All About the Kids

These kids have been really busy lately. It seems like they are going through a ream of paper every day with all their drawings, along with a roll of tape to hang them or to wrap up presents for all the stuffed animals (and the environmentalist in me cringes--its hard to balance the "using less stuff" mentality with having actual children living in our home.)

Bugaboo has been making us laugh a lot--and a lot of the time, he knows just what to do to be funny--making funny faces while we're trying to eat, rolling around on the ground just to be silly. Other times, he isn't trying but we just can't help it--like when he's doing his little one-arm-pumping run down the hall to keep up with his sister or when he tried to copy her this morning while we were blessing the food and covered his ears (she's been anti-prayer some days lately) only he couldn't just stop at that and had to start yelling to make sure no other sounds reached his ears.

The other day, I got home from running and was pretty sweaty--he kept coming up and pointing at the sweat on my legs and and wrinkling up his nose. Then he ran in the kitchen and brought back his washcloth and started to wash my legs. He can almost always come up with a solution to whatever he sees as a problem. Usually it involves moving the kitchen chairs around so he can reach things that we don't want him to.

And guess who got ahold of the bubble bath. It was a brand new bottle and Bugaboo emptied about a third of it into the tub just before bath time. They had a great time, but we've started storing the bubble bath in the cabinet.

Bean has been on a knock-knock joke kick. Most of hers involve the bathtub or toilet running away. We tell these jokes as we walk places and everyone we pass starts to laugh as soon as they hear us.

She also taught me something very important about fires the other day. I was on the phone with a friend and I mentioned house fires, which she overheard and piped up with, "Mom, fires only start when you are cooking or when a squirrel is eating something hot in a tree!" I had no idea, Bean.

She also informed me that we gave her too long of a name. She has a little trouble with the first letter, and with remembering all the letters, so she always needs help writing it. But she's figured out that "Bean" is a lot shorter and she can remember those 4 letters without help. I think that knickname is going to stick around forever.

Birthday Wishes

For

a smooth house closing.

a smooth move,

more fun adventures in uptown these next few weeks before we leave for the 'burbs,

the dedication to keep up with my early morning workouts,

fun times with my kids each day,

finding a babysitter soon so we can enjoy date nights again,

and peace of mind that I'm doing worthwhile things with my time each day (at least some of it).

(And thanks everyone who sent me some form of birthday wishes these last couple days! It was a fun day with my family!)

Fruit Salsas

I love fruity salsas! I have a recipe for tilapia with a mango avocado salsa that I love and the other night, we tried this one made with peach and red bell pepper. It was great, and luckily we didn't get sick from the jalapeno (I am a little behind on the news and missed the whole "don't eat fresh jalapeno" warning.)

This one was actually supposed to be a nectarine salsa on fish, but we had peaches and chicken and it turned out great--salsas are very forgiving like that. Oh, and I bought my first okra down here in the south (and actually had to ask the lady at the farmer's market to make sure that's what it was). Daddy-o, who isn't so uneducated in the southern cooking department, fried it up and it was delicious.

Bugaboo thought so too--he's making his Grandpa proud! Bean. . . well, she's Bean--she ate chicken nuggets that night.

Latta Plantation

We decided we needed to explore yet another of Charlotte's offerings--an old plantation. I have to say, its not quite what I imagined a southern plantation to be, but apparently since the slaves were coming in on boats, most of the big plantations were along the coast, so we're going to have to travel a little farther to see the huge mansions we were expecting.
But this was a fun little place. Bugaboo loved the animals, especially the donkey, of course.
And we got to pan for gold. They brought in dirt from a local mine and gave everyone a pan and taught us how to rinse the dirt and rocks off.
We didn't find any gold, but Daddy-o found quite a few ruby specks in his pan. Anyone have ideas for what we can do with tiny bits of ruby?
And of course Bugaboo had to get wet. It couldn't be any different if there is water around.

Dinosaurs, Be Warned!

No confusion as to who isn't welcome in Bean's room--not sure why the last "no" was reversed.

Some sort of warning for Bugaboo--I guess she wants him to stay out of the bathroom (which I fully support!)

And this one I just had to put up because I am blown away by the daily additions to her people drawings--notice the bones in the arms :)

And the Winner is. . .

Jenna! Congratulations and thanks for reading along (and for the record, I definately think that you should start a blog--between your girls and your kids at school, I can only imagine the fun stories you would have to tell.) I'll pop the cards in the mail.

I do think its funny that I have to make up my own contest to get me to do something crafty. It's been a lazy summer, craft-wise. If only I could wean myself from my afternoon nap.

Water Fun

Apparently they have a lot of these "spray" parks around the city. This is the first one we explored and the kids did have fun, although it was a little bit much for Bugaboo. That's a lot of water when you're not even 3 feet tall. (BTW, click on the picture above to enlarge it--I LOVE that our new camera can take action shots like this!)

And thanks to everyone for the book recommendations--I need to head over to the library to see what they have in! Tomorrow is the last chance to enter the bloggiversary giveaway so go here to make a comment.

Where in the World is Charlotte?

Bugaboo and I found this whimsical garden on an early morning walk and then brought Bean back to see it the next day. The Green is full of literary quotes, signposts for author-named cities, and kid-friendly statues and artwork.
Bean created quite the story for us to act out with these mushrooms, that involved a lot of sleeping and eating and running back and forth.

They both had a great time "riding" the fish, until we were told that those aren't part of the kid-friendly statues and there was no climbing allowed,

and Bean loved the speakers in the stone wall that would surprise us with sounds of water splashing or snoring as we walked by. Really, its a very random little park in the middle of the city, but something fun to stumble across.

Of course, the mode of transportation is also key. The Green is almost a mile from our apartment, so a little far for the Bean to walk, but Charlotte has a free trolley system that runs up and down the two central cross streets so we're only about 3 blocks from a ride in either direction. We've hopped on to get to the bank, one of the Uptown farmer's markets, The Green, and sometimes just because we want to go for a ride.

Nature Museum

Just a few minutes south of us is an awesome park. We haven't begun to explore what is there, but a couple weekends ago, we did head down to the pond to see the ducks and then went up the hill to the nature museum which is there in the park. It is part of the Discovery Place membership, so we were happy to find another place we can now visit for free.

Of course we think he's the "Cutest Bug"
The butterfly exhibit
Learning about streams
The nature trail--a very short "hike" that is perfect for the kids.

One Year

I just realized today is my "bloggiversary"! I started this blog while we were in Michigan for the summer because I finally felt like I should really keep all our friends and family who we don't live by (which at that moment was EVERYONE) better updated.

One year and 168 posts later, here we are. Once again, nowhere near our loved ones, but I feel so much closer to everyone thanks to this blog, and all the blogs out there that I peruse a little too often.

So, in honor of the blog's birthday, I'm going to send a set of 5 handmade birthday cards to a random commentor :) You can just say hi, or if you'd like, continue with the last post and send me book ideas, either for me or for Bean and I to read to together. I'll pick the winner on Thursday, July 17th.

Thank you to everyone for reading along, commenting, emailing, calling. . . And thanks to all of you who are willing to share your lives through your own blogs--it really makes me happy that I have some idea what is going on in the lives of my friends.

Imaginon

Another "Fun in Charlotte" post.

The kids library in uptown is awesome! First, the fact that they have a library just for the kids is pretty cool (although it does make it a little more difficult for me to get around to picking out my reading material). Imaginon houses the children's library and children's theater. We've already been picking out the shows we want to take Bean to this next year, but so far we've only been to the library portion of this building.

Along with the normal story-time and fun kids room with computers and reading areas, there is also a trolley for the kids to play on, a "stage" with changing backdrops and dress-up clothes,and a puppet theater where they can put on their own puppet show. Really, its just another great indoor playground. We go for one of the storytimes and then just run around to the different areas to play. Oh, and eventually get around to picking out a few books. Bean and I have discovered the fun of reading chapter books--we finished "Ramona the Pest" a couple weeks ago and are now in the middle of "The Doll People" and "Betsy and Billy".

Anyone have suggestions for more good read-alouds for the 4 year-old crowd? I have lots of books that I can't wait to read with her when she's a little older, but I think A Series of Unfortunate Events would be a little over her head at this point. I think some of it was a little over my head.

Nap Interrupted

Sometimes that seems to pretty much sum up this parenthood experience for me. One long search for rest that is constantly interrupted.

But seriously, why do kids have to just yell for you, instead of coming to find you? I almost had a heart attack this afternoon. Unless its the first couple hours of the night when I'm in DEEP sleep, I'm a pretty jumpy sleeper. My mom will attest to that--she did not like having to wake me up in the morning because there just wasn't a good way to do it without scaring me half to death. Bean doesn't seem near as bothered. Of course, she wasn't even in the room to see my reaction. And no, it wasn't any type of an emergency. Just had to let out a good loud, "Mommy!!!" to make sure I knew that she was getting a snack out.

Of course, we used to do the same thing to my mom. And she used to tell us repeatedly to stop yelling and just go find the person. And I wondered why on earth I would want to go from room to room looking for someone when all I had to do was stand in one spot and yell and they'd come to me? Now I'm the one wanting my kiddo to get up and move. Well, we only have 3 rooms right now, 5 if you count the bathrooms--its only going to get harder from here, Bean-o.

But as long as I'm awake, I think I'll catch up on some blogging :)

Discovery Place

I need to catch up on all the fun places we've found since we got here. So here's the first "Fun in Charlotte" post:

Just 3 blocks from our apartment is a great children's museum, Discovery Place. The have a puppet show, dinosaurs, rats playing basketball (Really! Only they go through the hoop with the ball--guess its too hard to teach them to let go), a rainforest, physics demonstrations, and best of all, a room just for kids 6 and under.

There's a water area, huge legos, a doll house, playhouse, nature area, dino dress-up, puppet theater, exploring your senses area--its really a fun place and its small enough that I don't have to chase them from thing to thing quite so closely (until a field trip shows up and then it gets pretty crazy in there).

We go once or twice a week--its a great way to get out of the heat and I love that we can just walk over there. I'm going to miss living so close, but then again, when we're in our house, we'll have a little more room for at-home play.

Visitors

We really didn't expect visitors in our first couple months our here, but we've already had 2 sets.


Sunday night, our world-traveling friends, Jen and Tyler, from the single days in San Diego (Tyler was Steve's roommate and we all went to church together) were able to stay with us on the way to D.C. We hadn't seen them since our wedding and between the two families, there are now 5 extra people :)

The kids had a blast and once we got them all to bed, the adults did too. It was just like old times hanging out in Apt. 1215. Minus the drama. . . which is a good thing :)

And a couple weeks ago, my old roommate, Christie, came into town for work and was able to come by for a couple hours. I was so glad that I'd sent out our address update the day before or I would have missed her quick visit.

Maybe moving to the east coast isn't going to be the end of seeing old friends!

Goodbye, Goldilocks!

Sad, sad end of our day.
After a few too many, "What a beautiful little girl you have!" type comments this last month, Daddy-o decided it was time for Bugaboo to have a haircut. As beautiful as the curls were, they were getting a little unruly. And the lack of hair up front just made it look a little mullet-like at times.
The haircut started off well with everyone laughing.


But ended in tears (and the end came abruptly when Bugaboo had just had it with holding still. So Daddy-o didn't get to finish and the last swipe with the clippers cut things a little too close. It'll grow out, right?)So I'm not totally sure about the short hair, but at least he still looks like my little Bug. And he will probably be cooler for the summer this way.

Happy Independence Day!

This is one of my favorite holidays. I think because I have all of these great memories from growing up. Our church had a big picnic--complete with a dessert contest, water balloon fight, and horse rides--and it just felt very "summery". I also love this country that I have been blessed to live in and love to celebrate that. And then, Daddy-o and I got back together in the wee hours of July 4th in 2002, so its had a special place in my heart since then as well.
This year we headed up to Huntersville for a family friendly celebration--they had little activities for the kids, a parade that lasted about 5 minutes (but included fire engines, so that was a hit), and a water fight put on by the fire department. The water felt VERY good in the 95 degree heat. I managed to sneak in close enough in the name of holding Bean's hand, but really because I was hot and wanted a little side spray to cool me down.

Then it was home for naps (for everyone!) and when Bugaboo finally woke up at 6:15, we were ready for our "BBQ". We were going to head down to the grills and pool for a little evening fun, except all h*** broke loose right before--thunder and lightening coming one after another and rain blowing straight across.So we cooked our hotdogs on the stove and had our picnic at home.
And sorry for the gross picture, but here's Bugaboo's version of eating--he loves raw veges but isn't really in to swallowing. Maybe a few vitamins leak down his throat?

Hope all of the US citizens had a great day celebrating :)