Sibling love

What else can be said?  They absolutely adore each other.

My happy boy

This guy is so happy all the time!  You will rarely catch him not smiling when he sees Mommy, Daddy or sister and, of course, playtime is no exception.  Such a joy!

Little man standing!

Yes, at only 7 months, Beckett is already beginning to stand by himself.  Brief as it is (seconds today), it is still so very early!  And ironically, it is the same age Charlotte started standing, who was walking at 8 months.  Guess we'll just have to wait and see on that one. These kids definitely keep us on our toes, even at a very young age!

Walking in Mommy's footsteps... sort of

Charlotte has discovered a new favorite pasttime.  She loves wearing Mommy's shoes!  Mostly Mommy's tennis shoes - they are after all so much more comfy and easy to walk around in.  She does it just about every day and thinks it is the funniest thing ever.  It is usually combined with a "Bye, Mommy. Going to the store." or "Going to work. See you later."  However, she hasn't somedays completely grasped the concept that she's not allowed to actually walk out the door and leave when she says these things. She's quite the entertainment around this house for sure!

Chuck E Cheese

We have decided to start a family tradition of taking the kids to "the most magical place on earth" for their birthdays each year... no, not Disney, we aren't that rich.  haha!  The next best place for a kid... Chuck E Cheese!  We are all about building memories with our family and think that this would be a fun one to build for sure!  This was both kids' first time at Chuck E Cheese and they actually both had a great time!  Charlotte had so much fun on every ride and playing every game and was especially excited to meet Chuck E Cheese when he came around to say "hi!" to all the kids.  She even had Daddy follow him around for while just so she could hang out with her new buddy Chuck E.  She cried probably half the way home saying, "Chuck E... where are you?!"  As sad as that was, we were so happy to know that she obviously had had a fun and fabulous time on her 2nd birthday.  Looking forward to doing it for more birthdays in the future...

Here are a few pictures of our fun...

Kids vids

Thought you might enjoy a few videos of what the kids are up to these days...

Charlotte loves to sing and does so ALL the time.  Here is a rendition of Old MacDonald, although it sounds like he only has chickens on his farm now?

 Beckett is always on the move and has just started taking some steps, assisted of course.  He definitely seems to love the sense of independence. 

She's almost 2!

Charlotte's birthday isn't actually until next week, but wow, does she seem so much more grown up this week! 

Tonight is her 1st night sleeping in big girl panties and as I'm writing this, I'm a little nervous that there may be a bit of chaos in the middle of the night around here.  She has pretty much gone all week days and nights without wet pants, though, so it was definitely time.  We still can't believe that she's potty trained before age 2! 

And tonight Mommy definitely had a big girl moment with Charlotte and painted her nails for the 1st time.  It was little kid fingernail polish, so luckily it was thin and dried really fast.  And as brief as it was, it was quite possibly the longest period of time Charlotte has ever held still with anyone holding her ever!  She seemed to think it was pretty cool.  And so did Mommy. 

Getting stuff done...

Today was definitely a productive day around here... 

Daddy got a backyard project done with his helper Charlotte working in the dirt with him.

And Mommy baked and decorated Charlotte's birthday cake.

Big boy

Beckett is now pulling himself up on EVERYTHING!  He is just such a big boy we can't believe it.  And he's constantly on the move trying to find something to climb up on.  I'm sure walking won't be too far behind.

On the move again...

I feel like every couple days there are major milestones going on in this house!  Maybe its because I have two so close in age or maybe just because they are so young, but my goodness!  At least I have a place to write it all down while its happening so I don't forget these moments. 

We bought some toilet paper today.  I know, not an interesting story.  But here is what happened when we left it out in the living room for a few minutes today before putting it away...

Seven month old Beckett climbs on...

He pulls himself up to stand...

And he "walks" himself across the room using the toilet paper as a walker!

Now I find myself with a dilemma... do I actually put the toilet paper away now or just go buy some more?!  :)

Day four and counting....

So this is crazy to me that we are potentially at "this" place with Charlotte. She is not even two yet (although her birthday is this month) and today is day four of her waking up IN THE MORNING with dry pants! We have an almost new case of PullUps for her because we just assumed that the whole potty training overnight would be a while away for her. Apparently, it has just clicked. As nervous as we are to have her in panties overnight, I already told Daddy that if she goes a week waking up with dry pants, then we are switching over completely. What a big step for our little girl! I'm thinking we may have to get a few more sheets for those accidents that are bound to happen, but how nice that we will be DONE with buying PullUps for her now. Way to go Charlotte!!

Family pictures

We went and had family pictures taken today.  They are pretty much Beckett's 6 month pictures and Charlotte's 2 year pictures.  Plus, we desperately needed an updated family picture now that we are a family of four!  Enjoy!

Day at the zoo

Daddy took the day off work today and the weather was absolutely amazing.  Mid-50's and sunny.  So we decided a zoo day was the plan for today.  Plus, it was a weekday in early March.  No crowds.  Perfect weather.  Couldn't have been a better trip to the zoo.  We had a wonderful "family day"!  And having a zoo membership, we will definitely be doing it again soon. The kids loved it!  Here are a few pics from our day...

She shocked us by actually being ok to ride in the stroller. 

Hasn't done that in forever, but it made the day so much easier.

Beckett's first trip to the zoo and he's sleeping when we get there.

The day was "magical" with so many of the animals seeming to look right at Charlotte.  She liked these meerkats.

Walking to see more animals with Daddy.

Big boy awake and riding in the stroller.

Mommy & Charlotte

Daddy & Charlotte... she was having so much fun!

He loved riding around and watching everything around him.

Beckett absolutely loved the seals.  He was yelling at them and smiling.

Fun family day!

They both passed out within minutes back in the car.

Big day for Charlotte

Today we hit a milestone for Charlotte.  Not only is she potty trained during the day completely now, but she took a nap today with big girl panties on and no accident!  Next.... bedtime.  Although, that may still be a while yet.

In other news, she's now getting up out of bed when she wakes up in the morning and after nap.  She's almost given Mommy a heart attack a few times.  Just so sneaky quiet getting up.  Ah, more freedom for her and a little less for the rest of us. 

I pledge allegiance...

This really needs to be prefaced with our bedtime routine.  Every night, Daddy gets Charlotte ready for bed, then we all read a couple stories together as a family, then Mommy leaves to feed Beckett and get him ready for bed while Daddy sings Charlotte a song.  Usually its ABCs or something like that, but about a month or so ago, she requested "America."  We still have no idea what initiated this request, but Daddy was happy to oblige, although he had no idea what song she was talking about.  So, he tried every song he knew with America in it until finally, for some reason, he just decided to say the Pledge of Allegiance.  And that was it!  Charlotte decided that was one of her new favorites for bedtime from then on.  Odd, isn't it?!  Not that we wanted to discourage it, but it was just so strange, we really haven't mentioned it much unless she asks for it.  And that tends to be a lot more than you'd imagine.  Quite our patriotic little girl, I guess. 


And that leads us to this morning.  Mommy was playing with Beckett and Charlotte in Charlotte's room this morning when out of nowhere, Charlotte says:


"One nation.  Under God.  Visible wif tiberty.  Just for all."


I thought I was going to die.  It was a bit shocking, but way too cute!  Things really do stick with that little girl!  I probably say it all the time, but she is such a little sponge.  Mommy and Daddy's challenge is definitely going to be finding things to challenge her little mind.  So smart!

Beckett eating by himself

How cute is this little guy figuring out how to eat all by himself?!  He sure does love his "puffs."  They are definitely sticky, though.

Entertaining Charlotte moments

Charlotte does so many things these days that make us giggle.  Here are a couple videos of her saying her ABC's and counting.  She gets so easily embarrased on video, its hard to ever catch her on camera doing anything, but we got a little on here at least.

"ABC's...interrupted"



"5... 6... seba? That's funny!"

New carseat

We put Beckett in his "big boy" carseat this past weekend.  He's just getting too heavy for us to haul around in the baby carrier anymore.  Wasn't immediately sure what was going on, but overall, he seemed to like it.  Sister keeps talking about his "new carseat" and likes it too.  On his first ride in it, he was awake for quite a while looking outside - something he hasn't been able to do laid back in the carrier. 

Finally, after viewing overload, he ended up passing out in it...