Charlie Says - “Uh Oh!”

Why is it so cute when you’re 1-year-old first says “Uh oh!” totally spontaneously but in the right context?

Today Charlie was sitting on this chair, coloring with a yellow crayon, when it fell on the floor. And he said as clear as could be…

“Uh oh!” and smiled in a sweet, a tiny bit shy sort of way.

When I heard this out of his mouth, I stopped what I was doing and looked over at him – and responded, “Uh oh?” and he said it again and looked down at the crayon.

I love it so much. I love hearing my little boy communicate in these simple but amazing ways.

Of course, he does plenty of communicating in this fashion too - (unhappy whining)

Today Eli had his weekly physical therapy session at our house. His therapist, Lisa, is wonderful. She has such a talent for getting Eli to interact and move/strengthen his body, even if he isn’t initially willing or interested in what she is suggesting. She has commented every week that he seems to be making fast progress, which makes me happy. He’s getting custom orthotics for his shoes that will help him stand properly (instead of his feet falling inward) and his will help his muscles to develop correctly. Eli has a great time with Lisa and it’s fun to watch them work together.

Today we also spent a lot of time running around the house. Eli was sprinting from the family room, through the office/hall into the living room, and then back again.

Every now and then, he would fall on the floor, wiped out from all the craziness.

And later, I got this rare picture of the boys together, munching on veggie straws. This is before Eli got upset with Charlie for sitting on the chair that he wanted to use to make a fort. Oh Eli…. he has also been a little obsessed with “tackling” poor Charlie, which really means he crashes into Charlie who isn’t expecting it and is caught off guard. The worst is when this happens outside and Charlie goes crashing to the ground. We’re working on playing more nicely together :)

In other exciting topics, both boys slept until 9 a.m. this morning. I told a friend today that I don’t think I have slept that late EVER in the last three years. Daylight savings is a hard adjustment for all of us, but that totally made my day. And when Ben came home today, the sun was still shining! We celebrated by playing outside, despite the fact that it was 40 degrees and pretty chilly.

Snow Melting

Last week the highlight was the snow melting! Hooray for Spring, which came just in time – we were all going a little crazy after being cooped up for so long. I realize I never followed up on my lovely stomach bug… it took me a FULL WEEK to feel all the way better. That’s crazy. But the upside was losing five pounds, which is easy to happen when you have no appetite and you feel lousy when you do eat. I’d take being five pounds over my goal weight than being that sick, believe me. It was misery.

On to the outside pictures:

The boys had fun playing in the backyard, sloshing through the remaining snow. Charlie isn’t used to walking on such uneven terrain, so he kept tipping over and getting wet. But he’d get right back up with a smile on his face. He even biffed it on the walkway, which you can sort of see with the red mark on his forehead.

Eli had fun swinging again after not touching a swing in so long.

Charlie found a dirty ball that had emerged from the snow and threw it at the basketball hoop, over and over again.

Eli found another ball and soon took over Charlie’s play space. What else is new? :)

On another day, my Gram drove down with my mom and spent the afternoon with us while my mom taught piano lessons. We went on a walk (the temp was in the 50s, which felt good when the sun was shining, but not as great when the wind was blowing) and Eli found a stick that he deemed his fishing pole. He would stop at every puddle along the sidewalk and street so he could fish.

Toward the end of our walk, we stopped at a playground and let the boys run around for a bit. Here’s Eli and Great Gram on the teeter totter.

I put Charlie on in front of Gram and he loved it.

Both kids absolutely love the swings, so we spent lots of time with those too.

Charlie was really cute – he kept squealing and kicking his legs while in in the swing.

My boys had so much fun with their Great Gram as she has a song for nearly everything.

Today it’s back to dreary, rainy and cold. We even had a big thunderstorm a few nights ago. March is such a tease and my house always feels freezing when the weather jumps around so much. But birds are chirping and I spotted the first of the perennials starting to poke through the ground, so I know better weather is on its way.

The funniest thing out of Eli’s mouth today was when he and Ben were watching the birds outside through the window. Eli got a little worried and said, “The bird is eating itself!!” Luckily, the bird was just cleaning its fur a little :)

And finally, here is a video of Charlie last week playing with the piano – this is when we decided on the songs for Eli to sing in the talent show. I love Charlie singing along with his piano playing :) It’s always amazing to me too when toddlers this little totally know what you’re talking about, even if they can’t say many words yet.

Charlie Playing Piano - 13 Months from Sarah on Vimeo.

Ward Talent Show

Our ward talent show was last night, and after much deliberation and changes right up until the last minute, Eli did in fact participate in the show. I was nervous that he would freak out when he was up there, but thankfully he just thought it was cool to be up on the stage with a microphone, singing in front of all of the wonderful, smiling members of the audience who happily participated with his songs.

We finally decided to have him sing “If You’re Happy and You Know It” and “Itsy Bitsy Spider” since those were songs that people could do along with him. And they are Charlie’s favorite songs too. We asked Keenan at the last minute to accompany Eli on the ukelele, which worked out great! Keenan is Hawaiian and brings his ukelele to Eli’s nursery class each Sunday at church – the kids have all have a blast dancing and singing songs.

Here is a video of Eli’s performance:

Eli in the Ward Talent Show - March 2010 from Sarah on Vimeo.

My favorite part of Eli’s songs was when he did the “peek-a-boo” action, and everyone in the audience did peek-a-boo back to him. He was totally tickled by 100 people peek-a-boo-ing back. And there was a crowd of little kids sitting up toward the stage that were fun to watch too.

Ideas that didn’t make the cut for Eli’s talent:

-Having Eli and Charlie re-enact the youtube video, Charlie Bit Me (it just seemed too unpredictable and we didn’t know how many people would know the video)

-Eli dancing to the “Hot Dog Song” from Mickey Mouse Clubhouse (it is HILARIOUS when he dances to it – he does the crazy elbows and kicks and everything)

-A dozen other toddler songs that Eli likes to sing, but might not be as clear or fun for the audience

Ben also performed in the talent show – in a men’s quartet singing a medley of songs. I think they sounded great! Ben (is in the black sweater on the far right) sang bass and was REALLY nervous that he would mess up because they had only practiced twice. And he did make one main mistake, but I didn’t think it was a big deal. Here they are:

Men's Quartet - Ward Talent Show March 2010 from Sarah on Vimeo.

Slammed with a Stomach Bug

I’m trying to sit as still as possible as I type this – meaning, I’m trying to just type without moving the rest of my body. I feel so-so when I’m still, and I feel queasy, lightheaded, and just plain awful when I get up to walk around. I have felt this way all day long. I have no pictures from the day as I personally look horrific, and I didn’t have the strength to take pictures of everyone else.

Last night I was hit with a violent, horrible stomach bug. I went to bed feeling a little off, but figured I’d sleep it off and feel better in the morning. Instead, I woke up at 2 a.m. feeling extremely ill and sprinted to the bathroom to throw up.

The toilet seat was down, so my puking destination was the bathroom sink, unfortunately (I barely made it). Better than the floor… but still pretty gross. Especially as I kept throwing up – over and over again – and didn’t have the energy to move to the toilet. I wouldn’t recommend it because after I was done puking, I had to then stick a wood bbq skewer down the drain to help it all drain down. Yuck……………….. (don’t worry, I used a hefty amount of Lysol on the sink after skewering the drain).

Is this too much information? Probably for some of you – I’m sorry. But I’m too sick to care.

I threw up about 10 times last night – basically everything I had eaten that day and then some. I debated sleeping on the bathroom floor, but it was too cold and I had the chills. So I climbed back under my covers and miraculously fell asleep.

This morning, I woke up at 6 a.m. to the sound of Charlie crying, ready to get out of his crib. I nudged Ben and asked if he was going to work, and he asked if I thought I was okay. I hadn’t sat up yet, but I thought I could manage somehow if he went in. So Ben got out of bed to shower, and I slowly got out of bed to go get Charlie.

Ugh. When I pulled my solid little baby out of the crib (who was crying, throwing himself around, kicking my stomach… I really wish he would wake up happy for once!), I was hit with more nausea and exhaustion and realized this wasn’t going to work.

So Ben stayed home today to take care of the kids so I could stay in bed and try to feel better. My favorite quote of the morning was when he happily said, “I really needed a vacation day.”

HAH! Is that what my life is?? Eternal vacation days…? : )  (I know he didn’t mean it like that, but it still made me laugh)

The morning was smooth enough. I went back to bed, Eli went to preschool, Charlie took a morning nap, and Ben did some work from home. But Ben was slammed with a nice dose of my weekday solo parenting reality when:

1. Charlie only napped for an hour in the afternoon and was crabby afterwards. It was only 2 p.m. at that point.

2. Fussy, persistent Charlie went up against tired, emotional Eli, who didn’t want his little brother to get in his face and interfere with whatever he was playing with. This turned into quite the tearful battle between the boys.

3. Eli went to the bathroom (on his little potty), but refused to pull his pants up. So he waddled around for about an hour with his pants around his ankles. At one point in the afternoon, Ben went upstairs with Charlie to change his stinky diaper, then came down to find that Eli had pooped on the dining room floor. I was upstairs resting and heard Ben make the discovery….. ohhhhhhhh I was trying really hard not to laugh – because that made me feel more queasy.

4. Around 3 p.m., Ben was feeling stir crazy and decided they needed to get out of the house. I suggested they go on a walk, since the sun was shining and the temp was in the high 30s, which feels pretty warm after our cold February days. So he attempted to get the boys ready to go out in the stroller, but I could hear Eli whining, “I don’t WANT to go outside… I want to stay HOME,” which is what happens to me every single day. He is my homebody while Charlie likes to go out.

5. Eventually, they made it outside, had a nice long walk and came back refreshed and happy. Eli made me the sweetest “Get Better Soon MAMA” sign and brought it up to my bed. He gave me a big hug and said, “I’m sorry you’re sick, Mama.” Charlie was also excited to see me and kept repeating, “Memememe” over and over, which is unusual since he prefers to say “Dadadada” a million times (which drives Eli crazy :)  It’s nice to be missed!

After the boys went to bed for the night, I attempted to come downstairs with Ben in hopes of finding something besides 7-UP and saltines that wouldn’t make me more sick. Ben commented that now he understood why after the kids go to bed at night, I’m always running around the house, cleaning up and finishing stuff up that I wasn’t able to get to while they were awake. He’s going back to work tomorrow, so I am crossing my fingers that I’ll wake up and feel back to normal.

Good job Mr. Mom! I think you were fabulous today. I’m looking forward to my vacation day tomorrow :) Yeah right!!