Is May over already?
Charlie turned 35 this month! Our plans for a party never fabricated, but we had a really nice day as a family. We went for a walk through a nature trail and stumbled upon an awesome stick fort that someone had been constructing. Instead of continuing on our walk, we just had to play in the fort for the rest of the afternoon. Then, we finished off the evening by eating dinner at one of our favorite Mexican food restaurants. Bruce was mesmerized with the waiters carrying the big trays of food, and we were sitting right by the kitchen, so we saw a lot of them fly by. Bruce practiced balancing his little appetizer plate on his hand, and he did a great job, making it all the way until the end of dinner, and then of course it went crashing to the floor, devastating our little guy - commence wailing. This was also the exact moment that the waiters, and their big drum, came over to sing to Charlie. Abby, who apparently was not thrilled with the banging drum, huge sombrero, or singing waiters, also erupted in screams at this point. Needless to say, we quickly paid, and exited the scene in high style... Happy Birthday, Charlie!
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| carving with a piece of glass he found |
For Mothers Day, we packed up the van and went to spend the weekend at Charlie's parents' house. We were so thankful for nice weather so that Abby could finally explore the outdoor magic that is Grandpa and K's house. She loves animals, and the cows were no exception - she gave the biggest grins when the cows were slurping her toes! It was a nice, relaxing weekend, and Charlie surprised me with some fun wind chimes that he had Bruce and Abby help paint.
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| helping to feed the bottle calves |
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| washing the Polaris |
Charlie had a really amazing opportunity to go to the Preakness Horse Race this month. He got to eat a lot of crab cakes, but more importantly, he was able to meet California Chrome (the winner) and his owner and trainer. Fancy stuff!
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| our little jockeys |
Last month may have been all about Maisy Mouse for Bruce, but this month? We discovered Peppa Pig! It's a cute little British series that Bruce is obsessed with for the moment. The best part is that he's picking up adorable little British sayings, like "ready, steady, go" rather than the usual "ready, set, go" and he calls cookies "biscuits" now, and is excited to go "on holiday" next month to the beach. Peppa Pig and her friends love jumping in muddy puddles, so it's been perfect timing that we've had oodles of puddles to jump in after all the rain we got this month. And believe me, we've taken advantage of every single one of them.
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| splash pad fun! |
A secondary benefit to jumping in rain puddles, is that we've finally convinced Bruce that it's okay to wear something other than his overalls, red "Mike Mulligan" shirt and boots. After all four red shirts, overalls and two pairs of jeans are soaking wet, he will finally let us put some shorts on him...
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| Mike Mulligan |
One really fun new development for Bruce this month is that he has started singing! He has always been interested in music, and loves when people sing for him (usually), but he has never really sang songs himself - until now! His main tunes these days are The Itsy Bitsy Spider (yes, he's still stuck on that song) and The ABC song. He even makes up his own songs too, which I'm a huge fan of. AND, he likes to sing along with you, even if his words don't quite match up. He's pretty tone deaf for the time being, but I sure don't care!
Another thing that he has started doing all the time, is naming things and wanting to know what everything's name is. For ages, it seems, we have tried to get Bruce to name things without much interest on his behalf. So his toys have super clever names... like "Crocodile" and "Daddy Penguin." He did name his sock monkey "Ozzie" a while back, but that was a fluke, I think. Now though, he's giving everything names, and changing up the names all the time. The kittens have had more names than I can remember, including Chevy, Toyota, Coyote, Lollipop, and Mr. Car Keys. Especially with car models, Bruce wants to know what their names are anytime we go anywhere. Here's a conversation we have more than once on any given day:
"What is its name?"
"It's called a Ford."
"But what is it?"
"It's a Ford pick up truck."
"But what kind of Ford pick up truck is it?"
"It's a blue Ford pick up truck."
"But what is it called?"
"It's a blue F150 Ford pick up truck."
...this goes on for forever...then finally he'll say...
"Let's just call it a Chevy."
Sure. Let's call it a Chevy.
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| L to R: Mack Truck, Sandwich, Toyota, Ham, Mr. Car Keys, and Coyote |
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| The mamas even let an orphan kitty join the group. Eh? Why not? It's the gray one and Bruce named it Ocoseeko |
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| Charlie trying to get some leather work done... |
Bruce isn't the only one obsessed with the kitties. Abs keeps her eyes on them also. And when she has the chance, she practices some not-so-proper animal handling techniques... When she's not reaching for fur balls, these days she loves rolling a ball around and jumping on the bed. She doesn't have any teeth yet, but has serious issues with food envy! We can't eat anything in front of her without having to share!
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| I love that Abby and the strawberry on the ball have the same expression |
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| chowing down on an apple core |
Abby isn't crawling per se, but that girl can sure get around! She's effortlessly rolling around any which direction, can scoot backwards (getting herself stuck in the most awkward of places), and pushes up on her knees with her belly off of the ground regularly. Exactly like Bruce - backwards first, forwards should come soon.
I'll tell one way she's NOT like Bruce - nothing is safe from this babe's mouth! We were really lucky with Bruce and never really had to worry about him putting things in his mouth. I don't know if it was lack of coordination, or lack of interest, but it just wasn't a big deal. So we let him play with pretty much anything and everything. But with Abby, she zeroes in on the single grain of colored rice wedged in the carpet, concerts every effort to pinch it, then raises it triumphantly to her watering lips. Other instances she's much more stealthy. We'll briskly walk by a tree or shrub bush, and the next thing I know she's got leaves poking out of her mouth. Wait, what? How did you have time to grab those, let alone eat them already? She's got a "tell" for when she has something in her mouth, thankfully, otherwise we would be in a world of hurt. It's a lot harder to have her help me weed in the garden, because instead of just playing with the grass like Bruce would at this age, she insists on eating it.
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| watering the tomatoes |
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| picking mulberries |
My mom and Rick came up for a nice visit over Memorial Day. Charlie had an extended weekend for the holiday, so we all had plenty of time together. It was a fairly rainy week, but we still had a good time playing outside, going to Ozzie's Diner for breakfast, playing games, going for walks, visiting the library, and loving on Littles.
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| trying to get out of a "bear hug" like Cubby in one of our storybook adventures |
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| sending Jake the monkey to the moon |
We're thankful that Summer has arrived and are looking forward to our "beach holiday" and other fun adventures that this season has waiting for us!
