Let's See How Far We've Come

To make up for the fact that I am a very negligent blogger I am going to employ the Hollywood trick of using a montage to catch my blog up to present.

At home with Liam and Dad on day 6.

Charlotte's first bath at home when she was nine days old.

Eight weeks old

9 weeks.  Chillin' in my bouncy seat.

10 weeks.  Sunning at the pool.

11 weeks.  A bath in Grandma's sink.

3 months.  Just jumping around.

13 weeks.  Why does Mom always put these toys so far away?

14 weeks.  Happy as a daisy.

4 months.  Here I am with Opa at my first wedding.  I tried to be happy for Valerie and David but it was past my bedtime.

4.5 months.  My first time in a restaurant high chair.

5 months.  I'm a pumpkin!

5.5 months.  I love food.  Spoons are kinda my favorite thing.

 

 

 

 

6 months.  Ready to meet Santa.

7 months.  What am I doing?!

7 months.  These are my people!

The day after Christmas playing with all my new toys!

Playing with Dad.

I'm so happy all the time now!

7.5 months.  Now I'm getting somewhere!

Here she is now - a talented pianist. She is eating finger foods and starting to crawl with her tummy off of the ground.  This week she is working on pulling herself up on things.  When she starts cruising I may never have time to post again until she is three!

Another Snow Day, Ugh!

I woke up to find that preschool was canceled and the outside world looked like this:

So I decided to start our snow day off right.  I baked some lemon poppy seed muffins and made eggs and bacon.  Liam did drink he cup of hot cocoa (translate to warm ovaltine) but would not eat anything.  He finally settled on a handful of blueberries and some yogurt.  Apparently he can go all day on a solid hundred and fifty calories.

Did I mention that he dressed himself?  Yellow pirate shirt with red pants, check!

Snakes and snails and drywall repairs!

I've said many times that parents of boys need to know how to repair drywall.  Every man I've ever met has confirmed that they have caused a hole in the wall at some point in their lives.  So for those keeping track - this is Liam's second such accident and he is only three.   All I did was let him go to the bathroom by himself and then seconds later I heard a loud crash.  Apparently he was trying to swing from the towel rack:

Drywall chips on the floor

Damaged Towel Rack

Hole in the wall left by anchor

 

 

 

I thought this video was really funny because Liam sat down next to her and they were watching tv together.  It was such a cute image and then she reached over and grabbed his hair and just yanked!  I can see now that Charlotte will hold her own.

Miraculously - second born children survive!

After today I have decided that it is amazing that any of us second (or third) born children have ever survived our older siblings. I don't mean that the first born are on a mission to kill off their younger sisters and brothers. I think that its just coincidence that most of their daily activities happen to create a myriad of death traps in the way of small pieces of toys strewn around the house. Liam almost succeeded today when he pulled these metal hooks out of my wall that are meant for holding back curtain sashes and placed them in the oven of Charlotte's laugh and learn kitchen. Did I mention that the other end of these hooks are pointy like nails and that they are easily small enough to be swallowed? Luckily I happened to hear the metal clink as Charlotte opened the door and reached for them.

Liam is now awaiting parole from his room.

The hidden message in all of that was - Charlotte is now on the move:




Its still an army crawl, but slowly she can get her little hands on anything at floor level.

Christmas!

Liam must have done enough to end up on the Good List, because he was showered with gifts at Christmas. He now owns every Hot Wheels/Matchbox set. Also the elves finished creating his basement toy room where he can swing and bounce to his heart's content.


I love this clip of my chic Grandma holding Charlotte.

Grading on a Curve

Today I was telling Liam that he needed to be good if he wanted to be on Santa's Nice List. He informed me that he was writing his own list for Santa and he put himself on the Nice List. He put his cousins on the Naughty List, and since I made cookies today he moved me from the Naughty list to the Nice one. Only my kid would assume he could cheat the system by making his own rules. He's going to need that kind of grading on a curve because this is how he behaved at his preschool holiday program:




I'm hoping that this happy face is my little girl that will always be perfectly behaved:



She did get her first tooth this month which caused her to have a few sleepless night, but other than that she is my good girl.

Liam had fun playing in the snow this week. It was not good snowman snow, but was great for sledding!

First Family Vacation

I know I have terribly absent from the blogosphere, but we've been busy! This month at preschool Liam had his first show & tell. He brought in his little stuffed dog, Buster. At first he didn't want to because he said Buster was his dog - not a toy! Tuesday was Dad Pumpkin carving night at school. Unfortunately Dad was on a business trip so Liam had Uncle Rob do the honors. Uncle Rob did a great job on the pumpkin - but his comment upon coming out of the 45 minute event was, "Does he ever stop moving?" Ha! No!

We also took our first road trip as a family of four. We drove all the way to Alabama to see the cousins. We broke up the drive down and stayed in Nashville. We stayed in a great Hilton Suites with a pool and Liam was in heaven with his tube:





Friday morning, after another swim, we checked out and headed to the Nashville Zoo. Charlotte spent most of the time chilling in her stroller and perfectly happy. She was also very well behaved in the car - until she was hungry of course! I was really surprised how well the drive went. I am very thankful for technological advances in media. Without The Grinch, Shrek, and SuperWhy I don't know what Liam would have done.









We spent some time checking out the animals, but then stopped off so Liam could play in the Jungle Gym. This place is so much fun I thought we'd never get him out!








It was one big slumber party for the boys, and sadly I think the lack of quality sleep took its toll on the Underwood's soccer performance on Saturday. Charlotte had a fabulous time at Aunt TT's house and even took the opportunity to sit up for the first time!