button pushing is fun...

i grabbed my new Nikon S8000 camera today to start snapping some pictures of charly... i noticed 3 things that didn't seem quite right... #1 the camera was in the middle of the couch (what has become charly's new trampoline lately) #2 the camera was already convienintly on for me (mmmmm imagine that?) #3 i found these two pictures on the camera, which i know i didn't take. So... I have come to this conclusion... after asking andrew if he was messing with my camera and took any pictures of charly and he replied no... my little booger did this. She is quite proficient in the art of button pushing I might add. She has had plenty of practice on expensive cell phones and why would i think she can't handle the Nikon S8000. (I don't know why I refer to my new camera as the Nikon S8000... probably because I really wanted the $1000.00 plus Nikon which the clerk referred to as Nikon DX800 (or something like that)... no... I didn't get the fancy one, but a 300.00 camera is nice enough for me to give it a name... so Nikon S8000 it is. Anyway...Charly now has mastered (almost) what all teenage girls do... (minus posting it on her facebook)... she took some photos of herself. So... my picture taking for the day has already been done for me. Thanks Charly!

happy birthday to mommy...

what a happy birthday it was... carpets cleaned, a new rocking chair, a dinner out with daddy and coming home to a happy baby! couldn't ask for a better day.

a perfect evening...

a little piece of heaven and some potty time with bear. ;)

fresh as a missouri (sunday) morning

our plan was to hit central dairy today to end the summer on a good note. even though it is still august our pool has reached a frigid 75 degrees. central dairy did not happen today... but a sunday morning walk did!

playground days are here again...

the weather at night is getting down to the 50's...that means the pool is about to retire. our afternoon and evenings and especially weekends at the pool will now be replaced by going to our local playground! we went this evening and charly was not a huge fan of the swings like she use to be. this will take some getting use to. None the less... we had a good time!

baaaaaaad hair day...

charly takes first place for having the best rats nest EVER! one day...one day soon she will have some hair i can put in cute little barrets and bows. i am looking forward to the day that i can do something with this "out of control" hair.

utensils...

are fun to use! charly did a great job eating dinner with her fork tonight.

call an exterminator...

we found a ladybug hanging out at our house sunday evening...

Saturday morning...

I couldn't resist.

I've been waiting forever to be able to make a baby mohawk.

just because

i think it is so cute and had to share... she loves the cell phone! loves it! in fact she has a few toy cell phones of her own. today she picked up her phone and said "daddy, phone" and took it to him so he could take his call! she sat there holding it up to his ear and said "hi" and "uh huh" and "no way", just like she was having a conversation. she does this daily. wonder where she sees that!

reading is a priority...

you see... in our house it is demanded of us. we must read to the princess. nobody is complaining though! this is part of our evening ritual... even more so than brushing teeth. yes, occasionally we forget to brush a tooth or two...or 12! :) But as you can see from the happy little princess with chicklets... they are as white as can be and reading is far more fun! So now... after bath and before the chocolate milk comes...the books! Charly is such a fan it has even become part of her vocabulary... "book"! I love it.

new things she has learned and i just realized today:

I gave her a cookie and she said "thank you"! I was shocked. not so much that she could say thank you, but more that she knew exactly when to say it and OMG she is polite!!!

She also sings ring around the rosy... mostly just saying "ashes, ashes" and then throwing herself on the floor. But it is hillarious! Ok, it is hillarious when it is your kid!

Here is the biggie... I have been taking pictures of this child since she was born... my camera and computer are FULL of pictures... I have even had to purchase a backup thingy majig for my computer to store more pictures on... and just today while taking these pictures of her reading with her daddy she said "cheese" for the camera! HALLELUJIAH!!!!

picture time

she actually said "cheese" for the camera today when daddy picked it up.

dora the explorer's birthday...

what a bust! we went to walmart to celebrate dora's 10th birthday... all we saw were some cupcakes at a display with lots of little finger prints on them. there was no dora, no boots, no party favors, no nothing... how disappointing. so we did the next best thing... we found the closest thing we could in the store with DORA on it and we shopped while charly kept singing "dora dora dora"...i would definitely call this some false advertising! :( we went home pretty disappointed.

please let me out...

I wanna swim!!!

7 months and 16 days...

since he came into charly's life. "Bear" is his name... also known around the babysitter's as "charly bear". he sleeps with her, rides in the car with her, goes to daycare with her, sometimes he sits at the table when we eat with her. she loves him! over the months bear has taken a beating...his fur is coming off his ears and his nubbin of a tail that she LOVES to rub, but will he ever be replaced... NEVER! <3>