Food Art

One of the nights while we were still in the hospital with Drew, Shawn brought Charlie home to spend the evening with him and tuck him into bed. On the drive to our house from the hospital, Shawn asked Charlie what he would like to do for the evening.

Charlie's plan: make french toast for dinner, make some "Food Art", and then of course a nice long story before getting tucked into bed. :)

Shawn decided to capture some of the moments on the iTouch to share with me when he got back to the hospital. So glad he did! I got such a kick out of these video clips. They really capture our Charlie and his funny little quirks. And even more, it is a perfect snap-shot of the kinds of things that Shawn is always doing with Charlie. The kinds of things that make Shawn such an amazing dad. Creative little adventures where Charlie gets to run the show and come up with new ideas and play, play, play with his daddy. I love it!

Here he is, cracking eggs for the french toast dinner. He was gonna show me how he could crack an egg into the bowl...but it didn't go quite as planned!

Now on to the "Food Art" project. I love how he apologizes at the beginning of the video for needing to look at the Food Art, not at the camera. And at the end he says to me, "I love you. Though." Such a sweetie.

Here he describes, in a very "Charlie" way, all of the ingredients in his Food Art. I LOVE how he calls the egg shells, "egg crusts"! Oh, and the big "glop" of egg. "Glop" is a common word in Charlie's vocabulary.

Proudly posing with his creation:

...YUMMY...

And, of course, the Food Art turns into a great snack for the chickens! I mean, who wouldn't love old french toast crusts, and cut up pickles, and dried up raisins, and egg crusts - all mixed together with a little honey?!

Drew is here!

Andrew Tucker Fletcher
July 21, 2011
1:54 pm
8 pounds, 11 ounces
21 inches

I can't believe our little man is already 11 days old! At the same time, it feels like we've had him forever in our hearts - we've just been waiting to meet him. Drew truly does complete our family. It feels so right, finally having him with us. Before he came, I couldn't even comprehend being able to love him even half as much as I love Charlie. I thought there was no way. But I can tell you the MOMENT I laid eyes on him, my heart was taken.

This baby is the most precious, sweet, cuddly, adorable bundle of joy. My heart is full, to overflowing. It's been a rough start for Drew - we've had some feeding/weight issues and right now the breastfeeding/pumping routine is taking up the better part of each day and night (the reason for this delayed announcement!), but we're past the hardest part now and it should only get better from here!

So...I'm just going to post a bunch of pics for now. Maybe in a few more days I'll have time to actually write more.

(Anyways, if I tried to write much now I'm not sure just how much sense it would make - massively sleep-deprived!!!)

The Final Countdown - 9 Days!

It's hard to believe we are in the final days of being our little family of 3.

I feel like I want to drink in every last moment of Charlie being our "only child", like it's slipping away.

While I know that Charlie will be such a great big brother and it's going to be wonderful to have Drew finally join us...at the same time it's such a big "unknown". We don't know little Drew yet. I don't have a clue who he is, what his personality will be, what he will look like, and on and on. I already love him to pieces, of course, and I'm beyond excited to meet him...BUT, I don't "know" him yet. Such an odd feeling, to be growing this little stranger in there! I don't remember feeling this so strongly with Charlie. I think maybe it's because before Charlie was born, I already had a lot of ideas about who he would be...

His personality: very socially outgoing, physically active and athletic.

Even how he would look: dark hair, dark brown eyes & a dark olive skin tone.

Oh, and VERY tiny, maybe, oh, around 6 or 7 pounds...

HA!!! HOW WRONG COULD I HAVE BEEN?!?!?!

TINY?!?!

DARK?!?!

OUTGOING AND ACTIVE!?!?!

Okay.

Well.

Yeah.

Maybe my utter failure in predicting who Charlie would be before he was born has led up to this feeling of Drew being such a stranger to me. While I have found myself SO pleasantly surprised at how different Charlie is from the boy I had been expecting, maybe I just don't want to make any wrong predictions again? I sometimes guess that Drew will be very active, just based on how extremely active he seems to be inside of me already! But, even when I say this, I always hear myself adding the disclaimer, "...but I could be wrong!"

Whoever he will be, however he will look, whatever he will be like...I know I will love him so very much. Like only a mother can. Like I never even knew was possible until I met our sweet Charlie. I'm just having a hard time waiting to meet him so I can finally get some answers! I'm anxious, excited, nervous, and just plain READY to get him outta there so we can all meet him and know him and love on him.

July 21 can't come soon enough!

Charlie the Producer

Okay, I admit, I had WAY too much fun doing this! Charlie and I were bored this morning, and this is the product of our boredom. We got out the legos and the camera and the rest is history.

Charlie seriously did the whole thing! All I did was snap the shots. He set up each scene and moved and posed the guys. It was so fun!!! Here's the finished product:

Blog Slacker, yep that's me.

Wow, it's been a while! I'm almost 24 weeks along with little BOY #2, and he seems to be very healthy - and he reminds me of this often with LOTS of kicking around in there. He is especially fond of giving my bladder a good beating... No seriously, though. He. Is. VERY. Fond.

Here are a couple pictures taken just yesterday - Shawn took some of me when I realized we don't have ANY pictures yet of this pregnancy. Oops! So. We were originally thinking about the name "Tucker" for the little guy. Shawn and I both really like it, and so does Charlie. But...now we're leaning a little more towards "Drew", short for "Andrew" (Shawn's middle name). WE CAN'T DECIDE! Any opinions? Votes? Complaints???

In other news, we had some real good, but short-lived, March snow! Here's out our front window, looking at the driveway.

And the barn - so pretty!

Charlie even got a real live icicle out of the deal! In case you were wondering, Charlie is still into making creepy/odd lego creations - daily. Here's a small sampling of the kinds of things I find around the house.

"Dinosaur Head Man" and his crew of "Black-Headed White Skeleton with One Black Arm and One Black Leg" and a random assortment of "Bad Animals" and "Guys with Frogs on Their Heads Holding Bad Animals". We find lots of "Totem Poles" around, too. Here's a "Totem Pole-Headed Snow-Boarder" and his friends, "The White-Bearded Fisherman", "Indiana Jones" (who just happens to ALWAYS be the star and ALWAYS be the one everyone loves), and last but not least, "White-Head Covering, Four-Legged Computer-Hunchback Guy".

"But Mars, what do you mean, 'Four-Legged Computer-Hunchback'?", you ask? See for yourself. Pure creepiness, I tell you.

Charlie has got to be just the coolest kid ever. He has the sweetest heart and spirit I have ever seen. He told me yesterday, "Mom, everyone gets to choose what they are going to be. Good or bad." Me: "What are you going to choose to be?" Charlie: "Oh, mom. I already chose. I'm good."

Also yesterday, I told him the baby can hear him now, from inside my tummy. He immediately puts his face right up to my stomach, and says, in a very serious and strong, yet sweet voice, "I love you."

Does it get any sweeter than that?

Cousin Blake has been really sick for a few months - and now has mono! :( But that won't keep us away! I'm not saying we don't bring our Purell along...but, Charlie still gets to hang with his best buddy. Here they are, a very feverish Blake and his bud Charlie joining him in his little quarantined area to keep him company, or as it may be, just boss him around a little. ;)