Meeting McQueen

When a friend (thanks Jenny!) tells you that Lightning McQueen and some friends are going to be at the Mall of America, what do you do? If you live in our house, the answer is simple - you go.

Your husband hurries home from work so you can try to beat the after-work crowd, and you just sigh a little when you see the line. Then you stand in that line for 40 minutes, listening to the Cars 2 preview playing on an endless loop. You watch your 11-month old twist around, trying to take it all in - the cartoon on the big screen, the toddlers throwing tantrums, the mom convincing her son that Lightning isn't scary - he's just like her car, he won't talk or anything! Charlie loved watching the kids who were calmly eating their snacks in their strollers, the preschoolers hopping on one foot, poking their younger sibling, picking their nose - trying anything to make the wait less boring. Charlie wasn't bored for one second! And since Zach was off playing with Ipads at the Apple Store during most of the wait, he wasn't bored either. :)

You do all of this so that you can get some pictures of your son with life-sized remote control cars from his favorite movie:

^Finn McMissile, a character in the new movie - a British spy, voiced by Michael Caine. And, of course, Lightning McQueen himself, decked out for the sequel.


^Zach believes a spoiler is what makes a car a "hot rod" - so we had to get a picture of him with Lightning's new spoiler.

^Charlie investigating the spoiler, but mostly wondering what all the fuss was about!

Was it all worth it? Absolutely.

11 months

Subtitle 1 - Adventures of a boy on the move
Subtitle 2 - Almost a year old already?!?!?

Charlie has been truly crawling for about a week and a half. It's been interesting. We did our best to prepare Zach, but I hear a regular refrain of "Charlie - NOOOOO!" Charlie seems to have the unerring instinct to go for the toys that Zach is currently playing with. He'll crawl right past piles of his toys, past a lot of randomly strewn cars and trains, straight to the nice line of cars that Zach has just set up for a race. I guess that sort of thing is just built into the DNA of a little brother.

His crawling technique remains the same - the right leg extended so he's on his foot rather than knee. And while he's gotten much faster, so far it's been manageable. He has happily explored the living room and toy room (boy, can he cause some destruction in there - everything pulled off the shelves!), with one of his favorite targets remaining the dog. He hasn't wandered far into the kitchen - he doesn't seem to like the hardwood floor. Can't really blame him, and I like that he's staying more or less in the same room. We'll see how long that lasts.

You would have thought that he'd be content (or at least more content) now that he can get to things he wants. But not necessarily - this boy really wants to walk. What amuses us is that with all the stuff Charlie can access, all the nice low furniture he can use to try to pull himself up on, he still just wants our fingers. He will crawl across a room to reach for our hands in our laps. I even saw him do this to one of the other moms at our ECFE class! If he's standing at the ottoman, he'll cruise himself over to us so he can hang onto our fingers, as if the ottoman wasn't holding him up just fine.

He has been pulling himself up using our fingers for a while (without us helping him), and has pulled himself up on some random lower objects like laundry baskets, but the furniture is apparently beyond his abilities at the moment. I think it's his short little legs. :) He also got his first little bump/scratch on his head the other day; a victim of the corner of a bookshelf.

Obviously the crawling is the big news at our house, but Mr. Charliebug also has a new tooth poking through on the top. I'm amazed - I can barely feel it, but somehow he's already managing to grind it on his bottom teeth. What a horrible noise!!! I'm happy though, that he didn't seem to have a hard time with the tooth coming in; I didn't even have a clue until I heard the grinding.

He's going to put those teeth to good use - we've been continuing to move more towards "finger foods" as opposed to purees. He loves to feed himself; if he had his way I think he'd have done away with the baby food a while ago. But he still has a hard time with some foods - it takes him a long time to "chew" them up, and he gets frustrated. He also has squirrel tendencies - he stuffs as much food as possible into his mouth. I'll think he's eaten what I gave him and will go to give him some more, only to have him open his mouth and show me all the mashed up food stored between his bottom gums and cheeks.

He's also showing some more preferences - he'd always rather have something bread-like than squishy. He can easily eat half a waffle for breakfast, in addition to a fruit puree + cereal. His favorite, however, is still old-fashioned plain Cheerios.

Charlie has been waving and clapping for a while, but I'm noticing he's figured out how to put it to good use. He loves people - he never shows any signs of stranger anxiety. So now when we're out in public, particularly if he's riding in a shopping cart (which he also loves), he gives anyone who smiles or talks to him a big smile in return. And often an excited wave too, hopping up in down in his seat and grunting to show his excitement. He likes the attention, that's for sure.

On the sleeping front, I'm happy to report that our boy is now sleeping later. Charlie has trained me well: three months ago I would have told you that 5:30 is waaaay too early to wake up, but after about 2 months of waking between 4:09 and 4:23 AM, 5:30 is GREAT! We've even had a few post-6 AM wakings - whoo hoo! Basically, I think Charlie was just reminding me I'm not really in charge. :)

We had a busy day yesterday, which is why I'm late posting this. I was also rushing through my usual birthday sign picture - perhaps you can tell! But fortunately, I had some help. While I was frustratedly trying to get Charlie to sit still for 2 seconds so I could take the picture, or at least not destroy the sign (which Zach made) - Zach was snapping away with my old camera. He got some great shots - and I think taught me a lesson about slowing down to enjoy the moment:

Zach sings

The kids in Zach's preschool sang in church again right after we got back from Atlanta. Zach didn't have any trouble remembering the words, even though he missed that week of practice. :)

I decided to take pictures this time, rather than video. Ideally I would have brought my tripod, since the church was a little dark and I was in the back, but I think I would have gotten more than a few funny looks if I had. As a result, the pictures are a little blurry, particularly the group one below - but I had to include that one, it made me laugh out loud. There's nothing like a group of 3, 4 and 5 year-olds performing in public!

I have to admit though, watching Zach always makes me a little emotional. He looks so grown up and independent up there! And the look on his face is always so... earnest. He just focuses on his teacher and you can actually see his desire to do his part, to sing as loudly as he can, to get the words and motions right, all to make Mrs. Hulse happy. So very sweet!

Ahhh... fresh air

I don't think it's possible to describe how thrilled we were to arrive in Georgia and spend three full days in high-sixties, sunny weather. We have had the most unpleasant winter, so trust me, close to 70 felt like our version of heaven. But let me back up...

We arrived in Atlanta late on Monday afternoon, after an uneventful flight, other than the extreme turbulence and resulting vomiting. (Yes, we've pretty much realized we won't have a truly uneventful travel experience for a very long time.) There were all sorts of storms and even tornadoes threatening in Georgia as we flew in, and Zach's little stomach wasn't quite up for the challenge of the dips and dives. And it turned out Delta wasn't really ready for the challenge of Zach - there wasn't a barf bag to be found in our three seatbacks.

I won't gross you out with the details, let's just say it was fortunate that the flight attendant hadn't come around for our trash yet, and Scott was done with his cup of Diet Coke. And, I am happy to say, this flight once again reminded me that people are good. We booked our flight somewhat last-minute, so the only available seats were single middle seats. The gate agent was able to get Scott & Zach's seats together, with Charlie & me in the middle of the row behind them. Needless to say, I wasn't optimistic that someone would give up their aisle seat in order to move back a row for the always-pleasant middle seat. Luck was in our favor - the individual in my desired seat was a mom, and she volunteered to move before we could even ask, and didn't bat an eye at being wedged between two fellow passengers. The flight experience would have been very different if we hadn't all been seated together. So incredibly nice woman, thank you.

And to all of our neighbors who quickly passed us their barf bags as soon as they realized what was happening in our row - thank you too.

Needless to say, we were happy to arrive at the Bergums in our rented minivan. Their new house is gorgeous, and it was fun to catch up in person. And as I mentioned before, you would never have guessed that Zach, Brady, and Isak hadn't seen each other in over 6 months - they were off having a great time immediately.

We spent the morning of our first full day of vacation running around taking care of the practical stuff - buying diapers, baby food, etc etc. Then the adult guys went golfing and the boys spent the entire afternoon playing OUTSIDE - without coats, hats, mittens, gloves or boots. Zach even got a little bit of a tan line on the back of his neck!

Charlie was quite intrigued by the grass and leaves, since he's never had a chance to examine it before. I think he only ate a little. And Zach got to partake in one of his favorite outside summer activities: t-ball!

Dinner that night was a funny experience. We went to a hibachi-style Japanese steakhouse, thinking the action on the grill would keep the boys entertained. We were right, but we also discovered something I hadn't thought about... babies have an instinctive fear of fire. Especially big bursts of flames that come at you so you can feel the heat on your face. I've never seen Charlie afraid before; he spent the rest of the dinner expressing his displeasure any time the guy in the white hat was flashing his knives and spatula around. Lesson learned.

A big thanks to the Bergums for allowing us to invite ourselves down and crash at their house. We had a very fun time exploring the area, but also just hanging out, picking up old pastimes like pinochle. It was a great trip!

Golf cart cruising - Atlanta Day 2

On our second full day in the Atlanta area, we explored Peachtree City. A suburb located right next to Sharpsburg (home of the Bergums), Peachtree City (PTC) offered a unique opportunity - the chance to tool about town in a golf cart. So armed with a map, snacks, drinks, and bubbles, we did just that.

Believe it or not, PTC is not a golf course community. For some reason, the town just decided to build paths throughout the city; paths that are used for walking, running, biking, and golf carting. We saw houses with short little garages for golf carts, parents driving around in carts with car seats strapped in back, and an older woman driving home from the grocery store, with her bags stacked on the seats and a big plastic rain protector wrapped around her cart (despite the clear blue sky). The golf cart isn't the only mode of transportation in PTC, but it's clearly the most fun!

We drove on the paths whenever possible, but had to go on the road at times, and even through a big shopping center parking lot to park and eat at Chik-Fil-A (I bet we could have gone through the drive-thru!). We visited parks to let the kids out to run, cruised around a very nice lake, and saw some lovely scenery when we took an unintentional detour. Charlie even took a nice snooze, snug in the Bjorn and his dad's arms.

As if that wasn't enough fun, then it was time to officially celebrate Isak and Scott's birthdays - both born on March 2nd (just 32 years apart!). And what kid, whether a preschooler or an engineer, doesn't want to go to Chuck E Cheese for their birthday??

(^ No, we don't generally let Charlie kick back in a restaurant in his bare feet. What can I say - he was on his second massive blow-out of the trip, and my stash of back-up clothes in the diaper bag was running low!)

Pizza and a seemingly unlimited supply of tokens made for a fun night. Zach had never been, and was thrilled with all the video games and of course the "prizes" he got when he cashed in all his tickets. We've had many conversations since about how C-E-C is a special occasion place, not somewhere we go every day. I sure hope there's one around here as nice as the one we went to in Atlanta!

Whew. What a day. But no, we weren't done yet! Time to head home for some cake and a few presents. I think both birthday boys had a good day!

Georgia, Georgia-ahhh

We've already been back from our trip to Atlanta for over a week, so I thought I'd better get moving on posting about it. We were in town to visit our friends the Bergums, who moved there last fall. Zach was pretty excited to see his buddies Brady & Isak - and they picked up right where they'd left off.

Since I haven't finished reviewing and editing the pictures, I'm starting with the ones that are done - the ones from our last day of the trip! We spent that Thursday in downtown Atlanta, first checking out the very cool Georgia Aquarium - the world's largest aquarium:

All the boys had a great time, but I have to admit we got the biggest kick out of Charlie. He LOVED all the fish, was kicking and squealing, trying to reach the big fish swimming just out of his grasp. The bigger boys ended the outing with multiple rides down the whale slide, while Charlie snoozed in the stroller.

Then we crossed the street to Centennial Park, forever remembered as the site of the bombing at the '96 Olympics. There were two great playgrounds, but I think the boys spent the most time playing near the fountains. It wasn't quite warm enough to run through the fountains, so instead they ran many, many laps around the fountains. Isak even tried taking a drink...

Since it was such a lovely setting, we tried for a family picture. Always a challenge with small kids; I think the Bergums had more success!

Up next... our golf cart adventures!