Archive for the ‘Personality’ Category

Mondays and Fridays

Sunday, April 29th, 2012

Mondays and Fridays just Charley and I are together until we pick up Flora after school. He likes to spend those days watching Spiderman, eating pizza lunches, and hitting up a bakery for a treat.

View Charley’s “Mondays and Fridays” photos

Earth Day

Friday, April 27th, 2012

Flora’s Kindergarten class put on an Earth Day Show for the parents. They sang songs about Reducing, Reusing, and Recycling, and displayed their Help-The-Earth inventions made entirely from recycled/reused materials. Flora’s invention is “The Baginator,” a truck with sticky claws to pull down plastic bags from trees and then re-use the bags to power the truck. Her tip for helping the earth was “riding her bicycle to school.” Each child was given a certificate for picking up trash around the school grounds.

View Flora’s “Earth Day” photos

Shot

Wednesday, April 25th, 2012

I wondered why he was so quiet! After a morning play date and lunch, Charley passed out on the couch in front of the TV, mid-episode.

The Mouths of Babes

Tuesday, March 27th, 2012

“Squidward is an octopus … and Spongebob is a cheese.” —Charley Hergert

Finn the Rocker

Tuesday, March 20th, 2012

Finn always reclines like this at the top of the stairs — he was just missing an appropriate prop.

[New] Rug Rats

Tuesday, March 20th, 2012

Camping In

Monday, March 5th, 2012

We got the kids Fun Forts for their love of making forts from blankets and couch cushions, which never seem to stand up to their rough housing. Fun Forts are designed to be flexible and positioned/attached anywhere, so we made “tents” in the kids bedrooms, where they promptly entered, then demanded sleeping bags, a picnic lunch, and their flashlights.

View Flora and Charley’s “Fun Fort” photos

Monkey Joe’s

Monday, March 5th, 2012

Pretend racing at Monkey Joe’s, or as Marty calls it, Lord of the Flies.

When I Grow Old…

Thursday, March 1st, 2012

…”I would have glasses. I would have a wheelchair. I have gray hair and I would have dark eyes.” —Flora

Flora’s Smart Look

Saturday, February 11th, 2012

Morning

Thursday, February 9th, 2012

Yesterday morning…
Me (to Flora): “I know you’re tired honey, I’ll help you get dressed.”
Flora: “OWWW! You keep hurting me! I hate that skirt! Stupid pants! I’m not going to wear those!”
Me: “I’m trying to help you. If you keep yelling at me, you can get yourself dressed.”
Five minutes later…
Me: “Can you lean forward so I can brush your hair?”
Flora: “Why would I cooperate with you? You’ve been yelling at me ALL morning!”

“Wicked Late”

Tuesday, February 7th, 2012

Flora grabbed Charley’s guitar this weekend and spent an afternoon strumming along to some original tunes. Highlights included, “You’re waitin’ for me at the hotel and I’m wicked late” and my personal favorite, “It’s summertime and where do I begin…ice cream sundaes and cherry soda dripping down your chin.”

Spiderman

Friday, January 27th, 2012

Watched a 1967 episode of Spiderman with Charley this morning. I said it was the Spiderman I used to watch when I was little. Charley asked if he was a Spiderboy back then :)

Playdate

Sunday, January 15th, 2012

Charley’s best girlfriends, Elsie and Madison, came over for a weekend playdate. All four kids had a great time playing dress-up, veterinarian, dentist, and doctor!

View Flora and Charley’s “Playdate” photos

Superhero in Training…

Sunday, January 15th, 2012

…but not in potty training. Charley is officially wearing big boy underwear and has been for several weeks with no accidents. Yay, Charley! Since it is his last thing left from babyhood, we haven’t asked him to give up the binky, though he’s more than ready. I’m such a sucker for his binky face — I’m the one that can’t give it up!

Flora’s Sixth Birthday!

Saturday, January 14th, 2012

The birthday girl in her birthday chair — my how she has grown! At 6, Flora’s reading and writing have taken off since the start of kindergarten — she loves to read to us at bedtime to show off her skills and works hard to sound out new words. Flora is still an avid fan of art and all art and craft projects. She loves to draw the most and add details to her pictures to make them more interesting. Definitely a girlie girl, she’s a sucker for anything cute (like kittens) and anything prissy (like dresses). She’s very tall at nearly 50 inches, and packs a punch at nearly 50 pounds. She enjoys her days at kindergarten with her friends and has settled into her new routine. She loves her family, near and far, and sometimes you can catch her being very sweet to her little brother, but you have to be quick. Her favorite “people” in the house are Finn (the cat) and Rusty (her stuffed dog) — usually where there is one there is the other. Flora has grown into a creative, imaginative, and funny kid who still loves to snuggle.

View Flora’s “Flora’s 6th Birthday” photos

Gingerbread People

Thursday, December 15th, 2011

View Flora and Charley’s “Giant Gingerbreads” photos

Flora’s Ornaments

Thursday, December 15th, 2011

Consider yourself lucky if you got one of these Flora-made ornaments for Christmas. She drew all the designs on with pencil first with the recipient in mind, carefully chose her colors to paint, and added glitter glue and glitter to finish the look.

Second Tooth

Thursday, November 10th, 2011

All thse wanths for Chrithmath iths her two fwont teeth :) This time Flora’s letter instructed the Tooth Fairy not to keep the tooth, but to please still deliver a present.

View Flora’s “Second Lost Tooth” photos

Chalkboard

Sunday, October 9th, 2011

Charley’s chalkboard sketch — note “spooky guy” in lower right corner.

First Day of Kindergarten

Thursday, September 1st, 2011

Flora and her BFF, Ruby, started kindergarten together in the same class this year. It took a couple of weeks for Flora to get used to the new routine, but since then, she’s shown newfound independence; is doing a great job with her letters, numbers, reading, and math; and expresses a love for learning with all of her friends. Now, if she’d just learn to love the after-school program, we’d be all set.

Happy

Wednesday, August 10th, 2011

Flora’s drawing. You can’t help but smile, right?

Spooky Guys

Wednesday, August 10th, 2011

Charley’s skeleton and bat.

Flora Report

Wednesday, August 3rd, 2011

Flora’s report card: “Flora loves to learn! She’s inquisitive, enjoys the company of friends, has a great imagination for elaborate dramatic play, loves creating art, is starting to read Level 1 books with assistance, and is proud of her accomplishments.” Let’s hope she keeps up the good work this fall in Kindergarten!

Three Year Checkup

Wednesday, August 3rd, 2011

A quick visit with Dr. G. determined that Charley Boy weighs 32 pounds even (52nd percentile) and stands 36.8 inches tall (28th percentile). This was his first “big boy” visit and he got to use the BIG scale. Charley was very busy during the exam — touching everything, climbing up and down, and asking lots of questions (including “When can I have a WHOLE vitamin?”) — but Dr. G. gave him the thumbs up for meeting all of his physical and mental milestones. When she asked him if he was working on going on the potty, he replied, “I’m not 6 yet!” Oh brother. He was a super trooper when he got two shots (one in each leg) and a blood draw from his arm — promise of a blue lollipop lessened the blow. We noticed this week Charley’s sense of smell has fully developed, as he is constantly asking, “What stinks?” He’s really jumped up from borderline baby to full-on big boy this past month — he talks non-stop and gives a running commentary on everything going on with a tremendous vocabulary (but he still has his own cute way of saying a few words: “fezz-ert” (dessert), “Skriss-mas” (Christmas), “shoo-zick” (music), and “scun-screen” (sunscreen)). He’s very creative in his play and skilled at figuring out how things work, he’s good with numbers and math, he’s starting to point to words and ask, “What does this one say?,” and he likes to dress himself and choose his own clothes. His report card says, “Charley is preschool ready!” He loves music, dancing, and art … reading and looking at books … super heros and spooky guys … building with legos … and playing with the vintage Fisher Price toys and Playmobile figures. Despite becoming a big boy, he’s still very sweet and easy-going!

View Charley’s “Three Year Checkup” photos