June 9, 2013

Our existence has been offline over the past few months, and we've been having fun!

Our house! Charlotte is going back and forth on what color she wants her room to be - red, pink, green, or perhaps ROY G BIV (rainbow). White will do for now.

We love being home owners! Our current challenge is figuring out what to do with the creeping charlie that has overtaken our front yard (I don't think we have any grass left). Patrick already plans to till the front yard and reseed this fall, so most bothersome, it has now creeped into the lovely flower bed planted by the previous owner. I hope we can figure out how to get rid of the weed without killing the plants. 

We planted a vegetable garden in the back yard! Tomatoes, squash, cucumbers, peppers, oregano, cilantro, and basil. The plants are all ready for some sun, so let's hope the ground can dry up just a bit over the next week. 

We've been fortunate to spend time on the weekends with family. Charlotte would love it if her grandparents lived on either side of us, but the 1.5 hour drive is manageable! She also announced to a woman at the park on Friday night that she has a baby named Molly (her cousin who will clearly receive more and more attention from Charlotte as she gets older). Most recently we had lunch with Molly and Charlotte was a bit concerned that she was eating the table; I can see how it is difficult to teach older siblings manners when they have an infant sibling who gets to do what babies do. Here are a few photos of what we've been up to: 

Four generations of the Mehls-Russell family! Charlotte with Patrick, Grandma Russell, and Great Grandpa Mehls.

We have visited Grandma and Grandpa Distad a couple of times as well! Here is our beautiful little pianist playing Grandma Distad's piano and singing. 

Charlotte has began developing her driving skills by putting her Gator to good use and helping Grandma and Grandpa Distad clean the sticks from the front yard and move them to the brush pile. She first drove it in early April and had trouble steering, but she got some driving in again yesterday and did very well! She only ran into one bush, which turned out quite well because we otherwise wouldn't have noticed the terrified baby bunny underneath the bush. No worries, the bunny was fine and bounced off as Charlotte approached on foot. 

We've also been exploring parks in our new neighborhood. There are at least 3 within walking distance and more are easily biked. We spent most of our time at the local school park, but there is a more unique park, a maze of wooden ship/corridors, just a few blocks away. 

Here is Charlotte in the ship...

and posing for another picture.

Last weekend we enjoyed the Flint Hills Children's Festival in downtown St. Paul. Charlotte enjoyed hip hop dancers and Swoon as well as the many art projects for kids. For example, she made a bookmark with soil - Minnesota has a state soil, Lester, in case you ever need to know. 

In other news, we continue to work on toilet training. Charlotte has confessed that she doesn't like BM, and that's why she doesn't go in the toilet. I look forward to the day she decides that BM is better off in the toilet. I will not miss bringing home plastic bags of poopy clothes from preschool.

Speaking of poopy, Charlotte started calling me poopy head this week, which I tried to ignore/express my dislike of in a way that didn't make it more fun to say. Potential success as today she said "Mommy, I love you and I won't call you poopy head anymore." She makes us laugh every day.

Thought I'd end with a cute photo of Charlotte sitting in our backyard with her baby (not Molly, the plastic kind). Here's to wishing for warm weather and sunshine!