Big (little right now) News!

For the 2 of you that follow this blog and the 1 of you that may not have Facebook, we wanted to share some exciting news:

That's right - we will have a new baby at our house in mid to late August!  Clearly Charlie is thrilled with the news! 

I haven't updated the blog much since we found out the good news, mainly because it felt like lying to not report on the one thing that consumes most of our thoughts.  I had a really easy pregnancy with Charlie and this time I was a little more nauseous and a little more tired at night...or at least that is the story I am sticking to as BJ picked up most of the parenting duties at night while I laid on the couch and asked for various items (tissues; Carmex; a sucker...no, not a sucker, that tastes disgusting; a brownie...what, did you bring me the smallest brownie available) to be delivered to me.  I may have not always seemed rational or even pleasant, but I figure that since I'll be the one recovering from a c-section and breastfeeding for a period of time, it's the least that he could do.  

Charlie is pretty oblivious to the news, which is just fine with us.  We have a really cute picture of our friend's daughter Bryn on our refrigerator and Charlie will often point at the picture, smiling and say "baby."  The other week I asked him if we should get a baby for our house and he gave me a puzzled look, put his little hand on his chest and said "Char Char baby" which is code for "are you crazy?  Charlie is your baby."  Good thing we have time to get him used to the idea.  I can't imagine my childhood or life without brothers and a sister so I know that in the long run it will be a great thing for him.

We've been calling this baby Sweet Pea since we found out about his/her presence about the same time that he/she was the size of a sweet pea so it seemed fitting.  We don't plan to find out what we are having - I can certainly understand the temptation but I think that we will try to hold off until Sweet Pea's actual arrival.

Charlie moved up to the two year old room at daycare a few weeks ago and it's been going really well.  He suddenly seems like a big kid and there are a couple of things that I want to remember about this age:

• Charlie refers to himself in the 3rd person as "Char Char"
• He is obsessed with repeating certain events - lately it has been the hair cut that he got weeks ago (which he cried through, despite a sucker and M&Ms)
• He focuses on which car BJ and I take to work because we frequently switch vehicles.  I think that the inconsistency drives him crazy so we revisit the topic and establish who is taking the car and who is taking the "big" car every morning
• He pronounces "yes" as "des" and usually says it in the loudest voice possible
• He loves ice cream and M&Ms, but he pronounces it like "L&Ls"
• When he wakes up in the mornings, he has started to turn on his lamp and music player before going to the gate at his door and asking for me
• He demands to be the first person to go our basement.  He will frequently tell us to "waip" at the top of the steps until he is at the bottom.
• He likes me to chant "Charlie, Charlie, Charlie" while he is jumping on his trampoline.  I may have created a monster.
• He would really like to hug and kiss Copper.  The feeling is not mutual.
• Every morning he tells us that Linda (the cook at the daycare) is going to bring him cookies for breakfast.  It sounds like a great deal and I'm thinking of getting breakfast at the daycare for myself.
• As I change his diaper in the morning, I ask if he had any dreams and he always responds "des."  When I ask him what was in his dreams he has started telling me cookies and monkeys, which could be really awesome or kind of scary.
• He has started to play hide-n-seek, but his only hiding spot is behind the drapes in our basement.  When we start to discuss where he might be ("I wonder if Charlie is in his bed..."), he will always respond with an answer.  I hate to tell him that he shouldn't be giving us so many clues.
• He likes to pull all of our DVDs out of the entertainment center and frequently brings one of the Lord of the Rings (BJ's movie, not mine) to one of us.  We started telling him that it was scary because there were "bad guys" in the movie.  Last night, Charlie and I went to Fareway after dinner to get groceries and he pointed at all 3 of the meat counter employees and declared them to be bad guys.  I had to explain to the meat counter that we had nothing against them personally and assured Charlie that they were good guys.

Whew, well that was quite the brain dump.  Anyway, thank you for all of the congrats we received via voicemail, email, text and Facebook.  Sweet Pea and I are going to have some Chips Ahoy and milk because Sweet Pea gets what Sweet Pea wants.