Ashley singing

Here is the video of Ashley's solo during her 1st grade performance. I put the whole song on there but it's only 2 minutes. (I could have posted the whole program and made you all sit and watch it!!) We'll save that for the relatives when they visit. :) You can hear Charlie talking throughout the song. He was like that the entire time. And pretty much everyone was looking to see who brought the loud kid. :)

I am going to get kicked (by Anne) for saying this, but that 3rd soloist reminds me of her daughter Lucy singing. Fortunately, they are still in Kenya so they can't reach me. We love you, Lucy!

Head Sizes

Speaking of comparring kids, head size is a big topic of discussion around here. Ashley's head was in the 5th percentile which didn't help Abby at all when she came out with a 95th percentile noggin. Charlie was set up for success no matter what the size of his head was. He is actually very average. I was listening to Abby talking to Charlie last night and at one point she said to him, "Charlie, you have a huge head!"

I had to show her this picture:

She said, "WOW! I have a really big head."

Moving backwards

I realize that Easter was 3 weeks ago, but I meant to post some pictures of the kids, so I am shamelessly moving backwards and admitting that I am really not on top of anything. I will post a family picture too because we were outside for 20 minutes with the self timer trying to get a good shot. I mean, we took an impromptu picture and wouldn't you know the first one turned out great!

One thing I noticed after looking at this picture (which I wonder how many of you have noticed too and just not said anything), is that this has been my official Easter outfit since 2006. My mom got me this outfit for my birthday that year, and it's the one "matchy" outfit that I have. I was a little uncomfortable with it at the time, not knowing what to do with an actual outfit, but after several people telling me that branching out beyond solid colors is a good thing, I ran with it, and I figure what was good in 2006 is still good in 2010. (and beyond!) Linds - these are the blue pants that you convinced me were not too blue. Here are a couple of Easter pictures from past years. Guess I'll never be able to date these from my outfit.

I'm not sure if you can tell in the first couple of pictures, but Abby got the goose egg at the Easter egg hunt. She ran full speed into a table. It turned a nice shade of green. The best part about it was that when anyone would ask her what happened to her eye, she would say matter of factly, "I don't know." Apparently she doesn't owe anyone any explanations.

What a difference a kid makes

Whoever the "parenting experts" are that say to never compare your kids must only have one child. Ashley pretty much set all the standards and anything Abby and Charlie do gets compared to her. There are plenty of disadvantages to being the oldest, so I don't feel bad that she gets this perk. Needless to say, Abby broke the mold and refused to be compared. I'm sure Charlie will do the same in his own way. In the meantime, everything he does is either "like Ashley did" or "like Abby did". I have to say at this point that Charlie is exhibiting more of Ashley's "cautious" side than Abby's "adventurous" side. This is what Abby was up to at 16 months old:

Emptying the wipes:

Helping herself to snacks and crawling in the fireplace to eat them:

This is when she got her fat lip after she fell down at the fountain:

Soaking her thumb after she slammed it in the gate and it swelled to the size of Shrek's (and eventually the nail fell off):

Trying to drink olive oil:

Blowing snot bubbles (granted this was not by any skill of her own, but it definitely suited her personality):

After she escaped out the back door and crawled through the dirt: (where were her parents?!)

Getting into Ashley's Easter basket and sneaking candy:

Playing in Alli and Ian's dishwasher: (ok, Charlie has done this as well)

Emptying the toy box and climbing in:

I could go on, but I'm getting tired just rehashing all of this.

This is about as risky as Ashley ever got:

So, I should also mention, that at 16 months Ashley and Abby were both walking. The only other kid that we know who has taken longer than 16 months to walk is Caitlynn and she was 17 months, so Charlie has 2 weeks to go to beat her. (not that this is a competition)

This is Caity - much after she started walking. This is when she was baby-sitting Ashley.

Now, for all of you people "concerned" about Charlie's walking progress and getting ready to pick up the phone and call me (you know who you are), Charlie is getting there. Here is proof.

...but he is either not a risk taker or a low expectation setter because he seems to be pretty proud of his progress. We cheer whenever he stands up, so now he's started to "pretend" to stand up, or give it a very weak effort at best, and then cheer for himself. Exhibit A:

Soon enough though, he will be walking around and onto another trick, I'm sure.