Charlie's 1st day of PreK

You read that right. Today was Charlie's 1st day of preschool. Can you believe it? I sure can't. Baby girl is growing up way too fast.

We were a little stumped on where to send Charlie for her first year. We had several options, but narrowed it down to the two closest pre-k schools- Shenandoah (literally in our back yard) and Magnolia Head Start (2 blocks away).  We decided against Shenandoah, because they don't even have a playground. The kids just stand around outside with a ball. WTH kind of school is that? But we hadn't heard from Magnolia, so we had no choice but to enroll her at Shenandoah since we procrastinated all summer. Bad parents! She was getting ready to start in one week when we finally got a call from Magnolia. They were able to squeeze us in last minute. YAY!! Charlie gets a playground.

So here is Charlie on her first day of school.

 

Chuck and I both walked Charlie to school this morning. When it was time to go, she gave me a kiss and practically pushed me out the door. Humph, that was easy. I then went to work and waited for that embarrassing phone call... "umm, Mrs Dickens?? We need you to come get your child. She (fill in the blank with something AWFUL)." Which could be (1) refuses to keep her clothes on and is running around the school butt naked, (2) peed in the doll house (probably while running around naked), (3) is fighting/biting all the kids for the dinosaurs toys (again while naked and peeing all over the toys). That's just a few of the possible worst case scenarios that were running through my head all day while trying to work.  But nope. Apparently she did great. And even came home in the same clothes she arrived in and ponytails still in tact.  I couldn't be more proud!! The only comment from Ms. Susan was "that girl has a lot of energy". Freaking tell me about Ms. Susan.

 

I was so excited to get home and hear about her 1st day. Here is a little clip of what she had to say. PS- I have no clue why she mentioned playing with trash?? weirdo.

 

 

I don't know who is more excited about school.... Charlie or Chuck. Charlie gets to have lots of fun playing with "dump trucks and bikes and dinosaurs", while daddy gets to catch up on some much needed sleep. I am also a little excited that she gets a nutritional breakfast and lunch while at school. One less thing for me to worry about, plus I don't have to come home for lunch everyday to make sure she eats something besides "jelly burgers" or what normal people like to call peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Again, she's a weirdo.



 

Charlie's 3rd Birthday Party

Lil Miss Charlie celebrated her 3rd Birthday this weekend. For the past month I have been asking "what do you want for your Birthday" and her response was always "a horsey cake". What  baby girl wants, baby girl gets (99.9% of the time). So here it is, Charlie's 3rd Birthday Hoedown:

 

 

The actual horsey cake was made by Aunt Jessie. Charlie is one lucky girl to have such a talented aunt :) Thanks for the cake Jes! It was delicious.  

 



 Each cowgirl/cowboy went home with a hat, bandanna, and stick horse. yee haw!

Last year we had lots of fun with the photo props, so I brought them back western style.

 

I love this next set.  I have to say, we have the cutest bunch of kids!! Don't ask me where Charlie picked up that horrid duck face expression. Even though I hate it when girls make that stupid face, it is a bit funny in these pics.

 And here are some other random shots of the day.

 

Thank you so much to everyone that came out and made Charlie's Birthday so special. I have to say, I think we are set on summer clothes for the next two years!!

 

Happy Birthday Charlie!!

 

 

Since this ended up being a Holiday weekend, the fun didn't stop after the party. The following day was Charlie's actual Birthday. So we decided to take a trip to Castlewood Park. This was our first trip to this park, and I think I may have fallen in LOVE.  Chuck may be a bit traumatized by our first experience, but I think I may be able to convince him to go back again.

We started off with what we thought would be a quick hike. 20 minutes tops, maybe? Apparently we missed our trail and ended up lost in the woods for 2 1/2 hours, with no water, poor hiking shoes, and a 35lb child to tote around on our shoulders. Oops, guess we should have studied the map a bit better (or if you ask Chuck- I should have studied it better). At least we got to enjoy some AMAZING views of the Meramec River.

There was also a nice beach. The water was a bit cold, but it felt nice on our sore feet. :) Cant wait to go back again!! ...now that we know our way around...

We had more fun in the water on Monday at Donze Lake. My future brother in law has lake front property on a small private lake about an hour south of St Louis. We enjoyed a relaxing day in some more cold water, cheddar brats, and even a quick ride on the jet ski.

I'm beat and have a long work week ahead of me. Hope Charlie is ready to go to bed early tonight!!

3T minus 1 month

I was just looking back at my last post and realized a lot has changed since last fall. For one, we are officially potty trained. Yay! And two, Charlie's speech has really taken off. Double Yay! .... well sometimes its pretty cool.... other times I feel like Lois in Family Guy. You know- "Mom, Mom, Mom, Mommy, Mommy, Mommy".  But most days, I love hearing what funny things she has to say. Or sing.

 

Here is a BRIEF re-cap of the past season. Minus Christmas, Valentines, and Easter. I will have to come back to those when I have more time.

We had two good snow storms this past winter. I think the first one was about 5 inches, and the second was 8 inches. So of course we cleaned off the car and made the trip to Art Hill:

 

And of course with Missouri weather, you get snow followed by 70 degree weather. So we had many trips to the park.

 



 

We celebrated Grandma's Bday at the City Museum with all the grandkids.

 

 



The biggest change since last fall is loosing my Dad to cancer. There is not a day that goes by that I do not think about him and miss him like crazy. This is the last picture I have with Charlie and Papa. Maybe Charlie will grow up and find a cure for cancer?
Love you Dad! Wish you were here with us.

 

Other exciting news, Charlie is only 1 month away from leaving her terrible two's behind and entering...her terrible threes?? Yes, that sounds about right.

 

More to come soon....(hopefully!)

 

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 :)