Little Charlie

We've Moved!

2007-12-01T13:44:00.000-08:00

We haven't moved our physical location, just our cyberspace location. We'll leave this site up for those of you who don't know about the bookmark function on your toolbar.

4 Ring Circus

Enjoy the new site!

1st Snow of the Season

2007-11-29T18:08:00.001-08:00

We got about 3 inches on Monday night and another 2-3 on Wednesday night. Made for some great sledding for little C!

On a side note: the bun I'm cooking in my human oven kicks a lot! Charlie barely kicked at all so I feel like I'm experiencing something totally new. People always say every pregnancy is different, guess there's truth to that!

Cruise to the North Pole

2007-11-29T17:54:00.000-08:00

On Sunday we took Charlie on a 'cruise to the North Pole'. Apparently the north pole is at the far end of Lake Coeur d'Alene. The 2 hour boat ride included hot cocoa and unlimited cookies (a fat pregnant girl's dream!). After about an hour of cruising the captain comes over the speaker and tells everyone to go outside on the bow. Once we get close to the 'Pole' the tree and house light up.

Then Santa and Mrs. Claus appear in a boat house off to the left. They have the 'nice list' and read off all the names of the kids on the boat. The kids all around us went nuts for this.

Charlie looks upset here but he was eating all this up.

Definitely a new Ring Family tradition.

Apple Cup

2007-11-25T13:32:00.000-08:00

The Finnegan's and the Anda's came over to watch the big game with us yesterday. Since Charlie's currently out of Cougar gear that fits him he was forced to wear his vintage Huskies shirt (I believe it was Matt's? Cheryl correct me if I'm wrong). Charlie's face is priceless in this photo. If he knew how to form sentences I'm sure Caden would be getting an earful. Instead he just sat there and looked pissed.

This was taken in the 4th quarter and Matt was all smiles thinking the game was locked up. Sorry Huskies, not this time!

Matt Jr.

2007-11-24T20:37:00.000-08:00

Back when we were choosing names I suggested Junior. Matt said he didn't want a junior though. This holiday season though it seems like we may have made a mistake.

Matt loves everything about Christmas and it appears that its in Charlie's blood because he is crazy about it. We've been reading Christmas books now for about a month. Charlie can say ho ho, pretty (whenever he sees lights), candy cane, nut (odd I know, but there are a lot of nuts in holiday books), tree, frosty and coal. I'm sure I'm forgetting some of his other holiday words but these are the ones we hear the most.

Yesterday we took him out to Greenbluff and we cut down a tree. He loved trudging through the tree farm in his Napoleon boots with dad looking for the perfect tree.

When we got home he went down for a nap and Matt and I got out all the decorations. We left the finishing touches for Charlie. When he got up his head pretty much exploded. The tree was up with lights on it, decorations were everywhere, Christmas music was playing.

He spent about 10 minutes just walking around the house pointing at everything saying 'pretty...ho ho...pretty...tree'.

He helped us put up the ornaments so beware if you come by in the next month or so. He'll want to show you where every Santa, snowman, moose, etc. is on our tree.

Matt keeps asking Charlie if this is his best Christmas ever, however I think its Charlie that should be asking Matt. He's seriously so happy that his mini-me is following in his footsteps its ridiculous!

Thanksgiving

2007-11-24T20:30:00.000-08:00

I managed to take only 1 picture the whole day. Maybe it was because I felt like the day was total chaos. Maybe I just didn't think of it. Who knows.

We had the entire Anda crew (pictured below) as well as the entire Ring clan (not pictured below) over at our house for the big day. I managed to not burn the turkey so I felt like the dinner was a success. Everyone pitched in and brought something to share so I was actually responsible for very little, which was kind of my condition for hosting.

I thought I'd throw this picture on for Aunt Katie and Uncle Cage. Thanks for the early Christmas present! It fits great and Charlie loves the dog on the inside of the coat. He doesn't really love the dog hat but if you hold a regular hat and then pull a switch-a-roo as you're putting it on his head he's none the wiser. Now we just need some snow so we can try the whole outfit out - thank you!

Naming Poll

2007-11-17T09:43:00.001-08:00

Update: So far the 'other' write-ins are: 4 Ring Circus and Ring A Ding Ding. Both are very strong possibilities right now.

Bathing Buddies

2007-11-15T19:58:00.000-08:00

While my sister's in Milwaukee on a business trip we're watching little Caden in the evenings. Matt suggested we bathe them together and it actually worked out really well. They got along great and when we asked Charlie if he liked having a friend in the bath tub with him he replied with a very definite 'YES'.

A Tree House of His Own

2007-11-13T14:30:00.001-08:00

Last Christmas Charlie got a Tree House of his very own. Matt set it up the other night and decorated it with Christmas lights so Charlie could have his own private reading spot. This morning he spent about an hour in there alone with his books. I'm not sure who was happier with the arrangement - me or him. I actually got to unload the dishwasher without fighting him for the silverware and I got to read a few pages of my own book!

This Has Got to Stop

2007-11-09T19:42:00.001-08:00

This has gone on long enough. Charlie's book obsession has turned into all night book-fests. Last night around 3:30 a.m. through the baby-monitor I heard Charlie's talking Nemo book. My first thought was that I was dreaming it, not too hard to do considering I read every book he owns at least 3 times a day. However, it wasn't a dream. I went into Charlie's room to find him sitting in the pitch dark, surrounded by about 10 books that he had pulled off his window sill, reading Nemo.

I took the books away and tried to explain that it was still night time and that it wasn't good for his eyes anyways to be reading in the dark. I'm assuming he understood because he didn't fight me too bad.

Then at about 5 a.m. I hear his little voice through the monitor "book...book...book". Since it didn't sound like the chant was going to stop anytime soon I went in and gave in to his request. I turned on a night light and gave him a stack of books to peruse. I then turned off the baby-monitor so we couldn't hear Charlie making his animal sounds to the pictures in the books and Matt and I got about 2 more hours of sleep before the alarm went off.

So the reason this needs to stop is not because I'm against learning. Oh I'm all for that. I'm just more for sleeping these days. The above picture is Charlie passing out in his car seat this morning at about 9:45. I would have loved to have done the same had I not been the one behind the wheel.

So the internal dilemma I'm struggling with is do I just let the kid read all night and sleep during the day and become wierd? Or do I insist he sleeps at night and save his reading for the day time?

Then and Now

2007-11-04T19:58:00.000-08:00

Then (1978).

Little Matt reading.
Now.

Little Charlie reading.

Then (2000).
Dave and Matt not quite grown up.

Now.
Matt, (Krusty), and Dave all grown up.

Then (1977).
Grandma Cheryl (Matt's mom) sporting a hot maternity swimsuit.

Now.

Me sporting the very literally same maternity swimsuit.

Now (if only we were past this and I could call it a then) 2007.

Matt wearing his Xbox headset.

Now.

Charlie wearing the Xbox headset.

Then (1996).

Posing for and buying cheesy photos of friends.

Now.

Posing for and buying cheesy photos of friends.

Hope you enjoyed my random oldies post!

Cuttin' A Rug Little Ring Style

2007-11-04T15:49:00.000-08:00

Charlie ripped up the dance floor last night at his Great Grandpa's 80th birthday party. He had a handful of the guests captivated all night with his sweet moves (which mostly consisted of bending his knees to the beat and looking ridiculously cute in his party pants).

The Truth About the Rings

2007-11-01T12:12:00.000-07:00

We're huge dorks. This was confirmed at the Halloween party on Saturday. The truth is finally coming out and it feels good. We dressed up for a Halloween party and there were probably only 5 other adults dressed up out of about 30. Not only did we dress up but we had good costumes. Costumes that took effort.

Matt went as Obi Wan, as I mentioned in a previous post. However his original idea was to go as Luke and wear Charlie on his back so they could re-enact a famous training scene from The Empire Strikes Back. The only difference between the Luke costume and the Obi Wan costume is the rat tail. And at the end of the day Matt really just wanted to wear the rat tail (you can see the rat tail in all its glory hanging down the right side of Matt's head in the pic below).

I went as Darth Vader but the second I walked into the party I realized my mask was not only scaring my own child, but most of the other children in the room. So for the rest of the night I was just a girl, dressed in black, wearing a cape.

It feels good to get all of this off my chest. I'm finding peace in my dorkiness. These are our friends the Patches. They stopped by on Sunday so little Samee could show off her bee costume. Charlie welcomed her in his Batman pajamas and was actually nice to her for a change (he managed to let her read his books and held back his tears!).

Charlie on actual Halloween.

On Halloween we took Charlie around to some friends and family's houses. Below is Charlie as Yoda, Caden as Pooh Bear/Bee, and Aunt Char as a Chef/Uncle Justin.

Thank goodness this holiday is over!

My Fetus is a Girl!

2007-10-30T14:16:00.000-07:00

We found out this morning that we're having a baby girl! They couldn't tell at first so the Radiologist tipped the bed so I was practically on my head. Then she had me lay on my side. Finally she rolled around and we were able to get a good look.

When I got home from my ultrasound my home nurse came over to give me my first of many weekly doses of progesterone. She told me the shot would go in my hip. Which to me meant my spare tire. To her it meant butt. So now not only do I get to deal with all the regular fun that goes along with being pregnant but I get to look forward to a sore butt once a week. Hope this little girl is worth all this hassle!

A Little Halloween Preview

2007-10-27T20:03:00.000-07:00

Matt, Charlie and I went to a little Halloween party put on by a mommy group I'm a member of. Matt said he'd only go if I agreed to dress up. So since Charlie was Yoda and Matt was Obi-Wan Kenobi...I agreed to be Darth Vader. Funny, no pictures Darth have surfaced, not an accident. This is Charlie hiding from the other kids. We got in the car and Matt asked Charlie if he hated other kids and he said 'YES!' Not sure how we're going to fix this but I think more mandatory play dates are in our future.

We came back!

2007-10-26T12:33:00.000-07:00

We made it back from our trip safe and sound last night. Hurricane Kiko and the city of San Diego being engulfed in flames didn't slow us down a bit. On the second day of the cruise they informed us we might not make it to La Paz because of Kiko. Which was pretty standard because 2 years ago when we tried to take a cruise Katrina and Rita showed up and derailed our plans entirely.

Kiko ended up turning a little so we went to La Paz and spent a very stormy day on shore eating fish tacos and strolling the boardwalk. Below are some random photos from the trip.

This is me and Matt on formal night at the Captain's Party. This is 'the crew' on our booze/snorkel cruise in Cabo San Lucas.

As you disembark the ship there are signs everywhere that say 'do not rent Mopeds'. So what does our friend Dave do in La Paz? He managed to stay safe though, even though he didn't understand what '4 Alto' meant until the next day.

This is a photo from our day in Ensenada. There were fire there as well and it was so smokey that it looked like dusk basically all day.

Those are the highlights. Charlie did great without us and probably was a little more sad to say goodbye to Grandma and Grandpa last night than he was when we left. They taught him to say 'I love you' while we were gone and he taught himself to say 'Matt' which is kind of fun.

And, he may have gotten over his fear of costumes. They got him Batman pajamas, complete with a cape, and he wore them very proudly through the airport. Hopefully he'll remember how fun this outfit was so that when we go to put on the Halloween costume he'll go along with it.

We're Off!

2007-10-17T19:15:00.000-07:00

We couldn't convince Charlie to look at the camera here, he'd say cheese but he'd be starring at the pumpkins the whole time.

Matt and I leave tomorrow morning for our cruise so there won't be any posts for a week or so. We'll be sure and update everyone on Charlie's week at Grandma's when we get back!

A Fantastic Fall Weekend

2007-10-14T16:46:00.001-07:00

This weekend our friends Danielle and Brenda came over from the Seattle area to visit us. This is us eating doughnuts in the park before swim class. I kind of wish I hadn't discovered the mini-doughnut stand right by the Y. It's going to be hard to stay away. Here's we're doing another standard fall activity, carving pumpkins.

Matt and Charlie and the Raccoon puppet. The Raccoon puppet show, put on by Matt, has gotten so out of control that it woke Brenda up Saturday morning (keep in mind she was sleeping a floor below not necessarily below the show, its that crazy).

Saying goodbye to Little Charlie.

Thanks for coming over ladies!

I had to throw this picture in for fun. Caden will wear Charlie's helmet but Charlie is still afraid of it. Maybe we should have pushed it on him before he developed his little defiant personality...

Who says you can't swim in October?

2007-10-14T16:38:00.000-07:00

Since I'm banned from the hot tub for a few more months due to the growing fetus in my belly Grandma Cheryl steps in for me occasionally. You're looking at 3 generations of hot tub loving fools. It seems like they're out there forever sometimes.

This is me and my sister at our last Shrimp/Kippers class on Saturday. I don't know about Caden but I can read Charlie's mind and he's going to miss all the cheesy games and songs (serioulsy though, he loves the Y).

Tagged?

2007-10-12T15:50:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Amy, I'm supposed to answer a bunch of random questions and put them on my blog. If you find reading about my first job interesting, read on...thanks Amy.

Where I've worked (none are current)
1-Camp Firwood
2-Taco Bell
3-Bagel Factory
4-CWU Dining Services

Movies I can watch over and over
1-Tommy Boy
2-Girls Just Want to Have Fun
3-Anchorman
4-Wedding Singer

Places I've lived
1-Bellingham, WA
2-Ellensburg, WA
3-St Mary's, MT
4-Redmond, WA

Favorite tv shows
1-Biggest Loser
2-the Office
3-Dancing with the Stars
4-How I Met Your Mother

Places I've been
1-Nashville, TN
2-Orlando, FL
3-Cancun, Mexico
4-Las Vegas

Favorite foods
1-the entire Taco Bell menu
2-bagels and cream cheese (bagels are viewed as a vessel to get the cream cheese into my mouth, I should have really just listed cream cheese)
3-cheesecake
4-cheese (see a theme?)

Places I'd rather be
1-Mexico (I'll be there in 6 days!)
2-sleeping
3-at Taco Bell
4-somewhere warm

Weird things about me
1-I like milk with pizza
2-I have a lazy eye that only makes an appearance in pictures (so I'm told)
3-I took a hip hop dance class when I was 25 (and my friends insisted on calling me 'Hip Hop' for a very long time after that)
4-I don't know how to play basketball but I love watching Gonzaga play

I tag Lori because I feel like the world wants to know what her favorite foods are.

Cheeeeese!

2007-10-09T09:38:00.000-07:00

The cheesiness runs in the family...

Trick Pony

2007-10-06T18:32:00.000-07:00

My sister has a fancy camera with sound so we got some of Charlie's tricks on film. The first one is brand new and you have to listen carefully. It's a little something special that will make 1 Grandpa really proud and 1 Grandpa really upset...

BOOKS!

2007-10-05T11:57:00.000-07:00

Charlie's been sick the last few days and the only thing that seems to make him happy is reading his books. Thankfully Grandma Cheryl has been hitting the thrift shops and stocking us up on new stuff. His books are officially taking over the living room...I guess the kid could have worse bad habits though.

He Saw Dad Do It

2007-09-28T21:40:00.000-07:00

Whatever Matt does Charlie emulates. Dad put stacking cups on his feet so sure enough, Charlie had to put stacking cups on his feet. It went on forever, which is why it ended up on film. He'd put one on then bend down to reach a second one and the first one would fall off. It took him a few tries to realize he need to hold the second one in his hand while he placed the first one on his foot. Its so fun to watch them figure this stuff out sometimes.

Got it! Man that was worth the effort!

Quick Pregnancy Update

2007-09-27T08:19:00.000-07:00

Just a quick update. I went to the doctor yesterday and everything is progressing just fine with the baby. I'm at week 14 and starting at week 16 a home care company is going to come to my house once a week and give me a shot of progesterone. The idea is that the shot will help keep the baby in longer (Charlie was only in for 33 weeks). So I'll get the shot every week from week 16 to 37. After week 37 they're fine with me going into labor whenever.

The other big news is we scheduled the ultrasound to find out the sex. It's scheduled for October 30 so stay tuned for that piece of info!