Charlie Speak

Charlie-speak for 'I'm full':
(Pushing his dish of ice cream away) "There's a baby crocodile in my ice cream. I don't like crocodiles. I all done."

Fat Fingers

Last night I had to soap my wedding rings off; a full month earlier than I had to when I was pregnant with Charlie. I am afraid it does not bode well for things to come.

Good Dreams For Once

This morning as I wrestled Charlie out of bed and downstairs he protested, "Mommy -- I want to go back to bed! I was having a fun dream about chocolate donuts!"

15 (and 1/2) week Belly Shot

So much for black being slimming.

(And yes, I can see the dirty mirror too.)

A Strange Compulsion

This evening a strange compulsion came over Charlie: he actually cleaned up after himself! He put all his puzzle pieces away with me only having to ask once, then cleaned up all his markers and animal stencils before I had to ask at all. To top it off, when he got undressed he put his clothes in the hamper without being asked. I wonder how long this phase will last?

Littlest Red Sox Fan

Last night after I put Charlie to bed I went downstairs to make a pot of spaghetti sauce for tonight's dinner. After a little while I thought I heard a noise, so I went upstairs to investigate.

Sure enough I found Charlie far from his bed -- he was sitting on the floor in our bedroom with the tv on, watching the ball game.

"I watching the Red Sox game!!" he protested as I carted him off to bed.

Happy Birthday To Me

Today was a decidedly uneventful birthday; the fact that I worked from 7am till 6pm did not leave much time to celebrate. Mike brought home thai food which we all, including Charlie, thoroughly enjoyed. He also bought me the Kindle DX but it is so back-ordered that even though he ordered it almost a month ago, it is still not expected to ship for another 2 weeks or so. So look for a birthday present update then :)

Story Land

Charlie had lots of fun on his trip to Story Land with his cousins. Aside from being entirely too afraid of "Humpty Humpty", as he called Humpty Dumpty, and needing to be bribed with a Kit Kat for a photo-op with Cinderella (as you can tell from the bored look on his face) he thoroughly enjoyed himself:

Long Weekend

We are heading up to North Conway NH for the weekend; we are driving up tomorrow night and heading back Sunday. Charlie is excited to have a fun weekend with his cousins, and I am excited because I have never been and it seems like there are lots of fun things to do! We hope to hit Story Land and possibly Six Gun City while we are up there. I will be sure to bring my camera and take lots of pictures!

Monkeying Around at the Playground

Cuddling Cousins

New Haircuts

Charlie and I got new haircuts yesterday:

Charlie went to a kids' haircut place and was rewarded with a yo-yo after his. When I got home from mine he asked, "Mommy -- where's your toy?"

More Friends

Charlie just about broke my heart when I put him to bed this evening; as I was kissing him goodnight he said, "Mom -- " (for some reason we are Mom and Dad now, not Mommy and Daddy) "-- I need more friends."
"Why?" I asked, taken aback.
"Because I miss my best friend Theo," he explained. Theo only goes to daycare three days a week now, but poor Charlie looks for him every day.
My poor kiddo...

13 Week Belly Shot

I didn't actually mean to get my head in the picture so please ignore the fact that I had not washed (nor apparently brushed) my hair in 4 days... I swear I washed it tonight...

Finally (Almost) Summer Weather!

We will forget about the part where we were all blue-lipped and freezing by the time we got out and that it took me, atleast, about 3 hours to warm up afterwards...

Baby Update

I had my 2nd OB appointment yesterday, a week and a half delayed because of my bout with the swine flu. Everything looks good; baby had a good strong heartbeat so hopefully was unaffected by Mommy's illness. The Big Ultrasound is scheduled for my next visit -- August 5th -- but I'm not finding out the gender so you all will have to wait it out with me!

Innocuous? Apparently Not

You might think this is an innocent baby toy, but according to Charlie this ring toss giraffe is anything but innocent. We had to "get rid of him" (shove him in the hall closet where Charlie won't think to look) so that Charlie can stop obsessing over the giraffe's supposed misdeeds:
"The giraffe hit me!"
"The giraffe ate my pancake!"
"The giraffe is bothering me!"
Last week the vendetta against the giraffe went so far that Charlie actually put him in a pot on the stove and announced he had to cook him. "I need to turn on the blue and orange [flame]!" he announced.
That was about when we decided the giraffe needed to disappear.

Bad Dreams

Charlie was up four or five times last night with a slew of bad dreams. They ranged from "the giraffe ate my pancake!!" (the giraffe in question deserves a whole other post but I have just not gotten to it yet) to "The giant clam ate Daddy!" That last one was a direct result of his bedtime story, Why Is The Sea Salty? which apparently is not as innocous as it sounds. He required a lot of assurance, at 3am, that giant clams live at the very bottom of the ocean and do absolutely nothing but sit there, and that they certainly do not occupy their time by eating Daddys.

I sure hope tonight is better!

Dinner Disaster

I must preface this story by saying DO NOT ASK ME WHY I DECIDED IT WOULD BE A GOOD IDEA TO GO TO PIZZA HUT FOR DINNER!! I am pregnant and being confined to the house for a week obviously left me mentally unstable. Reason enough.

So, the following is going to serve as a reminder as to why I will never go to Pizza Hut again, should time make my memory hazy.

It all seemed well enough at first; our order was taken in a reasonably timely fashion and our drinks brought out. Then came the 45 minute wait for our breadsticks. During which time Charlie dropped not too subtle hints every once in a while: "I'm a VERY HUNGRY boy!" he would announce randomly to the restuarant at large.

Then, finally, our breadsticks came. All would be well! Except, as we discovered, there were no napkins in the entire restaurant. Mike was forced to go to the restroom and bring paper towels back to the table.

Next, my pasta dish came out. No sign of my side salad, or of Mike or Charlie's pizza. Or of silverware, for that matter. Well hey -- we had breadsticks. After finally getting some silverware I dug into my pasta only to discover after eating some of it and rooting through the rest of it that it was not what I ordered. I gave the rest of it to Charlie, who was hungry and didn't care what it was.

Finally Mike and Charlie's pizzas arrived. Mike's large pepperoni lovers pizza had somehow morphed into a large cheese lovers pizza. Strike two. Or was it strike three? Or four?

And where was my side salad? When the waitress came back I politely informed her that neither mine nor Mike's meals were what we had ordered, that we would be eating them anyway thanks to the now hour long wait for our food, but that we would not be paying for them. I also asked again for my side salad, which again failed to appear.

So after spending absolutely way too long in Pizza Hut we left after paying the $15 of our order that had not been screwed up. And I just have two things to tell you:
1) I SWEAR TO GOD I WILL NEVER GO THERE AGAIN!
2) MIKE STILL TIPPED OUR WAITRESS 15%!!
and okay, three things:
3) I HAVE REALLY BAD HEARTBURN!!!

Slowly Reviving

I managed to shower for the first time since Tuesday and get dressed for the first time since last Saturday, this afternoon. I am crediting my recovery entirely to Grampy Bess's chicken noodle soup; thanks Grampy!!

Hoping that I am able to lie at the pool for a little bit tomorrow and that Mike and Charlie stay healthy so we can all get back to normal next week! Keep your fingers crossed for us.