the crisp connection

 charlie is getting so big! apparently he still thought he could fit in the dolly high chair. he's a little jekyl and mr. hyde, though. such a charmer lots of the time, waving and smiling and laughing, hugs and kisses. everybody loves him. and then. . . . the early terrible 2 comes out! he's a thrower; if you offer him something he doesn't want, he won't just refuse, or push it away, he'll take it and throw it violently on the floor. the messier the better. today he dumped the entire box of cheerios on the floor. he loves to put things in the trashcan. and loves loves to play in the dishwasher. he likes to put his own things in it, and then shut it. if you try to prevent him from shutting it, he gets very very angry. so feisty! he also likes to sit in a regular chair now, at the table. i know i shouldn't cave on things like this, but this morning i let him sit in a chair. the table was absolutely covered with yogurt. but at least he ate, i guess. he's definitely mimicking words, daddy, hat, poop, ball, bed. he and hannah are big enough to roughhouse now, it's so fun to see them playing together.

 in charlotte next week, we walked downtown for a little while. it was sort of cold, just because we weren't prepared, but it was fun. we found croissants, which is something i miss here, not that i ate them alot before. so we had baguette bread, regular and chocolate croissants. charlie apparently liked his!.                                                              

 my little man, just jumped right on this equipment thing and started operating it! he really enjoyed plaing with parker's fun big boy toys. huge smiles!

 it was much easier to get pictures of charlie, because he's slower than hannah. she was tearing around so much with her cousins i couldn't catch up. she learned big kid games like freeze tag, and had a blast.
+

 i thought they looked alike, but meghan said it's just the hair. both really blonde.

occasionally i see things here in pratt that not everybody else is used to. such as this truck going through the mcdonalds drive thru. cows and wheat, all over the place. or hay or whatever that is. (you can tell i'm still new here!)

NC was good, eventful. i got some super cute kids clothes (in my opinion) at great prices, thanks to my sister and her consignment sale. i also had a new experience with my first ever ambulance ride. I've been to the ER before in the middle of the night, and i waited forever. i have to tell you, the ambulance is the way to go! they start helping you right away, on the way, and then when you get there you get right in to a room. of course, i still ended up being there for 5 hrs, waiting on the doctor, then test results, but still, it's the way to go! (until you get the insurance bill). i woke up with stabbing pains in my chest, making it nearly impossible to breathe. a few other symptoms later, my dad decided to call in reinforcements, and next thing i know i'm getting an EKG just like i learned in school! they threw around a few options (heart attack, blood clot in lungs, broken rib for no reason) before settling on pneumonia. (I ended up getting an ultrasound, and baby looks good. right on schedule, 4 limbs and all.) so the pneumonia showed up on cat scans, and they sent me home with antibiotics and that was that. my family helped me sooooo much throughout the whole thing. meghan spent the night with the kids at the hotel, where charlie slept approx 1 hr. anyways, when those kinds of things happen and then end up being relatively nothing, it does make you more grateful, instead of taking it for granted. a few days of chest pain and some coughing was all.

we're back in KS, and i had a wonderful surprise to come home to. I'll get a picture soon.