Me and my niece

Sonia is such a sweet little girl! I loved holding her.



Charlie Jo started to act a little jealous each time I did though. Just wait until December, kid.



I liked snoozing with Sosi.



But I think Sosi is happiest sleeping with Mommy!



We had such a terrific time in Illinois with Erin, Andrew, and Sosi. Thank you so much for letting us come visit!

CJ, meet Sonia. Sonia, meet CJ.

I just love these photos my sister took of our daughters meeting. "Our daughters" is such a strange thing to type. We both have DAUGHTERS. I still think of us as the daughters. Anyway, seeing our daughters meet (even though it was in the backseat of a sedan in an airport parking lot) was magical. CJ seemed thrilled with her cousin, until she caught sight of herself in the mirror, that is. After that, Sonia lost a little of her appeal. Sonia did open her eyes a little at first, but them she snoozed through the rest of the introduction. I guess both girls were just acting their ages, right?

The funny thing is, Corey was actually surprised by this.

Corey and Charlotte had a nice evening alone last Monday night while I went to Trivia. He had grand plans to make Charlie gazpacho (a cold soup made from raw vegetables). Good old Charlie Jo is not what you might call a big fan of vegetables. Not even close. So did she like the soup? Watch and find out!



At least it's fun to rub around on the tray of the highchair.

A demonstration

Charlotte would like us all to know the proper technique for exiting the play pool.







Got it??

Unwrapping a present

Charlotte and I flew up to Chicago to meet little Sonia Marie! We are having a terrific time (though CJ does seem more interested in Auntie Ernie's cats than the baby) and have fallen in love with the Great Sosini. One of my favorite things to do with CJ was to unwrap her from her swaddle after she woke up. I had major deja vu watching Erin do the same thing this morning, and I caught most of it on video. She's such a little peanut!!

Charlie Osbourne

Tonight, I was able to get home at about 4:00 from work, so I relieved Niki from Charlie duty so that Niki could go to trivia night. I made Charlie a special dinner of gazpacho (did not go over well), and then we went outside to enjoy the evening.

Charlie busied herself weeding the garden (she did a nice job) by pulling weeds and taking them across the sidewalk and dumping them in the grass. (No matter - our "lawn" is of the typical Tennessee "mowed weeds" variety. We live on a limestone shelf. We're lucky to have anything growing out there.) Then Charlie bit the head off a snail. Great. I pulled the shell out of her mouth, but there was a lot of brown mushy stuff in there, too.

Charlotte the trained monkey

What a little show-off.

Connie v. the dancing maniac

Charlotte's dance lesson for Connie didn't go over so well.

Pizza and vultures

We had pizza at Mellow Mushroom (YUUUUUUUUM!) last night with Joslyne, Demetri & Zoey. Somehow I forgot to take pictures of anything but Charlotte toddling around before dinner.



Anyway, afterward we headed back to Zozo's pad for some brownies. As soon as each adult got a slice, CJ and Zozo turned into rabid vultures. Actually, they were more like zombies seeking brains (there was a lot of grunting and zombie-like noises while they grabbed aimlessly in the general direction of the chocolate treats). First they attacked me.



Then, they went after Joslyne's slice.



Thwarted, Zozo decided to chomp on an elephant instead.



It was a great night with delicious food and terrific friends!

After the whale spout hairdo was taken out...

...we learned that CJ's hair has an AMAZING memory!

Stringer Baby 2.0

We fully intend to find out the gender of our second child, but will not have that appointment until July.

If we have another girl, Niki and I are 95% sure that we will name her Elizabeth Jane Stringer (I, in particular, would probably just call her "Lizzie").

If we have a boy - well - (as you may remember from our blog posts when we were pregnant with Charlie) we still have not settled on a boy name.

We need your help.

Here are the rules:

1. Middle name should be James.
2. First name cannot start with an "O" (we do not want an "OJ").
3. First name cannot start with a "B" (we do not want a "BJ").
4. We may, or may not use initials as a nickname ("PJ", "AJ", etc.)
5. The last syllable of the first name cannot be "-er".

Do you have any thoughts? Propose a name, and tell us why you think we should use it!

CHALLENGE!!

I think Quinn wants to challenge Charlie Jo to a dance off... Click here to watch his moves!

Shake that booty

Warning - this video is quite long (over 4 minutes), but until I learn more about editing with our movie program you're going to just have to suffer through it to see all of Charlie Jo's hot dance moves. She's a dance machine.

Movie time!

They may not exactly be Annette and Frankie, but check out the bathing beauties in action:

Beach blanket bingo

CJ and Zozo took advantage of the gorgeous weather to splash around in the back yard. After they had enough of the sun, they continued the playdate inside. Joslyne and I were too lazy to get them dressed again, so they romped around in diapers. It didn't slow them down a bit!

Not sure I can deliver with that kind of build-up!

I wracked my brain all day for a creative and exciting way to announce it, but nothing came to me. So I'll just get to the point. Charlotte will no longer be an only child in December! I'm 10 weeks pregnant, which means Charlotte will be a little over 21 months old when her sibling is born.

Corey and his sister are about that same distance apart, and I am only 23 months older than my little brother. So, this seems like good timing for us. Most people seem to think we may have rushed things a bit and they warn me how difficult it's going to be. I see plusses and minuses to any age difference, and we're happy with our choice.

There has been a distinct lack of blogging over the past couple of months because I have been suffering from much more morning sickness than when I was pregnant with Charlotte. It's hard to be creative when you feel like hurling. Or when you ARE literally hurling in the front yard and ruining your poor neighbors' dinners. Sorry about that, Alicia and Faith Carol.

So, 10 weeks down and 30 to go. Man, it sounds like an awfully long time when you put it that way!

Watch this space . . .

Now that Niki is 500 posts in, there is about to be a plot twist!

What will it be?

Keep a close watch on this space . . .

Not exactly an Olympic-sized pool

This evening, we had a little time before dinner to test out the new pool. It was a hit!

Are you kidding me? 500?!?!

This marks the 500th post on Stringer Family Antics. Who knew there was that much to report about Charlotte's life? Who knew there were so many photos to post? Who knew this blog would hold my interest for so long?



Lil' CJ is rocking a "whale spout" hairdo today and wearing a super cute new outfit courtesy of her Great Granny and Great Grandpa Taylor, so of course I had to post a picture of it. She's in her signature "found my belly button and soon to be sucking my thumb as well" pose. Not the most lady-like pose, but it gets the job done. We're both wiped out from lunch with Alicia, Faith Carol, Joslyne, and Zoey in addition to a visit to the park (sans Alicia and FC), so we're headed for napville sometime soon. It's my favorite place to visit.

On the cusp?

Are we on the cusp of a major breakthrough? Charlie has been showing increasing interest in talking to us. She looks us in the eyes and explains just about everything that she can. She is showing a quicker and quicker ability to repeat certain words and use them correctly, such as "cat" and "no", and an increasing ability to recognize words we use, such as Mommy, Daddy.

Maybe soon?

Corey

Charlotte teaches cousin Jordan some tricks

Our cousin, Jordan, stayed with us for a few days after he finished up his junior year at Belmont University. Charlotte did her best to teach him all the tricks she knows. We're so proud of his new skills!

Do Charlotte and Sonia look anything alike?

Since Erin and I are identical twins, it stands to reason that Charlotte and Sonia are kind of like half sisters, right? That's what Erin and I tell ourselves at least. What do you think? Here are some photos from each of their first days of life.

First, here is little Charlie Jo on March 10, 2008:




And here's Sonia on May 13, 2009:

Here's a better picture of our cute niece!!

Happy Birthday Sonia Marie Malahowski!

Erin and Andrew welcomed baby Sonia Marie Malahowski this morning at 8:47 am! How nice of her to be born on her Great Aunt Kim's birthday, huh? Sonia is 6 pounds, 4 ounces, and she is 17 1/2 inches long. Not bad for a baby born at 37 weeks! I'll put a link to their blog once they get it up and running later today (my parents are charged with posting duty while Erin and Sonia are in the hospital). I have seen a few photos, and Sonia looks darn cute.

Congratulations to Erin, Andrew and Sonia!! Can't wait to see what the cats (Margie & Bobo) think of the new addition. Sonia looks a little ticked off in this photo, but I bet those lights do seem a little bright to someone who has never been outside the womb!

Mother's Day

On this Mother's Day - to JoAnn and Mom - thank you for shaping the people Niki and I have become. We love you!

And to Niki - Wow! You are incredible!

Today is Niki's second Mother's Day. What a great Mother she is! I feel very confident that Charlie is getting the best maternal parenting possible. Niki is equal parts practical and whimsical, and that does wonders for Charlie. Under Niki's watchful eye, Charlie is free to explore her world to the fullest extent possible, yet Niki does wonders in setting appropriate boundaries for her. As a result, Charlie is blossoming into a wonderful, caring, beautiful child.

There are not enough words, aren't enough pictures (each worth 1000 words), to express my gratitude and admiration for Niki and what she is doing for Charlie. I am proud, glad, and thankful that Niki is Charlie's mother.

Niki, thank you.

Corey

Baptism . . . but no pictures of Quinn, for some reason . . .

Quinn was baptized today. Charlie was a little too loud to sit through the service, so she inspected the stained glass at the church.
What a beautiful church, and what a beautiful day.
The proud parents put on a very nice dinner afterwards.
Niki and I had a TN Stringer family picture taken.
And again . . .
Don enjoyed the day.
For Mother's Day, Granny was given a new insulated picnic basket and modeled it!
Grandpa modeled it, too!
Kayla was not amused.
GrandDad and Charlie read together.
By the end of the day, however, Charlie was locked and loaded.

More Minnesota fun

Charlotte tried to feed Quinn grapes. He declined the offer.



So she took a turn in the Bumbo instead. She is obsessed with trying to sit in the Bumbo, but can't quite figure out how to get in there by herself.



There have been lots of story times with NanaB.



I took Quinn for a spin in the Baby Bjorn.



Kayla kept a close eye on everything.



Great Grandpa Taylor gave CJ a little beer. Just a little bit though.



There was a wiffleball homerun derby.



Woo!



One ball split in half, so we let Charlie Jo play with it.



Daddy, Daddy! Look at the ball I have!



Kayla charged the plate. Unfortunately, she kept doing it WHILE the batter was hitting the ball.



Quinn is ready to join the Notre Dame offensive line. At least his legs are.



It's nice holding a baby who doesn't squirm away or try to stick her entire arm down your shirt.



Quinn's eyes are still blue!



Quinn showed Charlie how tummy time is done.