Meet Heller

This is Heller.  Charlie made this longhorn at build a bear with Mark at our last visit.  He came up with the name all on his own.  Mark thought it was cool and made him think of like fire and motorcycles....it made me think of Helen Keller..

Anyway, Heller now has another name.  Charlie came up to me the other day and announced that he still would call the longhorn Heller, but he was also going to call it "2 Horny" since it had two horns...duh, right..

I tried many different options "How about 2 horned" or "But I really like Heller"...no luck.  He likes it and I wasn't about to tell him it was not nice to say horny..cause then he'd try to say it all the time!!

I will say, after he said that ..I have only heard him call the longhorn Heller..but I know at the most inopportune time he will call it "Heller 2 horny":)

All about Easton

My little/big man is making progress.  It's slow, but its progress!  I thought I'd toss out an update on Easton..He is now taking steps...he will take 4-10 steps..the more he takes depends on how much he is paying attention to the fact that he is walking!  One of the specialist from ECI pointed out that older kids are naturally more cautious when they walk since they know it will hurt when they fall....hello Easton...my cautious boy.  His biggest problem is his confidence and second is his balance.  As a mom I panicked a bit and flash forwarded to the awkward teenage years and worried that he would still lack confidence then...panic:( 

My boys are so different and I feel like I am just getting a grasp on how to best parent Charlie for his personality..and like all parents..I now have to do an complete change up in that style for Easton.  I knew they would be different..but they are polar opposites in many aspects.  I have to go full out angry mom to get Charlie's attention and if I look at Easton without a huge grin he sometimes tears up...yikes, I gotta be on my game!!  Anyhow, I have just been trying to change things up a bit and be more sensitive to Eastons "cautiousness"..I don't want to add to his confidence issues.  My prayer is that once he gets a grasp on walking that all things will not be a challenge to him..that some things will be natural and that he grows up confident...maybe even a little cocky...okay, only the good kind of cocky:)

So, I have PT here every week and some other specialist too.  This week we have 3 coming..so its always intersting trying to find time for everyone with their schedules, mine, Charlie's school and most importantly..nap time.  Getting a tired boy to do what you want him to do does not go well:)  Everyone still feels they will be in our lives for just a blip of time and then be gone..and that's what we are hoping for!:) 

Here are some sweet pics of my baby from the park last week!

love.that.smile

Sweet boy can launch a ball....like far

love the look on his face!

His super wide stance is also something they/we are working on..

And he makes sure to clap for himself..everytime:)

So gratefull that I was chosen to be this sweet boys mommy:)

Fairpark Aquarium

We headed to the Fairpark Aquarium in Dallas last week and it was fun..not life changing, not thrilling..but fun.  I opted to go there as opposed to the big Dallas one because of cost..and now I know why this one was less expensive!!  It was fun, but we were through it and done in an hour! 

Poor Easton..he wanted to get out, but didn't want to walk..bad combo:(

Charlie thought the seahorses were super cool and I had to agree..those things fascinate me...and no, I will not comment on weather or not I knew they were real until I was 22....Come on, Sea-Horses???.....that just sounds fake:)

The pale members of the family with our albino alligators:)

Sharks are cool regardless of how small they are!

Charlie was "teaching" Easton all about the stingrays and sharks, cause he is an expert you know!  Now that he touches stingrays, he has become a full on expert!

This stingray he DID notice!  But wasn't all that impressed..

Check out his face..he thought he was super cool!!  I loved how brave and fearless he was..this time:)

He told me it helped that they were smaller..the bigger ones are scary/overwhelming..I'll give him that:)

Don't you love how all 3 boys smile and look my way....

After dinner that night we headed out to the porch to paint with sidewalk chalk...Charlie enjoyed it and it was so much fun we did it again yesterday with my sister in law and her kiddos.....the recipe is super simple..its equal parts cold water and cornstarch.  When you add food coloring aim for pastel colors not bold colors..the bold ones can tint your driveway/porch if your not careful.  I have made like 8 colors and each time go a little bolder and we have yet to have staining!

Charlie's first day of Pre-K x1:)

This was the theme of "back to school pictures"..posing..like a girl!  It was sooo hard for Charlie to just stand still and smile....NO clue where that comes from!!

He wanted to make sure I got a picture of his transformers lunch box and Spiderman back pack.  I get fun mom points because I so badly wanted to get him a fun cute back pack with his name on it..or at least a cute back pack.  But Charlie about fell all over himself with excitement over Spiderman.....I went with fun mom and let him choose.  The nice part was that spiderman cost only $7:)

He.cannot.help.himself.:)

This day was one of those days that I wanted to eat him up..he looked adorable to me and he was so excited...he LOVES school!

Since Charlie is an August baby we have decided to hold him back a year for kindergarten....so, I get to do this all again next year!  Cannot tell you how happy I am that I have 2 more years with him before he leaves me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  I have had a few people question how we already knew that we were holding him back..since he has another whole year to mature...um, we actually decided before he was even born.  August and boy=decision made:)

Told you..cannot help himself!!  Can you see his orange mowhawk?  I found a way to make the color stick out more on his dark hair....put white gel on first.  Then the color sticks to the white and not his hair...brilliant!!  Thanks to my friend Jennifer at work for sharing that genius piece of advice...Charlie is beyond pumped that you can now see his colored mowhawks!

Goodness, I.LOVE.THIS.FACE!!!!!:):)

my favorite photos from last week

Yes, I remembered to get my camera out last week!!:)  These are just a few of my favorite photos from last week!! 

We went to the Fairpark Aquarium with Kendra and Cason and the stingray part was by far the coolest!  This pic crack me up, because despite whatever this looked like...Easton totally missed this stingray!  He saw it the next time around, but this one never caught his attention! 

We met up with Mark this weekend... we saw him just a few weeks ago, but Charlie was a bit of a pill that time so we told him when he came back through to give us a call and the second visit went much better!

Headed to the park this morning..okay, so this one wasn't from last week:)  The weather was WAY to great to miss a chance to go on a hike and play at the park...Easton was loving it!  I think he hates the heat almost as much as his momma does, so he seemed to appreciate this nice break:)

I made homemade bread and my helper made homemade butter..which of course had to be blue:)  I used this recipe..although its not really much of a recipe!