Charlie is 6 months old!

Can you believe it... Charlie turned 6 months old today!

Of course, we celebrate with cupcakes and as usual big brother Graham gets first dibs:

At 6 months, Charlie is still toothless but cute as ever, especially when being tickled by Daddy.  He's got a tickle spot right behind his ear:

And we just discovered today and Charlie is able to somewhat sit up on his own!

Not for too long though. Oops!

And for the past couple of weeks, he is best at blowing "raspberries" and loves to chew on his toes.  His footsie/outfit would almost always be wet when I pick him up in the mornings from his crib.

I'm not sure if I'm ready for Charlie to crawl yet, but I am starting to get tired of carrying him around. He's getting heavy!

Plane ride

Here are some pictures from our recent plane ride.  Graham has the funniest facial expressions!

I wonder what Daddy is REALLY telling him about those emergency procedures:

And Charlie... well, he was sleeping like a baby:

Funny how he crossed his fingers like that!

Just precious!

Mommy's first bench

Our storm-room is still lacking a bench.  So, I decided to take matters into my own hands.  We start out with the plan (yes, on Hello Kitty paper).

Then, cut up the pieces from some scrap wood found in the garage:

Here's the make-shift sawing table (Hint! hint!)

 Here we go!

 Halfway there!... and thankfully, Charlie is still napping :-)

Ta da!

Well, it's still a little wobbly.  I think I need to buy some brackets to stabilize the bench.  And I will still need to sand it down and then paint.  Hopefully I can get all that done before the first tornado warning this year!

Nice warm weekend

The weather was so nice this past weekend.  We were up in the mid 60s!  Mommy decided to tackle the gutter/downspout by the garage.  I still did not like the look of it... so, armed with a pair of pliers - no turning back now!

And this is what I ended up with the next day:

I can't wait for it to rain now to see the duckies in action! He he!

Graham enjoyed playing T-ball in the backyard. Look at that form! And... he's swinging lefty!

And then, time for another haircut.  The new clippers are working great!

Meanwhile, Charlie learned how to stick his tongue out:

Still not sure why he was doing it. I don't remember Graham sticking his tongue out like that at 24 weeks. Although, it only lasted 2 days and that was it!  So I'm glad I snapped a couple good pics :-)

And Graham got a belated Christmas present.  Too cute!  Thank you Grandma and Pop-pop!

Now, he can help Mommy bake and cook! While Charlie continues to just be his cute self!

Recent home projects

Mommy has been quite busy lately with some home projects.  Most of the time I have to wait until Charlie is fast asleep and/or Graham is at school - assuming there aren't any dishes to be put away, clothes to be washed, or toilets to be scrubbed!
Let's see... where should I start.  I finally put the baseboard back in the corner by the shower door. It's been over 1 1/2 years now I think since that's been on the to-do list!  I'm not sure if the contractor that fixed up the new shower stall used the correct tile at the bottom.  Anyhow, I finally had a chance to bust out my new rotary tool and sanded off the edges so it didn't look too awkward:

Hmm... or does it look awkward?  Oh well, at least I did a decent job caulking (I think!)
And while I had the rotary tool out, I finally finished up my new chopping board.  I had an idea of making a chopping board with a couple of little sections in them.  That way, I can push my chopped garlic or onions aside until they are ready to be used and the other bigger section will hold all the waste i.e. onion/garlic skin - like the "thank-you-for-coming bowl" on those cooking shows on TV.

By the way, ALWAYS use your safety goggles when using the rotary tool (I suppose when using any tools!).  The strip of sandpaper actually flew off the rotary when I was working on the chopping board and it hit me on my chest. I guess it was time to switch to a new roll of sandpaper!

Onto the next project... I got so tired of having Graham's shoes piling up in a shoe box.

So... I put Graham to work to build some shelves. Safety goggles on, please!

 Tada!

By the way, Crocs are great shoes to use for making shoe prints.  The paint washes off really easily! 
These new shelves are working much better!  This morning, Graham saw his shoes on his new shoe rack for the first time and said "I like this".  Hooray for Mommy! :-)

And as for needlework, I did make a bag with some leftover fleece. Hopefully it's good enough as a birthday present!

My next project is to make Graham a pair of rain pants.  That way he can wear them while playing in the dirt/mud in my garden. He just loves bulldozing and excavating dirt!  I just have to wait until the boys are fast asleep... like this one.  Don't worry... it looks like Charlie's head is buried under his blankie but it's not.

It's like he tripped and fell.  Too funny!

First sign of ice

We had our first sign of ice/winter this past Saturday.  Thankfully we didn't have to go anywhere!

I hope the birds are alright in their bird house!  It's looking quite worn out already. I'll have to touch it up later this Spring.

The cold the next morning didn't stop this woodpecker from using his beak "like a hammer" as Graham would say.  Look at all those holes on the poor pine tree!

Update on the Pridgen boys

Graham is back into potty training again today. We figured it's best to try and at least get him in his underwear during the weekend.  I had bought him a "potty watch" during our last visit in Phoenix and I think it was worth every penny!

We have been setting the watch so it plays a song every 30 minutes and Graham has been quite good about using the potty all day today. Only 2 accidents today!

Charlie, on the other hand, has been spending a lot of time on the jumperoo.  Sometimes, if you're lucky, he'll "talk" to you:

Other times, he wouldn't have a care in the world.  Ok, perhaps we left him in the jumperoo for too long :-)

And just yesterday (just like Graham at 23 1/2 weeks old too!), Charlie figured out how to roll back from his back onto his belly.  He's already doing it quite efficiently after just 1 day of practice!

Here is Graham when he started to roll over.  Gosh! Where has the time gone?!

http://cindyontour.blogspot.com/2010/11/another-rolling-over-milestone.html

And can't imagine that Charlie will be crawling soon too!

You know you're a mom when...

... when you have to actually make playdoh for your son's class!  Again, Graham loves to help:

I hope it turns out ok for tomorrow class.  The kids are counting on us!

When I mixed all the ingredients up, it was so sticky!  So I added quite a bit of extra flour. Hopefully it won't be too dry when they do play with it tomorrow.

Graham is so excited about his new backpack.  Well, it's not exactly new.  We have to thank the Steel family for a nice hand-me-down. :-)

I hope he will actually carry it to school tomorrow!

And eventually, we'll have him potty-trained too.  Graham definitely need lessons on learning how to put his new underwear on:

On Saturday alone, we had 3 accidents but also 3 successful tries on the potty.  Graham was rewarded with a lot of chocolate that day!  Thankfully, he's a lot better at letting us brush his teeth lately.

Happy Anniversary!

Bobby and I celebrated our 6th year anniversary yesterday.  6 years! and 2 kids later... :-)  We had a wonderful day yesterday despite being late for our matinee movie.  The new babysitter couldn't find our house but nonetheless, we were glad that both the boys did well with her.
We watched Les Miserables at the movies yesterday. What a great movie! The cast was amazing, especially Hugh Jackman.  I think I want to have Graham dancing and singing now :-)  He is already singing and playing the piano, so I guess that's a good start:

After the movie, we went for a very nice dinner at a fancy steakhouse.  Instead of having a big piece of steak, I opted for 2 small plates - lamb chops (which reminds me so much of our trip to New Zealand when I was 5-months pregnant with Graham) and steak kebabs.  It was so YUMMY!  And of course, chocolate lava cake for dessert. And to top off the night, the restaurant gave us a small box of truffles (more chocolate!) to bring home and a $25 gift card for our anniversary!  I told Bobby that our "contract" has been renewed for another year or basically until we visit the restaurant again on our next anniversary :-D

Happy New Year!

2013!!! Again, Bobby and I couldn't stay up until midnight on New Year's eve.  Bobby was asleep by 10:45pm and I watched the ball drop in New York City on tv and once that was over, it was my bedtime too!
We didn't really do much on New Year's day.  It was a rather cold day so Daddy and Graham bundled up to go play outside.  I'm so glad Graham actually wore his beanie!

But I guess, what Graham really needed were some mud-proof gloves and pants!

Good thing we have that outdoor sink now.  Everything was so muddy including his shoes too!