sweet things

new age! our summer drink. it is carbonated chardonnay. go get some. now.

charlie said to me the other day…”me hold baby sister’s hand”. I turned around in the car and saw him holding ellie’s hand. so precious. (this also shows you how close together our car seats are.

growing girls. here is claire trying out the bumpo for the first time yesterday. she watched charlie get a bath.

 

charlie beginning to use the toilet. he will often ask now to go on the potty (usually #2) because he gets fruit snacks. i am not pushing a thing. i offer it as an option and sometimes he goes for it. a step in the right direction if you ask me. 

hanging with cousin paul

last weekend we drove up to hudson to hang out with paul. it was a quick day trip, but so much fun to just relax together (well – margit and I spent most of our time nursing, but we still had fun).

pete built tom and laura some new patio furniture. it is fantastic and so perfect for all of us to hang out together!

claire was giddy to cozy up to paul.

paul spent the entire time (when he wasn’t eating) crashed out! what a good baby! he was 6 days old here.

love love this picture of ellie and dotes having some girl time.

auntie suz

thank you thank you thank you auntie suz!!! bill was in LA for a conference from tuesday through friday. suzanne drove up from chicago super late on sunday night to stay for the week and help me with the kiddos (she even did middle of the night stuff with me when bill was gone). I owe her BIG time when she has kids because she gave up her vacation to be a crazy stay at home “mom” with me. from my perspective we had a blast! we were able to go do something every day and charlie loved the auntie suz time.

while she was here we… went to the oxbow zoo, the rac pool, played on the deck, didn’t shower, wore workout clothes the whole time, watched movies, baked and cooked, drank new age wine (our summer thing!), made some jam and more. here are a few pictures. I wish we had taken more pictures, but it is hard work trying to get a camera out.

at the oxbow zoo. charlie was seriously stunned by the active black bear.

wednesday night – laura and dotes drove down to have dinner and drink some new age. here are the wonderful aunties! (claire on the left, ellie on the right)

I love this picture of the aunties and the girls.

thank you suz for spending your “vacation” with us. you are so selfless and I am so blessed to have you as my sister. love you!

butz family reunion 2011

a few weeks ago we took our traveling circus to green bay to attend our annual butz family reunion. it was another great trip and so wonderful to connect with the extended fam. every family member (except my uncle tom) was in attendance, which is pretty incredible since my dad is one of 7 kids and I have 20 cousins (a lot of whom are now married) and there are now 12 almost 13 great-grandchildren. I haven’t added up how many people were there, but it was a lot! many flew in and the time always goes to quickly and we can’t wait until we can all hang out again.

with 12 great-grandchildren running around it was crazy (ellie and claire were the only ones not toddling around). we forgot our camera so we don’t have many pictures.

we spent a few mornings at my parents house hanging around. charlie made sure he got to ride on g.pop’s skid steer and move dirt around.

ellie loved soaking up time with her daddy.

ellie and claire loving their tutus.

the girls spent most of their naps like this. always jiggling and bouncing.

friday morning we met at my aunt jan and uncle john’s pool with the kids so they could splash around. the guys had fun golfing that day.

surprise. surprise. the girls spent most of their time in the bouncy chairs. I don’t think I want to add up the number of hours they spend in bouncy chairs or swings.

friday night we attended a surprise birthday party for my aunt jan. it was wonderful to watch her be so surprised. here suz and I are before leaving. I am nursing one of the girls with charlie on my lap. fun times.

on saturday we had a casual breakfast at our house and some people headed out on our boat for some waterskiing. my cousin jake met up with everyone on his jet ski and to off load some people from the boat bill took charlie on the jet ski. I wasn’t there to witness it, but apparently they weren’t just slowly putting around. looks pretty fast in the picture!

charlie loved it.

mid-afternoon everyone headed to my aunt debbie and gordy’s house for the big shebang. it was a great time seeing family and catching up. I just wish we could do it more often. after seeing everyone I am reminded of how blessed our family is and how wonderful it is that we all make the effort to keep getting together. I know it is a lot of work for family that lives farther away, but it is such a blast to reconnect and see our kids play together. hopefully us midwesterners can make a trip out east or down south sometime soon!

we survived

yesterday was our first nice day all week! we have had so much rain this june! once I knew the weather would be nice I was determined to get to the rac pool. poor charlie was going nuts in our house and so was i. I loaded up the crew and went to the rac to workout first and then I picked charlie up from childcare and headed out to the pool. the pool area has a big sand play area too so I had charlie play in the sand first while I fed claire. then ellie woke up and claire screamed while I fed ellie. at this point I was getting comments from other moms, which for the most part were really kind. here were some comments…”wow! you are brave.” or “you are ambitious.” or “how can I help you?” (things must have been going bad at this point).

here is charlie playing by himself in the sand. I never understood why there was only one entrance into the sand pit (and used to be annoyed by it), but I was SO grateful for it yesterday. I was able to park my stroller in the shade next to the fence that was next to the sand play area and be right across the fence from charlie but also be able to do other things without worrying about it running into the pool or escaping from the rac without me seeing.

claire enjoying herself. after this she realized she hated the bright sun and the pool.

after charlie tired of the sand he wanted to go in the water. I got him all suited up while I had claire in the bjorn. then I held ellie while claire was in the bjorn and we headed into the water. it is a zero entry pool so it is great for moms with multiple kids. charlie wears this “puddle jumper” life jacket thingy and it is great. he can move around easily, but it is nice knowing he isn’t going to sink quickly. he actually can kind of swim with it, but yesterday he wasn’t allowed to go past where he could stand. when we were out in the water and charlie was playing in the fountains a few moms that I recognized from being around the rac a lot were in the water with their toddlers. they both offered to hold ellie and I took them up on it. charlie had fun playing in the pool and the girls were both happy being held (thank goodness for kind helpful people!). all in all I was so proud we made it to the pool alone and survived!

today – I took a few pictures of the girls when they were happy as can be. the thing with two babes is that it is so hard to get them both smiling!

here they are both looking…claire is on the left (purple), ellie right (green).

almost both smiling! they are getting so big!!!

close up. so do you think they are easy to tell apart?

some outtakes – I love that ellie’s eyes close when she smiles really big.

claire looks like she is belly laughing inside. I can’t wait until I can hear their giggles. they are such happy babies!

me do…

conversations with charlie are getting more and more involved. the kid can talk like no other and will tell you exactly what HE wants. we have a lot of convos lately that start with “me do dis…”. I love his ability to think independently, but man it is mentally exhausting each day!

here are some charlieisms I want to remember from this stage…

• “that’s my cheek!” (used when you try to wipe off his face after meals) or “that’s my sleeve!” (when you grab his arm or hand to move him along) or my current favorite “that’s my penis!” (when you are changing his diaper. he makes sure you know it is his. I then tell him it is in fact his and no one should be touching it except when changing diapers).
• he is really into deciphering between big and little. he will hold up his toes next to ellie or claire and exclaim “baby sister’s little toes. me big toes!” (or something like that). yesterday, he wanted to watch george (curious george). I told him after we finished playing with trains and when his sisters got up to eat he could watch a little george. he then harped back “big george!”. or when being told he has one minute left to play with something (most often someone’s iphone) he will say “one BIG minute!”.
• when we are playing with duplos and building things he will often as for help. “mom – help!” I will then help him out and often get an “oh, thanks mom”. it just warms my heart.
• I was putting charlie to sleep yesterday and the girls were napping. when I was laying him in his crib and tickling his back and singing him his one song one of the girls started crying. midway through he looked up at me and said “mom go help baby sisters. baby sisters crying.” I about died it was so sweet of him to think of them and want me to go help them. he continues to be extremely sweet to his sisters. as soon as he sees them he gives them big kisses on their heads and always “hugs” (really squeezes them hard!) them. they just adore charlie. when he is running around them like crazy they just follow him and give him extremely big smiles. I am trying to capture this with pictures, but I never have a free hand to get a camera. I feel like the girl’s safety is probably more important.
• on the changing table, he knows he should bend his knees because it makes it easier for us to change his diaper. when he is doing a good job he will look at you and say “me doing a good job bending knees”.
• charlie loves his grand pappy (bill's dad). whenever you mention pappy charlie always brings up "pappy's truck" (sounds more like cock, which is hysterical!). he talks about his adventures with pappy like this..."me go pappy's truck. go off-roading. see goats. catch big fish. me press horn."
• charlie also loves his g. pops (my dad). he really loves g.pop's skid steer. every day while we were in green bay he would say "me ride g. pop's skid steer? move dirt. yes!" (as if he was answering his own question).
  
• i could write an entire post about charlie's iphone obsession (which i cannot stand!), but i refuse to do it. charlie is not allowed to play with my iphone and whenever he gets his mitts on it he instantly says "thank you, mom...thank you, mom" as he is rapidly sliding his finger across the screen to enter and trying to press as many buttons as possible. with bill's phone he often looks at pictures so whenever he eyes bill's phone he will instantly say "me see pictures? yes!". other people sometimes let charlie man their iphone (i would NOT recommend this) and has been known to delete all the notes, pictures, etc. when playing with pappy's iphone one time charlie said "me press garbage can". now he knows not to press certain buttons so when looking at pictures he will say "no press garbage can" or "email picture" or "no press big button. only moms and dads press big button".
• tantrums are definitely a part of our life now that charlie has turned 2. the best part about charlie's tantrums is that when he is in the beginning phase of a tantrum he will begin to throw himself to the ground or throw his head back and he will also say "me throw tantrum" (very calmly - which is awesome). last night he said to bill when he wanted to throw a tantrum "me throw tantrum. me bonk beez (bonk his head)". depending on the situation we sometimes allow charlie to lay there, but once he acknowledges he is having a tantrum it usually doesn't amount to much. if he is throwing a tantrum when he is supposed to be in timeout he then gets put in his tantrum chair (his highchair - moved to a corner). all in all i think we are managing the tantrum stage pretty well, but i will be delighted when it is over.
  

charlie and I are having fun playing a lot of pretend. I am having to dig deep into my brain to try and muster up some fun 2 year old play, but it is definitely helping him play more instead of just mull around mindlessly. the duplos, cars and stuffed animals are perfect when combined to have a big pretend world. charlie is soaking it up. I notice as we play more pretend play he does a better job of playing independently for short periods of time (still VERY short, but alone which is good).

here is charlie lining all of his cars up by color.

it’s a BOY!??!?

congrats to pete and margit on the birth of their sweet boy, paul thomas! paul was born yesterday – june 21st in the afternoon. pete and margit were expecting a little girl, but it turns out the sonographer was incorrect (and has been 7 other times!!) and did not read the ultrasound correctly. either way, the entire schmitt family is overjoyed at the addition of this little man. we drove up and back late last night to meet him. it was great to hold him and it made ellie and claire seem “big” (yeah right).

our crew hauling into the hospital. pete escorted us in an all blue outfit (he had appropriately changed out of his all pink outfit that he was wearing during the 2 days of labor).

here is sweet paul.

the glowing mother – margit!

pete – so excited to see bill with his son.

all the schmitt grandchildren and kids!

this was on our way out. ellie and claire are getting more and more beautiful and sweet!

ellie was all smiles.

claire all wrapped up.