Il est riche

We left the lights on in the van last night so the battery was dead when it was time to pick up Charlie at school. The car booster hadn’t been plugged in in a very long time and just didn’t have enough juice to get the van going.

This event meant Aidan and I decided to jump in a taxi and grab Charlie. Aidan was very excited at this idea. He sat beside me for the quick ride to the school saying taxi over and over again and how Charlie was going to sit beside us when we picked him up. It was pretty cute how he was involved and processing the events. Come to think of it, it was pretty quick catching a cab too, that’s good because I wasn’t sure what it was like here in the new neighborhood but seems fine.

When the cab driver dropped it off it was the first time I signed the credit card swipe with an Android phone. It was pretty cool, and this is definitely the future, I told him I wanted to pay credit card he pulled out his phone and presto it had a button for 15% 20% 25% tip and my signature was sent to the cloud. cool.

We were dropped off just in front of the barbershop at the end of our alley on Lawrence. The barber was giving a cut and I had Charlie look in to see the dog, birds and fish tank. Charlie was totally amazed that he had all this right there in his store front. His comment was simply wow, il est riche! What a funny comment.

We trekked home and started the dinner and night time routine: dinner, bath, reading, brush and bed. One small change for tonight though, since Mom and Julie were up in Canada visiting Nana we did pull out some fudge mixed and proceeded to bake fudge. It was a mess but fun and good. Mom watched over Skype.

Last night the boys slept in their beds the whole night without any issues. Tonight was a treat, Dads bed. This is how we sleep at 2 a.m. when Dads cleaning up downstairs getting ready for tomorrow.

Calculator

Just now, 7:55 p.m. 10/10/2011 Charlie just discovered the calculator. It’s amazing, he knew the + and the – but he’d never seen the X and division. Really cool as he tested out what he knew on the calculator.

The real numbers threw him for a loop though. Don’t think he realized its like the money.

Very cool as he discovers. Now forget about the log, ln, and so on.

It turns out that this calculator used to be Tante TTs. It has never had a new battery put in it and of course, he took it to bed tonight.

cold

After a doctors appointment the other day it turns out that Charlie’s cough is just a cold. He had a fever initially and we ended up keeping him home for Friday and Monday but even today he’s still tired and coughing.

Him and his brother play well together and Charlie sure likes to push little Aidan’s buttons when he can. Aidan follows him around mostly and mimics everything he does.

They both like to keep an eye on Julie and scream her name when she cries in the car. Charlie especially keeps a close eye on her and doesn’t like if anyone leaves her alone

Aidan fell on top of Julie by accident the other day during the day and Eileen called to let me know. He cries not because he’s hurt but because he realizes he hurt her. He even tried to explain it to me when I got home as well. His facial expression along with a hand motion while he said her name gave it away. It was real cute because how much it affected him as well as how he wants to communicate now as well.

Yesterday we registered with the Chicago catholic francophone http://ccf-chicago.org/ that runs out of Saint Teresa’s church. He had a blast running around with the other kids but since it was dinner time and pretty close to his bedtime when we were there he was exhausted. He wanted me to run with him the whole time.

The 5 p.m. English mass was going on as well so he enjoyed seeing the piano player in there when they started. It’s a small nice church.

thumbs up

After clearing out our storage locker and a quick stop at potbelly’s for lunch we were heading over to Dominick's for groceries when a police pulled me over. I’m like why? Oh, I was on the cell phone and the law says hands free only.

He asked Charlie who I was and let him decide today if I’d get a ticket or not. Thumbs up and I was off. Good thing because the insurance card in the van expired in June as well.

He was a nice guy and explained the few hundred dollars I saved and told me to hook up some hands free device. Of course, the van has blue tooth just never setup my phone ..only Eileen’s. Gotta fix that!

Eileen reminded me how I always complain at how many folks don’t use hands free and here I get pulled over for it. Dohhh.

uncle keith

Charlie when I was your age we washed dishes by hand. I washed, Mona rinced and Michelled dried. Charlie: "What did uncle keith do?"

Rachel

Rachel, the neighbor, sure brightens up the house when she's over for a visit. Charlie and her play well together and Aidan is constantly trying to keep up.
Lots of fun.

First piano recital

Today was Charlie’s first piano recital. This was the part of the Lycee Francais after school music program so there were a lot of instruments with the majority being piano players.

It was a real nice auditorium at the merit school of Chicago a few blocks from my office downtown. This was the first time playing in front of a large audience.

He was nervous before the start but did really well. Mom did an awesome job with keeping him calm, tie straight and looking good. It was awesome to watch and he did really well because of all the practicing that Mom did with him.

At the end of it all he told me that it was really a “cool” thing he did. He enjoyed the whole experience a lot. Grandpa and Grandma Joyce were also in town for it and got to check it out first hand with us in the second row.

It was a bit late at night for Aidan and there was a lot of kids to go through so by around 7 p.m., after an hour of music (Charlie was first) we left with the gang as everyone was tired.

After the concert I biked while the rest of the gang got Chauffeured by Mom. We basically arrived at the house at the same time but technically I won since I was able to slip into the parking lot gate before the van and sprint to the finishing line. Charlie watched me the whole way with excitement but Aidan couldn’t see as well but found it fun to see me out there as well.

Good fun was had by all.

 

hockey hockey hockey

charlie is real preoccupied with hockey these days. first thing in the morning then last thing before bed he has to find my phone and get the latest stats. he quotes them the rest of the day.

he watches whatever we record for games over and over again and talks about them all the time. he even acts them out while outside playing in the back.

not sure where he gets all this from but just to get up on my french jargon I have to hit rds.ca to get the right words as to how its going with the series.

he uses rds.ca when on a laptop to see the series stats as well.

funny stuff.

Yai….

Funny, just now Charlie walked into my office rubbing his eyes because the light was on and looked up and say “Yaiii” with both hands straight up in the air in a V shape.

He turned around and I walked him back to bed while he mumbled that he had something to show me.

He jumped in bed and was back to sleep. Actually, I think that was just sleep walking. It might be related to the fact that he was super excited tonight because the Easter Bunny is coming tomorrow. He’s a day early for us because Easter Sunday we are off on a trip to the Florida Keys.

Couple of things Charlie blurted out today

Ma cousine carolyn… mon cousin silvain…

Papa pourquoi que tu aime ta cousine?

Papa j’ai hate que ta cousine revienne.

Mommy, Daddy really loves you.

Papa, aujourd’hui c’etais une excellente journee.

Beau a l’ecole a frapper Arture mais ce n’etais pas la faute d’Arture.

Lost 2nd tooth

When I got home on Friday Charlie was excited that he had lost another tooth on the bottom beside his last one. He’d been playing with it and talking about it for a few days so I wasn’t surprised.

On a totally different topic today was the first time Charlie could reach the garage door keypad. Wow, it wasn’t so long ago when he was able to get into the parking lot gate using that keypad but now he has reached the garage keypad. Definitely a growth sprout.

He’s a little ruffian with Aidan but I think Aidan would have it no other way. They are 2 peas in a pod and spend all their time running around after each other. Lots of fun.

Charlie looses his first tooth

Aidan was just starting his quiet time drinking his milk right before sleep time. Charlie comes running in and whispers that he lost his front lower tooth. He was so excited that Eileen let him shout it out and tell everyone including Aidan.

It was pretty fun moment and even Aidan felt the euphoria. Pretty exciting day. Now where are these pictures now? They should go right HERE…..

Bread doesn't come with 1 meatball

It was a song from a few weeks ago but as Charlie was heading to bed he was singing his version of this song

Its from Chuck’s band the “Strictly Jug Nuts”

A bright room on a Sunday afternoon at the Lincoln pub/restaurant. That’s Chuck’s brother on the left there too.