Thirteen Months (Charlie's Monthly Photo)

Boy I tell you what--I am just barely squeaking by on these monthly photos.



It has gotten so much harder since Lucy was a baby.  Somehow being in charge of wiping so many noses and bottoms and providing sustenance for four mouths, not including my own... it has almost got me beat.

However.  I will power on.  Only 11 more months to go.




Charlie has gotten even more adorable.



He wakes up from naps in the best mood (most of the time), with a big toothy grin.



He is walking all over the place.  He falls down from time to time, but he's getting faster at walking.  He holds his arms up for me to catch him and usually barely makes it over to me as he's falling down.



He has three words... I think.  Three may be generous.  He consistently uses the proper intonation of "hee-eer" when he's handing us something, though he doesn't actually articulate the H or the eer.  I'm about 95% sure he's been saying Mama the past day or so... so that's exciting!  I also think he's been saying, "Uh-ohhhh!"  It's kind of hard to tell.  He definitely has the intonation down pat.



He loves crackers (who doesn't).  He seems kind of so-so on just about everything else.



When he gets tired, he sticks his index finger in his mouth, and if his robot is handy, he'll also hold onto the robot's hand.



He loves being tickled and playing "fly on the bed" with the big kids.  He's really ticklish--especially around his neck and his ribs.



He also loves being held.  A lot.  Can't really blame him, but my meal planning skills are lacking, so around 4:30 pm I really could use both of my hands to try to pull something together for dinner.



He's 17 pounds now.  A little on the small side, compared to the other kids at this age.  He seems so petite to us.  Oh, I just checked and apparently he's back to below the 5th percentile for his age.  Oh well.  He'll catch up.

Christmas Season 2016

We've had a really nice Christmas season, so far.  I haven't pulled out the real camera as much as last year... partly owing to the fact that we don't have a newborn I'm trying to take good pictures of.  And partly owing to the fact that we have 4 full size little kids, and I'm struggling to always keep up with them.



We've been enjoying visiting the farmer's market each weekend.



We visited Santa's Village again this year.



MUCH less crowded than last year (b/c we didn't go on the "Richardson Residents Thursday" this year.  Good decision).



The kids liked walking around with Mimi and Papa.  They were disappointed we only went into three of the little houses, but the lines were long.





We did get to see a brief presentation of Tuzer's "The Nutcracker," which was the perfect duration at around 15 minutes.

We went on our "long walk" this week.  It was approximately 3.9 miles of misery.  Maybe that's overstating it.  But Oliver bit the sidewalk early on... resulting in a bloody mouth/lip and scraped up nose.  He insisted on being pushed while standing on his scooter for basically the whole walk.  It was okay, because I left the stroller at home and just had Charlie on my back.  The ducks were the highlight of the trip.  Nothing is as funny to preschoolers as bottoms.

Here they're laughing at the duck bottoms sticking up while the ducks were fishing for their food in the pond.

I've begun making bread again.  I hadn't made it much from the time I was pregnant with Lucy until now.  I'm not crazy about the white flour, but at least it doesn't have preservatives.  Plus, I'm teaching the kids valuable culinary lessons about making bread... in a bread machine.  We watched a couple YouTube videos explaining the role of yeast in baking.  It was very educational.





A few nights ago, we drove to the end of my friend Jennifer's street and then rode down the street on scooters (obviously Daniel and I walked).




The lights on that street are the best in the neighborhood, and the kids liked riding their scooters down to her house.



Once there, we decorated cookies and drank hot cocoa. It was really fun.







We went to "mall church" this last weekend with some friends.  The kids did an awesome job of playing quietly and coloring.  Until they were done.



We went bowling the other day with our small group, and the jokers at the bowling alley wouldn't let us use the ramps for our kids!  They said the ramps were only for special needs.  I was irritated, but the kids had a good time anyways.



We used to watch Claymation Christmas every year when I was young.  How excited we were to find that it's on YouTube!  We watched it while eating popcorn last night.



We've also been doing Advent readings/activities each evening, which the kids look forward to.  We light the Advent candle and then read a Christmas story or something from the Bible.  Sometimes they get a Hershey kiss at the end.  It's pretty fun.






We bought the worst Christmas tree ever.  It practically sneezes needles if you so much as touch it.





We can't stay on top of the needle droppage.  But that's okay, because Lucy and Elliot have been having a grand time scooping up the needles with construction vehicles and throwing them into the fire.



It's pretty great.



The kids have been saying our lights are not as beautiful as many of the other houses' lights in our neighborhood.  So today we took on a family project: candy cane PVC pipe light posts.



I was pleasantly surprised it wasn't as time consuming as I thought it might be.  We were lucky to knock it out during the couple hours before the temperature plummeted from the 70s to the 20s.



We hurried inside to make a fire and enjoy the rest of our Saturday together as a family.  I love these days when there's nothing on the calendar and Daddy's home.



They really are wonderful.

Twelve Months Old (Charlie's Monthly Photo)

So... I kind of missed 11 months.  Oops.  What can I say... it's been really busy here.

But anyways!



Charlie is a delightful little cruising 1 year old!  In fact, he just took his first steps the other day so I guess he is actually a toddler!

He loves to clap for himself and when he's in a crowd that's applauding.  He also likes clapping for himself while he's toddling along.  He's so proud of himself.



He's so delightful.  He loves being tickled and is so happy after he nurses in the night, frumping around on our bed.



He's passionate at the dinner table.  He shrieks and sounds like a monkey when he sees something he'd like to eat.  He hasn't totally mastered the signs all done and more, but he does them sometimes when prompted.



He's such a youngest of four.  If he sees the other three sitting quietly on their bottoms waiting for Daddy to read, he crawls on over and sits on his bottom right along with them.



He loves his siblings.  If he's sitting on my bed and Lucy or Elliot walk up, he stretches out his arms for them and lets them lift him down to the floor.



He already has a strong sense of fairness.  If I pass out a snack to all the other kids in the car, he makes sure I know that he'd like one, too.  He loves crackers and pasta.



He doesn't really care for the stroller much, but he's okay in the car seat and doesn't seem to mind riding along on my back (usually).




He's completely in love with every animal.  He loves puppy dogs and every animal we see at the zoo.  He wants to crawl after them and pat them and tug on them.

He's adorable and we love him and are so glad to have him in our family!