Memorial Day Weekend

We were so glad to have a holiday weekend. Our first without homework or tests in a LONG time! We decided to move Charles to his "big boy" room this weekend. When we tried the toddler bed Charles woke up in the middle of the night crying, so we were preparing for the worst. But...he surprised us. Friday night he cried when Russ left the room...not just an upset cry but a cry that said he was terrified. Russell tried going in to comfort him but the crying began again as soon as he left the room. I finally went and got him and rocked him. I thought to sleep...but he wasn't. Russ took him back to bed and laid there with him 'til he fell asleep. Once asleep Charles slept all night, even through thunder, lightening,wind, and hail. Sometime before 7am we heard knocking on his bedroom door. He was awake.

Since then he's done better every night. We laid in bed with him for a nap on Saturday and at bedtime that night. Since then we've just put him in his room and he's cried a little bit, but it's not long and he's asleep. Sadly, he's been up before 7am each morning. This morning I hadn't heard him by 8:30 so I went to check on him. He was still sound asleep. He did cry a little in the night, but fell back asleep without us having to go in to check on him. We've been curious about his sleeping habits so I snapped this picture of him this morning.

He still doesn't like to sleep under covers or use a pillow!

We had a BBQ at Grandpa & Grandma Goentzel's house Sunday evening. Grandma got a pool for her back patio so Broookely, PJ, and Elena had fun playing and splashing. We were the last to arrive and Charles wasn't too sure about the pool. He liked standing in the bucket and getting his feet wet. While the others were swimming he watched and played in the bucket. At one point he stole Grandpa's straw Indiana Jones-esque hat. With Charles' blond bowl haircut he looked like he could've just walked off an Amish farm. Sadly, the camera wasn't out. But, we did snap a few photos of him playing in the bucket AND, once all the other kids were inside drying off for dinner he got interested in the pool and climbed in. He loved it. He just rolled around squealing "wee wee wee!"

You can see the other kids' heads while Charles is trying out the bucket.

It was HOT, so Charles needed a little refreshment...he got hold of this before we could get it. I guess it's good he'll drink diet instead of regular!

Enjoying alone time in the pool.

Splashing in the pool while Grandpa grills the burgers and the dogs.

Just trying it out.

Splashing & blowing bubbles is fun!

Monday morning we were up early...thanks to Charles' new schedule...so we headed to the Zoo around 9:30. It was nice and cool so we enjoyed being outside and the animals were more active than usual. We actually saw the male lion sunning himself on the big rock. On most of our visits we can't see him or the female very well because they are hiding in the shade.

Charles got to feed the sheep and the giraffes. He loved the barnyard. He wasn't scared of the sheep or goats even though some of them were bigger than him. We had a little trouble getting food out of the machine because there was a rather large and determined sheep who pushed us out of the way before we could get the food out of the machine. We ended up spending 50 cents on sheep food instead of just one quarter, but we finally were able to out fox the bully. There was another little one, maybe a goat because it had little horns, that was pushy about getting fed too. He kept butting Russell in the back of the leg trying to get some food.

Charles' interest in this faded quickly. We think it's because a bunch of people came up to the feeding area just after we arrived. We think he may be an introvert like both his mom & dad!