First plumbing project

I installed my first sink faucet (minus the plumbers crack)!  After a couple of trips to a local hardware store and yes, another new wrench, I was finally able to install our new fancy faucet.
Here's the before:

And here's the after! I had purchased this new faucet years ago so I'm glad it's finally on.

I'm glad we're able to save some money instead of paying a plumber (gosh, they are expensive!). It did take me 3 tries to fix the leak which included sore and putty-smelling fingers after, but hopefully it's all working properly now.  It will definitely be tested today as we will have a family of 6 over for dinner tonight!
And now that I've literally gotten my hands dirty in plumbing, I'm ready for more.  One faucet down... 3 more to go! ;-)

Graham making Charlie laugh

I was trying to post a couple more videos of the boys, but for whatever reason the videos are not attaching to the blog properly. So, I've decided to post the youtube link instead:

Here is one of Graham making Charlie laugh.  It's so cute, but it will probably just encourage big brother to do even more silly things! Unfortunately, the quality of the video isn't so great but you get the gist of what's going on:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vYZgsJZymTE

And here's a video of Charlie. He's getting much better at eating his little puffs all on his own!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NfDOKoTHkKY

We're still working on the wagon wheels though.  They might still be a little big for Charlie:

And here is another video of Charlie - we are trying to "communicate" with him :-)

Last but not least, some pictures of the boys:

We all went for a walk and for whatever reason, Charlie kept having his right foot up throughout the entire walk and obviously after too!

"Run, Graham,... run!"

And oh, here's a photo that Graham took of our water downspout (yes, little duckies in our downspout).

Graham's got a pretty good eye for photography! Although, I can't say the same for his new accent when he talks. He started this funny twang at the end of his sentences.  Hopefully it's just a phase, but it's definitely driving daddy crazy right now!

Birds moving in

Well, it didn't take long for the birds to move in.  I saw them scouting the new birdhouse the day it was put up.  They finally decided to move in this past Sunday.

They were really busy getting grass and twigs into their new house. I'm almost curios to see what it looks like on the inside, although I hate to be attacked by domestic birds.  Now, that would really make a story!

It's like the bird is saying... "I'm watching you!"

New bird house

I finally decided it was time to bring the old birdhouse down.  It was really falling apart!  We bought a fancy cedar one and decided to hang it on the other side of the tree - to avoid the prevailing winds.  The cedar smells so nice!  For the price of this birdhouse, these birds will need to start paying rent!

It has been 2 days and still no new occupants though.  I wonder if I should have taken the "fluff" from the old bird house and put it into the new one.  Technically, these bird houses are suppose to attract blue birds for nesting. Although our old one was occupied by a couple of house wrens. I did spot the wrens on the roof of the new one, but they haven't decided to move in yet.  Only time will tell!

"Bring Charlie to work" Day

I decided to take Charlie out to the golf club yesterday.  Surprisingly, he did very well at the driving range. He was patiently watching Mommy:

Thankfully, it was warming up nicely so off we went onto the golf course!

Here's Charlie in the shade while waiting for Mommy to tee off on hole #2:

He seems happy...

But unfortunately, the fun only lasted 2 1/2 holes.  While approaching my golf ball on the 3rd hole fairway, Charlie started fussing.  So, I decided to head back to the club house, trying not to distract the other golfers on the golf course!  By the time we approached the club house, Charlie finally fell asleep.  So I thought I'd try to practice some more.  But once I stopped pushing the stroller, Charlie would wake up. So we decided it was:

 Puff-puff time!

Although, I think Charlie was actually eyeing my burger.

Well, despite the fussing and crying, I think we did pretty well for our first time at the club.  Hopefully there will be more trips and Mommy will need to remember to bring the baby sunscreen next time!

Pridgen boys update

Let's see... here should I start?  Well, Graham has learned how to line things up:

Here's little Scout and his books and below, we have his little pets:

Graham has also discovered the magic of magnets, as you can see here with his magnetic fishing poles:

We also started signing up Graham to the Lowe's Build and Grow program at the store.  Last weekend, we build a monster truck!

Mommy did accidentally hammer Graham's little finger.  Oops!  We have signed up for another project next weekend. Hopefully we'll do better then :-)
With the weather warming up and the wind picking up too, we brought out our first kite!

Well, here's what really happened...

We'll probably have to buy a couple spare ones :-)

As for Charlie, he is finally happier that I've actually been calling him Mr. Giggly.  More teeth are poking through. Here are the more obvious ones on the bottom:

And we started putting Charlie in Graham's old booster chair. I think he's a lot happier in it than in the high chair.

Charlie has also started to eat these little puffs.  He's getting better at picking them up by himself.  It's amazing how quickly they learn!

So focused! Although he still prefers it when Mommy feeds him:

Cheeky little fella!

Big brother Graham is making sure he captures every moment as well:

Charlie is still not crawling yet, but I don't think I'm in a hurry for him to do so!

Charlie is 7 months old

7 months old!  And Charlie is learning all about separation anxiety.  Oh boy, sometimes it's so bad that I can't even put him down!

I suppose it's also a combination of teething too.  Charlie now has his first tooth!  It's on the lower left central incisor.  He's also cutting more teeth on the upper central incisor.  Looks like the fussiness is going to continue for a while!
He is still our chunky bundle of love though:

Charlie obviously needs to continue working on his balance:

But Charlie loves to hang out with his big brother or "da ge" in Chinese:

Hopefully his "da ge" won't get upset when he finds out that Charlie has been at his favorite excavator!