TWENTY ONE

Charlie aka Chatterbox,
You've really turned a corner, in the last few months, on the talking front. You are in your twenties now, months, I mean and saying so many words, phrases and thingys long enough to be sentences but aren't quite sentences! Your Dad and I are having a lot of fun trying to figure out what you are talking about at any given time. Well, UNLESS, it's in the middle of one of those tantrums we've been experiencing a lot these days and I'm pretty sure even if we have figured out your words, it's not good enough.

 I'm sure one day we'll look back and laugh at the fact that you have absolutely no coping skills after 5pm.

Despite the small preview of the twos you are giving us, you are more fun then ever. You are making decisions on big things, like if you want to go to the park or play with trains or what you want to wear to school. On Monday, you wore your Santa pajama top and I pretended to be okay with your choice. Your Dad and I are trying to empower you into big-boyhood by giving you lots of choices and it is pretty fun to see you rise to the occasion. Maybe one day you'll be branded the smelly kid at school for wearing your PJ's and you'll make better choices but until then...rock that Santa shirt!

Your personality is becoming more apparent everyday. We've always thought of you as a bit reckless, but we've been pleasantly surprised to see a cautious side of you emerge over the last few months. You seem to be a little more circumspect and size up the situation or the obstacle before taking your leap of faith.You still seem to have excessive amounts of energy, running circles around us (literally and metaphorically), but we like playing catch up and chase and hearing your beautiful, contagious giggle. It truly brightens our lives.

And for being an only child, you are really learning how to share with your friends or peers. It has been fun to watch you grow from being very single minded, to understanding "turns" and "sharing." We still have several moments of "mine" but every once in a while I catch a glimpse of the compassionate boy we'll see more and more of as you get older. We love you!

21 Month Stats...

Weight: 29ish lbs

Height: 34 + Inches

All our love, 

Mom and Dad

Oh, and we had a big ole birthday in our house last week...

Nick turned 30!

Woohoo, welcome to the club, husband. 
We love you!

Hetch Hetchy Reservoir

News Flash: We skipped winter.
Yup, the Mother Nature of the California chapter, just decided it wasn't in the cards this year.

So, we Waelty's, decided to take advantage of another beautiful weekend and go to Yosemite before Highway 120 will close for road repairs. I let Nick choose the hike and he picked an area he is really familiar with, Hetch Hetchy Reservoir! Nick works at the reservoir all the time, except he is one of the lucky few that get to take a boat on the water, he has never actually done the Wapama Falls Hike.

The Wapama Falls hike was a pretty easy 5.5 mile out and back, but any hike is harder when you have a 28 pound toddler on your back. I agreed to carry Charlie and Nick didn't argue, but wow, he was SO heavy but SUCH a trooper, he had so much fun! He sang in my ear, talking the entire way out about the water and the rocks. He's becoming quite the chatterbox these days!

We all had a blast and agreed that we don't do this often enough, this is our freakin' backyard!

Baby Blues

plague-d by sickness

SO, when I signed up for this parenting thing, I honestly didn't expect this many sick days. When I added the baby Tylenol and an aspirator to my registry I didn't think that one day he was actually going to get sick.
Disgustingly, relentlessly sick.
Last year, we were plagued by the flu, this year its more of the common fucking cold.
(YES, the F-word was necessary.)
And it SUCKS just as bad.
Ugh...I've learned my boy gets these horribly rashy cheeks, a humungous lymph node and an ugly high fever. All of that...
and the whining
and tantrums
and moaning
and SNOT!

The key to complacency in our house has been a few major things: Paci, Blankie, an iPhone, and the Nosefrida.  Is it weird that this has been the best part of my days? Sucking the snot out of his nose?

Oh, and he was totally fine after a two minute cry sess, we are such awesome parents. 

Cowboy

Recently, our friends Brie and Darren brought home a new baby puppy named Cowboy. Charlie's a huge fan, so we went to visit him today while they were at work. Charlie fed him a plethora of cat food (shhhhh...) and showed him where not to go to the bathroom. Cowboy actually goes on the rocks, uh-oh, sorry friends!
There's nothing really eventful in these videos, except for the fact that you can tell they are going to be buddies.  I kind of enjoy having a dog that we can play with for 20 minutes and say goodbye to upon departure.

Our life as of late...via Instagram

We've been all sorts of busy around here, 

doing day to day stuff. 

Here's a look at our daily grind, via the Instagram app!

C Man was sick all last week, so he cuddled and sucked for 5 whole days!

But now we're back to our morning routine of playing with cars and trains.

and climbing on things...

oh, and eating too!

and with all this nice weather, we've been hanging by the pool.

and swinging and sliding.

Being naked is pretty rad, too!

Did I mention trains?

Sunday Report

Hello Friends. Reporting live from a wild Sunday in Northern California.

So far, so bad.

It is freezing (by Northern California standards)
and raining (so I guess it's not freezing)
and we don't have anything to do.

We began the day by going to church, which is rarely my first choice (if I'm choosing) but it gave me an hour break from the child and as an added perk, I learned a new and improved version of "Amazing Grace."

I made chili.

Nick proceeded to claim the afternoon for "brewing," which meant my senses were overwhelmed with barley and nastiness, making it impossible for me to nap when Charlie was napping. So I ate.

We FaceTime'd with Aunt Jenni, Mimi and Dana.

Side Note: We don't have cable, so NFC/AFC championship football wasn't really an option.

I had a moment of domesticity, but I had to refer to my fake friends on Pinterest, to find a killer homemade play-doh recipe, which I did and proceeded to stop at three grocery stores before I swallowed my pride long enough to ask a random shelf-stocker at SaveMart to help me find "cream of tarter" and he proceeded to take me to the dairy section because that is where "cream is found?"
It's in the spice section, just so you know.

We made said play-doh (see recipe below)

We played with it for all of four minutes.

Charlie ate my chili. He loved it.

Charlie took a bath, as a result of said chili, AND he ignored me.

The End.

Kool-Aid Play Doh

What You Need:
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cup salt
1 pkg.(6 g) Kool-Aid Unsweetened Drink Mix, any flavour
1 Tbsp. Cream of tartar
1 cup boiling water
1 1/2 Tbsp. oil
wax or parchment paper
small airtight containers - I got mine at the dollar store

Make It:
MIX first 4 ingredients in large bowl. Add boiling water and oil; stir with fork 3 to 4 min. or until cooled, then mix with hands until well blended.
PLACE on waxed or parchment paper; knead until no longer sticky, adding additional flour 1 tsp. at a time if necessary.

How to Store:
Store in airtight container in refrigerator.
Repeat above process for each color of kool-aid play doh you want to make.