The Last Couple of Days

These last couple of days have been full of blessings from many different angles. Seems there has been so much going on with everyone. Charles and I have been spending a lot of one-on-one time together. Steve has come down with a summer cold, Tomas is off registering and beginning his classes, Caleb and Clay are gone at their mom's and everything seems to be spinning around everyone with me in the middle sort of playing conductor of a symphony with Charles in one arm and my baton in the other.
And we are happy happy happy and here are the pictures to prove it....

Hand control: two things Charles does with his hands now are when he smiles as if he's about to laugh, he puts them up to his face. It's really cute.

Also when he's tired, he rubs his eyes just like a big boy. Here he was doing it but I think he's figured out that my cell phone is a camera and he actually started posing! Really, he was looking at the phone, smiling, turning his head, snuggling etc. as if he knew I was taking his picture. What a ham!

And talking about hamming it up! Here he is doing just that and then posing in his new hat.

WONDERFUL WEEK

What a fantastic week. My parents, one sister and my niece came out from NY/NJ for Charles's dedication and 'coming out' party. Here are some of the highlights from the week...



Sophie entertaining Charles.................Charles and Grandpa


Caleb dressed for a safari
story from Grandpa


Safe in Grandpa & Grandma's arms. A baby knows a
a grandparent when it feels one!!

Sophie made a new friend too....licking the spoon!!


Sophie harvesting
for dinner

Those CRAZY cousins!!!

The obstacle course....Old ladies rule--young boys drool!!

One month old.........two months old

Have I changed much??

FAMILY OUTING

A big day for us all. Everyone (but me) has a birthday over the summer. Actually, beginning with Father's Day, someone is opening a present around here every 10 days or less until Clay's birthday Aug. 7th. Well, not many people opened anything around here this year as Charles stole the show all summer long. Birthdays came and went nearly unnoticed were it not for all the cards from family in other states trickling in. THANK YOU to all of you, this year more than ever, it meant a lot to the kids.
Anyway, Steve had the idea to do something big as a family together. We contemplated an overnight in Santa Cruz at the Boardwalk at first. The more we thought about it the closer our trip got to home until we ended up with Marine World. It was a wonderful bonding time for all the boys. We are a technologically advanced family here, so all the kids had their own cell phones and were instructed to check in with us every hour, stick together, don't get in trouble etc etc... Clay brought a friend and we all paired off, running into each other by accident here and there, meeting up for lunch. Steve and I saw the exhibits and walked all day. After bed rest and birth...this was the most exercize I've gotten in 3 months! It felt great actually.

Cool kid: will be embarrased
to be seen with mommy
before you know it!.............................Butterfly Garden


Charles and "Babar." Charles probably wondering
what that awful smell is. Mom & Dad, after so many
diaper changes, obliviously asking "What smell?"



Charles swimming with the sharks.
Actually the look on his face, though
perfect, was quite by accident.

At one point I was trying to prop Charles up in the stroller so he could get a good look at what the walruses were doing. Steve started to inform me of....when I interupted him and said "I know, but I want to pretend that he has an inkling of what's going on around him." Steve said, "Ok, knock yourself out, so long as you know you're pretending." LOL If I can't laugh at myself, it wouldn't be fair to laugh at others. ha ha to THAT!

PHOTO OP!!

There was a brief lull in the activity around here. So I broke out my "studio" and took some pictures of Tomas and Charles. You can see from Charles's smile that he's really getting to know Tomas. Tomas's favorite thing to do is sing well known rock and roll songs to Charles substituting his name it. For example "Charlie be good" instead of "Johnny be good" and "I shot the sheriff but I did not shoot the Charles." etc etc
Charles is just learning how to smile--which is fantastic. He does most of it in the morning after 'breakfast' when everything is copacetic with him. Sometimes he almost looks like he's going to squeal along with it.

Proud of this one...could be better...I make house calls.




Taken just moments ago. Quite by accident, I dressed Charles on one of my favorite outfits this morning and realized we were "twins." All color coordinated.


Ahhhh, the life...remember those days? When you could just curl up once you knew you were safe and trip off to the land of nod?
OK, it sounds like I'm being beckoned...Charles's nap time sounds like it's over.
Tomorrow he turns 2months old...stay tuned to see how he's grown.