip was visiting the Hands On Children's Museum. This place had an impressive website, but turned out to not be what we were expecting. The boys still had a good time and I got to beat Sam at tick-tac-toe, and he is the Checkers champion.

Noah, Driving the ambulance

Charlie spent most of the visit playing on the train tables.

The boys loved the ball pit. I let them play in it despite all those e-mail that warn about dirty diapers and used drug needles people claimed to have found in ball pits.

We moved to a different room and Charlie found more vehicle toys.

Charlie on the firetruck.

Authority Issues.

I think I have an authority issue. I don’t have a problem with authority. I just don’t think I have any when it comes to kids other than Charlie and Noah (and at times, Madison and Rebecca.)

This afternoon we went to church to have dinner before the service. As soon as we walked in a little girl I had never seen before ran up and asked if Charlie could sit next to her. While Sam got in line to get our dinner I went to sit down with Charlie, Noah and Charlie’s admirer.

(I need to stop here and explain how Charlie has a way with the ladies…specifically, older ladies. He always seems to latch on to a little girl several years older at Chick-fil-a and at church. At one point tonight, two little girls were actually fighting over who got to hold his hand and walk around with him.)

When we sat down, I noticed I was surrounded by a lot of kids in the 4-8 age range, and I didn’t see a parent around. I really have no idea who the kids belong to or if their parents just dropped them off. They seemed to all come to some unspoken agreement that I was responsible for them. All of a sudden I was fetching more butter for their rolls, cleaning up their spills and giving permission to go get more ketchup. One little boy spilled his drink and I had to crawl under the table to mop it up. When I stood up I found another little boy sitting in my chair finishing off my dinner.

Later that night, I was telling Missy about what had happened. I told her “I have no idea where all the adults were!” Then it dawned on me: I am an adult. These kids saw Sam and me as “real” adults. It kind of bewilders me, like when Madison’s friends tell me ‘yes ma’am’ or a friend refers to me as ‘Miss Julie’ to her kids. In my head, I still feel like I am 16. Apparently to the rest of the world, I have graduated from a ‘miss’ to a ‘ma’am’. And ma’ams carry a certain authority among all kids, whether they are theirs or not.

It seems like everyday I have a "you have got to be kidding me moment."

Yesterday morning I was woken up very early by the boys trying to pour their own sippy cups. That sounds like a gallon of milk hitting the floor. While I was cleaning the milk up, the boys decided to brush their teeth with mine and Sam's tooth brushes.

We take oral hygene very seriously around here.

A little after midnight this morning we woke up to Noah trying to open pudding cups in the kitchen. After that Sam slept walked all night...including getting a cup of water and dumping it in our bed. Lets just say tonight I am TIRED!

Ever since those late nights and early morning that come with having a newborn, I have been assuring myself that it will get easier someday. I have now come to the conclusion that is never really gets easier, the challenges just change as the boys get older.

Now I just remind myself that one day they will grow up and and move out and I will miss all of these silly things that they do!

The Strong -Willed Child

I recently purchased The Strong-willed Child because, lets face it, I have two strong-willed little boys. Especially Noah. Tonight they found the book and spent the rest of the night fighting over who got to 'read' it.