Memorial Day Weekend!

First and foremost...thank you to all of our service men and women, past and present, who serve and protect our country. We are in debt to all of you. Thank you.

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It was an outdoor kind of weekend!! We spent most of our time in the pool and hanging with family!

We kicked off the weekend at Aunt T's pool on Friday!

Then took a late afternoon dip at the house!

Monster Mash took advantage of my run and took a nap!

Saturday was spent pretty much like this!

Helping Nonno blow up the little pool

Tough life but someone has to do it!

Out like a light after BBQ at Aunt T and Uncle Harry's

And so was this girl...

Love the face he makes when he is trying to figure out how something works!

Pool time at Mimi and Papa Jim Jim's

Down for the count!

Hope everyone enjoyed their long holiday weekend! Welcome summer...we've missed you! :)



Uncle Jason

We were super lucky this weekend to have my brother come into town!

Jackson and Charlie Claire FaceTime with Uncle Jason on a regular basis so they are well aware of who he is even though he lives in NYC. Charlie Claire accompanied me to the airport on Friday evening to pick Uncle Jason up and she was grinning from ear to ear at him the entire ride home!

Monster Mash and Charlie Cakes got some serious Uncle Jason time in and now are extremely excited for our trip to visit him and Aunt Jen in July! :)

Morning smooches for Uncle Jigga!

Hair do courtesy of Uncle Jason

Our shoe LOVING Monster couldn't wait to get his feet in Uncle Jason's running shoes!

Nonno, CBear, Uncle Jason stair train :)

Charlie Claire must have known what she was doing and waited until her God father came into town to become a WALKER!!!!! CC has been dabbling in the walking department...cruising along furniture, holding our hands and walking, using a push toy, etc. for a little while now and about two weeks ago she started walking about 3 feet or so in between two people.  This weekend though sister gained enough confidence to venture out on her own...she doesn't need those two people anymore she is brave enough to let go of the furniture and WALK around by herself! Surprisingly enough she also already figured out how to stand herself up without holding onto something and start walking as well! Our hearts couldn't be anymore happy and we couldn't be anymore proud of this girl! We are so glad Uncle Jason was here to share this with us!

We love you Uncle Jason!!



Just in case you were wondering....

Charlie Claire is a amazing! She is seriously proof that Early Intervention is crucial! If it were not for Wendy (PT), April (OT), Nina/Kassie (old educator/new educator) and Stephanie (service coordinator)we don't know if Charlie Claire would be developing as well as she is. Those ladies are ON TOP of EVERYTHING!

Charlie Claire had reached most of her short term goals and her long term OT and educator goals so this morning we updated her goals.  It's just crazy to think of all the goals we have given her that she has accomplished and then to think about the new goals we have set her.  To be honest, they aren't that far off from things we are working on with Jackson...that is just unreal!!! We are excited to tackle these new challenges and we couldn't be more proud of all of the things Charlie Claire is learning and doing.  We owe a BIG THANK YOU to the ladies who have helped her get here!



Mother's Day!

Mother's Day did not slow things down in our house for one minute...bright and early Sunday morning our vacuum-loving-Monster was helping Mama vacuum the kitchen.  This is a totally normal, daily thing and Jackson is more than capable of pushing the vacuum himself. So when I needed to help Charlie Claire with getting on her rocking horse a few feet away and I walked away from Jackson I didn't think twice about it. Until he decided to stick his little hand up into the vacuum and the rotating bar had other plans :( Thankfully I was not far away, neither was my mother, so we were able to get to Jackson very quickly.  There was still screaming, crying, blood, etc. We knew he didn't need stitches but the vacuum did manage to tear the skin off Jackson's pointer finger and since the vacuum isn't the cleanest of environments we wanted to make sure a dr checked it out. An urgent care visit later, Monster's finger was cleaned up, bandaged up and we were on our way...

Happy (late) Mother's Day! I am blessed to be surrounded by so many amazing mamas and we hope you all enjoyed your special day! :) 

Color Me Rad

This post is a tad late but we were so excited about Charlie Claire walking on Monday to not share the video!

A couple months back my friend Sarah asked me to run the Color Me Rad 5k.  I'v been in the running/racing mood and this looked fun so I went for it! Another one of my friends, Dorothea, jumped in on the action too. There were certain aspects of this run that I loved and some that I wasn't a fan of but overall it was a messy good time and raised money for a good cause!! Thankfully it only took one really long, good shower to get most the color off!

Before....

And after...

Sarah's girls were NOT shy about getting colored rad! :)

If this race comes back next year I highly recommend! 

One step closer....

Miss Charlie Bear is one step close to being a walker! :)

A little of this and a little of that!

Jackson and Charlie Claire are silly little things! They both LOVE the water (pool, water table, bath tub, etc) so I thought it would be a fantastic idea to bust out the sprinkler this afternoon! EPIC FAIL. Instead of two littles frolicking through the water, I had two crying littles on my hands. Eventually CC warmed up to it and liked you holding her hand and walking her around the sprinkler so she got sprayed but only in small doses!  Monster really never embraced it. Better luck next time?!

I'll stay right over here, thank you very much!

Jackson did however, find Jeter running through the water VERY entertaining, I have never heard this boy LAUGH so hard.  It was priceless!!! So glad I was able to get a little bit on video!

I am pretty sure we have mentioned this about a million times but we are so glad for spring to be in full force and for all the fantastic outside time we are getting!!! Charlie Claire is certainly following in Jackson's footsteps and wants to be outside at all times these days....

Lastly, now that Nina has retired Charlie Claire has a new developmental educator. We had met Kassie once before and really liked her so when we found out that she would be picking up where Nina left off we were very excited! Kassie came over today to get acquainted with Charlie Claire and talk to us so we could make sure we were on the same page going forward. We are grateful to be adding Kassie to C's team and are looking forward to working with her! 

Tuesday

Yesterday was Jason's birthday! Jackson and Charlie Claire planned some lovely things for daddy...a trip to Trader Joe's, a yummy lunch, afternoon finger painting, a delicious dinner and of course cake! After the littles were in bed there was basketball and hockey on so my man was in his glory! Jason's day also included C's physical therapy session where she started to take a couple steps on her own!!!!! :)

This was our first finger paint session, let's just say we learned a few lessons...no clothes next time!

Yes, that is Charlie KISSING her finger painting!

Daddy getting in on the action!

Our little man was also in his glory with cake! When there is no more on your plate what's a boy to do but grab a spoon and dig into the cake?!

L.O.V.E.

And since Miss Charlie Claire Bear doesn't like cake she had a couple spoonfuls of vanilla pudding to celebrate!

 Sunday we enjoyed an afternoon at Mimi and Papa Jim Jim's for birthday dinner for Jason...JMonster and Cakes thoroughly enjoyed playing in their yard!