All Aboard!

We were all up early Saturday morning, despite a late night, which made it easy to get out the door (again despite the late night) in time to meet our Urban Mom friends at Herman Park for a train ride and some playground time.  We enjoyed catching up with a family who moved away and was back in town for a few days.  The chilly weather prompted sweaters and coats, but no one really seemed to mind. 

Did I ever mention that Charlotte is now a rock star, independent swinger?  But not one one of these big swings ;-).  

 Frederick still loves big pushes from Mommy.

Of course, we had been there for a handfull of minutes before my kids wanted to eat.  Snack time seems to be anytime around here.  Perhaps we should work on that...

(PS - I did take photos of other people's little people, but I generally try to refrain from posting blog pics of others without asking first. So, as usual, my kids are the stars of this post ;)

A Sister, a Teacher

I've heard it said before, and I will say it again, "The best gift you can give your child is a sibling."  I say this because of the love  and companionship I see my two sweet children shower upon each other, even at such a young age. 

This morning Charlotte and Frederick wanted to play the ABC Mystery Box game together.  Charlotte helped Frederick get all of his draws on the right letter.  I'm not sure if he has just memorized where they go, but he even seemed to get some of them correct all on his own.  

Mostly, though I think he just enjoys identifying the objects as he pulls them from the box.

The game went along very nicely until he drew an alligator and promptly used it to try to eat all the other animals on the board. And that is what happens, dear sister, when you play with boys.

What we did today

Her handwriting is coming along, even if She does think that she has a yellow green mouth.

And, Frederick just asked me, "May ah ha so water, pease?" I am just thankfully that he is still hard to understand, or I would cry because he is growing up too fast.

Our Two-Year-Old

...is so serious about his trains.

Oh Christmas Tree

I love Christmas trees.  The real kind.  I always insist on buying them the weekend after Thanksgiving, even if that means our tree is a little crunchy by Christmas Day.  As a kid, looking for the perfect tree was one of my favorite things to do, and I loved watching Charlotte dart around the "forest" of trees when we went to pick out our beauty.

 

After a couple of days of soaking up water, we pulled down all the ornaments and, with Christmas music in the background, decorated it. The kids loved it!

One of Santa's? 

Okay, someone explain what I am supposed to do with this again?

Despite all the breakable things in little hands, we had only two casualties, both of which happened after a breakable ornament came back off the tree.  Unfortunately, Fred and I collect Christmas Ornaments as souvenirs when we travel, so I guess we'll have to go back to San Francisco again sometime for a replacement.

 I love love love this time of year.

Awesome Things

This week has been awesome I tell you.  Great things are happening around here!

Who knew I'd love the at-home portion of Charlotte's Pre-K curriculum?  Granted, we've only completed 4 days, and it IS only Pre-K, but I really love having something written out (by someone else!) to follow as I do activities with the kids.  I have always loved coming up with little activities to do with Charlotte, but found it hard to regularly come up with *new* age appropriate activities and finding things that would occupy her interest for more than 5 seconds.  We spend most of the morning on "home school" days checking off her list of assignments and whatever other kind of coloring or play she wants to do.  And I enjoy it.  Even when I have to get creative to convince her to look at the calender on more time and tell me what day of the week is today.  Part of her assignment includes memorizing a Bible verse.  What a bonus for this Catholic girl!

Frederick loves to join in whatever we are doing, even if it just means I hand him some (washable) dry erase markers and a white board, crayons and paper, or math manipulatives.  If I am reading Charlotte a book, he loves to climb up into my lap and be right in the middle of it all.  Even though I've dedicated this time to Charlotte, I think he really benefits, too.

The kiddos really love playing together too, though I'm not too sure what I think about Charlotte trying to cook Frederick.

Okay, so really he climbed in there and closed the door all by himself when I told him it was time for a diaper change.  The silly little man never fails to make me smile. 

And a confession, I started this post yesterday and am sitting down today trying to remember all of the awesome things I was going to include in this post.  This is probably because we had Charlotte's 4 year old well check today, which included an over an hour wait to see the doctor, shots, and a toddler in tow.  I'm quite sure I was lucky to escape with my sanity mostly intact.  Charlotte screamed and cried after the shots and wouldn't let me put her down while Frederick threw an all out tantrum (that involved both throwing his body on the floor running away from me through the doctor's office) because I made him put down the toy trains that had been keeping him occupied.  Whew.  I confess to laughing at myself and the whole scene, but it was still draining!

So anyway, what was I saying, about awesome?

Speaking of 4, Charlotte had a fairy fun birthday party to celebrate her big day.

Charlotte and all of her Fairy Friends had a great time! 

And, how about this new trick? Charlotte seemingly dropped her nap around the time she turned 3.  I switched over to "rest time" mode and stuck her in her room with books and maybe a video, from which she would emerge every 5-10 minutes for some reason or another.  It turns out, she will still fairly easily take a nap if we both lay down on my bed.  She is out within 10 minutes! Who knew there could still be midday peace?

These two can be little stinkers, but I love them so :-).

Frederick is

• halfway between 19 and 20 months.
• obsessed with keys.  Not the play set I made with "real" keys, but real sets that turn on real cars. Which leads to...
• obsessed with cars and twuks. wace (red/race) twucks, why (white) twucks, bii (big) twucks.  The kid really loves twucks.  Every trip down the highway next to an 18 wheeler brings utter joy.  I now find myself speeding up to drive next to the darn things instead of only hurry past them. I need to post a video that shows his awe over the dozens of "race trucks" that google images pulls upon the computer screen.
• not a fan of a security blanket, but instead likes takes his red car with him to bed.
• a super smiley kid.
• underweight now, after being in the 95% for weight at 4 months old.
• insanely busy.
• a climber.
• crazy about his sister and loves to do whatever she does.  It melts my heart to see them smile and laugh and play together.
• determined.
• the worlds most awesome snuggler.
• still learning to say daddy.  I think I'll be sad when he stops calling Fred "Daddin."
• into graffiti.  Our walls show the damage.
• sometimes a cat on the floor.  He has a great meow.
• mischievous.
• a streaker.
• fond of saying "no, no, no," where just one "no" would suffice.
• using new words every day, but likes to hum something that sounds like "thank you," rather than opening his mouth to form words.
• precious and I love him.

Strawberry Picking

On Saturday we met some friends out at Froberg's to pick strawberries.  Although I am not sure if it was against the rules or not, or even a good idea, Frederick set out to single handedly eat every strawberry in the patch, from plant to mouth.  Unfortunately for him, but fortunately for Froberg's, there were far too many ripe strawberries for him to achieve his goal.  But he sure had a good time munching on them!

Charlotte picked half of her own bucket, and I managed to haul in a full 5 lb bucket. It definitely beat picking blueberries.  April sure beats June in Texas, that much helped a lot!  It took no time at all to fill our buckets and be on our way, a plus with easily distracted children.

 Charlotte showing off her yummy find.

Frederick taking a break from eating every strawberry in sight.  

We met up with Miss Jeannette and Mr. James who lent me a needed extra pair of hands whenever I needed them.  (Daddy was busy studying.)

This little girl takes strawberry picking seriously!

Kristine and daughter Ava joined us, too! 

Turns out Frederick wasn't the only one sneaking strawberries.  I caught this guy in the act!

Ava spent the whole time on her Mama's hip and back.

I had high hopes of making jam with all of our strawberries, but instead settled on a strawberry & rhubarb pie (thanks to ETB for that impromptu decision!) that vanished almost instantly.  The rest we have enjoyed sliced, sprinkled with sugar, served with waffles, eaten whole, cut up with ice cream, or dipped in homemade whipped cream.  And suddenly we didn't have any left for jam.  Thankfully, I am pretty sure I can pick up some Froberg strawberries from Canino's, which is just around the corner, so that may have to be a project for another weekend.

Cupcake Yummy

 

Happy Birthday to my Little Man!