How About them Cowboys

We took Charlie to the Cowboys/Redskins game on Sunday. We really wanted to take Charlie to Texas Stadium since this is the last season the Cowboys will play there. Charlie had a fun time and loved all the new things to look at. Unfortunately, our seats were in the sun, so we didn't last too long at the game, but Charlie did get to see a Cowboys TD in the endzone directly in front of us. He clapped when everyone else clapped, and started giving everyone around him high fives after the touchdown. I sure hope he grows up to love sports as much as his momma and daddy do!

I think CDub will be able to wear this shirt for many seasons to come!

And as a side note, if Texas Stadium has a special place in your heart, be sure to check out our friend Mac's book on the history of Texas Stadium!

Vancouver

I realized as I was trying to narrow down photos from Vancouver, that this blog has become my photo album. I haven't printed pictures since this spring!

Granville Island Market: This was probably the neatest market I've ever seen. So much food and such a big variety.

On Granville Island they were having a garbage can painting contest. These are the top three finishers.

Totem poles in Stanley Park.

Enjoying birthday cake on Grouse Mountain

It was awfully cold on Grouse Mountain, but we enjoyed the lumberjack show, grizzly bear refuge and timber wolf refuge, along with some beautiful views of Vancouver.

Seattle

Last weekend Dave "surprised" me with a trip to Seattle and Vancouver for my 30th birthday. It was a special weekend and so nice to get away. We have been fortunate enough to have a lot of getaways in the last couple years, but this was our first true vacation (no work, no family) since Belize in 2006. We had a great time and enjoyed exploring each city.

Pike Place Market

view from the Space Needle

We took the Underground Tour which showed us how they rebuilt the city after a fire in the 1800s. The tour is known for the tour guides sense of humor in telling tales of the underbelly of Seattle.

This was the view from our room.

Dave took me across the bay for dinner Friday night.

We took a whale watching tour off the San Juan Islands. Unfortunately we didn't see any whales, but here you can see a dolphin just as it was jumping back into the water.

more dolphins

I'll post Vancouver photos soon.

All the news that fit to print

So what's new with CDub?

We're knee deep in the super-fun (but also very challenging) days of toddlerhood. I constantly find myself just staring at Charlie and wondering when he become such a little boy.

He babbles all the time, and it often sounds like he's instructing us to do something. He is starting to say a few words, mainly dog ("dah!"), but he also tries dada ("da"), bath ("ba"), and my favortie, Bella ("lella"). Yesterday we were pointing at the pictures in "Brown Bear, Brown Bear" and I was saying all their names and he kept mimicking me saying "teacher." I keep expecting that one of these days his babble will turn into words and then he'll talk our ears off.

He's continuing to do signing. For quite a while he only did "more," but now he does eat, drink, all done, bath, sleep and help. I keep working on please and thank you, but the kid hasn't picked up manners yet. But otherwise he picks them up pretty quickly, so I need to learn some more so I can teach him more.

He does really well eating table foods, but can sometimes be pretty picky. His absolute favorite foods are bananas and grapes. We have to wait to give them to him at the end of meals or else he won't eat anything else. He has a waffle and banana almost every morning, but will also eat eggs and cereal. He also likes peanut butter sandwiches and pasta with pasta sauce. He's trying more of what we're eating, too. I'm looking forward to when he just eats what we eat so I don't have to make two separate meals at each mealtime.

His favorite "game" is to carry his toys over to you and pile them in your lap. He usually does it with his little animals, his blocks, or his books. He'll pick one up, walk over to me, hand it to me, then turn around to go get another one. He does it a lot with his books, and yesterday he started opening the books before handing them to me. If he's playing independently then he'll just put them in a pile, then move them to a new pile. I'm curious what this says about his personality.

Charlie loves to go on walks with Dave and the dogs every day. A couple times he's even paced by the front the door like the dogs do in anticipation of their morning walk.

We keep a busy schedule. We go to MOPs two Mondays a month, we have playgoup through our new church on Tuesdays, we go to Bible study on Wendesdays, and we do another playgroup on Thursdays. Then on Fridays Charlie spends the day with Granny and Grandaddy. I'm so thankful for my "day off" each week. I've realized our schedule is pretty heavy on activities for me, so I'd like to look into some acitivities or classes that are more for Charlie. Unfortunately that means we'll have to let something else go, but I think Charlie would really love it.

This is also a very challenging time while I try to keep up with Charlie and help him learn boundaries. It can be hard to be patient while he learns right from wrong, and somedays I spend the entire day counting down until bedtime. I have a lot of fears about what it will be like when Peachy comes along, but I am so excited to watch them grow up together. A lot of people have told me the first 18 months will be the hardest, but after that it will be a lot of fun. So I've started a countdown to 2010! :)

FOUND!!

In December 2006 while visiting Doug & Sue & the kids in KC, my rings were irritating my finger and causing the skin to itch and flake pretty bad. So I took them off and placed them "securely" in my purse. Unfortunately when I got home a few days later, I could only find my engagement ring but couldn't find my wedding band ring. After lots of searching, we gave in a figured it was gone for good. My husband was very sweet and never made me feel bad about it. A couple months later we bought a replacement of a simple, but beautiful, gold band.

So imagine my surprise when I put Charlie in his car seat last week and saw saw a dull, gold ring on the floorboard next his toy cell phone. I picked it up and screamed with glee when I saw it was my wedding band! I could not believe that it was back in my hands after 21 months. Needless to say, a lot has changed since then (I lost it when I was just a few weeks pregnant with Charlie), including my ring size. We bought my new ring when I was well into my pregnancy with Charlie, so it has survived swelling and weight gain, but my engagement and original wedding band can't quite fit on my finger. But I am so happy to have my beautiful, sparkly wedding band back that I'm going to get it sized so I can wear it now. I've gone almost two years without it, I don't want to go without it anymore.

Zoo trip

We took advantage of Dave having some time off and the beautiful weather to take Charlie to the Fort Worth Zoo today. Charlie didn't always notice the animals, but when he did, he would stop in his tracks and stare. He was most fascinated with the waterfalls in a lot of the habitats. That boy loves water! This is zoo week for him because lucky boy gets to go to the Dallas Zoo this weekend with Granny, Grandaddy and Aunt Nancy.

Here's an overdue belly photo:

Peachy: 23 weeks

Charlie: 22 weeks

More from Illinois

Here are some of Dad's photos from the trip for Dan's wedding:

hanging out at the parade

Charlie loved Crystal's family's dog

The Hochhalter cousins
(Matthew, Betsy, Aaron, Christy, Ashley, me, Anna, Susan, Dan, Jessica, and Katie)

the Hochhalter boys
(Uncle Tom, Dad, Uncle Jeff, Uncle Glen)

Put your hands in the air like you just don't care!

Charlie and Calvin loved dancing at the reception!

Dan's Wedding

Last weekend Charlie and I went to Carterville, IL, for my cousin Dan's wedding to beautiful Crystal. It was great to have almost all the Hochhalters together, and we had a great time hanging out in Crystal's hometown. The wedding was in her family's huge backyard. They did a great job transforming the barn into a beautiful reception hall. It was a great wedding and we all had a fun time.

Saturday morning we were looking for something to do with the kids, and it turned out the local Lions Club was sponsoring a parade and carnival, so we had a lot of fun taking that in.

Dan is now the fiddle player for country singer Gretchen Wilson. She was at the wedding, and everyone was asked to not take pictures or ask for autographs. But the funny part about it, is that as we were driving back to the hotel, Dad asked if anyone had seen her. We all had, except for him, but he was sitting two seats away from her at the reception and she was practically right behind him in the buffet line! :)

I was too busy chasing Charlie around at the wedding to get more than one picture, but Dad got a new fancy camera, so maybe I'll steal some of his when he emails them.












I'm thankful that this is probably my last trip with Charlie for a while. He actually does really well on planes, and everyone loves him, but he's just so darn active that it's hard to contain him for even relatively short flights. It was also probably his last time flying as a lap baby, even though he technically can until he's two. But he's getting bigger, and my lap is getting smaller, so from now on I'll drag the car seat on board so I can strap him in.