State Fair!

Not by design, but the majority of Charlie's toys and books have some sort of farm theme.  So imagine my excitement when we realized that the State Fair was in Richmond this week!  We saw every variety of farm animal and he even touched a few!  Below are the highlights:

Piggies!!! Just before this we saw them all drinking from their mommy.

Goats!

Little boy in a big tire

Weeeee!

On a tractor

Happy Farmer!

Serious Farmer! (hence the black and white)

On the way back from the fair we stopped at Bass Pro Shop for lunch.  James read that it was one of the "Top 5 Activities for Toddlers" so since we were in that neck of the woods, we stopped in to check it out.  It was pretty cool... if you are in to guns and dead animals.  They had a cool waterfall that Charlie liked and then...

Going through his mind... "Holy crap Mom, what is that?!? Walk away slowly."

Totally sacked out after exactly 1.5 minutes in the car on the way home in the middle of "Touch and Feel Pets."

Back in business

Just because they are sweet...

Charlie's new fall wardrobe is so sweet... he really dresses exactly just like James now and looks like such a big dude!  I'm pretty sure he wore the exact same outfit as the first picture just a few days ago :)

New Shoes, Take Two

After being excited about Charlie's new shoes (several posts back), I realized that I ordered them in the wrong size :(  It was a total bummer because I couldn't find the same pair in his real size so we had to get another style.  Still cute, just not as super-cute as the first ones.  We've been giving them a good workout walking around the block every evening since the weather has been so nice.  With Charlie's little legs and frequent stops to examine flowers, bugs and holes in the sidewalk, it takes us about 30 minutes to get around one block so the other three of us aren't getting much exercise.  Marley in particular seems pretty bored with it all.

Babies Can Watch Football

We have a zero tolerance TV policy in our house for one big reason: the minute it comes on, Charlie is a total zombie... you can literally see the brain cells dying away as he stares at it.  I'm the crazy one about it and James puts up with me and complies most of the time.  The one exception which he learned in baby class is that "babies can watch football."  I guess there is something to be said for the male bonding(?) that I suppose is occurring while they are both zombies on the couch.  Either way, I let them have a few minutes every Sunday to do this:

Then we turn it off for the rest of the week.

Fun at the Dog Park

 

The pretty girl

Charlie trying his hand at the ball thrower

 

Getting some air

Watching Marley go!

"Can't quite get the hang of this thing..."

 

Pooped

j

Charlie's Current Hairstyle

Business in the front...

Party in the back...

The boy has a mullet.  It is getting so long in the back but he barely has any hair in the front still.  Poor guy, this is how John Grover started out too I'm sure.  He makes the mullet look good.

"New" Carolina Gear

Charlie actually got these shirts when he was born from James' boss but he is finally big enough to wear them for football season this year.  I think they speak for themselves...

New Shoes!

Charlie's first pair of real shoes came in the mail today and I was so excited for him to try them on!  They seem to fit great so we'll have a good time wandering around outside in them this Fall.

Front view

Back view

Buttons!

Charlie LOVES buttons... on shirts, pillows, our duvet cover, etc.... he doesn't discriminate, any button is cool.  So imagine his joy when I got him a shirt full of buttons.  He has then on some shorts and polo shirts but this shirt has many more than any of those.  Even after his initial excitement, he kept looking down at his shirt all day.

"Ohhh, buttons"

"Dad, do you see these"

Labor Day Weekend

James and I both took Friday off so we had a four-day-weekend for Labor Day.  Things have been really busy for me at work so the extra day with an agenda of absolutely nothing was just what I needed.  After laying low  on Friday we headed to Virginia Beach for the day on Saturday.  It was a beautiful day and many other folks had the same idea.  The camera (our little, cheaper one) was washed over by the rising tide but we salvaged the memory stick for these pictures:

So serious

Hanging with Dad

On Sunday, we went to the Louis Ginter Botanical Gardens.  We weren't sure what to expect but it was pretty nice.  They had a little water park that we thought Charlie might like now that he is walking around.  There was also a whole children's area with a sandbox, a butterfly garden, treehouse and several little gardens just the right size for kids.  Charlie was pretty apprehensive about the water park but after awhile (with us sticking near by) he wandered around a bit. Below are some cute pictures of our day there:

In the sandbox

Extreme close-up

"I'm not so sure about this Mom"

Looking for reassurance

Getting a little closer

"Hey this is fun!"

"Really fun!"

Reaching for the water

Tuckered out

Other August Fun...

Below are some other random pictures we took this month that I think are cute:

New cute jammies

Good morning!

Cheeseball

Little redneck

Pool on the front porch

More fun in the pool

Hanging with Dad

Jamming

Hanging with Mom

Most fun thing about the little car: putting things in the trunk :)