Quiz Time

Charlotte:
A> Found out that the hamburger in the chili she was eating comes from cows.
B> Found out that she is going on vacation next week.
C> Thinks she is auditioning for a role in Home Alone V.
D> Saw a ghost.
E> Loves showing off her pretty tonsils.
F> Is mimicking her favorite painting by Edvard Munch.
G> Found out Liam was going to see The Wiggles Live!
Believe it or not, the answer is C. She really thinks she is auditioning for a role in Home Alone V or a horror movie or some role where she needs to scream. We aren't sure why, but she thinks mom and dad are casting agents who are going to place her in a breakthrough role that will jumpstart her acting career. We try to tell her that we live in New Hampshire and not Hollywood, but she just isn't getting it. So please, please, please, if you read this and have any ability to give her a walk on part in your sitcom or movie, please hire her. We cant take little Miss Sunshines over acting too much longer.

So lets try this again with another little quiz.


Charlotte is:
A>Laughing at dads funny jokes about vegetables.
B>Laughing because dad spilled food all over his shirt.
C>Laughing at how silly the political landscape looks.
D>Laughing that you are all taking these quizes seriously.
E>Laughing for her upcoming roll on Ten Items or Less(so she thinks).

Yes the answer is E. Seriously folks, mark our words. This little girl is going to be an actress. She has skilled the art of acting at 19 months of age. She knows how to play both mom and dad (shhh, dont tell mom that she has her figured out). Watch out Lindsay Lohan, we have a new girl in town. Hey Chris if she keeps this up we are sending her out to LA to live with you.


Charlotte has been doing her best playing "CUTE" lately. It's pretty clear she has been doing a very good job of it. Here she is talking dad into letting her watch Elmo by snuggling up to him until he falls alseep. Then the TV is all hers!!


And speaking of Lindsay Lohan, here Charlotte is playing her in the "I had a rough night out at the bars with my actress friends but I am in front of the paparazzi so I had better smile cause I am famous" role:

And another shot of Charlotte with her new tattoo. Ok, she wanted a tattoo of Elmo on her chest. We compromised and let her put a sticker of Elmo on her belly (she thought it was a tattoo). Little did she realize how difficult it would be to later remove the tattoo (we had to wait until bath time).


And finally, here Charlotte is pretending she is a big girl and able to go down the slide by herself. Ok, she wasnt pretending. She really is growing up before our eyes.

Weekend Update

The week was very quiet and we are very happy it was so quiet. It was hot and humid. Very humid like sub-tropics humid all week long. After traveling around so much we really needed a little break to do a lot of nothing. Friday night we watched a movie. Today we did a little shopping at the mall then went over to Paul and Jena's house for a BBQ to celebrate Pauls pregnancy. He has been working on it for a while but finally impregnented himself. We will leave out the details of how he did it but do have some photos of him showing. Jena's sister is in town so it was nice to all hang out.

As usual Paul grilled the best steak tips. Of course we ate to much food. So Paul and Jena asked if we wanted to take a walk down the street to the little pond to check out the snapping turtles. We agreed although walking in the 100% humidity was just gross. The turtles were nice and didnt snap at us. We did manage to "snap" some photos of them. Oh the puns.

Those of you who do not have a Flickr (www.flickr.com) account need to get one. Moving forward we will be posting lots of pictures to Flickr. Its a pretty cool site. You can make comments on pictures from there, print them, or just look at them. Check it out by clicking below. However we have decided to make our Flickr photo's private to the rest of the world. So if you want in now is the time. Just send us an email saying to want to be added to the list of "guests". For now you can click the link below to view pictures.Pictures

Being a parent

Being a parent means dealing with waking up in the middle of the night when your child is crying. It means you will always hope and pray your child will end up with an easier life than you had. It means you will do everything possible to show your child how much you love them. It means you will constantly laugh at the silly things your child does. It means you will sometimes be angry with the "non-silly" things your child does. Being a parent is ever changing, its challenging, but most of all, its extremely rewarding.

Charlotte continues to amaze both mom and dad. She dances like a gypsy, and throws her head back and laughs like a hyena. She will run full speed across the room, and throw her body at the couch, bouncing off, laughing so hard the whole time that she begins to snort. While she is still a baby, she is becoming a child and a little girl. Its exciting to see the little person she is growing into, but it is sad to see how fast she is changing. Every parent knows what I am talking about. They all say, "enjoy every second. They grow up so fast." Now we understand why.

We are thankful to have her in our lives and enjoy sharing as much as we can with all of you.

Link to More Pictures

Please click here to see more pictures of Charlotte and Piper .

Back from the Midwest

Dad had to fly to Minneapolis for some training for work on Wednesday. Since our friends the Hoppes live there we figured why not buy Mom and Charlotte a ticket as well. Mike, Hayley, and Piper opened up their home to us and asked us to stay with them while dad worked. Sounds like a great idea to us.

And it was a great idea. Charlotte had a blast playing with Piper. Late Thursday afternoon we all went to some crazy gym in Minnesota called Lifetime Fitness. For some reason it didn't seem like a gym. Maybe it was the giant outdoor kids pool and water slide. Or the indoor kids pool and water slides. Or the fact this place is as big as a whole city block. Yes mom wants to move there just to join the gym. I cant blame her. This was the coolest gym dad has ever seen.





Thursday night we put the kids to bed and we had some grilled chicken. Of course Charlotte seemed to eat almost everything Hayley and mom put in front of her (with the exception of the Marmite on toast, its a New Zealand thing and is an acquired taste). Sorry Hayley, salty yeast spread the color of molasses on my toast just doesn't do it for me or for Charlotte. But we did try it and appreciate the New Zealand culture.

Friday Mike took us to lunch at a place called Yum! Yum was exactly what Charlotte kept saying as she ate the spectacular grilled cheese and the ginourmous cupcake. It was certainly a big hit. Afterwords the kids went to a park on one of the 10,000 lakes in Minnesota and played in the perfect weather. Seriously, it was probably 78 degrees, sunny, and dry. One of those perfect summer days that we just never seem to get enough of.

Friday night we grilled out at the Hoppes and had some more great grub. The nice thing about visiting with the Hoppes is they are also foodies and really appreciate some good food. Plus we always know they will have some sauces or something that we have never tried and are certain to love (like the Maple Chipolte sauce from VT). Saturday morning we went out for coffee and then came back to the house to pose the girls in their new dresses that Hayley had made. Thank you so much for the beautiful dress.

All in all dad's review of the trip was an A+. However he has to give it a score of A- due to the horrible service of Northwest Airlines and the Minneapolis Airport. The lines were horrendous and they just were not friendly. Ohh and of course our stroller was not ready for us when we got off the plane after finally landing in Boston. Instead they decided to put it with the rest of baggage so we had to hold Charlotte while we waited 35 minutes for our baggage to arrive.

Seriously, thank you Hoppes for having us and we are glad we were finally able to meet Miss Piper. Now its your turn to visit us in NH. :)

For now these are the only pictures of the trip. More to come shortly.

Off to Minneapolis

While dad is out tonight at a Red Sox game mom is home packing for Minnesota. Mom has the lovely job of packing for herself and Charlotte. As well, getting the dogs belongings together because they are going to doggy camp while we are gone.
We are going to visit the Hoppes and are very excited to meet Piper, and see Mike, Hayley and Olive, it's been too long.
Check back at the end of the weekend where we will post about what a fabulous time we had and I am sure there will be some great pictures because we just got our new camera!
Here are some pictures I took today....I have no idea how to use the camera yet but they came out pretty well.

Happy

We are pleased to say no one decided to break into our house to steal our belongings. Unfortunately no one broke in to steal all of the empty boxes in the attic and no one mowed the lawn for us. We just returned from a week in Bennington Vermont at Nanny and Grandpa's "other" house. I would say summer home but it is also used in winter so I guess I cant call it that.

Dad had the pleasure of working all week hitting is accounts in Western Massachusetts that otherwise go unattended. While they were happy to see him, he was not really happy to work while Mom and Charlotte frolicked poolside. Charlotte proved to be a little tadpole, swimming and diving into the pool, no fear of the water. For some reason she also has no innate ability to hold your breath while being submerged in water. Its a trait that every child is supposed to posses at birth. Hers is missing. We should have known that as she plunged into the pool or any water for that matter, instead of closing her mouth and holding her breath she breathes in very deeply. Dad thinking she really cant be missing this human quality decided to test his hypothesis by allowing Charlotte to jump into the pool. Instead of catching her as she hit the water as usual, he would let her slip through his hands and go completely under.



The good news is that 911 was not called. After a few minutes of coughing up what seemed like gallons of water, she began to breathe normally and her crying subsided. She survived. However she will always need to wear the silly inner tube bathing suit mother bought her. Yes its silly looking but it works and she really doesn't mind wearing it.

Aside from missing the ability to hold your breath, Charlotte also is missing the ability to understand that shoes are made for two feet not just one. Every day she would take one of Liam's shoes and put it on her right foot. She would wonder around the house with one shoe on (usually the left shoe on the right foot). Freud must say this means something, but we don't know what. As you can see she also put dads shoe on.
And moms, and any shoes she could find. The highlight was Charlotte in her inner tube bathing suit with two different colored left shoes on her feet. We never said she was normal.



Charlotte had so much fun playing with Liam and baby Chase.
Tiffany and the boys stayed for the week. One night Shelby and Tiffany went out to dinner and left Nanny and Dad to babysit. Chase was crying and Charlotte did her best to rock him and comfort him while in his car seat. She just didn't understand why the magic powers of her kisses were not making him smile. Regardless she kept rocking him and kissing him on his head. She is going to make a wonderful big sister someday.


Charlotte still has a twinge of stranger aversion. She will say hi to you, but that doesn't mean you can pick her up when you want to. My parents faced it during their visit and it was no different for Shelby's parents last week. Unfortunately Grandpa only stayed until Wednesday. A few more days and she certainly would have warmed up to him. Nanny on the other hand had an easier time. It still took some work on her part but she was able to hold her and we were able to snap a few pictures of them playing together.


Oh and this one of Charlotte eating Tiffany's spectacular lasagna.



Aside from mom and Charlotte needing a little R&R, another reason for the full week in Vermont was to hit the wedding of two good friends, Katrina and Carl. Katrina's mother Gay is also an avid "Charlotte's Web" reader. Rightly being so gives her full carte blanche on Charlotte Web.

The wedding ceremony was beautiful and the reception was picture perfect. An idyllic setting at Gay and Fred's house in the hills of Williamstown. Beautiful white tents, amazing hors d' ouevres, and an open bar with beer from Munich (of which dad had a few too many, but no one was counting). Katrina and Carl looked perfect together. It was exactly the type of wedding you would expect between two people from such dynamic families.





There were two show stoppers. OK maybe three or four. Number one was Justin Washburns best man toast. Great job Justin. Number two the Justin/Carl duet of Tom Jones' "Its Not Unusual". No additional comment necessary, you know the song, love it or hate it.
Third was the relatives from Holland doing the skit of Santa Claus and poem reading. So nice to be exposed to some European traditions and family sentiment. I was a little scared of the masks but after conversing with the people from Holland at our table it was all put into perspective. Fourth show stopper was my wife dancing all night and seeing her big bright smile light up the dance floor.

Her smile just brings a giant lump in my throat. Seeing her happy, dancing, smiling, makes me feel like the luckiest man in the world. As I told her friend Emily as we watched her on the dance floor, "I wish I could bottle this up and keep it forever".

The next morning after the wedding we had breakfast with Carl and Katrina and the rest of the guests at the Klaus-Scarborough house again. This time we brought Charlotte. She loved running around in the fields and looked like she could have been playing a part in "The Sound of Music".


We had a great week. It was busy but it was great. Charlotte was Happy. Mom was Happy. Dad was Happy. What more could you want out of life?

Break In

Shelby wanted me to let everyone know we were going away. I don't think that is such a good idea. However I have set up lots of booby traps around the house in case anyone gets any bright ideas. There really isn't too much to steal. Anything that is worth stealing is big and heavy so good luck. The rest of the stuff, well we have too much stuff, so if it is stolen, so be it. Please make sure if you do break into our house to steal our things, please hit the attic and grab the empty cardboard boxes (and I also have the biggest and baddest booby trap in the attic for you).

So I am not telling you where we are going or for how long, that way it really prevents you from deciding to drive over and break into our house. Actually please do not "break in". There is a key. It is under the mat. Please be kind enough to use it instead of breaking any more of our 100 year old windows. They are a pain to replace (although I wouldnt know because I have yet to replace any of the cracked ones in our house, but it looks tough which is why I havent attempted yet).

No we are not going on vacation. Well mom sort of is, she is always on vacation. :) Right dear? (as she is reading this she is read to pounce on dad and pummel him).

4th of July

The 4th of July Parade in our little NH town is a big deal. People come from all the neighboring towns to catch a little slice of America the way it was 10 years ago, 20 years ago, 30 years ago, and probably 50 years ago. A small parade with local town people. The church minister is the announcer and of course he knows everyone. The floats are loaded with kids and people throwing candy. The spectators are loaded with water guns to squirt the people throwing the candy. It is good clean fun for all and makes us happy to live in such a "safe" town.

The Tractors in the Parade:

One of the floats:

The NH Governors Color Guard. Looks like General Custer to me:


The Reeves, the Snyders, and the Slosbergs came over to celebrate the 4th with us. Jena's parents even made a special guest appearance from Ohio! We had a little cookout while the kids played in the yard. It was sunny and everyone had a great time. After we were done stuffing our faces with hot dogs and hamburgers we headed to the fairground for the 4th of July fair. Picture lots of dirt, suped up tractors having races, draft horses having a weight pulling contest (not sure what that is all about), and of course, the main event for the family, Wayne from Maine.


Wayne sang his heart out while the kiddies watched and danced contently. His sidekick Jimmy James the Koonga Boonga Man wailed on his drums to get everyone dancing. Once the show was over, well, then there wasnt too much to do. So we decided to check out the "fiddle competition". We expected to see a local version of the Charlie Daniels Band playing the Devil Went Down to Georgia.

Instead we got a lady playing the waltz on her fiddle. Dave and I looked at each other and tried not to laugh (the place was PACKED). Yeah, that was fun. Time to go.


Here is a shot of Shelby and Charlotte enjoying the musical masterpeices of Wayne From Maine:

And a nice shot of dad with Charlotte at the Parade:

We did get some home made icecream and some fried dough. So all was well.

We also had to throw in some shots of Charlotte with her pigtails in. She doesn't keep anything in hair for long (unless its food). Its crazy how grown up she looks with her hair all done up. She is a girl and there is no mistaking it.





Oh and yes she really does think she is a moviestar: