Evening Park Outing

Tonight I fed the kids early so that we could have more time to spend with Ben besides just eating dinner together and then putting them to bed. He came home, scarfed down some food and we were off to the park. We practically had the park to ourselves and it was such a pretty evening. Definitely warm/humid, but not unbearable.

Charlie seems so big to me lately. His favorite word at church on Sunday was, “MINE!!!” Not good. :) He talks non-stop, but it’s hard to understand a lot of what he’s saying at this point. I need to get a video of his talking because it’s hilarious! He always sounds a little sad when he talks. He’s not usually a sad little guy though. The most common words he uses throughout the day are “All done,” “NO” “Blankie” “Eli” “Mom” “Dada” “Leo” (his stuffed dog that looks just like our neighbor’s real dog named Leo). He loves making animal noises and gets such a kick out of seeing real animals, whether we’re on a walk, driving in the car, out and about, wherever. He always spots the birds and dogs and whatever else is around.

He is very independent at the park…

But he also gets such a kick of chasing Eli around (or at least watching Eli run around and laughing at him)

There’s Eli! (pointing at him)

Eli was all about pretending we were taking the train to Chicago, since “that’s where Daddy works.” Eli is very into pretending lately – he has an imaginary dog, also named Eli. Though yesterday he broke down in tears (VERY randomly as we were walking from the garage to the house after being out), crying because “I don’t have my own dog!!” Which is so funny to me because Eli gets so scared when he’s up close and personal with any real dogs. He really likes the idea of them though.

Both of my kids love rocks and throwing rocks. But Charlie is in a stage where he just loves to carry them around and grips them tightly in his chubby little hands.

Speaking of chubby, the other day, Eli kept squeezing my arms, saying in a sweet voice, “I love your chubby little arms…” Wonderful. I think he’s seen me do that to Charlie about 100 times :) Charlie does have chubby arms. I’d like to think of mine as more muscle.

Totally. All muscle.

I think at this point Eli was pretending we had to get back on the train to go somewhere else. I don’t remember where the next destination was.

Eli has been wonderful lately in the mornings. I think he sleeps until about 7:30 or so. But the kicker is that he has started to either play in his room quietly or go downstairs and entertain himself until Charlie wakes up. Which sometimes isn’t until 9 a.m. Which means I have on occasion, actually slept until 9 a.m. (like this morning, for example). Thank you ELI!!! I trust him not to get into trouble – though sometimes I find evidence that he snuck a little chocolate or something else that was a sweet treat.

It’s hard to care too much though when I’m getting more sleep :)

Still carrying some rocks around…

Eli had fun talking to Ben through the pipes -

While Charlie conquered running across the bridge over and over. He really amazes me with stuff like that, since it took Eli a lot longer to feel confident on a wobbly bridge. He had eaten a lot for dinner tonight, so his little tummy was sticking straight out. I

Ben talking to Eli through the pipe -

This is my favorite picture of the evening – Charlie proudly, confidently walking along as happy as can be. It was so fun to watch.

I love Charlie’s chubby little arms, but his short legs in shorts make me smile too :)

And to end this – more rocks.

And if anyone out there is wondering (I’m kind of doubting, but I’ll mention it anyway), I have now tried out five different blogging platforms that work on the Mac. And I’ve disliked them all. I’m blogging this on Windows Live Writer on Ben’s computer. Pathetic!! I love my Mac. Just don’t love the lack of blogging options, especially using images hosted on Flickr. BOO.