Lately...

We are in full fledge busy season now.  The weekends of not much going on in Jan and Feb are gone.  We are non stop through the 4th of July.  Ready, set, go!

Here are a few highlights of the last few weeks from my phone!

Boo and KK came to play!

Bollin turned 3 and we celebrated at The Little Gym.  This was our first time there and Champs LOVED it!!

Checking out his goody bad when we got home.

Enjoying cake and ice cream.

A really big truck came to our house and Champs was super pumped to "drive" it.  Hope the delivery guys who were bringing our new washing machine (that we did not get by choice) didn't mind - but truth be known - they never even knew he was in it as they were installing downstairs!

Can you spot Champs?

It FINALLY turned warm and everyone was so excited to wear shorts and dresses!!

Champs and some of his friends at school.  Champs' fav spot: the sandbox!

Waiting on our buddy, James to get to the park!

Eagerly waiting on his bff!!

Wheee - swinging with James!  These two just giggle at each other and it's adorable!

So this was a "hilarious" story.  My mom tells me I will find things like this funny when I'm a grandmama.  Two days before Champs' first ever Stella Hart photography session, his face looked like what you see above in the picture at the park.  On the morning before his photography session, I go into his room and find this!!  I about fell over.  Amazingly, in 24 hours it was ALMOST gone.  We'll see if you can see it when I get the proofs back.

While Mama and Daddy celebrated with the bride and groom on their bachelor/bachelorette weekends, Champs went to Che and Poppy's house and had a great time!!

Reading with Poppy!

Trip to Hartsville for pancakes and Merry Go Round.

Saw a really cool thing that resembles Mama's laptop but better buttons.  :) My Granny would be so proud!

Took some great long naps!

Bedhead with his best buds!

Had some great baths!

I don't know why, but I think Champs learning to say his last name is hilarious.  This was last Thursday night.  He's already getting better at it and loves to say it.

I missed Champs so much while we were gone and was happy to come back and snuggle with this bunny!

We've so enjoyed the sunshine this week and wish it would stay around, but looks like the rain is coming for the weekend.

Last night, we tried a restaurant that I have been wanting to try for years.  We went to El Burrito on Harden Street.  Probably one of Champs' most favorite things in the world is guacamole.  The only thing better is hearing him say it.  If he sees any type of chip he says "guacamole" because he sees us eat it with chips.  He usually just uses his fork and digs in, but he actually ate chips and quac last night at El Burrito and LOVED it!!  Side note: El Burrito is amazing.  I got the Chipotle Chicken salad and it was delicious and so fresh.  They put City Roots microgreens, black beans and homemade salsa and dressing.  Thinking this might be a weekly thing for us this Spring!

So we knew it was inevitable that Champs would have curly hair since both Barrett and I have it.  Well now that it's really getting long, it's starting to curl.  Can't wait to see what it's going to do as it keeps growing.

My curly hair boys.

This pic just makes me laugh.  Hammering in his diaper and B stopping him before he breaks our window!

Until next time....

Winter blues

As much as I have loved this little blue Widgeon jacket this fall and winter, I will be happy to put it up for a long long time!!!  Cannot wait for spring and summer days in this sandbox in shorts and bathing suits.  Bring it on sunny days-  we are ready for you.

Until then, here's my funny boy starting to learn to count and playing in his new turtle sandbox Che and Poppy brought him for Valentine's Day.  Sadly, he's only gotten to play in it 2 times since then!

18 months

My little Champs, who seemed like such a baby still on his 1st bday six months ago, seems like a total toddler now at 18 months!  A whole YEAR AND A HALF - it's crazy to believe it's been that long since we brought him into this world and then at the same time I can't remember what life was like before him!

At 18 months Champs is full of personality and has such a love for life and exploring new things.  He is a sweet, happy, very funny boy who also has several toddler tantrums daily about the most ridiculous things imaginable such as me not letting him hold a Sharpie or go out the front door without me.  Life can be so hard at this age :)

I think I said this last month too, but he really knows his people now.  He names all of his classmates and knows all his family's names including grandparents, uncles, aunts and cousins.  He really talks so much.  It's all still single words for the most part, but he is constantly talking and loves learning new words.  He listens to everything we say and will repeat it all the time.

Some of his favorite things these days:
 - Sammy his huge monkey that now stays in his crib b/c he loves sleeping on him!

- TRUCKS!  Mostly he loves talking about dump trucks and dig-digs (Digger trucks)
- MILK - I swear he could drink a gallon a day if I'd let him.
- Sliding & swinging (after a long hiatus of not liking to swing anymore!)
- Sitting in chairs - both his little chairs and big people chairs
- Climbing - He climbs on everything now!!  Turn your head for one second and he'll be up on a chair or the bed or all the way up the stairs!
- Mommy!  I mean can ya blame him!? ;)  He is actually very obsessed with Daddy too, but likes Mommy near at all times and sometimes just has to have Mommy holding him!  I will be so sad when this ends!

Decoding the Champs language:
- Ba-BLE: Loves his bubble baths and wants the water running the whole time.  We have to let it get all the way to the top and then finally cut it off when there's no room left.  If we try to turn the water off early he does the sign language for "please" and "more" and says "wa-er" (Water)
- Pooma = spoon No matter how many times I say spoon, he calls is pooma
- Dig-dig = digger truck
- Man = any little figure that goes along with the trucks that he has.  I think we originally called them the "little man" so he now calls all of them man except for this one girl that came with a boat for the bath who's in a string bikini (weird!) and he calls her "girl"
- Tees = Keys  And he is obsessed with keys
- Pone = phone Equally obsessed
- Da-eee = Daddy
- Buberry = blueberry
- Monk = if you read this blog you know this is his beloved monkey lovey
- Pa-eee = Paci
- Snap = he says this all the time b/c of a book they read at school about alligators going "snap" with the motion of a chomp of their mouth haha
- A-mal = Animal and he wants to watch a Baby Einstein video of either "wheels on the bus" or "old macdonald had a farm"

Gosh there are so many more funny things he says that only we would probably know what he's talking about.  I'll come back and add a few more as I think of them b/c I know these are the things I'll love coming back and reading when he's older and talking in full sentences!

We had his 18mo well check today and he weighed 26.5 pounds (70%) and is 34 inches (90%).

I am holding on tight to these next 6 months because I know starting at 2 he will be so much more of a big boy and I am just not ready to lose the baby stage yet!!  This morning for example, he was sitting beside me on the sofa, wearing his Firehouse Subs fireman hat, holding my hand while we read a book. It was one of those "relish it" moments that I know will be gone all too soon.

I love my baby boy with all my heart!

No, David!

One of the books my parents gave Champs for Christmas is "No, David!"  Some of you may have heard of this book, as it's been around since the 90's.  It's based on the "book" author David Shannon wrote when he was 5 years old with many pictures of himself doing things he wasn't supposed to do and his mom always saying "No, David!"  It's a really cute book and ends with his mommy calling him to her, giving him a big hug and saying "yes, david I love you!" (after many times of saying NO) 

It's a really cute book and Champs LOVES reading it!!  Here's a video I took of Barrett and Champs reading it together at the beach last weekend.

A COLD Valentines beach weekend

Barrett, Champs and I were able to spend the weekend in Pawleys and celebrate Valentines Day all together.  It was so fun to be with my valentines for the whole weekend and have some great time for relaxing, warm fires, snuggling, good food, and just chilling out!!

We headed to the beach late Fri afternoon and it was a big day for Champs b/c he was FACING FORWARD for the first time.  What a treat after facing the seat for a year and half!  This was in the driveway before he realized all the trucks and dig-digs he was about to spot!

Champs hadn't been at the beach house since last September, and sadly, I don't think he remembered it.  So we'll start again with new memories this year :)  He had a ball exploring everything at the house, checking out the beach, sand and "water" and even saw a boat or two.

Friday night when we tried to put him down shortly after getting there, he wasn't having it.  I think he was a little scared, not remembering the beach house, so Champs stayed up very late for him and then fell asleep on the sofa.  It was sweet having him sleep there while we enjoyed take-out from Bistro 217 by the fire!

Saturday morning fun!

He loved this bench!

Early Saturday morning - COLD - so we wore hats inside!

Opening his Valentine.

Loved his frog card.

Cookie time.

The key is so awesome.  Keys are probably his favorite thing ever!

More fun on the bench.

Though it was such a cold weekend, we did get out to the beach for a little digging and chasing birds on Saturday afternoon!

We had a very "romantic" Valentines date on Saturday night at 5:00pm at Caffe Piccolo that I wouldn't trade for anything!  Champs got all dressed up in his red suspenders and knee socks and was ready to hit the town.  Though the restaurant was a little small, very dimly lit and tables were quite close together to be dining with a one and a half year old, Champs did pretty well.  We did have to bring out the iPhone videos which is funny, b/c I used to swear I'd never be one of THOSE couples. 

Before and after our Valentines date! I wish I would have gotten someone to take a picture of the 3 of us, but I didn't.  Oh well, it was fun - mixed with a little anxiety of "please don't have a meltdown all of a sudden"!

Champs had so much fun this weekend, despite the frigid temperatures, and we sure did too!!  He turned ONE AND A HALF yesterday, so look for 18 months update post soon!