Charlie Stories

Texting

2012-01-11T20:57:00.001-08:00

Charlie was checking out the sports scores like he does every night before going to bed when Eileen texted me (actually its Messenger but on the phone it’s the same). He read the text that said should she call to say goodnight to the kids. I told him to reply Oui which he promptly typed in YES. He was very proud of himself and when she did call asked if she like it. Cute. That would be his first text message.

Il est riche

2011-11-19T00:01:00.001-08:00

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

2011-10-10T17:59:00.001-07:00

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

2011-10-02T21:16:00.001-07:00

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

2011-08-07T20:32:00.001-07:00

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

2011-08-06T04:54:00.001-07:00

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

2011-07-30T19:27:00.000-07:00

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

2011-05-11T20:37:00.000-07:00

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

2011-05-02T20:01:00.001-07:00

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….

2011-04-22T21:56:00.001-07:00

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

2011-04-11T20:30:00.001-07:00

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

2011-04-03T23:38:00.001-07:00

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

2011-01-30T22:11:00.001-08:00

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

2011-01-28T20:11:00.001-08:00

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.

I'm afraid I won't know what floor to get off on

2010-12-19T19:55:00.001-08:00

Charlie was worried about our trip tomorrow as he doesn't remember which floor nana is on

All I want for Christmas is …

2010-12-15T21:03:00.000-08:00

Charlie got to meet Santa with Aidan at the shopping center (Dec 15, 2010 now). Charlie was pretty excited to meet up with him and was thrilled to let him know that all he wanted for Christmas was an electric blanket and an Xbox kinect.

Those are two funny requests because the other day Eileen mentioned an electric blanket and he asked me what that was. We didn’t think of it after that.

Also, Charlie has played with the kinect in 2 places, once at the Microsoft store then once at the Bose store. It did make an impression on him, obviously.

As for Aidan, well, Santa is just too big and scary right now. This was the same thing with Charlie at this age as well.

Santa at 1 years old is a bit scary

Joffrey Ballet–Nutcracker–Christmas 2010

2010-12-12T20:33:00.001-08:00

Eileen and Charlie went to the ballet tonight and both enjoyed it.

Eileen mentioned that the seats were awesome and to keep track of them for the future. They were up in Sec: Dresl Row DD and Seats 510-511 for $75/each.

Charlie was not interested in going to the ballet by time 2 o’clock came around after playing in the snow so much in the morning. Then I explained to him that all his cousins have seen this and Memere goes every year to see this. He must see this since even Kevin Allan has seen this. That was enough to get him to get his boots and jacket on and head out with Mom.

Aidan was still in bed but woke up just a few minutes after they left. We had a showing right at 2 p.m. so I dressed him and fought the galling snow white winds to the corner store where we hung out and had snacks for 45 minutes.

Here are a few pics that Eileen took with her phone while at the theatre which was at the Auditorium Theatre at 50 E Congress Pkwy.

Charlie's first ballet turned out to be fun and he enjoyed it better than the symphony the other day. Eileen mentioned the skittles at intermission helped him along the second half as well. When he arrived home he was most excited about the real tall man in the show.

Ticketmaster sidebar:
I’m not sure why but this is typical of Ticketmaster. First they charge a $10 convenience charge (their website sucks and I told them in a follow up survey) then there’s a 50 cent tax on top of that convenience charge and then they round it off with a $3.30 order processing fee. The tickets were printed on old ticket stubs because the back of them said we had a 20% off at the local hotel that expired Aug 31, 2010. Nope I double checked that date, 4 months ago. Now that, in a “nutshell” is Ticketmaster. Thieves.

Tintin update…objective lune

2010-12-08T20:58:00.001-08:00

Charlie is starting to pick up reading in English. It’s odd but in kindergarden they don’t start to learn to read French quite yet but the English teacher who they see daily except for Wednesdays is moving along. He' actually read an entire 30 page level 1 book with Eileen (ok. helped a lot by Eileen) 2 nights ago.

Even now as I read Tintin he’s trying to figure it all out like why the “in” in French is like an “ain” instead of “inn”. But he’s pretty darn excited about reading and its really neat to see.

What drives it home was I saw a piece on the news where the Afghan military are mostly illiterate and kinda thinking of that while he’s sounding out words and then we’re realizing even in English there’s plenty of rules around words.

Anyways, we’re now at “objective lune” in the Tintin collection and out of the grand total of 24 books in the collection we have 7 left. It’s been a long journey but an absolute delight for both him and I. The stories are awesome and actually riveting at times. Eileen’s favorite thing to do is when its 7 p.m. and time for bed she lets us finish the page then rips the book out of my hands, not knowing what is about to happen. The layout of the books are really well done. I think every book is 62 pages and crafted for page turning suspense. Who would have known. Charlie loves it, and without a doubt his favorite is Mr. “mille sabord” Haddock.

Our first book we read was “on a marche sur la lune” then “L’or noir”, then “L’affaire Tournesol” before starting from the top and working sequentially; highly recommended because the stories do often intertwine.

The book we just finished yesterday night called “Coke en stock” was really well done but would have more fun had we read it in the Quebec French version called “Colocs en stock”

Swimming

2010-11-13T20:56:00.001-08:00

Wow. There’s no way Charlie would swim like he did today with me. I can’t believe it, there was pretty much nothing he wouldn’t do in the water with his teacher, Dino. Actually Eileen mentioned there was one thing he wouldn’t do and that was to go and pick up rings from the bottom of the pool but really it was incredible to se him do what he did.

He started with the front crawl and then back crawl and even being let go to swim to the wall. No great form, but wow, he’s starting to do it. Most important of all there is that the fear factor isn’t there.

Heck, with me he wouldn’t even go on his back. I’m not sure what it is, I know he trusts me, but no way could I get him to do 1/4 of what he’s doing. Pretty wild. It might be part doing what the teacher says to do, and a lot about peer pressure as all the other kids are doing stuff and its not like he’s doing something no one else is doing.

Wow, I certainly felt like a failure though since I really did try to encourage Charlie to try different things in the pool on our recent trip to Quebec. It’s really amazing and he’s doing a great job. I think its cool.

Library Card

2010-11-13T20:52:00.001-08:00

We went for a walk around the neighborhood this afternoon. As always is the case we end up getting new ideas when we’re out there and this time we thought, hey, Aidan love’s the train so lets jump on the train and go for a ride. Eileen mentioned that this wasn’t really walking and exercise so I improvised and said we’ll get off the train in town and walk around there. Then we thought, heck the library is there, its open and its been a while since we visited the French book section.

As usual it was a great time as they had big paper to color on, lots of big colorful books to flip through and the kids section is just very well setup for the kids (I guess that’s by definition). Anyways, the neat part was that we got a library card for Charlie. Seems innocent enough but the moment where Charlie had to sign the form was just a big deal for me. Wow, I thought, really? can’t I just sign it and we’re done here? Nope, he had to come over and fill in a form. That was a first for me.

The line to write your name on is plenty big for me, but for a 5 year old no way. He managed to fit Charles on 75% of the line and though he thought he was finished I let him know that he had to do the b o y l e too. He promptly put down the b o y e and I had to point out the missing l. No problem we squashed it in all together and it looked awesome. I high 5’ved him (we say Clac cinq in French but I don’t remember what we said as kids for that) and then he received his own library card. Fun. And, wow, someone is getting bigger.

Names for Aidan

2010-10-25T18:54:00.000-07:00

Charlie has a few very cutie names for Aidan. He started with Mr. Aidan and has moved to "the little one" and "the little guy". Charlie will say things like, "Mum where is the little one?" Or "Oh, I got the little guy" as we race to get Aidan who is climbing the stairs! He is very serious when he says it and seems like such a grown-up. He loves his little bro. No question about it. And Aidan love him.

Daddy, you have to listen to mommy

2010-10-25T17:40:00.000-07:00

Just as we go to bed I tell Charlie that I love him, he replies with I love you only if you listen to mommy. If she says one thing you have to do it you have to do it and not make her repeat herself 75 times. Or something like that, I really don't remember b/c I wasn't listening.

His name is Turkey

2010-10-01T20:56:00.001-07:00

Tonight a pizza delivery guy came to the door and rang the door bell twice before he realized he was at the wrong address. I opened the door as he was walking away and he apologized.

As Charlie was going to sleep he told me that the delivery man was called “turkey”. Since we only speak in French with each other I corrected him and said, oh you mean “dinde”. He said no, his name was turkey because Mom knew his name and called him turkey.

When I asked Eileen she mentioned that he didn’t close the gate behind him and so she called him turkey. Charlie picked that up litteraly and thought, cool, that’s a neat name.

Did you and Dad fall in love?

2010-09-14T06:31:00.001-07:00

Charlie: Did you guys meet and fall in love before me?

Mom: Well, Dad fell in love with me long before I fell in love with him.

Am I a robot?

2010-09-14T06:30:00.000-07:00

Charlie: Did you take me or steal me?

Mom: Dad and I created you

Charlie: Am I a robot?

first night spent in a tent

2010-08-27T20:49:00.000-07:00

the rain was unbelievable. It poured all night hard.

it took Charlie a few hours to finally sleep since he was super excited about the experience. on top of that his twin cousins where in the tent with us as well.

Isabelle and Kevin were doing stuff on their iPods for a few hours so it was hard to get Charlie not to look at the shiny screens while they played games. eventually though the rhythm of the rain got him to sleep.

i woke up every hour or so checking on everyone. Charlie stayed mostly under his sleeping bag he was away from the walls and so remained dry but not his pillow and outer part of his sleeping back which was touching the walls.

his cousins weren't so lucky. Isabelle was at the door which was mostly open because it was so hot in there with 4 people. her pillow was drenched. and as for Kevin somehow he got flipped over and ended up head first at the bottom of the tent slant so he was real wet. at 6 a.m. he was freezing so we ended up all getting up, wrestling a while before bringing everything in the house and bolting off to Tim Horton for a nice hot chocolate.

growing up fast

2010-07-26T19:22:00.000-07:00

charlie asked for a pair of shoes with laces so that he could learn how to tie his shoes. that was funny because he's only ever owned velcro.
we think it was a result of his Latin summer camp where other kids must be doing it and he felt left out.

he's also really gone far with swimming.i'm not sure how they do it, probably peer pressure, but he's now got his head under the water all the time. he's fearless all of a sudden. what a big change.

now, just to top it off, last week he washed his hair alone (he typically hates washing his hair period) and then washed his body with soap too. i did nothing except watch...of course, i didn't like this a bit. i've been bathing him straight for about 4 years now (the first year eileen wouldn't let me near him) and it was now time where he's really grown up. darn. i want him to keep neeading me ;-)

oh well, he's a blast. great imagination, really thoughtful and sharp....loves his brother beyond the beyond too.

Burger Meal

2010-07-18T23:27:00.000-07:00

Charlie found out today that there's a McDonalds called Burger Meal. The same but with a different name. Of course, the only thing he knows about both places is that they have toys in a box. Funny.

3rd Hockey class

2010-07-14T22:49:00.001-07:00

The past few Saturday open skates are doing well for Charlie. He's starting to spread his wings. He wasn't sure how to stop last Saturday so I showed him a quick and easy trick to drag one skate behind and will slow him down. He was trying that one on his own today and it helped a few times.

But the main way to stop is to hit the boards and fall down.

He had some time on the ice before the class started and its really the first time with the hockey stick and lots of pucks on the ice. He was funny since he would just touch the pucks but skate around real hard. He's getting real comfortable with the ice and skates. When he did shoot the puck he realized that his skates move so he'd fall..for now let's just hit the pucks easier so we can stay up ;-)

he's doing well and really enjoying himself.

wii

2010-05-21T20:16:00.001-07:00

charlie loves playing the wii with neighbour nicholas. he's been going over there after school a fair amount and they both stand in front of the tv and wonder around the game endlessly.
they both are working on the blockbuster plan this month and the store is a mini heaven for charlie. he loves all the games and if nothing else has learnt the difference between owning and renting...i.e. louer et acheter.
i think he's a bit young for those games and they are just too way addictive and require prying away from the games.

Grandparents day

2010-05-14T22:22:00.001-07:00

Eileen went to Charlie's class today for grandparents day.
Also, in the evening she went to the social. It was at Microsoft's office at the aon building. Awesome.

Charles aime c'elle la

2010-05-14T22:14:00.001-07:00

Trois p'tits minous
Trois p'tits minous, p'tits minous, p'tits minous
avaient perdu leurs mitaines
S'en vont trouver leur mère
Maman nous avons perdu nos mitaines
Perdu vos mitaines ?
Vilains p'tits minous
Vous n'aurez pas de crème !
Trois p'tits minous, p'tits minous, p'tits minous
avaient r'trouvé leurs mitaines
s'en vont trouver leur mère
Maman nous avons r'trouvé nos mitaines
Retrouvé vos mitaines ?
Gentils p'tits minous
Vous aurez plein de crème
Trois p'tits minous, p'tits minous, p'tits minous
avaient sali leurs mitaines
S'en vont trouver leur mère
Maman nous avons sali nos mitaines
Sali vos mitaines ?
Vilains p'tits minous
Vous n'aurez pas de crème !
Trois p'tits minous, p'tits minous, p'tits minous
avaient lavé leurs mitaines
s'en vont trouver leur mère
Maman nous avons lavé nos mitaines
Lavé vos mitaines ?
Gentils p'tits minous
Vous aurez plein de crème
Trois p'tits minous, p'tits minous, p'tits minous
avaient troué leurs mitaines
S'en vont trouver leur mère
Maman nous avons troué nos mitaines
Troué vos mitaines ?
Vilains p'tits minous
Vous n'aurez pas de crème !
Trois p'tits minous, p'tits minous, p'tits minous
avaient r'prisé leurs mitaines
s'en vont trouver leur mère
Maman nous avons r'prisé nos mitaines
R'prisé vos mitaines ?
Gentils p'tits minous
Vous aurez plein de crème

Mercredi 31 Mars

2010-04-03T12:26:00.000-07:00

I was absolutely bowled over the other day when Charlie grabbed a pen and a piece of paper and sat down to draw. Well, so I thought. Right out of the blue he jotted down perfect Mercredi 31 Mars. I wasn't even sure he knew what it said but it just flowed from his pen like nothing.

This to me was a big deal as typically I spell words out for him but in this case he did it all on his own. Clearly this comes from School since they do write the date out in full each day after they write out their names. Man, he's come a long way.

Dinner time with Charlie is still pretty tough work since he typically has ants in his pants or is so tired he's just completely not interested in eating. Pretty much each meal (unless its pizza or mac and cheese) is a bit of a battle for us. Of course, desert not so much.

Welcome to the world Taj

2010-03-17T20:54:00.000-07:00

Dan and Catherine had a baby boy and we went to the hospital at lunch time to say hi.

Charlie was pretty excited to see a baby. He even remembered the place from 6 months ago when Aidan was a little boy like Taj. Taj came in just slightly bigger than Aidan at 8 lbs 14 onces and 21" long. Big german guy that Kleinschmidt.

Charlie always enjoys the cafeteria food there too so its actually kinda fun hanging out at the hospital. Sounds weird but true.

Anyways, congrats Dan and Catherine and welcome to the world baby Taj Alvira Kleinschmidt. March 15th, 2010 8:50 p.m.

Busy weekend

2010-01-11T21:29:00.001-08:00

Charlie was pretty tired from the weekend so took the day off. He slept in, and so did Aidan, so everyone just took it easy. I popped in for lunch too.

Sondra picked up Libby last night around 9:30 p.m. so Charlie mentioned to Eileen today that he was wondering what Libby was up too. It was fun having her around.

911

2010-01-03T09:52:00.000-08:00

we got back home from 2 weeks up in Canada for Christmas and the house was reading 39 degrees F, yup, that's almost frozen. Our best guess is that the cleaning lady shut it off by mistake since Sondra let her in on Wednesday and she said the house was warm both before and after setting the house alarm.

Man, we could see our breath it was so cold. Water worked though and no frozen pipes!

Once we got in Eileen fired up the gas fireplace to high. After a few hours we got up another 20 degrees but still needed jackets in the house. The CO monitor started going off as well about every 15 minutes but I dismissed it thinking it was the shock to the house. We shut off the fireplace because we figured that must be the problem.

We went out for dinner to the Green Door so that the house could warm up. We were out about an hour and when we returned things were around 60 degrees and once again the alarm kept going off. I took it down and checked the cell (battery and chemicals combined) which I installed in Sept 07 and the marking showed - do not install after march 09 - so i think it might still be fine.

After that Eilen decided to play it safe and call 311 about the alarm going off and of course, they transfered the call directly to 911. The fire truck was here a few minutes later with sirens on and a large ladder. 3 firemen came off the truck and one with a CO meter (Ed) and he went everywhere in the house and didn't read any CO readings so they gave the house a clean bill of health.

They also said they would call the gas company to come and take more readings.

An hour later the gas company showed up. Once I explained the situation about the fireplace being on high he knew right away that was the problem and was ready to leave. They pulled out a meter of course and hit the stove, furnace and fireplace and of course the fireplace had a reading since it is not vented outside.

He said that those fireplaces are 20% heat and 80% ambiance and aren't meant for heat but just a little low fire to cap the chill only as they are not vented outside.

Before they left Eileen asked to have them check my work on installing the stove top underneath since I knew that there was a small leak it was no surprise when they said they were getting a reading. He said he'd close the valve and block it then write me a notice. When I asked for someone to fix it he said they could and it would be $60. Twenty minutes later it was done with a new pipe. Case closed.

The gas guy also mentioned that once the CO meters go off they tend to continue to alarm until you leave them outside for a while to clear. I put it in a box in the garage because it kept going off and was loud. I guess I'll plug it in later today.

Now, back to finishing the windows 7 x86 enterprise install on eileen's laptop (meduse) and off to skating with Charlie and the neighbour.

Uncle Mark

2010-01-01T19:30:00.000-08:00

Yes, Midnight Monster is still a popular game. The kids of course are older now and so it hurts when they hit more but the highlight was in all the excitement with all the Allan kids screaming for mercy with my name "Uncle Mark" Charlie at one point, free from my grip was taunting me with something I don't think I'll hear again..."Uncle Mark...you can't catch me". Man, that was pricelesss.

Now, back to recuperating from the bruises and sore back.

Ottawa

2009-12-27T20:41:00.000-08:00

Charlie is getting 11 hours sleep a night and is actually volunteering to go to bed at night. It's usually a long drawn out process but since on vacation he's begging to get into bed, so its brush your teeth, prayers and sleeping in minutes.

We even skipped a bath tonight since we were at the Allans playing games and had dinner there until around 8 p.m. Past bedtime but for a good cause.

Charlie was very excited to find the stash of WII games at the Allans, he just couldn't believe there were that many games out there. He played a few of them too but I think a lot of them were a bit more advanced for him.

Midnight Monster is the game of the day and its essentially the kids beating up Uncle Mark until they turn on the light which is the signal to leave the basement. Of course, the kids are older now compared to last year so I think I'm going to be bruised a bit but I still am barely managing to keep the upper hand. It gets a bit tough but I'm still winning.

The weather was nice today, wet but warm. We didn't get a chance to through many snowballs but Charlie did get one or two off to Mom.

Pinnochio from Netflix Take 2

2009-12-21T22:20:00.000-08:00

OK. We decided to give Pinnochio another shot. This time we made it past the first time we attempted to watch it but got to another very upsetting part.

This was when the circus master kidnapped Pinnochio to keep him and not allow him to go back to his father. It was a very sad part with rain and thunder and all. Charlie looked over at me and said, Dad, you'd never let me taken away like this right?

Wow, that was powerful. My only thought was over the years hearing on the news how kids were actually kidnapped for real in this world and make me as sad as he was. That was a very sinking feeling but of course, I reasured him that never this would happen.

How do you make a snowball dad

2009-12-08T22:45:00.001-08:00

This morning was awesome. Unlike yesterday there just wasn't much snow on the ground but today there was enough. Enough to make a snowball and throw it at Charlie.

He loved it. Very excited while he was busy with the shovel moving snow. He certainly remembered that part from last year and really loves playing shoveling the snow.

After that first snowball the cutest thing ever as he tried to make a snowball (more like a pancake in his case)...Papa, comment fait tu une balle de neige?...It was awesome. Got to show him how to do it and at which point he of course never stopped.

We managed to get off 10 minutes late to school at 8:20 a.m. but I still made it back for my 9 a.m. meeting. It was worth the delay to play in the snow that's for sure.

Riding without training wheels

2009-09-01T20:14:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was a real breakthough on the bike.

Once he realized I wasn't holding him up on the back seat he realized he was under control. A little unsteady on the stearing but good enough to stay up on his own.

Also, at first he wasn't sure on how to handle the stopping but after a few times of a controlled stop he managed to figure that out on his own.

All the neighbours were out and everyone was chearing him on so that he was having a blast.

Eileen got some video footage so you need to check that out.

Weekend at Lake Geneva without Charlie?

2009-07-13T20:09:00.001-07:00

We decided to have a romantic weekend just the 2 of us at a spa in Fontana, WI up on Lake Geneva. Its really a lot nicer than Lake Geneva the city since its less touristy and laid out nicer. It's only a 15 minute drive and each on the other end of the lake.

It was weird since it was the first time both of us had been away from Charlie since he was born. We had times where one was gone from him but not both. Tante TT flew down for the big job and spent her time (and money) entertaining him; and spoiling him of course, as is an aunts perogative.

He did well and surprisingly we also did well. The funniest part was that pretty much everything we did or see or look at we related back to Charlie. Menu's we always peaked at the kids menu, everything at the resort Charlie would have loved to do and we found ourselves talking about him a lot of course. I guess its only natural but it was pretty comical at times as we caught each other.

In actual fact we really did enjoy the time off as well. It was rejuvinating to say the least and if nothing else we got seriously caught up with sleep ;-)

The place was real nice with great internet access (4 meg down; .75 meg up). I forgot my headphones to watch teched shows so i ended up going to bed pretty darn early too.

It was just under a 2 hour trip up there but lots of fun. We'll definately be doing that again soon.

airport rendez-vous

2009-07-03T21:02:00.000-07:00

charlie was in oakville with eileen for the week. visiting with her family and had charlie in a camp for the week while they were there. it was just 3 hours a day in the afternoon but it was a great camp.

he wasn't sure at first but it turned out he really enjoyed it as they played sports and even the last day hockey. that was his favorite from what i heard.

we did do oovoo now and then during the week so i got to see him but nothing like the airport rendez-vous. He was super excited we ran straight at each other and i sent him flying around in circles. He was all chocked up and when we looked at mom too, she was caught up in the emotion and crying as well. we had a big group hug and the family was happy. the folks along the side waiting for thier loved ones were almost clapping as they watched our scene unfold. kinda funny.

i managed to rough house with charlie for the rest of the day. he was pretty tired and i think in the airport alone he had 3 small 'hurts'. mom makes them all a big deal but he shakes them off pretty quickly. now back on the suitcase for a ride.

Online Gun games

2009-06-23T22:50:00.000-07:00

Charlie is getting real good at the online gaming sites. He recognizes the "action" games and has figured out how to navigate most games, get them working despite the constant barrage of advertizing, and figure out the keys he needs to press to do his stuff.

His all time favorites are the aircraft gun games and watching him play is hilarious. First he's pretty good at it but he has a constant watch over his shoulder because he knows that at any moment Mom could walk into the room and ban the games. She does not like him playing games that involve guns and he is keenly aware and has prepared speaches on how a game might be just throwing objects or other things he hopes she might buy into. Me? I help him navigate if I have time and otherwise bring him to some of the more interesting ones like starwars.com and jeux.fr.

As bad as it is, a few times I've seen him do Ninja fights with swords that I even agree with Eileen are not right for a 4 year old but what the heck, I don't think he processes that stuff the way we do.

Wa Wa Woobzie...finally in French

2009-06-23T22:47:00.000-07:00

Every day I come home Charlie insists on giving up information on things he did that he knows I wouldn't be happy about. This is pretty much 100% of the time the fact that he watches some English TV when the rules of the house are clearly french only (Eileen..are you listening?).

Anyways, tonight he was beside himself, he knows I don't like his favorite show wa wa woobzie (not sure what that thing is) but its english only so I refuse to let him watch it when there's plenty of good french TV on our media center.

Anyways, it turns out that Target had 2 DVD's of this stuff in English and French. Strange it wasn't translated into Spanish but boy was he happy. Eileen mentioned he watched 2 hours straight of it today.

Libby the Dog

2009-06-23T22:44:00.000-07:00

Libby was over this weekend and Charlie loved her. I think the most fun he had was when he could get her to chase him. Of course, this involved PaPa because he's still not completely comfortable with dogs. He likes them but if they bark he backs away.

He loved having her around and like to keep his eye on where she was the whole time. In bed he setup a little wall with his blanket between her and him. I'm guessing a bit of a safety barrier. At the same time when she left the room he was sad.

Even when he was sad though, he didn't feel comfortable enough to insist that she does what he wanted so it was an interesting relationship to watch.

Dentist appointment

2009-05-12T18:32:00.000-07:00

Going to the dentist with Charlie has been the most refreshing experience, until today. My memories of the dentist as a small child, who I am kidding an adult as well, have always been stressful. Not for Charlie.

He loves going to see Dr Grace. He was asking us to take him back to see her for a week after his last appointment, which included filling a cavity (and yes that meant drilling with no pain medicine). So this visit was for some soreness on his lower left side when we brushed and to fill the final cavity that wasn't very big. He was okay about going today after school, but it was right in the early part of his quiet time when he wants to relax and rest. Not great timing, but he loved it so much before that this should be fine. Uh no!

We are in the waiting room and he is wondering why they are not calling his name. So we wait a little more. He reads a little more with TT and then it is our turn. We go in, all good, get settled in and start chatting with Dr Grace. First thing is a check on the sore area in his mouth. Nothing there. Looks good. Looks like he might be getting his 6 year old molar in on that side.

Then on to the cavity filling. Step one, rinse the tooth. Okay, no problem, wait problem. The hygienist pulls out this man size suction straw to gather the water and saliva. This immediately causes Charlie to choke, cough and then cry. The crying was something he did not want to do in frontof anyone but it upset him so much he did which made things worse.

So, Dr. Grace manages to get Charlie to think the drilling or as she calls it the tickle tool is fun and off we go again. We are counting this time and Charlie is loving that. The drilling, the hard part, is a breeze. Now it is time to shampoo, dry and use the flash light on the tooth. Out comes that man size suction straw again! This is not good. Charlie gets very upset, crying, coughing, moving around in his seat. By this point, I am next to tears in seeing my child begging to go home and get away from all of this. Plus the memories of having 6 cavities filled at about his age is as clear in my mind as if I were the one sitting in that chair.

We take a break, but have to finish because the tooth is now raw and has to be filled. Back comes Dr Grace and Charlie is not at all agreeable about doing this. He wants me to do the work on him. Yeah, no. We finally get an okay to try again only because he is threaten with Mummy having to leave the room. That suction straw comes out, and I finally realize it is the main problem. They change it to the smaller one. Charlie is struggling and very upset. We are done! He is happy and wants his 2 cars he was promised. He is not going anywhere without me though. In the waiting room is TT who had the joy of listening to the agony of Charlie and knew I wasn't likely doing much better.

Out to the car we go and off to Target for one prize for the brave boy. I needed the prize, but having Charlie back to himself and happy was trophy enough for me.

Hours later, it is time to brush our teeth before bed. I could see him weighing in his mind if I play upset and don't want to brush will I get away with it? No, okay plan B, Mommy lets play dentist!
Eileen

Baby Boy

2009-05-11T11:48:00.000-07:00

As part of our Mother's Day celebration, we decided to open our envelope from the doctor that had a written note stating whether we were having a boy or a girl.
Charlie was the one in charge of opening the note. So he was fully aware that we were having a baby boy (at least they think...90% sure it is a boy). At school today, his teacher who knew we were waiting for Mother's Day to open the note and asked Charlie if he was a going to have a boy or girl. He proudly told her he was having a baby boy. But he doesn't know what the name will be.
I hadn't decided if we were going to say anything to anyone, but now the cat is out of the bag and we need to tell our families.
Charlie is very excited about having a new baby! Let us hope his enthusiasm continues.
Eileen

Mother's Day 2009

2009-05-10T08:00:00.000-07:00

Having Charlie makes being a Mother an important day. He does and says the most heart melting things, that make you want to just eat him up!

Friday when I picked him up from school he came out with a pot of 3 flowers and a hand written card that read "pour Maman". He was very proud of all the hearts he put on the card and excited to show Dad as well. This was the beginning of our celebration.

Yesterday, after being out for a few hours on my own, I came home to a very excited 4 year old who was desperate to show me all he had bought for us "to share" for Mother's Day. He had gone to the new Walgreen's on the corner and picked out things he knew he liked and figured I would naturally like as well. A big bag of Doritos (the blue ones!), chocolate with carmel, red licorices, a big balloon (with 2 bears that says I love Mom) and small box of candy that has a little balloon (saying happy mother's day). Plus a Star Wars card with a little editing to say Happy Mother's Day rather then Happy Birthday. He loves the theme song and the card plays the music. And of course, $10 in the card because Dad had it in his wallet (this is in keeping with the cards he gets from Nana).

This morning while calling Mothers to wish them a happy Mother's day, Charlie turns to me in between calls and says to me your my Mother so Happy Mother's Day Mama. How sweet is that...? This little guy knows how to get what he wants from his Mum.

After being very upset that his Dad left last night, he slept with me last night. That is a first. He, however has recovered today and is excited to pick his Aunt TT up at the airport.
Eileen

Pinnochio from Netflix

2009-05-07T19:44:00.000-07:00

Charlie and I watched the first 5 minutes of Pinnochio the other day for the first time. It starts off with a scene where Pinnochio's Dad is working in his wood working shop and there a few dozen wood clocks all going off at the same time.

Most of the clocks where cute scenes and real fun, but one was a little boy with his pants down to his ankles bent over his mother knees getting a spanking. There was a paint can spilled all over the floor beside him and he was getting a spanking. The boys face was crying and Charlie was horrified. He immediately looked at me and said "WHY?" why is he crying, why is she spanking him? The look on his face was of sheer panic. He was truly disturbed by this scene. The movie went on but he tried to watch as he requested an immediate explanation and understanding of this.

We shut it off just after this and the first thing he did was he ran to Eileen to tell her of the horrible thing he had just witnessed. It was very unpleasant and he did not like that at all.

Of course, later he sat down and watched the whole movie, but all along he no longer wanted to see any of the coocoo clocks.

Charlie's first full day at Lycee

2009-04-09T20:40:00.000-07:00

Charlie had an exciting day today that he was entirely not sure about. Most times he wanted to stay all day to be like his friends but of course first thing this morning he decided not too.

Beatrice, the teacher sent this note to Eileen:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
hello,

Charles is doing great. He loved the lunch et TV time for sure! Sarah said he was so happy to watch a little bity of TV...Right now he is laying down quietly on his bed but he seems to have a hard time falling asleeep. He keeps moving and turning. We shall see...
See you at 3h10!
Beatrice
~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Of course, he didn't nap and was extremely thirsty and hungry when he got home. He was in bed early and seemed to really have enjoyed himself.

When Sarah (teacher's assistant) put charlie back in the fan after school she mentioned that Charlie got a little gift for helping out as well as saying that "if only all the children were like him". Whatever that means the only thing I can say is like father like son ;-)

The plan is to do 1 full day a week for now on Thursdays but who knows for sure....

Easter Egg Decorating

2009-04-06T13:27:00.000-07:00

Today, after a few days of discussion, we boiled 10 eggs and got ready to dye them. Charlie was very excited. What I realized though was that he was excited to eat the eggs. Mark and been going on about eating the eggs after dying them, but Charlie didn't realize it was just an egg inside. He was rather disappointed to be eating a hard boiled egg! Actually, I had to finish eating the egg. He still was a little confused, because he wanted to eat the shell and I explained that it is like the skin of a banana....we just don't eat that part. He decided he would try another one, thinking it was different and would be better. I am not sure he really sees the point in doing this, but he is interested in trying it again tomorrow with more eggs!
Written by Eileen

basketball and easter egg hunt

2009-04-04T10:35:00.000-07:00

went here this a.m. after charlie's basketball practice

met up with the wilson's there.

http://chicago.about.com/od/holidays/p/SoldierFieldEgg.htm

NHL

2009-04-01T21:05:00.000-07:00

First NHL game and it was awesome. We went with Hal and Noah and of course Noah and Charles were very excited about the whole event, probably more for just being together than the game but of course the game as well.

It started at 7:30pm which is pretty much Charlie's bed time normally so when I saw it was 9 o'clock during the game when I looked over at Charlie he was dead tired.

We had great tickets right in the middle of the row at row 1 on the 2nd level. It was perfect for the boys since they could stand up and there was no one to worry about in front of them as they were right against the wall and glass was the perfect height.

The beginning of the game was amazing and charlie sat there in complete awe. You can tell he was on sensory overload and was just absorbing it all. I didn't need to say anything nor point anything out to him as it was just SO MUCH for him to absorb all at once.

Of course, he really got into the crowd and join in on all the claps and excitement. The national anthem erupted of course and it makes anyone hair stand on end, and the team when they first cam out was way cool tool since there were lazers and upbeat tunes blaring.

He was very excited. Noah and him sat together and Hal and I bookmarked them on each end, but they were really golden.

He knew Patrick Kane since that was the shirt he had on, so kept asking and looking for him. 88 was the identifier, and he had lots of questions about all the other players who really just turned out to be known as Patrick Kane's friends.

The game was against the St Louis Blues but that didn't really register since it wasn't the Sentors nor Montreal or Toronto, the only teams he typically hears about, so really he wasn't interested in them much at all.

During the first period and 2nd period Noah and Charlie ran around but man, it was so packed we had a hard time keeping up with them. The folks of course where great and enjoyed seeing them running around.

The only drink Charlie wanted was beer. Not sure what possessed him but the whole game he wasn't interested in his bottled water but instead kept dipping his finger in my beer and liking it. Oh boy. It was strange that he liked it though. He typically doesn't.

Chicago ended up getting the first goal and the place just went crazy. This startled both boys and they put their hands over their ears because the whistles were so loud.

Shortly after the 2nd goal as well was the same thing.

One of the coolest thing Charlie liked (well, Dad too) was the girls that came out during commercials to clear the ice with shovels. This of course, is Charlies favorite pass time so when he saw that he was very intrigued.

The zamboni was really a non-event for Charlie, he had just seen too many I guess
What he like seeing was the times when fans would hit the glass on the ice, or when someone body checked another player real hard or even at one point were a player went over the St Louis bench head first after a check. Also, one of the piece of glasses was coming off so he was trying to figure out what the 4 men where doing to the glass and checking it all out.

Charlie noticed in the 1st periord that half the flags where for basketball and half were for hockey. He loved that but was equally jazzed by the bulls balloon that was hanging out in the rafters. He really liked looking around at this huge arena and absorbing it all in.

By the end of the 2nd period Charlie was just physically pooped and at one point even asked for the zune, a sure sign he was exhausted, but at this point he still didn't want to go home.

We let them run around the couches in the hall for 20 minutes while the Dad's chatted and got caught up on the latest since we really didn't a chance to chat at all.

No doubt the boys had a great time, equally playing with each other as the game.

It was a blast.

Mary et Joseph

2009-03-22T20:38:00.000-07:00

This weekend Charlie packed up his backpack with clothes and decided that we were going to Mary and Josephs. Now, these two names are engrained in his head because of prayer time before bed each night and really what he meant to say is Mary and Rich's cottage.

Apparently he's very fond of that cottage last summer and decided that we'd go back. He also made it clear that they were welcome to stay at our house if they needed a place to stay while we were there. Too funny.

We did make it out to the driving range on Saturday after playing around in the back with the neighbours. At the driving range there is a mini-putt as well and he aslways asks to do it and we always avoid it. This time we said that we'd come back with our neighbours son, also called Charlie, this afternoon. It never happened because of South-Side-Charlie's nap schedule.

We visite Aunt Pat at Marina towers as well for dinner and the best part was running around the hallway. Literally, running around, since its just that round. What a blast and man, can he boogie.

These days skating is always a no and he's just not interested at all in that. Swimming yes, but he's been sick lately so don't want to make it worse right now so we avoided the swims.

St Patrick

2009-03-17T22:32:00.000-07:00

Charlie was still a bit sick and stayed home today. Yesterday his runny nose and feaver spiked while at school so it was a good idea to stay home, even though it was St Patricks day.

Saturday we went into the doctors since he mentioned he had an ear ache and the doctor confirmed it was an infection. He's on drugs for the next 10 days.

He's also starting to have a runny nose and lots of coughing.

I didn't get to see him this morning since he slept in a bit and I was off to work earlier than normal for an early meeting. We did get to play when I got home, mainly with his long lost nerf gun (boy, where was that hiding?) and then we got the new steering wheel (volant) from amazon.com so we messed around a bit with that before crashing.

He also turned an interesting corner today as Eileen mentioned he was pleased to share his room with the new baby and even discussed names with Eileen. I didn't get a chance to hear them but Eileen's been pushing for Mary and I've just been saying the generic Zacharia. He's catching on though and I'm looking forward to when it finally rocks his world!

Anyways, it still feels like a long way off.

Bonhomme Carnaval

2009-03-12T23:22:00.000-07:00

Eileen and I went to Charlie's class this morning (12th) at 9:30 a.m. They were just finishing up their snacks when we came in and then the class was split into 2 with half going to music class and the other half staying with us.

Charlie was in the first batch with us and I started by reading the book about the history of the Bonhomme Carnaval. I ended up adlibing the pages to try and keep it a bit more engaging for the kids mainly because the reading was at too advanced of an age for these 3 and 4 year olds.

After the book I did get Paul ask me to read it again. I'm not sure if Charlie was paying attention because I was busy reading but he's read it with me a dozent times already.

I did have the new sony dsc-t700 with me but didn't use it until later so missed some good shots.

Anyways, after the book Eileen had prepared some paper lunch bags with all the parts of the snowman in it so the kids could glue it and make a puppet. That kept everyone busy and then after that we had drawings from the Carnaval that they colored as well. Time flew by.

In half an hour the class swapped and we rinsed and repeated. It was a good chance to chat with the teachers as well and mainly about the fact that Canadian french words are different than ours. For example Tuque...they had no idea.

Actually they had never heard of the the Bonhomme de Caranaval neither.

Anyways, it made for a real fun and different morning and got a chance to be with Charlie's class mates as well.

Maillot de bain

2009-02-23T23:15:00.000-08:00

Its pretty darn cold in the house but all weekend all Charlie wanted to do was go swimming. We went both days of course, but around the house he insists on wearing his swim suit. Nothing else, just his swim suit. He's freezing from top to bottom but refuses to put anything else on.

Strange but I guess he's trying to give us the message.

Patiner

2009-02-09T19:02:00.001-08:00

Saturday's skating at Millenium park in the morning was so hot in the sun that we stripped down to T-Shirts. Of course, the direct sun also melted the ends of the rink so that puddles formed.

Of course, Charlie seemed to fall only at the ends so by the end of it, he was soaking wet. Swimming on the rink.

The rink has plenty of compressors underneath and one of the attendants said that they can skate until its 65 degrees out. We took the train there.

On Sunday, it was milder and actually a better skating day. Still no mittens required, except when you fall, but it was very pleasant skating. We managed to park just on wells and washington which was just a block away and on Sunday's its free. We stopped in for Subway on the way home for lunch to meet up with Eileen.

The afternoon we were back at the pool up near Charlie's school.

Anniversaire et Bowling

2009-02-09T18:54:00.000-08:00

Saturday evening Charlie's best friend at school, Owen and his little 2 year old brother had their birthday party at the bowling lanes up by Cosco. It was loads of fun and Charlie would have been content to just hang out anywhere with Owen.

His first time bowling was a blast. He loved it. Even the small children's balls were super heavy but he managed to lift them with both hands and with a running jump able to launch the ball at a speed that actually managed to make it to the pins. A bit surprising at times but those lanes are heavily waxed.

At one point he managed to, all on his own, and with a fully body commit hit the pins in just the right way and his first strike nailed all the pins. He was pretty proud of himself when he realized he knocked them all. It was a good thing it was later in the evening when he did that since at the biginning he never looked at all at what his ball did to the pins. His fun was just launching the ball and watching it come back to him automatically.

Eventually he did catch on that he should both watch what his ball does as well as not throw the ball until the barrier comes up.

There was 5 lanes reserved for the party and the week kids were lined up at the line rolling the balls, we kept the attendants busy since most of the balls didn' really make it all the way.

The funniest thing was when Charlie kept throwing his ball down the lane beside us. The guy was a bit more advance, but they still had kids there, and Charlie would pretty much wreck it by throwing his ball whichever lane had pins up. Oh well.

++

2009-01-03T20:34:00.001-08:00

Ma boite a dinner

2008-12-21T09:13:00.000-08:00

Charlie's favorite passtime these days is cutting out toys from catalogs and gluing them onto paper as a list for Santa Clause.

This morning he came running over with a lunch box with the a star wars ship on it. He was very appologetic, saying that he was sorry but with this lunch box he was going to stay at school all day since he was going to have lunch with him.

He said Owen stays all day at school as well and that he'd be real sad because he would miss me a lot but in the end he was determined it was school all day for him.

I did explain that I was at the "bureau" anyways during the day but I'm sure Mom would miss him.

Now, back to playing...Hullabalo

Bumped into this bit of info today

2008-12-04T15:08:00.000-08:00

I was looking up a domain I registered. Look at the dates and you'll see Charlie could have been an Ann ;-)

Registered through: GoDaddy.com, Inc. (http://www.godaddy.com)
Domain Name: ANNBOYLE.COM
Created on: 16-Dec-04
Expires on: 16-Dec-08
Last Updated on: 14-Dec-07

Visite avec Mémère en Floride

2008-11-30T20:35:00.001-08:00

Wow, it was the first time on a flight where we felt we didn't need to entertain Charlie the whole route. He's matured to the point where he looks after himself for the most part and watches movies and plays card games but really a totally new way of travelling now. He's really changed.

What keeps him busy for a surprising amount of time is the airplane emergency exit instructions. He studies it very carefully.

We no longer bring the car seat on now as well and either check it in at the luggage or on the way home we did it at the gate check since he was asleep in it and we didn't need to get him out until the final security check.

Even though the aircraft was full to capacity it still didn't feel too busy and there was no traffic to the aiport in Tampa nor at the Chicago end. Strange, but welcomed.

We had a great time at Busch gardens but I'd say Charlie and the pool is the highlight. He just couldn't get enough of it.

Of course, he was sad leaving Pitou and after this visit it sure is reinforcing the fact that we need a dog. He things they are "très mignon".

He had a blast and will need a day to recouperate for sure, as we all will!

Happy Birthday Eileen!

Parent Teacher Interview

2008-11-05T20:23:00.000-08:00

On as rencontré Sarah et Béatrice aujourdui pour quinze minutes. C'était vite mais elles ont dis que Charles est académique et très structurer et discipliner.

Clothes

2008-11-04T22:10:00.000-08:00

I know where he got these habbits from but man oh man, he is one stubborn irishman (frenchman?). In the morning he must choose his own clothes. And of course he usually changes at least 3 times before the time he's off to school. Sometimes other pijamas, or another set of shorts and shirts and usually tries to match any color t-shirt I have on. Eventually he does get something closer to his school uniform colors....yup the french flag colors (or is it the us flag colors?)

Anyways, any morning where you're wondering where Charlie is is typically because he's in his closet drawers and going through choices of what he would like to put on. But beware do not tell him what to wear!

Charlie's first Warren Miller movie

2008-11-04T21:14:00.001-08:00

This years' Warren Miller movie was appropriately named "Children of Winter". We got 2 tickets for the 6PM show at Park West. With Charlie in toe we thought we could get him excited about skiing since we are planning a ski trip in the new year and let him see some of the great scenes that only Warren's team can capture.

Well it turns out that the movie is just a bit too loud for Charlie. The music is great but too loud and even though the scenes are generally very cool to watch he just couldn't take it for long.

Eileen took him out to the front for a while as there was a foozball table out there. Now that he loved!

We left early from the movie which was a bit of a bummer but, again, with this high definition movies now they look totally amazing. Some great filming these guys do and they have the right type of MTV and discussion mix that make the movie unique and fun.

Well its the start of what we hope will be a long tradition for Charlie and maybe next year we'll stay for longer.

On a side note: it look like a skier died during the filming of this movie. I thought it was more of a recurring thing but it turns out this is the first one for a Warren Miller movie. I guess many of the movies I'd seen over the years the movies did tribute deaths of well known skiiers but none were deaths during the film of the movie like this guy Billy Poole.

<>

Cottonwood Canyon was near were I used to live while I lived in Utah.

Week off school

2008-10-29T20:54:00.000-07:00

Charlie has this week off school. Not sure why but its a good break.

We were up at Whitewater for the weekend with Tante TT. The weather was cold and very windy so ended up sitting in the hot tub pretty much the whole time we were there.

Yesterday, he skated backwards for the first time on his own and was quite proud of that. I didn't see it but he's getting better all the time. He even practices some of his moves at home of crossing over his feet moving sideways one over the other.

It's halloween on Friday and his buzz lightyear costume so far has been great. He wore it last Wednesday for the 1/2 day of school and had a blast. His friend Owen was superman and Soloman was spiderman. A good time for sure.

Pumpkins and School Pictures

2008-09-30T19:25:00.000-07:00

Sunday we went to the apple orchard in Hobart Indiana with the Wilsons, Sienna, Noah and Hal and Josée. Weather was great and of course the GPS is still wrong like last year.

Anyways, we ate so many apples that i was almost sick of them. Delicious though. They are getting ready to do some major renovations there as well as they are building out a welcome center. The currrent one is way too busy and small.

We all managed to get bitten by mosquitoes. there were no shortages of them in the orchards.
Charlie even got one dead smack on his forehead. The funniest part of that is that he had school pictures on Monday. That along with a stye in his eye he was a sight for sore eyes ;-) pun intended.

Anyways, that made for some interesting pictures and a nervous Eileen the next day.

Today, Eileen joined 6 other Moms and the 2 teachers to visit a pumpkin farm with the class. Charlie's buddy, owen, were the 2 Eileen was responsible for and sounded like a lot of fun. They even fell asleep on each other on the bus on the way home.

Sounds like they had a good time.

Today Charlie was too tired to go to skating lessons though. Bummer.

Swimming Skating and School

2008-09-26T21:42:00.000-07:00

School is getting easier especially since the weather is so great in the morning. This means we get quality play time outside playing soccer, football, hockey , baseball and basketball. As soon as we can we jump outside and play which makes getting dressed easy and after a while of playing much easier to take a break and jump into the van to get off to school. With drink in hand he has no complaints.

Also, I think he's having a good time at school as well and has a few pals. Although, he really refuses to talk about school, you can ask him as many times as you want and he usually ignores the question or just doesn't even look at you, as if you weren't even talking.

Rarely does he say anything about school at all. We do know what he is doing at school since the schedule is online and the teachers keep us informed with a few emails a day these days about everything that is going on.

We even got a seperate email from the teacher describing how Charlie is doing and behaving. Things are great. We think his favorite class is gym since he does talk about the trampolines occasionally. And if you hint about classes he had during the day, say music, the most he'll do is just nod his head that he had that class.

Eileen and Charlie are off around 8:15 a.m. every day and he's there for until 11:45a.m. After that Eileen has his afternoons busy with activities. This week they met friends at a park, he started swimming classes and skating on Tuesdays.

He's getting real good at skating and since its just down the block from my work, I hop over there and watch him. He doesn't want to skate in reverse yet but forward he's doing really well. He's one of the smallest of his group, which is the medium group. There's a beginners and a more advanced group on the rink at the same time and he's in the middle.

He likes it alot and we typically go across the street to the diner for dinner afterwards.

His favorite part is of course the fact that they hand out suckers at the end and the young ones all like up for that.

Swimming today he did really well. The class is only 2 other kids and is done through the park district so its heavily subsidized. I think it was only $50 for 8 weeks.

The part he doesn't like is dunking his head. He made it known that he really didn't want to do it but I think through peer pressure it happened anyways. When I got home though he was excited to tell me how much fun he had.

We don't get much time at night anymore since he isn't napping during the day which means by 7 he's in bed and most often alseep. He typically gets a good 12 hours as well with a pee break in the middle of the night (depending on how much liquid intake before bed, of course).

Le Weekend...

2008-09-13T13:09:00.000-07:00

Ah yes, Charlie is starting to learn that Saturdays are a good thing. He didn't have to get up and ready right away and he could lounge around in his pyjamas and take it easy.

It was a rainy day and we took it easy in the morning and putzed around the house. We went out to sportsmart and got his first golf set, left handed one at that. Turns out that even though he's right handed he shoots hockey and golf like a lefty.

Sportsmart had a left handed set from Jack Nicholson on clearance, complete with 9 irons, hat and covers for the clubs. The back had shoulder straps and he put that on and bumped into everything at the store. He's ready to go out to the driving range with Dad now!

We found the driving range just a few miles up north along the lake and for a large bucket of 100 balls its $13 and enough activity for him to wear him out. He loves it, but heck, who wouldn't when you don't have to pick the balls up ;-)

P.S. No idea why the French call it Le Weekend...we know it as La fin de semaine...weird.

Charlie's 4th day of School

2008-09-09T18:56:00.000-07:00

Charlie started lycée francais last Thursday. So far so good. Today he was warming up to the other kids in the class and explained how he talked to another boy in the class but the girl he was with after class, holding her hand coming down the stairs to meet Mommy spoke english.

Mornings are still a bit of a battle to get him going and dressed but I think after a few weeks the new routine will kick in.

Of course, that is supposed to get easier.

In the afternoon he was off to skating lessons. He did well and he's now in the intermediate group and learning a lot. Eileen got some videos so I'll have to post them.

Hockey finished

2008-07-30T19:51:00.002-07:00

Charlie went to 5 classes and 2 Saturday's of skating.

Today was his last class and he was completely good on his feet. He was super proud when he realized he could actually turn around on his skates. He showed me a few times. Good stuff.

His slap shots still are half and half with him ending up on the ice but really he has good control skating now.

He actually got into a real hockey game and he loved it. He did really well and managed to chase around the puck like everyone else. Of course, if it got busy around him he was off his feet but overall he held his own really well.

The distraction of the hockey puck makes him a better skater for sure. He can also glide on his skates too. Big progress for sure.

When he was tired he just headed for the boards and wanted to go home. We then moved over to the other side of the rink where we just skated around and played with the pucks in a more relaxed environment. He had a blast and was sweating up a storm.

After the session Eileen, Charlie and I went to potbelly's before heading home to play a little more in the back with the other kids.

Notre Père

2008-07-30T19:51:00.001-07:00

Notre Père

Notre Père qui es aux cieux,
que ton Nom soit sanctifié,
que ton règne vienne,
que ta volonté soit faite sur la terre comme au ciel.
Donne-nous aujourd'hui notre pain de ce jour.
Pardonne-nous nos offenses,
comme nous pardonnons aussi à ceux qui nous ont offensés.
Et ne nous soumets pas à la tentation,
mais délivre nous du mal.

Amen
________________________________________

Je vous salue Marie

Je vous salue, Marie pleine de grâces;
le Seigneur est avec vous.
Vous êtes bénie entre toutes les femmes et Jésus,
le fruit de vos entrailles, est béni.
Sainte Marie, Mère de Dieu,
priez pour nous pauvres pécheurs,
maintenant et à l'heure de notre mort.

Amen.

Saturday morning skate

2008-07-27T14:31:00.000-07:00

Charlie and I went alone Saturday morning for the 10:30 a.m. public skate. We got there a bit early which meant we had the ice pretty much to ourselves for the first 20 minutes or so.

Charlie adapted well without Mom holding his other hand. He was able skate alone from red line to redline with falling only once at the half way marker, which I think when he made it that far figured he'd better just fall.

He's skating much faster this time but rely's on my hand to keep him up but he's quite able to do it on his own at this point, he just doensn't realize it yet.

He wasn't too disappointed that they wouldn't let him bring his hockey stick on and had fun just skating around and watching everyone else just wizz by him.

One little girl was always trying to encourage him but he was pretty shy.

By the time we left the rink was very busy. Coach Charlie was there and so was Coach Katty. We missed last wednesday's class since Charlie had caught my cold. He's better now but I still have a bit of it left over.

Skating Take 4

2008-07-17T20:54:00.000-07:00

Charlie loves his hockey stick so much that he no longer even wants to consider the red skating helper bar. This is the second time without Eileen there and for me second time I get to play around on the ice with him.

Charlie loves to watch the other boys and girls. They were going from one end of the ice to the other with 3 or 4 still on bars. Charlie was too slow to keep up so we just did our own thing to the side.

He could do from red line to red line with about 3 falls. He was very excited when he was gliding on the ice and would make sure that I was looking when he got a bit of speed. He could feel it and liked it. Of course, too fast means he'd fall unless he was distracted. He loved it with pucks around and usually with a slapshot he'd hit the ice as well.

He left the boards alone though and kept both hands on his hockey stick. Also, at this point he could get up off the ice in seconds really and it was pretty easy.

Before I jumped on the ice one of the other coaches was working with Charlie and when I was on the side putting on my skates I saw him come off the ice and was wondering what he was doing. Turns out that Charlie got off the ice at a door on the other end of the rink and walked over to me to see when I was coming on the ice to be with him. Funny.

This was the first time they grouped the two classes into one. Coach Katie, one of the 2 coaches wasn't here this week. For some unknown reason though putting the 2 seperate classes together they had 3 coaches working the crowds. There is all various levels of skating going on and typically they have the two seperate classes to keep the super beginners together with coach katie and coach charlie and the other two coaches (don't know their names) with the kids that could do skating exercies.

Charlie really is doing well and the milestone now is that he's quite able to stand on his own and "walk" skate around without falling at all. When he starts to "glide" skate is when his feet seperate or he falls to slow down. All in all though I'd say a few more hours of work and he'll be whipping around with the rest of the older kids.

This class is technically for 4 years and older but when we registered they said 3 was fine so in actual fact he's almost the smallest kid there (3 girls are smaller).

There's one teanager as well whose following along the class and he's a beginner as well and seems to follow with the kids but of course tripple their size. Strange he's there but he must be a coaches friend. He loves to hit the puck around mainly when not doing the exercises to the side of the rest of the kids.

Wednesdays between 5:45pm to 6:45pm is a bit late for Charlie but its not too bad. We are also now in the habit to go to Potbelly's afterwards for a sandwich and salad and milkshake.

Of course, on his salad he always asks to remove the artichokes (don't think he knows what they are but he's repeated Eileen) and today was was first time he had strawberry shake (he's a vanilla guy at heart).

Charlie's first dentist appointment

2008-07-12T22:00:00.000-07:00

- 9 a.m. with teeth full of pancake.
- dr. grace
- charlie did well.
- funniest statement was charlie telling us to tell the doctor that we won't be needing tools.
- everything not warm because covered in plastic.
- charlie wore sun glasses at one point
- little boy before charlie had problems
- lots of paperwork for nothing
- charlie has white spots that were start of cavities
- needs to rince with mouthwash

3rd Time on Skates

2008-07-10T11:14:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was Charlie's 3rd hockey class. Don't think it should be called a class since its really just ice time. There's no drills or anthing just about 6 kids (1 girl in the bunch too) that are trying to stand on skates and move around.

Today Charlie stepped onto the ice for the first time with his hockey stick. This stick must be magic since he didn't ask for nor even want the skating bar. Once on the ice he just wanted to hit the pucks.

To me this was amazing (Eileen didn't come this time). He was able to pull himself up off the ice immediately as well. He'd only used the bar in the past and now, we had practiced how to get up at home, and he was able to put the motion together to get up on his own. The first 3 or 4 times he did it I was excited be on all. But of course he'd done it a good 20 or 30 times thoughout the hour so he was just plain good at it by the end.

He did manage to walk a little on the ice but he's better at short steps so you have to make sure the puck is close to him.

Coach Charlie did pass the puck with him and he did really really well. He didn't fall with slapshots and he was extremely stable on his feet. Coach Charlie asked if he was 4 1/2 years old and said, nope, he was 3. Turns out that Coach Charlie started skating at 4 and 1/2 so that's why he thought he was around that age.

Coach Charlie is a young man, and after asking if I was speaking polish to Charlie then commented how Charlie was a natural at this stuff. They passed the puck back and forth and charlie was able to reach out and was surpisingly good as long as he was focused on the puck not thinking of himself.

Trying to skate across the rink was more fun. First the motivation is typically to get to the penalty box. He loves that thing (is this a foreshadowing?).

But getting a bit of speed is scaring him so he tends to fall 10 feet after take-off. Still he's a pro at getting up so really he's able to do it. He's very comfortible for having only spent 3 hours on the ice so far.

It's kinda late in the day at 5:45 to 6:45 pm and he gets darn hungry at the end but he does love talking to the other boys and the coach as much as he can while he's out there.

I brought my skates and I did get out onto the rink as well. That made it more fun for me as well so I didn't have to just watch from the sidelines but rather I could skate around him. I never helped him up since that would be cheating and I can see that letting him do the whole thing on his own makes him much more independant faster.

Hockey night in Chicago

2008-06-27T09:36:00.000-07:00

His first hockey class was fun. He started off without being able to even walk in his skates off the bench when we first put them on. He was some excited though.

The skates were from the neighbours and fit just fine. Their son, Nicolas had outgrown them.

Once he got on the ice he was holding on to those metal bars that he really leaned on. The coach, coach Charlie believe it or not, was encouraging Charlie to look up and pitter patter his feet.

I think what was funnier was us on the sidelines. Eileen and I were way more excited than Charlie himself. When he fell onto the ice I saw Eileen wanting to lurch onto the ice to help him. He even looked over at us but as we encouraged him on to get up he simply swam over to his glove that fell off then back to the bar and pulled himself up. That was the single most important step of the day, except for getting on the ice which absolutely was not a problem at all since Charlie just about lurched on immediately since putting on the skates.

Knowing that he could get himself back up with a big deal for him and from then on whenever he fell he really never looked back at us again.

He did great.

Eventually we moved to the other side of the rink and opened the door and had him go back and forth to each side of the rink. This got him propelling forward a bit, still a struggle but really at this point the basics where in place to just keep doing it over and over until he gets the feel of it.

Yes, he was exhausted as it was very late in the day and he was hungry too. But he plugged away and asked the coach where the nets were and if he could have hockey stick. Of course, he couldn't even stand up properly but the hockey stick in his mind was key to being able to score goals.

After about 45 minutes he was tired and ready to go so we had him say thanks to the two coaches then walked off the ice. The funny part was that he actually walked out on his own in the skates. He had developed enough independance that he no longer needed us to hold him and he realized he could walk in those skates easily on his own.

That was a moment.

He did great and best of all Mom did great. To me that was the best entertainment was watching Eileen.

Next, golf.

The next morning after the hockey charlie did complain about soareness in his back. Clearly from how he worked his different muscles during the practice.

Jeux Francais

2008-05-27T18:16:00.000-07:00

Canne a Peche

http://www.poissonrouge.com/abcfrancais/index.html

http://www.alapetiteecole.com/jeux_en_ligne/le_poulet

http://pbskids.org/caillou_french/games/dresscaillou

Choupi

TeleQuebec

TOUPTY

Jeux Pour Enfant

D'autre

http://pbskids.org/

www.nickjr.com

http://www.thomasandfriends.com/usa/games_strength.asp

rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

2008-05-27T18:12:00.000-07:00

Sa fet longtemps que je voulait ecrire que Charles maintenant c'est prononcier sait R. J'avais peur qu'il ne le fera jamais. Sa pris du temps, mes finalement, je dirait environ 3 mois maintenant qui'll peu le dire. Se mois dernier je dirait qu'il est tres bon as sa maintenant.

Shadow of vacation

2008-04-19T10:54:00.001-07:00

Sitting at the dinner table Charlie had a cup of water by his side. For no reason, he dipped his fingers in the water and did a sign of the cross with it. Now that was funny.

Penalty Box

2008-02-24T14:30:00.000-08:00

Not sure at what point Charlie noticed but whenever he's tired and needs a break, he grabs his hockey stick points it upwards and places it inbetween his legs. He then tells everyone that he's in the penalty box...we'll at least until he catches his breath.

Oh Come Eileen Dougherty

2008-01-29T22:55:00.000-08:00

Christmas may well be past but whenever we decide to sing Charlie inevitably steers us to his favorite song these days..one he calls "oh come eileen dougherty".

Turns out you have to listen carefully but it's really "O Com All ye Faithful" but his favorite part is O come, let us adore him which done slowly can end up with Dougherty...well...at least he thinks so!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1eLDvM7eSq0

O Come All Ye Faithful
Joyful and triumphant,
O come ye, O come ye to Bethlehem.
Come and behold Him,
Born the King of Angels;
O come, let us adore Him,
O come, let us adore Him,
O come, let us adore Him,
Christ the Lord.

O Sing, choirs of angels,
Sing in exultation,
Sing all that hear in heaven God's holy word.
Give to our Father glory in the Highest;
O come, let us adore Him,
O come, let us adore Him,
O come, let us adore Him,
Christ the Lord.

All Hail! Lord, we greet Thee,
Born this happy morning,
O Jesus! for evermore be Thy name adored.
Word of the Father, now in flesh appearing;
O come, let us adore Him,
O come, let us adore Him,
O come, let us adore Him,
Christ the Lord.

Skating in Chicago

2008-01-28T21:47:00.000-08:00

Pretty much 10 years I've been in Chicago and it was the first time we've been skating here. Actually, it was the first time for all 3 of us!

We went to Millenium park and strutted our stuff. It was the first time Eileen's been on her skates (yes, they're old and don't actually fit anymore) for many many years. Charlie loved it and after 30 minutes or so we all got called off the ice so the zamboni could clean the ice. Now thats as exciting as skating in itself.

We had front row seats to the zamboni and Charlie loved watching every minute of it. The folks around us where entertained by his strap on double skates but everyone was excited to get back on the ice.

After the zamboni was amazing, no snow and very slippery ice, go figure. We bummed around on the ice for a while then went to the closest pizza place for dinner. It was a great time out and he slept like a log that night!

B O Y L E

2008-01-28T21:42:00.000-08:00

Out of the clear blue the other day Charlie starting spelling his last name in French. It caught us a bit off guard since it was completely unexpected but he just started repeating it. Funny but more so to Eileen since I've been saying it while juggling in the bath so I'm not surprised he knew it just surprised he said it.

It's funny since I don't think he gets that its his name but it just shows you how much of a sponge he is.

Matt found a link for us to watch some French hockey with Charlie (http://www.rds.ca/video/) . The first time we sat down and listed to it tonight together he looked at me and said, Papa, c'est en Francais!

Funny, since he's still very interested in hockey, but it might have something to do with owning 1/2 dozen hockey sticks scattered around the house.

He Shoots He Scores

2008-01-21T00:11:00.000-08:00

OK. Since the trip to Canada he's been unrelentless with Hockey. Even despite the fact that we went to the doctor yesterday and found out he had a double ear infection its still Hockey time all the time.

The net is either in the Kitchen or in the hall way upstairs. But there's always plenty of balls and hockey sticks around to have him keep asking to play.

When he's in net he literally sits in the net and simply deflects the ball and he always reaches out to tap the ball even if it takes a full sprawl onto the floor ahead of him.

He has a funny move he always uses and its exactly like Derek's fall down to the ground as he reaches for the ball or dives in for the save. It's the exact same style and you could tell he was playing very close attention to the boys when he was playing in Mona's basement.

The two important words we are learning right now end up being translation words which isn't good in my mind (since now he's translating rather than thinking it) but they are Pieuvre for the Octopos - because I kept forgetting I just teach him and he never forgets; and rondelle de hockey which is of course the Puck. We found that one while watching the start of Toy Story where there's a puck in it that Mr. Potato addresses at the start of the movie.

The only thing we stop for is when it's time to play swords (I use the hockey stick and he uses the real pirate sword from one of his Christmas toys). That one is probably only entertaining because I use the hockey stick as my sword!

Charlie catches the Allan flu

2008-01-06T10:50:00.000-08:00

The hockey flue that is!!!

Wow, all Charlie wants to do is play hockey! He learnt all the slick moves from Derek and he tries them out all the time.

First thing in the morning he wants to wear his hockey shirt (although, I'm sure the Allan's wouldn't like the fact that its a Toronto Maple Leafs shirt!).

He just loves setting up the goals with anything anywhere and goes for it. He has a little puck handling trick and a lot of the time he dives into the puck, which looks a lot like the fancy moves Derek would pull on us when we played in his basement.

It's especially funny since he is loaded with new toys from Christmas and whenever we go anywhere he carries his hockey stick.

A few times now he comes running up to us with part of his new train track set in his hand. It's the curved section so looks a bit like a hockey stick. Of course, that's what he's doing, shooting and "SCORING" with his train track and a ball. Pretty funny.

Going to bed he wants to play hockey and first thing in the morning he brings the sticks to Daddy to play. Now that's the Allan flu!!!

La Famille Lutin

2007-12-11T22:14:00.000-08:00

Now this one had Charlie in stiches. His initial reaction was loud and funny. He laughed and laughed hard The funniest part was that the second time through it he spent much closer attention and was pretty quiet as he absorbed all the movements. Then he got up and danced.

Man, this was just too good. A dozen times later and we moved on to more exciting youtube.com video.

After his nap today (remember I'm working from home today) he got up and asked. Why is there no "petit ours brun" on youtube anymore? He had heard me tell Sabrina hours earlier but he woke up and was wondering why this "copyright" thing was wrecking all his fun. Among his favorite were Petit Ours Brun aime pas sa soupe, and he liked to imitate that at dinner time too. And recently the Petit Ours Brun nage a la piscine was exciting too since it was Dad who took him to the pool and he like splashing in our tub just like on the show.

Of course, his next favorite still has pleny out there "T'Choupi et Doudou". They are all in 5 minute clips but wonderfull stuff. There are a few more but not as interesting as bears these two bears.

Derek and Kevin are getting lots of gifts this year for Chrismas ;-)

2007-12-11T21:54:00.000-08:00

Mom isn't that good at hiding gifts. She opens them up and leaves them only half hidden all over the house. Every time Charlie "bumps" into one while he's playing we give him the standard "That's Derek's or Kevin's gift and that he can look at it or ask Santa for it but its not his". He's always OK with that since he loves those two boys.

Of course, by the next day he forgets completely about the gift and moves on. Boy that's easy.

Today I reached under the stairs to get a can of ginger ale (I'm still feeling a little stomach flu) and presto, from across the room he saw this huge Fisher Price box with trains, man he was excited. I think that one was Derek's ;-)

Poo, well it's been about a week now of daily, on the toilet, same time of day full poo on the toilet. All it takes is the camera to watch videos of himself (sitting on the toilet oddly enough) and a candy after the big splash and he's as good as gold. Diapers have been completely out of the picture for awhile now but now we don't even get soiled underwear for #2s anymore. It's pretty darn good and 100% attributed to Mom's constant pushing and conjolling him. Good times.

A bike with training wheels

2007-12-02T10:55:00.000-08:00

This is the first bike ride for Charlie, training wheels of course but he was a natural. I was looking for his hat that we lost the day before in Sportsmart and he jumped on one and got it right away. I can see where his regular 3 wheeler helped out his process to get it working. When the wheels don't turn he used his body to get over the hump to be able to start pedalling again.

He did real well and I uploaded it for fun on youtube

ttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1GNJ0OGLAzk

Lots of firsts today

2007-11-23T20:50:00.000-08:00

We met up in the morning with Grandpa and visited the avionics museum and had a great time getting lost in all these big and small aircraft of one form or another. A lot of times Charlie had to step back to see the size of these aircraft and certainly the rocket was a big hit.
There were also plenty of small aircraft for him to think that he could pilot them as well.
The museum wasn't too busy at all and we were able to enjoy ourselves casually meandering around and pretty much all of them Grandpa new on a first name basis ;-)
http://www.aviation.technomuses.ca/
For lunch we went to Grace O'Malley's which was interesting...

In the afternoon after a long nap we went to the Allans and played in the fresh snow. Charlie learnt to eat snow, and caught on quickly. Then we built two big igloos (forts more like it) with the Allan gang of four. Awesome time and got his full face loaded with snow for the first time as well. Lost his breath at that time and screamed once he caught it. It only took a few minutes to get it back under control and going in the house wasn't an option.

He had a ball out there in the snow and couldn't get enough of it. But when he did he rang the doorbell to get in, we were too busy shoveling.

American Thanksgiving

2007-11-22T21:54:00.000-08:00

It snowed all day here. The snow was supposed to come overnight but it came in the morning and for the rest of the day.

We went to bed kinda late so Jay and the boys where in our room looking for Charlie at 9.am. I heard them come in but he was still snoring loudly at that time in my ear so I don't think he heard them. Once they came in he sat up to attention and immediately was as happy as can be. No need for grooginess or any of the normal stuff. Straight, let's go play.

Outside was kinda fun but we needed boots. A trip to Loblaws, which felt more like a trip to a Target rather than a grocery store, and we had the $4 fancy gloves and the velcro $19 boots. What a good deal and this made-in-china stuff was really well designed. They were sold out of snow pants unfortunately, so Charlie was a bit cold making snow angels.

After Jay and the boys left we made our obligitory trip to home depot as well and got a few things to keep me tinkering around the house the rest of the day.

Matt and Jay came over for diner and bath time too. Charlie wasn't much interested in food at this time and lately has been leaving it to later in the evening, much to Mom and Dad's detriment.

He was super tired though and had a great day, even though the snow was so fluffy that the best snowman we could make was 6" tall.

Pretending to read

2007-11-22T21:51:00.000-08:00

Forgot to mention on the flight down to Ottawa the attendant gave me the little tear sheet about the flight details after he read it out over the intercom. Charlie was wondering what it was so I used my finger and read it out to him.

He, in turn, took the paper and used his finger but from left to right then zig zag and mutter words here and there but funniest of all was "always wash your hands after you pee" now that was funny since it was just said matter-of-fact'ly.

Trip to Ottawa

2007-11-21T21:29:00.000-08:00

Charlie and took a trip to Ottawa today from Chicago for a 5 day R&R. It' s american thanksgiving and an excuse to hang out with the all Charlie's cousins.

Our plans are big, visit the air museum with grandpa, go skating, see a hockey game and get as much time in with Kevin and Derek as possible - Charlie's words not mine ;-)

Mom was with us at the airport before takeoff since she was on her way to Toronto to meet up with with Tante TT for a trip to Bahamas for their own R&R. It was a bit of separation anxiety but I was able to contain it with distractions such as pilots, dogs and general swinging him around.

Charlie was pretty funny since there's a Starbucks down in that area of the terminal and he asked for money from me and could have ordered the 'chai latte' on his own with no problems, he's a pro at that phrase and imitates it quite often throughout the days and nights.

Now, this was the first flight he was really genuinely excited about. He just couldn't wait, and was always wondering why the plane wasn't there and why we hadn't taken off yet. Very anxious. The rest of the plane was pretty much asking the same questions as he was for example we'd be all settled in and just waiting at the gate (we took off over an hour late) he'd say, why aren't we leaving? when are we leaving? Of course, his voice carried throughout the front seats and the people I could hear would respond "Ya, why aren't we leaving?". It was funny and he was very well spoken about it (not whinny just inquisitive).

Once we took off he fell asleep and was out for the rest of the flight. We got the bulkhead which means that while in his car seat he wasn't squashed in at all and plenty of room to kick back and sleep (a mistake we made on an earlier flight where we were extremely squashed in in one of the back rows of a previous trip to Ottawa...without Mom that time as well).

When we landed he woke up with plenty of questions where Mom was and if on one side of the plane was Ottawa and the other Toronto. Don't think he understood my explanation. The funniest part is that I only speak french to him and at times they are words he hasn't heard before and i know it, so he just keeps asking me why and looks at me puzzled. Funny, but i refused to kick in English (since that's how he learnt the English words in the first place!).

I did manage to read a lot of my Lonely Planet for Israel while he snored in my one ear.

At customs we got pulled over by the guy to another area to have Charlie's documents further checked. I guess the guy didn't like the sticky note that Eileen scribbled just before we left. No one had questioned us in the past, and as the guy said in the back, there is no legal requirement to have letters certified or notarized for having a parent bring a child to Canada. Oh well, it only took a moment to get through. I think in the future I won't have Charlie talk to the gate agent and we'll get an 8.5x11 sheet of the same note from Eileen. It was just a fluke however, i'm sure.

Uncle Matt was waiting for us on the other side and for 15 minutes that's all I heard from Charlie, was that he wanted to leave that side room (so did I) and go see Uncle Matt, then when he saw Uncle Matt, he was shy. Funny.

Anyways, Charlie loved Memere's tub, it had bubbles and those jet sprays and he just didn't want to get out (although bath time he typically never wants to get out at the best of times).

Charlie spells his name...well...last name

2007-11-08T19:03:00.000-08:00

He's learnt the alphabet then just the vowels (in French) then lately it's his last name..in French again.

He loves singing songs and remembers them better than Daddy. First there's Cintille Cintille Mon Etoile (twinkle twinkle little start) which he really digs and same with Petit Papa Noel. He watched that one and Vive Le Vent on YouTube and both Daddy and Charlie love those:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qnn33GdkcxU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VhBqOCcpSyo

We've got a repetoire of good songs now and he sings them pretty much all day every day.

Bed time is a little later these days around 8pm and sometimes as late as 8:30pm and he's still having 1.5-2 hour naps mid day.

Sabrina has been helping out a few days a week now for a month or so and she speaks exclusively French to Charlie and even a lot to Eileen too! He's a chatter box on the phone too but doesn't realize people at the other end can't actually see him. Weird I know but he's ahead of his time I guess.

Since Halloween there's been plenty of candy requests but typically they fall on deaph ears.

French School is on Saturdays, music class on tuesday's and gymnastics on Thursday. The last one probably being his favorite, but clearly Saturday being mine ... it's the only one where I take him ;-)

Hold the door

2007-10-16T20:13:00.001-07:00

Wow, pretty fun day with Charlie. We were moving the chest up from the garage to his room and it was the first time he helped out completely by holding the garage door for Mom and Dad as we moved it into the house.

It was convinient for us and we had to take the moment in since he was truly being helpful and its normal for him to be helpful but this time we needed all three of us and it just worked out. Special moment and man, he's no longer a baby.

Eileen is now only doing underwear during the day too. Still some accidents but more and more he is getting the hang of it. A while ago he did it but he just wasn't ready and went back to diapers. Now, Eileen is all over him to get him into the swing of things.

Since the Nemo on Ice at the United Center Charlie has been enamoured with Nemo. He immitates his swimming with one arm stretched out that the other closer to the body and waves them around. It's Nemo's short fin that he's trying to immitate and pretty funny.

Of course, he always asks us to skip over the part of the movie with sharks and the jelly fish. The wale he's sort of ok with but needs a lot of convincing.

It's a very colourful movie and all the types of fish and birds makes for a real fun time to watch. Oddly enough the 2nd DVD was the one that was in french. Most DVD's I always thought if they have a 2nd DVD its simply games and such. Not in this case. I burn them all in French only to the Vista Media Center so that there are no menu's just straight into the French movie.

Baby is now a day late

2007-08-05T08:29:00.001-07:00

Well, August 4th has come and gone. Still no sign of activity but nevertheless its imminant.

Charlie is ready and so is Mom. If it's a girl we have the name picked out, if its a boy, well...we have a few names on the shortlist.

A new carpet in the room, house cleaned up and I think today the bags will be packed.

Nana came in for two weeks and will be around to look after Charlie during the first few days while at the hospital.

Work is on noticed too and expecting to take 3 weeks off.

Stay tuned.

Charlie's new favorite song. L'araignée Gypsie

2007-08-05T07:59:00.001-07:00

L'araignée Gypsie monte à la gouttière, Tiens, voilà la pluie, Gypsie tombe par terre, Mais le soleil, a chassé la pluie.

2. L'araignée Gypsie a tissé sa toile, Les gouttes de pluie brillent comme des étoiles, Gypsie s'endort, elle est bien fatiguée.

3. Soudain sur sa toile, se pose une mouche, Gypsie se réveille, l'eau monte à sa bouche, Elle met la table et trotte sur sa toile.

4. Madame la mouche, vous êtes imprudente, Je vais vous croquer, petite insolente, Mais dans le ciel, s'envole la mouche.

5. L'araignée Gypsie est toute chagrine, Son repas s'envole, elle a bonne mine, Elle se recouche, après tout, qui dort dîne.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l2-v0veNfX4&mode=related&search=

July 1st trip with Dad to Ottawa

2007-07-04T21:56:00.001-07:00

Charlie and Dad had a solo visit to Ottawa for the weekend. The official business was to get the TN visa renewed.

It was a great time, and was the first time Father and Son have been outside the house without Mother around.

The flight there on the Air Canada Regional Jet was the last row and a little tight, but with a 3-hour nap before Charlie got on the plane the trip was a breaze. There certainly was no room there beside the toilets and a pretty full flight but it worked out well anyways.

The flight back was amazing, it was an Embraer 170 and in row 5 seat a and c (8 was end of business class i think) this was business class. I had complained to the lady checking in that I'd like to get a more roomier seat and since the flight was pretty empty she put us in business class which has plenty of space in it. Charlie was on the verge of sleep the whole trip since it was a noon to 1:30 flight which is typical nap time. Instead we managed to play around and visit the airplane toilet a few times to kill some time.