Catching Up

Sorry it's been so long since I've posted anything. My goal from the beginning is to have one post per week so you'll have new things to read all the time. I guess the last few weeks have been busy.

Last week Charles began Friday Friends. It's a kids day out at First Evangelical Free Church. It's on the other side of town (21st & Woodlawn) but I know they have a good Biblical base. I think it's more like Sunday School than daycare.

Last week was Russ' Friday off so he got to come along to drop Charles off. Here they are walking into the church. Russ spent the day at the University studying while I ran errands and had lunch with my former boss at Exploration Place. I got groceries all by myself. I kept hurrying and had to tell myself to slow down that there was no need to rush. I got everything on my list and even got to do some browsing.

My plan for this semester is to have Russ take Charles on the Fridays he has off and then he can go to the University to study. That way we'll only have to drive back and forth across town. Yesterday I came home and got our files organized. I sat and enjoyed a movie while I made files and labels.

Charles seems to enjoy it and is EXHAUSTED at the end of the day. Last week when we went to pick him up he saw us and started jabbering, like he was scolding us for leaving him behind. Maybe he was just telling us about his day.

I guess Labor Day has come and gone since my last post. We didn't do anything eventful. They replaced our windows a week or so beforehand so Russ had some repair work to do. There was siding that needed to be replaced. We had to take Charles to Grandpa & Grandma's so we could fold down the seat in the Honda to go get a 16' piece of siding. It was the first time he'd ever ridden in our Civic. A year old before the first ride. Of course it had to be documented:

What else? Last weekend was very busy. Our printer died so we ran back and forth to Best Buy trying to get a replacement. We have a long ordeal that involves the website promising a USB cable is included and then not getting one when we made the purchase. We finally got one at a significantly reduced rate ($5.00 vs $30.00) but that was after we jumped through hoops by ordering it on-line and then picking it up in the store. We also ordered blinds to put in the stairways. The new windows are a different size so the old ones don't fit. It was also cousin Elena's 2nd birthday. We got to her party late (thanks to the Best Buy fiasco) but still got to eat chocolate wacky cake in the shape of Burt & Ernie.

Tuesday we celebrated her birthday again by going to the mall and riding the Tea Cup on the carousel. Charles wanted to get out and walk so we borrowed Elena's harness so he couldn't run away. Elena tried to help lead Charles. I'll have to go to Target soon and get one that's a little cuter--they have ones that look like a backpack. You can get a puppy or a monkey. A monkey on his back--hilarious!

We stopped and had a snack before riding on the tea cup. The kids enjoyed looking at the fountain.

Charles wasn't too sure about the ride. He slipped down and bumped his head on that round handle.

Charles learned something new last night. We were eating pizza (as we normally do on Friday nights) and I had given him some olives off the salad bar. He discovered that he could stick his finger in the hole in the olive, accidentally of course! He started eating all the olives that way. Then he realized the Cheerios have holes in them too. He also noticed holes in the crackers. But his finger wouldn't fit in the Cheerios or the crackers. He was perplexed. We thought the idea was hilarious. He figured it out before Aunt Christy could teach him--it's her favorite thing to do at Thanksgiving. We couldn't get a shot of his finger in the olive, but we tried.

This week we also started back with Bible study on Wednesday mornings. Charles likes playing, but he's at that stage where he cries when I drop him off. Oh, well, he'll outgrow it soon enough. This week the Nursery Rhyme Time (story time) starts at the library. We'll have to go on Thursday mornings to a library that's a ways from our house. The closer ones are on Wednesdays during Bible study and Friday morning when Charles is at Friday Friends. Our weeks will be busy Wednesday-Bible study; Thursday-Story Time; Friday-Friday Friends I'm glad I'm not doing MOPS or we'd have something every other Tuesday too. My goal is to expose him to lots of different activities and groups. Hopefully that will make him adaptable. We could easily fall into the routine of just taking him to the church nursery & Grandpa & Grandma's house.

I'll try to get another post soon. Maybe on Fridays when I have some free time.