River Trip #5

My wild and crazy hair!

A blow-up seadoo courtesy of Alex and Evan

Adelyn...not Ya Ya!

On my tippy toes!

Not happy in the VEST!

Happy in the vest!

Jimmy works so hard at the river. Finally he stopped to relax. Thanks Jimmy for all you do for us!

First time on the tube ride!

Melody and Alex on a sea-doo ride!

Evan hanging out on the boat!

We spent the last few days at the river with my family this time. My mom, Melody and the boys, Nicole, Mike and Adelyn all came too. It was fun watching Charlie splash around in the water with all her favorite people. Charlie is so brave...she will walk right out into the river lagoon until the water is up to her lower lip and she is standing on her tippy toes. It is a bit scary! Jimmy and I decided next trip we need to teach her that she needs to ask us to go into the water. Ha ha...we can dream! She loves finding rocks and throwing them, shoveling up the dirt/sand, drinking river water (GROSS), riding on the coolest floats ever (thanks Alex and Evan for donating them), sitting in the golf cart and eating chips all day long. Charlie had two firsts at the river this time. First, I took her on the boob tube behind the boat in Havasu. It lasted for about 2 minutes because I was so scared we were going to tip over. Maybe next year I won't be so scared! Second, she went on her first sea-doo ride with Daddy. Because of the life vest, she didn't enjoy it too much. As soon as she is 30 pounds she can wear the life vest that isn't so uncomfortable. Charlie woke everybody up every morning. Grandma would always be eating donuts at the kitchen table when she woke up. On the last morning she popped right up from bed to play peek-a-boo with her at the table - but she wasn't there! It was so funny. Thanks everyone for coming to the river with us. It was so much fun! And thanks Jim for letting my family borrow your amazing river home!

To the Doctor and DCA

See Charlie's boo-boo on her leg! SHe showed people all day long!

We started off our day at the doctor's office for Charlie's 18 month check up appointment. I know she is 19 months but Dr. Kwan was not available until now (I need to call earlier next time). I love Dr. Kwan. She is so nice. Charlie is 34 inches (I think she grew a few inches from FFW) which puts her in the 90% for height and 26 lb 1 oz which puts her in the 70% for weight. Her head circumference is also on the bigger side. She passed all the tests and questions so she is a healthy little girl. (I failed to mention she still has a paci and hid it until Dr. Kwan left the room! Sneaky me!) After one shot we were off to DCA.

Charlie had a fun time being fed by all her cousins at lunch. She got so much attention. While the big kids went on the Roaring Rapids ride Adelyn, Charlie and Chris went on a bear hunt in the wilderness area. Charlie was so excited to actually see two bears and was smittened when she got to hug the bears. The bears didn't want to let go of her either. I want to show her the Brother Bear movie some day soon. Then she had fun playing in the jumping water fountains. After a nice long nap we rejoined the group for some corn tortillas and sourdough bread. Charlie was a huge fan of the warm tortillas. We watched the Pixar parade. By far the best parade since the Electrical Parade. You have got to see it! We headed over to talk to Crush. Charlie was a little worried that a turtle was talking. He talked to Nolan and Ginny. We rode Monsters Inc. (Charlie's favorite) and we tried to watch the Aladdin show but only made it half way through it. It's a little too long for Charlie. The best thing of the day was the Pixar parade. I can't wait to see it again.

Thank You Daddy!

Every once in a while Jimmy brings home donuts for us when he gets off work at 8 am. Charlie used to get donut holes. Then it was a rainbow sprinkle one. Now it is the chocolate bar! She eats it like a dog biting off all the chocolate on top. It is pretty funny to watch her eat it with no hands. I don't know why she thinks you eat donuts that way. Thanks Daddy for the donuts. We love them!

First 100 Words Book

Anyone who has a baby should buy this book. I loved it when Adelyn had it as a baby so I made sure to buy it for Charlie. It is a book with pages full of squares with pictures of objects and words labeling them. For example, it has a food page, animal page, a clothing item page, etc. A couple of weeks (probably months) ago she could point to a few pictures on each page when I asked her where a certain object was and she could even say a few of those words or sounds for an animal. Well, today she was bringing me book after book to read and then we came upon this one. I had not seen this book for a while. I thought to myself, "Oh, she will probably know a few more words." Boy, was I wrong! She blew me away! She almost named all the items on each page and there are 9 on each page. She just sat there on my lap and pointed to each picture saying the name or sound it makes. I didn't even need to prompt her. It was so cute. I could even see her little mind thinking as she would stop at a picture and then remember what it was called. She didn't know her fruits or vegetables (probably because she won't eat any of them) and she didn't know the names of baby actions (yawn, cry, laugh) - but do any babies 19 months old know that? When she pointed to the TV and the computer she said, "Dada" and laughed. I laughed too. She said, "Hello" for a phone and most of the animals were sounds they make not words. Her favorite animal right now is a monkey. It used to be an elephant. Before that it used to be a dog. Well, as the teacher that I am I now know what she needs to work on. She is very into pointing at things and telling you what they are (like you didn't know) so I'm sure she will find my teaching time some what enjoyable!

A Makings of a Chef

After Christmas we bought Charlotte a kitchen that was on sale at Target. I have been saving it for her half birthday. By the way, buying toys after Christmas and then waiting to give them to your kid is a really hard thing to do but I did it. She really wasn't ready for a kitchen until 18 months old anyway because she would always eat Adelyn's pretend food before this time. Now that she is old enough she was really excited to have her own kitchen. We put it in the corner of the play/scrap room. Sometimes if she runs from me I always find her there. She will put things in the microwave, cook you turkey in the oven, make you waffles in a pan and say, "Hot!" and serve you tea and an apple. She loves to use the mini spatula too. That is what she does every single time. It has been 2 months and it is the same thing over and over. Kids love repitition!

Ice Cream and Popsicles

Charlie has discovered the wonderful world of ice cream and popsicles. She gets a bounce in her step and becomes very giggly when I say the word. The other day Grandma was eating a bowl of ice cream, but she was not sharing. Charlie made her way next to her and crawled up onto the chair with her and looked at her with her big blue eyes. "I cream" she said. And little by little she got a few bites out of her. (Next time she won't eat it in front of her!) Charlie wakes up asking for ice cream almost every morning. If asked what she wants to eat she will say, "I cream" and sit right down. I basically have to undress her to eat a popsicle because it gets EVERYWHERE!

I Love My Coupe!

My cousins bought Charlie a fire truck coupe for her birthday. When they were little I found one of those orangy coupes at a garage sale by my mom's house and took it to their house. They loved that coupe. So when they heard Charlie loves to ride in those coupes they wanted to get one for her. When it arrived on the front porch Charlie banged on the box until I opened it. She sat in the seat part of the coupe even before I could build it. From that point on she has sat in her fire truck coupe every day. She likes to eat snacks in it and watch Yo Gabba Gabba. She likes to put things (necklaces, her milk cup, Rexy the dinosaur, etc.) into the coupe. She especially loves to drive the coupe wearing her princess shoes...she gets very aggitated when the shoes fall off! Oh yea, she pretends to talk to Daddy on the walkie talkie when he is at work too. It is still in our family room, but soon it will be making its way outside. I'm sure she will just bring it back inside...

River Trip #4

Isa

Livi

Penny

This weekend we went to the river with Jimmy's dad and the Beym family. Charlie had the best time at the river yet. She was very comfortable in the water and walked all over. She sat and played in the sand and wanted to throw every rock into the water. We went on a boat ride and she didn't even mind wearing the life vest. (Thanks Splash!) She took great naps and went to bed when I put her in her crib. She was a great little girl except for when she hit Penny. Sorry Penny! We are working on that...

It was a great weekend except for a few things. First, the water heater broke and we didn't have any water for a few hours. Then the air conditioner broke inside the house so we didn't have any air for a few hours, and then the air conditioning broke outside the house so for a few more hours we didn't have air the next day. Wow! What a trip we had!

Family Fun Week 2010!

Nine kids ranging from 10 to 5 months old

Every year we pick one week out of the summer to have a Family Fun Week. I think it all started when Alex started Kindergarten and Melody had to take weeks off during summer because he didn't go to the daycare in her building anymore. Anyway, it is basically a week to be a Southern California tourist, hit up Amusement Parks, act like money grows on trees and enjoy time with the family. It was a fun week but exhausting week!
Day 1: Legoland
We headed down south to Legoland to start FFW off. It is a great amusement park for any child over 34 inches. Charlotte is about 32 or 33 so she missed out on a lot of rides. I don't think she even noticed though. Some of her favorite things were: playing in the stationary Lego cars, building with Legos in front of rides she wasn't tall enough to ride, riding in the Fairytale boat ride, making instruments play by jumping on the circles, sliding down enormous slides, trying to climb into the Mini Legolands and eating pasta noodles. By far her favorite was when Jimmy took her into a netted room filled with shooting balls flying everywhere! She had the time of her life in there!

Silly Daddy!

Kisses for Baby Aidan

Where is your paci?

Making music!

Adelyn driving the fire truck to the fire...we came in last!

I love you Grandma!

I love driving cars!

My cool cousin Alex does too!

Ginny and her boys...

Christopher and Khoury

Cassie and Nolan

While waiting for our food we made princesses and princes with the salt and pepper shakers. Charlie was the dragon monster who spit fire (salt)! I love the world of pretend!


Almost everyone got Toy Store 3 trains to play with back at the hotel.

Day 2: Legoland, Legoland Aquarium and Legoland Water Park

It was a little hotter the second day so we enjoyed the water park and aquarium as well as Legoland again. The aquarium is small but cute. However, it smells like fish! (I don't remember smelling the fish I looked at at the Long Beach Aquarium.) The coolest part was when we got to see the octopus moving around in its home. I don't ever remember seeing an octopus so lively before. It was pretty neat. The water park was fun too. There are small water slides the kids go go on and a mini lazy river too. Charlie had fun going down the slide with me and playing in the water with Jimmy. She was fearless walking out into the water. The mini lazy river was so cool because the tubes weren't hollow in the middle. She sat like a froggy while I pushed her around. Adelyn really enjoyed the water slides. She looked so tiny walking up to the slides all by herself. I would tell her to walk and as soon as she would turn the corner she would run up the ramp. It was so cute to see her little bottom wiggle as she ran to the slides! Charlie also got to spend a lot of time in the Dino Dig area digging for dinosaur bones. She loves sand so it was heaven for her to be in such a big sandbox. We enjoyed Legoland and will be back next year...

Daddy always lets me touch things.

Digging for dinosaur bones

Can I please have your paci?

Day 3: Splash in La Mirada
I let Charlie sleep in a little this day and we were late to Splash. Ooops! The rule at Splash is you have to wear a life vest in the water at all times. Charlie is not very fond of life vests so it was a learning day for her. She cried for the first few minutes and then had a scowl on her face the rest of the day. I took her in the water, but she didn't like the splashing water (or the vest on). I took her in the big lazy river and she didn't much care for the tube I put her in (or the vest). Then I took her to the splashing fountains and she didn't find the splashes appealing either. When we stopped for a snowcone she was a happy camper. She kept shoveling the snowcone into her mouth over and over again. Remind me never to share a snowcone with Charlotte again...I didn't get much! Hopefully next time will be more enjoyable.

Ryan, Charlotte and Brendan - She is always so happy with her favorite twins!

Pop-eye!

Doesn't she look so uncomfortable!

After Splash we needed some "stay at home and rest" time. Charlie had fun playing in the backyard with her toys. Of course, she splashed in the dogs' water bowl for most of the time.

Day 4: DCA Cancelled...Swim Day Instead

We were all too tired to stick to the original plan. So instead of going to DCA all day we decided to have a swim day at Grandma's house instead. It was fun with so many people in the pool swimming and eating El Pollo Loco.

Day 5: Disneyland
We spent our last day all day at Disneyland. When we got there we went on a few Fantasyland rides while Cassie turned into a princess Tiana at Cinderella's Godmother's Boutique. I have never seen Cassie smile and sparkle as much as she did that day! One day we will have to see if Charlotte wants to do the same...I know Adelyn will! She sat there for the whole hour mesmerized they could do such a thing. We headed over to Hungry Bear for lunch. Then we were off to Winnie the Pooh (by far Charlie's favorite ride ever) and the Haunted Mansion. Charlie fell asleep right when we got on the ride. Evan and I enjoyed it when the ride stopped at all the air conditioner spots and he pointed out many things I had never seen before. Charlotte woke up just in time for the Jungle Cruise and the Tikki Bird Room (her other two favorites at Disneyland). Charlie and I had to leave a little early to meet Jimmy out on Harbor Blvd because we were off to the river with the Flores family for the weekend. Best part of the day: I bought a spraying water bottle fan. The best $17 I ever spent! It was a hot day!

It was a very successful FFW. I can't wait for next year!