Fireworks and giggles

This video is just for audio; you can't see much. Listen to the fireworks commentary from Jack.



I got some laughs from Charlotte when I imitated her hiccups one day.

4th of July weekend, con't

Jack and Lilly worked in some quality playing time in the morning on Sunday before the Flynns had to leave. In the afternoon, the rest of us hung out on the dock, played in the water, and went tubing. Jack was hesitant about floating on the water in the tubes, but I at least got him to sit with me for a few minutes (we're just tied up to the dock).

Aubrey, Jack, and Emma playing with the water toys.

The Word ladies watching Dave and Don on the tubes.

Jack sitting with Emma while I was tubing.

Dave and Leah.

Dave getting dominated by Don on the tubes.

Andy and me taking our turn at battle tubing (Fisher Lake won).

The ladies (this was taken Saturday night): Megan, Emma, Jodi, me, and Sarah.

The boys (Don, Matt, Dave, Dan, and Andy)

4th of July weekend

We had a wonderful Fourth of July weekend at the lake house! We were joined by the Words, Flynns, Speisers, Don and Emma, and Lisa and Macie. I just realized after looking through all the pictures that I didn't get any of Lisa or Macie--we'll have to make sure to get some next time they're at the lake house!

I was able to get lots of great pictures of the kids. You can see Jack hanging out with Aubrey Word (5) and Lilly Flynn (3) in the boat above. Charlotte also had some bonding time with the other baby in the group, Cole Flynn (10 months).

Jack and Lilly checking out the lake.

The tubes are always fun to jump on.

Lilly is a little afraid of dogs, so it was nice to see her get close enough to Louie to at least touch him with the tips of her fingers!

Charlotte is definitely going to be a swimmer. I could barely keep her in my lap when we were sitting on the dock. She kept bucking around so I would let her dangle as you see her with her feet splashing in the water.

Out on the lake. Jack's obsession with Aubrey continues. He followed her around like a lovesick puppy dog pretty much the whole time the Words were here. He (and we) will definitely miss them when they're in North Carolina!

The Words: Dave, Megan, Aubrey, and Leah (2)

Dan Flynn and Lilly

Jodi Speiser and Charlotte. Charlotte really took a liking to her.

Hanging out on the porch.

I like how Charlotte's doing her bear crawl in the midst of all the chaos.

The ladies wrapped the night up with a little dancing.


I'll have many more pictures to post later!

Fun at the park

Just realized I had uploaded these videos a few days ago but forgot to post them. Last weekend Jack, Charlotte, and I went with Grandma and Grandpa to the park. Grandpa has discovered how to work the video function on the camera :)

We had a great Fourth of July weekend with friends and family. I'll try to get the pictures and videos posted sometime this week.

Charlotte was there there too! She loves the swings.

Jackisms

Look at that sweet baby. He was a tired boy in this picture.

Here is some of my favorite current Jackspeak (some of these are oldies but goodies):

"Hamaburger" (hamburger)
"Banoon" (balloon)
"Tocky toes" (taquitos)
"Sunscream" (sunscreen)
"Alligator" (elevator)

I also love that his usual way to greet Andy or me when we get home from work is to announce what bodily functions he had that day.

Something we've found very interesting is that Jack has come up with some alternate meaning of the word "highway," but no one understands what it is. He knows the standard definition of the word, and always comments when we're driving on one. But he'll also throw out these weird comparisons--for example, tonight my dish towel was "like a highway." Hmmmm...

A conversation we had a while ago as we were talking about colors:
Me: "What color is your hair?"
Jack: "Yellow."
Me: "We actually call yellow hair blond. So what color would your hair be?"
Jack: "Blond."
Me: "Very good! What color is Mommy's hair?" (me thinking the answer would be blonde, or maybe brown since the room was kind of dark)
Jack, after studying me thoughtfully: "Gray."
Thanks a lot kid.

Another funny thing about hair--according to Jack, he and I have lots of hair. Daddy and Charlotte do not. They have fur.

One last picture from this past weekend. We had a block party in our neighborhood, and the kids did all sorts of fun things in the street. Most of the kids are older than Jack, but he still at least had fun watching. In the picture, he and Andy are off to the right watching plastic Coke bottles and Mentos explode.

9 Months Old

Hey there, it's me Charlotte. I turned 9 months old on Friday. This has been a big month for me--as you can see I'm crawling all over the place now. I'm also making it quite clear that I don't intend to crawl for long. I'm constantly trying to pull myself up to a standing position, and when anyone tries to put me on the floor, I usually try to poke my legs down and stand versus sit.

My teeth have also started popping out like crazy. You can see my big tooth on my bottom right here. The tooth next to it, and my 2 top center teeth have also started coming through my gums. Mom thinks I also have 2 more on the top that will come out soon.

One of the biggest perks of my newfound mobility is that I get to take terrorizing my brother to a whole other level. He's found that often the easiest way to deal with me is to just lay still and play dead, like he did the morning we took these pictures. I'm also constantly getting into his toys now, which he is not happy about.

Funny face

Jack keeps his monkeys close so I can't get them.

Another exciting thing I'm starting to do is feed myself (just Cheerios so far). Mom says this seems to be the one thing I haven't accomplished faster than my brother, darn it. She says he was shoving Cheerios into his mouth by the time he was 8 months old. While I've been eating Cheerios for a couple months now, it's taken me a long time to figure out the whole food-from-hand-to-mouth process. I've just gotten a lot better at this over the past week. Sometimes I still miss, though; or forget to keep the food in my mouth. I'm sure by this time next month I'll be a pro.

And She's Off!

Yes, Miss Charlotte has been crawling for a few days now! I would have posted these videos earlier, but the blogspot website was having an issue with uploading videos.

She doesn't always crawl very far--as you can see, she gets sidetracked easily--but she can move pretty well if she's motivated. (In this case, by the baby monitor, which she knows she's not supposed to touch).