Happy leap day

Our kids are growing by leaps and bounds... get it???  Leaps???  It's Leap Day, so I just had to post today so that funny date would show up on our blog.

Some news and stories about our growing boys:

Don't ever tell Zach any secrets.  Scott's birthday is Friday, but a couple weeks ago I had planned a little surprise for him - to celebrate his and our friend Rosie's birthdays.  We went out to dinner with three other couples... and NO KIDS!!!  This is incredibly rare.  Anyway, I had told Zach we were going out to dinner, but I didn't tell him anything else because I knew he'd let it slip.  Then, foolishly, the afternoon of the dinner, I caved and told him that Dad would be surprised there would be two more couples there, not just the one he was expecting.  By the time we left for dinner he had managed to mention the name of one of the surprise guests, and then covered by saying "no, there isn't going to be anyone else at the restaurant!"  Nice try buddy.

Charlie's new most prevalent word is water, pronounced "wah-r" (pretty much one syllable).  It took us a while to figure out what he was saying, since it sounds an awful lot like his roar - something he does a lot.  So now every drink is water, and he loves holding out his cup and demanding more wah-r.

Zach said to me the other day - mom, I hope what you hope.  I had no idea what he was talking about, and when I asked, his explanation was simple and quite logical.  Basically, I always wished for good things to happen to us and not bad things, and that's what he wanted too.  So he wishes what I wish.  :)

Charlie has reached a new stage of eating, or at least we finally realized he was in it: the "I'm a big boy so give me what you're eating stage."  He's always been interested in what's on our plates, but now he wants his food to look just like ours, so no more cutting things into pieces.  It's funny to just hand him half a cheeseburger and watch him go to town.  My favorite recently was a whole apple.  We were at the curling club watching Scott curl, so to keep Charlie occupied I gave him an apple.  He loved it... he tried to eat the entire core and the little leafy part at the bottom.  And he was ticked when I took it away so that he couldn't!

In the car the other day, Zach was chattering away, as he does.  Scott had been curling in a bonspiel a lot of the weekend, so I was more tired than usual of the nonstop noise.  So, as politely as I could, I asked Zach if we could not talk for a little while, because I didn't really feel like talking.  He quietly said yes, and then mumbled "I pretty much always feel like talking."  Truer words have never been spoken.

Charlie has a fairly adventurous palate.  He's unnerved by the sight of new things, but if he always insists on having what we're eating, so we've given him some things I wouldn't normally give a toddler.  An example? Buffalo-flavored potato chips, pretty darn hot ones.  We watched his face, and he looked a little surprised, but ate it and asked for more.  So I was pretty perplexed when I bought us a shamrock shake to share, and Charlie didn't like it!!!  He loves ice cream, and he's obviously not afraid of flavor.  But not a shamrock shake???

One of the phrases we hear from Zach a lot when he's frustrated is "You don't know a thing about XXX."  He mostly says it to Charlie, when he's getting in the middle of one of his games, but I believe I've had the statement applied to me as well.  And he says it with such disgust...

 These last few pictures of Charlie are him "sleeping" in our bed.  Any chance he has, he climbs into our or Zach's bed, pulls up the covers, and rests his head on the pillow.  I had to giggle the other day when I heard him making some noises, and realized he was pretending to snore!  Turn up the volume and you should be able to hear it on the video.