Charlie's 4th Birthday choo choo and duckies

Swimming Lessons

Charlie had his first swimming lessons today and LOVED it! He was a little unsure at first but then decided he wanted to jump in and have fun. I got a little choked up watching him!















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My Niece

My niece is due in 3 weeks but Emily is already feeling some contractions. Early labor perhaps? Aldous was 10 days early - so maybe she is just one of the lucky ones with a little shorter pregnancy... Probably best not to get one's hopes set on that but excited that she is getting so close! I think Charlie's pretend play below is actually a reoccurring nightmare of mine...

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Buzz Cuts Part 2

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Am I the worst mom in the world?

I was enjoying 5 minutes of peace and quiet (too quiet in retrospect) while Charlie used the potty before bedtime. Charlie came out of our bathroom with a bloody chin. He tried to shave just like his daddy. Poor little dude! Lots of questions tonight about who gets to shave what when....















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C. Ronaldo

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Weekly Bath

Overall I'm pretty bad about frequently bathing the boys. I do think Americans have a tendency to take too many showers/baths but I may go to the other extreme. When Liam was a baby he would get these strange skin infirmities. I couldn't figure out what was going on for a few days and then I would decide to bathe him and his skin would immediate clear up. Oops! Jason does most of the heavy lifting with bathing Charlie, but I enjoyed giving both the boys their baths recently. I think we have many fun brother baths in our future! (I wish I had the cute/awkward bath pic of me and my three sisters all together in the tub - I think I was 12 yrs old). Here is Liam learning to splash.

And here is a fun Christmas throw back with Charlie. - Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

All By Myself!

Charlie is growing in independence and insists on doing things "all by myself." At preschool yesterday he dressed himself and put his jeans on backwards. His teachers thought it was so cute that they let him keep them on backwards all day. Before dinner today he did a fantastic poopoo in the potty all by himself. He proudly strutted back to the dinner table dressed like this.



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NZ Thanksgiving (Part 2)

Well... it's Sunday night and we've successfully completed the second weekend in a row utterly exhausted. Good, fun times - but wow... You know it's bad when Jason says he can't wait for the week to start so it won't be so crazy.

We just finished celebrating a Thanksgiving dinner at our friends' home and it was really, really fun. It was fun to celebrate American Thanksgiving with a bunch of Kiwis. We brought a pumpkin pie and a turkey. We were horrified yesterday to find the turkey still frozen after 2 days in the refrigerator (in the past we've gotten fresh turkey from a farm in VA). I stumbled across a website that said you can stick it in rock solid and cook it at 325 degrees. Jason woke up at 4am to put it in the oven, and I woke up at 6am to season it. I found the turkey on "BBQ" which is American for "broil". It looked pretty crispy already but I seasoned it up and put it back in the oven (we cooked it upside down and it makes for a moister breast). At the end of the day - I think it turned out okay, a little drier than I hoped, but at least we didn't food poison our kiwi friends. The pumpkin pie was a little "carmelized" around the edged, so I cut out the darker edge and decorated it with aerosol whipped cream - honestly it tasted really good but looked a little funky.

Unfortunately the awesome dinner at our friends' home - again ended on a somewhat embarrassing/sordid note.  The boys didn't know that we were filmding.  Keep in mind, the last time we were at their home Charlie clogged their toilet. 

Mr Piggy and Imaginary Friends

I started this game where we press our noses into the BOB weather shield and oink like a pig - it's caught on like wildfire. BTW the weather shield is perfect for Wellington weather.

On another note, we are enjoying seeing Charlie's imaginary world each day. I think he has a borderline imaginary friend named "conductor." He's talked about conductor for a few weeks now but over the past few days we've really seen conductor's presence expand throughout our home. He takes tickets, cooks snacks and tells Charlie he doesn't need to take a nap. I'm not sure where the line is between imaginary friend and more general make-believe. I sort of feel like if we need to set a place for conductor at the breakfast table or he is somehow in the room with us, he may have crossed over that line. The closest he got today was grilling on the patio...



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Happy Birthday Charlie

It's hard to believe that Charlie turned 3 yesterday. His birthday week is divided into 4 celebrations:
1.) Saturday Day Out with Thomas - Good bye paci!
2.) Sunday Birthday pancakes and family day
3.) Tuesday - Cupcakes at Preschool
4.) Sunday - Friend Birthday party at the Botanical Gardens

Overkill? I'm not sure, but we are having fun celebrating this little guy.

Major milestones over the past few months:
- Sleeping in a big boy bed
- Saying goodbye to paci (and falling asleep find without it/him)
- Pooping in the potty (yay!)

Jason and I have enjoyed seeing our little Charles Ellis grow and change in so many ways. We are really seeing his personality emerge. He is a cheerful little man with lots of excitement for life. He can be a little reserved and measured when it comes to new experiences, but once he knows he can master it he is bold. He very much wants to please his mommy and daddy. He likes birthdays. He's learning to be a good friend and how to control himself when he wants to "steamroll and smash" everyone he loves. He loves to help mommy however he can -- usually with cooking and putting away and getting things when mommy can't leave Liam. He loves putting things together - be it a puzzle, train track, or any little widget. Charlie loves books (especially sticker books and mommy treasures the time doing sticker books with Charlie).

I know my little man will continue to grow quickly and I find myself really savoring this stage of life. He resisted bedtime tonight and I lay on his bed with him and gave him a back rub for a long time. I hope I can do this for many more years to come. I once sat by a lady on an airplane who said she would massage her son's feet as a baby and as he grew she continued until he was a stinky teenager and he would ask his mommy for a foot massage and he would tell her about all the happenings of his day. I really like this idea...

Keep Jumping!

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Toddler Theology 101...Charlie's Bedtime Q&A

Last Thursday when Charlie was at Preschool, the teacher took him for a walk around the block.  There were 2 church buildings they walked by, and one had a funeral in progress.  When I walked Charlie home that night, Charlie pointed at the church and said “A man died in that church. Where is he now?”

This somehow catalyzed a lengthy conversation that night (it definitely was not a one way proselytizing by his parents…believe it or not…) about heaven and death…About Jesus being in heaven with his daddy… And a few other things I didn’t quite remember talking about until he brought them up tonight. So I figured, I should probably start capturing some of the conversations in writing, as to not forget them…and it just so happens that Katie needed a “guest blogger” tonight since she just hit the sack hard…she’s tired, but I think it was the long run…or maybe the hot chocolate at Starbucks tonight, after our lousy Italian dinner where Katie had chunks of fatty pork that smelt like urine, mixed in with Penne and funky textured cheese.  The pork in Italy is usually smoked and cured.  Not here…yuk!  But I digress….

So…here is my blog post.  If anything, I hope it’s something that Charlie may be able to look back on over the years.  I hope that there will be many more challenging and inquisitive bedtime conversations, as we lay in bed, staring up at his plastic glow-in-the-dark stars and moons, and I sure hope this progresses all through his adult years too…not the glow in the dark stars…I more meant the pondering of life’s deepest questions…

We were at church on Sunday taking communion and Charlie got very interested in the elements (juice and bread).  He’s been asking questions and it has been exciting to try and talk through spiritual things with him.  It has challenged both Katie and me to learn how to articulate what we believe in the most distilled and simplest manner.  Try explaining Jesus (and the Trinity!) to an almost 3-yr old – wow – talk about a challenge!  So, even though it’s not Easter, we’ve opened this game thingy that walks kids through 12 plastic Easter eggs with symbolic pieces in each plastic egg.  The first egg had a little donkey in it, to remember king Jesus’ humble entry into Jerusalem on a donkey.  The second egg had coins that represented Judas selling Jesus over to the authorities.  And tonight was Egg #3.  Egg #3 had a cup/goblet in it, representing the last supper.  This prompted the revisit back to communion on Sunday, and what it meant to remember Jesus.  Charlie, in so many words, asked how he could remember Jesus if he hadn’t seen him and didn’t really even know who he was?

Here tidbits of the conversation:

Charlie [C]: “I want to remember Jesus.  I don’t remember him.  Do I have to get bigger like mommy and daddy to remember him?”

Daddy/Mommy [DM]: No, Charlie, you can learn who he is now, so you can remember him.”

[C]: “Oh, I want to drink the blood and the juice and the wine and eat the bread so I can remember too!”

[C]: As Charlie held the little goblet in his mouth, he said “I want to give this cup of blood to Jesus so he can drink it on the cross.”

[DM]: We were speechless…and looked at one another…waiting for the other to come up with some kind of corrected theological response.  But instead, we both broke down laughing.  I think we tried to sort through it with explanations, but I believe in the end, our attempts went right over his head…and that is when we just said…

[DM]: “Charlie, you need Holy Spirit to show you who Jesus is.”

[C]: “Is Holy Spirit make my tummy feel funny?”

[DM] “Yeah, he gives you joy!”

[C]: “Like the song?  Yeah, and we sing songs to Jesus.”

[DM]: “Yeah, and we sing in response to the joy in us!  One of Holy Spirit’s roles is to show you who Jesus is.  When Jesus left his friends and left earth to go back to be with his Daddy in heaven, he told his friends that he would leave them with a helper – and that would be Holy Spirit, which would be inside the people, to help them know who Jesus is, and to show his Daddy’s Kingdom (his land, his home) on earth, just like it was in heaven.” 

[C]: “Is joy like butterflies in my tummy?  I want Holy Spirit to help me remember Jesus.  I also want butterflies in my tummy.”

[DM]: “Jesus does what he sees his daddy doing, and Holy Spirit helps us do the same.  His daddy wants to show you, Charlie, how much he loves you.  He is called Abba.  And he is God.  I’m your daddy and I love you very much, but Abba is both your daddy and my daddy and mommy’s daddy and he is BIGGER and STRONGER and a way BETTER daddy than I can be to you.”

[DM]: “But he is also called Jehovah or Yahweh.”   

[C]: “Yeah, but God is scary.  He is big and he is strong and can do this…” (as he punches me)

[DM]: “He is scary if you don’t know him.  But he made a way for us to know him.  When we were orphans, without a mommy and daddy, feeling lost, Abba daddy God found us (adopted us) and made us his children.  When we were supposed to die, he gave us life!  And we get to have everything that Jesus has, because we are now his brother (and sister), and Abba God is our daddy.  This means that he has prepared a place for us with him in his land and home.  His house.” 

[C]: “Oh, I want to remember Jesus and I want to go to heaven to see him.”

[DM]: “Charlie, mommy and daddy want that too!”

[C]: “And I want to drink the blood to help me remember.  And God is in heaven which is on top of a mountain and Thomas the train is on top of another mountain…”

[DM]: …ummm, yeah… no real good response to that one…

[DM]: “That is why we are trying to teach you about Jesus.  It may take some time to learn about him.”

[C]: “Oh but I want to do all the Easter eggs so I can learn and know him.”

[DM]: “We should pray that Holy Spirit helps you see Jesus.  And that Holy Spirit helps mommy and daddy tell you.  And we can read your Jesus book more too.”

[C]: “Yeah, and pray that I get butterflies in my tummy.”

[DM]: Charlie you can pray and say that “Jesus, I want to know you and remember you and understand your love when you died for me.  I cannot understand it on my own.  You made a way for me to know Abba daddy’s love.  Thank you.  I want to do the things that you see Abba doing, and to follow you all my life, to bring hope to the world.  Holy Spirit, come into my life to show me this. 

[C]: “Yeah, and I can tell Mel and Lola (preschool teacher and preschool friend) that I want to remember Jesus and drink the wine.  And I can get joy butterflies in my tummy.”

[DM]:  “Yeah, you can!”  As I said this, I winced, knowing that our kid has already talked openly in pre-school about controversial subjects such as spider’s penis’s and ‘spanking’, which I learned the kiwi vernacular is “wacking”. (no wonder they have child abuse problems! The word speaks for itself!)  Apparently the word ‘spanking’ does not exist in young kiwi kid’s vocabulary.  And Charlie tried to spark conversation and expand their knowledge on this “American English” word and subject… which ended in a nice warning to Katie and me by the head teacher to make sure we don’t do it in public, as she didn’t want us getting arrested. So…we found out that a law was recently passed in NZL that makes ‘spanking’ or in this case ‘wacking’ illegal.  Oh, and another side note - the preschool teachers said that ‘spanking’ was only a term used mainly in association with things more ‘kinky’ in nature…we may have to throw that word out the window… too many misconceptions… all we really want is for our kids to understand how disciplining (no matter the form) creates healthy boundaries that help kids understand love, forgiveness, grace, mercy, and respect for their parents and other people.   But that’s a whole other subject … for another day and time… I’ll let Katie blog on that… J 

DM]: "Charlie, time for bed!"

[C]: "Oh, but I want to talk about Jesus some more so I can know him!"

[DM]: "Let's pray that he reveals who he is to you through your dreams tonight.  You ask him to do that, okay?  Then we can talk more tomorrow."

And on that note...I'm going to sign off and say goodnight too!  Wow, I think blogging can become addicting!  Sorry for the LOOOONG post!  I kinda got carried away!  Maybe I should guest-blog more often?  Hmmm, thoughts?  You name the subject next time? 

--Jason

 ps.  Here's a random picture taken on our drive the other day...that GREEN is natural...Ashley, the whole North Island feels like Hobbiton!

Kiwi Accent and Paci in the Potty

Here is a good sample of charlie's kiwi accent (especially the beginning).

This morning we had a great family long run. Jason was amazing and pushed the boys in the double BOB for 8 miles (an especially arduous feat with the Wellington winds) and I was able to go 12 miles. The boys are so content in the stroller and there is plenty for them to see along the way. Jason and I are just longing for family and friend visitors to come visit so we can show them this beautiful place.

Today is Guy Fawkes day.  Our sponsor family came over for dinner (Greek yumminess!) and then we watched fireworks on our roof. (historical note : Basically Guy Fawkes tried to kill the King if England in the early 17th century and was caught and hanged/executed and people celebrate with fireworks)

Pretty gross...

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Trying to say goodbye to an old friend

Pooping in the potty - mission success!

Saying goodbye to paci - ???

We had a lot of drama today when we couldn't find paci - it's time to part with the little guy.

I really wanted to train for a marathon in February but I've had some sciatic pain on my long runs. This picture was after a sweaty 10-mile run this afternoon and Charlie told me I was a "pretty girl" with my hair like this.


Okay so I'm super excited about what the videos below reveal about Liam (hint - he just ate 2 bowls of food)

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Pine Nuts and Water Births

 We've experienced some sticker shock with the price of food in NZ. I'm trying to figure out how to get the best deals on food. Eating out is expensive, but frankly eating in is also very expensive. I ordered Alicia Silverstone's Vegan Cookbook in hopes of finding some cheaper and healthier recipes.   I made a really fantastic Lentil Sweet Potato Stew (Link to Recipe) this weekend.  We also had an extremely rich (and not that unhealthy) Chocolate Banana Tofu Mousee (Link to Recipe)  We were in dire need of a grocery run this evening, but I tried to put together a meal with what I had at home. That being said, I found a yummy vegan sun-dried tomato pesto pasta recipe.  I bought a few basil plants several weeks ago, so I stripped off all of the basil leaves.  I had the garlic and sun dried tomatoes and pine nuts. Well, I purchased the pine nuts at Trader Joes earlier this year when Aunt Ashley made us a delicious pesto pasta in Virginia after Liam was born.  I stuck them in the shipment from Virginia to New Zealand.  Did anyone know that pine nuts can go bad?   I didn't know that.  Now I know.  After pureeing all of the ingredients and pouring it over the pasta noodles I tasted the dish, and something was seriously not right.  Usually in this situation, when I suspect something might have gone bad, I serve some to Jason and search his face for any trace of yuckiness.  He is a bloodhound of sorts, with keen smell and taste senses.   After two bites, he started googling "do pine nuts go bad?"   I was a little annoyed and I chose to try my best to eat the pasta as quick as possible as if nothing was wrong.  I made a comment that at times like this, I pretend that I am in Uzbekistan where I'm served something gross, but I want to fit in to the culture so I eat the entire dish to show respect and hope to develop a taste for different-tasting food.  He looked at me like I was crazy and did the same.  I asked Jason if he wanted salad, but he said he lost his appetite.  My poor husband.  Charlie actually ate quite a few bites of it, but grew bored and turned his noodles into underwater squid and train tracks.   So now, I know...  pine nuts can go bad...    



Impressive train network made out of noodles

 Before he went to bed, we asked Charlie what he wanted to pray for.  He wanted to pray for Judah.  He said something about praying for Judah that he would learn how to swim underwater for when he was born.  Now I'm really curious what he thinks happened at Judah's water birth.   For Judah's birth, I knew that my mom was going to call me on my iPhone so I could "be" in the room.  As it happened, Jason, Charlie and I were sitting down eating dinner when I got the call from my mom.  I sat on the couch with earphones on witnessing the birth of my nephew.  It was an intensely crazy experience - much different being on the other end of things.  Charlie watched my face move from excitement, to surprise, to awe, to joy ... but he didn't see anything on the phone or hear anything except me.  He was extremely disappointed that he missed it.  We called Maria back on skype and I think she was in the water holding baby Judah.  Charlie was excited to see his cousin but more than a little confused.  He's talked about Judah swimming and breathing underwater ever since. I find myself trying to change the subject and not get into it with him.  I think that he thinks "pushing" involves a slide at the playground and the midwife "catching" the baby is at the bottom of the slide.  I think we'll keep it that way for a while...

Once upon a time...

Here is a short story, told through pictures, that happened last weekend (quite typical of our lives right now)

Liam is doing this insanely cute kissy thing with his lips - Charlie laughs...

Charlie does the kissy face just like his little bro...

  

Laughing together...

Liam's kissy is so pronounced it cuts off air from his nostrils - Charlie is starting to be more active...

Charlie can't resist hugging his little brother...

Charlie is a little too rough and little bro topples over...

Charlie tries to help his little brother...

Liam is still upset and Charlie is listening to mommy....

Listening, but ignoring mommy...

Charlie gets a timeout...

And mommy decides to torment Charlie...

... by pretending that she a Liam are tearing up the sticker book (really terrible, I know...)

Liam misses his bro and doesn't want to torture him anymore...

 So mommy, Liam and Charlie do the sticker book together