Zoned out

We went to the Jump!Zone with our playgroup this morning and Charlotte had an absolute blast. She loved watching all the other little kids jumping on the inflatables, and she also adored crawling all over the place. I was able to put her on one of the inflatables that was meant for toddlers, and she bopped all around grinning like a fool.

Lemmetellya how you play this game here! Hey! Is anyone listening?!?!



Help! The Loch Ness Monster is swimming through here!



Eh - I think I'll just cuddle up to this crocodile here.



Hmmmmm... I do believe this is a high-tech time-travel machine, is it not?



Wowza! This carpet makes my head spin!



Shazam! Abracadabra! Alacazam! Boogedy boogedy!

TP hijinks

My biggest fear at story time

(Click on the strip to make it bigger.) Somehow I had missed this when this appeared in the paper (thanks for finding it for me, Joslyne!). I think Uncle Jerry peeked into my subconscious and saw exactly what my biggest fear is each and every time I take Charlotte to story time, music class, a restaurant, et cetera. As Charlotte gets older my fear lessens, but it never really goes away!

The circling sharks

Even though Duke is deathly afraid of the camera, I couldn't resist taking a shot of mealtime with Connie and Duke in their traditional positions. I didn't get the camera set up quite fast enough, so Duke was already on the way out. Those two have learned exactly where to be when Charlotte is eating, and I am consistently amazed at the wide variety of food they will eat. Who knew they liked Cheerios? Who knew they liked pears? The one thing they will never eat though is carrots. Weird.




Whew! It's exhausting feeding those sharks.

I only have eyes for you

Some nighttime fun while waiting for Daddy to get home...

A new use for junk mail

Charlotte just amused herself for darn near 15 minutes by crawling around on the floor with a torn envelope that had a nice, crinkly cellophane window in it. Seriously. I'm really liking this new stage.

A new way to keep Charlie busy

Just give her napkins! Thank goodness she doesn't automatically just eat them anymore.



But just look at the result:

Straightjacket

NanaB knitted Charlie Jo a super cute hat to keep her little head warm. Charlie Jo's head that is. Unfortunately, Charlie is in love with the idea of tearing off anything I place on her head. It's probably my fault for not putting more hats on her on a regular basis from birth to get her used to them. We may need a straightjacket in order to keep Charlie's hat on...

Charlotte just doesn't appreciate good furniture

We got some cool new furniture to replace some pieces that were, well, falling apart. Charlotte didn't seem too thrilled though.

Siblings

We all look a little tired in this photo, but it's the first sibling photo we have taken in years. The last time we were all together was Christmas of 2006, so this was a rare opportunity for us. I still can't believe we're all less than two years apart in age (what were you thinking, Mom & Dad?!?!), but that sounds more dramatic than it really is when you consider that Erin and I are twins. Still, to have three kids in diapers all under the age of two? I know it's nothing compared to "Jon & Kate + 8", but STILL!



It's weird to think we're all married and responsible adults. Well, semi-responsible anyway. We each still have our moments (like when Erin learns about sock monkey pjs).

Four little monkeys jumping on the bed

Several years ago, my sister Erin bought some pjs with sock monkeys on them from Target. They thrilled her to no end, so she bought my mom some. Then she bought some for me. Next, we all got sock monkey slippers to match the pjs.

This year, when I was cruising through the baby clothing section at Target (I do this almost daily, it seems), I saw baby sock monkey pjs and called Erin at work immediately. I have no idea what her cubicle-mates thought was going on when she started squealing, but I'm sure it wasn't the first time they had heard it. Of course Erin bought some sock monkey pjs for Charlie Jo for this Christmas, so we decided we needed photographic proof of our devotion to the sock monkey.

Yes, I know we are odd.

Loud and proud

I finally got a flash drive from my parents with all of the photographs we took from Christmas on it! I had been downloading my photos onto their computer while we were in California, and to make a long story short, I left there without a copy of them. They are now in my hot little hands and available for your viewing pleasure.

The day after Christmas, my Grandma Jane, Grandpa Tony, Aunt Toni, Uncle Eric, and cousins Tiffani, Emma, and Audrey came to visit. Whenever my dad's side of the family gets together, the volume goes up about 50 notches and we have a boisterous time. Corey obviously fits right in (he's both loud and boisterous on a pretty regular basis), so it was sad that he had to fly home before they arrived. Anyway, this visit was no different, and we had fun hanging around the house, playing at the park, and serving as judges for Andrew and Jordan's informal lasagna competition. But can someone please tell me how we took 8,000 photos but somehow managed not to get a single one of Grandpa Tony?

Grandma Jane, the inspiration for Erin's career in accounting, with her accounting prodigy.



Emma told Santa all the things he forgot to bring her.



I hope that wasn't an inappropriate joke that Jordan told Grandma.



Audrey (who is so big now that she's six months old!) liked the joke.



Push me higher, Tiffani!!



Chef Andrew and Chef Jordan made two different types of lasagna. We decided that meant they were in competition, but they actually worked together and collaborated on shared ingredients (such as the obscene amount of garlic that needed to be minced and sauteed).



Tiffani decided Audrey needed to try on her first hair accessory.



Play nicely!!



Audrey loves her Grandma Jane. It's funny to think that I am the oldest of Jane & Tony's grandchildren at age 31, and Audrey is their youngest at only six months old. We should have taken a photo of me holding Audrey - the alpha and the omega.



Audrey is becoming quite the little character. She's going to give Eric a run for his money.



Toni had to protect Audrey's feet from Charlotte's curiosity.



I love the look on Audrey's face. She's going to fit in with this family just fine.

If there was ever any doubt...

... that I am the granddaughter of Jane Evans Gomez, this photograph should clear it up. Is that my nose or what? Think Charlotte will follow in our footsteps? Or is that nosesteps?

Charlie as Godzilla, Vol. II

This Christmas, Charlie received a lovely present of a wagon full of Lego-type blocks from her Great Grandpa Taylor and Great Granny Taylor. When NanaB and Granddad visited over New Year's, Granddad was playing with the blocks and Charlotte decided it was her duty to tear down absolutely anything he built. She, of course, thought this was HILARIOUS. Then, Granddad tried to teach her to put the blocks back in the wagon. That wasn't nearly as fun.

Anybody have any earplugs?

We brought out Grandpa Stringer's old keyboard that Corey inherited after Grandpa moved into a smaller place. It was a big hit with Charlie Jo.



She kept changing the settings and getting it to do things that we couldn't figure out how to recreate.



Thank goodness this thing, unlike a piano, has a volume knob. Too bad Charlie figured out how to turn it up.



Sing it, sister!



I think she created some new chords -- ones that should never be repeated and ones that may have permanently damaged the hearing of our poor dogs and cat.