S-A-T-U-R-D-A-Y Night

We had a good weekend, the weather was beautiful. Friday afternoon we met Stephanie, PJ, Carissa, and Elena at Super Target for a little shopping. Afterwards we went to the Brown's and PJ gave Charles some hand-me-down clothes and toys. Then we went with Stephanie and PJ to meet Grandpa, Grandma, Aunt Christy, and Russell for our Friday night pizza at Bernie'.

Saturday morning we went to our first auction. Great Aunt Janice's house has been empty for over a year and hasn't sold, so Jeanine had it auctioned. It went for a good price and the buyers are nice and will email pictures of the renovations. The money from the sale will go to several charities, so we were pleased it went for a price higher than we expected.

Saturday was warm and Charles is still working on his teeth, so I stripped him to his diaper and gave him some grape juice ice cubes. He wasn't sure about them at first but that may have been because they were so cold. As you can see from the pictures he may have gotten more on the bib than in his mouth!

After the sticky mess it was time for a bath. He loves being in the tub. He's learning to splash and is trying to grab the bubbles. We have to out-smart him by turning him away from the drain. If we don't, he'll obsess over it and try to pull out the drain cover. He loves to watch the water go down. The other night he cried when the water was gone.

Many of you have mentioned what a BIG boy he is. Well, I decided to find out just how much he weighed. As you can see from the picture it's about 22lbs.

The last picture is Charles playing with his "new" toys from cousin PJ. It was great fun to spend time with PJ and Stephanie on Friday afternoon. Normally it's just Charles and all the girls, having some "guy time" is fun for us--PJ has been the only boy for a long time so another boy is a welcome change for him too! I have a feeling in the future those two may get into some trouble together!

Russell took his test on Thursday. I think he did okay, mainly he's glad it's over. He did better than expected on the test in his other class so he spent the weekend pouring over his homework in an attempt to squeeze an A out of the semester. If he did well on Thursday's test he'll be done with that class on Tuesday. I think he's decided not to take the final no matter what he got on the test--he'd have to flunk it to get lower than a B for the semester. His other class has a final on the 9th, then he'll be done until after Memorial Day. He's taking a summer class that I think meets twice a week for the full 8 weeks.

Teething???

I didn't mention that Charles got a tooth. He's been crabby this week and after noticing swollen gums his top, right, front tooth popped through the gum.

Last night Charles went to bed late--around 9:30pm. We went out for pizza and got to see Grandpa and Aunt Christy who've been busy. Grandpa's office is converting from Oracle to SAP and he's playing a major role in the changes. Aunt Christy is busy with homework for her master's classes to become a librarian. It was good to see them both.

So...he went to bed at 9:30 and then was screaming at 11:30. Normally he just falls back to sleep, but not this time. We gave him some Tylenol and put him back to bed. Then at 1:30 am he was screaming again. He guzzled down a bottle and continued to chew on it. We figure it must be teeth. We finally got him back to bed at 2:30.

We turned off our alarms at 6:00 and 6:30, but by 7am I figured I should get up and get ready for church. Before I could get in the shower Charles was awake. Russell was too tired so he went to sleep and Charles and I got ready and went to church. We were only 15 minutes late--a feat considering how little sleep we'd had. Russell stayed home, got some much-needed rest and began studying for his test on Thursday.

After lunch we stopped at Wal-Mart and got some Ibuprofen. We gave Charles a dose we put him down for an afternoon nap and he slept from 2:30 until almost 6:30. We had to wake him up so he'd sleep tonight. He was in a much better mood, although not completely back to normal. We gave him another dose of Ibuprofen and fed him dinner. He sucked on a piece of frozen honeydew melon (I've got a Popsicle like container made of mesh fabric made for babies to suck on "adult food" that they can't chew) and he seemed to like it.

He played a while and then got a bottle and a bath. We gave him another dose of Tylenol and an application of Baby Oragel before putting him to bed. He cried quite a while before finally falling asleep. Hopefully he'll sleep through the night.

As we were squirting Tylenol into his mouth we discovered another tooth! On the left side--not the front one, but the one next to it. I think it may be through the gum by morning. Those are the teeth I have troubles with--the right one didn't come in at all and the left one was a midget tooth--so it will be interesting to see what his are like.

Pray we get a good night's sleep. I was actually able to nap for about 1 1/2 hours this afternoon, so that helped. Hopefully we'll get a full night's sleep. Russell has a test this week so it will be important for him to get his rest.

Trip to the Park

Today was a beautiful day. Russell had a test this morning. It was his day off, so after the test he came home and we spent the day working around the house.

During Charles' morning nap (I never thought he'd take naps) I took the Honda to get the oil changed and Russell fixed the fence and worked on the guttering that fell down a few weeks ago. We were even able to eat lunch together before Charles woke up.

After Charles' nap, Russell spent the afternoon mowing while I fed Charles lunch. Then Charles played and I searched on-line for umbrella strollers and Russ' summer text book.

It's such a nice day that we decided to go to the park. We went to Grandma Goentzel's and to our surprise we found Grandma Goentzel with cousins PJ and Brookelyn. We had some dinner and then walked to the park. Charles enjoyed the walk and laughed in the swing. He went on the slide for the first time and wasn't too sure about it. PJ enjoyed the slide, monkey bars, and even found a helium balloon floating through the neighborhood. Brookelyn pushed the stroller and hung upside down on the swing.

Thursday evening Charles and I went for a walk. We walked to Grandma's house. Russell had class and wasn't going to be home until late, so we wanted to get out of the house. We ended up going with Grandma to our favorite Mexican restaurant, Poblano's. Russell was done studying for Friday's test so he met us there on his way home.

Charles is finally sitting in a high chair, and has mastered putting Cheerios in his mouth. He's better with with his left hand, but prefers to use the right one. I wonder what that means...

Sunday Star

No new pictures today. I just wanted to tell everyone about our little star. Charles was the object for the object lesson in church today. Pastor Ken is doing his annual "Matters of the Heart" series which encourages the congregation to participate in ministries in the church.

Today's sermon was about craving a relationship with Him. His text was 1 Peter 2:2-3 where it says, "Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, now that you have tasted the Lord is good" (NIV).

Pastor Ken held Charles and then I showed him his bottle. He got excited the closer I got with it. Everyone said he did a wonderful job. At first, he just moved his hands and feet, and as I got closer to him he got more excited and reached for the bottle. Then he just guzzled it down as Ken finished up the point.

Charles really did a good job. I had nursery duty so as soon as we were done with our part we headed to the nursery. Russell said it was a good on so I'll either have to get the CD or listen on-line at: http://www.vchurches.com/wefc/sermonlist.aspx I have a feeling they'll probably post the 2nd service sermon but you'll get the idea.

Easter

We are back from our spur-of-the-moment trip to Texas. Charles did a good job on the road trip. Wednesday afternoon we drove to Oklahoma City. Aunt Heather babysat while Russell & I went to dinner at my favorite Mexican restaurant--Ted's.

We were on the road by 8:30 Thursday morning and made good time until we got to Ft. Worth. I had to stop for a bathroom potty break, which was a blessing in disguise. Traffic had been backed up for 30 minutes so we were able to take an alternate route and avoid the traffic jam.

By the time we were 1 hour away from Bastrop Charles was finished with being in the car. He cried that entire last hour of the trip. Russell jumped from our car into his parents' van with his dad and brother Randy, and drove 2 more hours to San Antonio for an NBA game between the Phoenix Suns and San Antonio Spurs.

Russell and Randy got home from the game around 1:30 am and got up at 5:00 am to play basketball with Randy's colleagues. Needless to say they were exhausted the rest of the day.

Charles met his cousins for the first time. Ian and Ashley had fun with Charles. They kept calling him "the baby" and Ian kept calling Charles a "she." They hunted for Easter baskets together and Ian & Ashley weren't too happy with Charles grabbing their eggs.

I had a cold the entire trip and spent every night propped up on the couch coughing. I called the doctor and got the approval to take Robitussin--actually Equate Tussin. I'm better now and Charles' ear infection didn't bother him at all during the trip.

We got to celebrate Grandpa Norman's birthday while we were in Texas. Russ' entire family was together for dinner on Saturday night. We had Sunday dinner with Russ' Uncle Roger and Aunt Debbie and were able to celebrate both Easter and Grandpa's birthday with them.

It was unseasonably cold in Texas. We packed for 60-70 degree weather and the highs were in the 40s with an overcast sky and rain. It even snowed in Temple where Russell's Aunt and Uncle live.

Needless to say it was too cold for Charles to wear his Easter outfit which included shorts and sandals. So, no pictures of him were taken in his cute duds. We'll have to take some pictures when he's dressed for church when it's warm enough to wear those kind of clothes.

Sunday afternoon we headed to Dallas where we met "Crazy Uncle" Joel for dinner. Justin Daily was with Joel but we didn't get to see Kris. After dinner we drove to Oklahoma City and spent the night at my brother's house again. Russ was tired so we slept in.

Our last stop on the trip was to see Grandma Heusel. She was excited to see us, especially and Charles. We took over Randy's job as UPS man and delivered some books she had ordered from the store.

Charles's Easter was more profitable than Christmas! He got 3 Easter baskets full of goodies. There was one waiting for him from Grandma Goentzel when we got home. You can tell from the picture he enjoyed chewing on the plastic eggs.

Workin' Outside

It's a jungle out there...in our yard that is. The grass (where we have it) was above my ankles. So, on Sunday I cleaned up after the dogs in the backyard while Russell tuned up the lawn mower. Charles got to be in his walker in the garage (see the close-up of him in his hat) and LOVED it. It's one of the few places without carpet so he was able to "run" around. The barricade at the end of the garage cramped his style which didn't make him very happy. We tried to put him on the deck in his exersaucer, but he'd reached his limit. Maybe he just doesn't like the deck.

My mom talked to a friend, Judy Wells, who is in the nursery at our church. She loves getting to see and hold Charles, she used to do that with me and my siblings. Anyway...she says Charles is all boy. Most of the other children his age are girls. Judy said all the girls are calm and quiet, then there's Charles who bangs on things and jumps around in the exersaucer--a typical boy. How funny to hear! I would've never known that about him. I guess it's just because we don't have a girl to compare behavior. Russ was quite pleased to hear his son is being "manly!"

This morning Charles' cough was worse so I took him in to see Dr. Scott. His right ear had fluid in it but the other ear was clear and his lungs sounded good. So...we're on our first ever dose of antibiotics (pink amoxicillin-yum, yum) and we've invested in Dimatapp. My mom swears by the Dimatapp, but someone told me it doesn't do anything. I think it depends on the kid and their specific ailment. It worked for me and my brother and our plethora of ear infections. Of course that was 25-30 years ago!

Tomorrow we babysit for cousin Elena while her mom goes to observe a music class at the special-ed school. It will be interesting to hear what they do for music. I'm sure it takes a special person to teach that class.

We're planning to go to Texas for Easter. Russ' grandpa Sharp died so we're going to go spend some time with Russ' family. We're lucky to have Mom and Dad here to dog-sit so we can leave on short notice. We need to find someone to come let the dogs out on Easter Sunday while Mom and Dad are in Oklahoma City at my brother's house. We have friends and family I could ask but they'll be out of town or busy with family Easter activities.

I better get to bed, it's 10:30 and it's been a long day.