Boy Time

Charlie has been dying for some Daddy time (and I have been dying for some me/Evie time), so when Clint had a day off recently, he got Charlie out of bed, dressed him in his best camo outfit, and whisked him out the door for a morning of fun.  They started with a pancake breakfast, where Clint made the mistake of thinking that he and Charlie could share a two-egg, two-bacon, and three-pancake meal.  He forgot to account for Charlie's voracious appetite, and ended up having to fight Charlie for a few bites of the pancakes (Charlie threw up a little when he got home, so I'm not sure little Templeton has quite mastered self-control yet).

They then took the Dart Train to the Aquarium, where Charlie ran around like a crazy man and burned off his pancakes.  Clint said Charlie's mouth was hanging open the whole time and there was lots of wild chatter and gasping.  Charlie was SO excited when he got home, and wanted to tell me and Evie all about the choo-choos and the fishes (which apparently went "gulp, gulp, gulp").

Evie and I had a wonderful time with our quiet morning.  We played, went for a run, took a nap, and showered (without having a wild monkey pull everything out of my bathroom drawers while I was doing so).  While I was playing with Evie, I started singing to her, and you've never seen anyone so happy to have her own song.  She was smiling and laughing and bobbing her head around wildly.  I think Kindermusik may be in our future. :)

When Charlie Dresses Himself...

...this is what we get. 

 Watch out fashion world, here comes Charlie! :)

Happy St. Paddy's Day!

I tried to get some pictures of the kids yesterday morning before we headed out to our first St. Paddy's day party of the day.  But it wasn't easy, as these little hooligans are getting difficult to photograph.

One little leprechaun posed sweetly for her photos...

 ...but our other little leprechaun ran around like a crazy man until I gave up.

[The closest we got to a photo was when Clint stole his basketball and held it up out of his reach.  He at least stopped long enough for me to get a non-blurry shot. :)]

 I finally got one good photo later once I got him trapped on the couch (notice the shirt change--this was after he had soaked himself in a fountain at the party :).

Hope you all had Happy St. Patrick's Days!

Current Events

To keep all of you current with our likes, dislikes, and new-found tricks:

Charlie's current vehicle obsession is dump trucks.  He latches onto every dump truck he finds (annoying all of the neighborhood kids) and is dying for a big one that he can push around outside.  I hope the Easter bunny is taking notes...and I hope the neighborhood kids can continue sharing with us until then. :)

Charlie is also really into "soccer" (and by "soccer," I mean kicking a ball around wildly) right now.  He loves kicking balls and especially loves if one of us will run around with him and try to steal it from him and kick it to him.

He hasn't quite mastered the rules yet...

And in Evie news, she swang at the park for the first time today.  She LOVES swinging!  She was just delighted with her new activity and smiled and laughed the entire time she was swinging.

Charlie's favorite activity is still the "Big Bop" (the park).  He loves the swings and slides, and is pretty fearless.  He likes sliding down, but likes climbing back up the slides even better.

Can you find Charlie?  The big slide at the park is terrifying, but Charlie loves it (he does look a bit worried here).  He went down it several times today and even climbed back up!

And Evie's latest and greatest accomplishment is her sitting.  She can sit pretty well with the assistance of her trusty Boppy pillow...

...and can sit by herself for (very) brief periods of time (until she remembers that she wants to suck on her hands, at which point she throws herself off balance and tumbles over :).

Splish SPLASH

I started bathing the kids together, and suddenly, bath time has become quite terrifying exciting.  First, we have a battle over who gets bathed first.  When Evie wins that battle, Charlie starts a splash party that makes Evie very nervous.  Then I have to hustle Evie out of the tub so that Charlie can splash to his heart's content.  After I got Evie out yesterday, I heard a loud noise and turned around just in time to see Evie's bath seat flying out of the tub.  Luckily, it was recovered unscathed. :)

 Post-bath, Evie and Charlie wrap up in their "wobes" and relax and go crazy, respectively.  By "go crazy," I mean running around in circles (literally), jumping wildly on the bed, falling on the floor and waving hands and feet in the air, and collapsing in wild laughter.  Charlie has so much energy these days, and he goes on a mission to burn off all of his excess energy from the day during and after his bath.  This leaves Evie's bedtime routine a little less than relaxing, but she certainly finds it entertaining (and maybe just a little frightening).

I set up an air mattress in Evie's room (nighttime waking is just too frequent right now for me to go up and down stairs every time), and Charlie thinks it's his very own trampoline.  We have done a lot of bouncing, tumbling, and jumping since I got it out (and as a result, when I slept on it last night, it was so low in air that I was sleeping on the floor!).  But the air mattress has been so much fun for him that I really can't complain. :)  Here are the wild little munchkins "relaxing" on the air mattress post-bath.

 Evie looks a little worried here for good reason--that foot was coming VERY close to her head (don't worry, I scooped her up right after this photo was snapped :).

Bath time may be a bit wild, but they sure do love it!

Evie: 4 Months Old!

So I would normally say that I can't believe little Miss E is 4 months old already, but since she's nearing 4 1/2 months at this point, I guess it's had some time to sink in. :)  At 4 months, Evie continues to be sweet, charming, and happy.  She is generally pretty calm and loves nothing more than stretching out and chatting with and smiling at someone.  She doesn't like to be left alone for long, and it just cracks me up how she crinkles up her little nose and breaks out in a HUGE smile anytime someone notices her and comes up to her to talk.  She also tends to gripe at you, however, a little if you walk away from her during a conversation. :)  I love going to get her up in the morning or from a nap--she cries to let me know she is awake, but I soon as I come in the room, she stops crying and gives me the cutest, most endearing, happy little smile from her bed.  Evie seems to prefer a quiet, calm environment, but unfortunately for the mouse, a quiet, calm environment is hard to find around here these days, as her brother loves nothing more than loud shrieking, banging, crashing, and bouncing.  Luckily, Evie is pretty good-natured and puts up with all the chaos remarkably well.

At 4 months, Evie is rolling over both ways (she started rolling back to front on March 5, just a few days after her 4-month birthday).  She is getting pretty close to sitting on her own, as she is now able to sit for a few minutes with just a Boppy pillow supporting her.  She smiles a LOT and laughs a little (mostly when she's getting tickled).  She has a sweet, soft little voice with the cutest "goos" you've ever heard.  Her favorite trick lately is blowing rasberries (or bubbles) with her mouth.  Charlie loves that Evie has started "spitting" and asks her repeatedly to "blow bubbles please Evie!"

And while Evie has many good traits, sleeping isn't one of them right now.  Because she's rolling around so much, I'm trying to transition her out of the swaddle, but it is just not going well.  She is waking up 2-3 times at night now and I am pretty exhausted from the night-time cuddling/feeding.  I am really hoping to get her on a better schedule with less night-time wakefulness, so I'm trying to stay in a bit more and make sure she gets good naps during the day.  If we can get back to one feeding at night, I will be very happy!

Evie had a great 4-month appointment this month, and the doctor pronounced her "just perfect."  She dominated Ages & Stages again, and did well with her shots (Charlie had to get one shot at her appointment, and he did not do quite as well.  Leaving the pediatrician's office with 2 screaming children was not pleasant!).  Her 4-month stats are:

Weight: 12 pounds, 6 ounces (25%)

Height: 24 3/4 inches (75%)

Head: 16 1/2 inches (75%)

And here are the mouse's 4-month pics!

Mid-rasberry:

Charlie, of course, had to be a part of the photo shoot as well.  After he saw Evie arranged on her pink blanket, he tried to move her out of the way and then positioned himself on the blanket.  We added Evie back into the photo when he demanded to hold her.

Happy 4 Months Miss E!  I can't believe 5 months is right around the corner!

Bronco Trip 2012

Clint had a week off following Evie's baptism, and we decided to spend it out in Bronco with his parents.  So we loaded up the kids in the car and drove 7+ hours out to Clint's family's ranch in West Texas.  It was such a fun weekend.  We loved getting to take Evie out to the ranch for the first time, and had so much fun watching Charlie really explore the ranch for the first time.  He could not believe the amazing things out there--tractors, trucks, jeeps, cows, horses, donkeys, dogs.  He went non-stop from morning to night trying to maximize his time with all these new "toys."  The ranch was an endless source of fascination and amazement--we didn't even need real toys!  Clint and I decided Charlie would love to be a cowboy...unfortunately the poor boy is cooped up in the big city!

Here's the happy rancher in one of Clint's old hats.  I need to get a copy of the photo of young Clint in this hat--they look pretty similar!

"Cargie helped" quite a lot.  He loved opening and closing gates for us.  Tommy and I liked not having to get out of the Ranger. :)

One of my favorite activities is feeding horses and cows on cold West Texas mornings.  There's something kind of magical about being out there alone with the animals.

My favorite part. :)

Charlie didn't get to ride a horse this time, but he did ride Jazz and Goober (the donkeys).  Such a fine-looking steed!

Some of the yearlings.  I love these little guys. :)

While we ran around the ranch, Evie stayed out of the cold, windy weather in the warm, cozy house.  She particularly loved cuddling with Maria, who has been with Clint's family since Clint was a baby.  I think Evie loved her as much as he did!

Evie also loved talking to MeMe (who will kill me for posting a picture of her in rollers :).

Charlie also enjoyed helping MeMe feed cats.

And there were lots and lots of vehicles to drive.  From the old...

...to the new!

Close the door Mommy--we have jobs to do!

Charlie couldn't believe he was driving a real front-end loader.  He had a new swagger in his step after he got off. :)

Even though it was cold and windy, Evie did a bit of exploring as well.  We went to see baby horses and cows and took a Ranger ride around the ranch.  She slept through a lot of it. :)

I blame my bad hair day on the wind.

Charlie loved the swingset that PawPaw made when Clint was a little boy.  I think Clint enjoyed getting on it again as well. :)

The Dohertys came out to the ranch to visit one day.  Charlie and Evie were SO happy to see their cousins and their sweet Aunt Sally!

Charlie with MeMe and Sarah.  He is crazy about his sweet grandmother and great-grandmother!

Charlie "helping" PawPaw with a puzzle.  Sarah has been having to spend more time at home lately due to her chemo treatments, and she has gotten into puzzles.  She had lots of help this weekend!

Playing with PawPaw...

...and loving on Hank.  Charlie LOVED Hank.  It cracked me up how he talked to him like he was a real person.  They were really cute together, and made me (almost) wish we had a dog.  [I know, I know, I'm not getting one. :)]

What a wonderful trip!