Summer Vaca

We had such a great time in Michigan, as you’ve probably seen from the video my talented husband put together. The music in the background is my dad on the guitar, and that’s my sweet little niece Ann singing the pancake song.  We had such a nice visit – it was great to spend quality time with my immediate family as well as aunts, uncles and cousins who I generally only get to see this time of year. And Charlie had a blast – he adores his Papa Rex and Gram, not to mention Aunt Katie, Uncle Meat and Cousin Ann, so he had a great time. It’s really fun for us to see him interact with Ann; she brings out a side of him that we don’t see all the time, and it’s great to see him enjoying playing with her.

Charlie’s still talking pretty much non-stop. We drove to Michigan, a short 14 hours each way. The way up, we did 12 hours the first day so we’d have a short drive the second day and could get an earlier ferry over to the island. That second day in the car, we were laughing about how much we used to worry that he wouldn’t talk, and suddenly we were just wishing for 5 minutes of silence! All jokes aside, though, he was incredibly well-behaved in the car. He just loves to ride!  We’re lucky.

Some funny things Charlie says right now:

When we ask him if he wants to use the potty (we’re working on potty training), he generally says, “Use potty later.”  If we ask him when, he’ll pause for a moment, and then say “In 6 minutes.”

Another tactic he uses to throw me off when he doesn’t want to do something is give me an “Or”… like tonight, when I asked if he wanted to go upstairs and try to use the potty (it’s a theme right now), he said, “Or play downstairs” even though I hadn’t given him a choice.

He’s really, really into reading right now.  His favorite for the moment is “On the Night You Were Born”, which I think is one of the sweetest books ever, so I don’t mind reading it over and over again. The funny thing is that his Nana gave it to him when he was born, and inscribed it. If I forget to read that part first, he says “Love you so much Nana”, since that’s part of what she wrote. It’s so cute.

Here are a few of my favorite photos from our vacation: