Nesting

Carlos and I have different versions of nesting....I've been sorting and washing Charlie's old clothes, getting the stroller and car seat ready and ordering new born diapers. Carlos' version of nesting and baby preparation includes dismantling the house. I'm just hoping that it is back in one piece by the time the baby comes.

Last weekend we took the train up to Grandma's house this weekend to give me a mental health break and give Carlos time to work on staining the stairs. Somehow my mom has amassed a treasure trove of toys including a wheelbarrow full of trains, a lawn mower that blows bubbles, two slides, two cars he can sit in, a mini-piano, two cash registers...and the list goes on. So Charlie was loved being there and I loved getting lots of rest. Here he is playing with the lawn mower. He spent most of the weekend running around naked because of the heat so this is one of the only ones in which he is decent.

Charlie loved the train and luckily we scared off any potential neighbors so we had two seats there and back. Here he is sitting on the arm rest on the way up and the two of us saying cheese on the ride back down.

My favorite part of the weekend was all his singing. He uses anything and everything has a microphone and sings loudly despite his limited repetoire ("Hello Everybody" from Music Together class, Old MacDonald and The Wheels on the Bus). Here he is freestyling on the way down to the train station. He sang the "Hello" song about everything that passed by us...while wearing my mom's sun glasses... If the video below doesn't work I also uploaded it to a web album: http://picasaweb.google.com/sgtaft/Baby23Months#

On the BB2 front - I went for another sonogram because my belly isn't big enough. I was measuring 6 cm under what I was supposed to but the baby seems to be growing in there and is estimated to already weigh 6 lbs. 3+ weeks to go...

Martha's Vineyard

We returned home yesterday from a Taft family reunion in Martha's Vineyard. It was our first trip to Martha's Vineyard and all 25+ family members stayed in a compound with cabins, a barnhouse and a cook. Charlie had a great time playing with his cousins and learned the names of almost everyone. He hasn't figured out the word "who" so instead he would ask "What's this?" when he wasn't sure of some one's name.

It was also especially nice to having wide open space so I didn't have to worry about him getting into much trouble. His all time favorite thing was the 'tractor' (lawn mower), his 2nd favorite was the ping pong table followed closely by the playroom which featured lots of crayons and a ladder to a loft. Despite being in a new place he quickly learned which was our cabin and would take off across the field past 'the casa de cousin wallis' towards ours.

It was a great location as we could easily walk to a nice beach but as I suspected having Charlie along didn't make for much of a vacation. He was up around 5am everyday! There was also a heat wave and no A/C to be found so by the end of the week I was exhausted and felt like I was hard boiling this poor baby. On Friday I was so crampy that I thought I might be giving birth on the island! Luckily we made it back with only one baby on our laps for the flight home.

Charlie definitely warmed up to the beach and the water though we didn't do a lot of actual swimming. He loved throwing rocks in the water and making uncle seth get him buckets of water for his sand castle (more like sand castles I would make and he would destroy).

It seems like his comprehension of language is really exploding. He is using more complete sentences, answering and asking questions and listening to what we ask him to do. Of course his favorite answer is "no" and usually he doesn't obey us! But I can tell that he is processing the requests at least. This evening I asked if he wanted to go pee before I put a diaper on him for sleeping and as I got his pajamas out he went into the bathroom and peed in his little toilet without me. On the other hand he is more demanding - he uses "I want" a lot and last week he started using "I need!" "I need the phone mom", "I need the banana"....! Unfortunately I am noticing that he seems to be speaking more english than spanish. He uses spanish words, but the majority of the sentence is english.

Better Late than Never

I meant to write this BEFORE going on vacation, but not surprisingly I failed to do so. I was in Atlanta for my last pre-maternity leave trip and then we left for Martha's Vineyard. But here are a few shots from the California State Society picnic we went to with the Nicolettis. Unfortunately I did not get to take advantage of the all you can drink wine selection and given the 100 degree heat, most people seemed to be drinking beer. However Charlie did get to take advantage of the face painting and the games. He was sweating so much that the paint ended up all over everything! After that we watched the heartbreaking US/Ghana world cup game.

Charlie also enjoyed the folklife festival on the mall where he got on stage with some India Bhangra dancers. I'm not sure he is going to take up the punjabi tradition just yet, but there is still hope...

And finally here I am at 33 weeks.

Family Naps

Everyday I tell Charlie not to grow-up, but he doesn't seem to be listening. I love him so much at almost-two years old. He is so happy and tries to help us with everything. Yesterday at the store I let him sit in the front of the shopping cart because he only lasts 5 minutes in the seat. He organized the food in the cart, put everything on the counter at the checkout talking the whole ("and this and banana and this and tomato and this...") and swiped my card to pay. When the woman put the reciept on the counter he took up the pen (with his right hand) and signed it! I burst out laughing. The woman took the receipt like nothing was weird about a 2 year old standing in the shopping cart and signing the receipt!

This weekend we went to visit Aunt Mary (whom Charlie calls Mia) in Waterford as she packed up her house. It must be hard to pack up 20+ years in a house. I'm emotional about not being able to go to Waterford anymore so I can't imagine how it is for her. We spent Friday night there and of course Charlie didn't sleep well. My frequent evening bathroom trips didn't help because he woke up and decided he also needed to pee. I stood him up in the dark on the toilet and hoped for the best with his aim (which is never very good). He was up and ready to go at 5am. Carlos and I reluctantly got up and then actually enjoyed a beautiful walk around Waterford as we watched the sun rise. Here are a few shots from our 5am stroll.

We packed the tiny car with a few of Mary's treasures she was willing to part with and headed back to DC. We all passed out when we got home and woke up just in time to make it to Aidan's birthday party. Charlie had a lot of fun playing with Aidan's toys and shoving his face with yummy italian food.

For father's day we went to Strathmore for a brunch with live music. The music turned out to be an amazing ukalale player. Who would have thought that ukaleles were so great.

When we made it back home we all passed out again!

Charlie tried on his new glasses and when he saw it he exclaimed "FUNNY CLOWN!"

Strawberry Picking for Blueberries

Last weekend we went strawberry picking because Charlie loves strawberries and I have a tough time finding organic ones in the store. He picked a few and ate them, but he mainly just walked behind me as I bent over breaking my back to get him some tasty berries. He jumped on my back and tried to play horse or told me to sing the Old Macdonald song. He was quite content to have me do the work. And after all that when we went to pay he saw blueberries in the farm store and went nuts. He ate blueberries the entire way home and left the strawberries for me....

We also went to the Moms on The Hill picnic which featured an amazing girl band comprised of 12 year olds! I was shocked and told Charlie that he better get moving because he only has 10 years to catch up. He really liked the picnic - especially the food, the chalkboard (definitely right handed!) and the fire engine, but he was too shy to get on the inflatable toys. I liked the food too, but I especially liked that my raffle ticket got me a $50 gift certificate to a local restaurant.

This weekend we went to another Truck Touch event which featured a helicopter and lots of tractors and trucks. Charlie liked them all, but after driving a few he insisted that they were "too big" for him to drive. By 10:30am it was 'too hot' for me so we left and spent the afternoon being tourists on a Potomac boat cruise.

I'm really impressed by Charlie's visual memory. It seems to be a lot better than Carlos' or mine. For instance he remembers a restaurant we went to with his friend over a month ago. When we pass by Mr. Henry's he says "num-num with Brett!" He calls the ice cream truck the "muck truck" (muck is his word for music) and the other day he spotted a food truck with similar pictures on the side and inquired why it wasn't playing music. I guess I'm just hoping that means he'll have a better memory than mine...

Here I am at 31 weeks! Despite the gasps and the "you're HUGE!" comments by all the men in the office when I was in Atlanta last week the doctor said I was measuring small. To ensure the baby was okay I had a sonogram done which is always fun. Supposedly he is weighing in at 4lbs now which is exactly average so there are no concerns.

Lake Taco Pictures

Finally some pictures from Tahoe! Charlie still talks about Lake Taco.

Here is Charlie trying desparately to lick his plate.

He loved the lizards.

Charlie as part of the BBQ

Lake Taco

Last weekend we celebrated Carlos' birthday with his family in Tahoe - or Lake Taco as Charlie called it. Charlie had a blast because he got to see his abuela, hang out with FOUR dogs and see my family too. Poor guy didn't get any attention....Unfortunately we didn't end up taking any pictures so we'll have to wait until we get copies from other people to post them.

Abuela had gotten an electric train which fascinated Charlie. He figured out how to make it run, but he was even better at dismantling it. He took off all the train wheels and then would get frustrated that it wouldn't run. But he had a great time with it so I may need him yet more trains. His other favorite toys were the dogs. He couldn't quite get the names right - Louie was Luli and Mariah was Maya. He loved to make Luli dance with him and play catch with Maya.

We rented a house on the lake and celebrated Carlos' birthday with a bbq on the beach. Charlie's favorite part was the musician that abuela hired. Charlie made everyone sit together and clap our hands. He even dragged my mom up to dance. It was hysterical. His second favorite part of the evening was the cake. We generally deprive him of sweets, but let him have a taste of the birthday cake. He literally tried to lick his plate. Poor kid.

In terms of new things he is putting sentences together more and more and he officially speaks spanglish. He says things like "wash manos" or "sit down aqui." Since spending time with his abuela he says "papito" which I find hysterical. I still adore "i lub u" and "Charlie hambre." When I put him to bed he stands up and says "I lub u" multiple times. In the morning the first thing we hear is "Charlie HAMBRE" - which means: I'm hungry, make me some oatmeal now. He still likes to take lots of photos so here are a few that he did take; self portraits are his new thing.