Yo Gabba Gaaaabbbbbbaaaaaa!

First off, yes, these pics are awful. I didn't think they'd let me take in my nice camera, as to be fair it does have very nice HD video, maybe I'd just record the whole thing and distribute, haha. Other than that all we have is cameras who do AWFUL in low light. But after I kinda felt bad, because other people had SLRs in there, so maybe I could've got away with it.

So the story is we ended up winning some tickets to a live stage show event of one of Charlie's fav shows, 'Yo Gabba Gabba' from a radio station through the magic of facebook. I felt a little bad because I found out about the contest through another facebook friend who would also have loved to go. We did end up winning. (I was begging, borrowing and stealing for votes.) This is just a show that actually interests Charlie. He's not big time into TV yet, but this is his speed. 5 of the about 30 words he knows how to say right now are, Muno, Fuffa, Brobee, Toodee, and Plex. So yeah, he's a fan. I really wanted him to see it, but there really wasn't money in the budget for it - some of the cheaper seats are $30 per ticket, and yes, a not quite two year old has to have a ticket. So we decided weren't going to go if we didn't win, but we did. I was like jumping up and down when we won.

Charlie, who has an attention span of 2 minutes for anything besides coloring (even watching the show on netflix, he has to run around and play while he watches), sat completely and totally still for the entire hour and a half of this show. It was unreal.


The bad part - they sold all this merch, of course. And Charlie saw some beanie babies with the other kids, and he was instantly obsessed. He just kept staring and screaming 'muno', 'brobee'.... Sooooo... like the sucker parents we are, we got a few. They were stupid expensive, but it was totally worth it. Check out this video of how much he loved these things... that makes the price worth it! (We were just glad we hadn't had to buy tickets AND the dolls.)

In the not quite 24 hours we've had these things, Charlie has probably put them down twice. And that wasn't for a long time. While walking to the car after I tried to take them so he wouldn't drop and lose them, but there was absolutely NO question of that.

Thanks friends and anyone who voted to get us these tickets. We had so much fun!

A Post that is Mostly About Halloween...oh and HI, I'm back!

This is me diving back in to blogging after 6+ months, ha. I've decided that it's a good plan not to try to catch up all at once, and I may never really catch up, but I may pepper stuff back in as I have the time and energy. I'd like to jot down a few things before I forget, but we'll see! I really got inspired to try and keep up some tidbits here, as I went back and tried to put together a scrap/photobook of our 2010. This blog helped me so much! You never know if anyone cares or is reading your blog, so sometimes I was just like, 'eh, whatever no one cares.' But after how nice this blog was to help put together a picture book of our year, I truly realized, the person I'm blogging for is mostly me!

The lead up to Halloween I wanted to do all this stuff, but I've actually been pretty busy with a lot of weddings with the photography thing. Which is great, but we didn't get a lot I wanted to in. But we did go over to the pumpkin walk which is like tradition. Charlie is a bit young yet for this, but he did like a few things. The amount of open grass to run in, the kids all around, running away from mom and dad. He didn't get the 'scenes' except one: Tangled. He was absolutely memorized by the Tangled scene.


And we had a melt down and had to leave over the little, I don't know what they're called you put your head through a hole and you're in a scene or whatever, that was of Toy Story. He absolutely was taken with it, but he didn't want any kids to put their faces in! It really upset him, he just wanted to stand at the front and stare at it and touch it. So we had to leave, cuz he kept trying to keep other little kids out of it, which isn't great.


SO here's the thing about Halloween for us... I'm ambivalent about dressing up and all that, I like a good party, but that's it... John won't dress up at all really. He likes eating candy, if that counts for being involved in Halloween. Charlie being little and not knowing if he cares about it or not, basically gets involved to the level we care to, so the last two years we've just kinda had a fun time coming up with random ideas to dress him up as. Year one, he was 10 mths old and had funny patchy hair. We thought he looked like he had a 'comb-over'. That hair started these ideas of an old man costume, which sorta refined into him being 'Benjamin Buttons'... Thus a baby-old man. Haha. This year we knew what Charlie was going to be for a very long time because we've been calling him "Charticus" for ages. I don't know how the nickname started honestly. But probably 6 months ago one of us threw out the idea that he should be like a Spartan warrior/one of the 300 for Halloween - named Charticus of course.

So we printed off some pictures from the internet of like Gerard Butler in "300" and then just pieced together how we'd make a costume. The nice thing was, we NEVER thought he'd be able to actually go outside in his costume. In October it's usually just way too cold to wear most costumes without a coat, let along basically underwear and a cape. But randomly Halloween turned out to be 60+ degrees. Still a little chilly for extended wear of this particular costume, but he ran outside and we took some pictures, and we spent 5-10 minutes at the neighborhood trunk-or-treat. Then we just went to my moms to 'trick or treat' and hung out till bedtime at her house. We were real party animals this year!

This is John and Charlie eating their Halloween hot dogs at the trunk or treat. And John trying to coax Charlie to look at mom and smile.

All in all it was fun, albeit laid back!

Big Time Stuff...

"I own a Mitsubishi Gallant, BIG TIME STUFF!!!"

If you don't understand the previous quote then you don't watch enough SNL. Haha. One of Will Ferrell's finest. The man is essentially trying to validate or get respect for himself by bragging of his silly belongings, and always screams stuff like that at the top of his lungs over dinner. "BIG TIME STUFF!!!"

Feels a little bit like what I'm doing. Haha. But as this blog has just become somewhat of a life chronicle, I'd be remiss if I didn't record this. It's huge for us, although probably not so much for others. We set out to look for houses with a realtor a few months ago. Our price range is small and our expectations as always too high, ha. But we saw some things we liked okay, but there was this or that fix we'd need to make, and any house we were looking at was realistically going to take some remodel for us to enjoy our time in it much. We really knew that going in, and were all gun ho to learn how to do things like install wood flooring and moldings. We really hadn't even slightly considered building. One, we didn't think it was in our price range, and two, we didn't think we had time. As chance would have it though we came across this builder and he told us the market being what it was he could build us a house that would get our "needs" (not wants, big difference) met and equal what we were looking at and he'd sign a guarantee as to the price. So this new decision on the table really sent us through a loop for awhile - but we decided to take the chance.

So yeah, we're building a house. It's just a small starter home, but it will be fun to have it how we 'think' we want it for at least the next some odd years. It's really a lot of decisions, this is what I'm finding out so far! Some that I just think, 'what's the difference?!' Plus we're putting in some sweat equity of our own and we're looking forward to it, and not, because we know it's gunna be lots of work. Everyone keeps asking us, "Can your marriage survive building a house?!" And we always say, "We'll see!" :) Hehe. But it is stressful, no doubt on that. It's mostly stressful trying to get the most out of your dollar and decide what you should push for, and what isn't that important, and what you really want, and what you can let go, and is there something you should have done that you didn't, always worrying you're making a decision you'll regret or wish you could change.....

In other words, we are growing a lot from this experience. It's going to be quite the life lesson!

February 20th!

February 20th!

February 28th!

March 1st!

March 7th!

Leland's Third!

Three balloons equals it's been three years today since Leland was born!

We miss you Leland and we love you! Hope you're calling in some favors for us up there! :)

12 Months

Another one of the many, many hazzards of having your birthday in the middle of the holidays is not getting your proper birthday tribute on time. Shame shame! I know Charlie, nor my faithful faithful readers are all that concerned. But, like I've said before, I don't journal, so....

One year! One year and it feels like one week and 10 years all at the same time. I think pretty much every parent looks back over their pictures at this point and wonders, 'how did this tiny baby get from looking like this...'

'To looking so big, like this..."Fortunately, my mom asked me to take this series of pictures for her, since she's on a mission far away so she could see his growth, and so now I can see how it all happened. (I took an 8 month picture, but alas, can't find it anywhere, it must have been deleted inadvertently. I'm so sad, cuz now that it's all done, I think it's kinda cool. I sorta wish I'd spent more time on the pics, and shot them all exactly the same and stuff. But you can't imagine when you're staring at your kid all day that you'll ever have a hard time remembering them how they are!)

Seriously? 12 Months!

• Waves hi! He learned this about 10 months or so and absolutely LOVED it. As soon as he figured it out and figured out how much of a reaction he could get from total strangers he was just obsessed with waving. He had the one handed version and the two handed version, and it was such a crack up. He would wave at EVERYONE when we were at the store or anywhere. He was always so pleased with himself when they waved back.
• Started saying 'Hi'. It was a "Hi" wave combo for awhile. Lately he has dropped the wave a lot, but he says "Hi" a lot to people. When he sees grandma on Skype, "Hi". When he sees you in the morning, "Hi". He doesn't understand "Bye" however, he just wants to do "Hi" again, especially if people are waving.

• Learned at thanksgiving that he looooooves pizza. Ate almost a whole slice himself. Also loves Chili, fruit, cottage cheese, and anything sweet!
  
• Sometimes we call him our German baby, because Charlie has this fluent babble that has all these really harsh consonants in it, that sounds like he's going off in German. "Ideekanaofkpt!"
• Sleeps through the night again, phew! Charlie had been a pretty darn good sleeper, all things considered right from the very beginning. However, at about 9 mths he went through a phase where he woke up, ALL THE TIME... By about 11 months he was waking up 6+ times a night at points. Finally we worked out something to help him sleep (or maybe the phase just passed, haha, who knows?). Now he's back to 11-12 hour nights, and typically doesn't wake up. Niiice.
• Got his 6th tooth just a week or so before his first birthday!

• Became my picky little eater, BOO! Hoping this one's a phase.
  
• Learned to walk! After about 11 months we were interested to see if he would walk, so we'd put him between us and try to get him to take steps, he'd take about one. Only as long as it took to get to his hands and knees to crawl away from us and whatever nonsense we were up to. So we figured he was really uninterested. But about two weeks before his first birthday he took a few steps, about a week later he was very wabbley walking, and by his first birthday he was doing pretty well and was walking almost all the time!

• Charlie is king of the courtesy laugh. If other people are laughing he'll join in as if he's in on the joke. Including if people are laughing on TV, or if mom and dad are laughing AT the TV.
• Growls like a monster.
• Loves to play "monster chase", he crawls as fast as he can, but just falls on his face laughing after a few feet.
• When you ask Charlie where his nose is, he will grab YOUR finger and use it to point to his nose. Something's not totally computing there. Haha.
• Loves to sing songs. Well he likes you to sing to him. It will keep him calm in the car or during a diaper change if you'll sing him some of his favorite songs.
• Has the funniest dance moves. Looks like a little traditional indian war dance.
• Loves to rock on his rocker. Crazy style.
• Likes to empty cupboards and really wants to play with the plunger.
  

WE LOVE YOU CHARLIE! BEST YEAR EVER, HANDS DOWN!!!

You're Only 1 Once.

Yeah, December 28th is a lousy day for a party. But the Saturday before was Christmas, and the Saturday after was New Years. So we decided there was going to be no good day to have Charlie's first birthday party, so we would just have it on his actual birthday. We invited a couple close friends and family. Even so you know me, I like to throw a party, cheesy themes and everything. I couldn't rein myself in too much, even though we all know Charlie could care less at this point.

We had two cakes. One miniature one that Charlie could destroy in the traditional 'eat cake with your hands' first birthday tradition. (Ignore the horrible icing job, maybe because it was cut out and not a mold, this thing was impossible to crumb coat, even entirely frozen.)

And one that the rest of us could eat without getting the drooley, mangled remains from whatever Charlie left over.

Lots of blue for my boy. Blue candy, blue plates, etc.

The Birthday Boy!

Didn't take any pictures but we all made our own french bread pizzas, because Charlie looooves pizza. He's become a really picky eater, but he will go to town on a pizza he can now eat more than a slice himself.

Singing Happy Birthday!


How many pictures can you possibly look at of a kid eating birthday cake? Well you're about to find out. I'll spare you the video, because it's actually about 7 minutes. Charlie started out strainning to get to the cake when we were singing and not giving it to him. But after the candle came out and John handed it over he thought we were tricking him or something. He kept looking at the cake, then looking at us, and then looking at the cake. He put his hand up to it, then pulled it away again like, 'no I'll get in trouble'. Finally he started tasting the frosting, but he actually was quite dainty about if for awhile, just enjoying a little frosting on his hand. John helped him get into it a little by opening it up, and then sticking his hand in. By about the 6th minute of the video he's just really getting into it!

Now we're getting it!

Had to show you the cool layers in this cake. I got the idea from a rainbow cake which maybe I'll make some day, but thought, 4 shades of blue, that could be cool!

The layers aren't really even whatsoever though because I didn't use the cooling strips on the pan, I don't have any here, and wasn't going to go to Logan to dig through at my moms to find mine which are still residing there!

Surprisingly his face didn't look as bad as it probably could have, but his hands were coated, and actually his jeans were the worst part. He kept putting his hands down on them, probably even wiping his cakey, icingy hands on them, and when we pulled him out here we just had to take the pants off. But hey what kind of a party would it be if you still had your pants on by the end. (I kid, I kid.)

The wreckage. See what I mean? Would you wanna eat that now?

What'd I get, what'd I get!

An airplane!?!!!

He started out just sitting on it, but he has this figured out a little too well now. So well that the other day he got rocking so hard he darn near went OVER the front. Not just him, he almost rocked the whole plane over the front. It also has little music that plays in the buttons, and he loves the songs, and wants them played over and over and over again.

Overall, a success. Thanks to everyone who came, and Charlie of course, for being one and cute!

Oh Christmas Day in the Moooooorrrrning!

Charlie's first Christmas, outside the womb, is over. And no he didn't care about it yet, he didn't even really care about ripping or playing in the wrapping paper, but I'm sure he'll love that part next year! He didn't care, but as mom I think I'm required to. :) So here we go:

It is Heywood family tradition that you must line up in the hall (they used this hall their whole lives in fact!) and have your picture taken before you go in to see what you got. Emily and Andrew even had to get into the line up, although that was more coincidental than anything.

Our little family, all lined up and ready to go!

Christmas morning magic right here, haha.
Ironically, Charlie did end up waking up an hour earlier than normal, but it was probably just his restless dad who wanted to get in and see what he got, that somehow floated in to his room and woke him. At least we got to sleep till just after seven. But I would have preferred the usual eight. It's not that I'm a bah-humbug, I just reeeaaallly like to sleep!

Charlie's present from Grandma, Grandpa and Uncle Andrew.

Aunt Emily is suuuuper excited about this package.
I'm guessing it's a million dollars.

Aunt Emily put a bow on Charlie's head and we stuck him under the tree. She told us that he was the best gift we got this year... even though technically it was last year....

Wearing his pirate eye patch. Arrr!

"Ooo, what's this mom? And can I take it somewhere and hide it from you?"

The older "kids" with the toys I bought them. Aunt Em is a pirate, Uncle Andrew is in the FBI, and John is a fireman. These toys were a hit, but they were being used for about the 5th minute when John tried to cut off Andrew's legs with his toy axe and it broke. Dollar store quality is just not what it used to be. I remember back in the day when you could EASILY dismember someone with those things...

White eating breakfast Emily pierced Charlie's ear and Andrew gave him a gun to play with.... so they pretty much win for worst Aunt and Uncle ever. I kid, I kid...

And at last we're just happily playing with our new toys in the wreckage.
(I promise the kid had clothes on at one point.
I'm starting to have a little ragamuffin on my
hands, he's always running around and
caught on film in a dirty onesie!)