Charlie the Photographer

It has been 2 weeks since our last posting! Time is flying! We've been having lots of fun now that the weather is nice, but the bugs are not too bad. It makes me remember how much I can't stand cold weather. My favorite part of good weather is using the BBQ as often as possible. And Charlie's favorite activity seems to be taking pictures. He aims the camera, but by the time he takes the picture he usually only captures the bottom half of his target. Here are some of his masterpieces....thank goodness for digital cameras!

Last weekend we went to Philly to see my mom for mother's day. Charlie loved seeing grandma and as always he loved her toys. It's sad that she has better toys than we have here. Here he is mowing the lawn and waiting at the train station. He waited patiently to see the trains go by.

And speaking of trains we also went to National Train day which was more like National Train Wreck for me. WAY too many people. The only enjoyable part was an electric train display at which Charlie kept screaming "The caboose that loose" (he forgets the full title: The Caboose that got loose"). In fact 'the caboose that loose' is one of signature sayings these days.

This weekend we went to farm day to see animals, aunt Mary and play with Isabel. Here he is feeding chickens and playing at Isabel's house. I'm not a big fan of moving outside of a city, but having spent the evening at a barn with hills as far as you can see I am about ready to move. It was unbelievable.

Charlie still hasn't taken to baby #2 in the belly and gets mad when I bring him up. For his part, Baby #2 seems to be asserting himself by breakdancing 24 hours a day. I don't remember Charlie moving around this much. Here is BB2 at 27 weeks:

In terms of the house we re-seeded our grass patch in the back in hopes that we'll have something usable for summer. And we finally got a table for the porch so we enjoyed our first real outdoor meal

Trucks, Trucks and More Trucks

It turns out the lost camera was my fault! Fortunately Carlos found it and so I don't have to rely on my blackberry...until the next time I lose or break it.

Charlie is talking much more these days- repeating words and sentences. My favorite is that he started saying "I love you." He is also working hard on his ABCs. It's so much fun to listen to him. Sometimes I think I can rationalize with him now that he can say more, but that really isn't the case. In fact he is starting to have temper tantrums. If he doesn't get something he wants he goes boneless and flops on the ground crying. I usually let him be and it seems to pass in a couple of minutes, but I don't think that is a good sign given that he isn't even two yet!

This weekend we met up with some of his buddies at the "Truck Touch" where trucks, buses, police cars -basically everything that little boys seem obsessed with - were open to toddler fondling. It was hysterical. Unfortunately, despite his obsession Charlie got nervous when I put him in the driver seat of the trucks. He did however like riding on a toy train train and listening to the music.

He also had fun hanging out with Ellie who was in town from Boston. Here they are enjoying appetizers on the deck. Charlie really likes hummus and is starting to take to guacamole too. He needs to work on his manners though as he usually dips the same chip into the hummus 5 times.

And a quiet moment alone...

Sunday we went to see the drum circle in Meridian Park. Charlie and I had fun, but there were too many hippies for Carlos. Here he is enjoying the beat with Ehrin.

And baby #2 is really coming - here I am at 25 weeks

Earth Day

I don't like to blame everything on the baby the way that Carlos does ("Where did the baby put my wallet? The baby took the tool...The baby took the keys..."), BUT Charlie does seem to be the culprit in the latest camera loss. He loves to look at pictures of himself and to carry it around saying 'cheese.' I think he must have put it in a special place because we can't find it anywhere. I've been taking pictures with my blackberry so the quality isn't very good...

After spending most of the week in Atlanta we had a fun weekend all together. For the second week in a row we went to listen to jazz at a church by the waterfront. Charlie walks around like he owns the place. He mainly liked roaming around outside, but came in for the good soul food they serve and proceeded to eat most of my dinner. Here he is with Mauricio practicing the drums on stage and wearing Aunt Mary's glasses. Nice look.

He also had 2 recent encounters with sandboxes. We made it to the house of some one who had a sandbox only after led astray by a man with brain damage who claimed to have superhuman strength. Bad call to follow him! Charlie had a fun time once we made it there though he refused to actually get inside the sandbox. He subsequently pushed the little boy to get him away from a toy which was horrorific to me. He often pulls at a toy if he doesn't want to share, but he has never pushed a kid (at least that I know of) so I was mortified. The whole way home he kept saying "Nice to the baby" so I'm hoping that he felt some remorse. On Saturday we found another sandbox set up on the mall and he found dinosaur bones! What a discovery!

We've been trying to get him used to the idea of a baby brother by giving him a baby doll that my mom brought. He is nice to the baby doll though he carries it around by the neck which probably isn't a great habit. He feeds, dresses and lays down with the baby, but clearly that doesn't seem to translate to being nice to other real babies yet.

Recently I have been feeling like my threshold for fulfillment in life has been recalibarated to wanting a healthy and happy family. I was thinking that was me lowering expectations but Carlos informed me that it was just that I was finally gaining perspective on life. And now after gaining perspective, I can also say that my life is complete! Charlie and I saw Sting perform at the Earth Day rally on the Mall!! I've always wanted to see Sting in concert; in fact when I was 9 I thought I was going to marry him. I wasn't the only happy one - Charlie had a blast. He loved the music (especially Robert Randolph's version of Purple Haze) and the crazy costumes. James Cameron was there along with some Blue People. They were kindof scary looking, but I couldn't resist taking a picture. Charlie especially liked a bunny running around with a sign saying "this bunny opposes Cap and Trade." Random. He especially liked the $4 hot dog I bought him. $4.15!!! I hope that is the most I ever pay for a hot dog.

Last weekend we also had fun as Rachel Ralles came to visit. We went on the White House Garden tour (with 10 million other people). Charlie was most impressed by the playground that the Obama girls had installed. I told him if he became the first hispanic president he could play on the playground anytime! That was of much greater interest than being 30 ft from the Oval office (all of which is much smaller than I imagined!). Here is the oval office and Charlie and Carlos in front of the main residence.

Cherry Blossom Fun

Last Saturday Charlie and I went to cheer on the Cherry Blossom parade. I really don't understand parades - a Magic Mountain car would follow a local high school marching band followed by a big balloon garfield - but Charlie loved it. We stood on a ledge and I held him for 1.5 hours as he danced, clapped and cheered.

After that cousins Wallis and Eli came to play which was so much fun. In fact we had a full house - my brother, his wife and two kids along with my mom and my friend were all staying over. It was an interesting set-up - my mom, me and charlie in one room, Nathan, Soogy, Wallis and Eli in another, Janine in another and Carlos on the couch! Unfortunately Charlie woke himself up with a big poo and not wanting to wake everyone up with his crying I took him downstairs where he proceeded to play until he finally curled up next to me on the floor at 4am! It was the craziest evening ever.

The next morning Nathan snuck out early to run the Cherry Blossom race, Soogy, the kids and my mom went to see him run and when Janine's car battery had died Charlie and I rushed her over to the Vice President's house to attend a baby shower! We weren't cleared to enter so she had to proceed on foot from the gate. But the report was the the house is beautiful, tasteful and everything was on schedule - with everyone getting kicked out exactly 2 hours later. The dead battery became a family affair as my brother and mom tried the jumper cables to no avail. Hertz sent a repairman which turned out to be a man in a beat-up Chevy with his 6 year old daughter and a chihuahua in the back. His car died when he tried to jump the car so my brother had to jump his car which in turn jumped Janine's car. A 3 way jump! His daughter had to turn on the car because the chihuahua wouldn't let others in the car! too funny.

In the middle of all this aunt Mary came to work on the garden and Charlie and Wallis had a great time digging in the dirt. Everyone got absurdly dirty.

2 of My Favorite Things

Good weather and 20 months!! We've been having nice weather and 20 months is my new favorite age! I was sure the other 17 months (definitely not the first two months....) were my favorite, but this really is my favorite. Charlie is becoming our little buddy and is very affectionate (especially after he does something he knows he shouldn't do). With the nice weather we've been sitting on the stoop in the morning to wait for Sandra or to watch the trucks come by and unload. In the afternoon we've been working in the garden together. Neither one of us seem to be very good at gardening, but it hasn't stopped us from enjoying being outside before the mosquito invasion. He has his own shovel - or 'shobul' as he says - which he likes to use, but he has limited tolerance for getting dirty. If his hands get too dirty he puts them in my face and says 'durty, durty, durty' until I clean them off.

He has been working on his ABCs as well as his counting. He says ABC, but then skips to J. Who really needs D-G anyways? He says "uno, dos, tres" but only when he is about to throw something. bvgAnd speaking of throwing he has been working on throwing the ball upwards. He looks like he is going to throw it really high in the sky, but like his jumping, it's a whole lot of winde-up and not a lot of distance.

Here he is at a DC United game - he only made it through the tailgate before deciding it was time to go home.

Charlie and I went to see the Cherry Blossoms and while they were beautiful it is a little hard to enjoy when you are sharing a 4 foot wide path with 10,000 other people. Every year I say that I'm not coming again during the festival, but then I always make the pilgramige.

We had a great time visiting my grandparents in Cleveland this weekend and the trip went pretty well. Of course "pretty well" included me packing for all three of us, putting everything in front of the door and still having Carlos arrive home too late for us to make our flight. I rolled my eyes and paid a change fee to leave later which meant we had 4 extra hours in Baltimore. To take advantage of the time we visited the C&O train museum and ate at our favorite restaurant there. Charlie LOVED the train museum and tolerated the restaurant. The visit to the museum went like this: Charlie running around pointing and screaming "tren, tren, tren! TREN!!! otro tren! tren, tren..." Here he is:






Once we finally made it to Cleveland we had a great time. He called my grandparents "Franny and Popis" instead of Franny and Popsie. He especially liked the fact that they had a ramp in their house. He also got some court time throwing tennis balls everywhere - unfortunately I think it'll be awhile until he perfects his backhand.

Last week Charlie got to play with Isaac and this week with Isaac and Ian. They are so cute together but Charlie can't stand sharing. He doesn't even like sharing with Sandra's daughter Leslie. It's terrible.