Browsing Tag

charlie

Mom Life

Beachball Themed Birthday Party

Posted on September 6, 2017

Charlie baby is ONE years old! We had a beach ball themed birthday party for him and it was so fun. I was at Mom n Tots camp with Timmy on his actual birthday. Jordan brought Charlie to camp for the day and we were all together to celebrate. We sang to him with cupcakes and let him cover himself in icing. Charlie and I share a birthday so I got a cupcake too. 🙂

Timmy showing Charlie around camp. First stop, the goats!

Jordan took the week off work to have some special bonding time with Charlie while Timmy and I had our special time at Mom N Tots camp.

Birthday cupcake! Yummy!!

Charlie is obsessed with any type of ball…football, soccer ball, baseball, ski ball, beachball. My parents are convinced he is going to be a pitcher for the MLB. They started discussing travel plans for following his team around during their retirement. Haha! Let’s just stick to his first birthday party for now! Since he is a summer baby I thought beachballs would be a fun theme. The colors are bright and happy. Beachballs are inexpensive and I bought various sizes in bulk and hung them. The beachballs have provided tons of fun all summer long. They are all over the backyard and the boys love playing with them. Thankfully our backyard is fenced in or they would blow all over the neighborhood! The real hero is Jordan who blew them all up!

Since I was away the week before the party my mom made most of the food and a lot of it, thanks Mom! I got the tiered dessert trays for my birthday from my in-laws and just in time for the party. I’ve already used them a million times.

I love having this chalkboard and updating it for different occasions and seasons. I wish I had better drawing/handwriting skills but this is the best I can do. 🙂

It was a beautiful summer day. It was so warm outside that we ended up singing and opening gifts inside in the air conditioning. We had about 20 friends and family in attendance and we were so grateful they spent their Sunday afternoon celebrating with us.

I love to scrapbook and I used to make a lot of them before I had the boys. They are time intensive but I do love them so I am going to make one for each one of my children’s first year of life. Every year after that I make a slideshow of the past year for their birthday. I had a bunch of extra photos that didn’t make it into the scrapbook so we put them on display for the party.

A friend from church showed me a picture of something similar that her daughter in law did for her grandchild. I love the idea of creating something fun and special for the child to look back on as a grown up.

My dad insisted on there being one cookie with a smiley face on it because Charlie is always smiling. He calls him “Smiling Charlie”.

I really wanted beachball cookies for the party, more for decoration than for the menu. Can cookies be a decoration? 🙂 I have never worked with royal icing before but I wanted to give it a try to save money on ordering them. My artistic ability isn’t what it needed to be to pull these off but once they were all stacked on a tray you couldn’t tell they weren’t perfect. Beachball cookie decorations – check!

The biggest smash cake ever, thanks mom! And the handsome daddy of the birthday boy.

Charlie was so cute while we sang to him. He had a big smile on his face the entire time. He didn’t get into the smash cake too much. He just licked some of the icing and eventually lost interest. I did not properly prepare Timmy for the party. I didn’t realize it would be so difficult for him to not be the center of attention during the party. He wanted the cake first, to blow out the candle, and to open all the gifts. You can see the pain in his face in the picture above, he really wants to be the one who blows out the birthday candle. Haha! In retrospect, I should have spent more time preparing Timmy better.

Charlie got so many fun toys for his bday. Most of which were appropriately balls!

The birthday boy with Mommy and Daddy!

Charlie LOVED the baby pool full of balls and beachballs that we set up for his party. The boys have been playing with it all summer. It is even more fun when the baby pool is full of water!

A few fun facts about Charlie!

Charlie loves…

to smile!
playing with his big brother!
kicking balls around!
to eat!

We are blessed and thankful that Charlie is a part of our family. He has added so much fun and joy to our family. Being baby number two has been pretty special because Charlie has THREE people giving him hugs and kisses every day, telling him he is cute, teaching him words and animal sounds, keeping him away from the stairs, and saying goodnight at bedtime. We will continue to love and encourage him in every stage of his life. We pray he finds his unique gifts and talents and uses them greatly!

Thank you to everyone who came and celebrated with us! We had a great time and I know Charlie did too!

Mom Life

Timmy & Charlie: Feb-March 2017

Posted on March 21, 2017

Here’s an update on the Rowdy Routch’s and adventures with Timmy and Charlie. My goal is to write a post like this every month or two so I can look back on how the boys grew.

February was full of days that reached 60+ degrees. It was such a treat and a reminder that it is much easier to entertain little ones when it is nice outside. We snuck in a few days at the park and sometime in the backyard playing in the sandbox and on the swing set.

Jordan worked many long hours during busy season coupled with travel. We missed him a lot and had our bedtime routine via FaceTime many of the evenings. This picture of him at the park with the boys was taken during the only 2 hours we spent with him that week. We are glad he is slowing down at work and home for dinner lately. We are thankful for his work ethic…he’s always hustling whether at home or at the office. He’s the energizer bunny!

Charlie is growing so fast. In the last 2 months he has transitioned from needing to be held by mommy constantly to a little explorer who is gaining independence and curiosity. I used to long for a few minutes to put him down and now I find myself calling for him to come back in the room. Timmy started walking at 9 months and Charlie will be 9 months soon. I realized that Charlie could be running around the house in a few short months. When Timmy started walking the moments of holding him on my lap or hip became few and far between.

I decided about a month ago that everyday I was going to rock Charlie to sleep for his afternoon nap. I really want to be intentional about enjoying this stage. With the second child I can appreciate how quickly it comes and goes. Charlie has been getting a lot of teeth lately. He now has three teeth on top and two on the bottom.

Timmy will be 3 years old in one month. He is becoming his own little person. One of my favorite things lately is holding a conversation with him. I like asking him questions and getting his opinion on things. He can call someone on the phone and chat with them independently without me translating or mediating too much. It is cool to move beyond simple exchanges based on basic needs and encouraging him to share his thoughts and feelings about situations. He still loves all things animals and dinosaurs. We officially quit potty training and will try again this summer. He was getting frustrated and wasn’t making progress. He is really into surprises lately and it doesn’t take much to get him ultra excited. I take every opportunity to create these magical moments over simple things like stickers, ice-cream, or a new book. I love how their excitement level can go from 1 to 10 over simple things, it is one of the best parts about having little ones!

Now that Charlie is a speed crawler and able to maneuver around the room (holding onto furniture) Timmy is anxious for him to become a playmate. Some of Timmy’s favorite phrases lately are, ‘Chase me Charlie!’; ‘Charlie lets explore!’; ‘Charlie come under the table with me.’ It is so cute and I love watching their brotherly bond grow.

That’s the latest on my little loves. The next update may include Timmy’s 3rd birthday and Charlie walking?!?

Mom Life

Crawling and Potty Training!

Posted on January 31, 2017

Charlie just turned 7 months old and month 6 was packed with firsts! I feel like he officially transitioned out of that new baby phase. :’-(

His bottom two teethe came in, he started crawling, eating baby food, and pulling himself up on everything! Now that is he able to play around on the floor and get around a bit Timmy is all about playing games with him which is adorable. He plays hide and seek, plays animals, sings him songs, dances with him, and tries to wrestle him (with me regulating aka saving Charlie’s life). Timmy really is the sweetest big brother! The first thing he says to him in the morning is, “Good morning handsome Charlie!”.

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So far all of Charlie’s firsts have happened at the same time as Timmy’s. We’ll see if Charlie is able to keep up, I think he wants to start walking immediately to chase his big brother.

Charlie is so smiley and easy going. He goes right to sleep when we lay him in and never fusses. He’s sleeping in till like 9:30 which is great. I think he’s trying to make up for the first 5 months of sleepless nights. It’s pretty amazing have an official bedtime for both boys and not having to get up with them again until morning. Jordan and I got our evening hang out times back!

While Charlie is busy moving all around exploring and putting everything in his mouth, we started potty training Timmy. He is going to be 3 years old in April so I felt like it was time to crack down. We have been trying it for a while but we weren’t fully committed.

A couple weeks ago we removed the diaper and pants for 3 days straight…this was not glamorous. We roped off the carpeted areas of the house and went through a lot of paper towels and disinfectant wipes. A lot of people talk about using this method as a potty train fast method. It definitely helped us get further then all the other methods we tried but what I didn’t realize is this is the introduction and then it goes on and on from there, at least for us. We are still having lots of accidents unless we make him go to the potty like every 30 minutes or so. It is a big commitment. We’ve cut back a lot on the places we normally go during the week like story time at the library, museums, friends houses etc. If you are considering getting serious about potty training you might want to consider doing it during a month that you don’t have a lot going on. Although I’ve heard girls are much easier and faster to catch on!

This is the first time I’m potty training so any words of wisdom from experienced mommas? Please share! 🙂