New Found Independence?

Charlie has decided he is old enough to be dressing and undressing himself. The problem is, he just can't do it. Yesterday it took him a good ten minutes of struggling, grunting, and groaning behind a closed bathroom door before he would finally relent and open the door to let me help him get his pants down to use the potty. Afterwards, I had to watch him flop around like a fish (literally lying on the floor rolling around) while he tried to hike his pants up. Doesn't help that every single pair of his jeans is one size too small for him, does it? Bad mommy.

Questionable Testimony

This is why you should not take the word of a two year old as gospel:
ME: (Pointing to the scratch on Charlie's arm) "How'd you get that scratch?"
CHARLIE: (after inspecting his arm carefully) "A Tyranosaurus Rex did that."

Charlie's New Sled

Charlie's new sled came in the mail yesterday. Charlie has never actually been on a sled before, but this did not stop him from being ridiculously excited: "A SLED!! A SLED!!" he screamed. He rushed up to it, sat down on it backwards, and promptly got himself tangled in the pull rope, all in the space of a nanosecond. "LET'S GO SLEDDING!!!" he yelled, completely oblivious.

Just in time for more snow tomorrow, too.

Boo-Boo

Charlie scraped the top of his toe in one of the pools yesterday at the water park. This morning he was still doing an exxagerated limp and complaining loudly about his boo-boo but he had apparently already forgotten how he got it and decided he must have acquired it at daycare: "Mommy I have a boo-boo -- James hit me on my toe!"

Nice, kiddo -- way to throw James under the bus.

Haircuts & New Shoes

Yesterday we took Charlie to get a much needed haircut and a much needed pair of new sneakers. When we walked into the hair salon Charlie started whining: "Nooo.... Don't want to! Don't want to break my hair!!"

The shoes went more smoothly except for the twinge of guilt I felt upon learning that Charlie is now a size 10, and has been wearing size 9 shoes...

Water Logged

After spending all day yesterday at CoCo Key Water Resort, spending the night and then heading back to the water park first thing this morning, I definitely had my fill! Charlie, on the other hand, had to be dragged away kicking and screaming.

Splurge

Click here to view my latest investment; in black with silver hardware, not the ugly pink one that comes up!

Bad Dreams

Lately Charlie has had some bad dreams about some, well, odd subject matter.

This morning he woke up crying: "Yellow pushed me!" Baffled, I tried to make some sort of sense out of this. "A yellow *what* pushed you...?" But Charlie just continued to insist "Yellow! Yellow pushed me!"

And the other night he woke up tearfully: "Bad dream! Sea shells on my back!"

Sometimes I wish I could step into his head for just a minute to see what on earth is going on in there...

Sweet Boy

Apparently Charlie felt the need to be sweet tonight, to make up for all the mischief he's caused recently. He requested "The Polar Express" at bedtime and when I said yes I'd read it, he said "Thanks Mommy!" and then snuggled up against me and exclaimed "I love my Mommy!"

Must be a built in defense mechanism...

Guilted...

... into ordering this sled for Charlie after seeing pictures of Ben sledding in Charlotte this morning undeterred by the blades of grass sticking up from the snow...

Plenty of Snow, No Sleds and One "Terrible Two" Year Old

That about sums up today.

Despite the weather forecast -- which told us we would get 3 to 6 inches of snow overnight -- we got a good 8 inches which started early this morning and lasted all day. Despite the weather, it soon became painfully obvious that we needed to get out of the house -- Charlie was in one of his moods: screaming at the top of his lungs, tearing around, rough-housing like a maniac, spilling any and every food item that it is possible to spill... So we packed him up and went on a quest for a sled, thinking that Mike and Charlie could go sledding tomorrow since they are both off for Martin Luther King Day.

Unfortunately, the fact that it is January in Massachusetts apparently does not necessarily mean that there are sleds in the stores. We checked Sports Authority and KMart with no luck (having previously checked WalMart, KB Toys and Sears a few weeks ago) and had to concede that we wouldn't be getting a sled today.

Home from our fruitless trip, Charlie took a short nap and then continued to tear the house apart, color on the walls, and generally be obnoxious, culminating in locking me out of the bathroom while I had his tub running (this involves closing and locking not one but *two* doors.)

I have to say, I am actually glad tomorrow is Monday...

Not A Toy

I showed Charlie this picture for the first time today:

His response: "Mommy PUT THAT DOWN!! That is not a toy!! It's DANGEROUS!!"

Boring Refinancing Post

I apologize, but I seriously have nothing else to blog about except my attempts to re-finance my mortgage. I tried to get Charlie to say something funny this evening so I could blog about it, but he was not in an obliging mood.

Besides, my efforts to re-finance the mortgage have taken up most of my time and energy lately.

So basically, it all boils down to the appraisal, which we ordered today. Since we want to combine the mortgage and home equity line into one new mortgage, we won't have the necessary 20% equity in the house to refinance unless the house appraises for slightly more than we bought it for. The estimated appraisal is for exactly what we bought it for, but hopefully we will be able to squeak out an extra couple thousand out of the real appraisal...? If I wear something skimpy maybe...? Because we are being offered a no points no closing costs mortgage, but if we don't have the requisite 20% equity we will have to pay down the mortgage (hopefully only slightly) to get it. And while it wouldn't be a terrible thing to have to pay a couple thousand off the mortgage -- we will be saving about $300 a month with the new mortgage -- I would much rather use the money in the savings account for funner things, like say, a new car... Keep your fingers crossed for us!

Quiet Play? No Such Luck

Yesterday I realized that Charlie continues to be one of the absolute loudest children I know. Seriously, I would get his hearing tested -- if I hadn't already had it tested twice -- because the kid *yells* everything. Yesterday he re-discovered his Vtech laptop and is actually old enough to do a couple of the games on it -- for instance, the one where it gives you a letter and you have to find it on the keyboard and press it. For any other kid this would be a relatively quiet endeavor, but for Charlie? No way: "OHH THE 'N'!!! I FIND THE 'N'! I CAN'T SEE IT! I CAN'T SEE IT! WHERE THE 'N'? WAIT I FIND IT!! THERE IT IS!! I FIND THE 'N'!! 'N' IS FOR NEST!!!" Repeat at max decibel level for 25 more letters of the alphabet and hand out ibuprofen to all adults in hearing range.

Hair Appointments & Going Away Parties

Today was a busy day because I had a 4 1/2 hour hair appointment in the morning and then had my friend Laura's going away party (she is moving to Hawaii) in the evening.

The party was cut a bit short because the forecasted 8 inches of snow started coming down hard, but we had fun and here is a pic nonetheless:

Winter Weather Round Two

Remind me again why we live in Massachusetts. We have been getting sleet and freezing rain off and on for the past several nights and freezing cold temperatures during the day which results in ICE, ICE and more ICE. This evening it was Mike's turn to slip on the ice while carrying Charlie, and tomorow we have a winter storm watch for 8 to 10 more inches of snow. Ugh. Is it spring yet?

The Muffin Man

Charlie has been watching Shrek over and over again at dinner for oh, about 2 weeks straight. This fact, combined with the fact that Charlie is in a phase where he gets very jealous if Mike and I are having a conversation that doesn't involve him, produced some weird results this evening:
ME: "So even if we have 19% equity instead of 20% we won't be able to refinance unless we --"
CHARLIE: "I want the muffin man! I want the muffin man!"
ME:" -- pay down the mortgage to get it to 20% equity --"
CHARLIE: "THE MUFFIN MAN!! I WANT THE MUFFIN MAN!!"
MIKE: "And then what would closing costs be?"
CHARLIE: "Waaaaa!!!!!! I WANT THE MUFFIN MAN!!!!"

Weekend Getaway

I just booked a weekend of fun here for the weekend of the 24th and 25th; included are all day passes to the water park both saturday and sunday and hotel accomodations saturday night. Looking forward to a little summertime fun in the middle of winter!

Ice Skating Attempt

We ambitiously decided to take Charlie ice skating this afternoon at the rink here in town that offers a free skate every saturday and sunday from 2p-4p. The timing meant that Charlie had to miss his nap, but I dutifully taped together two milk crates for him to push along the ice, as I had been instructed to do by co-workers who had taken similarly aged children ice skating.

Going during nap time was our first mistake. Our second was not buying Charlie a properly fitting pair of skates before hand; we relied on renting them at the rink, and the smallest size they had was about 3 sizes too big for Charlie. While I laced them as tight as I could they certainly didn't provide enough ankle support.

The above factors combined so that when I put Charlie on the ice and he couldn't immediately get his footing, he threw a temper tantrum. Temper tantrums while the ice on ice skates with Mom and Dad similarly on ice skates are, well, difficult. After several attempts we called it a day.

But maybe if we got him his own skates...

Dinosaur Blues

Or as Charlie seems to be singing, "Dinosaur Balloons."

Completely Random Comments

Charlie is the king of saying completely random things. For instance:
CHARLIE: "Santa Claus hurt my tummy."
ME: "Huh...?"
CHARLIE: "Santa Claus came through door, hurt my tummy."
ME: "Huh...?"

Top 3 Things...

Mike has (regrettably) taught Charlie to say:

3. "Get out of my grill!"
2. "I fart in your face!"
1. "Pull my finger!"