A fun week!

This week, Grandma and Grandpa Grover came for a visit.  Charlie had a great time hanging out with them all week.  Below are some pictures from their visit:

Making cornbread with Grandma.  They made cookies too... Charlie is a good cooking helper.

Reading a story with Grandpa.

The Monument Avenue 10K was this weekend too which is the one year anniversary of James' first race!  He of course ran it.  We went up to cheer him on near our house (and I brought the camera with no batteries) then picked up the batteries and headed down to the finish.  Below are our friends Andrew, Gaby, Keenan and Carrie who all ran the race too.

Later that day, James and Grandpa headed over to Toys R Us and got Charlie a smaller-sized basketball hoop.  He loves his other one but we have to help him use it so thought he would enjoy one he could use himself for a little while until he is tall enough for the other one.... and boy, we were right!

Look at that arch!

Of these two seemingly identical balls, he has decided that one is his and the other is for one of us to use.  He can determine the difference in .5 seconds and never confuses them.

Some other pictures from the week...

This is just sad.

Good Little Helper

Wow, this kid is getting big.  He helps unload the groceries... and is actually helpful!

20ish Month Pictures

It seemed like it had been awhile since we had some pictures made (Christmastime) so we went today back to Portrait Innovations to see what Charlie would do.  As expected, it was rather hard to get him to stay still but we got some cute shots.  And finally, seeing these confirms that I should perhaps get his hair cut :(   It will break my heart but perhaps it is time.  Again, I have many favorites...

The school photo

My actual favorite

Correction: Spring has not Sprung

Yuck, it has been a cold dreary weekend.  After getting some awesome days of outside time, we were all bummed to spend lots of time inside again.  Regardless we found some fun things to do:

Put the people in the holes and little blocks inside of big ones

"Hello?"

"Hey, let me in... it is cold out here!"

"And you really need to clean these dog-slober windows!"

Jamming

Future Architect/Construction Worker?

My favorite thing to play with Charlie is blocks.  I am so excited that he is finally showing similar interest in using every single block to make towers as high as we can!  This one below was his very first that he did pretty much by himself.  I made the base and helped him make some decisions on how to keep it sturdy along the way but he picked up and put up every single block in the bag.  Love it!

Spring has Sprung!

After a long cold winter, Spring has finally arrived!  This weekend we enjoyed many hours outside playing and rolling around in the wagon.  I brought the camera along to our first trip back to the playground near our house.  Charlie had a great time and could do many more things than he could last Fall including climbing himself up to the slide and scooping and raking sand in the sandbox.  I am so looking forward to many more fun times there all Spring!

A basketball game was going on so of course that is all he wanted to look at :)

Back at home checking out the garden

Snacktime

One of my new favorite things that Charlie does is follow instructions... what a pick up from a couple months ago!  He does many cute things but one of my new favorites is that he sits perfectly on the step between our kitchen and living room to eat snacks.  He of course would prefer to run around with a bowl spilling O's or raisins all over but I tell him to just sit on the step and he is so proud to do it like a big boy.  I snapped a few pictures of him the other day enjoying some O's.

Cars!

In constant search of fun indoor things to do this winter, I stumbled upon a car show going on this weekend.  We had no idea what to expect but went down to the convention center to check it out.  It was basically like CarMax for new cars... every make and model on display.  Since we are kind of into cars, it was fun but not quite as fabulous as I thought.  Charlie enjoyed climbing in and out of the cars and acting like he was driving.  Below, he and James are in an Escalade:

A New Ride

Now that Spring is here, we decided that Charlie needed a new ride to troll around the neighborhood in.  Since he is city-boy, he often needs to carry his outside toys to the park when we go play.  We found this wagon at Costco and it is perfect for all of his loot and has a cute little door he loves to walk in and out of.  He also enjoyed putting it together with James... he must get that interest from his Grandpas since things like this are not his dad's favorite (as you can tell by his face in the pictures :)).

Ready to roll!

Watch out Basketball!

Golf is here!  I found Charlie a cheapo golf set at CVS and thought it would be a fun thing to take to the park.  I was right!  He LOVES it and now in addition to Bask-ball and Oot-ball he says Of-ball (golf ball).

Dad has skills

Mommy does too!