FALL

Have I ever mentioned how much I love Fall?? Well I do. ALOT. Here's why:

1. Oktoberfest- the official kick off to fall activities. This used to be a favorite adult holiday spent in Soulard with lots of pumpkin beer. Das Boots!!  Funny how things change with a child in the picture. This year we ventured to the "family friendly" event in St Charles.  Charlie spent the day cutting a rug on the dance floor. Overall it was a beautiful day with family, friends, great music, and a responisble amount of pumpkin beer. ;)

 2. Pumpkin Patch. We spent the following day at the most perfect lil' pumpkin patch out in Foristell. I have done the larger more commercial pumpkin patches, and I have to say they have nothing on this place.  We pretty much had the entire place to ourselves. Which meant that I did not have to worry about chasing Charlie through crowds of people. Hallelujah!  They had farm animals, a hay barn, a hayride, and a train. What was even more special about this day was that we had all the grandkids together to celebrate PawPaw's Birthday.

Happy Birthday Dad! Hope you had as much fun as we did!!

 

3. Play Off Season.  What an intense month of baseball! I found myself on the edge of my seat, peaking through my fingers for most of the games. So close Cardinals...So close.

 

We did get to enjoy one last game this year with our friends- Scott, Erin, Dan, and Sarah. Love our city folk!

4. Leaves. My FAVORITE part of fall has to be the changing leaves. My LEAST favorite part....is raking them up. UGH! And we don't even have one single tree in our yard!! But thanks to our neighbors, I spend every other weekend in the month of October and November raking the darn things up! Luckily we have the convenience of dumping them in the compost bins in the alley (neener neener neener!) instead of bagging them up and setting them out for pick up. But it still takes me several hours and numerous trips to the alley.  Charlotte has been very helpful with this chore, as well as my trusty leaf blower. Sure we play in them first. But then she helps me scoop em up and walk em to the bins.

 



 5. Halloween. First, I need to give a huge THANK YOU to Grandma for yet again another perfect costume! Her creative talents never cease to amaze me. You are the BEST!  Charlotte was the rootinest, tootinest, shootinest, hootinest cowgirl around. "Gitty up hoooorse!"



Charlotte had plenty of chances this year to show off her awesome costume. First stop was Boo at the Zoo. This is one of my favorite Halloween events. I mean who wouldn't have fun seeing cool animals and getting candy at the same time?! By the time we got back to the car, poor Charlotte couldn't even keep her eyes open to enjoy her sucker.  Later that night, she got to spend the evening with Gma at party. And then on Halloween I took her to a Trunk Or Treat at a local church, followed by some door to door trick or treating at a few homes in the neighborhood. OR as Charlotte calls it "treat treat".



 

There you have it. One month all wrapped into one large blog post. I know I said I was going to try and blog every week, but its just not happening. :) Other non-fall-related topics:

 

Potty Training- still working on this...mainly at home. I am still a little nervous about leaving the house without a diaper, but we will get there. Eventually.

Funny story...Last Friday, I was doing my normal heavy duty cleaning (I know my weekends are just soo exciting!) when I noticed Charlotte grab the pasta strainer out of the kitchen cabinet and walk into the bathroom. I thought....hmmm, that doesn't seem right. Sure enough I walk into the bathroom (that I just cleaned!) and Charlotte is sitting on the strainer lettin' it rip through the strainer and onto my rug. Not sure why she thought it was a good idea to pee in the strainer when she is sitting right next to a toilet?? As angry as I was, it was really hard not to laugh!

 

Speech- Charlotte has been picking up a lot of new words lately, but still behind. We have gone through few evaluations and I am happy to report that she officially starts speech therapy this week. She is a smart girl and I just know she is going to pick it up real fast. So look out!

This months favorite Charlie quotes:
Charlie- "I tooooted" followed by a cute/evil lil laugh.
Mom- "whats your name?" Charlie- "I Char-lie!!"
Charlie- "Giddy up hooooorse" & "treat treat"
 

BRING ON THE HOLIDAYS!! 

"I PEED"

Round Two of Potty Training has begun. We tried this once before, just before Charlie's 2nd Birthday, but it did not go too well. 4 months later, we decided to give it another go.

For all you mommies that are working on potty training, here is what we did.

1. Make sure you have several days to train. I waited for a long 4 day weekend so I had plenty of time to commit to frequent bathroom breaks. So while everyone enjoyed the Labor Day  weekend BBQing and swimming, Charlie and I spent most of our time on the potty. Not gonna complain, because it was well worth it. Chuck was then off the next 4 days, so we were covered!!

2. Clean the crap out of your bathroom the night before, because you may be camped in there for several days!

3. Stock up on lots of Gatorade! We ate small meals, followed with LOTS of liquids for the first few days. Which resulted in potty trips about every 30 minutes. Keep on eye on the time so you can avoid accidents. I'm thinking an egg timer would have been a good idea.

4. Charlie is a visual learner, so I created a potty calendar to track her progress. Each #1 and #2 gets a different color star (and lots of cheering!)




















5. As a separate reward we also did Jelly Beans, Reece's Pieces, and M&M's. We call these "potty prizes" and they are in a cool little jar (stored high up and out of reach :) ) They also were helpful in learning her colors.

Last Spring we tried the Duck Potty that sings when you pee. Charlie never liked it. She prefers the the big potty. And I am glad she does, because I am not too thrilled about cleaning out that nasty little cup every time she goes.

6. The first day I was BIG on rewards. She got a sticker, a potty prize, and a toy. I picked up about 15 "dollar" toys from Walmart. I tried to pick things that would keep her occupied between breaks. We had puzzles, coloring books, and lil crafts. Once we completed a puzzle, it was time to head back to the potty.

7. To pass time while sitting on the potty we painted our nails, colored, read books, and played patty cake ;)



8. Day One was the hardest. By day Two she was a pro. She went all by herself with no reminders and no accidents. 

 

Yesterday was our first day out of the house without a diaper. I have been a little hesitant about long trips. Just imagining going into the store and being completely embarrassed by a puddle of pee has kept us in the house the past few weekends. This trip was to our friends house for Sunday Football and I am happy to report there were NO accidents! whoo hoo. We still do diapers during nap time and bed time. But we are getting there!

Now our only battle is keeping pants and underwear on her! And nap time is a struggle with the constant "I pee!! I pee" and then we go to the bathroom only to find out she tricked us. Little stinker. I am now on to her games. ;)

 

3 months later....

Whoops! I just realized that it has been almost 3 months since my last post. Guess I have been busy.... Ok, maybe not that busy. I am going to put the blame on my new tablet and tons of cheesy romance novels. But its currently being repaired and forcing me to use the laptop-which Charlie ruined a few months back by smashing an entire tube of diaper ointment into the keys. Oh the joys of having a toddler. That, and an entire glass of wine, makes for some very sticky (and completely dead) keys!! So this entry might take awhile :)  lets just hope I dont have to use the "a", "c", or "six" keys too often.

So lets look back on the past 3 months....

We have had numerous trips to the Zoo. Charlie's favorites- monkeys and turtles.





The Science Center. Charlie was not too fond of the giant T-Rex this time around. More interested in diggin for fossils and playing with puzzles. What a nerd :)

Had a few trips out on the boat. This trip in particular was lots of fun because our friends from Mexico, Julie and Ed, were in town. 

 

First Cardinals game this year.

 

A very lovely afternoon at the winery for PawPaw and GamGam's 35th Anniversary.


Jilly & Jacob's Bday Parties.

We were even able to squeeze in a pretty decent family photo session.

I think that (briefly) catches me up on the past few months.  I'm gonna try to get back into my weekly routine. Especially since my favorite season is coming up with lots of fun things to do!! We have also been working on potty training this month, but I think that deserves its only special blog entry. Spoiler Alert--- Its going very well!! Here is a preview:

Today was our first extended trip out of the house with NO diaper an there were NO accidents!! Hurray!!

 Too bad the Rams lost :(

Drought Free

We are going on weeks of  straight 105 degree temps with no rain!! So rather than sit inside our old brick house that struggles to stay under 80 degrees for my entire 5 day weekend, we are enjoying the unbearably hot days in our new pool. Sure the pool is as big as our tiny city back yard, and we might look like hooisers in our big ol' blue blob, but I dont care. It fits our family of 3 perfectly and has saved us from the drought of 2012. If I could, I would sleep in it!! Not lying.

I think Charlotte agrees that this is the best purchase all summer :)

JUNE

I cannot believe how fast my favorite month of the year has flown by. I still catch myself dating work documents for May, and in less than a week it will be July!
We have been so busy this month that I have not had time to catch up on my blog. I am also incredibly low on Charlie pictures this month.  I group all my pictures by month. Last month I had 375 pictures. Which is average for me and makes it pretty darn easy to keep up on my blog. This month, only 52. Thats a BIG difference. I would probably have THOUSANDS more if I had a waterproof camera (hint hint).
Thats because the past several weekends have been spent at the pool, on the boat, at the beach, or just playing around in the sprinkler. There was even a trip to the Six Flags water park at the beginning of the month. I am so amazed at how much Charlie loves the water, as compared to last year when she would scream bloody murder when we were at the beach. This year she is like my little fish baby.It took a little getting use to, but now she loves to jump off the ledge of the pool into the water (over and over again!), or be thrown high into the air and down into the water at the beach. She goes under water and pops up with the biggest smile on her face. Sometimes I even catch her wearing her life jacket around the house just for fun. I love it!

Last week Charlie had her 2 year check up. She has consistently been at the 98th percentile for height and weight since birth. This checkup she has actually lost a few lbs and grown a few inches. She is now in the 70th percentile for weight and still 98th percentile for height. She is definitely going to be a tall girl. Which reminds me... last month when we were at Party City shopping for her Birthday party, the cashier asked if we were planning for her 4th Birhday?!? I thought, are you serious lady??- shes only two! But then I see Charlie stand next to older kids and she is just as tall as them. Crazy.

Here are a few randoms photos from the month.

Girls night with baby Harper.


Visit from Jenny and lil Robert

Golfing with (2nd) cousin Kyler


Six Flags


1st Cardinals game of the year/my 27th Birthday


1st Drive In - Madagascar 3

And my lil swimming baby!

Whoops, Here's what I missed!

Whoops, I just realized that I have missed a months worth of posts prior to Charlotte's 2nd Birthday. Guess I have been busy!! So here's what I have missed:
1. Mother's Day- So the past few years, we have tried to make a tradition out of going to Botanical Gardens for Mother's Day. This year happened to be much more fun since we had a toddler to explore with.

2. Charlotte has really been enjoying the fountains lately. So we have taken a trip to the Children's Zoo, Tower Grove fountains, and the City Garden.

Now that the busy month of May is behind us, I have a few new "To Do"s on my list. I want to work on getting our basement set up for a play room. I want to get new gates installed in our back yard and gangway. And lastly, I want to start planning for converting our upstairs suite into two separate bedrooms. Dang, I have a lot of work to do! I better get crackin'.

Chucks Super Sweet 31st Birthday

Poor Chuck, his Birthday will now always be over shadowed by Charlotte's, and then a few weeks later it is my Birthday. A house full of Geminis. I don't know how me manage :)  But we tried not to leave him out this year by spending the day on the boat down at Goose Creek. It was a fun day for all. But today I am beat after the busy weekend and horrible sunburn. Which brings me to my rant!

We normally use the pink baby sunblock on the right. But as you can see, we lost the top spray piece on the bottle. So knowing we were going to be in the sun all day, I picked up the only "tear free" sunblock that target had. Don't believe it...it is NOT tear free. My poor baby must have rubbed it in her eyes, and then was in horrible pain for about an hour after until it wore off. She couldn't even open her eyes! Never again will I purchase this sunblock. PLUS, I sprayed Charlotte down like a crazy person about every 30 minutes and she still was a little pink after the end of the day. I felt like a horrible mother. Especially when we stopped for CiCi's pizza on the way home. I felt like I was getting that "bad mother" stare.

Other than the sunblock issue, Charlotte had a GREAT time at the lake. While the gang was working on putting the boat in the water, Charlotte and I cruised around the cove on a raft. Once on the boat, she played, ate lots of snacks, and fed the massive swarms of geese that made their way over to us. By the end of the day she was ready to go for another dip. I have never seen her so happy and she was so eager to swim. I could barely keep a grip on her! I am so happy that I have a child that loves the water and I cant wait to go back to swim some more!! Maybe next time we will spend more time at the beach where she can touch :)

Sorry, no pictures this time. I didn't want to risk taking my camera on the boat. Maybe next time.

Charlie's Super Sweet Second Birthday!

You read that right. My baby girl is now a full blown two year old toddler. And just like her diva daddy, she will always have a "super sweet" birthday bash. We decided to go with a Curious George theme, after one of her favorite shows/movies. A big shout-out to Pinterest for all the great ideas.

Can't leave out all the tasty treats on my desert bar!! Chocolate covered pretzels, marshmallows, rice crispy treats and bananas with peanut butter, and the most delicious cake balls, Birthday cake, and a personal cupcake for the Birthday Girl. Aunt Jes helped me make about a dozen monkey cake balls, but only a couple made it through the night :( The directions made them seem pretty easy...but in fact they were quite difficult. I recommend anyone trying to make these, to make them much smaller so that they don't fall apart. Grandma helped with the healthier snacks-fruit kabobs and veggie tray.

My last pinterest craft was a DIY photo booth. I had lots of fun creating all the props- mustaches, lips, hats, etc.




And here are a few photos of the day. I am a little sad that I didn't get a good shot of the Curious George dress that Grandma made. I guess I will have to wash off all the chocolate stains from the day and reenact a few shots.

And I don't mean to brag, but I am most impressed with the gift Charlotte got from Mommy and Daddy :) I wanted to get my princess her own little play house. I am not too fond of the plasticy type that most stores sell. Luckily Grandma found this awesome wood house off of craiglist. All it needed was some minor alterations, paint, and a few accessories.

Here is a before picture. Well kind of "before". Once I started painting, I thought I had better stop and snap a quick picture, otherwise no one would believe that I did it myself!

And here is the after.

Isn't it great?!? I even mulched the back corner, put in a small fence, and planted a small garden. Aunt Jes got her a wheel barrel and garden tools. And Grandma and Grandpa got her the most perfect little picnic table. I am so in love with the end result of this project...and so is Charlotte. I just love how she sprints from the back door and immediately goes into her little house to play. I also need to give a BIG thank you to Chucks poker gang for helping move this awkward structure from the garage, up into the neighbors yard, under multiple cable lines, and over the fence.

And THANK YOU to everyone that helped make this Birthday memorable. If you didn't get an invite, I apologize. I wanted to keep things small with just close family and our closest friends. Our house is a little too small to host anything bigger :)

HAPPY 2ND BIRTHDAY CHARLOTTE!!

Tribute to Two

This is a montage of my favorite Charlie videos over the past year. I used to make a montage every 4 months. So this one is a little over due and I had hours of videos to go through. I tried to keep it short and sweet. Enjoy!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X0VVVg21G3c&feature=youtu.be

If you would like to catch up on her previous video montages, here are some links:

0-4 months: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_MhY7KKpBRI&feature=relmfu

4-8 months: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JM3-AJvSR7k&feature=relmfu

8-12 months: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z7dHNb1icqE&feature=relmfu

12-15 months: I cant get this one to load. But you can find it on my facebook page.

I have to admit, I just watched each one and I had to grab a handful of tissues. I can't believe on my once chunky and bald baby girl has grown into such an adorable little lady toddler. When I was pregnant people would ALWAYS tell me "they grown up so quick" and it really is true!! These past two years have flown by and I have enjoyed every single day. Thank you Charlie for making me the happiest Mother in the world.

TanTarA

So this past week I had a conference in Lake of the Ozarks. Luckily, I was able to take Charlotte and Chuck with me. I hate being away from them. Especially since it seems like every time I go away, something bad happens to my baby girl.

We had a nice little room in a cottage right on the lake.

We shopped at the outlet mall, ate some good food, and played at the playground and arcade. I was really disappointed in the beach at TanTarA. It was a sandy area with a concrete wall about 20 feet above the water. NOT BABY SAFE! And who wants to sit on a beach and not be able to get into the water?!

We went to the indoor water park right before our journey home. It had 4 slides, lazy river, pool, and tree house with one of those big tipping buckets of water. We had the place entirely to ourselves for the first 30 minutes or so which was pretty cool. And even though it was inside, it was still pretty cold. So we spent the majority of the time in the hot tub playing with Barbie. I forgot my camera in the car, so no pictures. Sorry. But I do have a picture of her afterwards:

That was one tired baby! She almost slept the entire 3 hour car ride.

This weekend we tried potty training. Saturday morning went pretty well. We had 5- number 1's, 1- number 2, and 2-accidents. But then when it came around to nap time, I had one uncooperative child and several messes to clean up. So we are thinking about holding off for a few more weeks.

Next on the agenda....planning for Charlie's 2nd Birthday party!! I cant believe my baby girl is going to be 2 years old next month!?!