The Tiny Breakable Spoon

As Evie becomes more and more verbal, her conversations with Charlie have become just hilarious.  I love the way they talk and interact, and it is so sweet (and sometimes so frustrating) to see them take each other so seriously.  They love to joke around together, but I also just love their questions and answers.  Charlie is constantly asking Evie about what she wants and treating her answer as the gospel.  One of my favorite exchanges occurred in the car one day when Charlie was asking Evie about her birthday party and what she wanted to do there.  Her answer was "cake" (her current obsession) and she told Charlie she was going to "eat all the cake."  Charlie immediately started worrying and said, "But Evie, what am I going to eat??"  She replied, "cwackers," at which point I got a VERY upset "Moooooom, Evie says I can't have any cake at her party!"  Sometimes, though, they team up, and I'll hear Charlie asking Evie, "Evie, do you want to go to the park now?"  She will answer "Yes," and then he'll say, "Mom, Evie said we can go to the park!"  Other conversations are just very amusing: Charlie: "Evie, are you going to cry at school today?"  Evie: "No." Charlie: "But why did you kind of cry one time?"  Evie: "I dunno."  OR, while watching Thomas the Train, Evie: "Airplane!" Charlie: "No, Evie, that's not an airplane, that's a helicopter.  His name is Harold.  Can you say 'Harold'?"  Evie: "Okay!"

Although Charlie and Evie, for the most part, get along very well, and mostly have very sweet, very amusing conversations, they also find a way to fight about the most bizarre things.  I remember one time, when I was little, my dad getting extremely frustrated about my sister, brother and I fighting during a car trip and he exploded with, "if I gave one of you a piece of poop, you three would fight about it!!"  I thought it was so ridiculous and disgusting at the time (parents SO don't understand anything :), but now I totally get it.  My kids can figure out a way to fight about anything.  The latest is the "tiny breakable spoon," so named because Charlie, when he was little, knew that all of our dishes were "breakable" and assumed that grown-up, stainless steel utensils, must be "breakable" as well.  I was always amused by the way he would refer to our forks, knives, and spoons as breakable, so I've never really corrected it.  Then, a few months ago, Charlie found this spoon, which was given to him at one of his baby showers:

This became the "tiny breakable spoon," and it was the only thing he wanted to use for his cottage cheese in the morning.  Once Evie noticed that it was a Big Deal, she decided she wanted a piece of the tiny breakable spoon action.  The breakfast battle for the spoon became so intense that I had to devise a system where they alternate days for the spoon.  It works ok, except that neither one can resist the urge to torment the other about the spoon, which then sends the non-spoon-day child into sobs of great despair.  I remind Charlie every day to not make it a big deal and just don't show Evie the spoon, but as soon as my back is turned, he can't resist waving it around and saying "Eeeevie, look what I have!  The tiny breakable spoon!  You can't have it today!  You have to eat with a regular spoon!"  This always produces the desired result and Evie has to be placated with lots of distraction on my part and an array of everyotherspoonweown.  I can't get too mad at him, though, because on Evie's days, she loves to benevolently hold the spoon out to him after she's finished her yogurt and say "here Caga, here Caga," as if she's offering it to him.  He always gets so happy and says, "Mom, Evie's letting me use the tiny breakable spoon now!"  But as soon as he reaches for it, she grabs it back furiously, saying "No!  Ebie's!"  Which then forces me, after having gotten him comfortable with the idea of using a different spoon for the morning, to comfort him all over again.  If the whole routine wasn't so amusing and ridiculous, I would think about getting rid of the tiny breakable spoon...but not sure that either of these crazies would let me get away with that. ;)

Texas State Fair

Clint and I took the kids to the Texas State Fair a couple of weeks ago and it was such a fun afternoon/evening.  We picked a day that was a bit too hot, but it was really nice because the fairgrounds weren't crowded at all and we had little or no lines at all the rides.  The kids were thrilled with all the excitement.  Although we made a bad first pick and sent Clint and Charlie down a gigantic slide that freaked Charlie out a bit, he recovered quickly and loved the rest of the rides.  We could tell he was embarrassed about his tears after the slide, because as we were leaving the fair, he made a meek attempt to convince us to let him try the slide again (but seemed fairly relieved when we said we were all out of tickets :).

Here are Clint and Charlie on their first roller coaster.  It was a big hit!

 Evie was too small for both the slide and the roller coaster, and by the time the boys finished those rides, she was just desperate for her turn.  The little daredevil was wildly pointing to the biggest, scariest looking rides and saying "I do dat, I do dat!"  We found one just right for her and she happily "did dat."

 Miss E was all smiles the whole ride. :)

 When we saw the Charlie Chopper, we just couldn't pass it up...

 Little Miss Independent ran around wildly the entire evening.

 I think the log ride might have been everyone's favorite.  Here they are anxiously waiting for their turn.

 Two tiny thumbs up!

 One of my favorite things was the petting zoo.  They have the best animals!

 Charlie and I just loved the baby goats.  We watched them together for several minutes, and he said, "I just love these little baby goats.  I want to take one home SO bad."  I agreed, but I don't know if I could handle an animal so similar to Miss Evie--their clumsy, constant climbing and aggressive head-butting was just a bit too familiar for me. :)

 Trying to get in and get his goat...

 My heart went out to this poor, tired momma pig. :)

 There was even a baby Kangaroo!

 The new Big Tex!  Charlie was so happy to see that he was looking healthy--he was so worried after the fire last year.

 We love the giant ferris wheel!

Looking down was a little too tempting.  It was a constant refrain of "I do dat!"

 We ended the evening in typical fair fashion: with lots of fried food.  It turned out to be a beautiful evening!

Such a fun night!

OH, and guess what we drove to the State Fair in?  That's right, our new van!

I still can't quite believe I am driving a minivan, but I really am starting to love it.  And the kids are thrilled with it, which makes it so fun.  They especially love the automatic doors and are so excited that the baby has his own seat now (apparently, according to Charlie, the baby is "SO happy" too).

Fake Charlie

On his first day of school, Charlie was assigned homework: to decorate this paper doll to represent himself.  So overwhelming to try to relegate Charlie to paper, but after a $40 trip to Michael's, I think we succeeded.  Charlie was so pumped about this project and we had the best time doing it together.  I love Charlie's enthusiasm--he has so many passions and is SO excited about them!  Fake Charlie was designed and executed (to the extent possible) by Charlie himself, and every detail was carefully considered.  First, he had to have a Longhorn hat (colored by Charlie, longhorn cutout by me ;).  Then, he needed to play all of Charlie's favorite sports, so he got a soccer ball on his foot and a baseball, basketball, football, and golf club in his hand (Charlie is no stranger to combining various sports at a time).  We couldn't do without Charlie's favorite vehicles, so there is a fire engine, a Ranger (naturally), a 4-wheeler, a race car, and a golf cart.  He also got goggles above his eye (in case you were wondering what that was), a picture of Charlie wearing goggles, a T-Rex (Charlie's favorite dinosaur), a masterful drawing of Spiderman (complete with a pooping spider), a tent for camping, a deer, a raccoon, and, of course, a flashlight.  But perhaps the best part of all is the camo pants, Charlie's clothing-item-of-choice.  Charlie thinks this guy is the coolest thing ever, and he was so proud to take him to school. 

I am so glad we had this project--it is such a good little snapshot of Charlie at this moment in time.  What an interesting little boy! :)

Pumpkins!

I LOVE Fall.  I know everyone says that, but it really is my favorite season ever.  It feels so exciting and special, I love the anticipation of the season, the football, the beautiful weather, the first fires, the family holidays, the food, you name it.  And I really love pumpkins--when they arrive, I feel like it is the start of a very long, very fun holiday season.  Every year, we visit way too many pumpkin patches and take way too many pictures in them, but it's just so fun. :)

Here are my two little rascals in the pumpkin patch at the Arboretum, the biggest, most amazing pumpkin patch ever!

We took Walter with us to visit the pumpkin patch and he was quite impressed.  Charlie acted VERY jealous of W and E's pumpkin attire, but given that Charlie flat-out refused to wear that very shirt last year, I didn't take him too seriously.

Charlie was SO pleased to be holding Bobo...

...but somebody got a bit jealous. :)  Evie LOVES Bobo, and just cannot get enough of him when he is around.  Whenever he is sitting with us, she exclaims, over and over again, "we got Bobo!" in the happiest little voice.  She thinks she is much, much older than him, and after playing "pee pie" and saying "goo goo ga ga" at him a few times, she usually sticks out her tiny hands and demands, "hold him!"  Luckily for Bobo, we usually put her off, but Meg had a momentary lapse in judgment at the pumpkin patch.  Evie was thrilled. :)

This little rascal looks deceivingly angelic with a pumpkin on his lap. :) 

 This is his most impressive smile.

Another little angel. :)

Evie is talking up a storm right now, and her increased communication abilities have made her so happy.  We see this face all the time.  I just love it. :)

A few more...

 Nobody does pumpkins like the Arboretum...

 Evie is so affectionate right now.  Every day before Clint heads to work, she demands "a huggie," "a kiss," and "a squeeze."  He often has to repeat these several times before she will let him go.  Here she is delivering one of her many kisses. ;)

 Charlie is affectionate too, but more in a tackling way... :)

 While the boys played, Evie practiced pushing the stroller.  She will be such a help when the baby comes!

 Wait for me, guys!