Fire Truck!

Charlie went to his friend's birthday party today, and it was a FIRE TRUCK party! With a real fire truck and a real ambulance! Charlie LOVED it.

St. Pete Weid's Visit

We had a wonderful Fourth of July weekend with the St. Pete Weids. We went to Mount Vernon, marched in the neighborhood parade, went to the swimming pool, had a little fireworks display, and wrapped up the weekend with a trip to the park with the train and dinner with Grandma and Grandpa. I think it was the best Fourth of July ever!

The whole family!

Riding the train at Cabin John

Abby was great at making Charlie laugh with her silly faces!

Lindsay read Charlie a whole book!

Charlie and Abby dancing on the deck

Abby always wanted to hold hands with Charlie. Sometimes Charlie would let her.

Grandma and Grandpa with the grandkids

Charlie gave Abby a couple of awesome big hugs. It was so cute!

Nita's Wedding

Our nanny, Nita, has been happily married for 10 years. They recently celebrated their 10th anniversary by having a "real wedding." Charlie was the ring bearer, and looked absolutely smashing in his tuxedo. He did a wonderful job with the ring too, taking it right up to Nita and handing it to her when it was time.

A Car for Charlie

Charlie is obsessed! He loves to point out "Daddy's Car" and "Mommy's Car" and now "Charlie's Car!" A while ago, Charlie fell in love with the little car at our neighbor's house, where his friend Tobias lives. Every time Charlie went outside, he would say "Tobias! House! Car!" and would be very grumpy if we didn't go down there so he could play with it. Eventually, the neighbors had mercy on Charlie and let him borrow the car. Now when we say "Wasn't that nice of Tobias to let you borrow his car?" he says, "Thank you Tobias!" I love it when Charlie says thank you - it sounds like dat yo, and is usually quite emphatic.

These pictures are from the neighborhood block party where Charlie had to share the car (for a 1.5 year old, he shares relatively well). After the party, we got to bring the car home with us.

Charlie Loves to Read

Charlie really loves to read and there are a few books he'll pick up and read all by himself. "Cars and Trucks and Things That Go" by Richard Scarry is one of them. Here he is in a fancy little video (ha!) that I produced on our new Mac.

Disclaimer - I was holding Charlie in one arm and typing mostly one-handed when I made this video - iMovie is pretty cool. I could probably do even more two-handed!

Happy Father's Day

Happy Father's Day!

Baltimore Children's Museum

My mom is in town for a while, which is always nice.  Yesterday, we decided to drive up to Baltimore to check out the Port Discovery children's museum.  Charlie had a lot of fun!

Here is Charlie playing with the water table.  He was too short to reach some of the cool stuff, but there was still plenty of opportunity for him to get wet!

There was a small ball pit, which he liked, as long as he could keep his footing...

Charlie is WAY INTO trains, so he really liked this wooden train he could climb around in.

Charlie here is showing us how you drive the train (picture one hand on each side of a steering wheel turning it back and forth).

He made a beautiful suncatcher for his daddy for Father's Day.

We had a little lunch at a restaurant outside the museum.  He likes "ice water" and can say it so clearly!

Finally, we went for a little walk to check out the Coast Guard cutter in the harbour.  "Big boat!" was what Charlie said.  He's holding his new favorite stuffed animal - a turtle from Nana.