Reflections on 2009

As I look back on a busy 2009 for the Cincy Robenalts, I recall many highlights. We started the year celebrating 2009 with Charlie at home.

In January, Charlie experimented with his first walks in the snow. Over MLK weekend, we made a trip up to Cleveland to visit with various Robenalt relatives, and Charlie was showered with attention.


February brought our annual Superbowl party and a trip to Athens to see Taylor.
Charlie survived the 9 hour car ride with Pixar movies on the DVD player. He loved the Atlanta aquarium and coloring with Taylor at the UGA themed hotel where we stayed.

We soon learned that we were pregnant and our world was about to get even crazier. March brought trips to Sarasota and a Vegas trip for Michelle for the first weekend of March Madness. Vegas was tame, since I was tired, not feeling well, and not drinking. But Charlie loved the beach in Florida and playing with Uncle Rory.

April brought Easter Egg hunts and trips to the zoo. May brought my family in for Charlie's 2nd birthday party, and our annual Memorial Day weekend grill out. We also expanded our photography efforts this Spring with a photography workshop at the zoo and a photography session at the Butterfly Show at the Krohn.

In June we made a trip over to St. Louis to visit with the Brewoods. The kids all enjoyed visiting the Magic House, which has greatly expanded since Christine and I were kids. We started making trips to the pool with Charlie, and he went on his first carnival rides. Grandfather Robenalt had been taken to the Cleveland Clinic, so our planned 4th of July trip to Lima was replaced with a trip up to Cleveland. It turned out to be a good chance for Charlie to get accustomed to the Maloneys' house, where he would stay during our trip the following week.

In July, John and I enjoyed our first childless vacation since Charlie was born. We stayed a couple of days at a great B&B at Niagara falls, visited some great Canadian wineries, and then spent a couple of days in Toronto. We almost didn't make the trip, because John's passport had expired, and he didn't realize it until only 3 days before we left. We returned to Cincinnati in time for Charlie to have his face biopsied, which was more traumatic for us than for him.

In August we moved Charlie into his new "big boy room" so that we could prepare the nursery for the new baby, which by now we knew would be another boy. My mother came to visit us in September, and October was filled with outings to the Museum Center, Gorman Farm, the Zoo, and other fun activities so that we could spend time with Charlie before the baby would come to take our attention. We all enjoyed following UC as they had an exciting football season, and watched as they surpassed Ohio State in the rankings. Charlie started showing interest in potty training mid-year, and finally stopped using a pacifier at night by early December.

Liam came early and surprised us all. My parents and sister all made visits to see him shortly after he was born. We had a quiet Thanksgiving here at home, followed by the usual Black Friday shopping excursion for Michelle.

This holiday season I decided to take Charlie to see the trains at Duke Energy, which he thoroughly enjoyed. Taylor came to visit in time to join us for the trip to Cleveland for the Robenalt Christmas, which was the first without Grandfather, as he had passed away in October.

We spent our first ever Christmas at home in Cincinnati, since Liam was so small for travel. We enjoyed watching Charlie's excitement and wonder this year since it was the first he comprehended Santa.

As I started this post, we had a pork roast in the crock pot, getting ready for a quiet New Years Eve here at home with the kids. Tomorrow brings us the Rose Bowl and Sugar Bowl and time to cook a big pot of chili to entertain some friends. Next week Charlie starts at his new daycare and I begin the countdown to our Disney vacation and my return to work.

We are truly blessed to have been able to spend such great times with friends and family all throughout this year. We will miss Grandfather Robenalt, but we welcomed Liam and his cousin Wyatt into the world. 2010 promises to be another exciting and fun-filled year of parenting!

2 Months Old

At 2 months old, Liam is starting to grab at his bottle and his "wubbanub" pacifier. Sometimes he almost gets the pacifier into his mouth on his own, if it is nearby. He is making more "talking" sounds and starting to smile with a wide open mouth. He will sometimes sleep for about 5 hours at night if his belly is full. The challenge is keeping his belly full! He eats like crazy most of the time, and I can't wait until his next appointment with the pediatrician (next week) to see how much he weighs now. Two month photos are on my flickr site for you to enjoy.

Merry Christmas 2009

Last night John went to the movies, so Liam and I picked Charlie up from daycare and I took the boys to Skyline. Little did I know, it was family night, and not only did Charlie eat for free, but Santa was there! They had Christmas coloring pages and ornament kits for the kids to make. Charlie helped me put the eyes on a reindeer ornament, and tried to color on one with a crayon. He would not sit on Santa's lap, but stood near him for a photo on my blackberry. He told Santa again that he wanted Lego Blocks for Christmas. He colored a reindeer page while we waited for our food. On the way home, he asked to hold his "kangaroo" (the reindeer ornament), and when we got home, he had to hang it on the Christmas tree advent calendar.

Charlie loves The Polar Express movie, which he has nicknamed "the train movie." It has nearly surpassed "the balloon movie" (aka Up), which was his current favorite until just this week. We had to watch it again when we got home from Skyline last night.

Today we're having our friend Beth over for Christmas Eve lunch and exchanging gifts. I am making Mom's peachy chicken for our meal. Tomorrow John will make lasagna for our Christmas lunch with his mom.

Charlie is very excited for Santa Claus to come to his house tonight. We wish all of our friends and family a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Winter Fun

We've had lots of fun this month with holiday festivities. Two Fridays ago we went after dinner to look at the holiday lights at Sharon Woods park. Charlie really enjoyed it. Liam was fussy, so we skipped the hot chocolate and Santa at the end and drove on home. That next Monday, Beth and I took the boys downtown to see the trains at Duke Energy. Charlie had a blast!

After the visit to the trains Beth and I went to see "Every Christmas Story Ever Told." It got us in the holiday mood for sure.

Last week I also took Liam to the baby movies with Lauren and Mallory, for his first "movie date."


Taylor came to visit us this weekend, and we all drove up to Cleveland for the Robenalt Christmas gathering. Charlie was spoiled with all the attention and gifts. He stayed at Great Aunt Margie's house while we stayed at a hotel nearby with Liam and Taylor. It was great to see Taylor and for her to have time visiting with the kids.

Charlie's vocabulary and understanding of the world increases every day. He amuses us with some of the things that he says. Today in the car, while John was listening to NPR, Charlie told him to change it to music. Last Sunday he gave me a hug and said "I love you Mom" for the first time. He had been a bit of a pain the night before, while John was in Indianapolis for a broomball tournament overnight. He also pooped for the first time in the potty seat-- just a little-- while John was away. He made me take a picture to show Daddy. I don't think he's been back on the potty at all since then.

Charlie is very excited about Santa coming to our house. I'm not sure where all he learned about Santa-- we haven't spoken to him explicitly to explain the concept, so he must have learned it from TV and school and books.

I signed Charlie up for some swim lessons starting in February. We hope to get him more acclimated to the water before summer arrives. I'd like to get more value out of our Rec Center membership this year.

A Trip to Santa's Village

Last Friday night we decided at the spur of the moment to make a trip to the Ohio National Victorian Village display near our house, so that Charlie could visit Santa. Looking back, we should have prepared him for the event by explaining what was going on. The topic of Santa had just never really come up in a formal way at home.

When we got to the little house where Santa was, Charlie was anxious to go in. He politely responded to the elf at the door when asked his name, saying "Charlie Robenalt." We even peeked in the window to see that Santa was in there. But once it was his turn, he stopped right inside the doorway and didn't want to get any closer. Since I knew there was a line of people behind us, I urged him quickly to think of something he might want for Christmas. Again, I was ill prepared, as I should have come up with something that I knew he would be getting. But the first thing that came to mind was that he loves to play with his mega blocks. So I asked him if he liked blocks. Santa heard me, and suggested that maybe he would like lego blocks.

Charlie would not get on Santa's lap for a photo, so we stood together and I got him as close as I could. Once we had left the little house, Charlie looked at me and in a very sad voice said "lego blocks?" I am pretty sure that he thought he got to go home that night with whatever he asked for. Luckily, we got past it without a meltdown, but next time I will be better prepared!

We were also not terribly well prepared for the weather on this last minute outing, and I did not bring a hat and mittens for Charlie. But we had Liam all snuggled up in the stroller, and he didn't get too cold. Charlie enjoyed the train ride back to the parking garage, and he's been playing with his balloon animal (he chose an elephant) all week.

The other day it was snowing lightly when Charlie left for school, and there was a dusting of snow on the driveway. Apparently the snow is not so "icky" to him this year, because he sure enjoyed "crunching" it with his feet. I guess we'll have to get him some good snow boots this year.

We've had success with no pacifier for over a week now. He's only asked John for it once at bedtime, and he hasn't said a word to me about it (although a couple of times I could tell he wanted to). I simply suggested to him early last week that maybe by Christmas time when we got presents he could be a big boy and not use a paci anymore. He used it that night, but not again since then.

Liam has moved out of newborn clothes, and into 3 month sizes. He's been eating like crazy, and I can hardly keep up with him. We're looking forward to a visit from Taylor next week, and then soon it will be Christmas-- our first here in Cincinnati. In the meantime, we'll have orientation at Charlie's new daycare center, and a few other holiday events. I hope everyone out there is having a great holiday season!

One Month Old

Liam had his one month checkup on the 1st. He was 9 pounds, 10 ounces (55%) and 21 inches long (45%). His head remains at a normal size (15 inches-- or 50th percentile). Everything checked out fine, and we have no concerns.

Liam is starting to find his "voice." Occasionally I will hear "ooh" and "ahh" instead of just cries, hiccups, and grunts. He's also trying a lot to pick up his head and move it around. He seems to have had an unusually strong neck since his first week after birth. He does not like to be cold-- we've been putting him to bed with a hat and making sure to bundle him up in a swaddler nice and tight. We never had this problem with Charlie-- since he was born in the spring and did not like to have his arms wrapped up tight.

Some nights with Liam are easy (last night he woke up only once to feed), and some nights are frustrating (the night before he woke up every hour and a half). He seems to be eating a lot this week, and we're having to supplement his diet with formula to keep him happy. I guess this explains the large weight gain over the past two weeks (about a pound and a half).

Since I wrote last, we enjoyed a nice Thanksgiving dinner with friends and family. Charlie was excited about turkey, but then would not eat it when it was served. We think he was expecting deli turkey and not the smoked bird we got from Jim Dandy's.

It was beautiful, but John and I agree that we have now decided that we prefer roasted turkey for Thanksgiving. Beth and I added to our Black Friday shopping tradition this year with a trip to the UC football game, where the Bearcats remained undefeated. I had lots of fun shooting some photos of touchdowns with my camera. You can see a selection here: "http://www.flickr.com/photos/mrobenalt/sets/72157622889071286/" Unfortunately for John, Liam decided that was a day he would be Mr. Fussy Pants for 12 hours straight.

We started using Grandma Bovier's advent calendar (a Christmas tree with ornaments for each day of December) with Charlie last night. We hung a rocking horse on the tree in a spot that he chose. This morning when he woke up, he told me he was going to go downstairs and do another "horse rocking chair". I also started last night to encourage him to stop using the pacifier to sleep at night by Christmas time. At bedtime he started to hand it over to me, but then decided he needed it. We'll see how it goes over the coming weeks. We're still not forcing the potty training, either-- but Charlie voluntarily asks to use the potty occasionally, and when he does he is rewarded with Diego pants (Easy-Ups).

The craziness continues

Apologies to our eager readers, who have been anxiously awaiting more news of baby Liam's first days. It has been a crazy ride so far. Most recently, my car wouldn't start on Friday (and it is still having what appear to be battery issues), and now our garbage disposal is apparently broken. But I wanted to take a moment and catch up on the more important life events from the past couple of weeks.

My parents came to visit for a week, and we had a great time visiting, since I was already home from the hospital with Liam. The weather was nice and mild, so we even ventured out to the zoo last Saturday with the whole family. Charlie built lots and lots of ramp structures out of blocks with both Grandma and Grandpa. And we all went out to eat for dinner one night as well.


While my parents were here, Liam had his first appointment with the pediatrician on November 3. He was back up to his birth weight of 7 lbs 4 oz. They measured him at only 20 inches long, and his head was 14 inches.

Everything appeared to be great. Since then, he's only had one real problem health-wise, which is an irritation on the skin where his leg connects to his body inside the diaper area. Some antifungal cream seems to be helping that heal. The bigger problem with Liam's diapers is that he seems to like to urinate on Mommy and Daddy while we're changing him. We are pretty sure that we've already gotten wet more times with Liam than we have ever had with Charlie to-date. One diaper change was so bad (he pooped AND peed on Daddy during it) that we had to conduct his first bath right away in the kitchen sink.

He's still so lean, we've still been using the newborn size diapers, but will likely switch to size 1 when our current supply runs out in a day or two.

I had a nice birthday dinner last Monday with John, the kids, and Beth. After having brunch with Mom and Dad at First Watch (where I had eggs with runny yolks), I had medium rare steak, a salad with gorgonzola cheese, a glass of wine and a drink before dinner at Brio. It was a wonderful treat after months of avoiding all of those foods.

John went back to work on Wednesday this past week, so I was on my own with Liam and the laundry for a few days. My sister Christine came to visit this weekend, and the weather was wonderful-- upper 60's for highs. She and I took the kids to the park so Charlie could have some time on the playground on Saturday while John tried to catch up on some work. Charlie sang some songs for Christine while she was here, including itsy bitsy spider and five little monkeys, and he enjoyed showing off his room.

Lucy has been doing really well considering all the commotion at the house. She brought me the gift of a rabbit head on Thursday morning when I let her in the house. We think that something else (possibly a coyote) caught it during the night, and Lucy just brought us the pieces. I was appropriately "pleased" all the same.

Life gets back to "normal" tomorrow, when John goes back for his first full week at work, and the visits from family are over for now. I am able to drive again at this point (although I'm still taking easy) so I won't be stranded completely here at home. Now I just have to figure out what is going wrong with my car....

What a week!

Along with Liam's early arrival, by an unexpected method, our week was studded with other "surprises." On the day I was to come home, John was about to drop Charlie off at daycare when Charlie vomited in the car. Unable to take him in, and fearing the worst, he drove him home and made an appointment with the pediatrician. I had to call another friend, Teresa, to come pick me and the baby up from the hospital. As it turns out, Charlie was fine-- no fever, no other symptoms, and flu was not suspected. He went home and took a long nap and appeared to be feeling much better by the time Liam and I arrived home.

Later that evening, I was running water in the kitchen sink to wash out some parts to my breast pump, when I discovered that we had no hot water. The gas line maintenance that we had been warned about a week or two earlier had apparently happened the day before, and our gas had been off ever since. We had to call to have it turned back on and the appliances re-lit.

Halloween was not as expected, since we had two kids, not one. But Charlie had a great time nonetheless. And I got to have a glass of wine while handing out candy!

I think the distraction of Halloween has helped Charlie with the transition to being a big brother. He seems interested in the baby, and is being no more difficult than he has been lately. I could easily attribute most of his acting out to just being his age and wanting to be independent. He's no more defiant than he was a week ago.

We've had several visitors already. My parents arrive this evening to spend the week. It's hard to believe that under our original plan, I would have been taking vacation today to clean the house and make final baby preparations. Instead, I was trying to rest between feedings and diapers while John went in to work for a while.

We've been doing pretty well, considering we were only half prepared for what has happened. The verdict is still out as far as whether my recovery will be easier from this delivery than the last one. It certainly is different-- I will say that for sure!

Early Bird Special

It was a dark and stormy night. I had gone to bed about 9:45, and 2 hours later I woke to a strong contraction. After two more spaced about 6 minutes apart, I decided to go downstairs to tell John, who was still awake, what was going on. I didn't need a doctor to tell me that these were different than the "practice" contractions I'd been having for about 3 months.

I had more contractions pretty quickly, and we called the doctor's office right away. We were advised to wait 30 minutes to see if anything changed, before coming to the hospital. Lucky for us, we immediately called our friend Beth and asked her to come over to watch Charlie. By the time she arrived at the house, I was in extreme pain with contractions 2-3 minutes apart, and barely able to walk to the car.

We arrived at the hospital at 1:20am, and I think the nurse at the front desk was surprised to see how far into active labor I quite obviously was. As it turns out, I was already 9 cm dilated. We later determined that it was likely that my water broke in the car.

To make a long story short, the doctor on call (who happened to be the same one scheduled to do my c-section a week later), convinced me to try to deliver vaginally. I agreed, on one condition-- that they could get me an epidural. Neither John nor I was prepared for this-- we had assumed all along that this baby, like the one before, would be delivered via c-section. So not only was he arriving early (10 days before due date), he was entering this world in his own way. Once the epidural had been administered, I was able to tolerate my condition. They let us both rest for a couple of hours before having me start to push.

Two and a half hours of pushing, with a little vacuum assistance at the end, brought Liam Overberg Robenalt into the world at 7:27am on October 28, 2009. He was 7 pounds, 4 ounces, and 20.5 inches long.

We apologize for the lack of blog updates along the way. Hopefully having heard the story, our readers will understand why the account of Liam's birth was not quite so real-time as that of Charlie's.

The Final Countdown

We are in the final stages of preparing for Baby #2. The envelopes for pre-addressing baby announcements have arrived in the mail, so now it finally feels more real! We've had our choice of first names narrowed down to 2 or 3 for quite some time, but now we may flip flop back to a different version of one of the names we liked early on but had then eliminated. It may just come down to the first time we see him.

Charlie has also been preparing in his own way. He liked practicing putting his doll in the carseat when I had it out to readjust the straps back to infant size and to put on the winter cover. We also took him on Sunday to pick out a present for Baby Brother. This morning he finally got his seasonal flu shot (our pediatrician had been out of the dosage for kids under 3 until just last week).

I managed to get an H1N1 shot this past Friday, thanks to the assistance from friends Brian and Lauren. Brian sat in the line in the cold rain for Lauren and I while we sat in the car. But the early morning paid off-- we were very near the front of the line and got through long before they shut it down for the day. Brian and Lauren even got interviewed for the news!

Only a few more days of work for me, then I'm off on vacation until C-Day. It will be nice to have some time to relax and finish up things around the house that I've been too tired to do after long days at work.

Just for fun, here is a comparison of me in the final week or so before Charlie was born, and a shot from last weekend in nearly the same spot. We thought it was fitting to take another photo at the site of big moments in our life (since this was also where our wedding was held).

Yesterday

I thought "Yesterday" would be an appropriate title for this entry, because Charlie has been starting to use that word a lot. And when he uses it, it means something in the recent past, not necessarily just the day before this one. For example, a few days after we saw polar bears at the zoo, he saw a photo of a polar bear in a magazine and declared that he had seen one "yesterday." So I will now fill you in on what has been happening "yesterday."

We've been enjoying October weekends as a time to get Charlie out and do something special before winter and the baby arrive. The weather turned very cold very fast, but has warmed back up a little. Two weeks ago we went trick-or-treating at Hallzooween. Charlie now understands how to say "trick or treat" and he's starting to associate his Tigger costume with the concept of Halloween. Now that he has eaten or played with all of the items he received during that outing, he has stated that he needs to "get some more in my pumpkin." So he's ready for next weekend for sure!


Last weekend we took advantage of free tickets to the Children's Museum and spent a couple of hours there with Charlie. He seemed to enjoy everything he saw. Of course, having a big bin of balls drop on his head was a highlight. After he had been a bit hesitant to look at a baby alligator at the Children's Zoo the week before, we were surprised when he rushed right up to be the first in line to touch a snake at the museum. He stroked and rubbed it for quite a while before declaring that he'd had enough.

Charlie stunned us while we were driving in the car, and "Strawberry Fields" came on the radio. From the backseat we heard "it's Rock Band!" He recognized the song from the Beatles Rock Band game.

Charlie has been identifying with pictures and items with relationship to his immediate family. In the clip below, he identifies each of us with one of our trashcans, by size. He has also picked us out in books and on games on John's iphone (in one case his baby brother was a cat on my lap). He's making associations to groups of people or items that he sees, and how they "match" our family makeup.


At school, Charlie has enjoyed lessons about apples and pumpkins. He really enjoyed tasting different colors of apples, making apple sauce, and planting apple seeds in cups. His favorite days are still when the librarian (Mrs. O) comes to read to them.

At home, Charlie has been getting back into coloring again, I think because we pulled out some new crayons that are a different shape. They may be easier for his hands to use now. He's also started calling me "momma" and occasionally "mom" instead of just "mommy." And we're working our way back to enjoying bath time, thanks to Diego bubble bath (although he still won't sit down in the tub). So many changes, experimenting with new things.

Our little talker

Charlie continues to rattle off the new words and concepts.

Apparently John needs to start watching his language a little more closely. Today, Charlie accidentally hit me with his drum stick while playing with his toy drum, and when I said "Ouch!" he said "Jesus Christ!" It's so hard not to laugh when he does that.

Last week one morning as we were walking to the car to go to daycare, he asked me what that was up in the sky. It was still dark, and the moon, which was nearly full, was peaking out from a hole in the clouds. He was fascinated by the moon for the rest of the day. When asked if it was big, he said it was "squished." I can't disagree with that assessment-- it seemed an appropriate word.

Last weekend, when John asked Charlie what we should name his baby brother, Charlie responded "Baby Sister."

I took Charlie to get his haircut on Wednesday after work, and when I told him where we were going, he said "going on an airplane." I could not figure out why he thought we were going on a plane, and then I realized that he remembered sitting in the airplane chair the last time we got his hair cut. As we pulled up to the building, he started talking about "Nemo." When we walked in and I asked him what movie or show he wanted to watch while getting his haircut, he said "Nemo," and I made the connection. He had everything all planned out!

Charlie has been playing a lot with the drum and other musical instruments that Beth got him for his birthday last year. He calls it "Rock Band."

One of the most amazing (or maybe just coincidental) things that Charlie did this past week was to bring me two of his books-- different sizes and shapes, one about bunnies and one about cars, nothing really similar about them-- and declare "it matches!" I took at look, and lo and behold, they were both by Richard Scarry. I don't know if he realized the drawings were of a similar style, or what, but it sort of freaked me out!

Every day is certainly a new adventure with Charlie.

Saying goodbye

Today we said goodbye to Grandfather Robenalt. John was honored to be a pallbearer, but I'm sure it was not the easiest thing to do. The visitation last night drew quite a crowd-- the room was pretty full for four straight hours while we were there. It was a true testament to how much he impacted the community and so many lives within it. Of course, many in attendance were family, but there were others who had been touched by his life in other ways. John remarked that even the sandwich lady from the Kewpie came to pay her respects. Nancy seemed to be holding up pretty well.

It was a fitting day for a funeral today-- steady rain most of the day. Charlie was a pretty good little boy during the service, although I did take him outside to run around during parts of it. He was very proud to show off to everyone that "Daddy has a tie just like me!" It was the first time we had dressed him up with a clip on tie. At the cemetery, Charlie remarked that the gun salute was "really loud" but he dealt with it surprisingly well.

I reflected at the cemetery on my own grandfathers' passing, since they were both veterans of WWII as well. The military salutes always make me teary eyed. After the final words at the gravesite, we stopped at Grandmother Toska's grave as well. Then we enjoyed some nice time with family at the country club before driving back home.

Goodbye John Alton Robenalt. You will be missed.

Go Diego Go!

Apparently Diego Easy Ups are powerful motivation. Charlie went on the potty 3 mornings out of 5 this week. We had told him that if he tried to sit on his potty, we'd let him wear the Easy Ups to school. He was so proud of himself, he had to tell everyone when he got there. He still only sits on the potty about once a day at daycare, and not for very long. But at least he's acting interested. We're letting him go at his own pace.

The other amazing thing that happened this week was that twice in 24 hours Charlie turned down hot dogs to eat-- once for fish sticks, and once for turkey. We're happy to see his interest in better meats and in the variety.

It's been rainy all week long, so we're cooped up again indoors today. Charlie is enjoying some playdough and Lucy is resting from her visit to the vet for her annual checkup this morning. John and I are watching football and relaxing.

I hope to have some new photos to share soon, taken with my new anniversary gift camera.

Terrible/Terrific Twos

This past month has sped by and I have been too distracted to write. Between preparing for baby, busy times at work, and keeping up with Charlie, we've had our hands full.

Charlie is becoming more difficult at times, representative of the typical "terrible two" that he is. Half the time if you raise your voice to reprimand him, he just laughs. Today I tried to punish him by sending him to bed-- but he interpreted it as just being nap time and took a 2 hour nap. I'm not sure he fully understood it was supposed to be a punishment. Some of his independence is not a bad thing-- exclamations of "do it myself" are usually tolerable, and I like seeing him try to do things on his own and progress at being able to actually do them. But other times it can be very frustrating.

At the same time, he still makes us laugh and smile many times a day. One of his common phrases now is "not yet" when he wants to delay doing something we have asked him to do. He also still likes to tell us "two minutes" when he wants just a little more playtime before we go change his diaper or put him down for a nap. I guess we deserve that, since we say the same thing to him when we want him to wait for something.

Charlie has been making a habit of having his stuffed animals kiss their own pictures in books. Big Bird and Brutus are the most common. But he has also asked me to kiss my own picture in his family picture book, and he likes to kiss his own picture that is hanging on the fridge. I'm not sure what to make of that, other than it being an extension of his interest in finding things that match.

Shadows are intriguing to Charlie these days. When he spots a bit of sun on the kitchen floor in the morning, he likes to make shadows with his foot. He's also been commenting on seeing his shadow outside. He loves the nature walks they do at daycare, and recently became enamored with a fuzzy caterpillar that they found on one of the walks. His favorite outdoor pass-time is still to look for "birdies."

We've been pleased to get Charlie involved in helping to take care of Lucy. He loves to carry her food bowl or to give her a treat. We like that Lucy will start to see him as someone to respect as a caregiver. It's also a good sign that Charlie likes to help around the house, which will be handy when baby comes. The other day, as we were leaving the house, Charlie exclaimed "uh oh- Lucy Dog!" Lucy was locked on the other side of the baby gate and he was concerned that she couldn't get through.

Charlie still does not seem to show much of an interest in potty training. He does like to announce when he has just soiled his diaper, but will not yet tell us before he goes. He is thrilled to have his own potty to sit on, but won't sit on it much for us. He sits on one at school, but only for a few seconds at a time. He does seem excited to start wearing pull-up diapers like some of his friends at school, but I'm having a hard time teaching him that he only gets to wear those when he's ready to start sitting on the potty.

Over the past few weeks, we've had some busy times. Grandma Knepper came to visit for Labor Day weekend, and Charlie got used to having her around. It was nice preparation for when baby comes and she'll be here to help with Charlie.

Entertaining Lucy played a party for the Labor Day weekend fireworks, and we were able to go watch them for a while. Charlie participated in his first water balloon toss-- sort of. I think he may have tossed it once. Mostly he just wanted to feel the balloon and watch the other kids. Yesterday we went to Kings Island for the annual P&G outing, and Charlie had a blast on the 3 rides he was able to go on. He's still too short for most of even the kiddie rides, but he surprised us a bit and liked one that was a little rougher than we expected for kids his age. We also had fun running into several of Charlie's friends from daycare. Still, after about 2 hours, he was worn out and asked to go home.


Work has been extremely busy for both of us, and we've had to work at finding time to get stuff done around the house. The weather has been so cool this summer, and we had so much rain, that the lawn is still growing (it's usually brown by this time of year). As a result, John broke down and hired a neighborhood kid to mow it these past few weeks. The nursery is ready for baby, but I still have a lot I'd like to get done before he arrives. We've set November 4 as the date for a scheduled c-section, should he not decide to come any earlier. Just about 6 more weeks of work before the big day!

Because I said so!

I finally resorted to exclaiming "Because I said so!" in response to one of Charlie's "Why?" questions today. Ugh.

I don't feel like I accomplished much this weekend in the way of preparing for November, but we did manage to take care of a few needed errands. On Saturday morning we took Lucy in for a bath at Petsmart and Charlie had fun looking at all the animals in the store. While he enjoys looking at the birds and hamsters, and he was excited to see some kitties, his favorite was watching the dogs who were in the play area of the boarding/daycamp facility. He opted for a second trip back to that section over going to see the fish during this visit.

After dropping Lucy off, we went to get Charlie a haircut, and then to buy some new shoes for fall. His left foot is slightly bigger, measuring a 6 1/2. We got him some new size 7 washable sneakers, and an adorable pair of little Merrills so he could be just like Daddy.

We also had some social time this weekend. Charlie went with us to the Kaeppners' baby party last night. He met a new "friend"-- the 2 year old daughter of Lauren's cousin-- and they enjoyed chasing each other around, sharing a snack of some crackers, and dancing to some music. He enjoyed helping unwrap all the gifts as well. Today we saw Grandma Robenalt for lunch and a trip around Target to buy a few new long sleeved shirts and long pants for Charlie for fall. He needs 3T pants, but only for the waist. We'll have to roll up the legs quite a bit.

The new interest that Charlie has been displaying this weekend has been to point out when things are "the same." He's been finding animals in books and showing us when "they match!"

Right now Charlie is having some quiet time, watching one of his current favorite movies (Coraline) while John is off at broomball. I'm enjoying the quiet!

Future Warehouse Manager?

Last Wednesday on the way to dropping Charlie off at daycare, I had to stop at a vendor's warehouse to drop off some things. I told Charlie we were stopping to see some of Mommy's friends. When we got inside the office, he wanted to go out and look in the warehouse itself. His eyes were so big looking at the racks of boxes stacked up to the high ceiling. He seemed very interested in everything. They had not started work for the day, so they said it was okay if I set him down on the ground to look around. He didn't really roam around the place (just stood there), but started talking about how there were no ladders, and said something about Mommy climbing up to get the boxes.

Our curious little boy has continued to ask "why?" over and over again in several conversations per day. "What's that, Mommy?" is another common question.

We had a busy week this past week. I took Charlie to the baseball game for a work event on Friday, but he was mostly interested in watching the boats go up and down the river behind the stadium. He talked all day about going to the baseball game, but the game itself just didn't hold his attention. He did spend some time looking at some of the players, and we talked about how they had gloves and hats and shoes just like Charlie.

On Saturday we spent several hours at the mall so John could buy some new clothes and shoes for work, and we had a delicious dinner at Maggiano's. On Sunday Charlie got to have play time with both Connor in the morning and Cora in the evening at the ice rink while John played a pickup game of broomball. He ran and ran and ran and wore himself out.


Tonight John is at the ATP tournament watching some tennis, and Charlie and I are going to bed early. It's been a tiring few days!

Random Charlie Notes

Charlie has been playing with one of John's old spare keyboards for a PC (not hooked up to anything). Today he asked me to go downstairs and get his "computer" (meaning the keyboard) and then he proceeded to press on some keys and tell me that we were going to look at his pictures. Then I had to wait, while he said "here they come." I wonder where he got this idea?

Yesterday Charlie had a very busy day. I had to run some errands, so John took him to the library, the playground, and Best Buy. After Charlie's afternoon nap, we met up with the Kramers at Sharon Woods for some play time at the playground there. Today after naptime we went to the swimming pool in our subdivision. We didn't stay long, because Charlie got splashed in the face and wanted to go home after that. He is always excited to go to the pool, but once we are there, it is a fight to get him in. He just doesn't like water anywhere near his head.

Charlie continues to amaze us with his use of language. Friday night he was talking about the fact that he wasn't wearing a coat, and we couldn't understand what he was talking about (it was 85 degrees out and we weren't thinking of outerwear). When he realized we didn't understand, he used another word-- jacket-- to get his point across. I was impressed that he made that leap.

Things continue to go well with the big boy bed. There have been no real fights over going to bed, and Charlie generally stays in the bed all night. We only know of a couple of times (at the start of naps) where he's gotten out to get books or a blanket and crawled back in. He got all excited this weekend when I changed his sheets to wash them and his pillow case looked different. He thought it was a brand new pillow.

The Big Boy in His New Room

Lots to talk about today, since it has been so long since I wrote.

Charlie's surgery on the 21st went well. We don't yet have results back from the biopsy of the rash on his face, but he was a trooper through the whole ordeal. He made it through the morning with minimal frustration, despite not being able to eat or drink until after the procedure.

He was very curious about everything at the hospital-- wanted to know what was behind all the doors. After the procedure, he seemed to recover well. He did not like the bandaid on his foot where they removed the IV, but once we got that off and were headed out the door he was fine. He was a little wobbly from the anesthesia the rest of the day, but was in a fairly good mood, and didn't seem to notice the small steri-strip on his cheek, just under his right eye. In fact, it was at least a day later when he happened to see it in the mirror while washing his hands. He just said "uh-oh," tried to point at it, and that was about all he had to say about it.

Between the surgery and having been away from us and out of his routine while we went on vacation, Charlie had trouble sleeping that first week back from his stay in Cleveland. He would wake up in the night and call for us, as if to make sure we were still there. And he wanted us to sit in the room with him as he fell asleep. By the end of the week, we told him that he had to go to sleep by himself, to show he was a big boy and ready to move into his new room.

By last Sunday, we were ready for Charlie to try sleeping in his new room. Between having had a very busy day (including a play date with Oscar and Mia at Sharon Woods park), and staying up a little later than usual, he was very tired at bedtime and went down smoothly in the new bed. We were sure it wouldn't last, but he slept through the night, and continued to do so all week. We are sure that the time we spent with him playing the room and having him in there while we worked on setting it up helped him become accustomed to the surroundings.



About a week ago, Charlie asked me "why" for the first time that I can remember. Not sure where he picked that up, or if he really understands the question. Like a lot of things he says, it might just be a reaction-- what he thinks he is supposed to say. We'll see if he continues to be inquisitive like this.

I continue to laugh at Charlie's mixed up songs. One of his favorites is "A-B-C- ashes- all fall down!" The other day I could tell he was trying to sing about the itsy bitsy spider, including some of the hand motions, but he only had some of the words down. He loves to dance, and has been begging every day to watch "move-it move-it"-- he wants to dance to the music on the credits for Madagascar 2.

Most of the time now, Charlie wants to dress and undress himself-- even though he still needs a little help. "I wanna do it" is a commonly uttered phrase.

I'm sure there is more that I have missed. Next time I will try to get back on here before I forget what I wanted to write!

Back in the U S of A

The rest of our Toronto trip was very relaxing. On Thursday we were a bit let down by the Distillery District-- we did not find it as interesting as the guidebooks made it sound. But it all worked out for the best, as I was tired and John had some work he needed to do. So we relaxed at the hotel in the afternoon before heading out for a nice dinner and the comedy show. Between dinner and the show, we enjoyed a walk around the St. Lawrence Market area and did a little shopping.

On Friday we packed up and headed back to the US. Our trip over the border was much quicker than the crossing the other way. Either the time and day of the week were in our favor, or we picked the better bridge this time (or both!). We didn't even have to pay any duty on the wine we had purchased. We stopped on our way across Cleveland so John could visit his grandfather at the Cleveland Clinic, then made it to the Maloneys' in time for dinner.

Charlie wasn't sure what to make of us at first-- but he seemed glad to see us. He appeared to have had a really good time while we were gone. He had grown accustomed to the dogs, and even knew their names, as well as the names of all the other family members.

We stopped by the Zimmermans' in Columbus for a visit and dinner on Saturday on our way home from Cleveland to Cincinnati. Charlie enjoyed showing off his new "bike" from the Maloneys, and playing on their swingset. He even used a big boy swing.

On Sunday we started the final stages of preparing Charlie's new room. He helped us assemble his new bed in the room, and afterwards, he did not want to leave. He loves climbing in and out of the new bed, and piled it high with toys. We have only a few more things to do to prep the room for a final move-in.

On our way back to the states on Friday, we received a call from Children's Hospital that let us know that the biopsy of the rash on Charlie's face was to take place on Tuesday (tomorrow!) No one had bothered to call and tell us! Of course, the ointment we had been using since his last dermatologist appointment about 3 weeks ago actually seems to have been working. We have only been applying it on one side, so we can see the difference. I presume they'll take the sample from the other side of his face tomorrow.

We learned this evening that Charlie finally has a new cousin, and he instantly was able to repeat his name-- Wyatt. I'm sure Charlie will be excited to meet him. We've also been talking to him a lot about the coming of his baby brother. Mostly it is intended to steer him away from the talk of his "baby sister" which he seems to tell people about. I can only guess he has been saying "sister" because his closest friends at daycare have baby sisters, not brothers.

Charlie continues to use new words and phrases, and has broken out in random song a few times over the past couple of days. His favorite right now is "ring around the rosy". He likes to sing about falling down.

My latest checkup at the OB went fine today. Heart is beating right along. Next appointment is in 4 weeks, and we'll likely be able to schedule our delivery date during that visit. Time is flying by quickly.

We're in Canada, eh!

Our child-free vacation has started out well. We stopped in Cleveland on Saturday night to drop Charlie off at the Maloneys, and got to enjoy dinner with several family members to celebrate Uncle Jim's birthday. Charlie even sang "Happy Birthday" to the amusement of all in attendance. After enjoying some Einstein bagels on Sunday, we headed off to Niagara Falls.

It took us about 90 minutes in line to cross the border at Niagara, but when we finally did, we arrived to find our choice of B&B was nearly perfect. Only a 400 yard walk from the falls area and with a view of the river gorge, the location was perfect. Our room was great, and breakfast was delicious. Free wireless internet is always a winner with John.

The weather is even cooler than normal up here, with highs in the low to mid-70's so far this week. Sunny with just a few clouds, and a nice breeze. Upon our arrival on Sunday we walked down to the falls and found somewhere to eat as we waited for dusk and the lights to be turned on the falls. The innkeeper had also tipped us off that there were to be fireworks that night at 10pm, and we just happened to pick the perfect spot to watch them, even though we had no idea where they would shoot them off. We'd brought our tri-pod to take night photos of the water lit up, and John made good use of it to take photos of the fireworks as well. I did the best I could by hand-holding my camera.

Monday we decided to drive up to Niagara on the Lake and visit some wineries. We knew the region was known for its icewines, but were pleasantly surprised to also find a couple of good chardonnays and an inexpensive red that John liked. We enjoyed tasting icewines made from other varietals besides vidal, which seems to be what we see down in Ohio. We walked around the town, had a good lunch, looked at some shops, and enjoyed being able to drive around with the windows down. The flowers were also beautiful.

After a rest at the B&B, we made reservations for an early dinner at a restaurant with a view of the falls-- but away from the cheesy tourist trap atmosphere. The food was good, as was the view, but the service tapered off at the end of our meal. After dinner we made it back to the B&B in time to watch some of the Home Run Derby, but were too tired to stay up for the whole thing.

Today after breakfast we headed out from Niagara Falls and stopped at two more wineries on our way up to Toronto. Tawse Winery is fairly new-- open for only about 4 years. But they made some very good wines. We were impressed with their use of geo-thermal energy, gravity fed processing, and biodynamic/eco-friendly methods. As John will point out, they use sheep to keep the grass trimmed! The other winery sold some wines that were thousands of dollars per bottle. We did not buy anything there.

On the way to Toronto we noted how much we felt like we might as well be in the US, because the cars are all the same, and we saw most of the same retail stores (even passed two - yes, two - IKEAS in the span of a one hour drive), Starbucks everywhere, etc. But we did notice a few key signs that we were actually in Canada. First, there was a Tim Hortons in the Home Depot. Second, Sears appears to be higher end (more similar to Macy's) here-- no Craftsman tools, replaced instead by a Chanel counter and Kenneth Cole and Calvin Klein clothing sections. And of course, there is the obvious use of the metric system.

Once in Toronto and having checked into our hotel, we found our way via the subway to a popular shopping area and ate dinner before catching a movie. Afterwards, we did a little shopping before heading back to the hotel to plan the rest of our Toronto visit and watch some of the All Star game. Tomorrow we have tickets to see the Dead Sea Scrolls exhibit at the Royal Ontario Museum, and plan to see another movie in the evening.

All in all, most everything has been working out well on this trip. We've made good choices on where to stay and eat, and uncontrollable things like weather have been on our side. We continue to receive good news about Charlie and photos of the fun he's having back in Cleveland. We're looking forward to the rest of our visit.

Vacation bound

For the holiday weekend we ended up driving to Cleveland to visit with Robenalts. Grandfather was at the Cleveland Clinic and we wanted to stop in and say hi. Great Aunt Sally and Great Aunt Dee Dee were headed up there, too, so instead of going to see them in Lima as originally planned, we decided to catch them in Cleveland.

We had a nice visit, and it was good for Charlie to get acclimated to the Maloney house before his long visit next week. He played with lots of people he called his "friends" because the names were all too many for him to remember. "Margie" seems to have stuck, though, and he now knows "Margie's house."

On Saturday we got to watch a bit of a fireworks display in the backyard, and Charlie learned some new words (like parachute and fireworks). When they got to the bigger ones after dark, though, he got scared from a particularly loud whistling one that came pretty close, and he cried out to go "back inside, back in the house." So we did.

By the end of our visit, he had nearly made peace with the Maloney dogs, also-- Macy and Oliver. They made him very nervous at first-- they don't look anything like Lucy, although they aren't really all that much bigger. They just have a lot more (longer) hair, and you can't see their eyes very well. But Charlie found a common bond with the dogs in tennis balls-- he had lots of fun throwing them around the kitchen for Macy to chase.

On Monday morning when Charlie woke up at home, he said "go back the house" and "more friends," which was a sign to me that he had enjoyed himself and would not mind going back for next week. Last night, though, he woke up from a bad dream in the middle of the night, asking to "go back in house" and I think he was dreaming of fireworks again. Hopefully that memory won't scare him while he's there and we're not around to comfort him. But I think he'll be fine.

We'll be headed out to Cleveland to drop him off for the week on Saturday. That is, assuming all goes well tomorrow for John at the Detroit passport office. After teasing me for a couple of weeks about whether I'd be able to find my passport, he realized last night that his was expired! After much internet research on the new rules that went into effect last month, and several phone calls to the passport office, he managed to get an appointment at 9am tomorrow in Detroit. So he's on his way there now to stay the night and make his appointment. He'll wait for the new passport to be done (could take all day) and then drive home, only to pack up and leave again the next day.

We have reservations at a bed and breakfast in Niagara for 2 nights, then will spend 3 nights in downtown Toronto before heading back to Cleveland to pick up Charlie. We are looking forward to taking some good photos at the falls, and just spending alone time together, on our own schedule, with no child to worry about for a few days. This will be good to do before baby #2 comes in November. We are so thankful to the Cleveland clan for offering to host Charlie for a few days. We are very happy to share him!

We'll try to post some photos from Canada while we're on the road, and photos from the 4th are posted there already.

Busy Bee of the Month

Our little Charlie is the Busy Bee of the month at daycare. This means that they highlight him for the month with a poster of some information about him and his family along with family photos, posted on the wall or the door of the room. I thought I'd share with you all some of the things we chose to write about Charlie for this special occasion.

For his favorite activity, we noted climbing! He does like to climb on just about anything, given the opportunity. We also listed dancing, playing music with Daddy's band, and making animal sounds. For favorite family activities, we included swimming, going for walks in the wagon, looking outside for birds, and helping Mommy in the kitchen (see previous post).

Charlie surprises us with new words and phrases every day. Yesterday at the dermatologist, the doctor noted how many words he had for his age, and he was barely speaking while we were there! This morning he used the word "rain drop" instead of just "rain." This week his favorite phrase has been "look at me!" This usually occurs when he has food all over his face and hands, or when he has just put his shirt over his head, or something silly like that.

We're looking forward to a long weekend away from work, perhaps seeing some Robenalt family. Happy 4th to all!

Havingababyitsaboy

Well, it's official. Charlie will have a little brother by early November. The little guy tried to hide, but the ultrasound technician was able to find him. Charlie doesn't really understand what's going on yet, but I bet he will soon.

Charlie loves to be a little helper. First he started helping me unload the dishwasher, handing me one dish at a time. I have to be quick about grabbing the heavy or fragile items before he can get to them. He's not quite tall enough to get to all the glasses in the top shelf, but he tries his best. The other night he was really excited to help me unpack groceries. I guess it was like opening presents, especially when he found foods he recognized. He would excitedly announce each item as he pulled it out of the bag. It probably helps that half the items were purchased specifically because he likes them. Today he helped me put together one of the shelves for his new bedroom. He tried really hard to get the dowels in the right holes.

I hope he still wants to be such a great helper once his little brother arrives!

Catching Up from St. Louis

I can't believe it's been a month since I caught up on the blog. My apologies to all who wait for news here on the family and Charlie's latest accomplishments.

We have had lots of fun activities in the past month. Our annual Memorial Day weekend grill out was a success and the weather held out with no rain. The next weekend Charlie went to a birthday party at Parky's Farm where he went on his first pony ride. Two weeks ago Entertaining Lucy played at Member Night at the Cincinnati Zoo. Charlie enjoyed meeting up with friends there and dancing to the music. We also had a nice visit from John's cousin Jimmy who was in town for a wedding. Last weekend Charlie went on his first carnival ride at a local church festival. After getting over some initial hesitation, he loved riding around in the little cars. We started taking Charlie to the pool at our community center this month, also.



This weekend we came to St. Louis to meet up with the Brewoods and let the cousins play together for a while, since we'll be unable to visit with them at the holidays this year. Friday night we had dinner at Imo's and went for swim at the hotel pool. Saturday we went to the Magic House, which Christine and I remember as a much smaller place from when we were kids. It's literally 10 times as big now! The area especially for younger kids was a big hit with all three, and Briana enjoyed some of the other areas that did not hold Charlie or Nathan's interest. After lunch at Lion's Choice and an afternoon nap, we visited the playground at Faust Park and went for another swim after dinner.



Charlie is still a big fan of his cousin Briana. This weekend he kept repeating words and phrases that she would say. He listens to her so intently, and she loves to help instruct him. Yesterday she tried to teach him the names of colors while they played with blocks. Charlie has also started calling Nathan by name, and enjoyed sharing his puppets with him, in exchange for playing with Nathan's cars.

Charlie has some new favorite phrases, including variations of "3-2-1 blast-off!" It started mostly as "Six! Nine! Blast-off!" but has gotten closer and closer to actual counting. He's been making new friends at daycare, since Gustavo moved up to a pre-school room and Charlotte and Oscar moved to other centers. Charlie and Lucy are also developing a closer relationship. Phrases such as "Lucy play" are starting to filter in with the usual "move dog." Charlie likes to pet Lucy and rub her head, and sometimes gives her hugs. But he still tries to stand on her to get onto the couch sometimes.

Charlie's favorite foods are still hot dogs, yogurt, and pizza, along with most fruits. But the other night we hit a milestone when he said "yummy turkey!" He still does not like to eat it on a sandwich, but I'm happy if he'll eat it at all.

Happy Fathers Day to all the daddies out there. We'll be enjoying ours in the car ride home from St. Louis.

We had a great time last weekend with Charlie's birthday party and Mothers Day. Grandma and Grandpa Knepper came to town with Great Grandma Bovier for the festivities.

Charlie got lots of great gifts at his party, and we enjoyed some yummy cake from Graeters. On Saturday night, we went to Jim Dandy's BBQ for dinner, and Charlie bopped along with the blues band that was playing live. They even sang him Happy Birthday.

On Mothers Day, I went with Mom and Dad to the baseball game and enjoyed a Cardinals win, along with a Pujols home run. That evening John grilled some steaks and we had a nice dinner at home to celebrate the day.



Before the big weekend got started, we had Charlie's 2-year checkup with the pediatrician. He needed only one shot, and it will be the last until time for Kindergarten. He measured 29 pounds, 12 ounces (70th%) and was 33 3/4 inches tall (30th%). His head remains large-- 85th% at 19 3/4 inches.

Charlie has started singing and/or humming along to music, sometimes in the car and now also at home. He continues to love to dance.

Today we went to IKEA to purchase the final pieces of furniture for Charlie's new "big boy" room. We hope to get it all constructed over the coming weeks so we can start his transition soon.

2 Years Old!

Charlie turned 2 today. We started the day with a special Mothers Day treat in the Busy Bee room-- with donuts, and muffins that the kids had made the day before. We ended our day with a trip to Charlie's favorite restaurant-- the Indian buffet. He was really excited to have saag and watermelon. He ate more than I did! After dinner, John and Charlie shared some birthday cookies at home.

Yesterday we had our consultation with the plastic surgeon that will do the biopsy of the rash on Charlie's face. It was determined that he would be put under for the procedure, since he is so small and it would be difficult to keep him still otherwise. While we were there, he measured at 33 inches and almost 30 pounds. Tomorrow he has his 2 year checkup with the pediatrician.

We are all excited for visitors this weekend, and for Charlie's birthday party.

One minute, please

It's so hard to believe that Charlie is nearly two years old! His birthday is fast approaching on Thursday of this week.

Yesterday, the Zimmermans stopped by while they were in town picking up a car, and they tried to ask Charlie about his party coming up. He wasn't really so sure, other than the part about how he likes Handy Manny (the theme). But this morning when I went to wake him up for daycare, and asked him if he wanted to go to school and see his friends, he said "yeah, birthday!" I guess between the visit yesterday, and the grill out we went to on Saturday (which we told Charlie was a "party"), Charlie is getting to associate seeing other kids with "party" and "birthday." But we still haven't managed to get him to respond with "two" when asked how old he will be-- even though that is his favorite number!

Charlie's cute phrase of the week last week was to tell us "one minute" when we asked him if it was time to do something, like go to bed or change his diaper. I guess we must have used that more than once when we wanted him to wait for something. He picks up on the darnedest things!

More news to come later this week after Charlie's 2 year appointment with the pediatrician, and the consultation with the plastic surgeon about the biopsy on his face.

Awww, Man!

We took Charlie back to the dermatologist yesterday to see what she had to say after a month of using the sunscreen on his face. While his face had looked better about a week ago, it seems it was just part of the usual cycle of the rash that we've observed over the past year, because it had flared up again by the time we went to see her.

She recommended that we still use the sunscreen (it can't hurt), but she's sending us to a rheumatologist (still thinking this might be auto-immune related) and to a plastic surgeon for a biopsy. The blood tests that she had run did not show anything obvious. She took more pictures, and we'll go back and see her after the other visits in about 2 months.

While we were in the waiting room, Charlie was playing with some cars they had there, and when one dropped to the floor, he said "Awww, man!" We don't know where he's picked up that phrase, but he said it several times. His other new phrase of late is "I don't like it." We get that a lot when he doesn't want to eat what is on his plate.

He's been pretty good lately, but he has his moments of stubbornness. He throws a fit when I drop him off at daycare and make him leave his toy in the car. But he gets over it eventually, when he realizes his friends are in the room waiting for him, or that they have basically the same toy in the room for him to play with.

I took Charlie with me to the flower show last weekend and he did wonderfully there. He pointed out the animals in some of the displays, and had fun walking around in the sun for a bit. He fell asleep in the stroller by the time we were finished. This coming weekend John and I have a behind the scenes photography class at the zoo, so Charlie will walk around the zoo with Connor and his parents while we do the class. The weather is supposed to be really warm, and I'm sure he'll have a great time. We're really looking forward to the outing.

It's been a while...

It's been a while since I wrote-- we've been so busy! Where do I start?

Charlie makes more progress on his language every day. Amongst the new concepts he's using are pronouns. He has started to point to himself sometimes and say "me." He also is very into possessives-- "Daddy's milk" or "Daddy's book." Words are coming out in short phrases now, like "more yogurt please." He's learning names for the characters in Handy Manny and on Sesame Street-- like Bert and Ernie (although he has them backwards), Turner, and Pat. Elmo is still his favorite, and he uses the name "Elmo" to refer to Grover as well.

I took Charlie to the zoo yesterday, and it was the first time that he really was saying the names of the animals. He roared at the sleeping lions, and seemed to enjoy seeing the polar bears swim. We had a great time riding the train-- he kept saying "choo choo" and waving. Near the end, he kept asking to see the monkeys. It was chilly enough that they were all inside, so I had to work hard to find some for him to see. After his nap when we came home, he woke up and told Daddy all about the bears and the elephants.

John has been building lots of "houses" with Charlie out of the megablocks. Sometimes it's a house for the Little People lion, hippo, and monkey, and sometimes it's for Charlie's little stuffed dog, or Ernie and Bert. If it's not houses, they're building ramps to roll balls down. Then Charlie likes to knock it all down and kick the blocks around.

Last weekend Charlie went to his first Easter Egg hunt. He wasn't quite sure what to do at first, but then after seeing some other kids pick up the eggs, he got started himself. His area was for 0-3 year olds, and although he is almost 2, this was his first hunt (he was not walking last year at this time). So he seemed far less advanced than some of the other kids in that area. But he did a great job. When we were done, and getting ready to leave, he saw some older kids sitting on the sidewalk with their eggs, and he wanted to go pick those up, too.

Before the hunt started, Charlie walked right up to the Easter Bunny, weaving through the crowd and cutting right in front of another family's photo to stand in front of the bunny. But he stopped short about three feet away and would not get any closer. He waved to the bunny, though, as if he knew it was friendly. I finally got a photo of him with the bunny on my way out, but only by holding him in my arms and having someone else take the photo.

The Dermatologist

The day of our appointment with the dermatologist at Children's finally arrived this week. I am so glad we finally saw her. Amongst the things she told us was that the last prescription for ointment we had been given should never be used on the face. She also did not have an immediate diagnosis. In some ways, I feel better that she didn't immediately know what the problem was, because that means it is likely something uncommon and there's a reason no one else could seem to help us. Even though she did not have instant answers, I felt extremely confident that she knew what she was talking about.

Our next course of action is to apply sunscreen to his cheeks and ears every time he goes outside at all, and come back in a month. She wants to see if the sun makes it worse or better. She's trying to avoid having to take a biopsy of his cheek.

She took lots of photos to share with colleagues as well. So hopefully we'll have some answers relatively soon!

Charlie's first trip to the beach

Our trip to Florida was eventful from the start. After a packed flight down, we had a long wait for the rental car, and then for the car seat to be delivered to the car. Long story short, Charlie ended up taking a tumble out of the back seat of the rental car and hit his head on the pavement of the parking lot. So our first stop outside of the airport was to the emergency room to get him checked out. To make a long story even shorter, he was fine, but we were all very hungry by the time we got out of there.

Charlie had a great time playing with uncle Rory, who tried to show him how to shoot a nerf gun. They enjoyed watching Kung Fu Panda together as well. We visited with Great Grandpa Robenalt, and Mary and Margie had us out to the pool, which Charlie loved. On Sunday we took Charlie to the beach, which he loved. He didn't mind walking up to the water at first, but once he had a taste of putting sand in a bucket, that was all he wanted to do. He made a fuss when I tried to take him down to the water a second time.




Charlie practiced two big words while he was in Florida-- alligator (Mary and Margie had picked up a small alligator toy for him) and elevator (there was one at the hotel). He loved saying them both. Our hotel was great, except for one incident with the pool being closed. But we did get in a swim before we left.

Our flight home was delayed, but we made it home safely. What a great trip!



By the time we came back from Florida, the daffodils were blooming in the backyard. It reminded me of how they were blooming 2 years ago as we waited for little Charlie to arrive. My how time flies!

Spring is in the Air

This week brings us a return to Daylight Savings and unusually high temps to Cincinnati. Over the weekend, Charlie and I spent some fun time out in the backyard, with Charlie getting used to the feel of grass under his feet and a crazy Lucy dog running by and stealing sticks from his hands. I also took him for a wagon ride around the neighborhood. Today we're expecting temps in the upper 70s, before returning to the 40s tomorrow.

This past weekend Charlie and I also made a brief trip to IKEA to begin the purchase of his new bedroom items. We picked up the table and chairs, the toybox, and two side tables for next to the bed. We'll return for the bed itself and the tall chest when John has help from another strong man to get the boxes in and out of the car and up the stairs.

Charlie is making progress on names. Daddy is now "Daddy" and Mommy is "Mommy" (instead of a generic "Mommy" referring to any and all parental type units.) He also regularly calls Beth by her name.

Charlie's latest fascination is with hats. Over the weekend, he spent many hours wearing an adult-sized baseball cap that I had gotten at a trade show. He even insisted on wearing it to daycare on Monday. Today he wore his own Indians baseball cap to daycare. He always recognized hats before, and would wear them from time to time, but never this obsessively.

Charlie is doing much better with the cough he's had for the past couple of weeks. We were using the breathing machine before bed for a few nights to help him rest better, and he did really well with it. He even held his own mask to his face. Either it made him feel better and he recognized it, or he remembered seeing his Daddy using it when he was sick back in January and wanted to mimic the behavior. Either way, it was nice not to have to fight him to administer the medicine.

We're off to Florida on Friday, and looking forward to Charlie's first trip to the beach.

February comes to a close

As February comes to a close, I realize that I have forgotten to write here for almost 2 weeks! Charlie has been so busy in that time.

For starters, he continues to add new words daily. Some new ones include arm, finger, brush, elevator, and giraffe. Since we visited the zoo in Atlanta, he's caught on to the word panda, and uses it frequently (when he wants to watch Kung Fu Panda). He's also starting to combine two words together-- as in "this one," "this way," "more milk" or "more cracker." He has learned to call Beth by name (sounds like "beff") and when he has a "boo-boo" he shows it to me and says "kiss."

He's been complaining a lot about his mouth having a boo-boo. We're convinced that he's getting his 2-year molars. He puts his fingers way back in his mouth a lot, and he wants to eat a lot of really soft foods most of the time (yogurt and applesauce are common).

There's a new friend in Charlie's classroom at daycare. Lauren, who was in his infant room, has been moving up to Busy Bees. Yesterday when she was dropped off she was very upset. I told Charlie to go pat her on the back and tell her it was okay, and he did go over and pat her on the leg. It was very sweet. He also likes the girl Charlie in his room. Apparently she calls him Charles, and he calls her Charlotte, even though everyone else calls them both Charlie. They both have the same big cheeks. It's very cute.

Last weekend John took Charlie up to Columbus for Ryan Zimmerman's birthday party. Charlie had a lot of fun bouncing around at the play place, driving little cars, and playing with hula hoops. He did fall once and bump his chin, but it barely got a bruise and he was fine. He came home with a hand-me-down pirate ship, and that has been a favorite toy this past week.

On Wednesday of this week, I had a work event at the Cyclones hockey game. Charlie and John got to come with me. We had great seats for the game, down in the 3rd row from the ice in the corner by the goal where the Cyclones were shooting in the first period. We only stayed for one period because then it was Charlie's bedtime. But he enjoyed it while he was there. When Twister, the team mascot (which looks like a grey funnel of a tornado wearing a hockey jersey) skated out onto the ice, Charlie shouted "Elmo!" I guess to him, anything furry is an "elmo." He also pointed at the skaters and said "hockey" and slapped his hand on his knee to the beat of the music when it would play. I was concerned he would think the noise was too loud when the played the horn when goals were scored (usually with a loud noise he covers his ears), but he was fine with it. Thank goodness he did not seem to pick up any of the bad words the die hard fans were shouting at the refs and the other team!

This morning Charlie was digging through his toybox and found his phone (the spare cordless phone from which we've removed the battery). He took it and climbed into his rocking chair (which was his Grandma's when she was little) and pretended to talk to his Grandma on the phone. He kept saying "bye bye bomma!" ("Bomma" is how he says "Grandma.")

With all the cuteness, there are also some tantrums. He has picked up a behavior from his classmates at daycare-- to lay face down on the floor and pout or cry. So far it does not come along with pounding fists or kicking feet, but I'm sure those are coming. Sometimes he also just goes and stands with his face to the wall to pout. We try not to react, and usually it does not last long.

March will be a busy month. We're looking forward to a trip to Florida to see family, and also make Charlie's first trip to the beach. Mommy has two trips out of town this month, also-- so Daddy will be on his own with Charlie. The first is for work and is just one night, but the second is for three nights over the weekend.

A weekend in Athens

On Thursday we drove from Cincinnati to Athens, Georgia to visit with Charlie's Aunt Taylor, who is in grad school at UGA. We got a later start than we expected, and it took close to 10 hours with two long stops in the middle. But Charlie did well in the car, thanks to the Pixar DVDs playing in the back seat.

On Friday we took a day-trip into Atlanta to go to the Georgia Aquarium. Charlie loved it. After a while, though, he would say "all done" when he was ready to move on from a particular window or exhibit. We were impressed with many of the exhibits, and would definitely return again if and when we have the chance.



After we finished at the Aquarium, we read that the zoo had pandas. So we decided to take advantage of the discount we would receive from our Cincinnati Zoo membership and stop at the zoo to see them before heading back to Athens. We also got to see kangaroos, and Charlie petted some goats at the children's zoo. After a few raindrops started to fall, we successfully navigated the start of Friday rush hour traffic on the way out of Atlanta, and Charlie slept most of the way back to Athens.

Friday night we found our way to an Indian restaurant just a block from our hotel, and the food and service were both excellent. Charlie astounded us with the amount of food that he ate, including some chicken appetizers and the usual saag.

Saturday started with a great lunch at The Last Resort, also just a couple of blocks from the hotel. After lunch, we went for a walk and visited Taylor's studio. Charlie enjoyed pointing and barking out directions to push him "this way" in the stroller.



In the evening, Taylor and Charlie spent a while coloring in a coloring book, and Taylor drew some other pictures on plain paper for Charlie to color. We had Thai food takeout for our dinner and sat up drinking wine and beer and talking into the wee hours after Charlie went to bed.



Today we had a lazy morning, and then met up with Taylor at Big City Bread for some delicious brunch. The patio was dog-friendly, and Charlie made some new friends. John and Taylor spent the afternoon working on her computer and a movie for one of her classes while Charlie napped and played in the room. Dinner was takeout pizza from Transmetropolitan, another great local spot here downtown near the hotel. We head back home in the morning.



We had a great weekend visiting, and the Georgia Gameday Center was perfect for our needs as far as the hotel goes. It was right downtown, in walking distance to shops and restaurants, and had easy parking in an attached garage. Having a separate bedroom for Charlie was wonderful. And John managed to contain himself when confronted by all the UGA memorabilia, photographs, carpet, and even door knobs.

Other mileposts this weekend include some new words (pizza, dinosaur (really, we heard it once!), panda, woof, bunny, tray, and Incredibles (sounds like "bibbles")), and transition into size 5 diapers.

21 months old and a mouse in the house

At 21 months, Charlie has started to become attached to his stuffed friends, including the hand-me-down baby doll from the Maloneys. He likes to feed them and offer them his milk. He also covers them with blankets, or puts them all in a pile and lies down next to them. Occasionally he'll pick one that he wants to take to bed, or take in the car with him to daycare. The other night, he insisted on taking his little Mr. Potato Head to bed with him-- just the potato (with no features or arms and legs)! Luckily, he's not attached to any one item exclusively, and I hope it stays that way.

Last week was an eventful one here at the house. We had at least 8 inches of snow fall on Tuesday during evening rush hour, and John ended up driving me home, leaving my car downtown for the night. Later in the week, we discovered that we had a mouse in the house. The next day, we were able to spot it, and although John tried to catch it and set it free, it got away. So we set traps, and it was caught by morning.

Beth gave us a free night of babysitting for a Christmas gift, and we used it this past Saturday to go on a date and celebrate an early Valentine's Day. We started with a shopping trip to IKEA, and were proud to get out of there for under $50. We did plan a much larger purchase while we were there, as we picked out the furniture we hope to buy for Charlie's new room when he moves out from the nursery. I could not remember the last time we went shopping together without Charlie in tow! After our shopping, we had dinner at Bravo and then went to a movie. All in all a wonderful evening.

We're off to Athens, GA to visit Taylor this weekend. It will be a long drive, but as long as we can keep Charlie entertained, it should not be a bad one. We are really looking forward to it.

More words Charlie knows how to say

Buckle, bicycle, again, cup (sounds like "pup"), spoon, banana, and buggy.

The other day we were driving in the car and John called another driver by a name. Charlie repeated him. I just looked at John and tried not to laugh. I guess Daddy has to start watching what he says more carefully!

Snow Day(s)

We've been snowed in these past two days, trying to work from home while Charlie bops around the house. We met with some success (me more than John). This has given me time to remember several other things that Charlie is doing lately.

Yesterday, he offered me a "thank you" completely unprompted, after I had given him a graham cracker. He has learned to say please and thank you, but usually with prompting or by repeating what you say. It was nice to hear him say it on his own.

His favorite word these past two days seems to be "no no no," but some of his common words that are new in the past few weeks include: blanket, yogurt (which he wants at every meal), cold, snow, outside, tickle, hug, juice, push, purse, choo-choo, and light. He knows that a cow goes "moo" and a cat says "meow."

Charlie has discovered pockets. A couple of times in the past week, I've noticed him standing with his hands in his pants pockets. Makes him look like a tiny little man!

Over the past two days we've noticed Charlie making a pouty lip face when he's busy working on something with a lot of concentration. I managed to get this photo of him.

Imitating actions he sees around the house or at school is a big thing for the little guy right now. Yesterday I caught him feeding a couple of dolls some Kix, and he tries to feed Lucy his sippy cup. He also likes to open the drawers of the dresser in his room and put clothes in and out.

Charlie is very in to giving hugs right now. But you can't have just one. If you ask for one, he then has to go around the room and hug each person present (saying "hug, hug, hug" as he does so, and then he starts over at the beginning. Sometimes this lasts for several rounds.

While we've been stuck at home, Charlie has moved on from Monsters Inc to The Incredibles as is favorite movie of choice. We've also had some Finding Nemo thrown in, and Handy Manny has made a return to the rotation.

Be sure to check out John's video of Charlie playing with puppets, and doing his lion imitation.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sw6w-b-CI0I

Getting back in gear

The Robenalts are all on the mend, although John and I still have nagging occasional coughs. I ended up going to the doctor again after my last post, and after a chest xray they confirmed that I probably did have the start of possible pneumonia also. But luckily they had already put me on antibiotics by then, and I never got quite as bad as John. Charlie, amazingly, never caught any of it (knock on wood!)

We had a great trip to Cleveland last weekend. Lucy had a blast with Macy and Oliver, although she did not care for the face licking much. She was so excited to be on the road with us, and she enjoyed all the extra petting and ear scratching she received. Charlie had an amazing time as well, and he had no shortage of admirers. We went out with everyone for Margie's birthday, but otherwise we just spent a lot of time relaxing and visiting. It was wonderful.

Work has been very busy for both of us. I spent most of the MLK holiday working from home. But we still find time to have fun with Charlie.

Charlie has decided that bath time is fun again (thank goodness!) Apparently the trick was letting him have his own washcloth so he could clean his own toes. He still does not like his head getting wet, though.

Both John and I are still referred to as "Mommy." As much as we try to tell Charlie that John is "Daddy," he will repeat the word, but he still goes back to "Mommy" when he first sees John. I guess John shouldn't feel too badly, because Grandma and Brian were also both called "Mommy" this weekend!

Charlie can now climb up onto the couch by himself without his stepstool, and he likes to get up and sit next to us to watch TV. We have to be careful what we leave lying around now! He's also reaching up and opening the kitchen drawers. He can't really reach up and over to get anything out of them, but he likes to open and close them. I guess we'll have to put some safety latches on the drawers now.

Charlie's daycare room as a new teacher, Marissa. Charlie seems to have taken to her easily.

I'd better close soon-- much left to do before Charlie awakes from his nap.

Slow start to the New Year

The Cincy Robenalts are having a slow start to the New Year. After a great post-Christmas outing to Dayton to visit John's Aunt Debbie and Uncle Gary on the 3rd, John came down with pneumonia. And I contracted some sort of strange viral fever that won't go away. So we both spent a good chunk of the past week home from work.

Through all of this, Charlie has been fine. He's moving right along with lots of new words, like tickle and tissue. He's also doing a lot more imaginative play at home. He pretends that his stacking cups are bowls, and his Handy Manny screwdrivers are spoons. He even feeds Lucy his concoctions (with one of the "spoons"). He also pretends that actual bowls are hats-- luckily after they are empty! Today he made a "choo-choo" out of his stacking cups and goldfish crackers. Apparently it was fueled by milk. The Little People bus and plane are also still daily favorites.

Yesterday, Charlie had a play day with Oscar so we could rest and recuperate. It was a much needed break, and I am so thankful to Ricky and Teresa for helping us out that way. Beth was a great help last week, also, coming over one afternoon when we were both home from work to look after Charlie for a few hours so we could sleep.

We're looking forward to a healthier week ahead, although we'll be playing a lot of catch up both at work and at home. We're visiting relatives in Cleveland next weekend, so we're hoping they don't repeat this past weekend's snow. Lucy's going with us on this trip, and I'm sure she will love it. She enjoys playing with the other dogs up there, as well as riding in the car. Speaking of other dogs-- she's had a bit of an adventure playing with another dog who keeps getting into our yard. She must be enjoying it, because this morning I had to go out there and physically drag her back into the house.

Hope you all are having a HEALTHY and Happy New Year!