The Baby Giggles

And now ,a word from Charlie.

The Best Brotherly Moment

For this reason alone is why I love that Jack has a brother. If you see at the very end, Charlie was about to wave goodbye to Jack as he walked away. Too bad I cut stop on the camera before I noticed what was happening.

The 8th Month Photos

In the mist of turning 8 months, Charlie can now clap when you say Bravo, pull himself up, and crawl at least 5 paces before he sits back down.What will the 9th month bring?

The Happy Baby

Charlie used to be such a serious little baby when he was younger. As serious as a three month old can be. And look at him now......

The 8th Month

Yes, we are in our 8 month mark. Charlie decided to celebrate this month by clapping. Isn't 8 months a bit too young for clapping? Or should I say, is my son that advanced that he is already clapping. ( insert smiley face here )

 He is soooooo close to crawling. He has also mastered the being on all fours to the sitting back down position. Which is great during the daytime, but at night when Charlie fights his bedtime, he now sits up in the crib and cries, rather than just lying down anc crying. When do these kids get so smart? Was I like this at this age? I feel bad for my parents, although they should have a lot of sympathy for us for what we are going through in regards to bedtimes.
When we try to place him back to lying down, he has the most saddest cry ever. As in" whyyyyyyy are you putting me down to sleep? I am sooo sad!!!" ( insert sad cute baby face here)
He also is starting to wave a bit. He waved goodbye to Jack the other day when Jack left the room. I was filming it on camera and just as he started to wave, I clicked the stop button. I missed it on tape, but have it saved in my heart.

 Mr. Jack has embarked on the world of school. He has been doing very well in his summer camp at the kids museum. He will also start Zoo Camp in August. This is all a huge preparation for his start in preschool in September. I am trying not to think of what that means emotionally for me now, as I am sure that I will just hold him and cry.
He is the jokester for sure, he loves saying something and then saying later on " I'm just joking, I'm just joking."
He still loves the water, still loves swimming. He finally has gotten over his fear of The Incredibles. I am not sure if it was the masks or the fact that they fight a lot of bad guys in the movie, but he was so freaked out of going near it.
He just snapped out of that mode and started realizing that just because you wear a mask doesn't mean you're a bad guy. Good guys wear masks too.
Jack now loves playing The Incredibles. "I'll be Dash and you can be Elastic Girl" is what he always tells me.

We are doing well as a family of four. We have got our groove of who puts whom to bed. I usually puts Charlie to bed, since we have mastered the nursing position of lying down on bed and being nursed to sleep. Ahhhh, relaxation.

More pics to come......and videos.

The First Day of Camp

We have been prepping Jack for a couple of days now that this summer camp is like school. School is a place where kids go to learn , do great projects with their teachers and most importantly, mamas and papas are not there with them ( Da Da DUUUUMMMM)

Jack really is attached to us ( and really, who wouldn't be? Have you met Brian and myself? We are pretty funny people) and whenever we tell Jack that he is going somewhere, the immediate question is " Will you be there with me ?"

He kept asking us this as we were telling him about his summer camp and when we responded No, he would say, then I do not want to go to school.

Today was Jack's first day.
If I went with, there would have been waterworks and the loving phrase of " I want to be with Mamaaaa!" (maybe)
Brian dropped him off and Jack was the super champ of all  super champs. The story goes that he walked right in, saw the teacher, went to his new friends and didn't mind that Brian left. As Brian told me this at work, I cried the whole time. This might have been the first time that I have cried tears of pride. I am so proud of Jack . Just because he knew what to do, and is such a big boy of going to this summer camp like it was no big deal. Like all big boys do. We were betting that for sure Jack wasn't going to like it and maybe by the third time, he would get used to it. I am happily mistaken on this one.

I keep thinking of Jack all day here and finding it hard to work today. I keep thinking of what is he saying, what is he doing, hopefully that he is eating lunch.

I would love to be a fly on the wall if they gave him carrots today and just watch the conversation between Jack and the teacher.
"Don't you want carrots Jack?"
"No, no thank you. Not right now."

The New School

Jack will be doing a preschool type/summer camp at the kids' museum here by our place. This will be the first time that he will be going somewhere and staying there without us. For three hours!!! What am I going to do? I feel bad for Brian since he will be the one to expierience Jack crying " Papaaaaa" . I couldn't take it. I would be crying in the car and thus show to Jack once again on what a sentimental schmuck I am.
I am thinking that he may not like it at first as we have gone to this museum here before as a family, and now he will go there and stay there without Mama and Papa.
We were explaining to him that he will not be alone, that he will be with some new friends and a cool teacher. We are hoping that he will meet someone who loves bugs and Thomas just as much as he does. Or maybe the kid will say" Do you like Shrek?" And a lifelong friendship is born.
He asked if they will talk about bugs. We said, perhaps they will talk about bugs. Maybe they can talk about nicer things like flowers, or what is a good cupcake flavor.

I just want to throw it out there, he will hate it the first time but will get used to it by mid day.
He should get used to it  - Zoo Camp starts in August for you Jack! if you want to talk about bugs, that is the place to do it.
So Cheers to not staying at home every day in the summer. And cheers to your first of many school days Jack!

The New Sounds

Charlie has a whole array of new sounds that only a parent can understand of what they truly mean. To any other person, it can just sound like "eh, eh weh" but to Brian and myself, it is much more a communication of I'm happy, why aren't you holding me, and the ever popular " yeah, you're sort of funny.

Here is the list;

• heh, heeeeh, heh - What you may be doing is funny? But Charlie hasn't decided yet. So he will give you a sort of laugh just so you can do more ridiculous stunts to really make him laugh.
• mmmmmmmmm....mmmmmmmmmm - if this includes bouncing up and down while he is sitting , that means that he is in a happy mood. This is even more pronounced when he sees you and gives you a great big smile. He also does this bouncing trick with his arms outstretched. It's quite adorable.
• eh, eh, eh eh ( this can be said very rapidly) - pretty much means I'm done, pick me up.It's over!!!

Let it be known that the only person that can give Charlie a belly laugh is his brother. Jack can just say hello and Charlie will bust out laughing. This is the start of a truly great brotherhood.

The Wedding and The Baptism

The Baptism happened on June 24, which Deacon Mike happily announced that it is exactly 6 months to Christmas. We didn't even plan on that token of goodness. That was just a gift from the powers that be.
We did plan somewhat to get married again. I called it renewing the vows, Brian said it was a wedding. As we would be getting married in the church for the first time. I thought it would just be a repeating of the vows, 5 minutes flat and then onto the baptism.
We had a whole mini wedding. Beginning prayers, scripture readings the whole thing. I had to read a scripture reading and I felt like I was back in 7th grade, when I was the lucky girl that was picked in class to read in mass. I couldn't reach the microphone back then and I couldn't now. I did the whole reading on my tiptoes, trying to have my voice projected over the microphone.
 We sat in these chairs up on the altar, king and queen style. I tried to remember every word of what the deacon was saying. I cannot remember a thing now. I remember I looked down to the pews at one time and Jack waved at me. The whole thing seemed surreal.
Once we kissed , placed the rings on and were pronounced man and wife, we went into the baptism. By this point, Jack was thirsty, Charlie was getting to the hunger point and I was thinking that these kids might be on a ticking time bomb - will they be having a  breakdown at any moment? Have you seen the ceilings at Holy Name? Any slight wincing will resonate to the high heavens with those ceilings.
Thankfully, my boys are great boys. There was no loud screaming or breakdowns. Jack was getting into his slap happy mood. Which meant that he was done being in church and wanted something to eat. At one point , he stood next to Brian with his hands over his ears. Charlie blew his steam by blowing raspberries. A common Charlie trait.

Dinner was at Cafe Iberico, where we happily drank a lot of sangria and Jack discovered that olive oil goes really well with bread.

My dad and Charlie - two best friends.

I was weepy this time around just as much as the first time we got married.

A proud papa and his boy

You have to do something to pass the time - I have no idea on what Jack was doing here.

Lucky us - we have two wedding anniversaries and now a baptismal anniversary to celebrate.