Introducing Doody!

I really did not think I was this far behind in my blogging!  Apparently time has just been flying by.... So for the last two weeks Charlie and I have been a little husband/daddy deprived as Andrew has been studying for finals and then actually writing them.  We've been trying to keep busy with playgroups and the park and the zoo.  

Mondays are generally free, Tuesdays we go to a playgroup run by the red cross, on the third Wednesday of the month the library puts on a program called "seeds" (I forget what it stands for) but it generally involves music/nursery rhymes/stories/crafts/free lunch!  I quite like it, even though it sometimes gets crowded and Charlie can't quite sit and listen the whole time, but it's nice not to have to make lunch!!!  Then on every other Thursday and Saturday we have a playgroup at the train museum - Charlie loves that place!  After its over we generally have a picnic lunch there and Charlie runs around for hours!  It's all about the choo-choos! Then on Fridays we have a playgroup called step-into-school, which is always really fun and interesting.  And we often get free books when they have story time! (They give everyone the same book then read it all together)  And on that note, I have to mention that Charlie is OBSESSED with books!  We don't have t.v so that's his main source of entertainment.  He especially loves them if they have trucks or buses or tractors.  

Charlie is getting so vocal, he often puts a few words together to get his point across and he has the cutest little voice!  His main string of words is "Dada! Doody! Walk!" Meaning I want to take my stroller on a walk to meet daddy on his way home from school - and he'll come right into my face with his face with super intent eyes, like he's really trying to get his point across.  Its really cute.  We still don't know why he calls his stroller "doody"...  Enough boring rambling!  On to the pictures!

Walking to stake conference - I just think this outfit is adorable on Charlie!

Charlie has discovered celery and peanut butter, but mostly he just licks out the peanut butter....

At the little zoo Charlie found this peacock feather and was so excited to bring it home to daddy! He fell asleep on the way home though and I had to pry it from his little fist

Trying to be crafty and make coloured pasta for Charlie to play with...

Charlie loves his play dough!

28 Weeks 

Charlie walked the whole way to the library! (20 minutes - he did so well until he found these rocks and wanted to take a break)

Charlie didn't end up having a nap before church one week, and ended up falling asleep sitting up in the pew almost as soon as we got there!

Charlie loves the mini carts at Coles!

Charlie is really observant and good t spotting things!  We were at the little zoo one day and were going past a pen (not this one in the picture) that usually doesn't have animals in it.  I kept going but Charlie looked at the little sign, then pointed!  It took me a minute but there were some little pademelons inside!!!  Very impressive I thought!

Cute little guy

Charlie loves taking doody everywhere!

Snack time at the train museum!

Charlie likes to spread them all over the super dirty bench and then eat them off with only his mouth!  Helps him build up a good immune system... (but for reals - he's hardly ever sick!)

Charlie loves taking doody for walks and always insists on daddy bringing his doody too!

Charlies new orange sweater for the winter, he loves the "hat" part and putting his hands in the pockets.  Sometimes he'll put things in the pockets too, but them can't get them out!

On a walk, Charlie sometimes needs little breaks and wants to ride in his doody

And sometimes Charlie finds it easier to carry doody...

I love this little guy!

At the zoo - its fun to see animals from Charlie's books!  Charlie loved to watch this wombat dig

We went to a children's fair and they had a free bouncy house!  Charlie went nuts for it and I had to drag him away kicking and screaming...

Second Sunday Charlie didn't nap before church he made it all the way to the end of nursery before crashing on the floor!

'

I made Charlie some pipe cleaner glasses at playgroup! He calls glasses "eyes"

Charlie and daddy making pancakes

Charlie was so excited to be matching with Momma!  Andrew showed him his glasses as well and for the next 2 weeks Charlie insisted on us all wearing our "eyes"

Now that I've finally caught up on the past month and a half I can move on to our little semester break vacation!  We just got home last night... stay tuned!

Cooler Weather = Happiness

Real fall weather has been here for a couple of weeks now and it is delightful!  It's so nice to be able to take Charlie outside during the day to play and not be dying of heat (it's been around 25 degrees during the day).  And it's cooler at night too (8-9 degrees or so) which means snuggling under blankets!  We've even had the heater on a few nights in Charlie's room, because he doesn't keep on a blanket, and we're all much happier now with the temperature change - who knew cool weather was so exciting?!?!  Nothing much exciting has happened in the last few weeks, and I've been really bad at taking pictures lately...  We'll blame it on pregnancy brain - and when I lay down to sleep at night I think of all the pictures I wish I would have taken during the day!  It's quite annoying sometimes, and I feel all guilty like I'm slacking!  But here are a few that managed to get snapped:

(Again, they're all out of order!  And this time I even tried to just add a few at a time and they all came on at once.  ANNOYING!!!)

Day trip out to Wivenhoe Dam on ANZAC Day - Charlie was terrified of the water, but loved eating EVERYTHING and then playing at the park afterwards!

It's a Girl!  Baby Cahoon #2  Charlie wasn't quite sure what to make of this helium balloon...

The Thursday night before Mothers Day the hardware store had a free Mothers Day celebration!  There was a BBQ, games, face painting and a bouncy house for the kids, and crafts for the Moms!  I got to plant a succulent and make a "command" centre (see later picture)

Instead of getting his face painted, Charlie got a BUS painted on his arm!  He is so obsessed with buses these days its nuts!  Even after it washed off he would still point at his arm and say "BUS!"

Broadbeach Gold Coast - So I went to the Gold Coast Ultrasound school to try and get another peek at the baby to find out what it is, but when I got there a little before 2pm they told me my appt wasn't until 3pm!  So I had time to kill.  Luckily the beach was only a 10 minute walk from the school, so I got to go to the ocean!  It was lovely out and as much as I love Andrew and Charlie it was nice to have some alone time!

My little shadow belly shot (20 weeks)

Everything is all islands and waterways on the Gold Coast, this was the bridge I had to walk across to get to the beach from the school, there were tons of fancy houses and you could see the hinterland in the background!  It was so pretty.

Charlie loves the train museum!

This was also at Wivenhoe Dam, after playing at the park

21 Weeks!

I went to a Toy and Book Sale at a local church and got a bunch of great stuff!  Like $0.20 books and a whole bunch of trucks for Charlie!  (I can actually pinpoint this event to when the bus and truck obsession really took off!)  The night
we got them he would try and carry them all around at the same time - I never managed to get a really good picture of it - where Charlie is carrying 4 trucks tucked under his arms and in his hands plus one in his mouth!  He is so entertaining sometimes!

After church one Sunday Charlie fell down the stairs onto his face!  Poor guy, but he is actually so brave and never cries a lot.

Another "It's a Girl" photo - this is at Queens Park, they have some really cool trees there!

Helping out at Bunnings (not really...) so we had this mouse and it was really smart, never getting caught despite having 6 different traps, so I went and got a really good trap.  A few nights later what happens?  Andrew hears some scratching in my wardrobe while I am putting Charlie to bed, so he pulls the drawer in and out a bit to try and scare the mouse out.... well CRUNCH he squished it!  All those traps and the new expensive one and it gets killed by fluke!  It had a really long tail FYI...

I bought this little stroller for Charlie, because they have a few at playgroup and he is obsessed!  This is the next day - he pushed it around all morning at the park (letting go of it at the top of hills etc) and then all afternoon at the splash park, he pushed it though all the fountains!  He is so funny

First playtime at the museum - DinoTrain!  They had tons of cool dinosaur stuff, and a couple of little sandboxes with dinosaur bones for the kids to find!  I love how much neat stuff they have for kids in Ipswich!

Kind of a boring picture to end off with - the command centre!  There is a chalkboard upper left, a notepad upper right, cork board lower right, clothespins to hang things lower left and key holders in the middle!  It was the first crafty thing I've done in a while and it was so fun and who doesn't love free?!?!

Mid-Semster Break

Well now that Andrew's midterms are over I get computer access once more!  And therefore can continue plugging away at this blog.  We did a few fun things during Andrew's mid-semester break, when Andrew wasn't busy studying!  (For some reason UQ decided to do their midterms AFTER their mid-semster break giving them lots of time to study and no time to have a break...)  But I managed to convince Andrew to do a few fun things!  (All the pictures are out of order, not sure why since I upload them in order!  So annoying... I apologize...)

First baby bump picture!  18 weeks

Springbrook National Park is where Charlie re-discovered throwing rocks into water!  It was hard to tear him away

This kid loves being outside! 

Super creepy spider we came home to one night

Cooling off at the local splash park!

This kid it so cool

We bought a pass to the Railway Museum, its actually very kid friendly and I plan on going there a lot in the winter!  Charlie is so obsessed with this dolly, he pulls and pushes it around for as long as I'll let him!

He's such a good little worker.  At home, whenever he finds clothes on the floor he takes them straight to the dirty laundry bin!

Charlies little makeshift poncho for Andrews soccer game

Andrews holidays started off with the Easter long weekend!  We had our upstairs people come down for breakfast (elephant ears which we were calling bunny ears for the holiday, fruit and hard boiled eggs)

Then we set up a little egg hunt!  Charlie was liking it until he thought all the eggs were gone, then he would take them out of his basket and put them back!  I think so he could find them again?  

Charlie is obsessed with Andrews socks.  So finally I put them on him...

On the hike to the Natural Bridge

If you go at night you can see glow worms!

Purling Brook Falls

Going on the little hikes with Charlie took a while.... he sure likes to take his time!

This kid is the greatest

Cool roots

Charlie loves climbing on rocks!  

View from the "Best of All Lookout" I'm not even kidding, thats its name

This was the coolest - Canyon Lookout!  You can only see one waterfall in the picture but there were actually three, and you can do a hike down behind them!  

Every time we go to the mall Charlie likes to play in the rides.  I never actually put money in to make them move, but he doesn't seem to mind! (And hopefully it stays that way as he gets older and learns that they actually move...!)

One of Charlie's favourite places to hang out - in the fire pit!

Baby Cahoon #2!  He/she had a full stomach and a smile on his/her face (we're not 100% sure on the gender as of yet...)

We headed to Southbank one day and then got some food - Charlie was just so tired he couldn't wait for the food...

At the mini zoo, Charlie loved the bird sanctuary, he even tried to climb into their open cages!  We have been reading A LOT of animal books lately and he loves to point out the things he knows!

Typical boy.  Whenever we go places old ladies always comment that Charlie is a real "boys boy"  not sure what that means but he does like sticks and rocks and carrying heavy things and he is SOLID

At the Ipswich Multi Cultural festival - Charlie and I were at the park earlier in the day and whenever a food truck would pull in I would look it up on my phone to see what I wanted to eat that night!  I ended up getting poutine - how Canadian eh?  It was delicious....  and they had live music!  Charlie got into the dancing for a bit, so cute.

Well there you have it!  I'm officially caught up.  I wonder if I'll ever just stay on top of this thing?  Probably not...