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.

Ellie the show off

ellie rolled from her tummy to her back tonight. we had just arrived home from green bay and they had been in their car seats for 4.5 hours straight so I had the girls laying under their activity mats to stretch out. I have been horrible at having them do “tummy time” because I always forget about it and when we were in green bay they had not done it once so I flipped both the girls over and propped them on their forearms. then ellie just rolled right back onto her back! I thought it was a fluke so I propped her up again and she did it again. I was so proud of her! she is just 12.5 weeks (not sure if it is early or not to do this – can’t remember). I had bill come in and verify that I was not losing my mind. I do think propping them up on their arms gives them an advantage, but this is where having twins is convenient. when I prop claire up on her forearms she doesn’t make any effort to really arch her back and move her head to the side which helps them roll over. in fact, she just lays her head on the mat and starts fussing! so it confirms for me that ellie really can roll over. way to go eleanore! I will post more about our fabulous trip to green bay later, but I wanted to get this on the schmitt family record books.

bill and charlie’s adventures in chicago

well – better late than never. here are some of the pictures from charlie and bill’s outings.

on a bus. apparently charlie loved this, but the pictures doesn’t show it.

eating at xoco.

riding an escalator. this is always a favorite activity.

making friends with a homeless women and a lady and her dog. bill said traveling with charlie was a blast because everyone smiled at him. on one of the “L” rides charlie was peaking over at a person’s iphone and saying “me touch buttons”. the kid loves iphones.

at margie’s ice cream parlor. luck duck.

he got the front seat on the “L”

one morning, bill took charlie out to get some pastries and did not bring any diapers with him. bill sent me a text that read “goodbye daddy. me poop. oh no!” (when charlie has to go #2 he will say goodbye to you and get really angry if you try to get near him). yep – charlie dropped a big one and bill was stuck. he ended up using napkins as a makeshift diaper. let me be the first to tell you that they don’t work!

 

seeing the bean for the first time.

splashing in millennium park.

on g.pops shoulders. after this he was on bill’s shoulders and fell asleep.

in a “tall tower”

I am so grateful that bill does such a great jobspending quality time with charlie (and he loves it!). charlie would come back from each of their outings beaming from the special father and son time they had. it was just precious.

“me” time

I always knew I liked/needed my workout time. but now more than ever I realize I need alone time. working out usually gave me my much needed sweat fix and alone time of the day. but with the arrival of ellie and claire that has changed. now when I head to the gym it is to get charlie some play time and me a shower and hopefully a workout. with the girls getting older they are not always happy about being in their car seats. last week I went to the rac and was there for 2.5 hours (my max childcare time) and maybe worked out for 10 minutes. I did get a shower – I was determined to not leave there without. as I was getting ready to get into the shower while the girls were screaming in their car seats (after just being fed!) someone I know volunteered to watch the girls for me (usually I just wheel the stroller as close to the showers as I can get them without getting them wet and leave them). I said have fun and don’t worry about them crying. they were just fed and will be ok. I shower in about 2 minutes and by the time I got out my friend and another kind lady in the locker room were holding them. they said they just couldn’t hear them cry. so sweet.

anyway – after getting frustrated by the fact that my previous stress reliever was now increasing my stress I decided to find a time when I could just bail. that time is 8:30-9pm! last week almost every night I worked out or ran errands after 8:45pm. bill or I get charlie to sleep and then set the girls up with their evening bottles (I pump when I get back) and then bill willingly puts up with what is a fussing, eating, burping, frenzy (the girls will act starved, then scarf some milk, then act like they over stuffed themselves, then fuss, then burp/spit up, then sleep and look peaceful and then all of a sudden they freak and it starts over). why have us both suffer? as soon as I get in the car alone I am happy. it is just so nice to be “free”. to go grocery shopping at my own speed without having to take care of anyone else. to sweat like crazy on the stairmaster knowing that the girls are just fine and if they are hungry they have food. it is great. granted I come home and still have more work to do and go to bed super late (11:15-30ish and bill does too). but it is worth it. I am sooooo grateful for bill who encourages me to leave because he knows I have to get out of the house. because I know I have an “out” at night I can relax if things are not going my way during the day.

a lot of my errands last week were to prep for a big ENT party we hosted saturday. we had probably 40+ people over (including kids and there were lots). it was great and crazy. we had perfect weather. as bill would say “we” did a great job preparing and hosting. that is – bill did a great job vacuuming, getting the drinks ready, and grilling. I grocery shopped and grocery shopped, cooked, baked, cleaned, etc. but we are a team and my preplanning made all of saturday really enjoyable. things were in order so I didn’t have to get all stressed out. here are a few pictures of the crowd. all of our grub went over well.

charlie was a champ. he woke up from nap to find his toys all over the house and outside and being played with by a bunch of kids he didn’t know that well!! he was shy for awhile and then warmed up.

big brother

charlie continues to be a fantastic big brother. he always wants to help me with his sisters. once I get them into their car seats (he would love to put them in their car seats – but that is something “only mom and dads do”) he will rock the car seats for me to keep the girls from screaming (sometimes the rocking becomes extreme rocking, but at least they can handle it more now). charlie will try to replace their pacifiers any chance he gets (often when the girls don’t even want them).

when ellie or claire are on the activity mat or doing tummy time he loves to show them what they should be doing.

the bouncy jiggle chair is now another place for charlie to hang. the angle of the chair has drastically changed since he has been laying on it, but oh well. still works!

normally the girls take their evening bottles after charlie has gone asleep, but earlier this week they were a wreck so we gave it to them early. charlie loved this because he was able to help. he did such a good job giving ellie her bottle. he was so proud!

ellie and charlie hanging out together on the couch.

here is a picture of claire and ellie this past weekend.

then ellie lost it.

bill’s baby bump photo shoot

we have a moby wrap that we use to carry the girls. bill, however, does not use a normal “wrap” style to carry the girls. he has his own system of how he wraps them. I think it looks hysterical and the other day ellie fell so low in his wrap it looked like bill had a baby bump. I busted out the camera and he quickly posed for some shots. I laugh every time I look at them!

always a hand heart pic.

love the foot angle and hand wrap!

sam & charlie

my wonderful friend kacie drove to rochester from eau claire with her almost 3 yr old son sam to visit me and charlie and meet ellie and claire! she also decided to leave her 1 yr old little girl Lena at home with her husband so she could spend some time with the girls and we could chat. we had an absolutely great time. thank you kacie for taking the time to drive her and visit! can’t wait to do it again.

 

we had a heat advisory and the temps reached 100 degrees so we couldn’t really do much outside. after naps charlie and sam had a blast playing in the little pool on the deck.

a little downtime on the couch watching “finding nemo” before dinner.

here is the crew (missing lena!). bet we could not have predicted this scene when we were in high school!